Badge in Azure

Chapter 1522: Frost (Part 1)

Saleen's meditation allowed him to stop at any given moment, and it was something imparted to him by Jason. With the protection of the thunder dragons, Saleen had no fear of being ambushed. All 24 thunder dragons had soul armor on. Regardless of the magnitude of the attack they could be met with, they would at least be able to hold out for a minute or two. Not even the Goddess of Myers would have been able to kill all 24 of them in one go.

But then again, if all those magic beasts were of levels comparable to the goddess, Saleen would have just given up. It would have been impossible.

A frail magic beast began to gradually awaken in the land covered in ice while Saleen was still meditating. It was covered in hard ice. When it was awakened, a layer of ice around it melted, making it look like it was wrapped in a water bubble.

If it had not been for Saleen showing up, that beast probably would have probably been frozen deep in the land by the goddess for good. In truth, however, not even the goddess had ever had any intention of capturing that thing. It seemed that she had no interest in the materials it would have given her.

The magic beasts shook its huge body about and a layer of skin fell off of its body, revealing what was beneath.

The transformation process was extremely slow, but it was speeding up. Saleen sensed peculiarities in the space but did not stop meditating just yet. He simply unleashed thousands of lightning warriors to deal with it.

The lightning warriors' movements were not affected by what was happening in the icy world at all.

However, most of the lightning warriors were at level nine or ten. They were little more than cannon fodder when they ran into level 14 or 15 magic beasts.

The magic beast shook and cracking noises were heard from its bones. The Thunder Dragon Blaster in the magic amplifier behind Saleen was being prepped. The huge thunder dragon within it seemed to have come alive and looked rather restless.

Saleen had to stop meditating but stopped Rafel, who was about to get up.

"The goddess might have made a mistake. That thing below might be over level 16," Saleen said as he pointed at the white ground. There was a huge crack had appeared at some point while they were resting.

The crack was over 15 kilometers long. Saleen unleashed an electric snake. The tiny snake burrowed into the crack, and Saleen sensed the snake being destroyed about half a minute later.

That thing below made short work of a level 15 electric snake.

The goddess had indeed made a mistake. Some beings were capable of advancing during specific states. Despite not having eaten or drank for a long time, they would still be capable of killing Saleen.

"Rafel, how much power do you have left?"

"Half," Rafel answered concisely.

"Well then, you stay down for the moment. There is only one enemy here."

"Stay down?" Rafel put her hands on the ground and grabbed hold of her Inferno Spear. She looked at Saleen with a vexed expression, not understanding why he would not let her fight.

Saleen looked at Rafel's face and finally explained to her what he had been thinking.

"This is a powerful being, and the battle between us will probably end up tearing the space apart, sending me into another space. I can't win without getting injured. Before I can recover from my injury, I'll need you for protection, so…"

Saleen sent Rafel into his magic amplifier, keeping her from joining the battle. Her powers at level 14 were still too weak. If she were to be able to make it to level 15 suddenly like Nailisi, she would have stood a chance.

Saleen had no intention of wasting his magic chords. Recovery of his magic chords had reached 80 percent, and they would have come in handy in the upcoming battle. The Book of Lightning hovered before him. Electrical discharge from the piece of equipment became strong enough to kill a level 15 being at present. If the being were devoid of defense, it would be wiped out altogether.

Still killable at level 16.

But what about level 17 then?

Saleen sighed. Regardless of the quality of a piece of equipment, there would be a limit. Level 17 was the level when gods achieved greater god status, making them capable of mastering foundations of rules. It would be almost impossible to kill them by relying on equipment alone.

It would not be doable unless he had completely mastered the Book of Lightning and got to level 17 himself as well.

Saleen's limit was at level 15. If he were to reach level 16, he would have to achieve complete mastery of a type of rules, any type. Saleen was only able to master rules of water element and lightning, and the lightning ones being over 100 times more complicated than that of water element.

If he were to master water elemental rules, he would at least need to familiarize himself with 12 level 16 water elemental magic spells. That meant that not only would he need to be able to cast water elemental magic beyond his level, he would also need to be able to work on any of the 12 in any way he fancied, modifying their magical attributes and making them into chants.

All in all, Saleen needed to achieve thorough mastery with twelve level 16 water elemental magic spells, and that would take a considerable amount of time. Furthermore, that was just preparation. He needed to have a certain level of mastery of the other five types of elemental magic, and all of them needed to be level 16 if he were to get to level 16.

The difficulty was tens of times more than what it had been for advancing below level 15, and Saleen did not have that much time to spare.

The ground let out a stifled rumble and the width of the crack beneath Saleen's feet widened by 10 meters. Anyone else would have easily lost their balance if they encountered something like that.

In Saleen's case, magic patterns in his eyes shifted before he leaped into the crack.

It would have been a lot more difficult to deal with the thing if it emerged, so he went to confront it first.

The mist before Saleen turned into Wind Dragons, which then burned and shone a light into the snow-white crack. Saleen cast the level seven magic over and over. Such spells had a negligible drain to him.

The Fire Dragons transmuted from the Wind Dragons charged at the terrifying being deep within the crack. Saleen knew that a being nurtured in such an environment would definitely be a water elemental, and as such, they would have less defense against fire damages.

The Fire Dragons were just a way for him to probe it, which enabled him to determine the being's true rank. If it were a level 17 being, it would be best to just kill it with the Book of Lightning. All he hoped for at the moment was that the magic beast below was not an intelligent being.

Tens of Fire Dragons disappeared without a trace, as if they had never existed in the first place.

What level was this Deep Blue Territory? Saleen was had a body of water element, and while he would not freeze over, he nonetheless felt his bones getting stiff. The Fire Dragons had charged to a certain area and just vanished altogether.

A human? Why aren't you that damned god instead!?

Saleen heard a roar. The roar packed dragon might.

Deep down, Saleen began to feel bad and a little anxious, but there was still hope. The enemy was a dragon, and probably a frost dragon told in legends. Frost dragons were dragons that had innate water elemental abilities.

That innate ability was rather different from the talents defined by humans.

Even the golden dragons, which were dragons skilled in close quarters combat, were actually capable of learning magic. They just would not achieve the height of skill achievable by rainbow dragons. Learning magic would be a huge loss for them, and it would reduce the strength of their bodies.

Having innate abilities in the dragons' perspective meant that the bloodline of a dragon would allow them to reach extreme heights of knowledge and ability in areas they were innately capable of.

"Mr. Frost Dragon, don't you think it's actually better to see me than Myers instead?" Saleen stopped moving and did not dare to venture further into the crack. He was already able to see a dragon creature at the bottom of the crack. It was over 100 meters long.

If that thing were a frost dragon, then it was in very bad shape. It had no horns on its head—a sign of degradation. Furthermore, the scales seemed to be like those of a newborn, and its wings were nearly transparent, lacking the usual beefy strength of the dragons. The frost dragon seemed to have been starved for millions of years.

"Myers!"

The loud dragon roar caused Saleen to feel rather dizzy. That was not the power of dragon might, but dimensional quakes invoked by the dragon's roar. Saleen had no choice but to negate it using Thundering Sound. If the frost dragon were to just keep roaring, it would have only been a matter of time before he ended up with severe internal injuries.

Saleen felt he was unlucky. If he was correct, that frost dragon was a level 17 dragon. In ancient times, not even the highest gods around would have wanted to face such a dragon. That was because a level 17 frost dragon was theoretically capable of casting the most powerful water magic at level 18, which made them incredibly difficult to defeat.

The sturdy bodies of dragons allowed them to cast magic spells beyond their current levels without having to worry about recoil at all.

Recoil only mattered to frail lifeforms like humans. Saleen's constitutional strength was extremely formidable, rivaling true mights, but only in terms of raw strength and defense. Some organs in his body remained weak.

Things were different for dragons. All the internal organs of dragons were frighteningly resilient. Any piece of scale they shed could be used to make the strongest shield available. A claw they dropped could be used to forge the sharpest of swords.

"Mr. Dragon, please stop shouting. Didn't you see this puny human who also happens to be an insignificant bug before you?" Saleen spoke in a performing tone. It was the tone used in that stage show by that dragon performing for the Dragon God.

"Huh?"

The frost dragon only realized that the human before it was not dealt with yet. But then again…

"What did you just say?"

"I said I'm going to kill you and rid the people of a disaster!" Saleen continued to mimic the play from the Dragon God's palace.

The frost dragon wanted to laugh, but quickly recalled that it had been caged for tens of thousands of years. As such, it simply swallowed the laughter and said to Saleen coldly, "so, you've been to the palace of the Dragon Gods then?"

"Indeed, I have met a Dragon God," Saleen answered.

The frost dragon was able to confirm that Saleen had met a Dragon God. There were four Dragon Gods, but outsiders thought there was only one. Only those who had been in close contact with the Dragon Gods would have known of such secrets of the dragons.

"How did you end up in this cage?"

"Cage?"

"Indeed. This is a cage of nature created by Myers. You could continue to live and breed here, but you'd never be able to make it out."

"No. You could actually leave." Saleen cut the frost dragon off valiantly. He continued, "I was dumped here by Myers. She told me that if I killed 24 powerful magic beasts, I would be able to leave."

The frost dragon heard what Saleen said and felt rather dazed. It thought it had been caged in a cage of nature. It never occurred to it that the place it ended up in was not a cage of nature at all. Every single cage of nature had beings similar to one's species. The power of the mage before it meant that he would have died running into just any dragon he could have found there.

The mage also showed signs of repeated battles, and it was obvious that the mage won all of them.