Above the mage

Chapter 8 [Repair Technique+]

After walking through the narrow and dark corridor, the view suddenly opened up and the light became bright.

The aroma of herbs wafted over, and a vibrant green expanse came into view, making Gao De feel as if the musty smell on him had been largely dispelled.

This herb-growing area, which is not particularly large, contains several plots of land with different soil types.

Because herbs are inherently very delicate "flowers and grasses" that require careful care.

Different herbs have different requirements for their growing environment, some of which are even extremely demanding.

Leaving aside external environmental factors such as temperature and water quality, the soil requirements of different herbs are extremely complex.

Most herbs can grow in loose, fertile, well-drained soil.

However, some herbs prefer to grow in forest humus soil rich in humus, such as ginseng.

Some herbs prefer to grow in acidic or slightly acidic soil or on sandy beaches along rivers.

Therefore, it is necessary to select suitable soil for planting based on the growth habits and characteristics of the herbs themselves, adapting to local conditions.

Herbal cultivation is a profound discipline. It requires not only the ability to identify medicinal materials and a thorough understanding of their characteristics, but also the knowledge of how to create a suitable growing environment based on these characteristics to ensure the survival rate of the medicinal materials, increase yield, and enhance their medicinal properties.

These tasks include, but are not limited to, preparation of "nutrient soil", thinning, seedling establishment, deep plowing combined with fertilization to improve soil physical properties, inter-row cultivation, hilling and weeding, fertilization, irrigation, disease and pest control, and plant shape adjustment.

The main tasks for Gaode in the morning are cultivating the soil, fertilizing and watering, and checking for pests and diseases.

Generally, once you become proficient at these tasks, they become simple, repetitive tasks.

Because the types of herbs that Master Seda cultivates are fixed.

So even though it was Gao De's first time doing these tasks, based on the memories left by his predecessor, he still completed the cultivation of the medicinal herbs neatly and without any mistakes.

After doing all that, he only had one task left to complete in the morning.

Gao De hurried to a small room.

The room contained many iron cages, each containing five to ten rats with grayish-brown fur.

These are small gray mice that Master Seda specially bred and raised for use in live experiments with medicine.

While human trials yield the most accurate results, even if human life weren't that precious, it certainly wouldn't be to the point where Master Seda could recklessly use living people for drug trials. In most cases, animal trials are still the primary method.

The gray mouse has a high reproductive rate, low feeding cost, and relatively low aggression. Under these conditions, it also has a high degree of similarity to humans—referring to genetic similarity, not appearance.

Therefore, the little gray mouse naturally became the best live test subject.

Gao De poured some feed into the feed bowls in each cage, filled them with water, and then checked the condition of all the little gray mice in the cages. He found that one of the little gray mice looked sickly and didn't even have the energy to compete for food.

Upon closer inspection, Gao De discovered that the little gray mouse's back resembled "patchy baldness," with a small patch of fur completely detached, revealing the skin underneath, which appeared slightly reddish.

"It seems you have some kind of skin condition," Gao De concluded, nodding. "That's you."

He took the sick little gray mouse out of the iron cage.

Of course, Gaode Maps is not trying to cure it.

Firstly, I wouldn't, and secondly, there's no need for it.

Because gray mice are far less valuable than medicinal herbs, the apprentices in the herb garden don't take the raising of gray mice as seriously as they do with medicinal herbs, so some gray mice often get sick.

The only possible outcome for these diseased gray mice is "early detection and humane euthanasia" to prevent the disease from spreading to other healthy gray mice.

Gao De didn't hold back. He grabbed the little gray mouse's head and twisted it hard along its neck. With a crisp snap, the little gray mouse didn't even have time to struggle before it went silent.

Gao De casually tossed the dead gray mouse aside, but his attention was focused on his own mind.

Deep within his mind, a beautifully crafted crescent-shaped gemstone was now radiating its brilliance.

Some changes have occurred: inside the gemstone, two points of light and twelve dotted lines have appeared, forming two sieve-like patterns resembling the Big Dipper.

Each set of sieve diagrams has seven points and six dotted lines, but at this moment only the starting point is flashing, while the remaining six points are dim.

It's not hard to deduce that the project is only complete after all seven points are lit up.

The next instant, a familiar information interface appeared before Gaode's eyes.

origin:

0环——【人类】（1/7）、【灰眼鼠】（1/7）

Spells:

0-ring stats – [Mage's Hand], [Repair]

Compared to before, a new entry has been added to the original information section: [Gray-eyed Mouse].

That is the scientific name of the little gray mouse.

"Just as I thought," Gao De muttered to himself.

Upon first seeing this information interface, Gao De was already certain that the source could not only be obtained from humans. It should be able to expand into multiple entries, just like the spells section. However, he had only unlocked the human entry so far.

While burying Ilan's body in the back mountain, Gao De casually crushed a few unknown insects to verify his hypothesis, but no new entries appeared in the Origin section.

Either the way to obtain the source is not through "killing".

Either those insects are too small to provide the source.

After all, before the human category, there is a hierarchy: 0 rings.

To obtain the 0-ring origin, it is highly likely that it can only be obtained from 0-ring creatures.

Ilan is a mage apprentice, which, according to the mage ranking system, is equivalent to a 0-ring mage, and happens to be able to provide the source.

The latter is clearly more likely.

You can't get the right answer by guessing; you have to experiment.

In the herb garden, besides the mage apprentices, there was also a zero-ring creature.

【Gray-eyed Mouse】, commonly known as the little gray mouse, is so weak that it can be slaughtered at will. However, in terms of rank, it is just like a mage apprentice, both being at level 0.

This is because the gray-eyed rat contains an extremely thin amount of ley lineage.

This meager amount of ley lineage doesn't grant it any extraordinary abilities, nor does it give it the same powerful strength as ley lineage creatures. However, it does elevate it beyond the ranks of ordinary animals, placing it in the 0-ring category—and there are differences even among 0-ring creatures.

The speculation was confirmed, and what followed was only natural.

Killing seven people is difficult, but killing seven little gray mice is a piece of cake.

Gaode immediately took action.

He took another healthy little gray mouse out of the cage.

The little gray mouse kicked its legs hard in Gao De's hands, making sharp squeaking noises, but it was all in vain, like a weak girl about to be humiliated but powerless to resist.

Gao De carefully examined the little gray mouse for about several tens of seconds. After confirming that there were no changes on the panel, he silently reached out his other hand and extended it toward the little gray mouse, which seemed to have gotten used to being carried and had stopped struggling.

With a crisp snap, the little gray mouse fell silent.

The next moment, another point of light lit up inside the gem.

origin:

0环——【人类】（1/7）、【灰眼鼠】（2/7）

"As expected, death is a necessary condition, but I don't know if it has to be someone who dies at my hands to count."

Gao De muttered to himself.

We can verify this later; there's no rush.

The most urgent task is to obtain the first complete source.

He put down the dead gray mouse in his hand, his gaze sweeping over the other gray mice in the iron cage, whose fate remained unknown.

Gray mice aren't valuable, and they often suffer losses, so even if seven die in a single day, nobody would care.

In addition, Gaode was eager to know the effects of the "Origin", so five more little gray mice immediately sacrificed their lives for it.

soon.

origin:

0环——【人类】（1/7）、【灰眼鼠】（7/7）

At this moment, the crescent-shaped gem remained firmly suspended at the very center of the High Magic Star Sea, motionless.

However, inside the gemstone, there were now seven shimmering points of light, and the six dotted lines had turned into bright solid lines. The points of light and the solid lines formed an inseparable model, like the Big Dipper, slowly rotating, which was exceptionally beautiful.

"Come on, let me see what you're really capable of."

"Gaud said to himself, while his attention shifted to the two spells he knew in the spell bar."

Each one has a small yellow plus sign flashing.

He hesitated for a moment, but still decided to try the repair procedure.

[Repair Technique] (Change type, 0 ring):

This spell can repair a break or crack on an object you touch, such as fixing a broken chain, a key broken in two, a torn cloak, or a leaky wine bag.

As long as the damage or breakage is no more than 1 foot in any direction, you can repair it without leaving a trace.

This spell can physically repair a spell item or construct, but it will not restore the spell on such items.

Gao De once again used his mind to lightly tap the yellow plus sign after the repair spell.

"Add points".

The change happened instantly.

Within the gem, the perfect Big Dipper constellation representing the origin of the Gray-Eyed Rat stopped rotating and began to flow, swimming directly out from inside the crescent-shaped gem.

They moved toward the spell model representing [Repair].

The so-called spell model is the basis for a mage to cast spells.

It is composed of star particles from the magical cosmos, and its appearance resembles a constellation made up of individual stars in the vast universe.

However, the lines between constellations commonly seen in books are artificially connected to facilitate observation and understanding of the constellation's structure, while the lines between magical models are real.

Following the instructions of the spell formula, the mage uses mental power to guide the stars in the spell's starry sky, using mental power as a support to fix the stars, thus constructing a spell model composed of stars.

Once a spell model is successfully constructed, it means that the mage has initially mastered the spell and can then cast the corresponding spell through the spell model.

Each spell model has a different construction, and the differences can be described as huge. It has almost strict requirements on the number of stars and the distance and direction between the stars, and even the slightest difference will not work.

Therefore, mastering a spell is an extremely difficult and time-consuming task. Under normal circumstances, it takes hundreds or even thousands of failures to successfully construct a spell model.

Now, the goal of "Big Dipper" is the spell model, which can be called the most important thing for a mage.

The Big Dipper was moving very fast, and in the blink of an eye, it had already crashed into the spell model of the [Repair] spell.

There was no collision between Mars and Earth.

In the next instant, a flash of light appeared, and the seven shimmering points of light merged into the spell model like swallows returning to their nests.

"This is."

Amidst Gao De's bewilderment, the originally complete [Repair] spell model, after the light spots merged in, seemed to be rejuvenated, beginning to sprout new branches and leaves, extending outwards at certain nodes, and showing new lines and stars.

The whole process was very stable and natural. Some nodes extended a line and a star, while others extended even more, but these changes did not destroy the original basic structure of the spell model.

Although only seven points of light were added, the number of starlight that ultimately extended from the [Repair] spell model was far more than seven; it grew into a full thirteen starlight before stopping.

The Big Dipper has disappeared, and the [Repair] spell model has returned to calm, with no further changes.

Looking at the spell model that had changed and was very different from the theoretical model of the [Repair] spell, some information instinctively and inexplicably surfaced in Gao De's mind.

This information tells Gaode that the new spell model in front of him is still the 0-ring alteration spell [Repair], and its effect has not changed. Its function is still to repair minor damage to the target item.

However, compared to the original repair technique, it has one more thing.

The Repair spell under the new spell model will restore the spells that were originally attached to spell items when repairing them.

It may seem like only a slight change has occurred, but Gao De's vision is not so short-sighted. He clearly understands that this has already been a qualitative leap.

This process, in the terminology of the world he traveled to before, is called "skill enhancement".

This enhancement is not just a simple increase in numerical values, but a strengthening of a higher-level mechanism.

Some changes have also occurred to that rudimentary information interface.

origin:

0 Rings - [Human] (1/7), [Gray-eyed Rat] (Used)

Spells:

0-ring stats – [Mage's Hand], [Repair+]

The 0-ring spell [Repair] has been transformed into [Repair+] under the influence of the source, and the yellow plus sign that appeared after its name has disappeared.

【Repair Technique+】(Change type, 0 ring):

This spell can repair a break or crack on an object you touch, such as fixing a broken chain, a key broken in two, a torn cloak, or a leaky wine bag.

As long as the damage or breakage is no more than 1 foot in any direction, you can repair it without leaving a trace.

This spell can physically repair a spell item or construct, but it will not restore the spell on such items.

Additional: When you repair a spell item, you will restore the spell on that spell item.

(End of this chapter)