Above the mage

Chapter 251 The Idea of ​​Farming

Ice Marrow is a treasure that can only be condensed by Iceborn mages through the "Ice Extraction" method, using their Iceborn bloodline to harmonize their own magical power.

The condensation of each drop of ice mage requires a great deal of time and effort from an ice-born mage.

Similarly, for Iceborn mages, the more Ice Marrow the better, as it can enhance their Iceborn bloodline. They don't even have enough for themselves, so why would they easily give it away to others?

Only under the premise of having received such a great favor from the border tribe of Dor and that Chief Ximo was of pure nature could Gaode obtain 3 drops of precious ice marrow from him.

After that, Gao De had no idea how to obtain the Ice Marrow.

We need a "core product"!

Gao De couldn't help but ponder this in his heart.

The North does indeed have many precious resources, but how to obtain them is a problem.

In order to exchange for these precious resources, one must be able to offer something that the people of the North cannot refuse.

Having been in the North for two months now, Gao De believes he has gained some understanding of the people of the North after these experiences.

On the permafrost tundra, there are really only two essential items: clothing and food.

Because both of these are matters of survival.

Clothing.Food.

Once he truly began to think seriously, something that Gaode had valued but had long neglected due to the tree-planting project naturally emerged from the depths of his mind:

Discovered along with the fourth-tier magical plant Mandora's Tears, a mutated, cold-resistant barley variety.

Barley seeds, barley seeds, what you harvest after planting is barley, isn't it?

And isn't barley just food?

According to Flora's understanding, cold-resistant barley seeds need to be in an environment with temperatures of minus sixty degrees Celsius or lower to germinate and grow.

In other places, such conditions would be far too demanding.

But in the North, temperatures as low as minus sixty degrees Celsius are commonplace.

Thinking this way, Gao De couldn't help but feel excited.

In a place like the North, the significance of being able to grow food is self-evident.

However... there is another important point: how to maintain your unique competitive advantage?

After all, once the grain is sold, others can use it as seed to grow their own crops without having to buy it from him anymore.

Wouldn't that just turn it into a one-off deal?

This seemed like a difficult problem, but after thinking about it for a while, Gaode immediately came up with a solution.

"Hybrid seeds".

Cold-resistant barley varieties are used as one of the parents and crossbred with other parents to obtain cold-resistant and high-yielding first-generation hybrid seeds.

Then plant this generation of hybrid seeds and sell only the grain produced from this batch.

Due to the genetic characteristics of seeds, seeds bred through hybridization can only exhibit superior characteristics when planted in the first generation.

When these seeds are saved and replanted, the offspring will exhibit phenotypic segregation and will no longer be able to consistently possess the superior traits of the first generation of seeds.

This ensures that even if others buy the grain and save the seeds for a second generation of planting, it will often be a wasted effort.

Immediately, Gaode shared its thoughts with Flora, the "tree-planting expert".

"That's easy, Lady Flora can do it." Flora immediately patted her chest and assured him upon hearing God's idea.

For her, planting is not difficult, no matter what to plant or how to plant it.

Because this is her innate skill, she doesn't need to learn it at all.

"Then we'll probably have to rely on Lady Flora." Gao De greeted Flora in advance.

"OK!"

Flora answered decisively at first, then belatedly realized her doubts.

"What's the use of this?"

"You can make a lot of money this way."

"Money? Lots and lots of it?!"

The little boy's eyes lit up, as if he had suddenly found the meaning of life.

"Then let's go plant the crops!"

"I'm afraid it's not ready yet, we'll have to wait a little longer, Lady Flora."

"Why, Master? Don't you want to make money?"

"Of course I want to, but right now I'm at their mercy."

Gao De shrugged helplessly.

"Oh~ Master, you've been captured!" The little boy suddenly remembered, then frowned.

"They're clearly not bad people."

In her perception, Loich and Catherine had no ill intentions toward God, but if they weren't bad people, why would they capture a mage?

That's so complicated!

Flora suddenly felt that the human world was too strange.

Here, Loich and Catherine's training finally came to an end.

As is customary, the two should now begin to rest.

But today is different.

Catherine looked at God for a while, then reached into her bosom, took out a bottle about the size of a finger, and tossed it to God.

Gao De quickly caught it, and upon closer inspection, he saw that the bottle contained two crystal-clear, deep blue, teardrop-shaped drops of gel.

"What is this?" He didn't quite understand what Catherine meant.

"As I said before, I would compensate you after this matter is over. This is a partial compensation payment to you in advance," Catherine said calmly. "I just noticed that you have awakened the Mandora Demon Eye. You should really need these two drops of Tier 3 Ice Marrow."

Du Wei is not the only one with insight.

As a fourth-tier magical plant that only appears in the snowy region, Mandora's Tears is something that Catherine knows about, or rather, knows very well.

She was naturally able to recognize the Mandora's Eye, which had a low probability of awakening.

Hearing Catherine say this, God accepted the two drops of third-tier ice marrow without any hesitation.

This is what he deserves.

He kindly delivered a letter to Baruch, but ended up in this predicament.

The Snowfield Guardians owe him a great deal; what are two drops of Tier 3 Ice Marrow compared to that?

After this little incident, the two of them quickly settled into a resting state, just like usual.

Once the two had fallen asleep, Gao De put away the ice marrow and immediately seized the time to activate the forbidden ice needles with his magic power, beginning his adaptation for the day.

In the days that followed, he was led by Catherine and Loych towards the Zhenbing tribe.

Thanks to detailed map guidance and the fact that both of them were highly skilled, they encountered no unexpected incidents along the way.

Gaode Maps maintains a rhythm of "adaptive" operation at night and rest during the day, quietly and continuously transforming itself.

His body's cold resistance, pain tolerance, and recovery ability were growing every day. With each passing day, Gao De felt as if he were being reborn.

承受臻冰之寒，你的耐寒性提高157%——162%——173%——184%——189%——194%——198%——

承受极寒之痛，对痛苦的承受能力提高86.2%——87.3%——88.9%——93.5%——94.6%。

正在遭受极寒之伤，你的身体伤势恢复能力提高39.3%——45.6%——51.2%——56.9%——57.3%。

The greater the body's ability to recover from injuries, the shorter the recovery period required for Gaode.

The shorter the recovery interval, the longer his body can withstand the extreme cold of Zhenbing.

Enduring the extreme cold of ice for a longer period of time allows his body's cold resistance to improve even faster.

The more his cold resistance increases, the less severe his frostbite will be, and the shorter the interval between frostbite episodes will be.

Under this virtuous cycle, Gaode's adaptability, especially its cold resistance, has improved rapidly, approaching the critical value of 200%.

However, at this point, the improvement in cold resistance finally slows down.

But this is not because Zhenbing's chill is not intense enough.

It's simply because the forbidden ice needles contain too little pure ice, and he only has five forbidden ice needles in his body. Since the quantity isn't high enough, the strength is naturally insufficient.

Fortunately, it has only slowed down, rather than stopped.

However, pain tolerance and physical recovery ability have indeed reached their limits.

The pain inflicted by these five forbidden ice needles is now like a tickle to Gao De.

Similarly, with his cold resistance boosted by a staggering 198%, this amount of pure ice is no longer enough to inflict sufficiently stimulating injuries on him.

At this point, they still had about five days' journey to reach the Zhenbing tribe.

This month is a bit unusual, so updates will be less frequent and less consistent. I'll just have to write a little bit whenever I have time. But I'll definitely get back to normal and stable updates in November. I'm so grateful to my brothers!

(End of this chapter)