Badge in Azure

Chapter 1440: Training Hard for a Thousand Years (Part 2)

Using a divine persona like that was a terrible waste. If he surpassed level 16 in the future, he would be able to extract rules from the divine persona, enabling him to acquire power of the water element god without having to train.

Extraction would enable him to save up to 10,000, even 100,000 years. At present however, he used the divine persona to adjust the flow of time. Even if the divine persona remained intact when he was done, the powers within would be drained and the rules would be damaged, making extraction very difficult.

There was no way he would waste a divine persona. He summoned all his followers from the magic amplifier and had them all train.

All the resources that he had brought with him were distributed among them and Saleen made it clear that they were able to afford to spend 1,000 years there doing nothing.

Rafel looked at the divine persona Saleen had embedded in the magic array and shook her head. She knew that Saleen understood that it was a waste, but the situation meant that Saleen had no choice.

Saleen even brought Sika with him, for fear that the Lord of Glory's double would attack Metatrin City.

There were no magic arrays in the Hall of Gods to expand the space, but it was capable of housing thousands of people. Saleen called all of his followers but left enchanters behind. He summoned some of the stronger demons and mages. The rate of time in the magic amplifier was similar to the outside world, and Saleen had no way around it.

He was only able to include as many as possible in the coming years of training, as he was unable to afford to take care of everyone.

Saleen was relieved that he had brought the more important mages of Metatrin City with him, as well as his student, Truman, who was a level ten mage. He was more talented than Saleen, and if he trained for 1000 years, his level could surpass Saleen's.

The following events were simple. There were enough food stocked in his magic amplifier, and the magic cube was like a world in itself. While it was impossible to farm due to the lack of a sun, fungi could be plated, fire and water element powers generated using magic.

No one else could solve the problems that Saleen had run into. Almost all of Saleen's food storage had something to do with the Floating City. Most of the city's spaces were used for storing food. That had a lot to do with Saleen's personality, as to him, there was only a future when there was food.

Saleen began his own training after he was done with arranging others' training.

Due to instructions and help from the general, his power of the soul rivalled level 15 professionals. Saleen needed to work on his family badge. The power stored within his badge was enough for him to fight gods.

Before that, however, he needed to first get to level 12 to stabilize his power of the soul.

The general gave Saleen 30 days. He figured that Saleen's wealth would enable the mage to train for 100 years in the Hall of Gods within a month. He never expected Saleen to have a divine persona, enabling Saleen to train for over 1,000 years in there.

100 years quickly passed and, as predicted by the general, Saleen had gotten to level 12. His magic chords were over 100 times purer than they had been, which was preparation for breaking into level 13. If he had not had a powerful soul, there would be no need for him to do so. While he lacked talent in training his magic chords, he was almost the best among mages when it came to soul-related aspects.

If someone else had his skills, they would have only been able to learn death magic. They might have been able to reach great heights with it, but they would not have been able to learn elemental magic.

Saleen's advancement did not affect the others around him. He did not rush to get to level 13 after getting to level 12. He found that what he knew about secret art alchemy had been skewed. All secret art alchemy had to do with souls.

His teacher, Jason, had always possessed formidable power of the soul, but his teacher was unable to instruct Saleen. Training the power of the soul had to be done alone.

Saleen ran through the secret arts that his teacher had imparted to him and found that his Water Flame Alchemy was still the most powerful. It had originally been geared for battle, and using it for alchemy was a waste.

However, his understanding of rules was unable to reach the other crystal wall system, and he did not consider a mistake in his training.

But since Saleen acquired complete power of souls, he was able to re-train his Water Flame Alchemy.

White Water Flame was so cold that it was capable of freezing souls. Old scripts ran within Saleen's mind. The words were profound and difficult to comprehend, and Saleen was only able to sense the power of rules when the words flowed.

His Ring of Cosmos slowly oscillated in his finger. The vibration frequencies of the Water Flame slowed considerably under the effects of the Ring of Cosmos. Saleen's power of the soul was able to clearly observe all minute changes.

It became easy for Saleen to control his Water Flame. Snowkill and Tornado no longer came alongside the Water Flame's release. A white 'flame' hovered above his palm, its temperature was comparable to the room.

Saleen extinguished the Water Flame and thought that the power of his water element magic would become even greater.

Saleen had achieved considerable progress with the training of his power of the soul. He needed to reconsider matters related to Water Flame Alchemy. He took out the Thunder Dragon Blaster. The injuries that all three weapon spirits caused were patched within the past 100 years, and even the Floating City had been gradually repaired.

Saleen threw the Thunder Dragon Blaster into the magic amplifier, and it hovered between the three eyes. There were 24 eyes surrounding it. After losing the divine persona, the Thunder Dragon Blaster could no longer fire consecutively. After he was done working on it, he would leave the firing of the weapon completely to the three weapon spirits.

By doing so, the Thunder Dragon Blaster gained protection of six major elements and was not as weak as it used to be. The equipment's integrity would not be compromised even when lightning icicles were fired. Saleen did not finish working on the equipment immediately. He knew that in order for the weapon to work as it was supposed to, it was required to be able to fire lightning icicles at all times.

Offensive capacity of the lightning icicles were hardly considered powerful when used against gods, as godly items would do well to resist them. If the gods were caught with their guard lowered, however, the weapon would be to deal severe damage against gods.

Saleen recalled the method the general used to heal Nailisi. He extracted the power from the divine persona embedded in the Hall of Gods and imbued it with the Thunder Dragon Blaster.

The Thunder Dragon Blaster expanded, shrunk, and expanded again. The process repeated itself tens of thousands of times.

The body of the Thunder Dragon Blaster was gradually brought back to its original form as Saleen worked at it—a 100-meter long thunder dragon.

The thunder dragon was all bones, but Saleen was able to infuse energy and create flesh and blood according to how the gods created their bodies. Saleen was very learned in the structure of a thunder dragon. However, Saleen was not actually trying to revive a thunder dragon; he was simply trying to provide the thunder dragon with a stronger body to be able to infuse his magic arrays.

Saleen reworked the magic arrays in the thunder dragon's windpipe. Water Flame seeped deep into it and reinforced the windpipe in a way that made it nigh indestructible. Saleen no longer crafted along thoughts laid out by Hogina, and instead let the dead body of the thunder dragon provide electrical power. The thunder dragon's windpipe had originally been a weaker part of the creature, but after Saleen reworked it by emulating the structures of the divine persona, its resilience surpassed a thunder dragon's horn.

The Thunder Dragon Blaster turned into a huge thunder dragon after Saleen was done working on it. He put it into his magic amplifier's ring and let it roam, making it possible for him to fire lightning icicles from it.

Saleen knew that such attacks were still inferior to the Crystal Finger in terms of power. However, as far as suppressive power went, the gods could not afford to ignore it. Saleen no longer had to worry about the weapon being damaged and broken. He was able to cast lightning icicles at any time, so long as the three weapon spirits were still around and his power of the soul still held.

The Thunder Dragon Blaster, magic amplifier, Thunder Dragon Bangle, Lightning Armament and Ring of Cosmos consisted of all equipment in Saleen's possession. He no longer bothered looking into any miscellaneous pieces.

The three weapon spirits were completely fused in the magic amplifier. There were the Lightning Constellation and the Floating City in the magic amplifier.

The Lightning Constellation was capable of holding objects. The Floating City could be taken out. The magic amplifier became able to carry living beings, due to the workings of the magic cube.

Saleen took over 100 years to work on all of the equipment. He gained new breakthroughs in over 100 years. His water magic became imbued with powers of the Water Flame.

Water magic came with a myriad of effects like hardening, dissolving, slowing, freezing, and many others. Saleen no longer relied solely on the hardening rules. The power of his lightning icicles was imbued with all traits of water magic.

Saleen knew that his talents were lacking compared to others, so he spent all of his remaining time devoted to magic training, hoping to be able to make it to level 13. The barrier standing between level 12 and level 13 was difficult. Saleen attempted time and again to make it through and spent a great number of magic nuclei, but he still was unable to make his magic chords grow any further. Saleen had little idea how much time actually passed. His student, Truman, already made it to level 12.

All professionals above level 10 had all gotten to level 12. Waves of demons were rotated. Common demons all got to level 9 and his supreme demons were almost all level 10.

Saleen saw that half of the powers of the divine persona in the magic array had been drained. He had used too much of the divine persona's power to craft his equipment. He had 300 years left at most, and simply training did not seem to be the way to go.

Saleen took out the magic notes left in Raphael's tower and began to read them. He spent the next 200 years researching them, oblivious to the fact that his son and daughter had made significant progress with their own training.

Both children were adults and became sorcerers at 16. They became level 10 mage trainers before turning 100. Saleen was extremely envious at the rate which they trained at.

There was nothing he was able to do about it, as his children were significantly more talented than him.

About a thousand years passed before they knew it. Seeing the energy in the water element god's divine persona completely drained, Saleen smiled at Sika and his children. "I'm still unable to get to level 13."

Sika was hardly any different from how she was 1,000 years ago. She said to Saleen, "No problem. Level 12 beings are the most powerful on Myers Mainland."

"Not quite." Saleen took the divine persona out from the magic array, which shattered into six pieces with a crack. Saleen took out a precious level 16 magic nucleus and put it into the magic array. He was able to buy himself another month.