Badge in Azure

Chapter 140: The First Story (Part 1)

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

The place where Saleen and the team were resting was in fact a pathway in the magic tower, and there was a staircase leading to the next story between two doors. Even if the magic array on the ground floor had been broken, the path to the next level would not be fully opened yet. It was possible that there would be another magic array waiting for them just beyond the staircase. However, that flight of stairs would have only been used by disciples. The Grade 10 mage would have most likely used a personal staircase or a transportation array.

This type of magic tower with a double layered structure was unusually strong. The walls were at least three meters thick, and even a magic trebuchet might not have been able to destroy it.

When Saleen woke up, he saw Lex standing at the entrance of the staircase to the left, looking upwards. Nailisi laid next to him, sound asleep. Sika, on the other hand, was seated on the ground, and was using her boomerang to cut a piece of black bread.

“Saleen, you are awake!” When Sika saw that Saleen had woken up, she felt more assured. Nailisi raised one of her eyelids and took a look around before going back to sleep.

“Mm, I am awake.” Saleen rubbed the back of his neck and stood up before doing some stretching. He had thought that Lex would ascend the magic tower alone, but it turned out that she had been waiting for Saleen to wake up.

Saleen silently put away his clan badge. By now, Saleen had built an ambiguous relationship with the clan badge that was similar to the soul contract between him and Nailisi. Words could not accurately describe this relationship.

Saleen could only feel that the clan badge possessed tremendous power. This power would not hurt him, but he was unable to tap into it as well. Even with Saleen’s current immense mental power, he still did not have the capabilities of exploring the secrets of the clan badge.

“Lex,” Saleen called. Lex looked back and smiled. Saleen might have belonged to a different grade than Lex, but he was also a mage master now, and according to the traditions of the Qin Empire, they would enjoy the same status. Right now, the combined powers of Saleen, Nailisi, and Sika were not any weaker that of a Grade 5 mage. Once Saleen mastered Grade 4 and Grade 5 magic, the combat power of the three of them would be close to that of a Grade 6 mage.

“Let’s head in. I can’t wait any longer,” Lex said, pointing to the door leading to the next story.

Sika quickly stuffed the black bread into her mouth and clapped her hands, saying unclearly, “Saleen, let’s go.”

Nailisi opened her eyes and reluctantly dragged herself up. Getting a good rest was a rare opportunity for her, and now she was going into battle again. Nailisi did not believe that the next level would be any safer. Setting a second trap behind the first was something that little demons like her loved to do.

Lex came before the door. This door was small. Lex pushed, and although the door opened lightly, it felt heavy. Beyond the door was pure darkness, and Lex felt more at ease seeing that. She cast an Illumination spell, and the place lit up.

The floor was bigger than expected. It was a hexagonal hall, and each side was nearly twenty meters wide. In the center of the hall was a metallic instrument. This instrument was about twelve meters tall and reached the ceiling. In the center of this instrument was a cylinder with a diameter of less than two meters. This bronze cylinder was filled with magic patterns. Additionally, there was a ring-shaped alchemy bench at the base of the bronze cylinder.

With the bronze cylinder as the main part, six mechanical arms extended out from it to its surroundings. Each arm had three joints, allowing them to twist and move freely. At the top of the cylinder, there were hollow metal cabinets of various sizes. A mage could control the mechanical arms using the alchemy bench and could use them to take items from the cabinets.

Building an alchemy laboratory in a magic tower was a common thing for mages to do. But to use the entire floor to house an alchemy machine such as this was unheard of.

Lex continued to cast the Illumination spell and glanced upwards. At a height of roughly six meters, metallic branches extended from the bronze cylinder, and on those branches were minute platforms. On the platforms were sealed rooms of various sizes, and all of these rooms were transparent and mosaicked with giant crystals. There were mini alchemy platforms inside of those rooms.

The rooms of different sizes occupied all of the space in the upper part of the room. Saleen was astounded and a term came to his mind – mechanical alchemy tree.

This had been a common installation during the Second Dynasty. A mechanical alchemy tree allowed numerous mages to work together at the same time and carry out large scale alchemy experiments. However, this installation had a strict operating requirement, which was that every mage had to be a sorcerer at minimum. This empty alchemy laboratory was a testament to how lively things had been in the past.

At least ten sorcerers had once worked in this place, and they must have carried out many terrifying alchemy experiments.

On four of the walls, there were crystal cabinets which were six meters tall. The arrangement of the compartments inside of the cabinets was unknown, but Saleen knew that it would just be another complex magic formula. In fact, those compartments could be moved around at anytime, not being fixed to the spot.

On this story, the entire area was an alchemy laboratory filled with machines.

Various magic materials and alchemical products were displayed in the crystal cabinets, and Saleen even saw a fully constructed puppet that was over three meters tall in one. The fully constructed puppet was the true danger. Compared to a war puppet, a fully constructed puppet was over one thousand times more expensive to build. Additionally, the difference in their combat power was comparable to that between a swordsman and a grand swordmaster.

Above all, the fully constructed puppet did not require a mage to control it. As long as a mage cast a magic imprint on a target, the puppet would automatically launch attacks against that target.

Furthermore, magic arrays could be set in the body of the fully constructed puppet. Through mosaicked magic nuclei within the magic arrays, this puppet could even cast spells. Magic nuclei that were Grade 7 or below were not able to activate such a monster. In the entire Myers Mainland, such puppets were only found in the Cloudflow Empire, and they were all hidden inside of the palace.

The entirety of this floor in the magic tower was like a treasure vault. Various types of valuable materials had been classified into different compartments and stored into the crystal cabinets, making people feel the pain of envy.

Since there was no danger, Nailisi’s mental power became very powerful as well, and she surveyed the entire floor. The magic array in the magic tower had stopped functioning as the magic nuclei in its core area had long since been exhausted.

“It’s safe.” Lex also heaved a sigh a relief. She did not bother looking at the objects in the crystal cabinets. She merely gave a deadly stare towards the mechanical alchemy tree in the center of the room.

If she had a way of moving it to the Myers Mainland, she would be able to create another Alchemy City. The material used to build a mechanical alchemy tree had gone extinct on the Myers Mainland long ago. This material was part metal and part plant, and it only grew in certain dimensions. This material was hard to acquire and even harder to refine.

Tens of thousands of years ago, humans had collected a lot of it and had wanted to cultivate it on the Myers Mainland. Unfortunately, the plants withered in about ten years and had not bore fruit, so humans were unable to obtain their seeds.

The material that was extracted from the plant was only the size of a finger. So in order to produce such a big mechanical alchemy tree, an astronomical quantity of the material must have been required.

The tree could definitely be stored in the god’s ring. However, there were some restrictions with using the space to store equipment. Lex could break down the tree and store it in smaller pieces in the god’s ring.

Breaking down a mechanical alchemy tree? Even if Lex had been a Grade 9 sorcerer, she would not have had the means to do it.

Saleen felt regretful, as the space in his Ring of Gifts and demonic ring were too small. Nailisi’s bracelet had a larger space, but it would also not be able to fit everything in this room.

Those crystals were not elemental, and their values were not any lower than the items in the cabinets. Howeer, just like the mechanical alchemy tree, the crystal cabinets could not be stored directly into the space of their equipment as it was too large. If the cabinets were broken, then their value would depreciate.

What could be worse than being unable to keep the treasures that one had seen?

Saleen took a deep breath and said to Lex, “Do we go up, or do we split the loot first?” Saleen tried to maintain his composure. The crystal cabinets and mechanical alchemy tree could be left here for now, but the items in the cabinets could be split among themselves. Saleen kept reminding himself that he should already have been satisfied with such a harvest, because in most cases, such a situation would not have occurred at all.

In most cases, the remains would not have been so valuable. But in this case, just one fully constructed puppet alone would already be worth a huge fortune.

“Let’s split the items first,” Lex replied, composing herself. Though the mechanical alchemy tree could not be brought with them as a complete item, it could also be broken down into smaller pieces and then stored in the god’s ring. Perhaps Lex would not be able to replicate this set of alchemy equipment when she returned to Myers, but the value of these materials had already exceeded the total net worth of a duchy.

“How will we split them?” Saleen was not going to be passive. He had opened the magic tower, so he was not going to let Lex take the big piece of the pie.

“Since there are four of us, each of us will take one share,” Lex replied decisively. In any case, the most precious item could not be taken away, and the remaining items could not be found on the Myers Mainland.

When Saleen saw Lex’s generosity, he rubbed his fingers together and said, “Since the Qin Empire is at war, I will only take two of these fully constructed puppets. If you manage to discover their production method, you can give the remaining puppets to me.”

Saleen knew that these fully constructed puppets were more useful than grand swordmasters on the battlefield. There were twenty fully constructed puppets in total, and he and Nailisi could only control one each, so it would not be meaningful for him to take more.

“Alright, thank you,” Lex replied, but she did not say much. Everyone began moving items out from the crystal cabinets and categorizing them.

Lex put away ten fully constructed puppets first. On the other hand, Nailisi took out the beast skins from her bracelet and threw them away. Then, she put away the other two puppets. Even though the space in her bracelet was big, it was not as big as that of the god’s ring. Those beast skins were obviously less precious than the items in the crystal cabinets, and Nailisi was a petty person, so she did not want to get the shorter end of the stick.

Lex laughed and said, “Don’t throw them away. Those are good materials.” As Lex spoke, she removed a bracelet from her wrist and gave it to Nailisi, saying, “Here, use this.”

Nailisi looked at Saleen and Saleen nodded. According to their equal allocation, Saleen was supposed to have received nine puppets, so he had actually given seven to Lex. The research value of these puppets was tremendous, not to mention the cost of their production. Lex had ten fully constructed puppets, and if her luck was not too bad, she would only need to disassemble five puppets at most to conduct her own research.

When she saw that Saleen had nodded, Nailisi then accepted the bracelet joyously and put it on her wrist. This bracelet had been carved out of anonymous tremolite, and the value of this tremolite was not any less than those ten fully constructed puppets.

(Notes: Tremolite, also known as nephrite, has many variants. It is used in many alchemy tools, and is the most expensive stone in the amphibole family of minerals.)