Badge in Azure

Chapter 1358: Lightning Armament (Part 1)

Mages valued their lineages just as humans valued procreation. There were those who, despite being dirt poor, had been able to persevere and raised their offspring. They sacrificed nearly everything for them.

That was the instinct of living beings. The instinct of mages was to disseminate their skills and knowledge. Most mages liked having their names recorded in history, and then there was a handful who disliked leaving their names behind.

You would be hard-pressed to find any mages who liked the idea of having their skills lost in the coming generations.

Saleen was even more so. While his skills were less impressive compared to those of ancient times, there were parts of his skills that the ancient mages paled in comparison to. For one thing, ancient mages did not have to be as detailed and meticulous with their art.

Furthermore, Saleen had already begun to develop his lightning skills when he was below level-9. Although weak, those skills would have still proven useful as a way to get to know lightning. The ancient mages lacked this skill entirely.

Saleen crafted magic books and concentrated his mental powers, writing on the golden liquid of the granules. The more he wrote, the more developed his mental powers became, and he continued writing for days. But on this particular day, Saleen felt as if his mental powers were contracting violently and returning to his body.

He was afraid this might be the end of his magic book. Since changes with mental powers could be a matter of life and death, he felt he had no time to spare by looking at the magic book. Instead, he focused his mental powers and observed his insides.

Saleen felt the sensation of the mental powers returning to a single dot in his mind that then exploded and fused within an eerie place within his body.

That place seemed to be a parallel dimension. Every single movement he made affected the energy of that space. Things felt vague, and Saleen sensed it was that space affecting him in return.

His entire life seemed to be filled with changes; in actuality, he felt as if he was being manipulated by that space.

Even his thoughts seemed to have been little more than projections from that space.

Saleen was startled. He wondered if he was real and if the Myers Mainland was just an illusion.

He wondered if his mental powers were about to crumble as fear welled up inside him. His mental powers were on the verge of dispersing into the vast, endless void, never to have coalesced again.

Be strong, Saleen...

A voice was heard from the depths of his mind at that moment. The voice was a very, very familiar one, and suddenly Saleen felt reassured. That was...

Father’s voice!

Saleen was already at an age where he began to remember things from when his father died. But he was unable to recall when his father had said something like that to him when he was still alive.

Those reassuring words made Saleen feel as if he was being thrown back from that parallel space of his own, merging back into his own body.

!!!

His mental powers burst again. Saleen opened his eyes and 360 million lightning characters flew out. Rafel was hurled back over 100 meters.

A human has three souls.

Saleen recalled such a description in the secret arts. He believed it at that time. A lot of what he had from his teacher seemed utterly ridiculous now, but Saleen truly believed that line at the time.

None of the three souls truly resided in one’s body. Only by regaining all three of them would humans be able to surpass the gods.

Saleen was immediately aware of his soul’s return. There seemed to be two other parallel spaces outside his body that were vague and unreachable. Those were not actually spaces but his souls outside.

Myers Mainland was real. What he experienced was similar to looking in a mirror and thinking his reflection was his true self while he, on the outside, was the projection instead.

There was little need to talk more about how perilous that would have been. If it hadn’t been for his father’s voice, Saleen’s mental powers might have crumbled altogether by then. Even if he had survived, he would have sustained a severe injury that was unlikely to heal.

As a mage, the crumbling of Saleen’s mental powers would have nearly marked the end for him. He would have retained magic chords of level-10 mages but would no longer be able to cast any magic spells. That’s the best he could have hoped for in such a predicament.

A transparent golden magic book hovered quietly before Saleen’s eyes. Lightning magic patterns shimmered indistinctly on the book cover. The magic book was still successfully crafted.

“Lord Saleen...” Rafel knew that Saleen had been in a perilous state earlier and wanted to say something when he simply waved dismissively saying, “We’ll continue.”

Rafel shut her mouth and backed away, leaving Saleen alone with his thoughts.

Saleen opened the magic book without realizing it; he had been poring over whatever he had learned and comprehended during more than 100 years of training. Perceptions of conventional mages wouldn’t have been able to look into the contents of the book he wrote with magic patterns.

A reader had to be someone who had learned these lightning skills, someone whose mental powers were capable of manipulating lightning before being able to safely absorb the knowledge in that magic book.

That book seemed to be devoid of words altogether, yet Saleen knew he had actually written all of his 360 million lightning characters. As long as readers of future generations were beings whose mental powers were immune to lightning powers, they would be able to start learning.

There were 36 pages in the book and every single page consisted of transparent paper of a faint golden color that enabled the user to store one magic spell. There was no special requirement for the spell store.

Be it elemental, spiritual or even death magic, a spell could have been stored within the book as long as it was of a magical nature. Saleen felt that even divine spells could have been stored.

That magic book allowed the storage of magic spells up to level-16. If the book was required to go further than that, Saleen would have needed to advance above level-16 and re-craft the magic book.

It seemed that the magic book he crafted still paled in comparison to the Demonic Magic Book that ancient humans crafted. He had given that book to Eleanor. That book could store magic spells up to level-18 and there was no requirement for a particular type either.

I shall call it the Lightning Magic Book then.

Saleen was ecstatic: A level-10 mage who could craft something capable of storing level-16 magic? Something like that had only been possible in another crystal wall system. He wanted to check out the secret arts if only he could find the time.

His teacher’s powers grew exponentially after learning Water Flame Alchemy and Blazing Flame Soul-refining Technique after all.

Those were secret arts from another crystal wall system that gelled well with magic, which seemed able to accelerate the rate of magic learning while boosting the powers of magic learned.

But, of course, there was a requirement of having alchemical materials of sufficient quality on hand. If it had not been for the materials yielded from the Evil Oracle’s body, it would have been impossible for Saleen to craft such powerful equipment. That’s exactly how it was with his old Divine Tree Magic Tower.

Had it not been for the dead trunks of the divine trees, it would have been impossible for Saleen to craft something like that in the first place.

Saleen planned to replicate the Starline Bangle next. He had no plans for replicating the Starline Ring at the moment because there was more than enough space to be had in the Ring of Cosmos.

He would have only needed to open any one space of the 64 spaces within that ring, and Saleen would have no longer had any need for other space equipment.

The Starline Bangle, on the other hand, provided slots for equipment. A slot equipped by a mage allowed the unleashing of the original powers, skipping the processes of taking equipment out and equipping them. This was extremely crucial in battle, especially after Saleen advanced to level-10.

His enemies would have basically been people capable of instant-cast abilities, and tempo in battle would have been counted in frames. The time it would have taken to switch gears would have allowed his enemies to kill him several times over.

Thunder dragons, come forth!

Saleen summoned all 24 thunder dragons from his magic amplifier. They had completely awakened and flew outside right away, heeding Saleen’s call. He pointed at the liquid golden granules floating around, and all 24 thunder dragons pounced on them immediately and consumed them in a frenzy.

Scales began to develop on the smooth hide of the thunder dragons. The scales were transparent, faint golden colors and there were natural lightning magic patterns on them. Saleen’s Water Flame continued to refine the golden granules and let the 24 thunder dragons consume them.

The dragons rolled around in Water Flame and their bodies were tempered growing wings.

The thunder dragons originally resembled snakes, but they then grew wide, golden, physical wings behind their backs and four sets of sharp claws under their torsos. The longhorns on their heads shimmered with lightning.

All 24 thunder dragons’ bodies had long been tempered by the Six Element’s Heavy Water to critical points. They seemed to advance at the same time after consuming the golden liquid; they all reached the pinnacle of level-12.

All exuded a powerful aura. Rafel saw this and came to realize why Saleen dared to challenge the Heretic God. If the Heretic God was unable to send over beings beyond level-13, they might have ended up digging their own graves.

The thunder dragons intended to grow their powers further but were forcefully stopped by Saleen. The rules of Myers Mainland forbade living beings of level-13 from being present. If the thunder dragons were to advance to level-13, they would have been punished in accordance with the rules.

Dante was one such example. The God of Magic Net at the Floating City was far smarter in comparison, sealing its power as soon as its divine fire was ignited.

Saleen’s Water Flame continued wrapping around the 24 thunder dragons and gradually shrank. The thunder dragons had long been made into weapon spirits, which allowed them to adjust their sizes at will. While they were being refined further by Saleen’s Water Flame, they coiled around each other and formed a faint golden bangle on Saleen’s hand.

Saleen ripped the weapon spirits from the magic amplifier and made the Thunder Dragon Bangle. He had his own reasons for doing so. The magic amplifier had been created from materials left behind by the Goddess of Myers, so Saleen was still wary of it.

The 24 thunder dragons, on the other hand, were beings that he personally raised. He had developed an attachment for them after having them around for so many years.

He feared the day that the goddess would have been resurrected and taken his magic amplifier away right there and then, resulting in the loss of his beloved dragons.

The magic amplifier was no longer capable of conjuring ball lightning following the loss of the thunder dragons as its weapon spirit. The Thunder Dragon Bangle took the magic amplifier’s place in performing that function. Saleen was then capable of conjuring ball lightning any time without having to use the magic amplifier.

What’s more, there were 24 equipment slots on the Thunder Dragon Bangle crafted from 24 thunder dragons.

According to the usual calculations, those 24 thunder dragons would have allowed Saleen to craft 24 equipment out of them. Every single equipment crafted would have had at least three equipment slots.

The reason Saleen had crafted something like that instead was specifically to allow him to cast lightning attacks at any time.

Twenty-four equipment slots were more than enough for him.

Saleen sensed that the souls of the 24 thunder dragons were rather worn on the Thunder Dragon Bangle he was wearing. Fortunately, even if the thunder dragons were to go into hibernation, he would still have been able to use the power of the bangle right away.

Not bad indeed. While the number of ball lightnings conjured was still eight despite all of the dragons having advanced to level-12, the ball lightnings’ powers were considerably amplified and their speed grew 100 times over. They were no longer balls that waggle about when unleashed.

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