Above the mage

Chapter 393 Strange Fox? Eevee!

The seed shop in Monteville.

"Sir, thank you for your patronage." The shop owner divided the seeds that Gao De needed into small bags, then put them together in a larger cloth bag and handed them to Gao De.

Gao De carried a cloth bag in each hand and walked happily toward his temporary hotel.

The cloth bag in his left hand contained the new tree seeds he had just collected from the seed shop in town.

For him, every time he went out on a mission, as long as he went to a new place, there was a guaranteed reward: a new local tree species.

There are so many kinds of trees.

Therefore, even towns under the jurisdiction of Dorne have different tree species.

In fact, this is somewhat similar to the encyclopedia collection games in some simulation management games from the previous life. Collecting new tree species is to light up a brand new encyclopedia.

Once the number of illuminated illustrations reaches a certain threshold, you will receive a reward (Yogath Hilla upgrade).

This abundant positive feedback made him extremely enthusiastic about collecting tree species.

As for the bag on the right, it contained the Blood Crystal Wheat given to them by Commander Harper.

This is an unexpected gain, and a great one at that.

I never expected that going there just to get a free meal would lead to such a pleasant surprise.

The next three days.

Gaode, relying on his skillful use of strawberry baiting and glutinous rice balls, carried out extensive "entrapment" operations within the area designated by the Monte Township Sheriff's Office for the activity of shell-stealing crabs.

The harvest was plentiful.

The spirituality and wisdom of creatures living in the ley lines are far superior to those of ordinary animals, but their inherent nature is not so easy to suppress.

Moreover, even among humans, how many can resist temptation?

In short, after just three days of standard working hours from 8 am to 6 pm with a two-and-a-half-hour lunch break, Gaode has collected more than 400 shell-robbing crab eyeballs.

In fact, there were already more than 300 on the first day. The next two days were the stage of checking for omissions and catching those few that had slipped through the net.

On the fourth day, we continued to use the Divine Berry bait.

After trying each location and confirming that no more shell-stealing crabs had appeared, Gaode decisively chose to end the mission and head home.

Shell thieves reproduce extremely quickly. Under normal circumstances, it takes a very long time for sea sentinel mages to complete missions. While those shell thieves are being eliminated, they are also reproducing new baby shell thieves, which further increases the mission time and difficulty.

However, Gaode's main strategy is to cut through the mess quickly, giving these shell-stealing crabs no chance to reproduce further, so its task completion time is also faster and faster.

On the way back, Gao De did not choose to take a boat again, but instead took a horse-drawn carriage.

Although the Golden Flower Kingdom also had a well-developed road network and no dangerous, uninhabited areas, its speed was definitely slower than that of waterways.

But this is also for the sake of being safe.

Compared to when he arrived, Gao De now carried a strange egg that had been found underwater. It glowed and looked extraordinary.

He worried that if he continued to travel by water back to Dorne, the egg's "father" and "mother" might sense something and cause unnecessary trouble.

While the possibility isn't very high, it's not entirely impossible either. It would just mean spending a few more hours on the road, so there's no need to take that risk.

Back in Dorne, God first went to the supply depot to submit his mission credentials and apply for mission settlement.

Information is still readily available between the various offices on the first floor of the Sea Sentinel.

So when Magister Neil saw the bag full of shell-stealing crab eyeballs that Gaode handed over, his eyes widened immediately:

"Wasn't the 'Crab Plague Hazard' mission just accepted five or six days ago? Is it over already?"

He looked Gao De up and down.

If I remember correctly, Gaode is just a grassroots first-level mage.

This speed of task completion is either achieved by high-level mages, who have special techniques, or by noble mages.

The reason for the latter is also very simple: in addition to the ordinary magic abilities, noble mages also possess the ability of "money," and having money naturally makes things easier.

The importance of a mage's privacy is a universally acknowledged truth, so even sea sentinels don't pay too much attention to the means by which people complete their missions, as long as the means are just.

Therefore, it is quite common for noble mages to mobilize their family's influence to help "farm" quests. In the case of the Sea Sentinels, although it is not explicitly stated, it can be assumed to be compliant.

After all, family influence is part of a mage's power.

This is roughly equivalent to in some online games from the previous era of Gaode Maps, where players who spend real money hire high-level players to carry them.

Rich and willful.

However, there is an unspoken rule involved.

That means tasks obtained through "brushing" will not grant you the special subsidy for "overcoming the strong with the weak".

Gao De was neither a high-ranking mage nor of noble birth, so why was he able to complete this tricky task so quickly?

Old Neil was puzzled.

Gao De smiled shyly: "I've traversed the Green Tooth Mountain Range and the Sword Mountain Range, searching for and killing ley line creatures. I'm quite experienced."

This explanation was barely acceptable. Old Neil knew there must be other reasons, but asking further would be offensive, so he stopped himself.

After much thought, Old Neil felt that it must be related to the special ability that God had awakened.

Old Neil efficiently completed the registration process and then said to Gao De, "We will send someone to notify you once the mission assessment is complete. However, for now, we consider this mission completed, and you are free to take on other missions during this period."

[Crab Plague Risk] The task is quite special and requires a two-week observation period before it can be confirmed whether the task has been completed.

Gaode already knew about this, so he remained calm.

"Thank you for your help, Mage Neil." He put away his identity badge, left the supplies area, and headed to the adjacent library.

The library on the first floor of the Mage Tower contains mostly introductory books intended to broaden one's knowledge. It doesn't contain much truly valuable knowledge about mages or their skills, so most of the books are open to the Sea Sentinel Mages free of charge.

After searching around, Gaode entered the books in the section introducing ley line creatures, and then found the section on water beasts according to the classification.

For a skilled sea sentinel mage, a thorough understanding of the habits of various aquatic beasts is a basic and essential skill.

Gao De was well aware of this and would often come to the library to read about the Memory Water Beast.

But nothing of it is related to the egg retrieved from underwater.

Gaode does not believe that it has overlooked anything or that its memory is too poor.

He felt that the egg must belong to a water beast of a higher rank, which was not listed in the common water beast catalog.

In the library, the descriptions of the few rare aquatic beasts are in the "paid section," and unlocking them requires a "rank" level.

Gao De was not stingy either, paying to unlock all the rare water beast books that a first-class apprentice mage could unlock, and then carefully browsing through them in the reading area of ​​the library.

The result was that after searching through everything, I still couldn't find any relevant content.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing is that the water beast to which this egg belongs may be even more powerful and rarer than he expected.

The bad thing is that we don't know what kind of thing it is, so no matter how powerful or rare it is, it seems useless.

He thought for a moment, then turned and found the mage on duty on the first floor.

"You found a ley line creature egg on the waterway to Monte Town for your mission?" The mage on duty was incredulous after hearing Gao De's explanation.

The passenger ship's route is fixed, so how come no one else noticed it, but Gaode Maps did?

"Then, you looked through the descriptions of leyline creatures in the library but couldn't find any matching descriptions of water beasts, leading you to suspect that it was a high-ranking or rare water beast?" While expressing disbelief, his expression turned serious as he further confirmed this.

"Yes." Gao De nodded slightly.

The mage on duty gave Gao De an approving look, and after a moment's thought, knowing the matter was of great importance, he continued, "I will report to my superiors immediately. Please wait here for a moment. If it is ultimately confirmed to be a high-level water beast, you, as the discoverer, will also receive a reward."

After giving his instructions, the monk on duty headed towards the second floor, which was still a restricted area for Gaode.

After a while, he returned, his expression more serious than before.

"Captain Merrick is here too. He invites you up. Please come with me."

Captain Gao De was also a little confused, not expecting that a simple report would alarm a mage of this rank.

Led by the monk on duty, he was led to an office on the third floor.

Pushing open the door, behind the black wooden table in the room sat a mage whose age was somewhere between youth and middle age, namely Captain Merrick.

Of course, for mages, especially those with high-level rings, age cannot be judged from their appearance.

For example, the Three Rings Master has a lifespan of up to 375 years, greatly extending his youth and middle age. Even at the age of one hundred, he can only be considered a young man, and his appearance is that of a young man.

"A first-class novice Dharma Master of high virtue?"

"Yes," Gao De quickly replied.

"You did a good job in the Lagos City Water Beast mission," Merrick nodded slightly, a faint smile on his face, as if acknowledging Gaud's performance in that mission, before returning to the main topic, "Tell me again in detail how you found that water beast egg."

The process by which Tuanzi discovered the water beast's egg was quite normal and there was nothing secret about it, so Gaode simply revealed everything.

"Under normal circumstances, your concerns are valid."

After listening to Gao De's account, Captain Merrick said, "If a water monster egg is found on the passenger ship's route, then the parents of this water monster egg are most likely wandering nearby. This means that a water monster has appeared on the route. We must report it as soon as possible and eradicate it, otherwise it could cause great harm to the people."

"This is the basic understanding that a sea sentinel mage should possess."

"Your report was timely," Captain Merrick first acknowledged God's actions before returning to the main point, "However, this situation might be a bit unusual."

Did you bring that water beast egg?

"I brought it." Gao De said, as he untied the bag from his waist. The bag was made of special leather, which was tough and could protect the items inside well.

It contained the water beast egg that was found in the dumpling.

The report was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; he had naturally prepared for it beforehand.

Gao De took the water beast egg out of the bag and placed it on the table.

Captain Merrick stood up, carefully examined the fluorescence and patterns on the eggshell from top to bottom, and then placed his hand on the shell to feel it. Afterward, he sat back down in his chair, his expression returning to calm.

"Captain Merrick, what kind of water beast is this?"

"It can't really be considered a water beast. Its original form was first discovered in the Green Tooth Mountains, so we didn't classify it as a water beast. Naturally, you won't find it in the water beast catalog. Its official name is Strange Fox."

"The Strange Fox?" Gao De had never heard of this name before, and his doubts only grew. "Then why are its eggs in the water, and why do they clearly contain water elements?"

"This is related to the extraordinary characteristics of the lemur itself," Captain Merrick explained to God. "It is a ley line creature with extraordinary transformation abilities."

"When they are in their animal egg form, they are initially just gray animals eggs without any attributes. Then they will continuously absorb the elemental power of the surrounding environment and begin to have their own attributes. Finally, when they hatch, they will become different kinds of strange foxes due to the differences in the surrounding environment."

"Just like this raccoon egg, it has become what it is now because it has stayed in the water for a long time and absorbed enough water elements. If it successfully hatches, it will be a water raccoon."

Good heavens, isn't that Ibrahimovic? The thought flashed through Gao De's mind.

Captain Merrick continued, "Thirteen years ago, we found a severely injured female Wind Raccoon in the town of Desalin. She had just given birth and must have been attacked by other leyline creatures. In any case, she died shortly after we found her."

"Later, we searched the surrounding area and, sure enough, found another fourth-tier leyline creature—the culprit who attacked the female Windfox. Fortunately, we discovered it in time."

"However, we still couldn't find the eggs that the female wind fox gave birth to. But it's not a big deal. Without the mother's help, the eggs would most likely not hatch, so we stopped searching."

"The town of Desalin is located near the waters where you found this raccoon egg."

"So this strange fox egg must be the one left behind by that wind fox," Captain Merrick concluded.

"I never imagined it would hide it underwater; no wonder we couldn't find it."

"We, the sea sentinels, have been maintaining and exterminating water monsters along inland waterways for a long time. Under normal circumstances, the possibility of water monsters hiding there is not high. However, it is good that you have this awareness. I will award you a third-class merit as a reward." Finally, Captain Merrick gave God a little surprise.

"Thank you," Gao De quickly expressed his gratitude, then looked at Captain Merrick with some uncertainty and asked, "What about this strange fox egg?"

"You can take it back and play with it yourself," Captain Merrick said casually, waving his hand.

"Okay," Gao De carefully put away the alien fox eggs, then couldn't help but ask, "May I ask what level of ley line creature the alien fox is?"

Captain Merrick naturally understood what Godd meant by that question and chuckled, "This thing not only changes in type depending on the surrounding environment, but also in rank."

"The Wind Fox we found before was a third-tier earth vein creature. As for your fox egg, even if it hatches, it will only be a first-tier Water Fox at best."

"Moreover, whether they can even hatch is another matter."

"If you want to learn more about the Alien Fox," Captain Merrick said casually, glancing up at the mage on duty beside him, "Mage Freddy, could you take God to the library on the second floor later and get the Alien Fox's information for him to look at?"

Gao De's face lit up with joy: "Thank you, Captain Merrick!"

(End of this chapter)