Above the mage

Chapter 334 Another Extraordinary Talent

Another ten days have passed in the blink of an eye.

After Zuo Wen Burns came to his door once, he never showed up again.

Gaode Maps naturally wouldn't approach them to sign a sponsorship agreement.

Since no one was bothering him, he was happy to have some peace and quiet and could focus on training and cultivation.

First, he "tested his courage." Before constructing the spell model for the Featherfall Technique, he was able to sustain the spell for the duration that Master Naxi had initially set for him—half an hour.

He didn't know whether this progress was fast or slow, since there was no one to use as a reference.

However, Gaode Maps believes it should be fast.

Having actually experienced a real death in his previous life, and then narrowly escaping death again after transmigrating, his mentality is much more stable and daring than that of ordinary people.

Meanwhile, the construction of Leomon's magic network has reached the twenty-first level.

This speed was astonishing, even without a reference point—because he had consumed sixty or seventy bottles of the five-month supply of Kai Mai Ding in just twenty days.

[Your immunity to toxins increases by 40.9%, and your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins increases by 45.4%].

This is an adaptation to the current progress.

At this stage, Kaimai Ding is no longer considered a strong medicine for him; it's more like soda, which makes him feel bloated if he drinks too much.

Although the magic network is still far from being fully completed, God can already clearly feel the enormous benefits of casting spells through the new magic network he has chosen.

Firstly, the casting speed increased by nearly 30%, and secondly, the mana loss during casting was reduced by almost 10%, indirectly resulting in a slight increase in the power of the spell.

This "minor" improvement seems insignificant.

However, little by little, the longer the battle lasts and the higher the mage's level, the more obvious the effect becomes.

One tenth of 10 is 1, which is insignificant.

But 10% of 1000 is 100!

The feeling of receiving clear positive feedback is so addictive that Gaode wants to stay immersed in it forever.

In addition, he also mastered the last two first-level spells he obtained from the North during this period.

Similarly, even with a relatively generous amount of resources at hand, Gaode still didn't hesitate to add all the points:

[Feather Fall Technique+] (Transmutation, 1st Ring):

Target up to five falling creatures within the spell's range (40 meters). The falling speed of the targeted creatures is reduced to 10 feet per second for the duration of the spell (1 minute).

If the creature lands before the spell ends, it will not suffer any fall damage and can safely land on its feet.

The spell's effect on the creature ceases immediately upon landing.

Additional: You will be able to use your mental powers to guide and control the target's body posture and direction during descent, achieving a certain degree of autonomous flight or turning.

[Detect Plants and Animals+] (Prophecy, 1st Ring):

You can detect specific types of animals or plants within a cone-shaped area radiating from your facing direction.

You must select a type of animal or plant when casting the spell, but you can change that type at any time.

The amount of information you can obtain depends on how much time you spend studying a specific area or focusing on a particular type of flora and fauna.

You need to concentrate on casting spells; if you interrupt the casting process, the timer will start all over again.

The spell takes a maximum of 10 minutes to cast and has a range of 600 feet (200 meters).

As time goes on, you will first determine whether this type of plant or animal exists in the area, then confirm the quantity of a specific species of plant or animal in the area, as well as the condition of the healthiest organism, and finally learn the condition and location of each individual.

If the individual is out of your sight, you can only know its direction, not its exact location.

The categories of biological conditions are described below:

Normal: No injury or skin wound, no disease.

Still acceptable: suffered minor injuries

Poor: Serious injury, illness, or weakness due to trauma.

Weakness: already dead or suffering from an extremely serious illness or disability.

If a creature falls into multiple categories (e.g., it has suffered minor injuries but is afflicted with a disease), the spell will indicate a worse condition.

You can then switch to detecting new areas.

This spell can penetrate obstacles, but it can be blocked by a foot-thick rock, an inch-thick piece of ordinary metal, a sheet of lead, or a three-foot-thick piece of wood or soil.

Additional: The spell's effective area has changed from a cone-shaped dispersion area to a wider circular area, and it can penetrate larger obstacles (twice as large as before).

While Gaode was focused on improving himself, he was unaware that he had already gained a little fame within the Sea Sentinel organization.

Firstly, he is the only mage in recent years who has been recognized as having top-tier mage talent and subsequently recruited.

For this reason, when he joined the Sea Sentinel, there were already quite a few people paying attention to Gaode Maps.

Then, he spent a day mastering the Boundless Breathing Method on Gaode, and the next day he chose the "Leo Monk's Magic Network," which had been sealed away for a long time and was considered useless.

This is essentially a contrast between suppression and praise, which immediately sparked a lot of discussion.

Finally, Gao De politely declined an offer from the Burns family.

The aristocratic circle is neither small nor large; news can spread in a short time.

Since joining the Sea Sentinels, Gao De had been living a very routine life between the Collingwood Magic Hall, his dormitory, and the canteen, and had not had any contact with other Sea Sentinel mages, so he had not realized this.

"Gaode!"

As soon as Gao De entered the Collingwood Art Museum, he heard someone call his name.

Turning around, I saw it was Melia.

This was the first time he had encountered her at the art gallery in a long time.

"Are you here to train today too?" Gao De nodded in response.

"Yes," Melia explained, "Normally, I come to the gym to train every day, but after I finished guiding you through the report a while ago, I took on a mission to clear out the water beasts in Auxerre City, and I just got back yesterday."

"I see."

Melia joined the Sea Sentinels a little over a year earlier than him and is still a novice. Her potential has not yet been fully explored, unlike those veterans who only need to train periodically to maintain their basic level. Naturally, she needs to persist in training.

"Good luck, I'm going to train now." Melia greeted him warmly before going off to begin her own training.

As usual, Gao De activated the Starlight Instrument and began visual reaction training, quickly becoming immersed in it until the voice of the Naxi Master came.

"You've already passed the visual reaction training assessment, so we won't be taking any more special courses on that now. But it's a fundamental skill, so you need to keep practicing on your own."

The Naxi monk called a halt to Gao De, who had just finished his visual training and was still feeling unsatisfied.

"I will," Gao De said earnestly, bowing to the Naxi monk.

In the outside world, training sessions offered by institutions like Collingwood Academy would typically cost several silver dragon coins per session, so he naturally cherished the opportunity to receive it for free.

"After visual training, the next stage is physical training."

"Body movement training?" Gao De was slightly taken aback, somewhat surprised.

The necessity of visual training is easy to see.

However, the training in body movement is somewhat difficult to understand.

Master, do you still need to practice movement techniques?

Isn't this something that only uncouth and vulgar brutes would do?

When did even "high and mighty" mages have to practice this?

This somewhat contradicts the image of a mage that Gaode has come to know from film and novel works.

"Spells can give us superhuman speed and agility, but without specialized training in movement techniques, we can only utilize this speed and agility at a very low rate."

"It's like a well-trained soldier fighting a villager who is stronger and has better physical fitness. Unless there is a significant difference in physical fitness, the former will inevitably win. That's the importance of technique." Master Naxi gave a simple example, which made Gao De understand the role of movement training at once.

"Visual reaction training allows you to detect enemy spell attacks at the fastest speed, while movement training teaches you to dodge enemy attacks."

"Using defensive spells to withstand attacks is one option, but relatively speaking, dodging is clearly a more cost-effective and safer approach."

"I understand," Gao De nodded.

To Gao De's surprise, the first lesson in body movement training was not about stance training or footwork, but rather distance and angle judgment training, which was similar to visual reaction training.

In a specially designated open space, Gaode needs to stand in the very center, and then from all angles and distances around him, special alchemy machines will shoot soft balls at him.

What Gaode needs to do is to quickly determine the distance and angle between itself and each ball as it is shot, and describe it in words as soon as possible.

At the beginning, the soft ball will be thrown at a slower speed to give trainees enough time to make judgments.

As trainees improve their skills, the throwing speed of the soft ball will increase to enhance their accuracy and speed in judging distance and angle, thus enabling them to better apply their skills in actual combat.

"Don't think this training is easy. In fact, for people who haven't had similar training, even getting started is very difficult."

"Let alone accurate judgment, even at the beginning, you newcomers often stumble over how to describe distance and direction." Master Naxi noticed that Gao De seemed somewhat dismissive after hearing his introduction, and assumed that he was underestimating the difficulty of the training, so he couldn't help but remind him.

At least over the years, he has served as a mentor to many new monks, and this has been the case for him.

Therefore, he naturally assumed that Gao De's performance during this training would also encounter some difficulties, just like everyone else's.

"I know," Gao De nodded, hesitated for a moment, but decided to tell the truth, "but I am particularly good at judging distances and angles."

"So, can we skip this distance and angle judgment training?"

"Have you had similar training before?" This was Naxi's first thought upon hearing Gao De's question.

"No, not at all." Gao De shook his head.

"Then what about you?" Naxi looked at Gaode suspiciously, thought for a moment, and then said, "It's not impossible for you to skip this training, but I need to see your foundation. I am your mentor and I need to be responsible for you."

"And if you fail the training assessment in the end, it will also have a negative impact on me."

"Alright... then why don't we give it a try?" Gao De said helplessly, seeing that the monk Naxi was still skeptical.

"Okay, if you really have no problem, we'll skip this."

At the invitation of the Naxi monk, Gaode arrived at the center of the venue.

It was already quite late, and groups of two or three Sea Sentinel Mages were already conducting their daily training in the academy.

The training ground that Gao De was in was right next to the one Melia had chosen.

She was training on her own when she noticed Gaode entering the venue, and she subconsciously slowed down and glanced over in this direction.

Although she had only been back for less than a day, she had already heard enough rumors and anecdotes about Gaode Maps.

Therefore, she subconsciously wanted to see how Gaode would perform during her training.

"You just need to tell me the specific angle and distance. For example, I'm standing 20 degrees to your right front right now, about 30 feet away," Naxi Master said expressionlessly, giving Gao De an example.

Upon hearing this, Melia knew that Gao De was about to begin training in distance and angle judgment, and that this was the first training session.

Thinking of this, she simply stopped her current training and looked over with great interest.

She wanted to see just how much better Gao De, who was recognized by the "examiner" as having top-tier mage talent, was compared to herself.

"No problem," Gao De replied.

"Let's begin then."

The next moment, a "hole" suddenly appeared on the floor, and a soft ball filled with fur shot towards Gao De.

The speed wasn't particularly fast, so dodging it wasn't difficult.

But this training wasn't about dodging.

The Naxi monk looked at Gao De.

"43 degrees to the right front, approximately 60 and a half feet away." Gaode has already given the answer very calmly.

The Naxi monk paused for a moment, glanced at the information displayed on the machine, and found no error.

At this point, the second and third balls were being launched one after another.

"About 35 feet and a third of a foot to the right rear."

"Distance to the left rear"

Gaode Maps, on the other hand, provides its answer in an orderly manner.

The ball's launch speed was increasing, but Gao De remained calm and composed.

Melia's gaze was fixed on him.

Are geniuses really that all-around capable? Surely not.

The Naxi monk maintained the composure of an elder, but a hint of surprise inevitably surfaced in his eyes.

"Is this also a talent?"

It's not just precise, it's precise down to the fraction after the ruler.

This level is far too exaggerated.

Only Gaode itself knows exactly what happened.

Mandela's Eye of Insight allows him to build concrete models of living beings, so judging mere physical distances and angles is a piece of cake for him.

Therefore, this training was indeed unnecessary for him.

After all, experience and muscle memory gained through training can't compare to the precision of insight.

"You are indeed good at this. There is no need for further training in this area. You can proceed directly to the next step of dynamic evasion training." After watching for a while, Master Naxi was finally convinced and chose to stop.

(End of this chapter)