Badge in Azure

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

Nailisi and the winged skeleton grabbed onto Saleen's devil's armor. The devil's armor had plates on it as well as thorns sticking out of it. It did not seem to have anything to do with the mage wearing it. Nailisi's and the Winged Skull's hands grabbed onto one thorn each.

Saleen felt his legs give immediately after taking on the key before he was able to do anything. He quickly found himself among the stars. Nailisi and Soldier were both nowhere to be found. Saleen was frightened for a brief moment, then found himself in a huge room in an instant.

The starlit sky seemed to be little more than an illusion.

Saleen was unable to figure out how the astrologers were able to get him where he was then. His experience told him that it was not all that different from going through a teleportation portal. It seemed that no matter how great the difference between some skills was, some things did still share commonalities between them.

The layout of the room suggested that the place was a study, as it was filled with bookshelves. Large amounts of books were found on them as well. There was a large study table near the window, with a variety of ores on it instead.

The ores contained immense concentrations of constellation power. Saleen walked up to the table and searched among the ores on top of the table, finding none that he was familiar with.

He found a ring among the ores, which seemed to be made of translucent material. It shone with a pale hint of starlight, seemingly housing stars in the billions. Saleen focused his mental powers to look deeper but was unable to find out anything other than the ring being a spatial equipment.

He had no lack of spatial equipment himself, but still, as spatial equipment was still a precious and expensive type of gear. Saleen put it on his finger nonetheless.

Saleen did not set out to look for Nailisi and the winged skeleton immediately. The powers within the astrology tower were not something he would have been able to deal with. From the looks of things, not even the likes of the great grandmaster would have been able to do as they wished here, let alone Saleen himself.

He walked up to the shelves and took books down, attempting to read them. He, however, found that the script used for writing those books looked exactly like the ones he saw in the Star Gathering Needle. They also looked very similar to the Ancient Myers language, yet seemed to differ still. Regardless, Saleen determined that he was unable to make sense of what was written in the books.

The books were all made using starline paper. Saleen had only realized that starline paper was no high-class commodity back in ancient times. Saleen pondered for a while and determined that regardless of if he was able to read all of them, he would never again step foot in there easily. As such, he stuffed all the books on the shelves as well as the ores into a dimension stone. Saleen only realized then that the even people of the levels of the great grandmaster were unable to easily find out what was stored in dimension stones.

Saleen was thorough with his plundering. Even shelves, tables, and chairs were all moved into dimension stones. That place was unlike interdimensional spaces. Even if he was able to come again, he had no guarantee that he would be able to enter the same room.

It was only after bagging everything in the study, that Saleen pushed the door of the study open. Another even larger room laid beyond. Within it, a gray-haired man was smiling at Saleen.

Saleen's senses were entirely unable to detect the presence of someone else being in the room prior. Seeing the elder in front of him, Saleen lit up a ball of orange flames on his fingertip. The flames were conjured using elemental conversion, which flew at the elder after being flicked off.

The elder waved, and the ball of orange flames landed on his hand. The elder then rubbed it. The flames disappeared, and several orange butterflies took its place. The elder then spread out his hands, and the butterflies conjured from the flames flew right through the crystal window, disappearing in the seawater outside.

The elder moved gracefully, natural and pure, just like a boy who happened to be taking a leisurely walk in a garden.

Saleen felt rather embarrassed, as he took a step back and put his hands down.

The elder wore a long white robe, which seemed to be made of silk, yet looking even smoother and more intricate. Saleen had not seen so many star charts in one object before.

The elder took a look at the ring on Saleen's finger, and asked with a smile, "So you like my constellation ring?"

Saleen felt incredibly awkward, as he had gone about plundering the entire room because he did not know there was someone else in the next room. If the elder went over to check on the adjacent room, he would have found that everything in the room was bagged by Saleen. Being caught red-handed as a thief was not a pleasant experience, which was worsened by the fact that Saleen saw himself as a mage, not a thief.

"What is with that expression, little one? So, is it to say that you took everything away from that room? Mages do indeed have one flaw. Too greedy, plundering wherever they go." He sighed

"Plundering wherever they go?" Saleen was rather dumbfounded by the elder's words. Mages held on to the principle of equivalent exchange. Even if they were to face a peasant, they would not simply rob the other party. When his teacher showed up at his door all those years ago, his teacher bought his house using gold coins and at market price.

His teacher was a grade-5 grand mage back then, and he was merely a beggar. As such, he always had the impression that mages were professionals who valued fairness.

"Is that not the case? It is hardly just mages though. Mages are simply egged on by others. Warriors, royals, and foreign races. Who wouldn't want to conquer multiple planes? Why would such conquest happen? For profit, of course," the elder elaborated with a sigh.

Saleen had only realized then that the elder was talking about what took place all those ages ago. Their words rang true. Gods were greedy, but so were humans. In humanity's war against the gods, the armies of humanity had razed and scorched many planes, and countless races went extinct as a result.

Mages in those days were indeed vicious plunderers. The notion of fairness held by mages was limited only between humans. At the very least, mages never bothered about principles like equivalent exchange when they went killing magic beasts for their magic nuclei.

"Would a mage trade with magic beasts through talking? Say, can you give me your magic nucleus? I will also need your hide. They can sell for four-hundred gold coins after all. If you agree, I will make you a grave afterward…"

"Don't be awkward, little mage. I'm not all that different myself. You will only realize that these things are pointless when you are dead. Yes, I mean to say I'm not a living person. Simply a figure with a soul."

The elder said with a smile. Saleen had only notice by then that while the elder was breathing and had a heartbeat, the fluid circulating under their skin was not blood, but concentrated constellation power. If the elder had not bothered mentioning it, Saleen would have thought the elder to be a human who had lived hundreds of thousands of years.

"Sir…"

"Don't bother with my name, little mage. I was able to survive the calamity thanks to having crafted myself into a figure. I don't dare face my old comrades. My name is not something I would ever want others to know."

"Where are your comrades then?"

"Most died. You have been to the Cemetery of Heroes, no? They all rest there. Well, some went for other planes, and are still fighting the gods. Some, went on to find higher planes, just so that they were able to live on."

"What happened all those years before?" Saleen was unable to deduce the details of what took place in the words of the elder and the souls, but he knew enough to tell that humanity was unable to obliterate the gods and was unable to become the ruling race of any plane. The humans on the plane of the Myers Mainland had even lost the knowledge of the past.

"Back then…back then professionals among humanity went too far, and there was no way back to the primary plane. They opened world passages of even higher levels. The gods took back all those planes that humanity conquered. Humanity had only then considered building great dynasties to pool their resources and power to fight the gods."

"What happened after that?"

"After that many races across many planes were slaughtered by the gods as the human professionals departed, and they developed a deep-seated grudge. They were all faithful back then, yet when disaster came to their doorsteps, humanity failed to help them. Only a few strong races remained aligned with humanity. The rest betrayed us. They chose to become adherents of the gods."

"What?! Was this something that happened back in the first dynasty?" Saleen was able to tell from the elder's words that all that did not tally with the history he knew.

"First dynasty?"

"The dynasty that unified the mainland and stayed around for maybe ten-thousand or twenty-thousand years. It was said that the first dynasty went to war with the gods and conquered a lot of planes. Now humans are no longer able to remember what happened back then."

"That was what happened afterward. So, they unified the mainland and built a dynasty eh?" the elder frowned. The pores on his face were clear for all to see, making him have an uncanny resemblance to a living human.

Saleen wondered, "Just what is the level of a figure like that would be? If this thing could become my own weapon…"

The elder went silent for a moment, then spoke out of the blue. "Little mage, you are thinking about controlling your own destiny, am I correct?"

"You are an astrologer, and I'm a mage." Saleen did not give a straight answer.

"Mages. You all are too pompous, thinking you can have control over fate. Yet you fail to see that having power alone is far from enough. Astrologers already know what the highest rules in existence are. If you were to learn astrology, you would be more than capable of controlling your own destiny; you would become the most powerful of the professionals in this world."

"Highest rules?" Saleen chuckled for a moment. As a mage, he did not care for anything with a title such as "highest" in its description. In a mage's perspective, the day where all the secrets of the world were known and could be manipulated would never come. There was also no end to knowledge. Saleen disagreed wholeheartedly with the elder's opinion about mages being pompous.

"At least those that worked true to all the planes in this world. The highest rules, rules at level twenty-four." The elder did not mind Saleen's expressions, as even back in his time, there was hardly anyone who believed such things.

"What would I need to do as a payment?" Saleen was not able to help but ask. Grade-24 rules…. that was at least something of the highest level in the system of knowledge he was familiar with.

"Give up magic and devote yourself to be a pure astrologer."

"No way," Saleen refused outright.

"Little mage, the power of magic is not all that different from that of astrology."

"It is. When I almost starved to death, it was my teacher who helped me. Even if I were to die, I would never give up being a mage. I'm sorry, but I'm indeed in control of my destiny. My destiny lies within magic."

"How will you be able to control your own destiny without having the highest level of power in your hands?"

"The way you put it, is it to say that there can be only one person who can be in control of their own destiny, while everyone else lives an existence like ants?"

The elder was rendered silent. Saleen's question was a rhetorical one, and that left him with no way to rebuke. If he were to do so, it would have meant that one could have been in control of one's own destiny without needing mastery of the highest rules.

"Sir, I may like to learn the power of astrology, but I will always be a mage." Saleen took off the constellation ring in his hand and laid it on the floor, then stood with his hands by his side. He was making himself very clear: if the elder insisted on having him give up his identity as a mage, there was to be no deal.