Badge in Azure

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

Saleen has never felt so determined before. Back then, when he was still a grade-1 mage, he already dared to enter the Chaotic Swamp. After he became a grade-8 sorcerer and the number of equipment he possessed was much envied by all other mages, was there reason why he could not explore the ancient cemetery on his own?

Although danger was not new to him, like his teacher, he has never chosen to go into danger of his own will before. All the dangers that he had experienced thus far were due to his circumstances, where he did not have a choice.

That time around, he would put himself through something all mages must do, face the dangerous world on his own in the abyss. There would be no subordinates, no followers, and no help. He could only depend on himself and his spells.

Saleen suddenly understood why his teacher was so powerful. His power came from his mindset of never backing off from anything, and instead doing what needed to be done one thing at a time. This was what a mage should be like, the pride of humans.

Saleen felt much more comfortable leaving Nailisi behind. He lifted his water shield slowly to form a magic shield that was fusiform-shaped. Saleen began to go through the magic knowledge that he had learned all that while. The transformation of the six major elements, the balance of energies, the control of souls, the lightning rule…

The energy of the water shield was gradually balanced due to the rich amount of elements in the abyss. Blue electric currents finally appeared on the surface of the water shield. That was something that Saleen had always dreamed of.

The electric current only appeared for a moment before vanishing. Saleen did not mind, since that was a new technique that he had just learned. Besides, it would be even better if the electric currents appeared only when he was defending himself in a fight against an enemy. If they appeared all the time, Saleen would not be able to handle the drain of mental strength.

Ground elements softened on the exterior of the water shield. They showed no signs of solidifying into rocks and it was as if the ground elements had mixed and reacted with the water elements so that the shield, which was made of water elements, had become more resilient. Saleen even sensed that the defense abilities of the water shield had surpassed grade-9, yet the amount of energy required was only equivalent to a grade-6 spell.

That was not an illusion. It was because the amount of ground elements there were so rich that Saleen did not have to use up much magic chords. Once he had activated the water shield, he only had to maintain it with his mental strength.

Once the fusiform-shaped water shield was formed, Saleen felt more relieved. The gravitational force of the abyss was no longer so terrifying. Instead, Saleen had even made use of the power of the land to life up his water shield.

Saleen's speed increased instantaneously and he was moving as quickly as a single-horned white whale.

His powers remained the same as he was still a grade-8 sorcerer, but he had managed to fully utilize the forces around him and turned his obstacles into advantages. Saleen's understanding of the Figaro Magic Formula and Dante's Sequence had also deepened. The power of elements might not necessarily be manipulated only with mental strength nor initiated only with magic chords.

His own water-elemental body already had the ability to resonate with the surrounding water elements! No wonder he was using up less magic chords!

The magic beast skeletons on the exterior were only about thirty miles wide. The magic beasts died there without even having the chance to enter the cemetery. The deeper he went, the bigger the skeletons.

At thirty miles away, Saleen began to circle and observe the city wall that had collapsed. The city wall was still one-hundred yards tall despite its collapse. Saleen floated upwards until he reached a height of about five-hundred yards. That was when he could see the interior of the city wall with his elemental eyes.

Saleen could use his elemental eyes for more than six hours, which meant that he could almost use it any time he wanted. Other grade-9 sorcerers would only able to use that grade-9 technique for only about half an hour.

Saleen's elemental eyes could not see the end of the city. He only saw that huge building that had collapsed, and plenty of plazas that were covered with magic arrays.

The city was more than seven miles in diameter. Saleen could not see the end of the city wall on both sides. In that case, the city might be as wide as three-hundred to five-hundred miles.

How much manpower was used in order to construct such a massive city under water? Saleen taken more than a year's time to construct Metatrin City, which was only eight miles long and six miles wide. In the end, he had to resort to relying on the Three Kings to summon many spirits of the dead to help him complete the construction of the city.

There were quite a number of stone statue soldiers in the city, which eliminated Saleen's plan of trying to sneak in. The stone statue soldiers were less than eight-hundred yards from the city wall and the range in which they could detect intruders was at least be a mile.

Saleen circled the city wall patiently and observed from a distance. He approached very gradually, and when he was finally about one-thousand yards above the city wall, he tried to get within ten miles.

Ten miles, eight miles, six miles!

When Saleen had reached six miles, a flood of ground elements came straight at him from within the collapsed city wall. Even though the city wall had been so badly damaged, it still possessed powerful defense and attack abilities!

An attacking range of six miles was not considered too formidable compared to Metatrin City, whose magic catapults possessed an attacking range of more than ten miles. That was a pure magic attack though, which was a flood made up of thousands of giant rocks of ground elements.

The attack was so powerful that even an ancient giant would turn into minced meat, much less Saleen.

If this was just a pure elemental attack, Saleen would not hesitate to absorb it with his clan badge. However, the attack was made up of thousands of giant stones. His clan badge would only work after he had been completely buried by the stones.

Elemental spells that were accompanied with physical attacks were the hardest to defend against. Tens of bubbles began to expand on the exterior of Saleen's water shield while two grade-9 spells were unleashed from his magic robe at the same time.

They were Phantom Flurry and Roar of a Fire Spirit.

Phantom Flurry had advanced to grade-9, so it was able to produce thirty-six images. Once the images appeared, the flood of giant stones began to branch out in order to attack every single image.

Roar of a Fire Spirit created a grade-9 creature of fire element and what creature that was would purely be left to chance. By right, it should be impossible to create fire-element creatures in the deep sea, but Saleen's magic was able to transform water elements into fire elements.

A fire-element giant ape that was more than thirty yards tall appeared behind Saleen. The core of the giant ape was a cluster of white energy of water elements. The water elements evaporated before burning fiercely and forming a giant fire ape.

The fire ape leapt towards the flood of elements. It swung its fists and smashed the giant rocks into pieces. Just like that, it stopped the rush of ground elements. After the thirty-six images forced the attack from the city to diverge, the fire ape stood in front of Saleen and was able to block all the giant rocks from flying past its body, until it used up all of its energy and finally dissipated amongst the water.

Saleen did not retreat. Instead, he quickly charged forward from the position that was being attacked by the elemental flood. Saleen was able to cover the distance of six miles within three minutes. The number of stone statue soldiers outside of the city wall was few and far between. Saleen hid in a corner of the collapsed city wall as he tried to recall what he had seen in the city.

Two-hundred yards to the left was a stone statue soldier and there was another one six-hundred yards to the right. If he was to jump over the city wall, the stone statue soldier on the left would reach him so quickly that he would only have less than half a minute to escape. He guessed that more than half of the magic arrays in the city were no longer working. As for those that were still functioning, their attacking abilities were no longer the same as what they were initially and were probably only at about one percent of their full power.

Even so, Saleen would not be able to repel a second wave of attack. He might only be a grade-8 sorcerer, but the seals on his devil suit had already reached grade-9. After using those spells just, it would take six hours before they were fully recharged again.

Saleen could still use the Vacuum Imprisonment spell, Frost and Snow magic pattern, and Endless Night one more time each. The Vacuum Imprisonment spell was a single-target magic spell, Frost and Snow magic pattern was a boosting spell, and Endless Night was a spell that targeted creatures.

There were another three grade-9 spells in the wooden sword and Saleen could still unleash darkness shield, but those would not be able to defend against the attacks from the magic arrays in the city.

What to do, what to do!

Saleen's guess was correct. Indeed, there were problems with the defense magic arrays in the city and they could no longer function like they had tens of thousands of years ago. Therefore, after the elemental flood, the location where the spell was unleashed was actually the safest. Broken magic arrays usually had intervals between each attack and those intervals were usually very long.

The problem was that Saleen was directly below the city wall with no stone statue soldiers on his left or right, but there was still no way to enter the city.

Saleen recalled all the magic spells that he possessed and realized that none of them could be used against grade-9 elemental creatures. To put it more accurately, he could not handle tens or even hundreds of elemental creatures.

The only way was to figure out how to defeat the leader of the stone statue soldiers so that he could enter the city safely. The leader of the grade-9 stone statue soldiers could very well be a grade-10 creature.

Saleen felt a little helpless, but nevertheless, he took out the Witcher Spider. The Witcher Spider was a little useless to him by then. Saleen's enemies were getting more and more powerful while the Witcher Spider was most useful for sneaking up on Professionals that were grade-7 and below.

Saleen changed the Witcher Spider's magic nucleus into a grade-9 one and allowed it to begin to dig a hole in the city wall. As for Saleen, he unleashed the water currents in the Shenhe and began to dig a hole in the ground.

The ground there was made of solid hard rocks. The rocks were much harder than the white rocks in Metatrin City. The rocks were so hard because of the unique environment of the abyss. If they were placed anywhere else, they would be of similar characteristics and hardiness as steel rocks.

Saleen began to dig a hole in the ground. Back in the ancient times, there would be plenty of magic arrays below the ground and he would not able to dig through them. In current times the magic arrays were no longer functioning, Saleen's water currents effortlessly dug out a hole in the ground that was more than a yard in diameter.

The hole that the Witcher Spider had dug out was not small either. Saleen patted the Shenhe and the water puppet appeared.

"You will go on top while I will go below. We will enter the city." Saleen pointed at the hole in the city wall and communicated with the water puppet through a mental exchange.