Badge in Azure

Chapter 1523: Frost (Part 2)

The intelligence of frost dragons was not inferior to humans until the human advanced to a certain level. A newborn dragon was more intelligent than an average human.

The frost dragon realized right away what it had done wrong. It was never caged in a cage of nature. The goddess never even bothered with it. It was but a level 15 dragon when it was first captured, and it was in that icy world, it had gradually advanced to level 17.

If the goddess had really wanted to imprison it, she never would have put it in an environment where it could advance.

She only thought of him as little more than an experiment!

The frost dragon got even angrier at that thought. The goddess never deemed the dragon to be of any importance. She simply chucked it there and left it to its devices. It had been making an imaginary enemy out of her throughout the years, imagining the day where it would advance to level 18. By then, it would have been able to break out of that space and kill that wretched god.

However, when it realized that it was just an experiment—the goddess caged in it an ordinary space just to see how a frost dragon would evolve—the frost dragon’s reason for being angry turned out to be rather ridiculous.

The frost dragon was never of any importance to the goddess whom it thought was its enemy.

To Saleen, that would have been a good thing. An enemy’s carelessness would give him a chance to turn the tables. To a dragon, however, that was stark naked contempt, and it was intolerable.

However, the goddess was at level 18 and had been a mage before she became a god. The frost dragon knew that very well—revenge would have never been possible until it had gotten to level 18.

“What’s your name, mage?” The frost dragon stopped roaring in anger. It calmed and rested its jaw on the ground instead. It chatted with Saleen through the crack.

Saleen let out a sigh of relief and said, “Saleen Metatrin.”

That name, which had shaken Myers Mainland as of late, only had the frost dragon responding with a ‘right’.

“I’m one of the frost dragons…name’s Guffen. I was captured tens of thousands of years ago by that damned Myers when I just happened to be roaming about the mainland. I was about to get to level 16 back then.” It sighed.

The frost paused quite a lot when it talked, but Saleen did not dare to cut it off. It was not that he was incapable of taking on that powerful dragon; it was just that it would take a hefty toll on him to do so. Saleen had learned how to make compromises a long time ago, but the compromise he was about to make was not to simply back away but to seek cooperation.

Saleen waited patiently for the frost dragon to finish its words, but that dragon simply went into deep thought.

Quite a bit of time passed before the frost dragon continued, “Mage Saleen, is that lightning magic that you’re learning?”

“I guess you could say so, but I’m better at water elemental magic,” Saleen answered.

“That explains the sense of familiarity I felt around you. You seem to have a body of water element.” Guffen’s voice did not sound old. It sounded rather juvenile for a dragon. It had been captured when it was still in its youth and had yet to truly mature even at present. If it had been left behind in the dragon plane, it might have actually become a Dragon God.

“Indeed. In my early days, water magic was the only branch that I was able to pick up.”

“Right. What do you think about dragons, Mage Saleen?” Guffen’s question was straight to the point.

Saleen answered without giving it much thought, “Just like dragons think of humans—there is fear, but also pride for one’s own race.”

Guffen was very pleased with Saleen’s answer. It lifted its head somewhat and said to Saleen, “well then, Saleen, would you mind signing a contract with me, and become a dragon mage?”

“Wait, what?”

Saleen did not understand what the frost dragon was saying. The frost dragon was not speaking the dragon tongue, and it was not the Myers Language either. In order to facilitate ease of communication, the frost dragon spoke the Magic Language instead. Magic Language was known for its extreme precision, and the description of anything new required creation of new words, and one would be implored to define it.

From that point alone, the Magic Language was quite inferior to the other language from another crystal wall system that Saleen happened to pick up. While the language was rather ambiguous and was not conducive to learning, once a learner got to higher levels, the rich content of meanings within the symbols and words used would be considerably less difficult for a professional.

The frost dragon thought for a bit and switched to Dragon Language instead, “A dragon mage, something like dragon knights. Of course, in the history of the dragon plane, there have been fewer than 10 dragon mages. If no dragon mages emerged after I was imprisoned, that would have only been four.”

“Can dragon mages share magic with their dragons?”

“You are correct. Sign a contract with me, and you shall possess the greatest of water elemental powers, and advancement will be a lot easier. The catch to it…well, you need to have ample power of the soul or you’ll end up under my control. Would you like to take the risk, Saleen?”

The frost dragon had no intention of duping Saleen. It explained the key points to him patiently, taking care to describe everything fully.

Even if the dragon were to actually end up controlling Saleen, things would have not been all that much different—it would still have to suffer damage that Saleen sustained, and use its formidable life force to make up for Saleen’s losses. The only difference would have been who the more powerful one was.

“Why?”

The frost dragon heard Saleen’s question and almost thought it had made the wrong decision, wondering if that human before it was really that dumb. There was no harm or disadvantage in signing such a contract with it. Many powerful humans yearned to sign contracts with dragons, due precisely to their formidable life force, which provided a good measure of protection for the frail bodies of humans if nothing else.

Guffen’s hands were forced. It was not looking to sign a contract with the mage because it liked his character, but that it was looking to leave that place, and it had to do so in a way that would have escaped the goddess’ notice.

By signing such a contract, enabling it to become that mage’s steed, it would be able to hide within that mage’s space and escape the goddess’s notice.

The goddess told Saleen that he had to kill all 24 magic beasts in the space before he would be allowed to leave, and she was absolutely not going to change her mind. So long as the 24 remained alive, the space would stay sealed forever.

Guffen wanted to leave, and it had to pay the price to do so.

“I understand.” Saleen was dazed for a bit but quickly came to his senses. He asked the frost dragon, “are you sure you want to sign a contract with me? I’m able to get you out of here.”

“I’m sure.” The frost dragon was getting rather impatient. If that human mage was actually that dumb, it would be better off dead soon, just so avoid getting into further trouble itself.

“Alright, Guffen. I happen to have blank scrolls with me, and I’ll let you write the contract,” Saleen said and he took out a very high-level blank scroll. That scroll was crafted using the best starline cloth he was able to find. What Saleen liked most among the items crafted by astrologers were starline paper and starline cloth. They had been used to craft astrological materials and worked very well for making scrolls. Their stability was so good that even dragon scale scrolls paled in comparison. The tradeoff was that they lacked special attributes.

The frost dragon was unfamiliar with astrology, so it did not have any knowledge of the cloth’s stability. Therefore, it had hardly any reaction when it saw that starline cloth. It wiggled its huge body and took the form of a human, before taking out a magic pen and beginning to write on that contract scroll.

There was something innate with the attributes of the scroll itself, and there could have been magic traps if he had used a pre-written contract. Saleen knew that very well, so he let Guffen write the contract to gain its trust.

Saleen had already mastered quite a few runes at present, especially those of lightning. There were 360 million of them all stacked in a three-dimensional manner, which was then hidden within the magic contract. No being below level 15 would notice it.

Those above level 16 would only detect the runes’ presence, but there was no certain level of superiority or precise analysis capable of being done.

The frost dragon had no idea that Saleen’s magic cube was capable of evading the goddess’s search. So long as it was willing to stay hidden inside, it would be confirmed to be dead.

In truth, there was no need for it to sign a dragon mage contract with Saleen.

Saleen would have liked to bring more conditions to the table before he became willing to rescue that unlucky dragon, but Saleen had no intention of getting on Guffen’s bad side, and simply let the dragon write the scroll instead.

The signing ritual was over 100 times simpler than Saleen imagined it to be. Saleen looked at the form of a young man that Guffen took, and felt that there was something else in his soul all of a sudden. It was a different rune from the contracts that he signed with Nailisi and the others. He was able to acquire power from the dragon at any given moment.

The power of magic and the power of life.

More importantly, it seemed that he had mastered the Dragon Language in an instant. There was also a good amount of magical knowledge stuffed into his soul all of a sudden. Much of the knowledge was Dragon Language magic. There were also some spells illustrated using Magic Language.

Most of the knowledge was water elemental spells. It was not that the frost dragon was incapable of magic spells of other types. But other than water elemental, the second most numerous was earth element. There was no fire elemental magic to be found, and there were less than 10 wind elemental spells. Both light and dark types had two spells.

Even so, it was still more than enough to serve as a testament to that dragon’s power. From the perspective of powers it was able to bring to the table alone, Guffen the frost dragon was actually very near that of the goddess.

Yet the fool of a dragon insisted on signing a contract with Saleen, and furthermore, a dragon mage contract.

“You can come out, Rafel,” Saleen called. The former angel emerged out of his magic amplifier. Saleen waved outside the crack and the 24 thunder dragons that had been keeping watch outside took flight, returning to their bangle form and coiling around Saleen’s wrist.

The frost dragon’s eyes sparkled, taking note of the mage’s formidable power, impressed at how he gained that much powerful equipment despite being only at level 15. It deemed the mage to have decent luck, and luck was considerably important to mages, so much so that even the dragons acknowledged that.

Rafel was only at level 14 and had little attraction to dragons. Guffen simply nodded to Rafel before saying to Saleen, “with the contract signed, I can follow you into battle, but I do not wish to take my dragon form.”

“That’s fine. But before you leave, you’ll need to hide within my contract space, correct?”

“Indeed, mage.” The contract that the frost dragon signed was apparently not that between a master and a servant, as dragons would not have signed such a contract. However, Guffen’s tone towards Saleen was a lot more polite and respectful. Even if Saleen were only a level one being, it still would not have the person it signed a contract with feel humiliated.

“No need for that, at the moment. I still have 11 magic beasts to take out, and I have 26 days to do it.”

“No need for that, mage. I shall take care of them for you. But before we leave, I have a small request. Would you mind hearing me out?” Guffen asked Saleen.