Above the mage

Chapter 450 Soren County Rockwind Guard

The first match of the day has ended.

The number of spectators in the fencing hall was constantly increasing, with cheers mixed with the noise of the newly arriving crowd.

Clearly, this was a highly effective warm-up match.

Even for those "gamblers" who are used to watching all kinds of exciting fencing matches, Gao De's reckless fighting style is still rare.

The splattered blood caused their adrenaline to surge, putting them into a state of excitement prematurely.

Because of this excitement, these spectators often place even larger bets in subsequent fencing matches.

However, this has nothing to do with Gaode Maps.

His task for the day is now complete.

He waved his hand, refusing the sword club staff who came up to the ring to help him off, and Gao De dragged his blood-stained steel sword down the ring with steady steps.

His body was covered in open wounds, from which blood occasionally seeped out, leaving footprints of varying depths on the floor with every step he took.

But his expression was unusually calm, like an unfeeling iron golem.

This contrast caused the audience to erupt in even more enthusiastic cheers.

Although this was Gao De's first game, his performance has already made many viewers remember the swordsman "Shan".

If he can maintain this performance, he might win two or three more matches. Even if his swordsmanship is still relatively "low-level", he can still "level up".

"Mr. Shan, this way please." The black-clad waitress who had greeted Gao De yesterday was already coming forward.

Today she wore a low-cut lace top, revealing her fair skin, and her tone was more attentive than yesterday.

Following the waitress, Gao De entered the sword hall's internal office area.

"Mr. Shan, would you like to use our sword-making hall's treatment? Although it's not free, for swordsmen like you, our fees are based on cost, which saves a lot of money compared to outside treatments." As we walked down the narrow corridor, the waitress asked softly in a gentle voice.

"No need," Gao De coldly uttered.

His main purpose in coming to the sword club, to put it bluntly, was to trigger [Adaptive] by "self-harm".

If you suffer all this, isn't it a contradiction to then seek treatment?

Meanwhile, Gao De looked down at his wound.

Pain was inevitable, but fortunately, with the blessing of his Dharma-endurance body, he was able to completely endure the pain.

Besides the pain, Gao De could also clearly feel that all the wounds on his body were slightly itchy.

This is the wound healing.

Because his physical recovery ability was already increased to 79.6% by [Adaptive], his injury healing speed was much faster than others.

Now, stimulated by these "horrific" injuries, [Adaptive] is operating at full speed, and his body's recovery ability is rapidly increasing at a steady pace.

Having witnessed Gao De's "fierce" performance in the ring before, the waitress was not at all surprised by Gao De's stiff reaction now.

Mr. Shan is such a cold-blooded swordsman!

The cold-blooded swordsman is naturally taciturn, which fits his character.

Although Mr. Shan's swordsmanship is not as exquisite as that of other swordsmen, he is younger than them.

Perhaps in a few years, Mr. Shan will become an ace swordsman like the Silver Throat Swordsman, so I must maintain a good relationship with him.

The waitress thought to herself, and unconsciously her walking posture became even more graceful, swaying with charm.

Once again, as they stood before the oak door to the fat manager's office, the waitress hadn't even knocked when the fat manager's laughter could already be heard through the door.

"Come in."

The two went inside after the maid opened the door.

The fat manager frowned, his cloudy eyes fixed on Gao De's blood-stained clothes, and scolded the waitress, "Why didn't you take the mountain swordsman to get treatment first?"

"I said no," Gao De said, his voice hoarse but calm.

"Oh," the fat manager was a shrewd person. He had been in this business for so many years, what kind of strange things hadn't he seen?

So he didn't ask why, but instead reached into the drawer, took out a small bag of goldfinch coins, and stuffed them into Gao De's hand.

Gao De glanced inside casually and discovered that it contained 30 Golden Bird Coins.

"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow. According to the rules, the reward for playing a match is 10 gold coins, and there is an additional reward of 5 gold coins for winning, which makes a total of 15 gold coins.

"The other 15 gold coin is an extra gift for the Mountain Swordsman, as a celebration of his victory in the first match." The fat manager's face jiggled with laughter.

More importantly, Gao De's fighting style today was unprecedented in their fencing hall, and it was exceptionally effective in stirring up the audience's enthusiasm.

If Gaode can continue playing for a long time, it will eventually become a top brand like Silver Throat.

Therefore, he was willing to pay more gold coin for it.

Of course, in the fat manager's view, Gaode's approach is destined to be difficult to sustain in the long run.

After all, if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet. If you keep acting recklessly, you'll eventually lose your life.

"Why not take free money?" Gao De didn't stand on ceremony with the fat manager and stuffed the small bag of gold coins into his pocket.

"Could you please arrange another match for me two days from now?" he said again.

"Huh?!" Gao De's request made the fat supervisor's pupils shrink slightly. He even doubted whether he had heard correctly. He glanced at Gao De's injuries and said, "Mountain Swordsman, your injuries are so serious. Shouldn't you rest for a few more days and take good care of yourself?"

He wasn't kind-hearted; in fact, he wished Gao De could play every day so he could make a fortune.

But he still understood the principle of taking things slowly and steadily. Swordsmen willing to participate in the competition were a scarce resource, and they couldn't just be wasted like this.

With such a serious injury, two days is hardly enough to recover. To play a game with such an injury is practically suicide.

"Just arrange it for me," Gao De said coldly without offering any explanation.

The chubby manager paused for a moment, then flipped through the booklet on the table again before saying, "Then it'll still be the first match of the night, is that alright?"

"Okay." Gao De nodded, said no more nonsense, and left on his own.

Watching Gao De leave, the fat manager let out a long sigh and said to the waitress whose chest was exposed, "This mountain has quite a history. It seems they're using our sword-making school as a whetstone."

The fact that he is willing to play again in two days despite such an injury shows that he is confident that he can recover from the injury within those two days.

Only high-level potions and spells can achieve this in such a short time.

The fact that the mountain was able to obtain such resources indicates that its origins are not simple.

With such a background, why would they risk their lives to participate in their fencing club's wet fencing competition? It can't be just for a few coins, can it?

Considering how young he is, the answer becomes obvious.

He is clearly a simple swordsman who is obsessed with the sword and wants to improve his swordsmanship through it.

The chubby supervisor had no objection to this.

Regardless of Gao De's purpose, as long as he participates in the competition at the sword hall, he can earn a lot of money.

After leaving the fat supervisor's office, Gao De took off his tattered clothes in the changing room next to the corridor, bandaged them up simply, changed into a new set of clothes, and left the sword hall through the back door.

The body's ability to recover from injuries increased by 79.8%.

In less than ten minutes, the body's ability to recover from the injury had already begun to improve.

Furthermore, this will be an ongoing process.

[Adaptive] will continue to be triggered until his injuries are fully healed.

The price is that you have to force yourself not to use external treatments, endure the pain, and rely solely on your body's self-healing abilities to recover.

For outsiders, this would probably be very difficult to do.

However, Gaode has already evolved the [Painful Body], which gives him an extremely high tolerance for pain, which is exactly what helps him improve his adaptation progress now.

As more and more bodies evolve, this invisible interaction and mutual support will become more and more frequent.

This is similar to how people with strong running ability tend to learn other sports faster and perform better than others.

While one may be able to endure, the pain will not disappear simply because of one's high virtue in enduring.

In addition, the dense wounds did look quite frightening, so Gao De wisely chose to stay at home to recuperate, practice the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture," and build up his magical models, instead of going out.

That 30-year-old Dragon Bird Blood Fungus is highly potent.

Because Gao De was not far from achieving the first perfect ring, he did not completely exhaust the medicinal power of the Dragon Bird Blood Fungus at that time, and some residual medicinal power remained in his body.

This lingering medicinal potency will gradually dissipate over time.

Therefore, Gaode is taking this time to digest the dissipating residual medicinal effects.

As expected of a specialty magical plant of the Golden Flower Dynasty, even though he was already a second-ring mage, the Dragon Bird Blood Fungus still had a significant effect on improving his mage level.

On the emerald green magic crystal formed from the Azure Wood Longevity Scripture, the sixty-first magic line was already faintly visible, about to solidify.

The progress is encouraging.

The next day.

Gao De's injuries had not recovered by more than half; he had only stopped bleeding, but his plan to recuperate in seclusion had to be abandoned.

The staff sent by the Sea Sentinel rushed over, saying that there was something important and asked him to go to the White Tower of the Sea Abyss immediately.

Something important?

Gao De quickly realized that the approval for his military rank promotion must have been granted.

Once things are settled, the process is quite quick.

After all, it was a personal approval submitted by someone like Lieutenant Colonel Grayling, so how could the person in charge of the approval dare to be negligent?

In this situation, Gaode had no reason not to go.

He had no choice but to cast a [Disguise+] spell on himself to conceal the horrific wounds that his clothes could not cover, then went back to his bedroom to change into the Sea Sentinel's uniform before rushing to the White Tower of the Abyss.

The Sea Sentinels originated in and were established in Bairo County. Their mission scope was also limited to Bairo County, but they were not under the jurisdiction of Bairo County. Instead, they were under the vertical management of the Plantagenet Dynasty.

The Sea Sentinels are all genius mages with abundant resources, and they have produced an overwhelming number of high-level mages.

This is a vast and powerful military force and strategic resource, which can only belong to a dynasty.

This would prevent local nobles from colluding to monopolize the resources of the Sea Sentinels, and also prevent them from colluding with the Sea Sentinel mages to use their positions to engage in illegal development activities that could threaten the foundation of the dynasty's rule.

Another point is that the mages trained by the sea sentinels are an important resource for the dynasty, and vertical management makes it convenient to deploy them when needed.

Under this management model, lower-ranking promotions within the Sea Sentinels can be decided independently, while promotions to higher ranks require reporting to the dynasty for a final decision.

The promotion to the rank of warrant officer is neither a major nor a minor one; it is at least a step into the official ranks, and just at the point where it needs to be reported to the dynasty.

Although the territory of the Golden Flower Dynasty cannot compare to that of the Holy Empire, which occupies most of the Nolan continent and spans the three continents of Midgard and Terra, it is still considered vast.

For ease of management, the dynasty was structured with a dual-core system.

Essentially, it was a "two-capital system".

The first core location is naturally the capital of the Plantagenet Dynasty, the City of Glory.

The City of Glory is located in the upper part of the center of the Plantagenet Dynasty.

Therefore, the second core was the South Coastal Capital, located in the most prosperous county of Fos in the southern region of the Plantagenet Dynasty, which governed four counties including Bairo County.

Its power is neither too great nor too small. It is under the jurisdiction and supervision of the capital, but it can carry out many government orders. It is a useful secondary capital for the glorious capital, including approving the promotion of military ranks within the sea sentinels.

Gao De's military rank promotion was achieved through the Nanbinhai Jishu (South Coastal Capital Region) route, which is why the approval process was completed so quickly.

Upon arriving at the White Tower of the Sea Abyss, Gao De, led by a staff member, met Captain Merrick and an official from the South Coastal Capital Region dressed in exquisite official robes, with several attendants behind the official.

The man was a middle-aged man with an extraordinary air. Upon seeing Gao De arrive, he immediately took out a document and read out the promotion order without hesitation: "Sergeant Gao De, receive the order!"

The other party's voice was full of energy, and the edge of the unfolded parchment was sealed with wax as red as blood, which was the exclusive mark of the South Binhai Capital.

Gao Dewei straightened his expression and listened carefully to the announcement of his promotion.

The gist of it was a summary of his achievements, followed by praise from the perspective of the dynasty, encouraging him to continue contributing to the dynasty, and finally, the main event: an exceptional promotion, from sergeant to warrant officer, bypassing the rank of sergeant.

After Gao De received the documents and expressed his gratitude, Captain Merrick stepped aside to invite him to join him.

"You've come from afar, please rest for a while. Lieutenant Colonel Grayling has prepared a banquet at his residence."

The middle-aged man waved his hand and declined, saying, "I only came here on my way here. I have an important appointment to announce at the Rockwind Guard in Solon County, so I can't stay here for too long."

"The appointment of the Rockwind Guard?" Captain Merrick asked thoughtfully, then tentatively inquired, "Is it that highly controversial one?"

"Yes." The middle-aged man nodded solemnly.

"I see. Then I won't delay your journey any longer. Things over there are more important." The person seemed to have something extremely special about him. Upon hearing this, Captain Merrick no longer tried to stop him and quickly clasped his hands in greeting.

(End of this chapter)