Badge in Azure

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

Very soon, the news of the bandits' battering ram reached Sharman.

"Sister Narnia, what do you think is going on?" After the issue of Sharman's goods had been resolved, she became more relaxed. With the increase in the number of bandits on top of the battering ram, she could not help but ask this out of concern.

Although Sharman was smart, she was still too young and subconsciously still felt that Lex's mage must be stronger than Saleen, so she asked Narnia instead of him.

The Rolande family specialized in selling weapons, but they had yet to have the guts to start selling battering rams.

All battering rams were created by the royal family, so no noble families had the authority to possess them. During wartime, the royal family would distribute the battering rams to various noble families depending on situations.

Simply put, the battering ram was basically a rail vehicle operated on spells that could charge forward with great speed and knock down the city gate. Once the gate had collapsed, the ram would open itself up automatically to form an arch bridge for the soldiers to charge into the city.

The caravan's campsite had only been fortified with a few rows of wooden walls and metal poles and was in no way comparable to the standard of Lex's campsites. Even without the battering ram, the heavy-armored knights riding on metal-armored giant lizards would also have been able to break through. The ground here was flat so the enemy would only need a low-level mage to turn on the battering ram then use the large number of men to their advantage to charge into the gap. Even if the caravan was able to seal up the gap, the other heavy-armored knights would be able to find ways to break down the walls at other spots.

"That ram is not meant to deal with us," Saleen said with utmost certainty. "Have you heard of anyone using battering rams to attack the campsites of caravans? I think they brought this along to attack the city."

"Attack the city!" Now Sharman really felt uneasy. Now matter how strong a bandit gang was, there was no way they could match up against an army so attacking a city was basically courting death. Unless they were backed up by an enemy country that was planning to invade Qin. The Tanggulasi army was still engaged at Luolan and there have not been any news that they were planning to attack Qin.

"It is not just Qin. There are roads leading to Laiyin Duchy too. Perhaps the Sikeqinyans have finally decided to try and take advantage of the situation."

"No way, unless Sikeqinya plans to form an alliance with Tanngulasi empire…" Narnia was Lex's subordinate after all, so she could catch Saleen's drift immediately.

"Why not? They could support the mercenaries of Laiyin Duchy in secret and attack Phoenix. I think the Sikeqinyans want to capture Phoenix. For the past two years, Phoenix has not been in good shape and will not be able to defend itself."

"Aren't there Qin army troops?" Sharman did not like what she was hearing and questioned Saleen back.

"The majority of the Qin army has already returned to Guderian City. Now Phoenix's main forces constitute of troops that were newly recruited by the noble families that had stayed behind. Their forces are weak." Saleen explained slowly, not at all concerned about the enemy's battering ram.

"Even if they intend to use it to attack a city, what do we do now?" Sharman was nervous now. Saleen had a silver grand swordmaster by his side so he would have no problem fleeing. On the other hand, she would never be able to escape the thousands of bandits.

"Don't worry. I will destroy these bandits. Where is your aunt?"

"She is outside." Sharman did not understand why Saleen would want to know. Her aunt was an assassin. She was aware that it was extremely disrespectful for an assassin to enter a mage's room so she did not let her aunt in.

"Oh, please tell her that when the fight breaks out later, she should only target those that are injured. I will ensure your safety."

Sharman wanted to argue but stopped herself because of the way Saleen spoke with confidence and composure. Her aunt was older than her but lower in status compared to Sharman and her sister. A Zun grand swordmasters would always be lower in status than mages. In big families such as theirs, abilities were also important considerations in determining status aside from bloodline. Therefore, her aunt was responsible for her safety while she would be the one making decisions.

"Cuisi, take this. After Aini lures the enemy into the trap and they send forth their heavy-armored knights, that's your cue," Saleen instructed as he passed Cuisi a black-colored magic scroll.

Magic scrolls had three colors; white for low-level spells, gray for middle-level spells, and black for spells that were at least grade-7.

Cuisi could use scrolls like Nailisi and their limitations on the usage of scrolls were also similar. Saleen was now a grade-6 mage so due to the limitation, the highest grade of magic scroll that Cuisi could use was grade-7. Based on his own abilities, he could easily use even a grade-9 scroll otherwise.

Sharman was aware of the color coding of magic scrolls and what they meant. When she saw Saleen handing a high-level scroll for his servant to use without any hesitation, she was puzzled. "The servant named Cuisi can use high-level magic scrolls? Who is she?"

When Sharman let go of her pride and took a serious look at Saleen, she was certain of her judgement. Saleen must be the son of the Lord of Metatrin City, which would explain why he would have a grand mage and silver grand swordmaster by his side.

"Su, you will protect Aini and ensure his safety. The enemy may possess alchemy crossbows that are more powerful. He is not an element mage so he will be vulnerable to sneak attacks."

Su nodded with an unwilling heart. Before he had departed on this journey, Nailisi had pulled him aside and asked him to protect Saleen. It seemed that Saleen did not need his protection and had asked him to protect someone else instead.

"Nailisi…"

Su had feelings for her even though he guessed that she might be a demon. Nevertheless, it was not that uncommon for humans and demons to be together on the subcontinental plane. Unfortunately, Nailisi was Saleen's subordinate so he should not bear such thoughts. Su dismissed them and left with his sword drawn.

"Let your aunt in." Saleen changed his mind and decided to personally instruct Sharman's aunt on her role.

Sharman nodded and followed Saleen's arrangement without thinking too much. When the beautiful middle-aged lady entered the barrack, Saleen spoke to her directly, "I plan to destroy the enemy's heavy-armored knights so ask your men to step back first until I am finished. I will ensure Sharman's safety so you just focus on killing the bandit leaders that are injured."

Her face froze but then she saw a wink from Sharman. She immediately understood, bowed her head and said, "Yes, Lord mage."

She knew that her niece was extremely sharp and would never put herself in disadvantageous positions. Now that her niece was the leader of the caravan, she understood the hint and decided not go to against her and left the barrack.

"What do I do?" Sharman noticed that Saleen did not intend for her to play any role in the fight and felt uncomfortable. She was still a zun grand swordmaster after all. Based on her abilities, she should be able to lead a flag group in an army.

"Just wait here. We will have a chat," Saleen replied nonchalantly. He had no intentions of joining the fight. The enemy only had a grand mage at most. If even Aini and Su were not able to handle them, it would be useless even if he joined the fight. On top of that, he still had Cuisi. If Cuisi was forced into desperation, he could still revert back to his original form and become airborne. He would possess the abilities equivalent to a grade-7 sorcerer by then.

Saleen was laughing coldly in his heart. He was too naïve in the past. The chain of events that took place in the Myers Mainland dimension was not because of him. They could not have been stopped. There must still be something about the Goddess' fall that he was not aware about, or even about the fourth dynasty after that, where humans' strengths deteriorated drastically.

From what he had heard from Cuisi, the powers of the demon dimension had never changed, and neither had the elf dimension according to Eleanor. Although Ismail did not mention anything related, the God of the purgatory dimension must still be around, which meant that there had not been major changes. The death dimension had never been very strong, but the Three Kings that appeared amongst humans were already considered to be very formidable.

The Myers Mainland dimension was the only one that had deteriorated. This was a main dimension and its humans once went to war with Gods.

Now, the Myers Mainland was finally gaining back its powers. The number of sorcerers in Alchemy City were increasing, as with the mages in Sregl Island. Even without the six elements' space, humans' magic abilities were bound to improve by leaps and bounds within the next three-hundred to five-hundred years.

Now that humans had expanded their forces into the sea, large numbers of combat vessels had been manufactured to hunt for beasts in the sea. With that, the problem of the depleting supply of magic nuclei would soon be solved.

Being born in this era where the fate of humankind was on the brink of change, it would be too naïve to still hold onto the mindset that he was somehow special and at the center of these changes.

Saleen could not be sure if obtaining the seeds of the divine tree was an accident or because he was chosen by the Goddess. In any case, he should still adhere to the Goddess' suggestion to spread her faith. The Goddess' faith was also the Myers Mainland's source of power. It gradually became clear to Saleen that humans' abilities would strengthen as more of the Goddess' temples were reopened.

Eleanor's husband, the Marquis from Tanggulasi empire must have opened the temple and obtained mysterious strength. Unfortunately, he then tried to use it to seek fame and wealth from the Tanggulasi empire and now his whereabouts were still unknown.

Saleen had never thought about saving the world, but he also understood that he would have the chance to stand at the very top and become a respected figure amongst mages. In his possession were both seeds from the tree of life and tree of taboo. With these two seeds, he could even become a God if he really wanted to.

In order to possess the abilities of the very best and eternal life, everything would have to start now. He would build a kingdom and conquer the world.

Doing these things were usually considered boring by mages. Saleen needed to protect himself in order to grow the divine trees though. It was not enough just guarding Metatrin City. He would also need to destroy his enemies.

Since he was only a grade-6 mage, everything would have to start from basics. For now, he would have to kill off this bandit gang that was trying to invade Phoenix so that the men behind them would be forced to appear.

The corner of Saleen's mouth curled upwards. He was originally worried about not being able to find any reason to enter Phoenix. Now that the Sikeqinyans had set their sights on this place, if Qin could not handle the attacks from two empires, he would use his own forces to take down Phoenix. Surely Holy Rock City would not be upset if that happened.

In any case, Phoenix would still belong to Bitter Water Prefecture in name. What he would really be targeting was Sikeqinya.