Above the mage!

Chapter 341 Spiritual Essence and Makoko District

If you don’t understand, just ask.

These were the first words Gao De’s parents told him before he went to school in his previous life.

He did the same.

Since the mission [Expel Water Beasts from Lagos City] has been posted for seven days and has not been taken up by other Sea Sentinel Mages, Gao De is not worried that it will be snatched away by someone else if he delays for a while.

He chose to leave Haiyuan White Tower first and find out the specific situation of the mission before considering whether to accept it.

As for the people that Gao De knows among the Sea Sentinels, not to mention their connections, the only people he knows are Melia and Master Nasi.

Naturally, he felt embarrassed to disturb Master Naxi about such a matter.

So, there is only one choice left.

"Come in first." Melia opened the door and looked at Gode who suddenly came to visit. She was a little surprised, but she still welcomed him in very politely and thoughtfully made him a cup of good black tea.

"I'm sorry to bother you again." Gao De felt a little embarrassed.

A few days ago, he had just troubled the other party with the purchase of a shop.

"It's all small matters," Melia smiled and pushed the teacup in front of Gode, very friendly, "What's the matter this time?"

"After passing the assessment, I plan to take on missions to earn military merit." Gao De didn't beat around the bush and directly raised his questions.

"Oh, you mean the [Water Beast Expulsion from Lagos City] mission." Melia's tone lengthened slightly.

"Your judgment is correct. This mission is indeed not as simple as it appears."

She paused for a moment, thought carefully, organized her words, and then continued, "But it's not what you think. This is actually a regular mission, not a trap mission set up by the nobles to trick people."

Melia spread her hands and said, "If this is a trap mission, it has been hanging for so long and no one has taken it up. This trap is too bad."

"Then what is the reason that no one is willing to take up such a routine task after it has been posted for so long?" After hearing what Melia said, Gao De became even more curious.

"It's because the cost-effectiveness of this mission itself is too low." Melia explained. She picked up the teacup, took a sip to moisten her throat, and then continued: "This mission is actually not the first time it has been issued."

"The magic octopuses and stinking water salamanders in the Makoko area are like weeds on the roadside. They have extremely strong vitality. You just drove away a batch of them, but they popped up again after a while."

“So, the mission to expel the water beasts from Lagos City will basically be launched once every three or four months.”

"The main reason why everyone is unwilling to take on this mission is that the situation in the Makoko area is too complicated and no one likes to go there."

Melia spread her hands and said helplessly, "But once a mission is issued, it must be completed. If no one is willing to take it, someone will be designated to complete the mission."

"The recent missions of [Expelling Water Beasts from Lagos City] were all completed by designated mages."

"Too complicated? How do you mean?" Gao De asked. As an outsider, these geographical and regional knowledge are exactly his blind spots.

Melia sighed slightly, and then told Gao De the details of the situation.

Rich and precious spiritual essence resources were discovered in the city of Lagos in the early years.

The so-called spiritual essence is a sticky silver-blue colloid. When it comes into contact with the air, star-shaped spots of light will appear on the surface. It is naturally stored in underground crystal cluster structures called psychic crystals.

Each drop of spiritual essence contains magical power equivalent to three days of meditation of a fourth-ring wizard. After purification and refining, it can be used as a high-level power source to drive golems and alchemical machines.

Or it can be used as a raw material to prepare "Spirit Burning Liquid" that can quickly increase a mage's mana, which is the spiritual aid that many mages dream of.

In short, it has an extremely wide range of uses and is an extremely precious resource.

Because of the discovery of spiritual marrow resources, the city of Lagos has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities.

It rose rapidly and prospered in a very short period of time, attracting a large number of businessmen who wanted to get a piece of the pie, and many jobs also appeared.

As a result, countless poor people flocked to Lagos from all over Bayero County to make a living.

All of a sudden, the population of Lagos city increased dramatically.

It even became the second largest city in Byro County, second only to Dorne in terms of population and economic prosperity.

However, Lagos was originally a traditional agricultural and fishing city with a large population. After the sudden influx of so many outsiders, it suddenly became overcrowded and the original supporting facilities became overwhelmed.

Problems such as housing shortage, deteriorating sanitary conditions and shortage of public resources followed one after another.

At the beginning, the city of Lagos needed these cheap laborers to mine spiritual essence for them.

Looking at the endless supply of spiritual essence and huge amounts of wealth, his greed was satisfied, so he just had to accept the chaos in the city.

But spiritual marrow resources are always limited. With continuous mining, spiritual marrow resources are gradually exhausted, and the spiritual energy crystals shining with blue light are becoming increasingly scarce.

The city of Lagos no longer needs so many workers, and many poor people gradually become unemployed. However, they do not leave Lagos.

Having lived here for many years, they have long been accustomed to this place and have nowhere else to go.

But after the spiritual essence was gone, the crowding, chaos and filth created by these foreign populations gradually became unbearable for the nobles in the city.

So these nobles joined forces with the city council and ordered these outsiders who did not have Lagos household registration to move out of Lagos as soon as possible.

Faced with such orders, these homeless poor people were powerless to resist.

In desperation, they ended up in the deserted northern bay of Lagos.

There, they built bamboo rafts, huts and settled down.

Later, more and more people flocked here and built their homes on the water.

Over time, the sparse shacks and bamboo rafts became denser, eventually forming a large floating slum community, the Makoko area.

Due to the lack of official management and supervision, the Makoko District has been in a state of disorder and chaos since its establishment.

The sheds and bamboo rafts here are built in a haphazard manner without any planning.

In some places, the huts are so tightly connected that the narrow passages are only wide enough for one person to pass sideways; in some places, the bamboo rafts are randomly spliced ​​together, unevenly and without any regularity.

These shacks are connected with bamboo rafts, forming a huge water community that is as intricate and interconnected as a maze. Once outsiders step into it, it is very easy to get lost.

Also, because the Makoko area was a community spontaneously formed by the poor rather than officially built, there are no supporting facilities for living there.

There is no clean drinking water supply, no sanitary toilets, and no garbage disposal facilities.

The garbage, sewage and even excrement generated by the residents of Makoko District in their daily lives are directly dumped into the waters.

Worn clothes, rotten food, and smelly excrement were just carried away by the water.

Therefore, the sights and smells of the Makoko area are unbearable.

Looking from a distance, all kinds of garbage floating on the water are shocking. When you get closer, the pungent stench is almost suffocating.

To make matters worse, for the sake of convenience and to drive away the poor people living in Makoko, the city of Lagos directly discharges the city's sewage through underground pipes into the waters of the northern bay where Makoko is located.

The large amount of urban sewage has caused the already fragile ecological environment here to completely collapse.

After so many buffs were superimposed, the water in the Makoko area had turned black, and the surface of the water was often covered with a thick layer of oil.

Even those aquatic animals with extremely strong physical fitness could not endure such waters, and the creatures originally living in this area fled one after another.

Only the magic octopus and the foul water salamander, two kinds of water animals that naturally like foul environments, appear here and reproduce in the filthy water.

If you want to drive out and eliminate sea beasts, you have to go into the water.

Given the water environment in the Makoko District, not to mention noble mages, even common mages would frown when seeing it, let alone going into the water to drive away sea beasts.

"This task is neither difficult nor too difficult. It's quite routine. But if you say it's easy, few people can endure the environment in the Makoko District." When Melia introduced the Makoko District, she had a frown on her face the whole time. It was obvious that she was deeply impressed by the place.

"And," Melia lowered her voice slightly, "To be honest, when we sea sentinels go to various places below to perform missions, we are welcomed with a reception, not to mention drums and gongs. Those nobles are also very polite to us."

“But when we went to Makoko to carry out the mission, no one paid any attention to us. Even the nobles and those in power in Lagos City would rather we not come and let those water beasts drive away the poor people in Makoko area.” There was helplessness and a hint of sympathy in her tone.

"You know what I mean." Melia blinked at Godard, saying everything.

My goodness, this is a thankless task.

Gao De thought secretly.

"But," Melia thought for a moment and told God, "The higher-ups have taken these points into consideration, so the military reward for the [Lagos City Water Beast Expulsion] mission has doubled compared to other similar missions, in order to encourage us to take the initiative to accept this mission."

"Of course, it turns out that this doubled reward isn't that tempting," Melia curled her lips. "If it tripled or quadrupled, I'd still consider it."

As a female mage, even a heroic female mage like Melia, her tolerance for the environment is much lower than that of a male mage.

"I understand. Thank you." Gao De clasped his fists and expressed his gratitude.

Now that he had figured out the details of the [Expelling Water Beasts from Lagos City] mission, he very rationally chose to give up.

There was no need for him to be the maverick in a mission that was disliked by all the sea sentinel mages.

Besides, even if he didn’t dislike the environment of the Makoko waters, Tuanzi did!

Capybaras can adapt to all kinds of water, but they should forget about sewage.

Tuanzi has lived in the Biboting since he was born. His first mission was to a place like the Makoko District. The child is still young, so don’t leave a shadow on others.

The next day, there was a knock on Gaode's door early in the morning.

He opened the door and found a wizard wearing a sea sentinel uniform. Judging from the badge on his shoulder, his rank was sergeant.

"Sergeant." Gao De saluted.

The other party nodded slightly, "I came to you today because I have a task to assign to you."

Gao De was slightly startled, "What mission?"

The other party directly handed over a piece of parchment.

"The mission [Expel Water Beasts from Lagos City] has been posted for over a week and no one has volunteered to take it. According to the regulations, the higher-ups will appoint a suitable mage who has no missions to carry out the mission. The person they have chosen is you."

"Okay, I got it." Gao De took the parchment.

This kind of assigned task cannot be refused.

"Leave as soon as possible and don't delay too long." The sergeant gave another instruction and left.

After watching the other party leave, Gao De returned to the room and unfolded the parchment. On it was a detailed description of the task and the deadline. It was also the voucher required to be submitted for reimbursement later.

He just passed the training assessment the day before yesterday and has not completed any task yet. He is an absolute novice.

Logically speaking, he should not be assigned this kind of task.

But this is what happened.

The reason behind it is also obvious.

"Is this also your way of suppressing me?" Gao De murmured softly.

This is the method used by the nobles. Within the scope permitted by the rules, they will have countless ways to "disgust" you.

"Then do it. It's still a double reward after all." Gao De quickly adjusted his mentality.

Let’s finish the task first.

He put away the parchment and took out the Sea Sentinel Mage uniform from the closet.

Although it is the lowest-level uniform for an apprentice wizard, it is also very beautifully made.

The main coat for the upper body is a double-breasted short woolen coat, all blue and made of windproof material.

Lined with waterproof giant whale stomach membrane, the bottom is charcoal gray breeches and non-slip octopus leather boots, ensuring that the mage can walk on the wet deck as if it were flat ground.

The overall garment is slim-fitting, with multiple fastenings and a belt.

Because the Sea Sentinel Mages mostly perform their missions on water and need to ride on a boat in the wind, if their clothes are too loose, they will rustle when the wind blows.

That is only suitable for reciting poems and composing couplets, not for fighting.

Put on the uniform because it is slim-fitting and shows off your figure.

However, Gao De has been in this world for more than two years. After getting enough nutrition, he has grown very fast. He is no longer the skinny and pale-faced man he was at the beginning, and he still looks very upright.

Afterwards, Gao De took out the capybara bag that he had put away for a long time, put it on his back, and went out to Biboting to pick up the capybara Tuanzi.

The breeze is coming, and the water waves are not happy.

The next moment, ripples appeared on the calm water surface.

Tuanzi stared at a clump of water plants that popped up, his eyes rolling around as he looked at Gaode on the shore.

Didn’t he just come to see me two days ago? Why is he here again today?
Tuanzi was puzzled.

"I have a mission. Get ready to go out with me." Gao De explained.

"oi!" Tuanzi made an excited sound, as if she had seen a new environment, food and interesting scenery.

This is the first time it has traveled far away.

Naturally, I am full of longing.

Be happy now, or you will cry later.

Gaode briefly mourned in his heart for Tuanzi who was so excited at the moment.

"Come in." He opened the capybara bag, which was half filled with clear liquid and many tiny bubbles were slowly rising.

If you smell it closely, you can smell a faint fresh scent.

This is a nutrient solution specially formulated by Biboting, rich in oxygen and magic.

Tuanzi shouted excitedly again, his voice was clear, loud and full of energy.

Immediately afterwards, a strong wave of magical power surged out from its body.

Its originally round body began to shrink rapidly, and its limbs also gradually shortened.

Capybaras are born with a supernatural ability - [Animal Shrinking Technique].

In the blink of an eye, Tuanzi shrank into a "little cutie" less than half a meter.

Gao De leaned over and pointed the mouth of the capybara's bag toward the shore.

Tuanzi jumped into the capybara's bag with a splash of water, and called out a few times to indicate that everything was fine.

Gao De then pulled up the capybara bag, tied the straps, and carried the capybara bag securely on his back.

Lagos City, let’s go!
(End of this chapter)