Above the mage!

Chapter 322 I am indeed a genius (Part )

As the staff read out the names, a wizard who was obviously older than Bonn Mac stepped out from the crowd.

His name is Pao Locke.

To be honest, he was nervous.

But if you think about it, this battle does not involve any life-threatening situations, and there is no need to win, so the psychological pressure is actually acceptable.

Fight for a better future!
This is what Pao is thinking at the moment, and it is also the thinking of most people present.

However, the outcome of the battle did not change because of his firm belief.

Pao's ending was not dissimilar to that of Bonn Mac.

The time they lasted should have been just a few seconds different, and even the opening scene was the same - when leaving the deck, he was unable to avoid the blows of Paul's thick but flexible tentacles, and was directly pulled into the sea.

Naturally, when Pao was thrown back to the deck by the giant octopus and struggled to get up, wet and in a mess, Warrant Officer Xilin had already unceremoniously put a big X after his name.

Bonn Mike, who witnessed this scene with his own eyes, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart, and even felt secretly fortunate.

——The staff and the Sea Sentinel mages did not chase him away, so after a moment's hesitation, Borne Mike chose to stay and watch the performance of others in the re-examination.

He had no rift with Pao, or rather, he didn't know him at all.

Although one's own failure is terrible, the success of others is even more worrying, so after seeing Pao's failure, he subconsciously felt relieved.

And this feeling of comfort continues endlessly.

The performances of the mages who were drawn next were basically the same as theirs.

There were two older first-level mid-level mages who, relying on their deeper magical power and more spells, managed to stay in the water for more than ten seconds.

However, it was obvious that these ten seconds were not enough for them to pass the Sea Sentinel's re-examination.

In this way, ten mages who passed the initial test were retested one after another, and the total time spent was less than half an hour.
This made Warrant Officer Xilin shake his head repeatedly.

In fact, he no longer focused on looking at the transparent plate on the alchemy machine as he did before, but turned around and started chatting with the young sea sentinel wizard beside him.

"We have to ask the people at the preliminary exam to be more strict in the future. Isn't it a waste of our time to send these people here?" he said with a frown.

"Warrant Officer Xilin, you can't blame them. After all, the preliminary exam only tests your magic power and mental strength, and then combines it with basic information for screening. It's normal that we can't tell the comprehensive qualities of the registered mages." One of the sea sentinel mages said with a smile.

Warrant Officer Xilin naturally understood this principle, he was just complaining out of boredom.

"I don't know if we can recruit anyone this time." Warrant Officer Xilin sighed again.

"It's okay. Even if we can't recruit anyone this time, it's not a big problem. We already have four new members this year." Another person nearby hurriedly comforted him.
"Although there are quite a few of them, they are just barely up to par. It can be said that it is better than nothing. We haven't had a genius who can impress people in our Sea Sentinel for a long time."

Warrant Officer Xilin added: "If this continues, our voice in the Bright Sentinels will become weaker and weaker."

Hearing this, the other three Sea Sentinel Mages also felt helpless, "This kind of thing is something you can only encounter by chance, alas."

"This Sentinel of Light is clearly derived from our Sea Sentinel. How come..." One of them seemed to have felt a sore spot and became indignant.

"Harry, be careful with your words!" However, before he could finish his words, Warrant Officer Xilin interrupted him in time.

The sea sentinel wizard named Harry was so shocked by what Warrant Officer Xilin said that he realized he had said something wrong and quickly shut up.

"Next one, Goder."

At this time, the staff had already called out the new name.

"Hey, this Gaode doesn't seem to be simple."

At the same time, another Sea Sentinel Mage looked down at the introduction and spoke in surprise.

"What do you mean?" His words immediately attracted the attention of the other three.

When Gao De heard his name, he calmly and silently stepped out of the crowd.

He was the eleventh wizard drawn today. He did not make the final appearance like in TV dramas, and then gave a surprise to the examiners who had been disappointed all day, stunning the whole audience.

However, this ranking is already a good one. Someone has tested the waters before him, which is enough for him to understand the situation and prepare himself mentally without getting anxious because of waiting too long.

However, what Gao De did not expect was that after he stepped out of the line and stood at the edge of the deck, the four examiners who had not shown much expression the entire time and just stared at the transparent board of the alchemy machine, now suddenly raised their heads and looked straight at him as if they had made an appointment.

Including the most indifferent Warrant Officer Xilin.

As for the reason, it is actually very simple.

On the parchment with the names of the mages participating in the re-examination written on it, there will be attached the comments left by the examiners of the initial examination.

After Gaode's name, there is an introduction to his information, including his mage level, magic power, mental strength, as well as his origin and background.

After the information introduction comes the evaluation given by the preliminary examination examiner. It is just six short words, but it carries a lot of weight:
"Top Mage Talent".

Finally, an extra line of notes was added: the re-examination scoring criteria can be appropriately relaxed.

This is preferential treatment for "top mage talents" and also an optimism about Gaode's potential.

"What do you think?" Warrant Officer Xilin raised his eyebrows slightly, looked away from the parchment, and asked the young sea sentinel mages around him:
"He is indeed a genius. Born as a wandering beggar, he has never enjoyed any cultivation resources, but he was able to become a first-ring mage at the age of fifteen. Not only that, he even has a mental strength of 186 at the early stage of the first ring."

"If you train him well, he will most likely become a limit-breaking mage in the future."

"It's a pity about his background. He has never had the nourishment of resources since he was young. Even if he has a high talent, there is a high probability that his first-ring expertise will not be outstanding." Another Sea Sentinel Mage said regretfully.

Expertise depends on the wizard's knowledge system, spell library, and a little luck.

These three are the shortcomings of the poor.

"Indeed, and I guess magic is also a weakness."

"That's why we were asked to relax the scoring standards appropriately." The mage who spoke first shrugged and said as a matter of course.

"That's not a problem. He's weak in magic, but he can slowly make up for it after he joins our Sea Sentinel. He's still young anyway, but it's a pity that he only has this specialty."

"It's just a specialization. Although it has an impact, it's not fatal. There's still a chance to catch up later."

The three young sea sentinel mages started discussing with each other.

"But he is not a native subject of the dynasty, but a naturalized citizen of another country. You should give this point more consideration. We, the Sea Sentinels, are the face of Dorne. We cannot be vague about the identity and background of our members, and we cannot allow anything to go wrong."

Warrant Officer Xilin folded his arms, but expressed a different opinion, "My opinion is that we should neither raise the scoring standards nor relax them."

"That's true." The others thought about it.

"Besides, just because one's mental strength is high, it cannot be confirmed that one has the talent of a top-level mage. At most, it can be considered an exceptional talent."

Warrant Officer Xilin continued, "A mage's talent includes both spells and combat. If one's mental strength is strong, but in actual combat, the spells are not cast smoothly, the combat skills are a mess, and the psychological quality is not up to standard, then it is just for show. "

"Warrant Officer Xilin is right!"*3.
"He is the most outstanding one among this group of mages, but that's all. Aren't there many geniuses among our Sea Sentinels? But how many of them will truly leave their names in the end?"

“Resources are limited, but genius is endless.”

Standing on the edge of the deck.

Gao De didn't know what Warrant Officer Xilin thought of him and what he thought of genius.

There was only one thing on his mind now: even if he couldn't defeat Paul, at least he couldn't let him throw him on the deck like a ball.

While waiting to go on stage, Gaode had already prepared a preliminary magic strategy in his mind.

As his mind moved, the magic power in his body instantly became active, flowing and changing, and quickly flashed across the spell model in the sea of ​​spells.

[Mage Armor +], [Increase Resistance +], [Shield +].

There were faint glows on the surface of his body.

The three protective spells have all been cast.

Then comes [Wolf Speed ​​+].

As the spell took effect, Gao De could clearly feel his legs trembling slightly, and a surge of power continued to surge from the soles of his feet.

The sea water is not a terrain but an environment, so [Light Feather Step] cannot work and he did not waste any extra mana.

After making preparations for casting the spell in advance, Gao De took a deep breath, exerted force with his legs, and jumped high from the deck like an arrow.

Almost at the same time, Paul used the familiar "old routine". His thick tentacles, accompanied by the sound of whistling wind, came towards Gode with incredible speed.

This is considered an open card. But the problem is that Paul showed the "king", so even if you know his card, you can't deal with it.

The tentacle was moving so fast that it only left a blurry black shadow in the air, leaving people no time to dodge.

However, this time Paul's tentacles, which had always been successful, finally failed.

With the blessing of [Wolf Speed ​​+], Gaode has both wolf speed and wolf jump.

Therefore, when Paul's tentacles came whistling towards him, Gode had already stepped on its tentacles with an extremely agile posture, and using the force to bounce, he leaped up another step.

The next moment, two fierce energy beams burst out from Gode's fingertips.

【Magic energy explosion+】

The only offensive spell he currently possesses is [Frozen Blade], and this is his trump card spell, so Gao De is not going to cast it easily.

This meant that in this re-examination, he could only attack with magic tricks.

Paul's skin, with a dark luster, shows that he has great toughness and resistance.

In this case, [Magic Explosion +] with the damage type of Noble Force Field damage is undoubtedly the best choice.

More importantly, his [Magic Explosion +] has the function of automatically searching for enemies.

Being able to cast spells quickly while moving at high speed is already relying on the [Body of Magic Ninja].

If you want to accurately search for the enemy, the difficulty will definitely be increased to a higher level. At least for the current Gaode, it is extremely difficult.

So, let’s leave it to automatic search.

Two energy beams hit Paul accurately.

It has penetrating force field damage that directly ignores its skin and causes force field damage to it.

However, the magical energy that was enough to kill the Ice Wolf instantly exploded on Paul, but it failed to cause even the slightest substantial impact on it.

Paul just trembled his huge body slightly, as if he was bitten by a mosquito, without any pain or itchiness.

——Creatures of huge size, not necessarily very powerful, but generally have thick health bars.

The same thing happened with Paul.

As a mutant creature, it can overwhelm the Sea Sentinels, who only recruit elite mages of the same level, so it naturally has plenty of abilities.

thump!
After casting [Magic Explosion +], Gaode jumped directly into the azure sea without even looking at the results.

He is the only person in the re-examination who has entered the water by himself instead of being pulled into the water by Paul.

Although the water area is Paul's home turf, this is also a helpless choice.

After all, away from the deck, there is no place to stand. Is it possible to float in the air without entering the water?
As soon as you enter the water, the sunlight penetrates through the layers of water and spreads out into countless fine bright lines, illuminating the underwater world like a dream and providing a pretty good view.

Of course, even without this light, it wouldn't be a big problem, as Gaode's ability to see in the dark had already increased to over 40%.

He held his breath and looked forward.

Paul was half above water and half below.

It was also at this time that Gao De realized that the name of the species, giant octopus, was really very descriptive for Paul.

The part of Paul that was underwater, with its tentacles stretched out wildly, looked like a twisting forest of phantoms.

The thickest part of the tentacles is as wide as the waist of an adult man, and is covered with densely packed suction cups. Each suction cup is the size of a bowl, with a circle of tiny but sharp serrations on the edge.

The surface of the tentacles is sticky and covered with a layer of slippery transparent mucus, which flickers with a strange luster under the dim light and sways gently with the water flow.

From time to time, a few tiny bubbles would emerge and slowly rise upwards.

call!
The next moment, Gao De realized something, but without time to think about it, his body instinctively turned to the other side.

Moving in the water is not as easy as on land, because there is resistance everywhere in the water, and every inch you move you have to contend with this force.

However, Gaode's movements were unusually smooth and fluent, as if he had some help.

And it does.

[The sensitivity to water flow increased by 36% and oxygen uptake increased by 61%].

The blessing brought by [Adaptive] greatly improves Gaode's swimming ability and breath-holding time in water.

It can even be said that the water area can be considered half of his home ground.

Thanks to the improved ability to sense water flow, Gao De can keenly perceive the subtle movements of countless thin silk-like water flows, and thus cleverly use the force to move.

Just as he finished his sideways move, one of Paul's tentacle came like a swift harpoon, carrying with it countless crystal bubbles, tearing through the water flow and piercing through.

The tentacles broke through the water, creating a series of whirlpools with great momentum.

Fortunately, Gaode took a step in advance and narrowly avoided the edge of the tentacles' attack range.

——This also relies on the ability to sense water flow.

In water, any slight movement will trigger a chain reaction in water flow and create new water flow directions.

Even a gentle wiggle of your fingers can disrupt the otherwise steady flow of water, creating new and complex waves.

These movements, either rapid or slow, interweave into an invisible information network, transmitting all the potential information in the surrounding environment.

Of course, a mere 36% improvement in water flow sensing is not enough for AutoNavi to capture such subtle and detailed information.

But the changes in water flow caused by Paul's rapid tentacles movement are still obvious and easy to capture.

It was through this ability that Gode realized Paul's intention to launch a surprise attack in time.

After dodging Paul's playful temptation, Gode has also activated a new spell model.

A faint light flickered on Paul's skin, which was full of deep and shallow grooves.

The light was as small as a bean at first, and then quickly spread out in all directions, outlining a strange, mysterious and complex totem on its skin.

A rare first-level spell, [Hunter's Mark+]!
As the spell took effect, a secret connection seemed to be established between Goder and Paul.

Paul's every move seemed to be locked by Gode's perception.

In addition, the next attack spell he casts on Paul will gain additional damage bonus.

Immediately afterwards, a faint light burst out from Gaode's right hand again.

Trick, [Frost Bite].

This is a spell that, like Hunter's Mark, has no casting track at all.

Once activated, the magic power will silently cross the space and act directly on the target.

The temperature of the mucus on Paul's body dropped suddenly, and a faint layer of frost formed.

Boom!

However, Paul just twisted his body, and the frost that was about to condense shattered in an instant and ceased to exist.

Frostbite was easily broken.

Godard was not discouraged. He already knew that it was basically impossible for a trick to work on Paul.

This is just to buy some time.

From the moment he left the deck, his third-level Mandorla Demon Eye had quietly opened.

In Gaode's left eye, there are golden lines at this moment, like a nimble fish, constantly swimming and changing.

The [Insight] ability is running at high speed, quickly building a model of Paul and gaining insight into the intricate flow of energy on the surface of its body.

Godard pointed forward.

[Enemy Preemption] has been cast, helping Mandorla's Eye find weaknesses and build basic models faster and more completely.

(End of this chapter)