Badge in Azure

The team traveled in the northeastern direction, with Jola leading the pack, even the two Black Metal Grand Swordmasters were convinced of his swordsmanship. There was no problem with the team’s command. In a small team like this, an individual’s offensive power was of a higher priority.

Saleen’s luck seemed to have gotten better. Along the way, Jola tapped on his sharp intuition to avoid many patrolling teams from the Tanggulasi Empire. As the team was traveling east, their location was too far from the main battle zone. The pathetically low population of mages from the Tanggulasi Empire were not deployed to this region, not to mention the holy masters.

The blood knights had gathered in the southwest, preparing to invade a city located along the upstream of the Chishui River. Saleen’s team actually managed to pass through dozens of towns of varying sizes, finally arriving at the periphery of the Purgatory Desert.

This feat was not entirely dependent on ability, luck had a part to play as well. With dozens of towns containing tens of thousands of soldiers, the smallest town would also have more than four-hundred troops stationed there. The Tanggulasi Empire had expended all their resources, it was bent on seizing every inch of Titan’s land.

The Purgatory Desert was located in the center of the Myers mainland, with a radius of thousands of miles. The terrain of the periphery was complicated, but at least half of it was wide and open. Legend had it that the Goddess of Myers had fallen there. Saleen and the rest were planning on passing through two-hundred miles of mountainous roads. These mountains were originally earthy hills, but an unknown forbidden spell was used, causing the soil to melt and crystallize.

This was a totally lifeless region, but it was actually safer. The wide and open areas contained poisonous scorpions and magic beasts. Even though these areas contained sources of water, it was not worth the risk. Since Lex had brought along very little people, her team could survive just by relying on the mages to create water.

Adventure teams could not enter the depths of the Purgatory Desert because they did not own as many skeletal warhorses as Saleen. Before Saleen left for the journey, he had allocated two warhorses to each person, he sealed all these warhorses into the Green Spirit rock. These skeletal warhorses had been summoned by the three kings. As this place was too far from the Metatrin City, the warhorses would gradually weaken, and eventually return to the death plane.

Even with the sealing ability of the Green Spirit, everything had to be completed within six months. It was already November, which meant that Saleen and his team had about four more months left.

After entering a brown colored mountainous region, Lex had almost fully recovered, she then ordered the team to take a break.

This was an adaptive rest. Lex took out appliances from the God’s Ring, and built a sturdy camp compound. Now that Titan was in extreme turmoil, it was possible that some defeated soldiers would seek refuge in this location.

Eight fully constructed puppets were released. Two protected the magic war chariots, while the remaining six patrolled the area. Two flying puppets were released into the skies, they would be in charge of alerting the team. Four alchemical crossbows were erected at the four corners of the camp compound. Lex also took out one-hundred war puppets in one go. The abilities of the war puppets could only be unleashed when they were controlled by a mage. In an unrestricted battle, their offensive power was similar to that of a high grade swordsman, but their consumption remained unchanged.

As the camp was constructed in a mountainous region, no battlements were built. Instead, the war puppets were deployed to climb the mountain sides and erect powerful crossbows. None of the swordmasters or grand swordmasters participated in the patrols, they could truly rest now. Two mages took turns controlling the flying puppets.

The continuous battles and traveling took a toll on everyone mentally. If they did not do some adjusting, they would wind up in a bad state the moment they entered the desert.

At this moment, Lex had no mood to ponder about Saleen’s problem anymore. She took out fourteen pieces of genuine magic armor for the swordmasters to wear.

The so called genuine magic armor could only be worn by people above the grade of an intermediate swordmaster. A certain level of mental strength was required in order to unleash the true defensive ability of the armor.

These fourteen pieces of armor were identical. The fully sealed helmets were carved out of an entire piece of metal. The face guards were flexible, they could be pushed upwards. The magic arrays etched at the interior of the face guard allowed the wearer to breathe freely, while the eye region contained polished crystal rocks. The skins of grade-6 magic beasts were used to make the lining of the helmets. The ear areas were fortified with separate magic arrays to block off any vigorous vibrations. At the same time, these two magic arrays also had the capability to transmit sounds.

The aural magic arrays in a normal helmet could only transmit simple sounds, and the commander also needed to use a kind of magic war drum to convey a message. This high level helmet could allow people to converse freely even if they were several miles apart.

The savage looking metal face guard was coated with fine metal scales. Arrows shot from any direction would not be able to pierce through it.

The upper section of the armor was filled with thick and bulky armor plates, alongside miniature arm shields. At the torso area, a protective heart lens which was polished into a matte finish was in place. The pelvic region was as wide as a palm, it had a similar design as a magic robe. It was secured behind the waist as the frontal portion was concealed beneath armor plates.

On the back of this magic armor was a row of metal thorns which extended down the spine. In actual fact, these thorns were used to prevent injury to the spine. At the same time, they prevented the enemy from attacking the wearer from behind. The essential purpose of the row of metal thorns was to thicken defense by several layers, and to provide support at the same time.

When a soldier wearing this set of magic armor stood still, almost all his weight would be absorbed by this metal skeleton. The thorns extended all the way to the heels of the boots. As a result, when the soldier moved about, the thorns could share some of the weight too.

At the outer forearm portion there were two sealed notches, allowing magic equipment, such as a miniature alchemical crossbow, to be mosaicked into the armor. These two notches could also be used as a weapon. The soldier only needed to move his arm to defend against the enemy’s weapon.

The lower section of the armor was styled according to the skirt armor used in Qin, this was to allow a soldier to ride a warhorse with flexibility. The sheath for a short sword was installed at the outer side of the boots, and not around the waist. The Qin’s short sword and the triangular sword were similar, they were armor-piercing weapons. When the enemy’s armor was too bulky to be penetrated, one could wield the short sword to stab the enemy. This action required immense close combat ability, so as to unleash the penetrating effect.

The most special part of this magic armor was the gloves. The ends of the gloves were very long, tied directly to the metal wristbands. The bone fragments of magic beasts were stitched into the back face of the gloves. Not only was the defensive power high, the dexterity of the soldier’s hands would not be affected either.

Even an average mage would feel envious seeing this pair of gloves, they were sewn from the skin of a high grade magic beast, no seams could be seen on the exterior.

As Saleen stared at this savage looking black armor, he said with some envy, “Isn’t this…”

“The Spirit Snake Armor from the Grukos royal family, all the materials are extracted from a magic snake. It is the most flexible armor on the mainland. Every set of armor requires a continuous refinement process by ten mages. Only one set can be produced per month.” Lex answered Saleen’s question, as her eyes beamed with pride.

The symbol of the Grukos royal family was the Six-winged Flying Snake, but the Six-winged Flying Snake had long disappeared from their plane. The Grukos family owned an imperial manor south of Holy Rock City, where there was a facility rearing spirit snakes. These spirit snakes contained the bloodline of the Six-winged Flying Snake, so they could provide the high level magic materials.

A spirit snake could live for a hundred years, and the Grukos family was not allowed to slaughter them, so they could only extract their materials after their death. Rearing a spirit snake required the feeding of magic nuclei, and their consumption was also huge. The royal family could only create a dozen sets of this armor every year because of that.

Other than the batch which was manufactured during the developmental years, the quantity produced by the Grukos family for the past thousand years was not even sufficient to equip a swordsman’s camp.

Even so, this armor produced by the royal family of Qin made others go green with envy. The Cloudflow people had been pining for such an armor. They had made countless exchange requests, but were all rejected by the Grukos royal family.

Obviously, Lex had the authority and capabilities to produce this armor, because the set given to Wild Bear was made to measure, it was not simply taken from the storeroom.

Even though the outer metal of the Spirit Snake Armor was expensive, the more precious material was the lining which was made from the skin of the spirit snake. It was this layer of spirit snake skin which enabled the wearer to possess a powerful resistance ability.

Saleen swallowed a mouth of saliva. Every empire had powerful weapons. Out of the four empires, this set of armor was exclusive to Qin however.

The Spirit Snake Camp of the Grukos royal family was not located in Holy Rock City, it was located five-hundred miles south of Holy Rock City, on a piece of manor which belonged to the imperial family permanently. That area, which had very fertile land, had a mausoleum which housed the previous emperors from the Grukos family. The most loyal of citizens and a huge population of mages also lived there. After Qin was built, the Spirit Snake Camp never left the manor.

It was the Bidemia Basin, the most mysterious land throughout the mainland. It could support the lives of millions of people, but for the past thousand years, no one from other countrys could enter it.

Even the emperor of Qin could not deploy the Spirit Snake Camp. The Spirit Snake Camp was responsible for maintaining the fundamental force of the Grukos family. As long as the Bidemia Basin did not collapse, the Grukos family would be able to make a comeback.

The children of the first wife in the royal family had the authority to create the Spirit Snake Armor. Every year, a batch of materials for making the armor would be delivered to Holy Rock City. Other than producing a set of Spirit Snake Armor, the remaining materials could act as repair materials. The materials that went into making Wild Bear’s armor were actually sufficient for manufacturing two sets of Spirit Snake Armor.

Lex smiled, then said, “I cannot give you this, I don’t have the authority either.”

Saleen laughed dryly, then said, “What about Jola’s set?”

“That set is different, the spirit snake’s materials weren’t used, and the magic array is also different. You can imitate it though, as long as you have enough magic beast materials.”

Saleen pondered for a moment, then he understood that this was a benefit which Lex had given to him. Saleen had sufficient magic beast materials, obtained by hunting red krill in the Frozen Sea, which gave him too many shells. Those shells might not be as good as the materials from a spirit snake above grade-6, but after repeated refinement, their quality would be almost identical.

Such a magic armor was too important, it was then no wonder that Lex had brought along ten swordmasters. Once a swordmaster donned this set of armor, their offensive power would immediately be boosted to that of a grand swordmaster. Be it offense or defense, the swordmaster would be able to perform like a grand swordmaster, although they still would not be able to fly over short distances.

Saleen was clear about the significance of having a grand swordmaster in an army. Back when a Silver Grand Swordmaster barged into Lex’s camp trying to kill her, Lex might have gotten into hot soup if it was not for the trap set by Faerun and the rest of the soldiers. At that point in time, Lex still could not fly over long distances.

Saleen was actually vexing over the blood knights from the Holy See, but with magic warriors, this problem would be much less complicated.