1327 Struggle Part 1 (1/2)

Saleen looked at Bain. Even if the old assassin were to wear makeup, no one would be able to recognize him.

”Well, obviously I'll need you to kill someone, and this someone might be very important to Fycro,” Saleen said. ”I'm not all too sure of that though.”

”Who would that be?” Bain asked.

”His name is Sharjah, the previous pope's chief of affairs of the Pivotal Council,” Saleen said. ”He was brought to the Oracle Corps by Fycro. He has been in hiding since. It was intel from the ones in Nature Faith. No one would have guessed that someone who was once the pope's chief of affairs had been bought over by Fycro. My people also heard that there was a holy item in this Sharjah's hand, the Ring of Many Gods.”

”Are you after that piece of equipment?” Bain asked.

”No. Kill Sharjah and destroy the ring.” Saleen rubbed his brow and said, ”Fycro set me up this time, and he definitely wasn't doing it out on a whim. This might have been planned for a long time. I must ruin his plans if I am to remain one step ahead of him.”

That was a theory of the astrologers, which Saleen did not explain to Bain, but Bain would not have been interested anyway.

”Acknowledged,” Bain said. ”I shall kill Sharjah and destroy the Ring of Many Gods.”

”The Ring of Many Gods was something that rivaled the three holy items of the pope,” Saleen said. ”Depart only when I have finished crafting the dagger for you.”

Bain rose, bowed, and left. Saleen began to work on the Evil Dagger.

The finger bone of the Heretic God was not the most resilient of materials, but it contained all manner of properties within it. Saleen found them to be of the most complex and ferocious he had ever seen. Even though the fragment had been purified, he remained wary of it.

It was the end of March, and Saleen was only able to finish crafting Bain's weapon. There were countless believers advancing in Nature City. Having three months doing purification work, all the dead bodies and armor Saleen had brought with him were purified.

The believers gained huge rewards from the deed. Saleen was able to acquire greater amounts of divine powers of the Goddess of Nature, which he used to purify the Heretic God's finger bone fragments.

Even so, he was still short on the amount of bone fragments required. At that time, there was news from Holy Rock City that the Emperor of Qin, Lex's brother, was severely ill. Saleen needed to see Lex.

Lex only told Saleen that she needed to check on her brother, regardless of the possible danger in Holy Rock City.

Saleen did not think much of it. The palace mages in Holy Rock City backed Lex. Furthermore, the large-scale magic amplifier was still manned by the palace mages. Safilos only held command of the city's armies.

It was impossible to take down Lex with armies. Lex, who possessed a God's Ring, could only be brought down using powers of magic amplifiers. Furthermore, there was no way Saleen would have let her go alone.

Jola, Sul, Nicholas, and the other four level 10 mage trainers were assigned to Lex. They were the more reliable powers by Saleen's side and had sufficient strength.

The group headed to Daliang City through the Floating City's teleportation portal. They were to head to Holy Rock City from Daliang City.

Gusion's Dragonslayer Army was also heading there with them. Lex's most trusted swordsmen stayed behind. There were four mage trainers from the Golden Plains and Jalin, a young mage, from her side following her.

As Saleen predicted, Jalin had advanced to level 10. She was being sent by her teacher to aid Lex in securing the throne.

If the Emperor of Qin were to die, Lex might not be able to sit on the throne as planned. By then, she would need to wrestle it from Prince Safilos. Everyone was able to see that much.

It was the first time in over a thousand years to see merchants withdrawing from Holy Rock City. Since the emperor was still alive, Prince Safilos would not be able to keep Lex from entering the city. Lex might have fought him right away as soon as she entered the city.

The merchants did not like the prospects of that happening. They did not know if Holy Rock City would be able to continue with its days of peace this time.

Crafting the dagger was immensely troublesome since the material requirements were too demanding. The fragment did not seem to fuse with any other materials and had rejected quite a number when tried. Materials able to fuse with it were not up to the standards required for crafting weapons.

Bain spent considerable divine powers of the Goddess of Nature to regain his health. As long as he did not end up getting killed, living for the next several hundred years would be a piece of cake. Advancement was almost guaranteed.

Saleen needed to weigh his options to create a weapon that would last Bain for a long time. Assassins were different from other professions in that a good weapon could last them until their deaths. To them, their attachment to their weapons outweighed that of any other equipment.

Saleen had to wait for quite some time to gather more than 30 pieces of the Heretic God's finger bones fragments before he was able to start crafting the odd weapon for Bain. The fragments were thrown into the Water Flame and left to simmer. He cast his territory and had the Armoring Lightning Beads repeatedly work on the fragments. Under the very low temperatures of Water Flame, the bone fragments gradually changed shape.