Chapter 1554: Trapped (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen was not in a hurry to research the space he was in within the Ring of Cosmos. He was more anxious to get out. While it was easy to get into, it would be difficult to get out.
Teleportation portals were useless, and he had never had full control of the ring. He wondered if he would need someone to open the space from outside. If that happened, he wondered if the stranger would take the Ring of Cosmos for themselves.
Saleen was troubled by it all, but Dante turned to Saleen and said peacefully, “Master, there is no need to feel frustrated. It is only a matter of time before we will be able to leave this space.”
“How so?” Saleen questioned. He did not see the way they would be able to leave, but Dante made it sound like there was a very simple solution.
“The rules of the space are slowly changing. It’s just that we’re unable to grasp the instant that the changes are happening,” Dante replied, drawing on his knowledge of similar situations.
Saleen was reminded that Dante was a level 17 god, and gods were more sensitive to changes in space than humans. Only after undergoing special training would a human have an easier time manipulating space compared to a god. However, sensing spatial fluctuations was ingrained within the instincts of gods over level 16.
“Dante, how will we be able to leave?”
All three faces of the god servant wore a bitter smile and said, “Master, it’s easy. Just create a magic teleportation portal and by the time you reach level 18, you will gain the power to break through the space. Even if you could leave right now, it would be dangerous. It is possible that we all would be sent into some messed up space, and worse still, one where it would be impossible to lay down coordinates.”
“Level 18...”
Even Nailisi, who was usually indifferent about such things, shook her head.
Saleen took over 10,000 years to get to level 17 and the difficulty of getting to level 18 would probably take him hundreds of thousands of years to overcome, given his current lack of innate talents.
Saleen realized the same thing after thinking for a bit. He clapped down on Nailisi’s shoulders exasperatingly and said, “It’s a good thing that the Hall of Gods is still around. Let’s see if there are any power magic beasts around that we can hunt and use to power the magic array. It seems like we have no other choice but to advance.”
The Winged Skull nodded exasperatedly as well. They knew that if Saleen had just relied on his prowess to further his training, they probably would have been waiting to get out until the last few days of their lives.
There were several powerful magic beasts found on the world, and all of them quickly targeted one that looked peculiar. The magic beast looked like a bison but was clad in scales. The horns on its head had no magic patterns but contained a vast amount of power.
Nailisi used Ultimate Shapeshifting to take the form of a huge rock, concealing herself in the grass. When that beast walked past, she opened her Purgatory of the Fallen all of a sudden, unleashing the Shackles of the Fallen from within and ensnaring that beast securely.
That magic beast roared and wriggled about. Everyone was surprised to see the chains loosening. There was some unknown power of rules that prevented the Shackles of the Fallen from ensnaring even just a magic beast.
They were able to see that that magic beast was only of about level 16 in terms of power level, and nowhere near level 17. However, the chains, which were unleashed at full force, had not been able to keep it down for even a second.
A huge net fell from the sky. The net that Dante cast wrapped the magic beast up, but that magic beast simply roared again and burrowed into the ground, disappearing from their line of sight.
Everyone was baffled, not knowing what happened.
They were baffled for about half a second before Saleen took out the Book of Gaia. The mighty earth elemental powers worked, forcing the magic beast out of the ground. It then charged angrily at Saleen.
Two beams of white light burst from its horns, which seemed to be as sharp as blades.
“Sh**!” Nailisi swung her Sword of Rules, blocking the attack.
A crisp sound was heard and the beams disappeared. Two dents appeared on her blade. Saleen felt chills run down his spine and used his Thunder Dragon Blaster without a second thought. He was immediately clad in the thunder dragon armor.
The Figure of Fate was no longer reliable. When he was targeted by the two beams of white light, he knew right away that magic shields would have been useless against the attack. While the Sword of Rules was indeed a low-level godly item, the materials with which it was constructed were by no means weak, so much so that not even Saleen would have been able to damage it instantly. He speculated that the two beams of light were probably more powerful than his Thunder Dragon Blaster.
Weren’t the magic beasts in this world a little too insanely powerful?
Professionals on Myers Mainland never had many problems killing magic beasts beyond their levels, as humans were equipped with skills while magic beasts were armed only with their instincts unless the human was dumb enough to enter into contests of strength or magic manipulation duration. Humans could rely on equipment and all kinds of techniques to hunt all various types of magic beasts at their level. They could even work in tandem to hunt down magic beasts of levels higher than their own.
In that world, however, Saleen and the others teamed up to take on a magical beast of a level lower than theirs, but they failed again and again. Worse still, the retaliation from the magic beast had almost killed Saleen.
The lightning icicles were thousands of times more formidable than the ones he had developed in his early days, which had struck fear in the minds of even gods with their unnervingly high speeds. That magic beast was no exception, as it was not fast enough to evade the icicles, and the icicles punched onto its head.
Clanging sounds were heard, and Saleen was utterly baffled. The lightning icicles were deflected by the bones in the magic beast’s head. Only its skin was punctured, which was bleeding golden blood.
The magic beast was even more enraged and kicked up a mist from beneath its feet, shooting to the air.
It was running away?
That was what Saleen thought before seeing the magic beast turn around in the sky and spit a huge stream of fire at all of them.
The temperature of the flames was such that Saleen gave up resisting. He shouted for everyone to run, and everyone, including Dante, escaped from where they were as quickly as possible.
A huge crater appeared on the ground. It was tens of meters in diameter, and its edge was completely crystallized.
The ground was made of rock. The flames had been able to vaporize the rock and turn the edge, which was untouched by the flames, into crystals. Saleen’s thunder dragon armor would not have been able to withstand such fearsome temperatures.
Saleen had no choice but to open his third eye. The Signet of Silence shot out and time stopped, rendering Saleen the only one still capable of movement within kilometers radius.
But the magic beast was not pinned down. It was simply slowed down by hundreds of times, charging slowly at Saleen.
Saleen knew that any skill he used might have ended up being useless. As such, he pointed at the magic beast’s eyeball and burst it. The power of the Crystal Finger burst within the magic beast’s brain. Blood sprayed out of the orifices of the beast before it slumped to the ground.
He put the signet away, relieved. However, it was not until he finally got close to the beast that he found that it was not even near level 16. It was only around level 14.
The fact that a level 14 magic beast was still able to move somewhat in the Signet of Silence’s area of effect was utterly terrifying. If it had been a level 18 magic beast, it would have probably been unfettered by the signet’s power, and none of them would have had any way of taking it on.
However, it did not seem like not hunting magic beasts was an option. He had planned meticulously when dealing with the goddess, spending every single piece of the divine persona he had for training. While there were still several high-level magic nuclei left in his possession, they would not be enough to make the Hall of Gods last until he reached level 18. If he were to give up hunting in that space, there would be no way to return to Myers Mainland.
He wondered if his loved ones back on the mainland thought that he had died.
He wondered what would have happened to Sika and Lex if he were to truly die.
He never expected to still be unable to enjoy life and research magic in peace after killing the goddess. It seemed that that was his fate.
He sat down, exasperated, and had Nailisi dissect the magic beast just to see if they were able to find some kind of weird magic nuclei.
The dead body was quickly dissected, but Nailisi was gritting her teeth as she did it. The beast’s hide was more resilient than she expected, and its bones were harder than any metal she knew. If it had not been for her talent in taking things apart, which enabled her to dissect her prey according to their anatomy, dissecting the beast by relying solely on her fangs and claws would have easily taken three days and two nights.
Furthermore, Nailisi was worried that her fangs would have been dulled.
She flipped the skull of the beast open and rummaged through the insides, finding a solid thing in an irregular shape instead of a magic nucleus.
There were some mystical runes on it. Saleen thought that it seemed familiar and had Nailisi throw it to him.
It was only when he held the thing in his hand that Saleen realized that the runes on it resembled those of his secret art. Calculating them using Figaro’s magic formula did not yield any useful information other than the system it originated from.
The system was incredibly huge, far larger than the system of magic that Saleen knew. More importantly, the system was open-source, which seemed to have limitless expandability.
This was a level 24 world then?
If that were the case, he did not need to cross the crystal wall system anymore. So long as he continued to research the world he was in, he would acquire secrets to heightening a plane’s powers.
But then again...
Saleen extended his power of the soul into the thing, just to see if there was anything that he had overlooked. He found himself barging into another space. Flames were everywhere in that space, and the temperature was so high that he felt as if his body was about to melt.
The eerie magic beast stood in the flames.
Saleen was startled, but his power of the soul was strong enough to enable him to retreat right away.
It was just an illusion, but if he had not been capable of using Thundering Phantasm, he would have probably ended up tangling with the beast in that space. He wondered if the beast survived mentally, despite being physically dead.
Just what the hell was that thing?
“I wonder if eating it would heighten my powers.” Dante looked on greedily. While it had been completely tamed by Saleen and had become Saleen’s servant, it still had its own desires.
Saleen said instead, “If we run into another one, I’ll let you have it. This is reserved for research.”
Dante nodded. It knew how its master behaved. Saleen was someone who went about his matters cautiously. If that magic beast were just some peculiar mutation, then that peculiar solid piece would be worth mountains in terms of research value.
It deemed that its master would have lost his sanity if he had simply let it eat it.
“We’ll put research off for the moment and see if there is anything out there that we could hunt,” Saleen said and stored the mysterious piece inside his magic amplifier.
Due to the mistakes that just happened, all of them decided to deviate from their original tactics and let Dante take the lead instead. It remained concealed in the Lightning Moon, flying around and searching for targets on the ground.