Above the mage

Chapter 238 Port and Beast Tide

But then Gao De thought about it again and suddenly realized that there was more than one path to take than just Frost Soul.

Another feasible approach is:

The Soul of the Forest.

He came to the North to plant trees; he almost forgot his old profession.

Besides ice elemental energy, wood element is also a possible route.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of Frost Soul is that it can be cultivated now, and in the North, it is obviously easier to obtain ice elemental energy.

The disadvantages are the potential for resource competition and homogenization of capabilities.

The term "overlapping abilities" refers to the fact that the environment of the North, including humans and creatures from the ley lines, primarily features ice-elemental abilities.

Similarly, resistance is generally geared towards ice element, for example, the fur of a snow wolf has outstanding resistance to ice element spells.

In this environment, Frost Soul seems a bit too mainstream, while Forest Soul takes a different approach and is more likely to stand out.

Resource competition actually refers to competition with Gaode itself.

His Mandela Eye enhancement also required the absorption of ice elemental power.

Resources are always limited, so Gaode Maps will face a problem: should the limited resources be used to upgrade Mandela's Eye or Wild Soul?

He could not have both, yet both were very important to him.

If you choose the Forest Spirit route, you can avoid these two drawbacks.

However, compared to the Frost Soul route that can be started now, it has more or less a sense of "pie in the sky".

After all, he hasn't even seen a suitable place to plant trees yet, let alone planted any.

After much deliberation, Gaode ultimately leaned more towards the "Soul of the Forest" route.

After all, self-production and self-use sounds more reliable.

On the 3rd of the Awakening Month, the seventh day since God arrived at the Snowfar Clan camp.

After a week of study, he was able to communicate with the Northerners in Ace language, albeit haltingly.

The rest is just a process of practice and familiarization.

This made Lana a little embarrassed – because the teaching was too easy, and the compensation offered by Gaode was too generous.

"How many times have you migrated with the Snowfowl tribe?" That evening, after finishing his lesson in the Ace language, God asked casually.

Lana thought for a moment, then counted carefully on her fingers and said, "Our tribe usually migrates twice a year, sometimes only once, and sometimes as many as four times a year, for a total of about thirty times."

After thinking for a moment, Gaode asked again, "Was the migration location new each time?"

"No, that's not it," Lana shook her head and explained.

"Our tribe has four or five permanent pastures. Whenever the grass on a particular pasture is about to run out for the reindeer, the tribe sends out scouts to check on the grass recovery at other pastures."

"Then, based on the findings, the pasture with the best forage growth will be designated as the next migration destination."

"Unless there are special circumstances and none of our pastures are suitable as migration destinations, the tribe will look for new migration destinations."

That makes perfect sense.

In fact, all nomadic migration patterns should be this "rotational grazing" pattern, following a set of established routes summarized from years of experience, migrating between relatively fixed places.

Fixed migration routes not only allowed them to make better use of natural resources, but also facilitated their connections and trade with other tribes.

Four or five ranches. Gaode thought about it and realized that the actual area enclosed wouldn't be particularly large.

After all, it's not very realistic for such a large tribe to migrate too far.

"During the migration, did you see any flat, conveniently located places that no tribe had settled in yet?" Gao De asked casually, without much hope.

Lana's answer was as expected. She thought about it carefully, then decisively shook her head and said, "No."

But before Gao De could say anything, Lana paused, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "However..."

"But what?" Gao De's eyes lit up slightly when he saw that there seemed to be a turning point.

"Although I don't know what you need such a place for, based on the conditions you've set, there seem to be many places along the coastline that meet your requirements," she said hesitantly.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that this "money" was so easy to earn, and she felt really guilty about it, she would never have said these things.

"When my father was alive, he was a scout for the tribe, exploring the nomadic lands for the tribe. So he traveled to many places and knew a lot about the North."

"He once told me that there is only one port on our northern coastline to this day, namely Viking Wolf Port, which was built by the Vikings."

"With the Viking Wolf Harbor, the Vikings could sail south in their wolf ships to raid and plunder resources from outsiders when the harbor thawed in the summer."

"Therefore, the Vikings lived a very comfortable life, unlike us who have to struggle for food every day."

"In fact, there are many other places along our northern coastline suitable for building ports, not just Viking Wolf Harbor."

"There are three main reasons why there is only one Viking Wolf Harbor so far."

"One reason is our nomadic lifestyle; we rarely stay in one place for long, and the coastline is not suitable for grazing."

The terms "nomadic people" and "port" inherently carry contradictory connotations and are difficult to associate.

"Secondly, we do not have the shipbuilding technology, and with limited food, we cannot spare a large number of people to build a port."

For the people of the North, most of their day is spent struggling for food.

Building a port is undoubtedly a huge project, which is time-consuming and manpower-intensive. Who will provide food for such long-term "off-the-job" work?

This is a very real problem.

"Finally, whether it's building a port or constructing ships, a large amount of high-quality timber is needed, and these things are very difficult to find on the snowfield."

The North, also known as the permafrost tundra, is covered with vegetation limited to mosses, lichens, and occasionally some low shrubs.

Not to mention high-quality timber, even large trees are almost nowhere to be found.

Furthermore, the North is isolated from the outside world, making it virtually impossible to obtain these resources from outside.

Therefore, the necessary material conditions for establishing a port cannot be met here.

"The Vikings were able to build ports because a special tree called the Norse cedar grew in their territory."

"This is the only large tree that can grow in the North, and it is also a superior shipbuilding material."

"But it only appears and grows in Viking territory, and its production is extremely limited, so Viking Wolf Harbor became the only port in the North."

At this point, Lana couldn't help but sigh.

Then, she glanced at Gao De and said, "You are an outsider. The outside world is not as barren as our northern border, with many ports."

"Therefore, you should know that suitable locations for building ports generally require a large amount of flat land, sufficiently stable geology, and a good geographical location. This should meet your requirements."

"Moreover, the coastline is not suitable for nomadic life, so most of the coastal areas are sparsely populated and no tribes have ever settled there."

Lana finished recounting everything she knew in one breath, and Gao De's eyes lit up as she spoke.

Besides the fact that, as Lana mentioned, the coastal area perfectly met his requirements and was an ideal place to plant trees, Gao De also discovered a point that he had previously overlooked:

Trees are a scarce resource in the North.

He, on the other hand, has the potential to continuously produce this scarce resource.

Besides being used as fuel, wood has an even more important use in industry.

It could even go further and establish a second port in the North, besides Viking Wolf Harbor.

What are the most important raw materials for shipbuilding and port construction?

It is wood.

What is he going to do?

Plant trees!

The two are naturally compatible.

Having timber doesn't automatically mean you can build a port and a large number of ships; there are still technical and human resource challenges to overcome.

But once the basic conditions are met, the rest is no longer just castles in the air and can be planned gradually.

Almost instantly, Gaode Maps determined the location for planting the tree:

An ideal port location on the northern coastline.

Plant trees first, then get rich.

"How far are we from the coastline?" Gao De asked again.

"I don't know," Lana shook her head, then added, "It must be very far away; the people in the tribe have never seen the sea."

Without a map, it's ultimately inconvenient.

Thinking about this, Gao De felt a headache coming on again.

But no matter how much of a headache I have, it's no use.

As an outsider and only a first-ring mage, he couldn't think of any way to get the Snowflake clan to trade maps with him.

If all else fails, I'll just go find it myself; at least I have a general direction. Gao De thought to himself.

Don't blindly go down a dead end.

Having a map certainly makes things much more convenient and saves a lot of time, but it doesn't mean you can't get anything done if you can't get a map.

As various thoughts raced through his mind, Gao De reached for the thermos of water placed by the fire pit to take a sip, but he couldn't help but pause for a moment.

The water in the glass flows automatically without any wind.

Tiny ripples spread out in the small glass of water.

What's going on?

At first glance, even Gaode Maps didn't react, and seemed somewhat confused.

However, the frequency of ripple generation in the water glass is increasing.

The next moment, tiny water droplets peeked out.

Gao De's heart skipped a beat, as if he had thought of something.

He suddenly stood up, lifted the animal skin curtain of the tent, and gazed into the distance.

The next instant, a deep, dark blue glow appeared in Gao De's left pupil.

Mandela's Eye.

More than two hours had passed since it got dark.

Darkness falls very quickly on the snowfield; there is almost no twilight process, so it can already be considered night.

However, having already developed an exceptional ability to see in the dark while in Saint-Sien Prison, and with the enhanced vision from the Mandela Eye, God easily saw a blurry but enormous figure through the night.

The figure leaped up and landed on the snow-covered hill. It was not clearly visible in the night, but its golden pupils were exceptionally conspicuous.

Then, behind the figure standing proudly on the snow-covered hill, one dark shadow after another darted out.

These shadowy figures were much smaller, but there were far too many of them, and their numbers were still increasing.

These dark figures had blue eyes that twinkled like stars in the night sky, but they were not beautiful. Just one glance at them sent chills down your spine and made your scalp tingle.

这 是

Snow Wolf!

In just a moment, Gaode realized who the other party was.

Packs of snow wolves.

He only needed to glance at it to determine that the number of snow wolves definitely exceeded a thousand, or even more.

Such a large pack of snow wolves can no longer be simply called a snow wolf attack; it should be called...

Beast Tide!

The moment the word popped into Gao De's mind, his scalp tingled.

next moment.

The largest figure standing on the snow-covered hill, the so-called alpha wolf, raised its head high and howled at the moon in the sky.

Awooo!!!

The remaining snow wolves also howled in response.

The howls of wolves rose and fell in waves, booming like thunder in the pitch-black night.

After the wolves howled at the moon, the dark figures leaped up from the snow-covered hill toward the Snowflake clan's camp.

They were running wildly, roaring, and their dark shadows, like a tidal wave, completely covered the snow-covered hills.

In those unbroken blue wolf eyes, there was nothing but hunger and ferocity.

Seeing this, Gao De was certain that these hungry snow wolves would devour all the living people.

This was a chilling and shocking scene.

Gao De withdrew his gaze.

Lana, inside the tent, was already pale.

Unlike Gao De, she does not possess the ability to see in the dark or the Mandela Eye.

But the howling of the wolves still reached her ears clearly. As a native of the North, she naturally knew what it meant.

Beast tide.

Even though the Snowflakes clan wasn't a small tribe like the Dorbian tribe, they would still suffer heavy losses if not easily wiped out by the beast tide.

"How could this happen so suddenly? None of the tribe's scouts discovered it beforehand," Lana murmured, somewhat distraught.

It's impossible for a medium-sized tribe like the Snowflakes, with a population of tens of thousands, to be completely unaware of any sense of crisis.

They have dedicated personnel responsible for scouting the surrounding area. Once a herd of animals is discovered, they will immediately notify the tribe so that the tribe can prepare to defend against the herd's attack as soon as possible.

But this time, they received no warning before the beast tide arrived.

woo~~~

woo~~~

The sound of horns made from rhinoceros horns had already begun to echo in Camp Snowver.

Gao De's expression turned solemn.

"Hurry up and pack some things quickly, then get ready to run away," he said to Lana.

"The hunters and ice-blooded mages of our tribe will drive back the beast tide," Lana said instinctively.

"No, they probably won't be able to do it this time," Gao De said.

Because in Gaode's view, dark shadows are still constantly darting out from the snow-covered hill.

The number, roughly estimated, is already approaching two thousand, and it's not over yet; it's still increasing.

However, Gaode has no intention of waiting any longer.

The scale of this beast tide far exceeded Lana's expectations.

Right now, the most important thing is to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Gaode had already picked up his package.

To be honest, apart from "Breath of the Wild," he didn't have anything else he couldn't bear to part with, so packing it up was naturally quick.

(End of this chapter)