Above the mage

Chapter 252 Evolution: Intermediate Ice-Blessed Body

Four days passed in the blink of an eye.

During these four days, Gaode was extremely anxious.

Every day he watched as his cold resistance slowly increased at a tortoise-like pace, approaching the critical point of 200%.

It's clearly only 2% away from completion, yet it feels like a long, arduous journey, as if we've only reached the "foot of the mountain."

On one or two occasions, Gao De even considered asking Loych to give him a few more injections.

However, reason prevailed and he stopped this absurd idea.

Water drips through stone.

Although progress is slow, it is still improving, so there is no need to rush.

Gaode could only console himself with this thought.

Patience is a virtue.

And he has never lacked patience.

Day .

According to Loich, they will definitely reach the Zhenbing tribe today, almost exactly as expected.

Sitting atop the spirit warhorse summoned by Loych, God was filled with immense joy.

Firstly, the imminent arrival at the destination, finally ending the arduous journey and witnessing the most powerful and ancient tribe in the entire North, naturally brings joy.

Secondly, when I woke up in the morning, after a night of hard work, Gaode's cold resistance improvement value had actually reached 199%.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should be able to break through the 200% threshold today.

Once he breaks through, his Ice Body should undergo an evolution, advancing from the initial stage to the intermediate stage.

Gao De had personally experienced the power of the initial Ice Protection Body.

Therefore, Gao De naturally had high expectations for the next level, the Intermediate Ice Body.

Furthermore, by then, he should be able to completely ignore the shackles of the five forbidden ice needles in his body and no longer be affected by them in the slightest.

Regaining freedom is naturally a joyous occasion.

Thinking this, Gao De had already silently activated the magic power within his body to trigger the five forbidden ice needles. After a month of adaptation and with his cold resistance improved to the present level, he could now remain expressionless after triggering the forbidden ice needles.

As the chill of the Zhenbing was released, [Adaptive] began to adapt once again.

Of course, the improvement is so small that it cannot be displayed, but Gaode Maps can clearly feel the improvement, unlike Pinduoduo where no one knows how many dollars are still needed.

If you have confidence in yourself, you can naturally persevere.

After an unknown amount of time, in an instant that even Gaode Maps didn't notice, the cold resistance value, which was stuck at 199%, suddenly jumped to 200.1%.

A familiar yet more intense experience suddenly occurred within Gaode's body.

Deep within his body, a warm current surged forth, violently washing over his flesh and blood.

The human body is a treasure trove, possessing infinite possibilities and power.

In Gaode's previous life's words, it means it has countless powerful genes, but most of them are not manifested or expressed.

The evolution brought about by [adaptation] is to make these genes manifest, express, and become stronger.

This time, the heat flow lasted for several tens of seconds before it completely stopped.

And some inexplicable information has already surfaced in Gaode's consciousness:

[Your body has experienced extreme cold, further enhancing its cold resistance and undergoing another evolution. After this evolution, your initial Ice Protection Body has evolved into an intermediate Ice Protection Body.]

[After evolving into Intermediate Ice Body, your resistance to ice elemental damage increases by 27%.]

[No longer affected by the negative effects of Ice elemental spells of level four and below].

[The ice will protect and bless you. In an ice elemental environment, your stamina and energy recovery speed will be increased, and the power of your ice elemental spells will be increased by 9%.]

Sensing this information, even though he had anticipated the appearance of the intermediate-level Ice-Blessed Body, Gao De couldn't help but feel excited.

The intermediate-level Ice Body has three abilities in total. The first two abilities are simply improvements on the basic Ice Body.

The beauty of simple numbers:

Increases damage taken from ice elemental types by 27% and grants immunity to negative effects from ice elemental spells below level four.

Based on this "statistic," Gao De believed that any Iceborn mage of the same level would feel utterly hopeless when facing him.

As for the newly added third ability, it is an addition to the mechanism.

The former enhances his survivability in ice elemental environments, while the latter is the most direct and brutal "attack power increase".

Although limited to ice elemental spells, the "attack power increase" attribute is both prestigious and practical, and its usefulness increases with the mage's level.

The power of magic tricks generally does not exceed 10 degrees. A 9% increase is, frankly speaking, less than 1 degree, which is negligible.

However, the power of a first-level spell is guaranteed to be at least 20 degrees, and can even reach 40 degrees.

9% of 40 degrees is close to 4 degrees, which is equivalent to increasing the power of half a magic trick.

The improvement that comes with increasing spell ring level goes without saying.

After digesting this information for a while, Gao De closed his eyes and carefully felt the changes in his body.

First and foremost, he no longer feels any pain when he triggers the forbidden ice needle technique.

The extreme cold released by the five forbidden ice needles was insufficient to harm his body.

In other words, he has now regained his spellcasting ability.

However, there are pros and cons. While restoring his spellcasting ability, it also means that these five forbidden ice needles will no longer be able to trigger his [Adaptive] ability.

To further improve his cold resistance, he needs more forbidden ice needles, or even larger pieces of pure ice, or even pure ice weapons.

In addition, Gao De could clearly feel that his ability to perceive ice elements in the air had become much more sensitive.

Just now, he could vaguely sense that the density of ice elements in the air was increasing.

If things go as expected, this should be a sign of snowfall, and it should start snowing soon.

This was a very magical intuition that Gaode found extremely novel.

All the changes, though seemingly dramatic, actually occurred within Gaode's body.

Therefore, even Loych, the spirit who rode the same warhorse as God, did not notice even the slightest change in God.

Loich continued to maneuver the magically formed warhorse spirit forward as usual.

Only then did he slow down slightly, turn around and say to Gao De, "We're almost there."

People are in high spirits when they have good news. Gao De, who has obtained the intermediate-level Ice Protection Body, took a deep breath of the cold air and looked ahead. His spirit was immediately refreshed.

A rugged camp filled with a wild and untamed atmosphere came into view.

As the premier tribe in the North, the Zhenbing tribe's camp was far larger than Gaode could have imagined.

It shouldn't even be called a camp; it should be called a city.

Because it has a tall, gray city wall that stands majestically, keeping danger at bay.

In this desolate and primitive land of the North, this was the first time Gaode had ever seen such "developed" architecture.

This city has its own name—Phoenix.

Phoenix enjoys a unique geographical location, built against the mountains.

The steep and straight Weskar Mountains not only blocked most of the cold winds, but also provided the Zhenbing tribe with precious mineral resources.

In addition, at the foot of Mount Weskar lies a large Arctic lake, providing ample fishery resources for the Zhenbing tribe.

Five minutes later, Loich and Catherine brought God to the walls of Phoenix.

Where there are city walls, there are naturally city gates.

Where there are city gates, there are also city guards.

Of course, in the North, there is no such thing as a "guard" for the time being; at most, they are called "guards."

Six extremely burly Northerners stood on either side of the city gate, their simple armor gleaming faintly in the sunlight.

Those armors appear very rudimentary to Gaode, but this is relative to the outside world.

In the North, a "primitive land" where most people wear tailored animal skin clothing, armor is considered to be extremely fine equipment.

These guards, armed with long spears and with piercing eyes, questioned the origins of everyone entering the city.

Loich and Catherine, along with God, did not cut in line. Instead, after dispelling the [Summon Mount] debuff, they obediently lined up with God.

The guards would only ask about the origins of those entering the city, and wouldn't ask any more questions.

So the team moved forward quickly, and soon it was their turn.

The Northerner, clearly the leader of the guards, glanced at the three, his gaze finally settling on the "Snowfield Guardians" embroidered on Loich and Catherine's clothing. His brow furrowed slightly. "You're with the Snowfield Guardians?"

His physical presence was imposing, but his voice was very gentle.

Clearly, the Snowfield Guardians still hold considerable prestige in the North, and even the people of the Zhenbing tribe treat them with great courtesy.

Loich stepped forward. "We are hunters of the Snowfield Guardians, and we have come to see Elder Grant."

"Then go in." The guard who asked the question looked the three of them carefully, then waved his hand, skipping the questioning process.

"Let's go," Catherine said, strolling into the city.

Loich immediately followed with God.

"It's strange, there was never any questioning about this when people wanted to get into Phoenix before," Loich muttered casually, but didn't investigate further.

Upon entering Phoenix, a landscape completely different from that of Camp Snowford and the border of Dor was immediately apparent to Gaode.

The buildings here are no longer rough, detachable tents, but stone structures built with gray stones similar to those used in city walls.

The main structure of these buildings is made of grey stone.

The gray hue contrasts sharply with the pure white snowflakes, creating a black and white world effect.

The A-frame roof was covered with fur used for setting up tents, and then covered with snow.

Gaode noticed that these stone houses are actually of different sizes and have different appearances.

On the left side of a large stone house near the city gate, a small fence was built with some thin branches.

Some snow pheasants and snow hares are kept in the enclosure.

Gao De glanced at them and found that they had a total of twenty-five heads and seventy-four legs.

(End of this chapter)