Badge in Azure

Chapter 229: Ghost Fog Island (Part 2)

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

"Over there!" Daniel exclaimed excitedly as he pointed enthusiastically towards the northeast. Saleen's gaze followed Daniel's pointed fingers and rested upon a faint outline of an island. If Daniel had not pointed it out, both Lex and Saleen would not have noticed it at all.

Saleen instantly perked up as he replied, "Let's take a look!" They had been drifting for about three days now, which was not a very long time. Saleen could take up to an entire day just pondering over a single formula. In fact, he would be so caught up on it that he would skip his meals. However, it was different here. An additional day out at sea meant an additional day where they would be surrounded by danger. The most dangerous magical beasts of all loved to roam about these waters, and they had already had the displeasure of meeting some of them. In fact, there was one occasion where they had had no choice but to feed Fellett to a shark in order to escape in one piece.

Luckily for them, the colorful shark that they had fed Fellett to was not a species which travelled in a group and had left immediately after guzzling him down. Even though it had been a lone shark, Saleen had not dared to antagonize it by attacking it. He knew now that magical sea beasts were very adept at communication. If that shark had been attacked, it would have been able to call up at least a hundred of its kind within minutes.

If Saleen and the gang continued drifting on for days on end, they would eventually meet a magical beast that they had no hopes of defeating. It did not have to be some legendary powerful creature. Just a grade-8 beast would be enough to make the ocean their permanent resting place.

Under Lex's command, the two fully constructed puppets started rowing faster. The only problem now was that the turtle shell was so big that even all the strength in the world could not make it run as fast as an actual ship. In other words, they were travelling really slowly.

After rowing for over three hours, the blurry outline of the island territory became slightly clearer, meaning that they were getting closer and closer to land. Using his icy sight, Saleen concluded that the huge island was shrouded by some sort of fog.

The other thing separating Saleen and the others from the island were thick curtains of light, which almost fully concealed the island. In fact, if Saleen had not used his icy sight, he would not have spotted that island. He would have thought that the ocean color was slightly more faded than normal.

"Stop! Stop!" Saleen bellowed. Too late. The puppets had sped up too suddenly to stop now. Before Saleen knew it, they were crashing into the curtain of light.

Everyone but Nailisi instantly activated some sort of protection for themselves. For Lex, it was the ice plate armor; for Saleen, it was the water shield; for Daniel, he had expanded the death flames to cover his body in a protective layer of flames; for Sika, a layer of darkness had suddenly popped out of nowhere and shrouded her in a protective embrace. Quaint runes started floating about, bringing about a feeling of peace and tranquillity.

Drifting out at sea had benefited Sika the most compared to the others. Back in her village, the areas nearby had often been filled with all sorts of human activity, and the people from the Holy See had also liked to roam there. All the powerful magical beasts had been chased away by humans to the extent that Sika was confident that no one could find traces proving that they once roamed freely about these villages. For Sika's warrior priest abilities to awaken, she would have to frequently interact with the strongest magical creatures alive, and in some cases, even learn to live with them.

Ever since Sika had joined Saleen on this trip, she had encountered different kinds of powerful sea monsters. These creatures were different from the beasts that a person would encounter on land. They had no ill-will against humans, but they definitely were not afraid of them either. Unless they were starving, sea monsters usually left Saleen, Sika, and the others alone.

This characteristic, however, would never be found in the magical beasts humans tended to encounter on the mainland. By now, Sika had gradually understood the intimate connection priests had with nature. It was not any form of manipulation, nor was it an attempt to conquer. The sole purpose of priests partaking in battles was to allow humans to survive. It was no wonder that the spirits inside the weapon exhibited no hint of resentment. The priests back then had not forced the magic beast souls to stay. They had strongly believed in the concept of coexistence.

As of right now, the curtain of light had not launched any form of offensive attack on the group of five. In fact, Saleen believed that its main function was simply to conceal everything behind it. However, Saleen and the others did not let their guards down. This place was the definition of lifeless. There was not even a speck of green on the towering grey rocks that made up the island. It was located in the most southern part of the ocean, meaning that the temperature and humidity levels were high. Even if there were no trees, Saleen thought that there should have at least been some grass covering the land.

As they turned back to look at the view of the ocean they had grown accustomed to before crashing through the curtain of light, they were surprised to see nothing but pitch black, as though the world there had been plunged into darkness. Not only that, but Saleen and the others were not really able to navigate through their current location. It was obvious that there was a huge magic array in operation here, although it did not seem like the kind that warded off intruders. If anything, it existed to keep the people on the island from getting out.

Saleen was not too afraid of these magic arrays since he still had his badge with him. As long as the magic array was not too powerful, he could destroy it by sticking the badge on it and having the badge absorb the elemental powers present in it.

There was still a metal chain attached to the tail of the rock turtle. Nailisi dived into the water and started pulling the chains in the direction of the island.

A green stream of air lifted Lex off of the turtle shell and gently flew her in the direction of the island. Saleen turned and rested his gaze on Daniel as he thought, How is it possible for Daniel to discover such a well-hidden island while Lex and I could not even see anything unusual? Saleen did not think that Daniel's mental powers were stronger than either his or Lex's.

"Daniel! Tell me…what is this place?" Saleen asked with a slight grin on his face.

"Ghost Fog Island," Daniel replied without hesitation. Wow, he didn't try to evade the question, Saleen thought, stunned for a moment. Seeing his perplexed expression, Daniel let out a sigh before continuing, "These islands also exist in the Tanggulasi waters. They are normally left behind by necromancers. However, not many people have the opportunity to see them because they're located so far away from land."

"Oh really? Tell me what you know," Saleen said. He did not understand much about death magic. Aside from Daniel, Saleen could not recall crossing paths with another necromancer. He thought that it would be a good idea to find out more about the island before he explored it. Saleen also figured that Daniel would not hide anything from him.

"I'm not sure myself. Most ghost fog islands have large magic arrays to avoid being seen by the outside world. Necromancers typically don't like interacting with people. Plus, the Holy See hasn't exactly been very friendly with our kind either. Thus, most necromancers use magic arrays to conceal any and all parts of their islands. This island in particular is very big. If there are any necromancers here, we will not be able to beat them even if we combine our powers," Daniel explained.

"What if there aren't any necromancers here anymore?" Saleen asked curiously. Daniel's eyes perked up for a bit before they were reduced back to a dull gaze in the blink of an eye. He replied sincerely, "If a necromancer knew that he was dying, he'd take everything on his island with him. Besides the magic array, this island may contain a magic tower. The key word here is 'may' because even the tower may not be here anymore. I don't think you'd find anything valuable here either. Unless…"

"This must be the most conducive environment for you to practice your death magic in, right?" Saleen asked, feeling uncomfortable being surrounded by the stench of death lingering in the air which was the coincidentally the direct opposite of the Myers Goddess' powers.

"Yes, that might be the only good thing we can get out of this trip," Daniel quipped.

"Ah Daniel, so you finally understand what the word 'we' means," Saleen said, laughing at the end. At that moment, Daniel felt his heart stop as shivers ran down his spine.

"Saleen, I…" Daniel stuttered before he was cut off by Saleen, "Save your breath. We'll be here a while. Lex will be building a ship to get us off of this island, so when she needs your help, you'd better give it one hundred percent. Practice your magic when you're not needed so that your winged skeleton can be restored to its peak state."

"Huh?" Daniel said in confusion. He had thought that Saleen was going to confront him about what had happened a few days earlier.

"Daniel, Lex is someone who's going to do big things one day. Do you really think you're indispensable? Bitter Water Prefecture has so many mages like you that I've practically lost count. I just don't understand why those thoughts ever crossed your mind," Saleen said.

Daniel lowered his head in shame as he replied, "I don't know. Maybe it was the armor…" Saleen shuddered as he recalled the eyeless face floating about the armor. Daniel had deposited a huge portion of his death flames into Fellett's body, and did not have as much willpower in resisting the spirit's voices. Saleen was not sure if there were any side effects that Daniel might have been experiencing after that brief encounter with the spirit. All he knew was that if Daniel did give in to his greed, he would be dangerous to have around.

Bang! The huge turtle shell had rammed into one of the giant rocks on the island, shattering it into pieces. The crash also did a number on the already damaged body of the turtle. Without it, even if the turtle shell was hollow, it would still slowly sink.

Nailisi took out a lance from her bracelet and stabbed it deep into the rock. Since the lance was made of pure steel, it was not difficult for Nailisi to split the rock into half. Upon realizing how strong Nailisi was, Daniel started to become afraid of the demon. Now, he was not only scared of Saleen, but he was also afraid of Nailisi and Sika.

Saleen's divine powers could easily subdue him, and Sika's weapons shattered his defensive magic like it was nothing. Right now, Daniel knew that if Nailisi wanted to, she could simply beat him to a pulp using just her strength alone.

Saleen watched as Nailisi wrapped the chain tightly around the lance and casually bent it. Saleen was also surprised to see that the end of the lance had been buried deep into the rock. This was not something that just anyone could do. Even people who had honed their sword auras and had explosive power that surpassed even the strongest of magical beasts would not be able to bend a lance made of pure steel.

Saleen was pleased to have people like Nailisi and Sika who excelled in their craft and did a terrific job in protecting him. Even though neither of them had attempted to hone the sword auras before, both of them possessed ridiculous amounts of power. Even swordmasters who were not careful could die at their hands if the two ladies decided to launch a sneak attack on them.

And that was taking into account the fact that swordmasters had the ability to recognize their enemies' sword auras or magical ranks, which would put Sika and Nailisi at a disadvantage since they had never practiced them.

The winged skeleton grabbed Daniel and started flying towards the island. As Daniel rose higher and higher into the air, he turned his head around and told Saleen, "You'd better hurry up. It's best if you can build some sort of temporary shelter. It gets kinda foggy at night! And it's not like that big fog you saw over at Devil's Horn. There might actually be a few monsters obscured by the fog."

"Monsters? But didn't you say that those necromancers would take everything with them?" Saleen asked.

"Well, this isn't the death dimension so…" Daniel started, but before he could finish his sentence, the winged skeleton had placed him onto the ground. Saleen followed suit, leaping into the air. Before he crashed onto the ground, Saleen's body was suddenly enveloped in a thick cloud-like mist that cushioned his landing.

There were giant boulders as well as some gravel present in the area that they had landed in. Strangely, not a single grain of sand was in sight. Daniel watched in amazement as Saleen started levitating in midair. He started trying to figure out the spell that Saleen had used, but to no avail.

Saleen gave Daniel a gentle smile before he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Lex flying back towards them from afar. He continued pressing Daniel for answers, "There shouldn't be anyone here. Didn't you say that necromancers don't leave anything behind? Why would there be monsters here?"

"This particular island is frequently connected to the death dimension. However, without a necromancer, death creatures will not be able to travel here on their own. That doesn't mean that the island can't house other monsters naturally though. To us necromancers, we could domesticate them and make them our slaves. In other words, the monsters here probably aren't creatures from the death dimension. To most people, they're actually scarier than illithids. Get too close to them and you'll get your life force sucked right out of you. Even swordmasters would die in a heartbeat," Daniel explained.

"Are they really that powerful?" Saleen exclaimed in wonder. Daniel replied, "I mean… not if you're prepared. These creatures move slowly and they don't usually attack unless provoked. Just hide in a tent if you don't want to be spotted. Don't get surrounded though. These things can fly in the fog, and once you're surrounded, there's no way out."

Sika leapt from the turtle shell and onto the ground of the island. If a person considered the metal chains to be long, they would be shaking once they knew how far she had jumped - ten meters. Daniel quaked as he witnessed Sika's random burst of power. Sika patted on Daniel's shoulder gently as she said, "Just leave these monsters to me. I'm currently studying something regarding souls and spirits, and would love to have something to experiment on."