Badge in Azure

Chapter 325: Talking All Night Long (Part 1)

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

"Of course, I would not do something so dangerous! But I have never heard of anyone dying as a result of absorbing too much energy from the death flames. In fact, I've never heard of these death flames until now. But like they always say… with danger comes opportunity. As a person from Sikenqinya, surely you understand where I'm coming from?" Aini said.

"How did you manage to do it?" Saleen asked.

"Pure luck. At that time, I spent less than a hundred gold coins. Thus, I'm not too bothered about this little loss. Being the mage that I am, I started to closely study the death flames. Somewhere along the way, I found out that these death flames already had death creatures roaming about inside of them. What was crazier was that this death creature actually reached out to communicate with me!" Aini recounted his experience.

"Really?!" Saleen exclaimed in disbelief. Even though Saleen was not a necromancer, he had started reading up on them after meeting the three kings. With the help of Daniel and the Sregl Island mages, Saleen had amassed nearly as much knowledge about the craft as ordinary necromancers. However, he had not expected the spirits of the dead to take the initiative to communicate with humans - especially before the contract was even signed. What blew Saleen's mind was the fact that this death creature was actually a plant.

"I could not really believe it either, so I…" Aini trailed off at the last sentence. However, Saleen already knew what Aini was implying. Aini had the ability to set a contractual trap. Thus, both parties had signed what seemed like a fair agreement.

"It's pretty simple actually… the death flames did not contain just one death creature. During the fusion process, this random dude that wanted to become a true necromancer did not have enough mental power to see the entire procedure through. Thus, instead of becoming the master of the magic, he became controlled by it. Thus, the death creatures contained within the death flames were implicated. Since they were scared of vanishing off the face of the dimension, they had no choice but to swallow the soul of that unlucky bloke. Don't be mistaken - that did not benefit them at all. Luckily, one of the two death creatures was a floral death creature. Thus, it could actually digest the human's soul slowly, preventing the two of them from being wiped out under the laws of this dimension," Aini explained.

"What about the other one?" Saleen asked curiously. Aini had signed a contract with two death creatures in one go, with one of them being the floral death creature. Thus, Saleen expected the other death creature to be some rare creature he had never heard of.

"It's a fleshy death creature. Very rare. Very uncommonly seen. Sounds gross, I know. But it actually looks pretty similar to the living magic beasts you see everyday," Aini rambled.

"You're too lucky!" Saleen exclaimed. Every single achievement that he had attained, be it a promotion, harvest, and so on, was almost always gained through pure hard work and grit. In fact, he had put his life on the line most of the time trying to achieve his goals. Aini, on the other hand, had not even needed to spend over a hundred gold coins to purchase such special death flames. They even came with two rare death creatures too.

He was not jealous of Aini though. In fact, Saleen was happy for him. Anyone who knew Aini would also know that he had endured far too many hardships in his life. He could only imagine how agonizing and heart-breaking it was for a talented young mage like Aini to end up cursed and forced to witness the gradual depletion of his magic chords. However, Saleen did not think that it was all that bad. All the hardships Aini had endured as a young adult were not for nothing. If anything, they had been to prepare him for the fruits that he would reap later in his life.

"Really? I always thought you were the lucky one. You were so unskilled when we last said our goodbyes. Now… you're already a grade-5 mage. That's insane… especially given that elemental mages have a harder time honing their magic to perfection compared to necromancers… well… at least before they get promoted to the rank of a sorcerer, of course," Aini said.

Saleen smiled in response. How could Aini think that it had been pure luck? As a mage, Saleen had never believed in luck. All he knew was that he needed to depend on hard work to achieve what he wanted in life. If he left it all to fate, he would be no different from those ignorant adventurers. He recounted the story of how people had flocked to Kosan Prefecture upon hearing that a green dragon had been sighted. Quite a fair number of those people had only been junior swordsmen.

Even though the green dragon was considered one of the weakest members of the dragon family tree, one breath of fire alone was enough to wipe out dozens of junior swordsmen. The dragon's flame was not to be confused with the dragon's breath. The former was of a much higher level than the latter. In fact, one of the reasons why this was so was because of the fact that the dragon's flame did not use up a lot of the green dragon's energy. A dragon could spit out hundreds of dragon's flames during a battle and not be tired out.

Humans were strange like that, always trying to achieve the impossible when they knew that they were far from being able to do so. They were always so profit-minded. Just one green dragon alone was enough for hoards of people, who were apparently unafraid of death, to risk their lives in an attempt to capture and kill it.

"The weaponry shop over at Deep Forest Town… is it still yours?" Saleen asked.

"Yes. Is there something you need? I was given that shop by my clan as a form of compensation," Aini replied.

"I'd like to build a stronghold there. Don't you feel weird about the sudden disappearance of all those black mages?" Saleen said.

Aini processed Saleen's words for a bit, but chose not to reply. Aini guessed that their sudden disappearance had something to do with the Holy See. He was not about to discuss anything related to the Holy See near the three kings… unless the contractual trap came into effect, forcing the three kings to become both him and Saleen's bonded creatures.

Saleen did not directly address the Holy See then, and he was not about to talk about the Holy See now. Seeing that Aini had already understood what he was implying, Saleen continued, "This place looks very remote. However, we can actually make our way to Sikeqinya via the Chaotic Swamp. This is the fastest way I can think of."

"How fast?" Aini asked, his eyes suddenly lighting up with interest. If there was a direct path from Deep Forest Town to Sikeqinya, even if he had to go through the Chaotic Swamp, it would be worth it.

"Very fast. There's a secret tunnel to the north of Didypus. That tunnel will allow us to bypass the mountains and enter the Chaotic Swamp immediately. If we can gain control over that tunnel, we will only have the magic beasts left to deal with. The magic beasts over at the Chaotic Swamp, of course. However, to powerful mages like us, they won't be a threat. What do you think?" Saleen said.

"The location of that secret tunnel… does it belong to Sikeqinya?" Aini asked.

"Of course not! Would I be blabbing for nothing if that were true?" Saleen scoffed.

"Well…in that case… we're going to need money!" Aini said as he quickly did up the math. He had invested nearly all his assets into Saleen's new city. Not only had he brought five hundred swordsmen over, but he had also provided copious quantities of building materials as well as grains, seeds, medicine, and so on. Once Saleen's city was up and running, the worth of all those items would multiply. The problem was that all these purchases had put a strain on his finances. Setting up a stronghold over at Deep Forest Town would exacerbate that strain.

"I can fork out a portion of the money," Saleen replied cheekily.

"But that is my family business you're talking about! You want a piece of that too?" Aini protested.

"I intend to buy this small town for now. If this place is our ticket to the fastest path to Sikeqinya, then the worth of this place can't be measured in monetary terms alone," Saleen explained.

Aini was alarmed by Saleen's words. Buying a small town would cost a fortune! Moreover, this town belonged to the Grand Duke of Phoenix. Even if the rumors about how incapable and weak the new grand duke was were true, Aini was certain that the grand duke would not give up a city just like that.

"Do you think I'm crazy to be thinking of buying an entire city? It's actually not as complicated as you think. We can construct a small city to the north of the Phoenix Duchy. Then, we'll send a soldier carrying our flag to see the grand duke. Surely, he'll yield then. Phoenix has never been threatened by anyone from the north. Those noblemen have been living peacefully for over a thousand years… surely they would have forgotten how to fight by now. The only reason why they even managed to subdue those black mages in the first place was because of all the backing provided by Bitter Water Prefecture. Phoenix has tens of thousands of people in their army, but those tens of thousands of people only managed to capture a few black mages on their own? Ridiculous!" Saleen said.

As Saleen spoke animatedly, he realized then that he had truly come across too many of these situations to have the same viewpoint as Aini on these issues. If Saleen had told Lex about buying Deep Forest Town, Lex would have immediately asked him about how he was going to go about remodelling it, or something similar to that. She would not even have cared about the opinions of the Grand Duke of Phoenix.

Why would anyone want to wait to seize control over a duchy as weak as Phoenix?

If the Grand Duke of Phoenix was not as compliant as Saleen hoped he would be, building a city over to the north could anger the grand duke enough to expand Phoenix's territory north to counter the pressure brought about by Bitter Water Prefecture's forces.

Lex did not even have to go to such lengths to evoke the ire of the grand duke. Building a city on the ten-thousand-mile plot of land that no duchy or country had dared to even touch was already as insulting as spitting directly on the grand duke's face.

"Is Lex going to be the Empress of Phoenix or not?" Aini joked, hoping to ease the blow of Saleen's sudden announcement.

"She probably hasn't thought about it yet. But it will not be up to her anymore, at least in the future," Saleen replied, his tone too serious for Aini's liking.

Stunned, Aini thought about what Saleen had said before finally understanding what the grade-5 mage meant. Right now, Lex was going to focus on defeating the Holy See as well as accumulating her wealth. The day that Lex actually managed to overthrow the Holy See would also be the day when she had enough capital to build an entire empire. She would not have a choice of reject the role of empress then. The people under her command would not accept anyone else as their leader.

Not all those who stuck with their leader through thick and thin did so out of loyalty. There had to be some sort of incentive in order for noblemen to even consider pledging their loyalty to someone. The prospect of Lex becoming an empress alone would cause hoards of noblemen to do just that.

Although all these things might have sounded unrealistic, the commotion over on the mainland had already struck fear and panic into the hearts of some select wise noblemen. There were no signs that the war over at Loulan was going to die down anytime soon. Bitter Water Prefecture seemed to have lost the majority of its control over Loulan, and that alone would invite much speculation. If Lex proved herself to be part of the stronger team, she would not even have to put in any effort to entice the noblemen into pledging their loyalty to her. They would do so willingly.

Technically, Lex was neither rebelling nor revolting. The reason why Prince Safilos was so unwilling to become an emperor himself was due to his fear that doing so would invite protest and unhappiness amongst the noblemen living there. Even after Chanake the Great had passed away long ago, Prince Safilos had held no intentions of becoming the emperor. After all, Chanake's son and daughter were still around, and the son had already chased Lex out of Bitter Water Prefecture. If Chanake's son were to be removed from his position, the entire empire would be sink into chaos.

Lex was the second heir to the throne of the Qin Empire. If her younger brother died without leaving behind any offspring, she would be the one to sit on the throne instead of Safilos. What bothered Safilos the most was that even if the royal mages claimed that they were not interfering with the politics of the country, they would, in one way or another, support anyone of Chanake blood until the day they died.

The royal mages over in the Qin Empire had always been mysterious, to the extent that it was not an exaggeration for outsiders to say that they did not have a single clue about their movements or operations. However, Safilos was an exception. If he were to rebel, Bitter Water Prefecture would not be standing for long. Lex would have to rebuild the city from scratch.

The current emperor, who was also Lex's younger brother, had been plagued with many illnesses since he was young. Thus, he had always been cared for by the royal mages. If Safilos were to kill him, these royal mages would not hesitate to finish him off. Politically speaking, royal mages did not care about how killing off Safilos would affect the empire as a whole. Not a single hair on the emperor was to be harmed. They were emotionally-oriented, and would not sit back and watch the person that they had cared for and bonded with be killed off just like that.

These nitty-gritty details were things that Aini had to ponder over carefully before he even had a vague understanding of them. For Saleen, he had learned all of these things through being with Lex all the time. Even if he was not a nobleman by blood, he already knew what was to be expected of a nobleman.

The good thing was that learning magic seemed to help Saleen understand everything that was happening. Many mages who were as powerful as Saleen only had their horizons broadened when they explored the world. Most real-world happenings could not be learned through textbooks alone.

"Oh Saleen, you've changed so much!" Aini exclaimed in awe. Saleen and Aini had pretty similar beginnings, yet the former was about to become someone very important, so important that there could be a historical book dedicated to his achievements. Although Aini did not fancy all the fighting and scheming involved, he knew that he could only become more powerful and knowledgeable through fighting and being calculating.

A successful mage was built from a pool of resources, even if they were not his or hers. Aini had been aware of this fact for a long time.