Above the mage

Chapter 394 The Basilisk of Lake Esmir

"Master Gaode, this is a detailed introduction to the strange fox. Take a look." After searching the library on the second floor, the on-duty Master Freddy took out a small roll of slightly yellowed parchment and handed it to Gaode.

"Thank you." Gao De thanked him as he took the parchment, bowed slightly, and began to read it:

"The Strange Fox is a leyline creature with no fixed attributes or rank. Its extraordinary ability is transformation, which allows it to transform into various forms. Different extraordinary abilities are derived from different forms, making it infinitely versatile."

"To date, eight forms of the strange fox have been discovered: Thunder Fox, Fire Fox, Wind Fox, Poison Fox, Wood Fox, Water Fox, Ice Fox, and Moonlight Fox."

"The highest-ranking alien fox discovered so far is the fifth-rank Poison Alien Fox."

"Regardless of their form or rank, all the eggs laid by a different kind of raccoon are 'initial' eggs, without any attributes or rank."

"Its specific form and future rank will be determined by the environment during the oviparous stage."

"During the oviparous stage, the raccoon egg will continuously absorb various elemental forces from its environment, and the elemental force with the largest proportion will determine its final form. The purer the elemental force absorbed in this process, the more concentrated the magic, and the more powerful its final form will be."

"The Thunder Fox can absorb and store the lightning energy in the air, and can then release it when needed."

"The Fire Raccoon has a fire pouch inside its body. After taking a deep breath, it can exhale extremely hot flames. When the flames accumulate in its body, its body temperature also rises sharply, which is very dangerous."

"The Water Raccoon can blend into water, making it invisible to others. It slowly recovers its condition while underwater."

"The Wood-type Tanuki can absorb sunlight to create fresh air, pure magic, and wood elemental power. Given sunlight, it can survive without food, and its body is enveloped in a unique fragrance."

"The Ice Raccoon possesses the ability to rapidly lower its body temperature and create ice crystals, capable of freezing the atmosphere and creating a snowy, icy landscape."

Seeing that God's gaze finally left the parchment in his hand, the sorcerer Freddy knew that God had learned the basic information about the strange fox. Out of kindness, he added a couple more points that had not been mentioned in the introduction:

"Some high-level mages are quite interested in the Strange Fox. In their view, the Strange Fox's ability to transform into multiple forms contains great secrets, and they want to study these secrets."

If you're short on money, you can sell this raccoon egg to them; you should be able to get a good price for it.

"It's a pity that this raccoon egg is already transforming into a water raccoon. If it were a raccoon egg that hadn't yet shown any signs of developing that form, that would be truly valuable."

"Once the trend emerges, the value will be halved." A look of regret appeared on the face of the monk Freddy.

"Forget it, after all, I personally fished it out of the water. It had been there for over ten years without anyone noticing it, and I was the one who found it. It's a kind of fate. I'm not that short of money, so I plan to keep it and raise it myself," Gao De said, shaking his head.

"I see." Mage Freddy glanced at God thoughtfully, thought for a moment, and then said, "Then you'd better go to the Azure Wave Court and ask about the method of taming leyline creatures."

"You need to know that even if you start raising a ley line creature from an egg, if you don't use the correct taming methods, given the ley line creature's unruly nature, it may not recognize its master after it grows up."

"At that time, all your previous efforts will have been in vain."

"Biboting is quite professional in the area of ​​taming ley line creatures."

"Okay, I will definitely go. Thank you for reminding me," Gao De replied gratefully.

After leaving the second floor of the White Tower in the Abyss, Gao De did not leave the Mage Tower directly, but instead went to the "Quest Hall".

The "crab plague hazard" cannot be considered complete yet, but it won't prevent him from taking on new tasks.

He needs to accumulate enough military merits to exchange for spell recipes; the reward of just one [Crab Plague Risk] is far from enough.

I have to keep doing this job.

Upon entering the "Mission Hall," it was as deserted as ever, with no other sea sentinel mages present.

Gao De's gaze swept quickly across the crystal panel, searching for a suitable task.

This time, it seems I arrived at just the right time, as there are several more tasks available than the previous two times.

His preferred task is to eliminate water monsters.

This type of mission is simple and straightforward, without too many twists and turns. The core is to kill the water beasts found in the water system. After completing it, you can come back to claim your reward.

Of course, the process is simple, but completing it is not easy.

Water beasts are cunning by nature and have extremely strong mobility; their range of activity is extremely wide.

The typical process for issuing a mission is as follows: after the local people discover traces of the water beast, they report it to the sea sentinels, who then verify and confirm the information before issuing the mission.

From the moment the monk sees the task and "accepts" it, to the final rush to the "scene," this entire process takes at least a day.

So much time has passed, and the water beast that was first discovered has long since left the spot and disappeared without a trace.

This means that the sea sentinel mage has to lead his capybara companions, patiently searching for any trace of the water beast along the vast expanse of water.

While the search process wasn't quite as clueless as finding a needle in a haystack, it was certainly a massive and arduous undertaking.

A lucky mage might be able to spot a water beast in half a day;

However, if you're unlucky, it's not uncommon to search for a week or two, or even half a month, in the vast waters without finding anything.

Moreover, even if you manage to find the water beast, successfully killing it is still a huge challenge.

Water beasts possess amazing speed and agility in water.

Even with capybaras, adept at moving in water, assisting in the pursuit, no sea sentinel mage dared to confidently guarantee that they could successfully complete the mission on their first attempt.

After all, in a complex and ever-changing aquatic environment, any unexpected situation can occur.

However troublesome it may be, the mission to eliminate water beasts will always be the most basic, stable, and long-lasting source of military merit for sea sentinel mages.

It can be said that the majority of the military merits of every Sea Sentinel Mage come from this type of mission.

The missions issued by the Sea Sentinels are also mainly of this type.

The tasks selected by Gaode this time happen to be all water beast extermination tasks from various regions.

Although I really wanted to take on all the tasks, unfortunately I couldn't, so I could only choose one.

"I'll choose the one with the highest military merit reward. I have the Divine Berry Technique for setting up nests, making it much easier for me to find water beasts than for other mages. I'm not afraid of difficult missions, I'm just afraid of insufficient mission rewards."

"Then try to choose towns you haven't been to before, the farther away from Dorne the better, so you can collect more new tree species."

After clarifying its standards, Gaode quickly selected a suitable task.

"The [Aismere Lake Basilisk] quest, please." He handed his identification tag to the staff member.

The staff member glanced at the task requirements and said, "Master Gaode, just a heads up, the information provided by the eyewitnesses to the basilisk is extremely limited. We can't determine for the time being whether this basilisk is a first-tier thin-winged water serpent or a second-tier black-winged scale serpent."

"After all, these two aquatic beasts are extremely similar in appearance."

"Because the specific information about the basilisk is uncertain, this quest can be accepted by both first-ring and second-ring mages."

"If a first-ring mage accepts the mission and arrives at the scene to search, and discovers that the serpent monster is a second-tier Blackwing Scale Serpent, they can return to complete the mission; it will not be considered a mission failure."

"But again, this trip will be a waste of time and you won't get any rewards, so from a safe point of view, we still recommend that a second-ring mage take on this task."

Are you sure you still want to accept this mission?

These key details are explained in the mission description, and it is precisely these uncertainties that make Gao De even more excited: if this snake monster is just a Tier 1 Thin-winged Water Serpent, then the final military merit reward will be 2 Third-Class Merits.

However, if it were a second-tier Blackwing Scale Serpent, with his level as a first-ring mage, if he could successfully kill it, he would surely receive another second-class merit.

Missions that can be awarded a second-class merit are extremely rare, especially when he is only at the first level.

It's rare to come across such a task, so how could I refuse?

Gaode had already considered it, so he nodded decisively, "I'm sure."

"Okay," the staff member said, seeing Gao De's firm attitude. They quickly completed the task registration and returned Gao De's identification tag. "Master Gao De, we wish you a successful task."

Biboting.

Gao De has always been someone who is very receptive to advice from others.

Before setting off to carry out the [Esmere Lake Basilisk Quest], he came here to learn from the experience.

After hearing Gao De's purpose, Bi Bo Ting, who was in charge of breeding pets for the sea sentinels, showed great enthusiasm and friendliness to Gao De, and held nothing back about the methods of raising them.

They immediately assigned a keeper to explain to Gao De in detail the general methods for domesticating creatures from the earth veins.

"If it's still an egg, then domestication is much simpler."

"Our Azure Wave Pavilion possesses a special method of magical imprinting that can help mages infuse their own magical power into the eggs in an extremely subtle and stable manner before the eggs hatch."

"This is not a method of control, but rather a way to make the creatures living in the ley lines feel familiar and close to this magic while they are still inside the eggshell."

After hatching, it will develop a sense of identification and following towards you because you share the same magical properties.

"Once this step is complete, the rest will be much simpler."

"After the eggs hatch, with the groundwork laid beforehand, you only need to wipe its body with a soft fabric that has your own scent to let it get used to your smell."

At the same time, mixing a small amount of your blood into the food you feed it will further strengthen its connection with you through the magic and energy within it.

"If this continues for one to two months, it will become dependent on you. After that, you can feed and raise it as a pet normally. Generally, it won't betray you after reaching adulthood." The keeper explained in detail, describing each step very meticulously.

"However, all of this is based on the premise that it is a tamable ley line creature. Some ley line creatures are inherently ferocious, and you cannot tame them no matter what method you use."

After saying that, the zookeeper enthusiastically led Gao De to the office building of Biboting and retrieved a copy of the Magic Imprint Method for Gao De.

After returning to his dormitory with the alien raccoon eggs, Gao De couldn't wait to sit down at his desk and begin studying the magic imprint method.

It's not complicated.

As instructed, Gao De first entered a state of deep meditation, controlling his own magic power to be pure and peaceful, and then channeling the magic power to concentrate on his fingertips.

At this moment, his fingertips seemed to become a convergence point of magic, emitting a faint light.

Following behind, Gao De used his fingertips as a pen to gently touch the eggshell.

The eggshell trembled slightly when touched by fingertips, as if responding to Gaode.

Following the method of magic imprinting, he moved his fingertips along a strange trajectory, slowly channeling a small amount of magic into them.

With each wisp of magic he channeled, Gao De could sense the subtle reactions emanating from within the egg, as if he could hear the heartbeat contained within.

This process lasted about half an hour before it ended.

Having done all that, Gao De tidied up his luggage, slung his capybara bag over his shoulder, took the raccoon eggs, and headed towards the airship base outside Dorne.

He had to rush off to do a task.

The reason for bringing the raccoon egg is that, according to the zookeeper of the Blue Wave Garden, this magical transfer needs to be done at least once a day for a month to produce noticeable results.

On the Golden Flower Dynasty side, Gaode couldn't find a suitable place to raise the alien raccoon eggs.

For him, the most practical solution was to bring the raccoon eggs back to the North.

In the North, there is a suitable environment for the eggs of the raccoon.

Once he brought the alien raccoon eggs to the Northern Territory, he spent most of his time in the Golden Flower Dynasty, and generally did not stay in the Northern Territory for more than a month.

Therefore, before that, Gaode needs to complete the magic imprinting step, before he can confidently entrust the raccoon to the North.

Of course, Gaode is still unsure whether the Alien Egg can travel through the Astral Portal.

According to the scientific definition, it should be considered a living thing.

But it hasn't hatched yet; it's just an egg, so calling it an object wouldn't be wrong.

Gaode Maps cannot determine exactly how the astral portal will be determined; we will only know after trying it.

However, he was also very open-minded and didn't dwell on it too much. If things really didn't work out, he would look for another way.

Whoosh~

The night was as dark as ink, and the water murmured softly.

Gao De stood at the bow of the boat and rowed.

It was the dead of night, and the water was pitch black, like a huge black silk ribbon spread out. Occasionally, a faint sound of water could be heard on the lake, which made one's heart tremble.

Gao De stood at the bow of the boat, but he didn't even light a single lamp.

His left eye was slightly gleaming.

Mandora's Eye has been activated, and with its adaptive enhancement of dark vision, its visible range is actually much wider than that of a lamp.

Of course, it would be better if a light could be turned on, but both the thin-winged water snake and the black-winged scale snake are extremely sensitive to light, and it would be easy to alert them.

As for why we search for water beasts at night, it's not because Gaode Maps is working overtime all night, but because both of these water beasts are nocturnal creatures.

Even if there are sweet berries as bait during the day, it doesn't necessarily mean that a dormant snake's head will be attracted out.

Just like when people are sleeping, even if there is delicious food, they may not be willing to wake up to enjoy it.

Lake Eysmere, one of the three major freshwater lakes in County Barrow, belongs to the city of Brost.

The lake has an exceptionally wide water area, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Under the moonlight, the occasional ripples on the lake surface shimmered with a mysterious aura in the darkness.

Gaode's search is centered on the point where the eyewitness first spotted the water beast, and then spreads outwards in a circle.

Fortunately, there was more than one eyewitness, and the snake-like creature was seen more than once.

It's a pity that all of these sights were taken at night, when visibility is already poor.

In addition, when ordinary people encounter water beasts, the icy lake water becomes scalding hot, and they only wish they could grow wings to escape, so they have no time to take a closer look at the appearance of the water beasts.

Therefore, the eyewitnesses' descriptions of the serpent beast's appearance were inaccurate, and the information they remembered in their panic was even more distorted. Under these multiple factors, even the sea sentinels could not determine the true form of the serpent beast.

There was even an unfortunate victim who most likely lost his life in a snake-like attack.

Therefore, by connecting the sighting point with the location where the serpentine beast committed its crimes, one can determine its approximate range and direction of activity.

Beneath the small boat, Tuanzi had already entered its working mode, activating cruise mode and alertly hunting and observing its surroundings.

Meanwhile, Gaode rowed the boat, throwing down several gem-like sweet berries every so often, and then waited by for half an hour.

After half an hour of no movement, he put away the gem berries, went to the next spot, and repeated the above actions.

(End of this chapter)