Badge in Azure

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

Saleen knew that he had to do something in order to convince Isabella. Both of the abilities he possessed that could achieve this objective were lethal. Saleen did not have full control over crystal finger and the clan badge, but once he used either of these two abilities his opponent was as good as dead.

Isabella replied cautiously, "My Lord, you are already such a powerful mage. Needless to say, one can reach the end of life without even a glance of the top. It is the same for swordsmanship. Training with the sword aura will place both swordsmen and mages on the same path of progressing without an end in sight. Sorcerers and grand swordmasters are the ultimate entities in this world. One will not be able to reach the top on those two paths at the same time even if there were limitations of the rules. The only possibility is if this person is a genius."

"Are you saying that only very few people will be able to pick up this ability?"

"Fewer than those who can become Caucasus priestess'." Isabella knew that she had to be accurate in whatever she said. The chances of a person becoming the most powerful in both magic and swordsmanship was less than one in one-million.

Saleen pondered for a while before saying to Isabella, "It may not be realistic for all swordsmen to become mages, but it may be possible for all mages to possess a bit of swordsmen's abilities. When a mage possesses a bit of sword aura, his physique will improve drastically. The problem for most mages now is that they cannot even ride fast on their horses. I will not expect mages to become grand swordmasters, but they should at least improve their physiques. Will you be able to do that?"

"It is worth a try. There is nothing to lose anyway. The mages that do not wish to waste their time can choose not to learn. In my opinion, many of them will not even be able to advance to grand mages and will never amount to much in magic. For this group of people, if they can pick up sword aura, their fighting abilities will definitely improve."

"That is easy for you to say. Many of those that are working for me all belong to Lex. I don't have the right to decide their future," Saleen said.

"Then I have no other ideas. I cannot make any judgments on such things. One will know the results if they have learned from me for a period of time."

"Don't you have something like magic books?"

Isabella was shocked at first, but regained her composure quickly. Saleen had asked her if there were any techniques that had been recorded down so that it was easier for people to follow and learn. Indeed, there were such methods that were similar to magic books. Their importance to swordsmen far surpassed that of magic books to mages.

Since she was a mage, personally passing on this technique to others would do nothing to help her own training. Saleen was direct in asking for it because he was thinking like a mage.

Saleen had promised earlier that he would help her become a grade-9 sorcerer within ten years. Although Isabella did not believe him entirely, she should still be dedicating all her time and effort to training magic by following Saleen every day instead of training up magic swordsmen.

Her life would be prolonged if she advanced into a sorcerer. If she advanced to grade-9 within the next ten years, she would still have another one-thousand or more years to live. That was more valuable than any books.

There was a proverb amongst mages; one must be willing to pay an equal price for what one desires.

Compared to the attractiveness of becoming a grade-9 sorcerer, the passing down of the magic swordsmen technique no longer seemed important. If this was a deal, she would have gotten the better end of it.

After seeing Saleen's temple, Isabella knew that Saleen did not intend to gain anything from her. Such a huge building that was similar to a magic tower was not something she would be able to afford even if she robbed for an entire lifetime. She took out a book from her spatial ring. The materials of this book were rather strange. Saleen could tell from his elemental eyes that this ancient book was made from paper and not from animal skin or other materials of better qualities.

These papers harnessed different types of energies, many of them still unknown to Saleen. These energies co-existed harmoniously and protected the book well. Its cover was still new even though it looked like it should be older than ten-thousand years.

Saleen was not interested in learning swordsmanship. He was pleasantly surprised by the rules harnessed by the cover of this book. Without his elemental eyes, he would not have discovered something so minute and would have lost this great opportunity.

With the book in his hands, Saleen tried his best to calm himself down and said to Isabella, "Ask Nailisi to find you a room. Have a good rest and we will talk more tomorrow."

Isabella thought that Saleen wanted to read through the book on his own first and maybe pick up some swordsmanship techniques. She never expected that the covers of the book concealed such an important secret.

Saleen did not even bother opening up the book. Once Isabella left, Saleen immediately studied the rules on the covers.

Rules were an area that a grade-6 mage would not be able to touch on. Saleen had experienced the loosening of bonds before. The rules in this book were presented in a way that balanced energies, but there were also traces to be observed in Saleen's eyes.

The power harnessed by these rules was not great, but could last for a long time and protect the book from decaying.

Saleen did not dream of grasping this rule, but he could observe the way it functioned and hopefully gain a deeper understanding of the world through it.

Mages existed in order to understand the truth of the world.

This was a motto acknowledged by all mages. Saleen had seen the magic notes of Rafael and Joey before and knew that when a mage was about to advance to grade-10, he would begin to understand some simple rules.

Saleen had never seen so many energies co-exist so harmoniously together before. The cover of this book was dark blue in color and its material resembled that of magic papers that could remain unspoiled for a few hundred years. There was no word on the cover of the book. It was very clean, but by the looks of how it was made, it should be twenty-thousand years old at least.

Saleen held the book in his hands and was engrossed in it. His elemental eyes began to be able to see the traces of movement of each individual energy. Within the cover of this book that measured a foot long, there were more than ten-thousand paths of energies that were flowing, intersecting, spinning, and connecting. There were no signs of any annihilation.

Just like that, Saleen stared at the book cover until dawn broke. Suddenly, he developed an illusion. The arrangement of these energies was formed unintentionally and their movements were triggered by three cores. These three cores formed three square-shaped letter symbols.

No, actually, it was because of these three square-shaped letter symbols that the energies in the book cover could be balanced in this way.

Could this technique have been recorded by the Gods? It was said that only Gods could express rules through letters.

Saleen finally understood a bit, but this only made him realize how little he understood about such rules. The three letter symbols expressed a type of rule. To a mage, this was an incredibly difficult problem to figure out.

A language might only consist of thirty or so letters. Once ancient letters and magic words were involved, there would be at least a few thousand characters and more than ten-thousand different combinations.

Saleen did not recognize any of the three letter symbols and they were very different from all the words he knew. This language system must be very developed since there were at least ten-thousand basic characters. Based on the magic words, similar words would be able to completely and accurately express the entire contents of the world.

A door seemed to have opened to Saleen, but what he could see was only the tip of the iceberg. Unless he could successfully learn such words, he would never truly understand how these rules, that that have been formed by words, functioned.

Even so, the rewards from one entire night of observation were huge. No one would be able to detect the minute changes of rules at grade-6. It did not matter that he could not understand the theory at this stage. When he reached grade-10, he would naturally develop new understandings.

Saleen kept the book. He held little hope of understanding the three letter symbols hidden in it. It was by chance that he saw them and Saleen already felt content. He went to the window and saw that the sun had already risen. A few stars were so bright that they could still be seen in the sky.

When the sun set, the stars that have been outshone by the sunlight would gradually appear. They had actually always been there.

There was a sense of realization in Saleen's heart. Once his abilities had reached a higher level, he was sure that he would be able to see even more.

"Master, Sister Sika is here," Nailisi's voice rang from outside the door.

"Got it." Saleen has spent the entire night in the room and did not return to his own bedroom. Usually, when Sika was trying to find Saleen, she would go to either the alchemy lab or his bedroom. She would never come to this place.

When Saleen saw Sika lying on his bed and reading a book, he felt that this was the perfect beginning to a day. Sika was not wearing her armor. It was instead hidden under her belt. Her flaxen-colored gown was opened and revealed her snow-white legs. Her legs were slightly bent and it was a sight to behold.

"Come over here, I have something to discuss with you," Sika waved to Saleen.

Saleen kicked off his shoes and jumped onto the bed. At this moment, he was not at all a stable and mature mage.

Seeing how passionate Saleen was, Sika put off what she had wanted to say and hugged Saleen tightly. Saleen's bones almost broke and he was in pain everywhere.

"Sika!"

"Ah, did I become stronger again?" Sika quickly let go. After becoming an Earth Priestess, her strength has been increasing. Even if she did not utilize the strength of the Earth, a normal person would not be able to endure even a light touch from her.

"Forget it. Sika, what is that you want to talk about? Why do you return to South Court all the time recently?" Saleen's desire completely died. He cast himself with Chunlin spell to ease his pain.

"The thing is, there is now more than one-hundred-thousand Caucasus people who have pledged their allegiances to me. I want to know what kind of status you intend to give to my army." Sika said seriously.

It was a legitimate question. The patrolling around the temple had been conducted by Caucasus warriors, South Court had opened another avenue to specially provide for the elders in the Caucasus villages and Saleen had given the Caucasus people another piece of land in the south of the city. What status and power do the Caucasus people possess in the Metatrin Kingdom?

As a priestess, this was a question she had to consider.