Badge in Azure

Chapter 1315: The Expedition (Part 1)

Saleen called for his followers to return to the temple. He contacted Lex and received good news.

Lex had advanced to level 10. Lex's advancement had been more difficult than his had been because he had used the Six Element Space to forcefully raise her level all those years ago. She had also reached a consensus with her clan in the Golden Plains. The mages of Golden Plains supported her and wanted her to ascend to the throne as empress.

Saleen did not care if Lex became an empress or not, but the news meant that he had no need to be concerned about Prince Safilos one way or another. Prince Safilos would have advanced to become a level 10 true might. As such, he would have become someone difficult to deal with. According to Lex, Safilos was versed in some of the secret skills of the Grukos.

The attitude the Golden Plains had taken allowed Saleen to be spared a lot of effort in other matters. He had already allied with Grand Duke Iron Blood. With that, the entire eastern side of the mainland could focus their energy on taking out Holy Rock City.

While it was unknown where the mages of Alchemy City had moved, it was still possible for them to return. Saleen had little concern about those mages. The speed at advancement for both him and his teacher would easily leave those mages in the dust.

Two of the strongest mages were found in one nation. The implications of the fact were obvious in an age where the powerful ones were the ones standing on top of everything. Furthermore, there were considerable numbers of high level mages in Metatrin City. Saleen didn't need to fear Alchemy City even in terms of sheer numbers.

Fycro returned and took all of the armor requested. Saleen was at the Floating City, so Fycro did not insist on meeting Saleen. He simply left a message for the mage, which was a set of coordinates and a date: Meet at Highland City the final day of December.

Highland City was a mid-sized city in Laiyin Duchy. It was where the abomination plane would have invaded Myers Mainland. Saleen took out his map and checked the coordinates. He found the portal to be at the core region of Highland City.

Saleen counted his people. He only needed Gusion to return to Lex's side to serve as the leader of her personal guards. Mages who had signed contracts with him were among the other followers. Most of them were at level nine but a considerable few had advanced to level 10.

Sul had finally advanced to become a level 10 true might. He became even more humble after that. It was not until his advancement that he truly understood the power difference between him and Jola.

Daniel became a level nine sorcerer. Despite being the follower at the lowest level, he was a death mage. That level allowed him to be very formidable in combat.

Nicholas, Nailisi, and Eleanor were all level 10 professionals. Isabella was still at level nine, but both her magic and martial arts skills were at the pinnacle of level nine. Being at such heights with both arts allowed her to be on par with level 10 professionals in terms of combat capacity.

Saleen had no idea that it was the result of Jason formulating specific enhancement training for his followers while he was focused on his own training.

Aini at Lonestar City also advanced to level 10. Among Saleen's four duchess, Guya, who was versed in magic, became a level nine sorcerer. He did not bother much with the rest, but they recruited a considerable number of powerful ones.

While Saleen was recruiting, anyone who intended to come to him had their concerns. There were simply too many powerful professionals at his side, so much so that not even a level nine sorcerer would receive much attention.

As such, they deemed it a better choice to serve the duchess serving Saleen instead. If they were able to be appointed to important positions, their future statuses would not be bad. To become the tail of a dragon or the head of a garuda, either was admirable but most would have chosen the latter.

By the time his level nine archer advanced to level 10, Saleen had already recruited several level 10 mages. He now had an ample number of powerful professionals at his side. At the very least, it meant protecting his city wouldn't be a problem.

The four level 10 mages who followed Saleen back from Devil's Horn were happy. They no longer needed to scheme against each other. As palace mages, whatever they needed to further their training was amply provided by Saleen, as well as status.

Saleen even gave them starline paper to create scrolls in order to practice level 11 magic. That was incredibly important to level 10 mages. Crafting scrolls using starline paper had a minimal chance of failing.

Every successful crafting deepened their comprehension of the magic spells they worked on. Since crafting scrolls was a slow process, it enabled them to acquire more magical knowledge. In a mage's perspective, crafting scrolls was one of the best ways to learn magic.

Conventionally speaking, crafting scrolls, especially the ones higher than their own level, had a miniscule success rate. Furthermore, the higher the level of scroll materials needed, the more expensive they became. No mage would be willing to burn their money off like that, even if they happened to be rich. As such, completed scrolls were expensive. The higher the level of a scroll, the more ridiculous the price.

What put Saleen at ease was not that most of his followers would be able to achieve frightening growth. It was that his teacher, Jason, was able to reach level 11 without trouble. The difference between level 11 and level 10 was quite a leap for mages.

As Jason advanced, Saleen became completely at ease with things going on in Metatrin City. The only regret he had was that his student, Truman, was still a level nine mage. Because of that, Saleen had no intentions of bringing Truman to Laiyin Duchy. That battle would have been an all-out fight with the monsters from an alien plane.

Truman was his student and not a follower. Furthermore, that student was incredibly talented and had a high capacity for learning. Truman was already able to master Saleen's elemental conversion in a proficient manner. He had even expanded it further to develop new magic skills through systemizing the conversion of the six major elements.

The plane portal west of the city did not continue to expand. Saleen had been right. The portal did not lead to the true abyssal plane. Rather, it was some plane resembling it, which was like some interdimensional space that had yet to finish growing.

While the creatures from that interdimensional space looked formidable, their levels were below level 10. As such, he was able to see huge numbers of professionals showing up at the city council office every day to sell dead abyssal creatures. It was a good chance for Metatrin City professionals to advance their own powers, as well as one to get them rich.

Anyone willing to take gold coins could exchange one dead body of an abyssal creature for up to 1,000 gold coins. High level ones were even able to fetch up to 10,000 gold coins, and that was excluding their magic nuclei. Many kept the magic nuclei of those abyssal creatures for themselves since the price of magic nucleus had never been all that high in Metatrin City.

The alchemy factories at the Floating City were in full swing. The place was manned by the enchanters, creating combat equipment specifically for Saleen. He did not want to see any part of the equipment's schematics leaked.

Saleen was already able to craft Tainted Blood Armor, which had been mass-produced equipment in ancient times due to the simple material requirements. Unfortunately, what had once been cheap materials had become expensive.

It was fortunate for Saleen to have claimed possession of the astrology tower and the materials left behind by the goddess. It allowed him to replicate the production of Tainted Blood Armor.

The Tainted Blood Armors Saleen made were nothing like they once were. Tainted Blood Armors of ancient times did not enable their wearers to fly. The elite warriors relied completely on their own abilities to take flight.

One had to at least be a level nine warrior in order to wear Tainted Blood Armor, which was equivalent to present-day golden grand swordmasters. The flight abilities of golden grand swordmasters were anything but weak. They could fly better than mages.

That was not the case with Saleen's warriors. The number of golden grand swordmasters currently at his side was only a handful. In Myers Mainland, mages had systematic methods of learning, as well as experiences left behind by many of their predecessors.

That was not how things were with warrior skills. Anyone who wanted to make it to become a golden grand swordmaster had to face numerous limitations. The greatest of which was one's own talents.

From Saleen's perspective, the problem with talent was not the problem of humanity as a whole but that of skills being practiced. For instance, it had been difficult for him to become a mage. Due to the myriad of miraculous encounters and vast magical wealth acquired, he was able to become one of the most powerful mages of his generation.

His path was not one that could not be replicated. Anyone with his bodily conditions would have been able to achieve more or less what he achieved eventually, so long as they had access to magic chord pharmaceuticals and been provided resources by someone like him. The problem with warriors was that they did not have many choices. As such, equipment became important to them.

The Tainted Blood Armor turned crimson colors after Saleen modified it. He mainly added dragon bones infused with the giant's bone crystals. The materials from those two creatures fused well, but the prices of both materials were extremely high. If it had not been for his trade with the Grand Duke, he would not have been able to gain access to so many bone materials from dragons.

Saleen's alchemy factories produced Tainted Blood Armors of four different levels—level eight to level 11. He had yet to unlock the secrets of making level 12 ones.

The level ten and level 11 ones were reserved for his followers. He also bestowed them to some of his troops who had managed to advance that far. The ones he distributed to his armies were level eight and nine. One had only needed to be close to becoming a grand swordmaster to wear a level eight Tainted Blood Armor. That meant Saleen was able to amplify the combat capacity of a level-six warrior to that of a silver grand swordmaster.

All armors were inscribed with dark space magic patterns, which bestowed an incredibly high magic defense. Flight was made possible with two pairs of transparent wings. They were also equipped with masks, which were made from magic beast bones. Compound eye design of insects were used for crafting the visor, giving the warriors omnidirectional sight.

If one were to master such an ability, it would have been best for them not to leave the area under the magic net's control. The mental powers of the warriors allowed them to use low level skills like Magic Sight within the vicinity of a magic net easily, enabling them to get used to such complex sight abilities right away.

Aside from the Tainted Blood Armors, Saleen also equipped his star figures with Devil Flying Armors. The imps remained wearing Bug Angel Armors. As for the ancient warriors, he ceased using them as cannon fodder and took precautions to conserve them by leaving them behind at Metatrin City.

Twelve demon armies were sent to the Floating City to serve as defenses for the city. The number of enchanters increased from 3,600 added to 120,000.

Very few supreme demons were summoned at Demon City, but nurtured imps and demonic spirits were extremely abundant. Those two demon bloodlines possessed inherently great mental powers. They needed less than a month of training to become enchanters.

Saleen had the enchanters learn magical chants in the time remaining. Their capacity for learning magical chants, however, paled in comparison to human mages.

He prepared for about two weeks before he brought his followers, Sika, 100,000 enchanters, 120,000 Bug Angel Warriors, and 10,000 star figures onto the Floating City. They soon headed toward Kroraina. He had to pick up the Grand Duke at the border of Kroraina. Along with Laiyin Duchy, they would take on the abominations about to invade Myers Mainland.