Badge in Azure

Chapter 213: Drifting (Part 2)

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

“You don’t know?” Lex asked. “Then why did you give her sixty thousand gold coins? Do you know how many Caucasus people that could feed?”

“She deserved it, just like how we split the items in god’s hell,” Saleen retaliated.

“In addition to hunting, the main source of food for Caucasus people are potato biscuits. One kilogram of white potatoes there goes for one copper coin. Together with wood flour, almost two kilograms of it can be made. Wood flour is worth even less, so one can get almost two thousand kilograms of food with one and a half gold coins. The money that you have sent over will be enough for her village to survive for years.”

“What’s the use of saying all this? We’re two thousand miles away from the coast. We still don’t know if we’ll be able to make it back.”

“With me, what are you afraid of?”

“Don’t think I don’t know. With a grade-6 mage’s magic chords and the speed with which you fly, you might not be able to make the journey back. There are magic beasts that fly in the air as well. If you meet with any, you can only wait to fall into the sea. It’s hard enough just for you to fly back alone. With me, haha…”

“Since I dared to come out to sea, what makes you think that I don’t have my ways?” Lex said nonchalantly.

With that, hope sprouted in Saleen’s heart. Everything he had done thus far had been a result of following orders, and in his rush, he had forgotten that as the head of a country, how could Lex have come out to sea without an escape plan?

“What is it?” Saleen could not hold himself back, asking Lex.

“I have an alchemy drawing which we can use to create a special boat. If we can find a small island and create a lab on it, I can even create a magic compass and we can make our way back to Alchemy City directly.”

“Can I take a look?” Saleen was not good at alchemy but had a good eye for materials.

“The drawing is enormous and I cannot spread it out. Our problem now is this boat is too small. If a storm appears, there is a high chance we will die. Creating a ship isn’t as simple as asking Daniel to create bone equipment. Saleen, when the sun rises, we will follow the seabirds and hope to see land.”

As Saleen listened to Lex, he suddenly rolled over and pressed his ears to the floor of the boat. He did not utilize any of his senses but instead listened quietly to the water flowing beneath. There were too many powerful magic beasts in the sea, and if he used his senses, it would anger any magic beast that did not originally have the intention of attacking. Saleen heard a strange noise within the water flow and felt an enormous presence approaching from beneath the surface of the water.

“Watch out!” Saleen sprung up from the floor, but it was Nailisi who had pushed him away. From beneath the boat, a thick tentacle tore a hole in the floor of the boat and curled towards Saleen.

In midair, Saleen instantly cast an ice plate armor and a water shield, adding them onto his body. The thick tentacle was thicker than a barrel, and Sika, who had been steering, threw out her boomerang. With a swooshing sound, it sliced the tentacle apart, causing blue blood to spew all over. Seawater started rushing into the boat and the injured tentacle twisted, causing the gaping hole to widen and water to rush in even quicker.

“It’s an octopus!” Daniel was instantly awoken from his sleep. Seeing the thick tentacle, his face turned pale.

An octopus was a magic beast that was incredibly difficult to deal with as it was incredibly intelligent and had immense powers and a strong body. There had been recounts of an enormous octopus dragging an entire navy vessel down into the sea before. His skeleton puppet would be useless against such a magic beast, and seeing the tentacle twisting within the cabin, Daniel was the first to run out.

At the front of the deck, one of the puppets was still rowing while the other was resting, Dozens of tentacles extended from the sea and trapped the puppets on the deck. The wood exploded with a loud noise as the fully constructed puppets were forced into the deck. They were not mutated puppets, and without Lex’s commands, they could only carry out simple actions according to the orders they were given.

Daniel saw the puppets trapped and summoned his courage and released his death flames. Among the flames, nine different sized skeleton puppets floated within.

“Go!” Daniel pointed with his finger and a skeleton puppet emerged from the death flames, expanding to a height of over five meters and pouncing into the water.

Ka, ka…

The entire boat had been wrapped in the octopus’ tentacles and the tentacles contracted, attempting to crush the boat. Saleen knew they could not stay on the boat any longer and released an ice bomb which landed directly on the gaping hole where the tentacle had come from.

The tentacle was frozen to the deck, but in less than three seconds, the layer of ice on the surface of the tentacles had broken. Saleen took this opportunity to jump from the boat.

“Lex, watch from the top!” As he finished speaking, Saleen landed in the water.

He followed behind the skeleton puppet and looked at the giant octopus that was attacking the boat. Beneath the night sky, it seemed like a pitch-black shadow with its eight massive tentacles wrapping around the boat. It had lumps growing all over its enormous face and there were eyes all over its head which emitted a blue light. There were at least thirty of them altogether.

This magic beast had perfect eyesight, and despite the fact that he had hid behind the giant skeleton puppet, it had still spotted Saleen.

An enormous tentacle left the small boat and went straight for Saleen. If he was struck by it, it would be no different from being crushed by the tail of the giant dragon. There were suckers all around the giant octopus’ tentacles and around them were sharp, spiky hairs.

The skeleton puppet wielded a large knife and went straight for the octopus’ tentacle. Saleen’s body was enveloped in a water shield and he floated on the sea as he released a level-5 scroll.

Now was not the time to be thrifty. Even though the scrolls were valuable, there was no use in keeping scrolls if one was dead.

With a thunderous sound, the skeleton puppet had its arm sliced off by the tentacle of the octopus. Its knife barely left a mark on the tentacle and the wound quickly closed up as a minimal amount of blue blood was spilled.

Saleen had already cast his level-5 spell and six giant ice cubes floated around the octopus, striking towards its center. Saleen had used this spell to kill a bronze grand swordmaster before, and now in the sea, he was even more skilled with this magic.

After a large boom, the giant cubes froze together and a prison made of ice was created in the sea. The giant octopus’ head was frozen inside, leaving the eight tentacles struggling outside.

Saleen was not done. As the eight tentacles contracted violently, Saleen saw an eerie sight. The tentacles had become incredibly thin and eight thick holes appeared in the ice prison.

This was a spell that had been released by a scroll, and after it had been completed, Saleen could no longer control it. The impact of the ice was unchanged and the octopus should have died after being entrapped, but instead, the octopus was crawling its way out of the ice prison.

The octopus’ head was thicker than the small boat, and yet it had had been able to squeeze itself out from such a tiny hole. Saleen was dumbfounded.

He was not afraid of the octopus. With Nailisi around, their combat powers were not affected underwater. Up in the air, Lex was still waiting for an opportunity to deal a fatal blow. Saleen just could not imagine that a creature’s brain could be this malleable.

Saleen had no choice but to put away the second scroll that he had prepared. He released ten over ice blades from his hands and threw them from three different angles. The trajectory of the ice blades was strange within the water, and the skeleton puppet that was sinking underwater had to make way.

The ice blades drew silent arcs underwater before coming together, striking precisely at the hole that the octopus was making its way out from.

The ice blades were incredibly sharp and the few lumps on the octopus’ head were sliced open and instantly frozen, the blue blood sticking onto the ice cube. The octopus’ tentacles quickly retracted into the ice and the water shield around Lex’s body expanded into a massive bubble, floating rapidly to the surface of the water.

In the ice prison, the giant octopus’ body started expanding. As Saleen floated to the surface, he shouted at Lex, “I can’t contain it!”

The lifeboat was already destroyed and Sika was clinging to a piece from the boat. Nailisi was swimming around her, giving a deadly glare at the octopus that was about to escape. Sika knew how to swim, but her weapon was too heavy.

“Give me the cudgel.” Nailisi extended her hand to take Sika’s weapon. If Sika continued holding on to it, it would be hard for her to continue floating.

Sika was anxious and angry at the same time. She had not become a true holy priest yet and there were no suitable magic beast souls within her cudgel. Looking at the situation, she had no choice but to give up on this creature.

Nailisi grabbed the cudgel and stored it within her bracelet. At the same time, she took out a short axe and threw it to Sika. “Use it when necessary. Master isn’t in any danger right now, but be careful of other monsters.”

Aren’t you a monster too? Sika thought to herself, grabbing the short axe. The axe was barely twenty kilograms and was too light. Moreover, it was incredibly thin and she was not very skilled at using a double-sided axe.

The sound of ice cracking resonated throughout the sea and a giant whirlpool emerged, swirling around the ice cube. The many pieces of the lifeboat were sucked within as well, and Nailisi had to grab hold of Sika as she swam in the opposite direction.

The skeleton puppet grabbed hold of Daniel as well as he fought hard to get out of the whirlpool. Lex watched from above and saw cracks appearing on the ice as it exploded from within. Saleen continuously released white lines from his hand, which turned out to be level-2 ice arrows. The speed at which he released the arrows was incredible. A person needed to be aware that Saleen had been floating in the water at that moment, and if it had been another mage, even releasing a spell would have been dangerous.

Lex saw an opportunity. Even though Saleen’s ice arrows could not kill the octopus, they effectively prevented the octopus from creating a bigger whirlpool and the elemental vibrations in the surroundings slowed down. Lex did not bother investigating how Saleen had managed to retain control as she quickly brought out her magic staff and released the two spells stored inside of it.

A black and white light shot out. This time, however, their speed was not as quick as when they had been released in Dragon’s Tooth Town. Lex had not perfected this spell and had stored it rather forcefully into her staff.

However, the power from the black and white light was immense, and as Saleen used the ice arrows to slow down the intense water currents, the two lights accurately struck an eye on the octopus’ head.

The octopus’ brain began to convulse, and an intense wave of focus was released. Lex felt an intense pain shoot into her head and she momentarily lost control of her Flying spell, falling into the sea.

That had been a focused impact! This giant magic beast had chosen to use a method of attack that most humans would never have dared to use.