Above the mage

Chapter 432 Crystallization

The morning sun pierced through the thin mist, casting amber-colored dappled light onto the cobblestone streets of Phoenix.

Dozens of three-story stone buildings stand side by side, arranged in a staggered manner, gleaming with a cold luster in the morning light.

They have excellent spacing between buildings and nearly ten huge plazas (playgrounds).

This is Phoenix First High School, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.

Inside the classroom, children of all ages were running around.

They wore roughly made animal skin clothes, the boys had bells made of deer antlers hanging from their waists, and the girls wore headscarves made of animal hair.

Despite the frigid temperature, the children were full of energy, jumping and shouting between the tables.

They are a group of children who lack manners.

Anna, sitting quietly in the last row of the classroom, seemed out of place as she looked at the book in her hands.

Anna was always seen as a mischievous child, and certainly no match for her sister Elsa.

But compared to these children, Anna realized how well-behaved she was.

Of course, this is not surprising.

After all, these children are from ordinary families and have never received any formal education.

The primitive tribal lifestyle shaped their rugged and uninhibited character.

Several children would occasionally glance at Anna with curious and eager eyes.

They wanted to strike up a conversation with Anna.

However, Anna's beautiful appearance, inherited from the royal family's excellent bloodline, and the temperament she developed in the royal environment, which was completely different from theirs, made them feel ashamed of themselves.

In addition, they all knew that Anna's sister was the "office manager," one of the most powerful people in Phoenix.

More importantly, during breaks, like now, Anna always has a book in her hand and is flipping through it. They occasionally glance at the contents of the book, but they can't understand anything at all.

These factors combined made them all feel great awe towards Anna, and they dared not get close to her.

But children's innate yearning and pursuit of beautiful things make them subconsciously approach Anna, wanting to find an excuse to strike up a conversation.

Contradictory yet reasonable.

"Clang—clang—clang—"

Just then, a clear bell rang out from outside the classroom, echoing throughout the entire school.

It was clearly just an ordinary clock, yet it seemed like a magical artifact, instantly silencing the noisy school from the previous moment.

The children, who were running around and releasing their boundless energy, seemed to have heard an alarm and rushed to their seats as fast as they could.

In less than ten seconds, everyone was seated in their places, sitting up straight with their hands neatly folded on the table.

Such a change would surely astonish anyone who witnessed it.

Anna, however, remained completely calm.

Because this scene plays out nearly ten times a day, she has long been used to it.

About half a minute later, a young man pushed aside the heavy curtain made of animal hide and wool and walked in.

He first looked around the classroom to make sure no students were absent before clearing his throat and saying softly, "Good morning, everyone."

"Good morning, Mr. Saide!" all the students in the classroom, including Anna, shouted in unison.

"Today's lesson is still a film class." Said smiled slightly, then took out a box from his pocket.

Upon opening the box, one finds an oval stone, roughly the size of a palm.

Seid held the memory stone and channeled magic into it in reverse.

The next moment, the silver patterns flowing within the image stone suddenly shone brightly, bursting forth with dazzling light, just like the scene seen after opening a treasure chest in a novel.

These rays of light intertwined and quickly coalesced into vivid patterns in the air.

First, a blackboard came into view, on which were written neatly in Ace script: "Introduction to Ace Language - Chapter Two: Writing Ace Script"

Then, a middle-aged man wearing an old robe appeared on screen and began to talk to the crowd.

"Hello everyone, I'm your teacher Jonathan. Today, we'll continue learning Chapter Two: the writing of aspen. Let's first review the key points from last lesson. I wonder if you all reviewed them after class."

The children, on the other hand, began to listen attentively and take notes diligently, showing no trace of their previous unruly behavior during breaks.

Saide watched this scene silently, feeling quite emotional.

Jonathan is becoming more and more skilled. He still remembers how uncomfortable he was when he first started recording video lessons, and he almost couldn't even speak.

About an hour later, the bells rang again.

The light and shadow floating at the front of the classroom also disappeared.

Saide carefully put the photographic stone into the box, then addressed all the children in the classroom: "Classmates, school's over. Hurry home for lunch."

"Thank you, Mr. Saide," the children said politely.

Saide nodded and slowly left the classroom.

The classroom erupted into noise again in the next instant, with children calling out to their friends and running out joyfully.

Anna leisurely tidied up her notes and the book that other classmates considered incomprehensible, placing them in a small bag her sister had given her. Then she got up and walked outside.

"Anna." She had only taken a few steps when a timid voice suddenly came from behind her.

Anna turned around and saw a girl who was relatively small compared to the people of the North, looking at her cautiously.

Anna thought for a moment and remembered the other person's name. It seemed to be something like Perl. He was not a member of the Zhenbing tribe, but an orphan taken in by the Snowfield Guardians who had been removed from the list by his brother.

"Is there... something wrong?" Anna hesitated for a moment before speaking haltingly.

Her Ace language is not yet fluent, which is the main reason why she is often taciturn.

Please, those classmates all speak so fast they're practically babbling incoherently. Anna's broken Ace language is completely useless; she can't possibly understand what they're saying, let alone participate in it.

"I heard from the instructor that your Mandarin is very good. There are some things I don't understand; may I ask you about them?"

Perl deliberately slowed down his speech, as if afraid Anna would be dissatisfied, and quickly added, "Jonathan, who teaches Ace language, is my instructor. If you have any questions about Ace language, you can ask me."

After finishing her speech, Perl looked at Anna nervously, as if awaiting judgment.

"Deal," Anna said with a smile.

Anna, filled with the joy of making new friends, had just arrived home when she saw God and her sister Elsa standing at the door.

"Brother!" she exclaimed joyfully, running to Gao De's side.

Gao De picked her up in his arms.

"My sister said you came back several days ago," Anna said, expressing her dissatisfaction.

"I've been busy with a lot of things and really can't find the time," Gao De explained. Faced with Anna's "dissatisfaction," he quickly changed the subject: "I came here this time to check on your learning progress first."

Before leaving the North last time, he took the time to write a new edition of Standard Runebook and gave it to Anna.

Anna is currently the only person besides him who has come into contact with the Six Laws of Hosey.

The key to understanding Hessie's Six Laws lies in their comprehension.

Anna had not received any relevant education before, so her thinking was not yet formed, and she was quite receptive to this kind of unconventional law.

Secondly, her talent points were already allocated to this area, making it almost effortless for her to understand.

However, the new runic literature is essentially just a simplification of many of the tasks involved in runes through calculation, which is equivalent to updating the tools.

However, knowledge of runes remains fundamental and indispensable, serving as akin to raw materials.

If you want to create a finished product (rune array), no matter how advanced your tools are, you can't do it without raw materials.

Anna's talent for calculation has been verified, but her talent for runic writing remains unknown.

This will take time to verify.

Therefore, God made a promise with Anna that he would check her homework the next time he returned.

He certainly hadn't forgotten.

Anna raised an eyebrow and hummed softly.

She even brings her textbooks to school, which shows how hard she works. Naturally, she has nothing to fear from Gaode's assessment.

"You seem very confident," Gao De said with a smile.

"Yes!" Anna crossed her arms and affirmed, "Brother, these Six Laws of Hess are so useful, they're a million times better than those rune tuning things my previous teachers talked about!"

Fortunately, I wasn't a mage back then, so I couldn't continue learning runes. Otherwise, I would have wasted so much time on these rigid things like my sister, and ended up learning nothing at all.

Upon hearing this, Gao De glanced silently at Elsa standing to the side.

It seems that this seemingly very capable office manager has a talent for runic literature that is completely opposite to that of her sister.

However, seeing this, Gao De was already pretty sure that Ana's talent in runes must be quite good, otherwise she wouldn't be so confident.

"Stop, stop, stop! Don't get too cocky. You'll be embarrassed if you fail the test later," Elsa quickly interrupted Anna's "exposing her shortcomings."

Anna, who had been chattering away, immediately fell silent.

It's clear that she still holds Elsa in high esteem.

One hour later.

Faced with Anna's big eyes and Elsa's attention, God nodded silently.

"You passed the assessment."

He had anticipated that Anna's talent for runes was not bad, but he never imagined that it would be so good as to be comparable to her talent for calculation.

A double genius.

This solidified a certain idea in Gao De's mind, and his gaze towards Anna was filled with light.

But considering Elsa was there, Gao De chose to suppress his admiration.

Gao De shook the Green Vine Dew in his hand.

Ding dong ding dong.

A crisp tinkling sound rang out, and the translucent green liquid, shimmering with golden specks, rose and fell.

"Lady Flora, how is she?"

"Six more medicinal properties are still missing," Flora said, frowning.

"Lady Flora, there's no need to rush. Take your time searching. This isn't urgent. Even if we don't find it in the end, it won't matter. Just consider it an attempt," Gao De reassured her.

Flora's brows remained furrowed.

The little guy has always been very competitive.

"I'm about to drink the Green Vine Dew. Lady Flora should remember all the medicinal properties that make it up, right?" God asked again.

"Of course, Lady Flora is very clever!"

"Of course I know that. After all, besides Lady Flora, who else has the ability to deduce the formula directly from the potion?" God said sincerely.

At the Ocean Festival, after the potion-making demonstration by the potion masters, Flora demonstrated her remarkable talent in potion-making:

She can identify all the medicinal properties of the raw materials and can accurately sense the state of the potion during preparation, determining how much of the raw materials need to be added to make the final product.

At that time, Gao De was thinking that, based on this principle, if he gave Flora a bottle of potion, she should also be able to determine what kind of raw materials were needed to make the potion and how much dosage was required.

That is, to deduce the formula from the finished product.

At the time, it was just speculation.

After returning to the North, Godd used the Green Vine Dew as a test subject, allowing Flora to try to reverse-engineer the formula.

The result was that she actually did it.

With her innate ability, Flora could accurately identify at a glance which medicinal properties made up the Green Vine Dew and what proportion each property occupied.

Therefore, all that is needed is to find the raw materials that possess these medicinal properties, which is equivalent to creating the magic potion formula for Green Vine Dew.

However, it also has limitations.

She only provided the medicinal properties, not the specific names of the raw materials.

Her ability to identify the medicinal properties of raw materials is a unique talent that no one else can replicate.

Therefore, the only way to find the raw materials with these medicinal properties is for Flora to slowly look around.

Without a doubt, the efficiency is extremely low.

According to Flora, the Green Vine Dew is composed of nine medicinal properties.

So far, only three of their medicinal properties have been found, namely those contained in icefield moss, edelweiss, and ice swamp worm.

"We need to establish a raw material sample library to facilitate Flora's future deciphering of potion recipes," God thought to himself.

Of course, that's for the future; it's not a high priority right now.

After seeing Flora off, God also left the room and headed to the core spiritual land of Phoenix, where the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree was located.

There are many things to do on this trip back to the North, but the most important of them all is his Ring Ascension.

As the Ice Jade Wutong tree advances in rank, the concentration of magic power in the core spiritual land is slowly increasing due to its ability to gather magic power.

Although it is still a long way from advancing to the sixth-tier spirit land, the concentration of magic power has increased significantly compared to before.

If there were a magic power meter, the magic power concentration here would definitely be over 25000.

This level of magic concentration is actually more than enough for advancing to the second ring, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Sunefa, carrying the [Blizzard], was already waiting there.

"Thank you for your trouble." Gao De nodded slightly to Sunafa.

"Your Majesty is too kind."

She wants to "protect" Gaode so that it won't encounter external interference during its promotion process.

A first-ring mage ascends to the ring level, protected by a fourth-ring mage.

Even among the sons of nobles, few received such treatment.

With the added benefit of top-tier ring-up potions, Gao De had immense confidence in his ring-up abilities.

He sat cross-legged under the Ice Jade Wutong Tree, reviewed the key points of the Ring Ascension in his mind, and after confirming that he had not missed anything, he took out the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

Without any hesitation, he finished it in one gulp.

The cool, plant-sweet medicinal liquid entered the body and settled in the mana pool in the lower abdomen.

Glug glug!

The powerful yet gentle medicinal force spread rapidly, like adding fuel to the fire, instantly causing the 60 drops of liquid mana in the mana pool to boil.

Just like a pebble thrown into a clear pool creating countless ripples, the gurgling sound mixed with the crisp sound of bubbles bursting made Gaode's eardrums ache.

The moment the medicinal power reached the magic pool, the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture," which he had long memorized, began to operate.

The liquid magic power cultivated from the "Azure Wood Longevity Scripture" is a bright emerald green color, which is somewhat similar to the Azure Vine Dew.

In fact, they are not only similar, but belong to the same family.

Under this connection, Gao De's absorption of the Green Vine Dew was exceptionally good.

The medicinal properties continued to blend into his liquid magic, causing the original verdant color to change towards a deeper emerald green.

The first hurdle to advancing to the second-circle mage: Mana Crystallization begins!

(End of this chapter)