Badge in Azure

Saleen pondered seriously for a bit and said to Gaine, “I have some matters which I’m thinking if you’d be able to help me with, master.”

“Speak.”

Saleen cast his territory and unleashed his own magic amplifier. At the center of the device, the shadow of the Lightning Constellation was displayed. At the same time, Saleen created an illusion using magic which showed the Lightning Moon inside the cemetery of the giant.

“I want to take this thing for myself and merge it within my equipment.” Saleen pointed at the Lightning Moon.

Gaine took a look and wore a troubled expression. After studying it for a bit, he said, “Your equipment is too weak to hold this unless you merge your equipment into it.

Saleen expanded the illusion and revealed the countless suppressed fossilized gods beneath.

Gaine was somewhat shocked and said, “All of them are gods. I’m surprised they stayed alive after being suppressed for that long. Oh, it was done so deliberately!” Gaine quickly saw through what the King of Glory’s had been up to. None of those fossilized gods were truly dead. It had been done so to provide power to resurrect the giant. The power of a level-18 giant was beyond anyone’s imagination. The wrath of one angry giant would have enabled them to destroy many divine kingdoms.

Having such power meant that the giant had a powerful life force. As such, resurrecting one such being would have meant paying a greater price. It was anyone’s guess as to how many divine kingdoms the King of Glory had destroyed in order to capture so many gods.

“Not a request that I’d say is overboard, Saleen, but it is indeed a difficult one!” Gaine did not answer Saleen immediately, but Saleen knew that Gaine had agreed to do it nonetheless.

“Anything else?”

“My skeleton.” Saleen pointed at the Winged Skull and said, “I know that in the spirit plane, there was a King of Spirits above the kings. Would you be able to advance him?”

Gaine took a look at the Winged Skull and said, “A rather interesting form of life. Not all that difficult to advance. Is that all?”

“That would be it. As for the path to walk after advancement, that would be up to them,” Saleen answered.

The Winged Skull felt grateful. While his powers would have been to surpass Saleen’s and continue to grow, but in the end, Saleen was the one with greater potential and the one who would have achieved more.

Saleen was doing so to make the Winged Skull’s path in the future smoother. If Saleen were to die one day and that the Winged Skull had advanced to become a King of Spirits, they would have been able to continue advancing even without outside help.

Even if a spirit wanted to overcome such a threshold, the encounter that would have enabled them to do so came in the chances of one in thousands.

“Well then. Three matters. The totem pole and the matter with the skeleton, I’d take care of them for you right away. As for that Lightning Moon, you’d need to wait for an opportunity.”

“Wait for an opportunity?”

“If the giant were to resurrect, you’d be able to take it down. I’ll work on your Lightning Constellation. By then, the two pieces of equipment will be able to merge. I’ll complete all of the level seals for you. As you advance, you’ll be able to unravel the seals one at a time, unleashing the true power of the equipment.

Saleen looked rather disappointed and said, “When would the giant resurrect then?”

Gaine smiled and said, “Well, don’t get too greedy. Get someone to be on the lookout for you. If the energy barrier disappears one day, that’d mark the giant’s resurrection. He would then break through the barrier between planes and return to the giant plane. The gods outside would then be truly dead and you’d get a bunch of materials for crafting high-level puppets. All of them were powerful fossilized gods, and so, don’t think about taking the power of life in them. Those are for the giant and if you were to attempt to take them, you shall be attacked by all of those gods. Even I wouldn’t have been able to stay alive under such circumstances.”

“I understand.” Saleen nodded in acknowledgment.

“I’d be leaving when I’m done with all that, Saleen. You could try to take everything in the Imperial City of the Abyss. What you’d find here would enable you to conquer the entire mainland. The astrology tower shall be yours. I’m not taking anything with me but this Star Gathering Needle.

Gaine ended up leaving massive wealth behind as a result. The amount of astrologer equipment and mage equipment left behind in the astrology tower was massive. The entire astrology tower was filled with material and equipment in massive amounts. Every single room was considered an independent space and the amount of starline cloth lying around was astronomical.

The astrologers who had once been in the astrology tower would not have even considered using starline paper of just one level lower than their own. Materials like were common consumables for astrologers. To mages, however, those were the best materials for crafting magic scrolls.

It was due to their stable nature. Both starline paper and starline cloth were incredibly stable materials, making it easy to create energy pathways in them.

What was different was that, in the hands of astrologers, starline paper was something capable of being reused several times. In the hands of mages, however, one use would render them destroyed. As such, mages did not use such materials much in ancient times. Starline cloth was far more expensive, and yet mages were still only able to craft one-time-use consumables with them. Astrologers crafted figures with them instead.

Even Saleen would have been reluctant to craft scrolls using starline cloth. With Gaine gifting the entire astrology to him, the Kingdom of Metatrin would probably never see another day where they ran short on scrolls.

Gaine smiled looking at Saleen’s expression. “While the astrology tower’s wealth is massive, the most precious things you’d find here are the stellarites that the astrologers had accumulated from many other planes. You’d be welcomed to have them. It’s better than just letting them go to waste,” Gaine said as he took out a wooden box. The box was square and it was only about the size of a book.

“This thing here is called the Mysticube. It was something rare even back all those years ago. It’d come in handy somehow. Take the stellarites out from the inside when you’re free. Everything the stellarites are capable of is recorded well in the book. I’m not giving you any guidance in this regard. You’re a mage, after all, so use it as you please.”

Saleen took the Mysticube. The thing was formed by 27 spaces and was capable of turning freely around. Stellarites of many types were stored within the 27 spaces. Saleen knew about stellarites because mages used them for crafting equipment. However, they were hard to come by and the ones that one happened to find, did not necessarily have suitable qualities. As such, prices were usually ridiculously high and few bought them.

The stellarites found within the 27 spaces would fulfill any alchemical requirements that Saleen would ever have.

In actual fact, only 24 types of stellarites were found after scouring all planes. There were some repeated types found in those 27 spaces.

Gaine did not delay further after Saleen put the Mysticube away. He went on to first craft the totem pole. The Star Gathering Needle which he had carried with him bore into the totem pole right there and then, disappearing from sight.

Saleen and the others waited in a bored manner outside. The totem pole was something mystical and it was not something that Raphael would have been able to craft all on his own. Time passed and the totem pole gradually shrunk, becoming a bead with only a height of six meters.

The thickness of the totem pole hardly changed. Despite having shrunk, it was still difficult for Sika to wrap her arms around it when she was using it. Nothing changed about the holes on the totem pole. Sika could set the totem using only her fingers.

Gaine quickly flew out of the metal totem pole and he waved at the Winged Skull.

The Winged Skull took a look at Saleen, who nodded. Only then, the Winged Skull came before Gaine.

“You have a decent state of life, between dead spirits and living beings.” Gaine saw that mighty heart of the Winged Skull and said, “Do you want to return to being a spirit or remaining as you’re?”

The Winged Skull thought for a bit and asked, “How shall I serve my master better?”

“Become a god. if you’re a god, you’d be able to create angels of death. Their combat capacity is the highest among all types of angels.”

“Master is a mage. He doesn’t like gods.”

“Then just keep yourself as you’re instead of becoming King of Spirits. You would evolve into… an avicar?”

“An avicar?”

“A being that exists between life and death and one that does not believe in the gods. You’d be able to acquire or create suitable warriors on every plane.”

“Well then, that shall be it.”

The Winged Skull nodded and Gaine waved. The Winged Skull took to the air and into the nebula within the astrology tower with Gaine. The astrologer only brought Gaine back about three days later.

“Saleen, let them train on their own. You, come with me.”

Saleen nodded and had both Sika and the Winged Skull head to the lowest floor of the astrology tower. Gaine took Saleen back to his own room.

The space within that room was frighteningly enormous, but no signs of life were found. Saleen was only able to see the boundless stars and the floor about a hundred meter square beneath his feet.

The ceiling was hanging within the nebula.

“Cast your equipment, Saleen.”

Saleen unleashed the goddess’ necklace as instructed. The shadow of the Lightning Constellation appeared shortly after. Gaine felt rather impressed with Saleen’s crafting methods. While it was somewhat crude, but the idea behind it was something rarely found between young mages.

The goddess’ necklace became a huge ring consisted of 24 black crystals. The shadow of Lightning Constellation was inside the ring itself. Gaine threw the Star Gathering Needle out. It shot far away into the sky at a speed Saleen found unfathomable. The Star Gathering Needle disappeared within the sky for quite a while, before flying back to Gaine.

The illusion of stars created by Lightning Constellation became tangible beings one after another under the effects of the Star Gathering Needle. Saleen’s sight was extremely sharp, and he found that the stars at the far side seemed to have dulled somewhat.

“This is my home. But since I’m about to leave, you’ll get to have it.” Gaine patiently threw the Star Gathering Needle out one time after another, bringing back a huge amount of materials and constellation power each time he did so, fusing with Saleen’s Lightning Constellation.

There were no impurities fused within Saleen’s equipment other than constellation power. As a level-18 astrologer, Gaine was able to pull such feats off in an incredibly refined manner.

The 24 black crystals above Saleen’s head gradually disappeared, returning to Saleen’s neck and transforming back into its necklace form. 128,000 stars within the space of the Lightning Constellation hovered.

The space created by the Lightning Constellation was hardly changed, yet the space became solid. Saleen no longer needed to invoke special properties of territories or his magic amplifier to use the Lightning Constellation.

A huge star chart was formed within the entire Lightning Constellation. The star chart was well-sealed by Gaine’s power. The layers of seals on it were tailored specifically to Saleen. He would be able to access the properties of the next level as soon as Saleen’s power grew.