Badge in Azure

Nicholas’ words had Saleen feeling troubled. He went to the deck and stood at the bow. The dragon head part used to be quarters for mages, but the place was renovated into a magic array. The controls had been relocated to the rear. Having mages stationed at such a location was risky after all.

Saleen stood on the array and looked in the direction of the dragon’s mouth. There was nothing out in the sky, or the ocean before him, only chilling winds coming in his back. The water vapor from the surface of the sea almost turned to frost. The sun hanging in the sky looked freezing cold.

There was such a saying by the bards, that if you were to possess a heart of sorrow, the world would turn just as sorrowful.

Saleen was reminded of the times where the mages teased the bards, which Saleen found to be ridiculous all of a sudden. The bards were not entirely wrong, after all. He was a grade-8 sorcerer, and such an environment could have been hardly described as harsh to him. As he was also of a body of water element, cold could hardly bother him.

The only reason why he felt that way was because of his own feelings.

Saleen had always been fond of the Goddess of Myers. Why he was could have all been traced back to the time when he acquired the Ring of Gifts. It was gifted by the Goddess herself. He had realized then that the ring was probably little more than the Goddess of Myers’ means of revival, and that sent a chill down his spine.

There was more than one Ring of Gifts left behind by the Goddess of Myers, but he was the first to reach the core temple, and acquired the seeds of the divine trees. It could be said that the Goddess of Myers simply had spread bait all over the place, and that he was the earliest to be baited and caught.

“If it wasn’t me, it would just have been someone else, right?” Saleen took out his family badge and rubbed it in his hands. The badge was the only thing he was able to rely on. The looks and laughter of his father in his memory got murkier by the day. He was not able to restore that part of his memory no matter how hard he tried. The house of Metatrin grew stronger and bigger every day, and became one of the major houses and lineages on the Myers Mainland. “But father, mother, where are you? If it is true that souls are eternal, are both of you watching over me now?”

“My liege, there is a storm up front. We need to take a detour. It would be best that you return to the hold,” the voice of the winged skeleton was heard in his mind. Saleen answered briefly and walked away from the dragon’s head.

The storms at sea were horrifying. Even a grade-8 sorcerer like Saleen had reservations about testing himself against such forces of nature. The magic compass on the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was the most high-end equipment that Saleen was able to craft. It was able to detect storms more than one-hundred miles away.

The speed with which storms traveled was terrifying as well. The fleet moved eastward, yet still had scrapes with the edge of the storm. The huge vessel rocked violently on waves of heights of tens of yards tall, but the vibrations were hardly felt within the ship.

If common warships were to be rocked in such a manner, the ones in the ship would have been rendered so sick that vomit would have ended up all over the place, even if said ships were able to hold themselves in one piece. The bone wings on the sides of the vessel spread out, which mitigated the violent wind elements around the ship somewhat. The entire vessel felt comparatively calm and steady instead.

Grooowwll…

An unknown sea monster flew out from the giant waves, covered in blood-red scales. It was obviously the work of the storm, battering without mercy at the poor creature. The monster fell onto the deck heavily, prompting the vessel to shoot two massively powerful water jets beneath the waterline. The vessel sped up abruptly, throwing the creature overboard into the sea.

The metal battlements at the stern turned acutely, flexing the alchemy crossbows open. If that sea monster still attempted to avoid the storm by coming onboard, the battlements would have made a porcupine out of the creature, even if it was a grade-9 one.

That was why the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was so powerful. It was able to speed up at a moment’s notice without needing preparations, or having to raise the speed a little prior. As such, it was near-impossible for stray projectiles to hit the vessel in naval battles. The only way to actually hit the ship was by volley fire, hitting the nearby area where the ship was, cutting off its escape by making sure that it got hit no matter where it went.

“Slow down! Slow down!”, the mages serving Saleen in the captain’s cabin shouted, pointing at the magic image.

“What happened?”, the singed skeleton looked at the mages with their deep eyes.

“That is a water garuda, we need to take it down!”

“I get it,” the winged skeleton said calmly, “That thing would be worth some tens of thousands in gold at most if sold, even if the alchemy crossbows were to all fire at once, we wouldn’t have much to lose.”

“Then you…”

“I’m not going to go fight a stupid creature like that. Just spray some cuttlefish ink and shoo it away,” the winged skeleton cut the mage off.

The mage was furious, as despite the winged skeleton being a contracted creature of Saleen, he was not one that could have been ordered around by the mages. That thing would have been worth some tens of thousands in gold at most if sold eh…

“What do you mean be worth some tens of thousands in gold at most?” While Saleen was immensely rich, he was not so rich that he would have been able to simply shrug a price like that off. Saleen’s wealth consisted mostly of materials and equipment, but he did not actually have much currency to spare.

The winged skeleton was unwilling to go kill the water garuda, and taking it down with alchemy crossbows would have been counterproductive.

Saleen calmed his mages and said, “There is no need to rush with hunting. The nearer we get to the oceanic ice block, the more worthy targets we will have in our sights. When we have actually entered the oceanic ice block, you fellows will have probably lost any interest in that water garuda.”

These mages all hailed from Sregl Island, and it was unusual for them to get so riled up over such a sea monster. Saleen thought, “Looks like the resources controlled by Alchemy City are nothing near that of my oceanic ice block.”

Saleen started reminiscing about how many sunken ships Nailisi and the winged skeleton had fished up from the northern seas, and a great picture began to unfold in his mind. Humanity’s invincible armada would have gone north of the plane every year in ancient times, to hunt and to acquire the limitless wealth at the end of the oceans.

The oceanic ice block had been known, even in ancient times, to harbor great wealth of sorts. Out of all four dynasties of the past, only the fourth lacked the power required to hunt there regularly.

In ancient times, every warship in a fleet was made of thundercloud wood. The ships carried either grand swordmasters or sorcerers. Those people were merely the equivalent of sailors of the current age. People died at sea still, despite having so much collective powers, and no ship was guaranteed to be able make such journeys safely.

Saleen’s goal was to find the single-horned white whale’s cemetery. The wealth there would drive anyone on the plane crazy. It could inspire many to take such wealth for themselves regardless of the price.

“Soldier, see anyone from Alchemy City?”, Saleen was not able to help but asked.

“No, my liege, we have yet to find anyone. When in stealth, our compass would have performed just as well as theirs. It is only a matter of time before we find the cemetery before they do,” the winged skeleton answered confidently.

He relied on more than just the magic compass; he had also unleashed bone spirits. There was one bone spirit following the fleet every five miles, heading towards the oceanic ice block. The bone spirits spread out to form a line about two-hundred miles long behind the fleet. Magic compasses of Alchemy City would never bother picking up such low level creatures, but these bone spirits were able to sense warships of Alchemy City.

“Acknowledged,” Saleen knew that while his navy consisted of warships of Sregl Island design, the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was an exception. The performance of the ship was one that Alchemy City would have never been able to make, even just one ship.

It was also impossible for Alchemy City to scheme alongside the Cloudflow people. Even if Alchemy City was practically ruled by a bunch of selfish mages, they still had a hundred times more pride than Cloudflow people. The Cloudflow people were truly people that would have rendered others speechless. The descendants of the fourth dynasty had practically degenerated into a bunch of baffling creatures.

Taking the grade-9 mage who had declared with pride that he would have gone about harassing Bitterwater prefecture, for example, he had simply went home and hid in Cloudflow. He was never to be seen again, instead of ‘keeping his word’.

The losses they suffered at Daliang City might have been massive, but the overall military might still exceeded that of the city they invaded. The Cloudflow invaders have simply retreated though. They left in a very clean and swift manner at that, even exceeding the speed at which they went with their initial assault.

While the Cloudflow people schemed with the Tanggulasi Empire, they did not mention anything about wanting to retrieve Titan Duchy. They had instead acknowledged in silence that the Red River served as the border between two nations.

If Alchemy City were to scheme with the Cloudflow people, Saleen would not have had to worry much about the force consisting of mages.

Despite Alchemy City having blocked off the Cloudflow people’s assault at sea, Saleen believed that Alchemy City had still been pulling punches. Alchemy City had probably also almost forgotten about the last warning. Be it Fycro or Joey, they not act again. Those two grade-10 professionals would not keep watching the sea all the time to help him ward off attacks from Alchemy City.

There had definitely been spies from Alchemy City squatting at the ports of Metatrin City. There were definitely eyes and ears of Alchemy City at sea too. If he was going out to sea to hunt personally, it would be inconceivable to not have ships from Alchemy City tailing them.

There was also a possibility of Alchemy City fielding great numbers of sorcerers to abduct him, and thus acquiring total monopoly over the sea route leading to the oceanic ice block.

Saleen was simply waiting for Alchemy City to make the first move. He wanted to defeat Alchemy City at sea for once, showing how one should not mess with Metatrin City, by using the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vesel.

There were six grade-7 sorcerers, more than thirty grand mages, high level spirits summoned by the winged skeleton, and the powerful demons summoned by Nailisi aboard his ship. Other than that, there was also a grade-9 fallen holy master, two grade-9 summoned creature, and powerful alchemy crossbows, ready to break any elemental magic defenses.

More importantly, Saleen also had the pan’s turtle alchemical boat at his disposal. If his enemies proved too powerful, he still would still be able to escape at a moment’s notice.

They were in the true sea, with depths exceeding five-thousand yards. Even grade-10 professionals would not have been able to catch up to the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. Without any concerns for anything, Saleen had every reason to use himself as bait, to teach Alchemy City a lesson.

“Alchemy City has been too arrogant. They have forgotten, they are not the ones to call the shots on the mainland.”

The fleet was five-thousand miles away from Metatrin City, yet there were no signs of anyone from Alchemy City. Saleen felt that those people might have been a little too patient. Or rather…

“My liege, enemies up front.” The voice of the winged skeleton rang in his mind all of a sudden, prompting him to check the magic image. Spirit gaze sent the image back, which, while in black and white, proved clearer and was able to see further.

There was a huge area shrouded by a cloud shown in the image. Within the cloud, laid the silhouette of a ship. If the ship was to be analyzed by its parts seen in the cloud alone, the ships would have been more than one-thousand yards long.

That was no longer a warship. It was an island moving in the sea.

“That is not a ship from Alchemy City!”, a mage from Sregl Island shouted.