Badge in Azure

Chapter 228: Ghost Fog Island (Part 1)

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

Fellett’s head was completely limp by now. Without the death flames inside of his body, he would have died a long time ago. Saleen eyed the metallic armor, internally debating whether or not he should take it from him.

A demonic tool like this meant nothing to a strong warrior. However, ordinary people who attempted to usurp control of these items would end up subservient to these magical objects instead. Technically speaking, what made the armor so powerful and valuable was the presence of its spirit-controlling matrixes. It was through these matrices that Fellett had been able to gain partial control of the armor.

Unfortunately for Fellett, he had not been strong enough. As soon as he was injured, the spirits had jumped out and nearly swallowed Fellett whole. He was not looking too good at the moment, and Saleen was certain that Lex would not bother to save him even after Daniel took the death flames back.

Although the metallic armor looked slightly worn out, Saleen was confident that it could be fixed. What was a little wear and tear to an object that had nearly consumed Fellett’s entire being?

Should I keep this armor? Saleen thought grimly. He knew that once the wearer lost control and was taken over by the spirit residing in the armor, the wearer would be as powerful as a golden grand swordmaster, and everyone around that person would be no match for them.

The nearly dead Fellett now played the role of a coolie, and had already pushed them for over ten miles before the pan’s turtle’s shell came into view. Although Saleen’s mental power had been compromised during the battle, his limbs were still nimble and agile. He followed Sika as the two of them climbed to the top of the pan’s turtle’s shell. Lex, on the other hand, had to be carried on Nailisi’s back while the latter did the climbing. Nailisi had pretty much healed completely by now, although she did look pale, sickly, and weak at the moment.

The dragon heart that she had secretly stuffed into her mouth earlier had been fully absorbed into her body, and was doing a terrific job at mending her injuries. Fellett was the last one to scale the turtle shell. No sooner had he reached the top did Nailisi pull out the Dragon’s Tooth Dagger that had been stuck in his thigh and pocket it, but not before she returned it to the form of a ring.

“What should we do now, Saleen?” Daniel asked. By now, he had completely given up on the plan to kill Saleen, and no longer had malicious intentions against him. He knew very well from how Sika’s and Nailisi’s bodies were regenerating so quickly that he no longer stood a chance against all four of them together anymore.

Saleen was not going to confront him about it either. He understood that a person would be faced with many temptations in his or her lifetime. As long as Daniel did not actually follow through with them, Saleen was not going to make a big fuss about it. Plus, he still had use for Daniel’s powers, so a fall-out at this stage was pointless.

“Pat Fellett down and see if he has anything on him,” Saleen instructed.

“Alright,” Daniel replied. As though he were a seasoned professional, he carefully lowered Fellett into a sitting position. By now, the golden light coming from the armor had completely vanished. All that was left were faded magical patterns that moved slowly on the surface of the black metallic armor. With his nimble hands, Daniel stripped Fellett of his armor and found several items that had been hidden in the back pockets – letters; elixirs; jade pieces; and a map.

The letter was written in Myers language. Upon taking a closer look, Saleen realized that it was merely a simple document of endorsement by Shengfeng country. There were around a dozen elixirs stored in an ordinary-looking metal box. Upon taking a sniff, he realized that their healing properties were pretty basic. They were meant to mend the injuries of warriors and other fighters. There were a few strange words engraved on the jade pieces that Saleen could not decipher. There were approximately ten of such jade pieces in the pile.

“These things must be their version of money,” Lex muttered as she picked up one of the jade pieces, gently caressing it before she continued, “Well, the quality isn’t very good. It’s probably not a valued magical object.”

The map, on the other hand, was over two meters wide and the illustrations were imprinted on what seemed like a thin sheet of parchment. “It’s a star chart!” Saleen exclaimed, instantly recognizing the complicated-looking symbols as well as the circled points marked by red ink.

A map of a particular area could be drawn solely based on the positions of hills and valleys, as well as mountains and rivers. However, now that they were nowhere near land, if they wanted to figure out where they were going, they would have to rely on the positions of the stars in the sky. However, this method was not only difficult, but also tedious. The positions of the stars were constantly changing. That was exactly what the star chart was for – to pinpoint the positions of the constellations as they slowly changed over the course of one year.

The most complex star chart even illustrated the changes in positions of the constellations in a one thousand year span. The only problem now was that the Myers Mainland was nowhere to be seen on the map. The star chart was split into two separate illustrations. The first one depicted the positions of the constellations, while the one at the bottom depicted the relevant islands, ocean currents, and the seasonal wind patterns.

Without placing it inside a special magic array, the star chart was nothing but a decoration. However, since that particular magic array had not been refined by Lex, everyone present could only stare at the star chart stupidly, confused as to how to interpret it.

“Daniel, are you able to read Fellett’s mind and see what he’s thinking?” Saleen asked out of the blue. Daniel let out a bitter laugh, and said, “Well, even the strongest necromancers can’t do that. If he was not so heavily injured, maybe I could force something out of him. Right now, the only things keeping him alive are my death flames. If I take them back, he’ll be dead in a few seconds.”

“Okay, then I’ll think of something else. Go help Lex and don’t bother me,” Saleen replied coldly as he lay the star chart in front of him and began calculating their coordinates. Usually, a mage’s sense of direction was better than that of other magical creatures. However, they were currently stranded in the middle of the ocean. Thus, Saleen could only estimate the direction they were heading. It was very hard to estimate the distance that they had travelled. He had never stopped trying to calculate the distance between where they were now and Alchemy Port. From Alchemy Port to Devil’s Horn to the place where they had sunk their ship and even to the hundreds of miles that they had drifted since they had fought Fellett. They had all been factored into Saleen’s calculations.

He could make the star chart bigger to get a clearer look at the stars and landmarks, but this item was different compared to Lex’s magic maps. Since star charts were more complicated, a suitable magic array was needed in order to tease out the information stored within them.

Right now, all Saleen could see were tiny dots and lines. He figured that the lines on the left side of the map represented the coastal areas of the Qin Empire. Looking downwards, he managed to locate Alchemy Port on the map. Upon comparing it with Lex’s magical map, he then confirmed the relative positions of Alchemy Port and Lianyun City.

Both cities were located at least five thousand miles away from each other. This distance alone occupied half an arm’s length on the map after scaling it down accordingly.

To convert these distances mentally using the scale of the map alone was pretty difficult, especially without some sort of calculator. Saleen used his icy sight to study the map again. He dotted an invisible line connecting their current location to the mainland. Five thousand miles. What? How can we be so far away from land? Saleen thought.

After calculating it again, he realized that he had calculated things wrong. It was actually more than five thousand miles. With their current location and predicament, even Lex did not have the ability to fly back.

Unlike seagulls, mages could not fly continuously for hours on end. A grade-6 mage who had just gotten the hang of flying could only clock a speed of a hundred miles per hour. Lex could probably fly for twelve hours before exhausting her magic chords, and that was not including the fact that the energy in her magic chords could have to be used for something else like battle. In other words, if everything went well, Lex would only be able to cover one-quarter of the distance needed to reach land.

It was basically a lose-lose situation. If Lex wanted to preserve her magic chords, she would have to fly just above the ocean waters. However, that made her an easy target for magic beasts. If she wanted to be safe, she would exhaust her magic chords more quickly. In other words, the probability of her making it back safely through flying alone was close to zero.

The good thing was … that Lex still had some old tricks up her sleeve. Lex took a fully constructed puppet out of the god’s ring. It had stayed idle during the battle with Fellett. Now, it could function as their coolie.

Constructing paddles was a tedious job, but since the rock turtle’s back had a vast area of flat ground, it made things slightly easier. All Daniel had to do was to piece the bones of the magic beast together and refine them into some sort of bone equipment that represented a paddle. All they needed was something they could row with. It did not have to be state-of-the-art battle equipment.

Using some of the bones, Lex created a support to lock the paddles in and utilized a Fossilization spell to cement it onto the turtle’s shell. Now, all they had to do was create some sort of rudder and fix it onto the back of the turtle shell.

Saleen studied the symbols of the islands depicted on the star chart carefully. He could not pinpoint an exact route that they could take to reach land, nor could he be certain of their current location. He could only estimate that if he continued sailing in the southeast direction, he would be able to locate a secret island that housed a few of Fellett’s private boats as well as a battalion disguised as sea pirates. That was where they needed to go.

However, the odds of finding a hidden island were very slim. Furthermore, going in that direction meant that they would be moving further and further away from the Myers Mainland.

“Daniel, are you able to recognize these ocean current symbols?” Saleen asked, pointing at the map. He could feel some sort of headache set in from all the thinking he had to do. Daniel shook his head. He might have voyaged through the sea quite a few times, but he was not a sailor. At that time, he had taken on the identity of a businessman. He had not had to learn this. After becoming a necromancer, he had dedicated his entire life to understanding and honing his magic.

Desperate, Saleen searched his memory to see if he had picked up some sort of navigation skills along the way, but to no avail.

“Saleen, it’s not that difficult actually,” Sika piped up. She had been studying the map along with Saleen and had been seated directly across from him the entire time. “How so?” Saleen asked curiously. Sika replied, “Like land creatures, marine creatures have their unique characteristics, behaviors, and habits. Take, for example, fire wolves. They almost always walk along mountain ridges. On the other hand, earth wolves like to roam canyon ravines. Some sea monsters also like to live close to the coastal regions of certain islands. Do you still have the Alchemy City field guide on magic beasts?”

Saleen slapped his forehead in realization, cursing himself inwardly for being so careless. Right now, their aim was to find any island where Lex could set up a temporary alchemy laboratory as well as offload the turtle shell. Finding land was a much better alternative than being stranded at sea with no clue of the unknown.

At the moment, everyone was too severely injured. If they encountered another magic beast like the giant octopus they had faced earlier, they could kiss their chances of survival goodbye. Locating Fellett’s secret island was an uphill task, but finding a place to rest was not. As long as they could observe the behavior of any magical sea monsters that came their way, they would be able to estimate how far they were from land.

Once they had located land and set up an alchemy laboratory, they would be much safer on the journey back to the Myers Mainland. Never had the thought of creating an armor out of the turtle’s shell crossed Saleen’s mind. He had just wanted to convert it into some sort of ship so that they would not have to worry about encountering another storm. Plus, if they could hide in the hull of their makeshift ship, they would be safe from all of the magical sea creatures that wished to make a meal out of them.

“Lex, could you take over for a while? I… want to conserve my energy,” Saleen said as he folded up the star chart.

The battle earlier had taken a toll on his mental power. Thus, using his senses to capture any traces of sea creatures was going to be very difficult. One wrong move and he would anger some of the stronger ones. Back on the mainland, where the human population was significantly greater, mages were free to roam without fearing for their lives as magic beasts rarely made an appearance in population-dense areas. Even if there were magic beasts, they would not be too dangerous.

All magic beasts that were a threat to human life had been forced away by humans. Those that just would not leave had become the mage’s game. This situation was vastly different when it came to ocean waters. In every ocean, there were bound to be some sort of unknown dangers. Even sorcerers had to proceed with caution every time they voyaged through the seas.

Saleen finally understood the power of the Cloudflow Navy. All navy personnel that cruised through the deep ocean waters had to have been at least grade-7 in terms of combat against magic beast.

Over the course of the next three days, Saleen spent his time using the badge to restore his mental power. Lex was recovering pretty quickly too. The most heavily injured individual at the moment was Nailisi. However, demons generally recovered from physical injuries much faster than humans. In other words, she could probably dive into the sea to fish for food after another three days of rest.

The winds were unusually calm today and there was not a single cloud in the sky. The azure blue sky and the deep blue ocean were a breathtaking sight indeed. They were quite literally the direct opposite of the weather Saleen and the gang had been put through a few days ago.

“Look, Saleen. Hunter gulls!” Sika told Saleen as she pointed towards a small speck in the sky.

Saleen exclaimed, “Hunter gulls? That means land is in sight! Nailisi…” Before he could finish his sentence though, Nailisi emerged from the waters and said excitedly, “Saleen, I just discovered some coral reefs! It’s very shallow here!”