Badge in Azure

“I do have something to ask you. Tell me, what is the passage of time like in the abyss?” Saleen asked solemnly. With Flare’s soul now absorbed by the Eternal Control shard, Saleen would be able to tell clearly if Flare was lying.

When elemental creatures followed humans there was no possibility of them lying, even those who have developed souls.

“The area of the abyss is huge, and only the passage of time inside the city differs from the outside. Master, I will not lie to you. The passage of time here in the city is ten times faster than the outside world’s. Some places even reach up to one-hundred times faster. The faster the passage of time in an area, the more dangerous things get within. You saw for yourself, the city was all but a wreck. In my memory, it seemed hundreds of thousands of years had passed.”

Saleen only believed that the passage of time within the city was indeed more than ten times faster than outside it at that moment.

“Master, it is possible for you to collect all six major elemental badges, but…”

“What? Is there any danger to it?”

“The wind elemental badge will still be fine. The Tempest Dragon-might’s powers are like mine. They are severely weakened under such an environment. The Angel of Brightness is currently dormant, and seem impossible to wake up, but the Midnight Fang…”

“What about the Midnight Fang?”

“The Midnight Fang is just too powerful here. It is something we can’t take down even with the combined might of four elemental creatures.”

“Four elemental leaders can’t take down one Midnight Fang?” Saleen swept around with his Elemental Eye and looked outside the tower. He calculated the ratio of the surrounding elements quickly with the Elemental Eye.

Of the six major elements; light, fire, and wind combined accounted for less than ten percent. Water and earth elements were incredibly abundant, but it was dark element that accounted for half of the element count.

“Dark element beings indeed reign superior in such a place.”

“I don’t need you all to do anything else. Flare, tell me about the Imperial City of the Abyss you personally know of,” Saleen put the matter of collecting three remaining elemental creatures aside for that moment, as the number of elemental creatures at the wall was massive. If he had not been picky with the levels of those beings, collecting normal leaders would have been a breeze.

Most elemental creature leaders were grade-9 creatures after all. Crushing them and crafting them into a badge would have proved adequate to subdue their respective underlings. Grade-9 leaders were able to control thirty-six underlings. When the underlings were destroyed, the leaders would also tak longer to restore them. All of those were weaknesses.

Subjugation of grade-9 leaders would have been far easier compared to grade-10 ones. The reason why Saleen searched only for grade-10 leaders with souls developed, was because he already had large numbers of ancient warriors on his Ancient warship. Saleen had no need for more grade-9 elite troops.

The ancient warriors were able to perform excellently on the battlefield without requiring personal command from Saleen. Elemental creatures’ combat prowess would have suffered a drop somehow when not under the command of a leader or Saleen himself. They would then not be as powerful as the ancient warriors.

Grade-10 elemental creature leaders restore their underlings faster. Their intelligence would also grow faster with a soul, making it possible for them to command the elemental creatures serving under them in Saleen’s place. Saleen would also need not to worry about his mental powers reserve not being high enough. Beings without intelligence, regardless of how high their levels might get, could possibly be killed by intelligent beings who were of somewhat lower levels.

The danger Saleen faced when dealing with Ismail was no less than the danger he faced when fighting the angel of fear. Ismail’s level was obviously not as high as the elemental leaders, but Ismail possessed an intellect and had ample skills. That made him tens of times more dangerous than elemental creature leaders.

“Master, the imperial city is incredibly dangerous. Leaving some areas will be impossible after entering. The magic arrays there will have stayed intact for up to one-million years.”

“Up to one-million years?!”

“The abyss was not initially filled with seawater. The earth element here had always been up to one-hundred times greater than outside. All magic arrays were basically built using the earth element as foundations. The running of magic arrays here were connected to the earth itself, making them inexhaustible. Even magic arrays of lower levels would be able to run for hundreds of thousands of years. The lowest of the lowest would have at least a lifespan of tens of thousands of years.”

“Lifespan?” Saleen felt weird hearing the word used in such context.

“Indeed, master. It is possible for magic arrays to develop intellect and spirit, just like the weapon’s spirit within equipment. Words like ‘lifespan’ fit just right for such magic arrays.”

“I ended up here pursuing a single-horned white whale. I know that there is a cemetery of theirs here, could you…”

“The cemetery is a very dangerous place, master. Your current level is too low. I do not recommend going into the cemetery as you are now.”

“Flare, are there any humans left in the imperial city?”

“No. Since humans have disappeared for so long, things like the angel of fear, which should have been difficult to manifest, probably showed up in the cemetery. There are too many soul shards over there. There are even souls of powerful magic beasts. Single-horned white whales, Master, those are creatures that can advance to grade-18! Mess with them and we are all going to end up dead.”

“You are afraid of death too?” Saleen asked peculiarly. Even with a soul developed, elemental creatures should not have felt as strongly about death when compared to other creatures. Their inherent nature had it that even if their souls were to disappear, they still stood a chance of being revived in the distant future.

“What I’m saying is that you should not go looking for a meaningless death. Master, it is fine that you want to gather the six major elemental badges, but the cemetery…”

“I came with the intention of going into the cemetery in the first place. The expedition this time would be near meaningless unless I get enough magic nuclei. Flare, I have too many enemies in the outside world.”

“Magic nuclei? Master, if you are only after magic nuclei below grade-12, we wouldn’t need to enter the deeper reaches of the city. There should be piles within the cemetery at the outskirts,” Flare informed in a test-the-water manner. Seeing how Saleen was not of a very high level, they hoped that the man would be satisfied with grade-12 nuclei. Saleen came there as part of his training, so he had a very deep-seated desire for adventure in the deeper parts of the city.

He confirmed to himself that the passage of time in the city was different from outside. Ten days spent in the city equaled one day outside. Some other places had an even greater difference. Saleen could afford more time searching within the city.

Having fought something like the angel of fear first hand, Saleen had no wish to face another enemy like that. Being brave and being stupid were two different matters after all. “No problem with dealing with something like the angel of fear so long as the badge is with me, but what happens if yet another shows up right after? Do I still have enough luck to get away clean like I just did?”

“Flare, I need to craft something. Tell me how to get the magic nuclei, and some secrets regarding the Imperial City of the Abyss. I don’t even have any idea who built this place, or how much history this place has. No worries though, I have enough mental powers to allow me to talk while doing alchemy.”

“Master, it is best that you just leave for now. I know where the Tempest Dragon-might and the Angel of Brightness are. We will get the badges once we get there,” Flare was a very proactive elemental creature. He was one capable of even giving Saleen ideas. That made Saleen feel even more glad that he did not simply choose to wipe their soul before subduing them.

Saleen played it smart and listened as he slowly put away the divine tree magic tower. Flare took the form of a twenty yard tall Vermillion Knight and did not bother summoning their underlings. They lead the way forward alone and helped Saleen find the two elemental creature leaders with souls of their own.

He did not make a move himself when subduing the Tempest Dragon-might, and simply had Vinny and Gloria go to talk with it. The leader agreed to follow Saleen shortly. As the leader did not have a name, Saleen named them Azure. As for the Angel of Brightness, the being simply remained in the form of an elemental badge, with all one-hundred and forty-four of their underlings inside the badge, and never awakened. The light element around there was horribly thin. The Angel of Brightness had a hard time surviving there compared to other types of elemental creatures.

The Angel of Brightness did not awaken even after being subdued. The loss of light element of the being was so horrendous that if there was no one to subdue them and take them away, the Angel of Brightness might have been lost forever.

“Master, only the Midnight Fang is left now. Three-thousand miles forward and we will see the gathering place of dark elemental creatures. I know for sure that one of the leaders of the Midnight Fang is smarter than I am. If you have no surety of doing this, it is best that we just take a detour…”

“No, Flare. We will stop here for a few days. I need to craft more Eternal Control shards.”

Saleen had already crafted five of those shards before. The battle with the angel of fear however, had him use one of them. Saleen had also wasted one broken jade when he first subdued the elemental stone statue soldiers. Unless Vinny ended up dead, the broken jade would have stay with him.

The power provided by the broken jade was far greater than the shards that Saleen crafted himself. It would be able to protect the soul of Vinny better. Unless he happened on a grade-10 human professional, there was next to no chance of Vinny dying.

As such, Saleen had little regrets using him. He had been on guard against the three pieces of broken jade. While the Winged Skull had checked them out and verified them to be fine, Saleen remained vigilant. He attempted to find something hidden about the broken jade pieces.

Saleen crafted another six Eternal Control shards. Crafting one and crafting six took the same amount of time. Saleen’s water flame coincidentally allowed him to craft six at one time. That was also the limit of his mental power capacity.

That was the first time Saleen went about selecting the right material for crafting said shards, all six pieces of Eternal Control shards were made from different material.

The whale horns of the single-horned white whales were used as basic material. Saleen had intended to use them for crafting weapons, but there was hardly anything as sturdy and as malleable on his person.

For additional material, Saleen selected three pieces of chlorite and three pieces of tourmaline. Saleen had no choice but to use black crystals that time. Chlorite was more precious and had more room for divinity and life force. Tourmaline allowed storage of electricity.

Flare did not return to the badge while Saleen was crafting the shards. They instead tried to interact with Nailisi and the winged skeleton. Nailisi was uncharacteristically friendly, elaborating to them all of Saleen’s powers, which included matters pertaining the Kingdom of Metatrin and Bitterwater prefecture.

Flare’s mind was at ease. While Saleen’s actual powers were nothing to shout about, he still had an impressive backing of sorts. As the insanely powerful humans had all disappeared from the face of the mainland, the master they had chosen to follow seemed to have a good measure of hope of becoming emperor.

“We will conquer the entire mainland, enhance everyone’s powers, and then take the fight to the gods! Yes, sounds like a doable goal indeed.”

There were still a lot of secrets left in the imperial city regarding how to enhance the power of humans. Some of the secrets would have proved mind-bending to contemporary humans.

Flare made their decision to take Saleen as deep into the city as possible, getting him all that would be required for advancement. The grade-8 sorcerer had massive room to grow. Their master would become more powerful than they were in no time!