Badge in Azure

Chapter 201: Heavily Refined Equipment (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was an item which resembled a bone whistle, and it could be put into the mouth. The hollow center contained a bone needle, and Nailisi could blow this needle to hurt her enemies.

Lex followed Nailisi's drawing and tried to make this item, and wasted a massive amount of bones before successfully creating one.

"What is this?"

Saleen looked at the small piece of bone which had been crafted into the shape of a horn. On top of it, there was a narrow hole for a blow dart to pass through. A normal blow dart could hardly harm a target even if it was made from metal. However, this bone needle was heavy as it had been refined from a large piece of dragon's bone. As long as it could be blown out, normal combat armor would never be able to withstand the impact, unless it was magic armor.

"I am equally clueless. This item…" Nailisi started thinking to herself. This item is like a bow for an imp. It can be used to kill stronger creatures such as demons or spirits which rely on a supreme demon.

Lex tried, but realized that she could not activate this piece of hornlike equipment. Nailisi took the small horn and put it into her mouth. Lex placed a piece of metal in front of Nailisi. The metal was a piece of black gold which had not yet been refined. Nailisi blew gently and a fine white line flew out of her mouth, accurately striking the center of this piece of black gold.

Chi! The bone needle penetrated the black gold ore and nearly came out of the other end. The bone needle had thorns all over it after its refinement. When the needle entered the black gold ore, it had spun about furiously, creating a large opening nearly the size of a person's wrist in the black gold ore. Had this needle been aimed at a person, the person would surely have been killed. If the needle penetrated the abdomen, the intestines would definitely be mashed, not to mention the brain.

When Lex had been carrying out the refinement, she had been well aware that one of the reasons the bone needle could break black gold ore was because of its high spinning speeds, and also because it was razor sharp and heavy. Unfortunately, this item could not be mass produced. Furthermore, even though dragon bones were utilized in its production, the success or failure of the production was entirely dependent on luck.

Lex was not disappointed at all. Anyway, from Sika's armor, she had already amassed a great deal of experience, so she could use that method in the production of armor for the Bitter Water Army in the future.

The main event was the refinement of magic robes. Lex had added large amounts of the hair from the tiago to the magic robes which belonged to Saleen and herself.

These two magic robes were rare boutique items. Lex's multicolored magic robe was self-explanatory. On the other hand, Saleen's magic robe had been refined by Lex's teacher for dozens of years before he had managed to achieve success with it.

For most magic robes, the duration for refinement would only be a month or two regardless of the quality of the materials used. However, the time it took to refine those two magic robes was calculated in the dozens. If the time used to prepare the materials was also added in, then the amount of effort which had been concentrated into these two items would be even more astounding than it was already.

There were two benefits to refining the magic robes with the tiago's hair. The first benefit, for Saleen, was that he could wear the magic robe all the way until he was grade-9. His demonic set possessed similar attributes to that of Lex's multicolored magic robe. Furthermore, after the grey magic robe was refined, it was able to defend against razor sharp weapons. The second benefit was related to Lex. Her multicolored magic robe was good, but it was too conspicuous. When a commoner saw it, they did not know that it was high grade equipment, and when an expert saw it, it was far too alarming.

Once the hair from the tiago was refined into the magic robes, Lex and Saleen became mages clad in magic robes without any indications of their grade. The features on the magic robes had disappeared, and even the curing magic on Saleen's robe had disappeared as well.

Lex and Saleen were not lacking any equipment. Now that they had resolved the problems with their magic robes, they only needed to store spells into their magic books and fill in their scrolls. When all that was done, their offensive abilities would essentially have peaked again.

The person lacking equipment was Daniel. This grade-3 death mage had lost his winged skeleton at the moment and did not know when he would be able to get it back again.

A death mage was different from an elemental mage. Without a summoned creature, their offensive abilities would decrease drastically.

Everybody's equipment had been placed into Lex's alchemy array for refinement. Daniel helplessly said, "I will try to summon a new contracted creature."

Daniel was depressed. If he lost the winged skeleton's replacement, then the chances of him getting the winged skeleton back would be slim to none.

"Don't you know how to produce bone puppets?" Saleen thought to himself, The offensive abilities of bone puppets are not considered low. At the very least, they're effective in dealing with swordsmen. The skills a death mage possessed had deterring effects. People who were of a lower grade than the death mage would have their emotions easily influenced.

"I… am a grade-3 mage, so I cannot use spatial equipment yet. It is impossible for me to bring along a gigantic being wherever I go."

Saleen already possessed the Ring of Gifts and the demonic ring, so he had long forgotten the fact that a mage needed to be at least grade-5 in order to utilize spatial equipment. Upon hearing Daniel say that, Saleen blushed.

Lex said, "Do you remember among low-level death magic, there's a spell called… nine, nine, what was it called again?"

"Nine Kings. But I currently don't have that many bones in my possession…"

That time, Daniel had exhausted a large amount of his precious resources in order to produce the camouflaged skull cavalry. He was embarrassed to get more materials from Lex.

"Nine Kings?" Saleen understanding of death magic was sparse, so he looked at Daniel with a doubtful gaze.

"It refers to the nine types of creatures found in the death dimension which are extremely useful to a death mage. These creatures also possess higher offensive abilities. The winged skeleton is the tenth type, slightly lousier than the other nine types," Daniel said. Then, he explained in more detail, "These nine creatures are extremely difficult to summon, but there is a method used to replace them. A death mage has to create nine puppets that correspond to those nine creatures respectively, then the mage will place them into a summoning array. As long as the breaths of the nine kings are captured, those nine puppets will gain a minute amount of intelligence. Even though the puppets are still inferior to the creatures, they will not need any commands from the death mage anymore."

The winged skeleton was not even considered to be part of the nine creatures! Saleen thought of the offensive abilities the winged skeleton possessed and felt that they were much higher than those of its owner.

The puppets would be slightly intelligent? In that case, the spell would be similar to Saleen's divine spell, Gift of Life. Death magic was indeed related to divine magic, which dealt with life, just like how darkness and light cancelled each other out. When Saleen had cast the Gift of Life, he had banished the winged skeleton back to the death dimension.

These skills which a death mage had were the exact opposite of divine magic which supported life.

"Lex and I will help you purchase whatever items you require. You may return the money after earning it back." Saleen knew that if the nine kings were produced, they would be tougher than the winged sksleton. Thus, the increase in the team's offensive ability would be equivalent to having one more grade-4 mage in the team. Furthermore, the item would be a product of the Myers realm, so it would not be banished by Saleen's own Gift of Life divine spell anymore.

Saleen's left hand would recover in a few more months, and this hand was the nemesis of death magic. He was also not afraid that Daniel would turn against Lex after gaining these benefits, as that was nearly impossible. On the Myers Mainland, not many people could have stayed with Daniel already.

Daniel mustered his courage, found a pen, and began listing all the items he would need.

A death mage was an immensely powerful profession. Hence, it was an unbearable experience for Daniel to be the lousiest person in the team. He had never given any thought to Lex and Saleen, but Daniel had discovered that he could not even defeat Sika and Nailisi in a one-on-one battle. He also knew for sure that Sika and Nailisi had never honed their sword auras before.

Saleen and Lex looked at each other after seeing the list that Daniel had written up. There were more than one hundred materials listed. Saleen and Lex only had half of these materials at best, which were around seventy of the materials. The remaining portion needed to be procured from Alchemy City. It seemed like this would be another enormous expense.

Even though the apartment they were living in had cost millions, Lex had only paid for it using two fully constructed puppets, so it was impossible for her to take out such a huge sum of money. Out of desperation, Saleen used the magic sound array and contacted Hogina to state his needs.

"If you give me the remaining puppet components, I will be able to gather all these materials within a day."

"Okay." Lex readily took out the remaining tattered components. This fully constructed puppet had been smashed beyond repair by the dragon, but it still possessed high research value. If Hogina and her teacher wanted to study a fully constructed puppet, they would have to disassemble a fully functioning one. The protection in these ancient fully constructed puppets was highly sophisticated. Once they were disassembled, it would be challenging to assemble them back to their original state. So, to Hogina and her teacher, these components were not very different from a complete puppet.

Hogina grinned as she put away the components belonging to the fully constructed puppet. Two hours later, she had gathered all the materials that Daniel required. Then, Saleen lamented. Alchemy City might have been prosperous, but there were so many materials, and all of these materials were not easy to obtain at all. Since Hogina had delivered them all in two hours, it was possible that she had spent one hour hugging the components of the puppet and celebrating.

In any case, it was a good thing that all of the materials were present now. Daniel started setting his summoning array. Usually, such arrays were not used inside of buildings, unless the building was something like the alchemy tower which was absolutely secure.

This time around, nine bone puppets were going to be built, so more than one thousand pieces of bones needed to be cut. Hence, Lex's alchemical machine would be required for this task. Meanwhile, Saleen was currently free, so he and Nailisi were in the alchemy laboratory studying the dragonshard.

Until now, Nailisi had not told Saleen that she had dug out the two dragonshards as she still did not trust Lex. Anyway, since the item was already in Nailisi's possession, everyone else would think that Saleen had only obtained one dragonshard as long as Nailisi did not reveal the truth.

The tiago's dragonshard was larger than a pumpkin, with a diameter more than one foot long. Compared to the green dragon's magic nucleus, the magic vibrations of the dragonshard were completely introverted and the toughness of the core was unparalleled, while the quality of the exterior layers deteriorated gradually.

"Master, do I segment it?"

Saleen hesitated for a moment before nodding his head. If he asked Lex to help him segment the dragonshard, he would need to give her some compensation. This dragonshard was full of water attributes, so it was far too important to Saleen. Once the demonic bracelet was mosaicked with the dragonshard, it would not need to be replaced with any other magic nuclei ever again.

The dragonshard was able to replenish his magic chords swiftly. With it, Saleen would not need to wear the white crystal ring anymore, leaving an additional slot for other spatial equipment. Once Saleen advanced to a sorcerer, he would most likely get his equipment from the dragonshard. The dragonshard might have been huge, but once it was segmented, there would not be many valuable portions left aside from the core which was the most valuable part.

To Saleen, the depletion of his magic chords would become minute during his training sessions as long as he wore the demonic bracelet which was mosaicked with the dragonshard. The reason why the dragonshard was not called a magic nucleus was because it contained limitless power. Unless it was severely damaged, the elements within the dragonshard would be replenished automatically after total depletion until its lifespan was up.

Such a big dragonshard perhaps had a lifespan of around ten thousand years.

"Go ahead and segment it." Saleen stared longingly at the dragonshard which was larger than a pumpkin. Once Nailisi started the segmentation, it was unlikely that Saleen would see a complete dragonshard ever again. To a mage, this was cruel indeed.