Badge in Azure

Without hesitation, Saleen took out a scroll. The speed at which he took out the scroll was almost as fast as how mages released their magic. A huge hand appeared out of thin air and grabbed the palm-sized creature from the river.

“Ice seal!” Saleen did not stop and continued to release a grade-6 spell immediately. He would not be able to use the scroll this time. Saleen would have to control the accuracy of the magic directly. The weak-looking creature only opened its mouth and chomped a few times and it was able to bite through the Elemental Hand. Saleen’s ice seal technique was a monomer magic with the smallest circumference, but with control that was ten times better than the ice attack.

A transparent crystal body of not more than one yard in diameter froze the little creature within. At this moment, the mages in the team finally reacted.

Saleen saw that the creature was not strong, but he did not dare to be complacent against any objects within the Goddess’ dimension. He used his most powerful attack; a grade-6 spell. Even if his body type was special, this attack alone expended half of his magic chords.

Saleen approached the crystal and looked at the creature within.

This was a small creature that was shaped like a dragon but it was definitely not a dragon. On the back of this creature were wings. Its teeth did not bulge out of its mouth. Its four claws could extend and retract, which was a big difference compared to dragons that had non-retractable claws.

The body surface of this creature looked scaly but in fact, it was actually a body of hair. It was thick with individual fine hairs that formed beautiful patterns that looked like the scaly armor of a normal monster.

The tail of this adorable creature was not like the hard and sharp tails of dragons, but was slender and thin instead. Saleen could tell that the patterns on its tail were the same as those on its body, which were actually holy prose with a complicated structure.

A real mythical beast!

After the fall of Goddess of Myers, the mainland had not seen another mythical beast. In the mages’ handbook of creatures, the strongest creature that could exist in the most different dimensions were the few varieties of mythical beasts that had completely disappeared.

This mythical beast was too small and could only be considered to a new born, much less an adolescent. While Saleen observed it, the water element crystal suddenly let out a ripping sound. The small creature’s eyes filled with rage. It whipped its tail, which was barely the size of a toothpick, and managed to escape the hold of the ice seal.

As a mage looking at what could possibly be the last mythical beast of the Myers Mainland, there was no way Saleen was going to let it escape.

Although the Goddess of Myers was a god, a lot of element magic on the Myers Mainland was created by her. As a mythical beast that was raised by her, it would be difficult to control this little creature with element magic. Saleen did not know of any Divine spells that were of attacking type, and death magic still only remained as a theory, but his left hand could harness godly power.

The palm-sized creature struggled and escaped completely from the ice seal magic technique and fell directly onto Saleen’s magic palm.

The little creature opened its mouth and wanted to bite, but Saleen’s hand released a green glow and infused the light into its body. The light made it feel a sense of warmth, familiarity, and comfort. The creature was now confused.

Mythical beasts and demons were similar in the sense that they both inherited intelligence. Mythical beasts did not grow as fast as demons and besides, this mythical beast was forcefully created by Jessica. To possess true intelligence, it would need another few hundred years.

In the eyes of Jessica, the purgatory desert was a place of no return. The temple was hidden beneath the desert, so except for people who had inherited the Goddess, there was no way it would be discovered. According to her calculations, if humans wanted to recover their original power, they would need at least another few thousand years. She left after creating this mythical beast because of that. In her opinion, no humans would be able to enter the temple in the near future. After the mythical beast was fully grown, even if someone did manage to enter, they would not be able to succeed in taking away the seeds of the divine tree, unless this person completely converted to the Goddess.

Saleen released his palm gently and the green glow disappeared but the aura that the mythical beast had begun to grow fond of did not. Saleen saw that the creature was lying flat on his palm and was not struggling. He finally smiled happily.

“Oh mythical beast, young mythical beast. Even if it would not be able to help in battles, it would be a joy to care for it as a pet.” To mages, to be able to observe the nature of mythical beasts and to uncover the secrets of the holy prose on their body it was enough.

“Master…” Nailisi rushed over.

Saleen stared at her viciously, “The mythical beast cannot be eaten by her.” Nailisi laughed mockingly and said, “I just wanted to take a look. So cute!”

With that, Nailisi wanted to touch the mythical beast. The little creature was scared and retreated, while opening its mouth and revealing its teeth that were still not fully grown. It growled at Nailisi.

“Nailisi!” Sika shouted from the side. She loved the mythical beast the moment she saw it. No other special reasons. In the past, when Caucasus was a strong country, there were three nature priests that were gifted a mythical beast each by the Goddess. Ever since the three beasts had died from old age, Caucasus had become weaker and weaker.

“Sister Sika, don’t worry I will stay away.” Nailisi took two steps back as she saw Sika’s fierce gaze. She knew that her pretense would be seen through by her, so she might as well dismiss the thought of swallowing the mythical beast. Luoluokaluo need not swallow the strongest creature. The strongest part about her bloodline was that the power she obtained could still evolve on its own.

By sticking with Saleen, there would be plenty of opportunities to encounter high-level monsters. If she ate this mythical beast, she would have to fall into deep sleep for a thousand years. She might as well depend on the abilities of her bloodline and evolve gradually. That would be the safest plan in the long-term.

To fall into deep sleep for a thousand years? Saleen would probably be close to dying of old age by then.

Cuisi licked his lips and coveted the mythical beast too, but did not make any dangerous moves. He was not Luoluokaluo so even if he ate the mythical beast, the benefits would be limited.

Lex and the rest came nearer and the small mythical beast grew withdrawn and leaned its head against Saleen’s chest.

“This is a Tourmaline!” Lex said in shock.

“Tourmaline?” Saleen had close to zero knowledge regarding mythical beasts, so this name sounded foreign to him. Tourmalines were supposed to be a type of precious gemstone, which he did possess. They were also commonly known as the electrical stone. Could it be that this thing could release electricity?

“As one of the three types of mythical beasts that the Goddess reared, it could fly in the clouds and rain and absorb electricity, even though it does not attack with electricity. Besides the lightning dragon, there were less than two types of other creatures in this world that could use electricity. Unfortunately…”

“Unfortunately, what?”

“Mythical beasts do not accept contracts, unless one is a creature as powerful as a god.” If the disciples of any faith heard what Lex just said, they would surely be arguing with her about how she classified gods as a type of creature. That was just a habit of mages. Although humans had fallen, their attitude towards God remained unchanged. This was also the reason why the Holy See wanted to start the Holy War. Without a mixture of fear and respect, who would believe in religion?

“Sounds good to me.” Saleen lowered his head and looked at the mythical beast in his hand. He turned to Eleanor and said, “I am sure it can understand what I say, but I am not entirely confident in my pronunciation of holy prose. Can you ask it whether it is willing to follow me?”

Eleanor smiled and came nearer to him. She spoke a long stream of Holy Prose to the mythical beast in Saleen’s palm. The beast nodded furiously and Lex sighed with relief. She liked the mythical beast too, but they could not be controlled, unless one received its acknowledgement or was at least grade-12.

Without the abilities of at least grade-12, there was no way one could sign a contract with the mythical beast.

What was grade-12 like? Some false gods and demi-gods were only about grade-10 or so. Grade-12 would be the level of the weaker Gods.

For the Professionals on the mainland, grade-9 was the maximum. There were definently less than ten people like Joey.

At this juncture, Lex sighed again. According to legend, the emperor of the first dynasty had the abilities of grade-18. What kind of concept was grade-18? If the Lord of Glory descended upon this dimension, it might not even defeat the emperor of the first dynasty.

Grade-18 represented the peak. Traveling beyond dimensions would be as easy as eating and drinking. It was said that the strongest of the first dynasty had all crossed over to other dimensions in search of better places to live, or else the second dynasty would have never existed.

Even the second dynasty was one that dared to spar against the gods. Besides the Goddess of Myers of this dimension, the gods and disciples of other dimensions would have been chased away by the second dynasty. It was not for nothing that it was known as the ‘Dynasty of Blasphemy’.

Comparatively, the third dynasty was smaller and weaker, but the number of people that were grade-12 and above still outnumbered the number of mages that existed now. Even the fourth dynasty saw quite a number of mythical beasts acting as warriors that guarded over kingdoms.

The mythical beast in Saleen’s palm was not as ignorant as everyone thought. It still had its own ability to think. Although it could not put up a resistance, perhaps it was best to follow the man with godly power. In any case, these people must be trying to steal the seeds of the divine tree. If it did not follow, it would not know the fate of the seeds.

“One day, I will get the seeds of the divine tree back!”

Saleen smiled and put the Tourmaline on his shoulder. Lex and the mages finally took their gazes away. Lex sighed, “Let’s go that way and take a look.”

The location that Lex pointed to was a temple on the top of a mountain that was a long distance away. The mountain was so high it reached the clouds. It did not seem too far away though. It would take about a day on the road by foot.

Both Saleen and Lex had entered the world created by Raphael before, so they were aware of the how strange and weird this dimension could be.

Saleen was pleased. Although the mythical beast was still weak and small, it could destroy elemental magic, which made it much stronger than the witcher spider. Saleen had not used witcher spider for a very long time, precisely because its attacking abilities could not overcome most middle-grade magic. Its strengths were best utilized in situations such as sneak attacks.

This Tourmaline was different. His best grade-6 magic could only contain it for a few seconds. Such a strong and resilient body type simply could not be replaced by any other monster.

As the company walked towards the mountain, Sika followed behind Saleen and looked at the Tourmaline that was lying flat on his shoulder. A thousand thoughts crossed her mind. In the end, she could only sigh like Lex. If she wanted to rely on the abilities of a priestess to gain the mythical beast’s acknowledgement, she would have to become a nature priestess of the highest grade.