Badge in Azure

Chapter 132: The Dangerous Forest (Part 1)

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

Without Saleen, Lex’s chances of surviving would not be reduced by a great deal. However, without Lex, it would be almost impossible for Saleen to survive. Furthermore, Saleen did not have any idea how to get back to the Myers Mainland.

Even if Lex were to chase Saleen away now, Saleen would still cling to her like a parasite. He needed to protect Sika, and Lex would want to make sure Holzer and Baimeng lived on.

The new Water Windspeed spell that Saleen had acquired would allow him to travel at fifty miles an hour. And with more practice, he would be able to travel at this speed on any terrain. If Nailisi carried Saleen and ran, their speed would certainly be faster, but Sika could not travel that fast. Even if Saleen blessed her with the Windspeed skill, Sika’s maximum speed could not be increased any further, and her speed would vary according to different terrain.

Sika was only a warrior. She would never be able to comprehend the secrets of the wind.

After eating dinner in silence, Holzer returned to his sentry position and used the alchemy binoculars to observe the forest for any movement while keeping the alchemy crossbow for protection. In wet environments, the usage life of this crossbow would be shortened, but making sure that everyone stayed alive was the top priority. That was why Holzer would use the alchemy crossbow like any other crossbow instead of holding back and preserving its ammo.

Baimeng resumed his work and used his dagger to skin the beasts. The skins of the magic beasts needed to undergo refinement before they could be used to produce scrolls. Their skins were superior to any other type of magic paper used for preserving magic. With over two hundred slabs of skin, three hundred high-level blank scrolls could be produced.

Lex was a Grade 5 mage, so she could only produce scrolls that were Grade 4 or below. If she tried to produce a Grade 5 scroll through force, the success rate would be less than twenty percent. Additionally, producing a Grade 5 scroll would drain too much of her mental power. Lex would not be able to take it, and she would only be able to produce one per day. Even if she were to produce ones that were Grade 4, she would only be able to make two to three of them in a day since she was in such a perilous environment.

As long as there were enough materials, they could realistically produce scrolls from these skins.

In Lex’s room, Saleen was using powdered magic medicine to tan the sterile beast skins while Lex brought out various magic materials, wanting to make a puppet.

There were many different types of puppets. The paper puppet that Walnut made was powered solely by his strength. It was used to gather intel and assassinate enemies over short distances. However, the materials that Lex had gathered were used to build a puppet which ignited wars.

The Qin Empire had many mages, and low-level mages who could not fly were not used to attack cities. That job would be left to magic trebuchets. Both the magic trebuchets and stone artillery were enormous in size. The purpose of war puppets was to support the movements of these machines, and at the same time, fight in combat.

A fully assembled war puppet would be over five meters tall, and a large quantity of magic nuclei was needed to power it. Such a huge puppet would not be able to move through the forest. Lex needed to modify it to make it closer to the size of a human. War puppets were perishables and were very expensive, so none of the empires were willing to use them to replace traditional soldiers.

In terms of combat power, a war puppet that was worth five hundred gold pieces might only possess the capabilities of a mid-level swordsman. Furthermore, they consumed magic nuclei, so the cost of using war puppets was too high.

Lex did not care about that right now. What she needed at this moment was cannon fodder. As long as there was something to die in place of her group, price was not an issue.

On the table was a simple alchemy magic array. Lex was arranging the skeletons of the beasts to build the structures of the war puppets. War puppets could not cast spells, but their internal operating systems were based on the principles of magic, so it was best to use less metal in their structures.

Saleen did not have much knowledge in puppetry. Puppetry contained contents from the six elements, and this was the case for low-level puppetry as well. However, Saleen understood the Figaro formula, so he could still assist Lex in building the internal structures of the puppets once the bones had been refined.

“Saleen, once we enter the forest, there is still a high chance we will lose our lives.” Refining the bones was an easy job, so Lex could still afford to chat with Saleen.

“Even if we make it through the forest safely, there may be other dangers ahead,” Saleen replied casually as he inserted magic medicine into one of the skins.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“There is nothing to be afraid of, since you will protect all of us,” Saleen replied matter-of-factly.

“I see that you have a puppet.”

“It is a witcher spider.” Saleen knew that there was nothing to hide. It would be best for them to understand each other’s capabilities since it would be beneficial for coordination in combat. If Lex wanted the witcher spider, Saleen would give it to her willingly.

“How many you can control? I mean, given that they don’t interfere with your ability to cast spells.”

“Three, mm, maybe four,” Saleen gave a conservative answer after a short analysis.

“Alright, then I will allocate three war puppets to you. Use them freely and don’t hold back. As long as all of us survive, it will not matter even if all of the puppets are destroyed.”

“If only you were Grade 6,” Saleen sighed. Within Grade 6, there was a certain Water Magic spell that could form a water puppet made up of water elements, and this puppet could engage in battle. The puppet would be as powerful as a Grade 6 mage. It was too bad that Lex was still at Grade 5 after a long period of time and she could only cast one Grade 6 spell for now. As a result, the water puppet would only be as powerful as a Grade 5 mage.

In truth, Saleen was wishing that he was Grade 6. He had transformed many Water Magic spells, so it would likely be the same case for the water puppet. Additionally, he had learned elemental conversion from Joey, so he could make the puppet look more like a human and have it possess magical powers as well. However, the road to advancement for Saleen was still far away. Becoming a Grade 6 mage was still an elusive point for him.

“If only you were a Grade 4 mage,” Lex sighed as well. If Saleen had been a mage master, the both of them could have combined their efforts and delivered many strong attacks. But Saleen had only just advanced to Grade 3, so she may as well have counted on her own advancement rather than pinning her hopes onto Saleen.

Saleen and Lex smiled wryly to each other. Even if they left this hell, their days ahead would be equally tough. The envoy of god had been struck by the backlash of god’s punishment, so he must have been dead already. For the one thousand years that the Holy See had existed, nobody with the rank of an envoy of god had been killed yet. The death of Genesis would spark a full blown war, and if Lex and Saleen did not become sorcerers, they would end up as small fry.

Communication between mages was simple. Once Lex had prepared an adequate amount of materials, she passed a drawing to Saleen. Saleen stopped tanning the beast skins and started to help Lex build the structures of the war puppets.

Lex then took out numerous pieces of magic armor and began to reconstruct them. The upper half of the war puppet was human, but its lower half had four limbs. In order for the puppet to wear the armor, the human armor needed to be modified.

After the two hundred odd beast skeletons were demolished and then refined, there were enough materials to build at least ten war puppets. When Saleen finished constructing the structures of the war puppets, his mental power was starting to become insufficient, and he himself was exhausted. He thought for a while before saying to Lex, “I need to meditate for a moment.”

Lex nodded, and Saleen climbed onto the bed and sat properly before clutching his clan badge in his hand. He then cast a Grade 0 spell. The magic chords Saleen now had were many times more than what he had when he was still a Grade 2 mage, but in less than a second, the clan badge still managed to drain all of those magic chords.

Various negative effects began to take place in the deepest depths of his soul. This was unavoidable, and Saleen had learned to withstand them. He kept his eyes open and observed Lex’s actions.

Lex closely observed the thirteen structures that Saleen had built. She discovered that Saleen had made some minute changes to the original structure shown on the drawing, and these had made the structure appear more logical. Even without the injection of magic, these hundreds of bones that had been combined together already gave off a feeling of life.

It seemed like Saleen had a deep comprehension of the Figaro formula, or else his mental power would not be depleted so quickly either.

Lex had an abundance of materials with her, but she did not have a suitable magic laboratory so she could only create low-level puppets. She had originally felt that these materials had been wasted on the puppets, but when she saw the adjustments that Saleen had made to their structures, she decided to remake the magic array she had been using for refinement after giving it some serious consideration.

Saleen sat quietly to the side and watched Lex make a new magic array. Lex focused all her attention onto it as though Saleen was not in the room. From the side, Saleen could see her long eyelashes, upright nose, and delicacy.

Under the light from the magic lamp in the room, Lex’s skin seemed to glow and gave off a hint of fragrance as well.

Saleen became a little distracted. It would be great if he was able to dedicate his life to the study of magic without all of this conflict and danger. Unfortunately, even a sorcerer could not decide their own destiny.

Saleen had no way of backing out now. His name would be on the Holy See’s blacklist by now, and he was a person that absolutely had to be killed. If Saleen had remained a Grade 1 mage, the Holy See might not have even cared about him. But once he became a mage master, the Holy See would regard him as a threat.

The event that had taken place in the Chaotic Swamp could not remain hidden forever. Sooner or later, Picasso would learn that Saleen had been the one to kill his men.

Saleen did not regret his actions. If he had not put up resistance back then, would the Holy See’s underlings would have treated him kindly? In the western region of the Tanggulasi Empire, there was an island in the sea. Rumor had it that the Holy See sent captured heretics to that island.

The judges would not necessarily sentence the heretics to death. The heretics could choose to repent on the island until they received a pardon from the glorious lord.

Repentance? Forgiveness?

Every mage would surely sneer when they heard those two words.

There was not a single noise in the entirety of the camp. Holzer manned the crossbow and stood there like a sculpture. Baimeng had finished separating the beast skins and bones, so he was now in a deep sleep. When a mid-level swordmaster slept, they did not make a single noise, and their breathing would be so soft that a person could not even hear it.

Sika hugged her cudgel and stood at the door in a daze. She could not help with affairs of magic, and Holzer and Baimeng were doing the sentry work. Thus, right now, she was full of energy, but she did not have a channel through which to use that energy.

Nailisi laid on top of the barracks. She squinted her eyes and twitched her nostrils, trying to pick up any dangerous vibes in the air. She liked this interdimensional space, as this space had the same air as the demonic realm. Also, the magic nuclei and blood in the magic beasts were very similar to the ones found in the demonic realm. Furthermore, the devils which she greatly feared were not found here, and the weather here was better than the irksome climate found in the demonic realm.