86 Bitter Water Army Part 1 (2/2)

Her main weapon had been upgraded by Faerun and there was not much to say about that. Her secondary weapon was a boomerang, a common short-ranged weapon among the Cascausus people. Not only could she throw it out to injure enemies, but she could also use it for close combat fighting.

In reality, the swallowtail-shaped boomerang was even harder to defend against than the dagger of an assassin. Even in close combat she could cast it out and control it with ease. Her boomerang had also been made from the bones of magic beasts and was comparable in its capabilities to her cudgel.

Viscountess Lex had fashioned an entirely new boomerang based on Sika’s requests. It had been made with materials from Saleen and effort from Viscountess Lex. This new boomerang was the exact size and weight as her last one but it had been fashioned out of the combination of seven different rare metals.

Receiving her new weapon, Sika could not put it down. The first time she played with it, she nearly took down an entire wall. It also gave the mages in the courtyard some renewed confidence. This weapon of the Cascausus warrior was evidently magic equipment, but it did not have any special properties aside from being unusually sharp. A low-grade magic shield would have trouble shielding against it as well.

The most expensive item was Sika’s armor. Even though her old armor had been made out of high-quality leather, the downside was that it did not have any real magic to it and in the face of any heavy weapons, it would not provide much defense. Viscountess Lex had processed the leather and added magic to it, and now it could not only defend against magic attacks, but also had properties that made it resistant to physical attacks.

Saleen saw the solidifying magic on the armor and immediately gave Viscountess Lex a check for ten thousand gold coins.

Solidifying magic was fairly harmful to a mage and the damage done to their magic chords could take up to two years to recover. Viscountess Lex did not reject Saleen’s gold coins. The clearer he drew the line with her, the happier she was.

Someone who could not be bought over with money would either be an enemy or friend. Even though she was the viscountess of the empire, not many people were willing to stay loyal to her. However, she liked her own mage community greatly. These mages had pure hearts and had not yet been tainted by the realities of the world.

Nailisi begrudgingly changed into her clothes and shoes, no longer showing off her skin. The set of clothes had not been cheap, yet Saleen had not paid any money for them. Nailisi was contractually bound to Saleen, but now many things that she had accepted had nothing to do with him.

This set of clothes included a long fur coat. The snow-white fur wrapped snugly around Nailisi’s neck and accentuated the color of her face, making her look less wild. The small pair of shoes had been made precisely with the standards of an assassin, and walking in them made her incredibly silent.

Nailisi changed into the expensive set of clothes but did not put on any appearances, continuing to sit on the platform and look at the snow.

Without Faerun, Saleen was not in the mood to do anything aside from studying and religiously practicing new magic. Even though Grade 3 magic was more powerful, for Saleen, Grade 2 magic was still the most useful.

Since advancing to a higher grade, Saleen had always been travelling and was not yet entirely familiar with Grade 2 magic. Seeing the performance by the Grade 8 sorcerer, Saleen knew that these low-grade spells would still be useful in the future.

A Grade 8 sorcerer could cast twelve Grade 8 spells. After using them, their magic abilities would be the same as a magic disciple’s. Hence, even for high-grade mages, high-grade magic was not necessarily used in combat all the time. Mastering every spell was the key to survival.

For example, there was the time that Saleen had faced the headless riders. Eight people had been helping him, but he had still depleted his magic chords by the end of the battle. If another headless rider had appeared then, the outcome would have been disastrous. Besides Nailisi, all five mercenaries had been killed by then, and both Sika and Aini had not been able to fight.

Without Faerun, the mages met more often in the courtyard, and aside from training they would discuss each other’s experiences with magic. Saleen had a stronger foundation than these few mages but had much less hands-on experience than them. After discussing it with them, he realized that he had underestimated these mages.

The nine of them began discussing excitedly in Faerun’s laboratory. Gone were the days where everyone had been quiet and strict.

In addition to the topic of their conversations, their research on magic regarded being hands-on too. With the equipment in the lab, they did not actually need to battle. Instead, they just needed to cast the spells so they could use the magic props to analyze them.

Saleen noticed a male mage by the name of Hu An the most prominently. He was around twenty years old, one of the oldest people there, and already a Grade 3 mage. Hu An was evidently stronger than Narnia and it would take him no more than two or three years to advance to a grand mage.

Of course, this was if Hu An received continuous guidance from Faerun.

Saleen had noticed Hu An because of his leadership abilities. Without Faerun around, the team had naturally taken to having him as the leader during all of the magic experiments and training sessions. Saleen had seen many magic notes and within them were many paragraphs on the techniques of combat and cooperation between mages. Hu An was evidently very familiar with them. The nine of them split into three groups and under his guidance, they managed to come up with many astounding forms of cooperation training.

”Saleen, your Icicle spell was released too early. Narnia is only a Grade 2 mage and is a little slow at controlling the Phoenix spell. You need to make use of the impact of your Icicle spell and give her more time to prepare.” Hu An did not go easy with his criticism. Saleen laughed and did not disagree.

The nine of them formed a circle with nine dummies in the middle, representing each of them individually. If the dummies were destroyed, the strategy had failed and was disqualified. Saleen was paired with two female mages. Earlier on, Narnia’s dummy had been destroyed by an enemy’s fireball.