Badge in Azure

Chapter 1524: Chaotic Void (Part 1)

Saleen was curious about the frost dragon's request. "Speak."

"Can I keep my items?"

Saleen scanned the place and found many shed hides and scales. There were also four dragon horns that were several meters long. All of them were frozen in an independent space. They looked to be something that fell off the frost dragon on their own.

Saleen chuckled, thinking that there were stingy dragons after all. Saleen had no desire to take any of those materials despite their immense value. He had 24 thunder dragons after all, and there was little need to talk about the strength of the soul armor they were all equipped with. The strength of the soul armor was so good that not even the scales of the frost dragon were able to compare.

Saleen quickly realized the fact that a level 17 frost dragon had to seek his permission for something like that. It confused him briefly, but he realized that it was probably due to some of the dragon's powers being robbed by the goddess. Space rules!

The space they were in probably was not very sturdy. The goddess was using the space to imprison beings at about level 15, which meant that none of them was capable of potentially breaking the space.

Saleen was level 15 and was being kept there by the goddess. If he had reached level 16, then it might have been possible for him to leave the space without requiring the goddess's permission.

The dragon, whose spatial powers were apparently restricted, would probably need Saleen's help to bring all its things away. However, Guffen was not a truly generous type. It was reluctant to give Saleen any benefits, and it was rather embarrassed for behaving to selfishly, so it requested to see if Saleen would have agreed to it.

It reminded Saleen of some dragons that he met before. While the dragons were indeed powerful, they had emotions similar to humans. Some so-called intelligent magic beasts paled in comparison to the dragons.

"The capacity for thought does not necessarily mean that one is wise. Wisdom is different from intelligence." Those were words that Saleen had once read on a magic note, which he deemed to be a classic. The dragons were capable of wisdom because they had emotions.

"No problem, Guffen." Saleen gathered the materials without giving it much thought, putting them away in his Ring of Cosmos. The frost dragon was about to remind Saleen of its concerns regarding energy fluctuations of the things. But when Saleen was done putting them away, not even Guffen was able to sense their presence anymore. That surprised the dragon.

The ring was such a formidable piece of space equipment that the spatial attributes contained within made the frost dragon feel rather envious. The dragon was rather baffled as well, unable to fathom why someone like Saleen, who was capable of crafting such space equipment, was unable to leave the space created by the goddess.

The dragon did not know that the Ring of Cosmos had come from another crystal wall system altogether, and rules of that crystal wall system were different from that in Myers Mainland. Not even a level 18 god would have been able to probe what was going on inside.

Saleen flew out of the crack first after he was done packing Guffen's items away. With the frost dragon still alive, the next space would not appear. Saleen thought for a bit and told the frost dragon to go inside his magic cube.

Guffen would have entered hibernation after entering a contract space, only capable of communicating with Saleen when summoned. In the magic cube however, Saleen would be able to communicate with Guffen mentally at all times.

The frost dragon went inside Saleen's space equipment unquestioningly, and another entrance opened up at the edge of that icy space. The ice mountain that cracked open, forming a gate to the area. That area, where the next magic beast was imprisoned. was on the other side of the canyon-like passage.

However, Saleen was completely at ease. He was already able to calculate that even without the help of a being like a frost dragon, he would have been able to make it through on his own, somehow. But he no longer had any need to prove anything, and it would be easier to just rely on Guffen's powers.

Saleen sped up at that thought, charging through the icy canyon.

"Alright, Guffen. It's your show from here on out," Saleen said nonchalantly. Guffen did not feel like anything was out of place. It was even more eager to leave that space than Saleen was, even though it had no idea what it would do after leaving.

However, Guffen was oblivious to the fact that Saleen already had planned on how to exploit everything there was to be exploited. It would have the dragon enhance its powers as soon as possible, reaching that befitting its level. He would then craft a set of equipment for the dragon, including armor and weapons, in order to give it a fighting chance when not using magic spells. A dragon's defense would drop considerably in human form, after all.

He would not need to waste much time at the East Sea anymore, as Guffen alone would be an ample threat to the Lord of Glory.

However, he still did not deem it wise to give up conquering the East Sea. Saleen's instincts told him that things in the East Sea had changed considerably, and there would be many powerful professionals emerging. If there were to be some very powerful being emerging in those nations, that someone might have even ended up uniting the islands.

The nations only had a population in the millions,. Not a single nation's population reached 10 million. Saleen would be able to make short work of such nations. However, if there were to be professionals of strengths comparable to his, he would need the frost dragon to bring about the shock factor.

He deemed it best to bring Grand Duke Iron Blood along after being reminded of the grand duke's dragons, and he already had ideas of how to proceed.

Guffen went back to Saleen's side after leaving that space meant for holding it. It was as Saleen expected—the goddess did not actually watch what was going on and had only somehow permitted the clearing of the stage.

Saleen had the frost dragon freeze all the enemies one after the other, before chucking them into his Ring of Cosmos. Things moved along a lot faster by doing so. On the other hand, despite being caged for so many years and still unable to bring about powers befitting a level 17 being, the frost dragon nonetheless had the superiority given by its level, as well as possessing formidable power of rules.

Saleen became able to easily cast level 16 water magic by tapping into the frost dragon's powers.

That was what put him at ease the most. With the frost dragon by his side, getting to level 16 would no longer be seemingly unachievable, and picking up level 16 magic would be comparatively easy. If he were to have a piece of decent divine persona, he would be able to get to level 16 in another month or so.

Using the might of the frost dragon, Saleen made it past one space after another before feeling a little exhausted. The last space was one where he was unable to have the frost dragon do the work for him. He had Guffen return to the magic cube, and then looked at the frozen 23rd magic beast, before sitting down before that beast and meditating.

The magic beast was frozen but not dead. If Saleen did not put it inside his space equipment, the next space would not open.

Rafel remained standing firm at Saleen's side. She had had little chance to do anything throughout the journey. Magic attacks from the frost dragon were terrifying. All magic beasts within the space would end up frozen in a huge chunk of ice within just three spells. They were all then put inside Saleen's ring.

In actuality, Saleen had been casting two lightning spells to limit the area the magic beasts could move about, and the frost dragon never needed to attack more than once.

The frost dragon had practically taken out one level 15 magic beast with just a single spell every time, and ten such spells were cast. The power of the frost dragon astounded Saleen a great deal. Despite their enemies having only been magic beasts without any equipment on them, the power of the frost dragon was so great that there was no need to use a second attack to deal with any professional below level 14.

Saleen spent half a day in meditation. While he had long restored all of his magic chords, he remained steeped in mediation, just to comprehend all the magical knowledge he had been picking up during that time.

He burned through all divine crystals he had like they cost nothing. His power of the soul was quickly refilled.

Saleen only opened his eyes after finding that his body had returned to a flawless state. He let Guffen out and then put the frozen magic beast into his Ring of Cosmos.

Saleen looked at the passage that appeared before him and said to the frost dragon, "Guffen, I know that you were only forced to sign a contract with me because you wanted to leave this place. But this will be the last battle, and I want you to just observe. Act only when you find that things are going out of control. I want you to understand that you've made a choice that you will not regret."

The frost dragon shook its head and mumbled, "Kids."

Guffen was rather doubtful of what Saleen said. He was only level 15 and the exit of the space would definitely be guarded by a level 16 magic beast. Even if the mage's power was formidable enough to beat the beast, he would end up very battered.

But then again, someone who put up a tough exterior would be better than those who were shameless. If the other dragons knew that it had signed a contract with a weakling of a human, it would have been made a laughing stock.

"Alright, if you think that things are getting out of hand, call me as soon as possible," the frost dragon said and went back into the magic cube. It actually did so to avoid watching Saleen making a fool out of himself.

Saleen never thought that his action of putting up a tough front would have earned Guffen's approval.

The space before him shattered with a crack and Saleen quickly put up a Water Shield. That was the last space, and the stage was a starry void outside of the atmosphere. The Water Shield expanded outwards uncontrollably after it was put up, and it was pressure from the wind element inside the bubble that caused the Water Shield to almost break apart.

Energy imbalance!

Saleen knew that the wind element within the Water Shield had never been that terrifying, as he would have been reduced to minced meat otherwise. The phenomenon was caused by an energy imbalance. There was hardly any turbulence around, so the imbalance could have only originated from power of rules.

What kind of a place is this?

"Saleen, this is the chaotic void, a very ancient ruin. Are you sure you don't need my help?" The frost dragon communicated with Saleen from the depths of his soul.

The dragon was able to stand inside the magic cube and see what was going on outside the magic amplifier. Guffen was rather surprised by the ordeal taking place in the final space. The chaotic void almost resembled another crystal wall system. The power of the goddess was indeed extremely terrifying, for she had been able to open a passage leading to a place like that.

Guffen thought it would be wise to hold off thoughts of settling scores with the goddess until it reached the pinnacle of level 18.

"Chaotic void huh?" Saleen's expression became cold. He had never experienced it before, but he read plenty of magic notes, enabling him to know what the chaotic void was actually like.

The barrier between crystal walls was not only a barrier of crystal. Any place near a crystal wall would have a void stretching billions of kilometers. Everything in the area would be in utter chaos, and the power of rules would no longer be able to be contained.

Even a god would have lost that power they held in immense pride if they were to reach such a place.

Saleen's magical balance was lost, and that was due to him being at the edge of the chaotic void. If he were to get deeper into the void, there would have been no way for him to cast magic at all. But then again, there was still one good thing that could come out of that—failure to cast a spell would not trigger any overly terrifying reactions.

Elemental turbulence was all within rules. In the chaotic void however, everything within rules was no longer deemed reliable.