Above the mage!

Chapter 446 Warrant Officer Mage
Gao De glanced at the scheduled time for the title awarding ceremony, which was the fifteenth day of the Rizhao month.

It is now the 3rd day of the Sunshine Month.

The invitation letter was delivered yesterday, so it should have been sent out on the 1st.

The letter was sent fourteen days in advance to ensure that Gaode could arrange its schedule and make time to participate in the title awarding ceremony.

Moreover, the invitation letter was signed with the name of Count Roland.

The lord of a city, the earl, personally invited Gao De, so there was no reason for him not to go.

In fact, even if such sincerity and importance had not been shown, Gao De would have accepted the invitation without hesitation.

This is like the award ceremony in the entertainment industry in the previous life. The winners can of course not attend and it does not affect the presentation of the awards.

But unless they really can't get away, most people will attend.

After all, people give you awards and honors, so you naturally have to return the favor.

The same applies to the title awarding ceremony.

Auckland awarded Gaode a title with such great significance and power. Although the fundamental reason was still due to Gaode's contribution, it was a huge benefit to him anyway.

Naturally, he accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Thinking of this, Gao De quietly kept the invitation letter close to himself.

As for the remaining two "expired" invitations, he didn't care and just put them back into the mailbox.

Although the former's invitation was a private invitation only to him, the date of the invitation and the banquet time were only one day apart.

According to the aristocratic etiquette of the Plantagenet dynasty, regular banquet invitations other than festivals and major occasions need to be sent out 3-14 days in advance to ensure that the invitees have enough time to adjust their schedules, and it also shows respect for the invitees.

If special circumstances make it impossible to adhere to this time, a handwritten explanation must be attached to the invitation letter.

But this invitation letter from the Burns family was just alone, without any explanation.

Combined with his previous interactions with Zuo Wen Burns, it was obvious that the Burns family still had a condescending attitude towards him, and this banquet was not a good one.

Not to mention that he had missed the time, even if he could have made it, Gao De would not have attended the banquet.

As for the invitation letter from the City Lord's Mansion, although it was delivered very close to the time of the banquet, it did not conform to common etiquette - invitation letters for such festive banquets usually need to be sent out one month to six weeks in advance.

However, there was an explanation attached to the invitation letter. It was a long paragraph of nice words. To sum it up, they had not originally intended to invite me, but later because of my outstanding performance in the Auckland disaster relief operation, I was noticed by the city lord, who praised me as a young talent, and therefore made a special invitation.

This is really missed, there is nothing I can do about it.

Thinking of this, Gao De passed by his home without entering and left the dormitory.

However, he did not walk far. He just walked to the nearby commercial street, entered a heraldry and paper product shop, and bought a set (5 sheets) of top-quality stationery for 5 gold coins.

This means that one piece of letter paper is worth one gold coin. Even in this world, where paper is still considered an expensive commodity, this price is extremely exaggerated.

But you still have to buy it.

According to the etiquette of the Plantagenet dynasty, if you are prepared to accept an invitation, you need to use the same specification of letter paper and write a handwritten receipt as a reply within two days of receiving the invitation letter.

Of course, since Gao De was not a noble, even if he did not strictly follow this set of etiquette procedures, it would not be considered a big deal of impoliteness and it is understandable.

However, since it knows these processes and is in the honeymoon period of rising relations with Auckland, Gaode is still willing to do the surface work that needs to be done.

Apart from anything else, in a dynasty like the Plantagenets that believed in ancient doctrines and virtues, a polite reputation or personality would be more convenient in all aspects.

After returning to the dormitory, Gao De took out a pen and ink, then a piece of letter paper, and began to write the receipt by hand.

You get what you pay for. This piece of stationery worth one plantagenet coin is indeed made of extraordinary materials. It has a thick and crisp texture, and an extremely smooth surface with a slight sheen. It must be because gold fibers have been added to enhance the glossiness.

The content of the receipt is also very simple.

First express your thanks, then respond directly to the invitation and confirm your attendance.

After writing the receipt, Gao De thought for a moment, then took out another piece of cheap parchment from the drawer and began to copy it quickly.

This time, the document I wrote was a report on the change in the mage level of the Sea Sentinel, and it was also an application for salary and benefits adjustment.

The pay system for sea sentinels is a combination of military rank and mage level.

That is, the salary itself is composed of military rank salary and mage level salary.

Even if your military rank remains unchanged, as long as your mage level is upgraded, your salary will also increase accordingly.

This system is very similar to the salary system in the previous system: the level of a mage is equivalent to academic qualifications, and the military rank is the job grade.

Even if your job level remains the same but your degree level has been raised, for example, from undergraduate to postgraduate, you can still get a salary increase after your report is reviewed and approved.

The core purpose of this system is to encourage the mages within the organization to continuously improve their own quality, practice diligently, and optimize the structure of the mage team.

At the same time, it also ensures that the salary and benefits system is more reasonable and fair, so that the salary can be better matched with the mage's ability and his own mage level.

He has successfully upgraded from a first-ring mage to a second-ring mage, so naturally he has to report it in order to get higher salary and benefits.

The entire "salary increase" process is not too complicated and is divided into three steps in total.

One is to confirm the mage level.

It is impossible for the Sea Sentinel to recognize you as a second-ring mage just because you report that you have been promoted to a second-ring mage. This needs to be confirmed and valid proof must be provided.

There are many ways to prove it. The simplest one is to cast a spell of the corresponding ring number:

A first-level wizard may defeat a second-level wizard, but he will never be able to cast a second-level spell. There is no exception to this.

The second is to submit an application.

After completing the certification, submit the certification results to the Materials Department and submit the application for mage level change at the same time.

The Materials Department will confirm that the certification results are authentic and valid. Once the application meets the requirements, the relevant materials will be prepared and submitted to the superior for approval.

The last step is the adjustment and implementation of salary and benefits.

After approval by the superior, adjustments will be made according to the salary standards of the new mage level.

The reason why Gaode was so hasty in reporting the changes in the mage levels was salary and benefits, but it was a secondary reason.

After all, the salary of sea sentinels is not that high to begin with, so even if it increases, how much can it increase?
The real reasons are these two: First, to reasonably explain my disappearance for nearly a month.

The practice of a mage is not like those fairy-tale novels he read in his previous life, where a monk would practice in seclusion for several years.

At least low-level mages before the fourth ring need to sleep to restore their spirits. In addition, due to the limitation of mental strength, the total time for practice in a day is limited.

In this case, there is rarely any talk of practicing in seclusion.

There is only one exception.

That is the upgrade ring. The upgrade ring is like a life-or-death barrier. If you jump over it, you will soar into the sky. If you fail to jump over it, it is not as exaggerated as "death", but in most cases it is equivalent to squandering your potential and having a bleak future.

Therefore, in order to increase the success rate of leveling up as much as possible, the mage will not only prepare various external items such as leveling potions, choose an environment rich in magic power, but also try to avoid all external interference.

In this situation, the mage will often choose a secluded place to go into seclusion, to avoid being maliciously disturbed when upgrading, or encountering some bad things during this period, which will have a negative impact on his state of mind - there is no such thing as a mage's inner demon when upgrading, but the principle that the state of mind affects the state is applicable everywhere.

In addition, mages who are preparing to upgrade their rings will often live a regular and peaceful life for 10-20 days in order to adjust their physical and mental state to the best.

There is no consensus yet on whether doing so will improve the success rate of the ring upgrade.

But for a mage who is preparing to upgrade his ring, it will only take an extra half a month, which is a negligible cost, so it is better to believe it.

If nothing else, it's also worth it to get some psychological comfort.

It was precisely because of this saying that Gode dared to disappear in Dorne for such a long period of time.

Another reason is to continue to establish and strengthen his image as a genius mage.

A sixteen-year-old second-ring wizard would definitely be a top genius in the Plantagenet Dynasty.

To be honest, his performance after joining the Sea Sentinel was a little too outstanding, and because of this he offended some people openly and secretly.

Although they are restricted by the explicit rules and cannot use brutal means against him, with the background and strength of these nobles, there are still many ways to make things difficult for him or trip him up.

In this situation, there are only two options to protect yourself.

Or, like Ur Newman, accept the "recruitment" of the nobles and become one of them.

Or make yourself so prominent that they can't target you.

Gaode’s choice is naturally the latter.

The review process of Sea Sentinel is still very fast.

Just the next day after submitting the application, a staff member notified Gao De to go to the Haiyuan White Tower to re-certify his mage level.

If this happened under the previous system, the process would have taken at least a week.

However, this is not because the quality of people in this world is higher than that in the previous life.

The main reason is that he is a sea sentinel mage, and these staff members are just ordinary people or ordinary mages. Their status is naturally lower than his, and he is more like a servant rather than a colleague.

Gao De did not delay and immediately rushed to the Haiyuan White Tower to have his mage level determined.

The method he chose to determine his wizard level was not to cast second-level spells.

This is indeed the easiest way.

But according to his resume, he should have just successfully upgraded his level in the past few days. It was really unreasonable for him to master a second-level spell so quickly.

Moreover, the origin of the second-ring spell formula is difficult to explain.

Therefore, Gaode decisively rejected this identification method and instead conducted testing through the legal platform.

He had experienced this thing once during the preliminary selection of Sea Sentinels. It was an alchemical machine specially used to detect the status of mages.

The mage only needs to stand on it and activate the altar, and then a continuous stream of magic will sweep through the mage's body, and finally give the mage's specific level, even down to the number of drops of liquid mana.

Spells and expertise are a wizard's absolute privacy and should not be easily exposed.

Relatively speaking, the mage level is not that secretive.

Moreover, he had just been promoted to the second ring, which was the purest second ring, initial sixty-line state, so he was not afraid that the altar would reveal his true self.

After standing on the platform for a few minutes, Gao De received a stamped certificate of his rank as a second-ring wizard.

After getting the certificate, he immediately went to the supplies department next door.

"You are a second-level mage?!"

In the supplies department, the familiar "NPC" Mage Neil shifted his gaze from the application and level certificate submitted by Gode to Gode's face with a look of astonishment.

Although he had some vague guesses about it when Gaode exchanged the second-ring upgrading potion Qingteng Linglu last time, he was still shocked now that he knew Gaode had successfully upgraded.

"After the Auckland disaster relief mission, in addition to the military merit reward for the Sea Sentinel, the Golden Feather Fort also gave me an extra reward, which included a thirty-year-old dragon bird blood fungus. With the help of this dragon bird blood fungus, I broke through to the first level of perfection. I felt that the time was right, so I drank the Green Vine Spirit Dew."

Gao De spread his hands and pretended to be helpless, "Then the ring upgrade was successful."

"Good boy." Mage Neil was silent for a moment, and finally could only praise like this, and then said: "There is no problem with the materials, I will submit it to my superiors for approval as soon as possible."

"Thank you for the trouble." Gao De thanked him.

The third floor of the Mage Tower.

Lieutenant Colonel Grayling's office.

There was a knock on the door.

After getting permission, the door was pushed open and Lieutenant Colonel Grayling looked up and saw Captain Merrick walk in.

"Merrick, what's going on?"

Captain Merrick nodded and handed over a roll of parchment.

"I just received an interesting salary adjustment application from below. I think you might be interested, so I sent it to you as soon as possible."

"Oh?" Lieutenant Colonel Grayling raised his eyebrows and showed some interest.

Captain Merrick would not come to him specially for such a small matter, which only proved that there was something special about this application.

Thinking of this, he had already taken the parchment, unfolded it and started to read its contents.

The reading speed and information processing ability of a high-level mage are extremely exaggerated, so he only took a seemingly casual glance and had already imprinted all the information in his mind.

"Second ring?"

He raised his head, slightly surprised. "Didn't you tell me that during the selection of the Sea Sentinels last year, his mage level was only the middle stage of the first ring, with 24 drops of liquid mana?"

"Is such that."

"It's only been nine months, and you're already at the second ring?" Lieutenant Colonel Grayling raised his eyebrows.

"One is, as I said at the time, before he joined the Sea Sentinel, he had not enjoyed any resources, and he reached this level of mage purely through his own practice.

After joining the Sea Sentinels, resources became more abundant, potential was tapped, and the speed at which mages leveled up was naturally different from before;
Another thing is that as far as I know, because of his outstanding performance in the Auckland disaster relief mission, the city lord also rewarded him with a 30-year-old dragon bird blood fungus." Merrick said.

"The thirty-year-old dragon bird blood fungus can increase the mana by about 10-20 drops of liquid mana, so 15 drops. He has also increased his liquid mana by 20 drops in the past nine months," Lieutenant Colonel Grayling calculated and nodded in praise, "This Gaode, his magician talent is indeed outstanding!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Grayling, you said at the time that if Gode could be promoted to a second-ring mage before the age of 20, he would be promoted to warrant officer. Should this be carried out normally?" Captain Merrick hesitated for a moment, and finally asked cautiously.

(End of this chapter)