Above the mage

Chapter 84 Airship

"You arrived at the beginning of last month, so you must have arrived in Bremen City earlier than you, right?" Gao De laughed.

He went into the room and sat down by the unlit fireplace.

Pierre brought over two cups of hot tea and sat down opposite Gaode.

"That was indeed faster than me. I didn't finish everything until almost the middle of the month, and I didn't arrive in Bremen until the 14th."

"Why did you suddenly leave Hogan City in such a hurry?" Pierre asked curiously, as God's actions were far beyond his expectations.

Gao De picked up his porcelain cup, took a sip of tea, and said honestly, "I thought your reminder made a lot of sense at the time. After I went back, I found that the magic concentration in the suburbs of Hogan City had increased significantly, which matched the two signs of the formation of the ley lines."

"Most importantly, I later discovered..." God told Pierre in detail about his discovery at the sewer entrance.

After hearing the inside story, Pierre exclaimed, "The masterminds behind this are actually them!"

"Have you heard of the 'Mala Rat'?" Gao De asked curiously.

He only learned about this term through "Feng Ling Yue Ying".

"I've heard of them before. They're leyline creatures that only appear in the Aden region, and they have a symbiotic relationship with a strange plant called Bloodthorn Vine." Pierre nodded.

"The eyes of the 'Mass Rat' possess an extraordinary ability to hypnotize, but it itself is not very lethal. As long as you avoid the hypnotic red light emitted from its eyes, you can easily kill it."

"And their eyes are a common potion ingredient, with a pair of eyeballs worth about 3 gold."

"Because they are extremely weak in combat and their eyeballs are very light and easy to carry, they can be accumulated in large numbers. So even though these levitates are not as valuable as those powerful leyline creatures, they are still one of the hunters' favorites."

This is easy to understand. It's like the corpse of a burrowing worm, which seems to be much more valuable than a burrowing rat, but if there weren't a convoy traveling with it, how would Gaode (the map service provider) have a way to transport it back to the city?

But the Masochus is different. Not only do you only need to gouge out a pair of eyes, but even if you had to carry the whole Masochus, it wouldn't be too much of a burden.

"A pair of eyes worth 3 gold?!" Over here, Gao De's mind was filled with this sentence, and he felt only pain.

In Hogan City, his [Flame Arrow] killed at least seven Masted Rats.

That's at least 7 pairs of eyes, and at least 21 Sean coins!

21 gold medals, just like that, wasted by my own actions?

"It's alright. My eyeballs were probably roasted after that fire arrow, so they're definitely unusable now," I reassured myself, which made me feel a little better.

"But these burrowing rats are not common; they only live in places where bloodthorn vines grow," Pierre continued to talk.

"They are typical gregarious leyline organisms, and they also have a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with the Bloodthorn Vine."

"Bloodthorn vines love to feed on the blood of living creatures, but they cannot move on their own. They need to rely on the sedative rats to hypnotize living creatures and then bring the living creatures to their vicinity so that they can suck their blood."

"In return, after consuming blood, the Bloodthorn Vine will secrete blood mist to help the Massa Rats grow and enhance their extraordinary abilities."

"And among the zero-ring ley line creatures, the Bloodthorn Vine is one of the strongest in terms of combat power."

"If the Bloodthorn Vine is fed enough blood before it reaches adulthood, it may even grow into a 1st Ring Leyline Creature."

"If a mage wants to hunt down a burrowing rat to obtain its eyeballs, not only will it be difficult to find them, but it will also face the threat of bloodthorn vines. However, bloodthorn vines are ultimately immobile and therefore have limitations."

"Therefore, compared to the risks of hunting other leyline creatures, hunting Massa Rats is still very cost-effective."

"It's a pity that the leyline creatures, such as the Massoo rats, have only appeared in the Aden region before, leaving us mages living in the Bremen region only able to envy them."

"I never expected to see them in the sewers of Hogan City," Pierre exclaimed in amazement. "If I were twenty years younger, I might have already returned to Hogan City."

Gao De nodded in agreement upon hearing this. A group of Ma Suo rats, at least a hundred of them, each pair of eyes worth 3 gold coins, that's hundreds of gold coins in profit!

However, while the individual strength of the Mazo Rat is not strong, upon closer examination, obtaining a large number of Mazo Rat eyeballs is not an easy task.

After all, these are social creatures living on the earth's veins; a large number of ants can even kill an elephant.

Furthermore, you cannot use spells with excessive destructive power to attack the Massa Rats.

If you throw a spell like a fire arrow, the burrowed rat will die, but its eyes will most likely be destroyed, making the hunt pointless.

"Hey kid, tell me the truth, what mage level are you now?" Pierre looked at God and asked seriously.

It is very difficult for outsiders to know the rank of a mage, even for a high-ranking mage to know the rank of a low-ranking mage.

Gao De hesitated for a moment, but still answered, "A second-class mage apprentice, who just broke through last month."

"A second-class mage apprentice," Pierre muttered. "You're not even sixteen yet, are you?"

"No." Gao De shook his head. In fact, he was only thirteen years old this year.

"He has good talent; it's not impossible for him to advance to a 1st-circle mage in the future," Pierre remarked.

"Although I don't know where you learned your skills, judging from your knowledge, I think you don't have a mentor, and it's even less likely that you come from a family of mages," Pierre said bluntly.

Having had so many interactions with Gaode, he had long since come to understand Gaode's "limited knowledge".

"Wild mage, becoming a 1st-ring mage isn't easy. You just wait," the old man sighed, then got up, went into the living room in the hall, and came out after a while with a notebook in his hand.

He handed the notes directly to Gaode, saying, "Take this home and look at it when you have time."

Gao De asked in surprise, "What is this?"

"When I was young, I made a living by hunting leyline creatures. This is my record of leyline creature data."

"This includes the specific names, appearances, characteristics, extraordinary abilities, approximate value, and specific valuable parts of the ley line creatures."

Pierre shrugged. "Detailed information on leyline creatures is only available to high-ring mages, mage organizations, and the government, and it's generally not for sale. I figured all of this out myself through trial and error."

"Although I made hunting ley line creatures my main job for more than ten years when I was young, I actually only recorded about twenty kinds of ley line creatures."

"After all, my strength is limited, so I can only target familiar and easy-to-attack creatures from the ley lines."

"However, these are all common zero-ring ley line creatures in the Bremen region, so they should still be of some use to you."

Gao De took the notebook as if it were a priceless treasure, saying, "It's quite useful."

Leaving aside the question of how much of an advantage knowing the characteristics, abilities, and weaknesses of creatures that actually encounter them, one cannot say for sure.

The analysis of the value of the earth vein organisms alone is enough to make this notebook worth its weight in gold.

Otherwise, situations like the "Massock Eyeball" – a treasure trove right in front of us yet we know nothing about it – will definitely happen again for Gaode.

Even with sufficient magical power, it's difficult to hunt ley line creatures without a adequate understanding of them.

High risk, low reward.

The two sat in front of the fireplace, talking for a long time, accompanied by the occasional sounds of passersby outside the window.

The main story is Pierre recounting his experiences and insights from hunting ley line creatures in the wild when he was young.

This is perhaps what people mean when they get older and like to reminisce about their "glorious years" with younger generations.

Gao De listened intently, feeling both anticipation for hunting the creatures of the ley lines and gratitude towards Pierre.

He and Pierre were not related; they had only done a few business deals together. However, Pierre provided him with a great deal of help.

"When I was young, I always wanted to go out and see the world, like visiting Saint-Sien, but unfortunately I never found a way, which is quite a pity." Seeing that they had been chatting for quite a while, Pierre was ready to end this long conversation.

"Now that I'm older, my mindset has also matured, and I actually feel that it's quite nice to be able to live a peaceful life in one place."

"Is there any direct way to get from Bremen to Saint-Sien?" Gao De had a question about Saint-Sien himself, so he asked as the topic of conversation came up.

He has been in Bremen for a month now, and during that time he has tried many ways to get to Saint-Sien, but he has not found any information.

"Generally, the only way to get to Saint-Sien is by water."

"But there is no direct waterway connecting Bremen and Saint-Sien, so we have to keep going back and forth."

"To get from Bremen to Saint-Ción, you'd need at least five or six transfers."

"This is so troublesome..." Gao De's brows were already furrowed.

"But if we're talking about direct access, it's not impossible, it's just that ordinary people can't get in touch with it," Pierre added, changing the subject.

"What is that?" Gao De's curiosity was immediately piqued.

"Airship," Pierre said casually.

(End of this chapter)