Above the mage

Chapter 390 [Primary Amber Body]

He slept for seven or eight hours straight.

When Gao De woke up the next day, he felt refreshed and invigorated.

The fatigue from refining the spiritual marrow and the negative effects of the slowing potion are no longer present.

A "strong" body has such amazing resilience.

Gao De focused his attention slightly and observed his own state. Sure enough:

[Your immunity to toxins increases by 99.9%, and your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins increases by 99.9%].

Damn. He lost his appetite and immediately took out a bottle of Tier 1 hallucinogenic drug, opened it with practiced ease, and downed it in one gulp.

I refuse to believe this nonsense!

Psychedelic drugs cause the target to experience intense hallucinations, leading to a state of mental confusion and an inability to concentrate on combat.

Its effective time and duration are much shorter than the other three drugs, which makes its effects more potent.

As the saying goes, great effort can produce miracles.

After swallowing the medicine, I finally took that final step.

Gao De's body underwent noticeable changes immediately.

In fact, not only internally, but this time Gaode also showed obvious abnormalities on its external surface:

On his exposed skin, including his face and hands, faint emerald veins could be seen.

Although it was only fleeting, it truly existed.

[Your immunity to toxins increases by 100%, and your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins increases by 100%].

The bottleneck has finally been overcome.

A familiar light suddenly appeared before my eyes, the familiar room was filled with white light, and the familiar daylight emerged.

A shackle within his body was suddenly shattered.

A series of messages surfaced from my consciousness:

[Your body is constantly being attacked and tempered by toxins, gradually improving its immune and metabolic capabilities against various toxins, and adapting to evolve into a primary Azure Amber Body.]

[Upon evolving into the initial Azure Amber Body, you will possess extremely strong toxin resistance, becoming immune to most natural toxins (snake venom, poisonous mushrooms, etc.). Simultaneously, your resistance to low-level magical toxins (such as the Curse of Corruption) and extraordinary toxins (such as undead corpse poison) will be significantly increased, and the symptoms of poisoning will be greatly reduced.]

[Through the continuous consumption and metabolism of toxins, your bodily functions are deeply optimized. You gain a cleansed blood system, and the efficiency of your internal organs in metabolizing toxins increases, thus shortening the duration of poisoning.]

Having extensive experience fighting toxins, your senses have become exceptionally acute, allowing you to accurately detect potential toxin threats in your surroundings using subtle cues such as scents and smells.

Your blood will be able to repel common poisonous insects and has a mild detoxifying effect.

Does blood have a mild detoxifying effect?

Gao De's lips twitched.

Isn't that Tang Sanzang?

This option is somewhat of a double-edged sword.

But the other three points are extremely practical, making his "self-torture" of taking poison worthwhile.

Toxin resistance goes without saying; it's a versatile resistance that's useful in both daily life and combat.

The existence of the Blood Purification Vessel has a more far-reaching function and significance—it allows Gaode to drink various magic potions with relatively few restrictions.

If we compare spiritual practice to training, how can someone who can take medication for a long time with virtually no side effects not be considered to have top-tier talent?

What surprised Gao De even more was that, like the Ice Blessed Body, the Azure Amber Body also had a "beginner" prefix, which meant that 100% was not the upper limit and could continue to be improved, developing towards the intermediate or even advanced Azure Amber Body.

Gao De got up with satisfaction and took out a brand-new sea sentry uniform from the wardrobe.

—Being promoted from a second-class apprentice monk to a first-class apprentice monk not only resulted in a monthly salary increase of 5 silver coins, but also the issuance of a new set of uniforms.

The original second-class trainee uniforms were not recycled according to the tradition of the sea sentinels, but were kept by the monks as souvenirs.

The uniform of a first-class novice monk is actually very similar to that of a second-class novice monk.

As a trainee monk, he was essentially still a soldier, so he didn't have any official badges on his shoulders, only a cuff mark.

The uniform of a second-class apprentice mage has a single bronze star embroidered on the cuff, while that of a first-class apprentice mage has two bronze stars. In addition, there is a small rune embroidery on the collar.

With Gaode's current level of rune knowledge, he can tell at a glance that this rune represents a water element rune.

After changing into his new uniform and grabbing his money bag, Gao De went straight out the door.

He first had breakfast at the "canteen," and then headed straight for the headquarters of the Sea Sentinels, the White Tower of the Sea Abyss.

His goal was clear.

It is currently March of the year 9658 in the Norlan calendar.

Based on the current progress of cultivation, with some additional gains such as "spiritual essence", it is highly possible to break through to 60 drops of liquid mana by the end of the year.

It's not exactly close, but it's not really far either; it's only about eight or nine months in total.

Once one's magical power reaches 60 drops of liquid magical power and breaks through to the late stage of the first ring, one should begin planning for the ring upgrade.

The most relevant of these is undoubtedly the Awakening Specialization.

In order to awaken a superior feat when advancing to the second ring, expanding the scope of the spell library is now of paramount importance.

Gao De currently possesses 32 first-level spells.

Although it cannot compare to the number of spells mastered when advancing to the first level, this number of spells is still enough to make him the best among first-level mages.

But will Gaode Maps be satisfied with this?

That's impossible.

The thing about magic is that the more the merrier.

One is that it's beneficial for awakening specializations, and the other is that having more skills is never a bad thing.

Therefore, Gaode's main task in the coming period will be to expand its spell library.

For him, the most practical way to expand his spell treasury was through the Sea Sentinels' exchange route.

It is safe and stable, and has an extremely comprehensive reserve of spell recipes.

The only drawback is that both require considerable military merit.

—Of course, this is a drawback of Gaode Maps.

Not much to say.

Just work hard to earn military merits.

Open the book!

Sea Sentinel Mages earn military merits simply by accepting and completing missions.

However, for the Sea Sentinel Mage, not only is completing the mission difficult, but even getting the mission in hand is not easy.

Tasks that offer high military rewards or are relatively easy and time-saving are usually "snatched up" within a few hours of being posted.

The tasks that remain are mostly tricky or unrewarding tasks that take too long and offer rewards that are not worthwhile.

In terms of accepting tasks, Gaode has no advantage over others, and is even at a disadvantage.

Whether you can get a good assignment depends on two things: luck and how well you are informed.

Those noble mages have many eyes and ears; they can quickly receive news of any good missions that come their way.

They might receive the mission notification even before the mission is officially posted.

However, Gaode Maps doesn't dwell on this.

Good missions are hard to come by, so he'll just take on "bad missions".

As long as there's a task, that's fine.

Upon entering the main hall on the first floor of the Mage Tower, and arriving at the crystal board where tasks are distributed, Gaode begins to select tasks.

He was a very obedient person, so he kept in mind what Captain Roll and Master Lupin had told him:

First, you must be realistic about your abilities when accepting a task.

For the Sea Sentinel Mage, a single failed mission, in terms of his resume, cannot be offset by ten successful missions.

It's better to do less than to make a mistake.

Secondly, it's best not to accept any missions from Lagos during this period.

Based on his own strength as a first-level mage, Gao De quickly selected two quests that he could accept.

One is the undercurrent of corruption.

In the waters belonging to Ithaca, which is under the jurisdiction of Dorne, a large number of fish have died, and dark purple slime has been found spreading in some parts of the waters.

The monks need to investigate the source of the pollution and resolve the problem.

The other is the potential for a crab infestation.

Residents of Monte Town discovered a large number of empty-shelled sea turtles on the beach near the coast. Their flesh and blood had been removed, leaving only some brownish sand and gravel.

According to the sea sentinels, this is the old shell shed by a juvenile marine mammal called a shell-stealing crab.

Shell thieves are first-tier marine mammals that live in groups. When they grow to the size of a fist, they feed on flesh and blood. Adult shell thieves will directly attack any creature that passes by.

Juvenile shell-stealing crabs, on the other hand, will take advantage of the creature's inattention to burrow into its body and begin to devour its flesh from the inside.

Furthermore, these aquatic creatures reproduce extremely quickly if they have enough food, and if not careful, they can develop into a large-scale shell-robbing crab infestation.

This poses a significant safety hazard to residents living nearby.

The moment traces of shell-stealing crabs are discovered, manpower must be organized to eradicate them, preventing them from growing stronger.

That's exactly what the sea sentinels did; they immediately issued the mission.

One of these tasks has been listed for four days, and the other for two days, and neither has been picked up yet.

The reason is also very simple.

This is too tricky!

The task description for "[A Tide of Corruption]" is very brief, but the other information implied behind it is not written out.

In reality, based on past experience, the mysterious appearance of this dark purple slime is most likely due to a leak at the local magic workshop, causing a large amount of harmful wastewater to flow into the waterway through underground pipes and pollute the area.

As shops in the extraordinary realm, magic workshops are usually backed by local nobles or high-ranking mages.

Even the Sea Sentinel Mage would find it difficult to deal with these local bullies once he arrived in the area.

The mission was met with numerous obstacles, making it difficult to complete. However, if there were other hidden motives behind the matter, murder to cover it up was not uncommon.

Therefore, given the troublesome and extremely risky nature of the task, no one took it on for a long time, even though it didn't seem particularly complicated.

As for the potential for crab infestation, it's not because shell-stealing crabs are particularly difficult to deal with.

These shell-stealing crabs usually hide under the sand or in the rocks near the sea, and are rarely active.

Then, its body is very small, its numbers are large, and it is extremely vigilant. At the slightest disturbance, it will disappear without a trace.

Although their combat strength is not strong, finding them all would be a difficult task.

The most common procedure is to determine the activity area and scale of the shell thief crabs based on their activity radius and the food scraps they leave behind.

Then, during the peak times for shell thieves to forage, namely early morning and evening, they would stake out the area and wait for the shell thieves to emerge.

The trouble and time-consuming nature of this entire process is self-evident.

To make matters worse, after the eradication operation is over, it will take another two weeks for the residents of Monte to confirm that there are no more traces of large numbers of shell-robbing crabs in the surrounding waters and beaches before the mission can be considered successfully completed.

If you find more traces of shell-stealing crabs, it won't affect your mission if it's just an isolated case. But if there are too many, you'll have to redo the mission, or you'll have to consider it a failure.

Therefore, despite the fact that the reward for the "Crab Plague Risk" mission is a whopping six third-class merits, it has remained largely ignored.

Gao De glanced at the two mission descriptions, thought for a moment, and, combined with the advice of Master Lupin and Captain Rol, quickly made up his mind.

"I want to take on the 'Crab Plague Hazard' mission." He took out his identification tag, stepped forward, and handed it to the staff member.

Upon hearing this, the staff member couldn't help but glance at Gaode again, but didn't gasp or offer any well-intentioned advice to Gaode to "act within their means." Instead, they simply took Gaode's identification badge and quickly completed the registration process.

"Master Gaode, we have registered you for this task. We wish you success in completing it!" he said as he returned the identification tag to Gaode.

After leaving the White Tower of the Abyss, Gao De went to the Azure Wave Court to pick up Tuanzi, who had been fed a lot of high-level blood food and had become quite "fat".

More than three months later, Tuanzi was finally able to go on a mission again. He had obviously "forgotten the pain once the wound healed" and completely forgot about his terrible experience in the Marco district. He shook his head and kept getting excited.

However, this time Gaode Maps was not prepared to "trap" it.

"Come in, we're about to set off." He first fed Tuanzi a piece of high-grade blood food that he had brought from the North, then opened the capybara pouch and pointed the opening at Tuanzi.

Fortunately, after the animal shrinking technique was used, Tuanzi could still easily squeeze into the capybara pouch, but Gao De still clearly felt that the load was a bit heavier.

The economy of Monte is relatively less prosperous, one of the most obvious signs being that there is no airship base in the area.

Therefore, Gaode Maps chose a boat instead of the most convenient and fastest airship for this trip.

Fortunately, Monte is a small town belonging to Dorne, and it's not too far from Dorne.

If you take a passenger ship, the journey usually takes about five hours, but it will take an extra five hours if there is bad weather.

With such favorable terrain, coastal cities are more affected by the marine climate, but the inland areas of Barrow County generally have excellent weather most of the time.

The Plantagenet Dynasty was the first human dynasty and also the longest-lasting.

Behind its long-lasting prosperity, aside from human factors such as heritage, cultural foundation, and the wisdom and strength of the royal family, the superior timing and geographical advantages were also indispensable.

After boarding the ship, God released Tuanzi from the capybara and let Tuanzi travel underwater with the ship to Monte Town.

At the speed of a passenger ship, Tuanzi could swim for a whole day and night without expending too much energy. Compared to the stuffiness of being in a capybara, it would definitely prefer the former.

The inland waterways of the Plantagenet Kingdom were vast, complex, and extremely dense, with countless branches. It was a typical river valley plain terrain, with major rivers and lakes stretching for thousands of miles, flowing ceaselessly like silver dragons.

This vast expanse of water nourished the land on both banks, fostering the highly developed agriculture of the Golden Flower Dynasty and sustaining countless people.

At the same time, the water itself sustains countless creatures.

In these crisscrossing waterways, there are countless magical plants, treasures, minerals, and even ferocious aquatic beasts.

However, most treasures in the water are extremely difficult to obtain.

First, it is extremely dangerous, with dangers arising from the natural environment of the water area itself, such as undercurrents and whirlpools, as well as lurking ferocious water beasts that are ready to attack at any time.

The deeper the water, the more ferocious the water beasts that lurk there.

Secondly, the water is murky, making it difficult to find and even harder to find treasures.

Only occasionally, when someone is lucky, can manage to obtain a few treasures from the water.

Gaode Maps seems to be having a lucky day.

The boat had only gone halfway when the round head of the dumpling, which was swimming freely in the water, floated to the surface and approached the side of the boat, making splashing sounds to attract Gao De's attention.

Hearing the sound, Gao De came to the side of the boat and looked down. He saw the dumpling in the water constantly moving its fins, as if it were beckoning to him.

He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow: "You mean there was an unexpected discovery in the water?"

Tuanzi quickly bent over, then straightened up abruptly, repeating the action three or four times, mimicking a human nodding.

(End of this chapter)