Above the mage!

Chapter 467 Ice Jade Fruit

Gaode's statement is not an exaggeration at all.

Elsa's offering of the Heart of the North is tantamount to giving one-third of the wealth of the Duchy of Westrend to the North.

It's even more than that.

To put it more poetically, the Heart of the North is more than just an extraordinary object; it is clearly the spark that ignited the frozen soil of the North and the driving force behind the North's rapid development.

Because the knowledge stored in the Heart of the North is absolutely essential for the North at present.

First, there's the knowledge of spell recipes and runes, which is exactly what high-level players urgently need.

With the support of the knowledge base of [Heart of the North], he no longer had to use all the military merits he had worked so hard to earn to exchange for spell recipes, and he also had to weigh the options and make painful choices in front of the military merit exchange list.

From now on, he will be able to use his military merits to exchange for some truly scarce resources that greatly benefit the upgrading of his mage level, just like most sea sentinel mages.

And it's not just second-circle spell recipes.

As a duchy, Xidian's level of magic is far from comparable to that of a behemoth like the Golden Flower Dynasty. Even a mere fourth-circle mage within its borders can stand out from the crowd. However, at least the inheritance of magic tricks and fourth-circle spells is extremely complete and comprehensive.

Of course, compared to the spell recipes possessed by the Sea Sentinels, the spell heritage of the Western Duchy is definitely lacking.

The gap is especially large when it comes to rare spells. To expand the spell library as much as possible, it is still necessary to spend some military merits to exchange for them.

However, the majority of the spell recipes it covers have already saved Gaode countless military merits.

Another aspect is knowledge of runes.

The basic rune diagrams, including those for levels two, three, and even four, as well as the rune construction design diagrams treasured by the Duchy of Xidian, are all extremely important to Gaode at present.

His rune crafting level had already reached 7 when he was a first-level mage, which is already the crafting level of a second-tier rune constructor.

After advancing to the second-ring mage, with the rapid improvement of his mental strength and Gao De's continuous and diligent practice, his process level has reached 9.

This means that nine basic runes can be drawn on standard-sized lacquered jade paper.

It's important to know that the crafting process for a Tier 3 Rune Constructor is only 10.

In other words, in terms of the sheer number of runes he has crafted, he is already very close to being a Tier 3 rune constructor.

After that, whether it was the breakthrough in mental power brought about by the mage's level reaching the mid-second ring, or the feedback brought about by Yoggathirah's advancement to the third rank, it was a foregone conclusion that God's rune crafting level would reach the level of a third-rank rune architect.

In addition to the Six Laws of Hoshi, with his calculation skills, he only needs to master the mainstream level 2 and level 3 basic runes, and then refer to the existing rune construction design diagrams of the Western Kingdom to learn the underlying ideas.

Gao De was even confident that, like Xi Na, he could create a set of Tier 3 rune constructs at the level of a second-circle mage.

This is only in terms of his personal value.

The strategic value of the Heart of the North to the entire North is immeasurable.

The knowledge base stored in [Heart of the North] is enough to build the foundation of the Ministry of Education in a single day.

Even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. The Iceborn mage system in the North has long meant that all mage knowledge in the North has relied on bloodline inheritance. Bloodline determines everything, making learning and hard work futile.

Gao De has always wanted to change this situation and has been promoting basic, free mage education in the North that is unprecedented in the entire mage plane.

However, this requires adequate teaching facilities, qualified teachers, a sound educational management system, and resource support.

The first three issues can be resolved, but the last one—resources—is the biggest problem.

The most troubling and important issue is the lack of "knowledge".

This makes Gaode's idea seem like building the Tower of Babel on frozen soil.

Now all of these issues have been resolved.

The knowledge of mages in the Duchy of Xidian may not be considered perfect, but it is more than enough to meet the basic requirements of compulsory magistrate education.

In addition, the blueprints for various Westerland projects and even city construction stored in the Heart of the North are also extremely crucial "knowledge" for the North, which is currently undergoing a major construction boom, and can help the North avoid many detours.

These are just some of the things Gaode has thought of so far; there are certainly many more that he hasn't considered yet.

After all, the knowledge base of a principality can provide Phoenix, which is developing from almost nothing, with assistance covering all aspects and fields.

Finally, the knowledge base of [Heart of the North] also contains relevant knowledge and techniques for building mage towers.

The construction of mage towers has always been considered an extremely advanced field of knowledge.

It's so high-end that even Gaode Maps hasn't seen it in the Sea Sentinel's merit redemption list.

It's unclear what position he must have reached in the Plantagenet dynasty to have access to such knowledge.

But now, the North finally possesses some relevant knowledge.

Although the level of mages in the Duchy of Westland was relatively backward in terms of technology and knowledge related to the construction of mage towers, it was not worth mentioning in the eyes of the top mage forces.

But for the North, this was a breakthrough from scratch.

The people of the North are not lacking in wisdom. With the basic knowledge of mage tower construction, they could certainly develop a unique mage tower craft that belongs to the North, based on their own understanding and wisdom.

The difficulty of creating something from nothing is always far greater than the difficulty of perfecting something from something.

“Your Highness, then I’ll entrust these five Winter’s Hammers to you for safekeeping,” Elsa said with a smile, handing the Heart of the North to God. “The daily mana consumption from them is affecting my cultivation progress.”

Although she hadn't spent a lot of time with Gaode, Elsa was very clear about Gaode's personality and philosophy.

She understood that in Gaode's hands, the value of knowledge would be maximized.

Gaode didn't stand on ceremony and solemnly accepted the "Heart of the North".

"How much material is needed to make a key?" he asked again.

“Actually, the cost of crafting access keys isn’t high; the materials needed for one key cost about 50 gold coins,” Elsa reminded her. “The key is that each additional key increases the mana consumption of the [Heart of the North].

"This consumption of magic power is continuous and uninterrupted. It can be supplied either by mages over a long period of time or by using magic crystals for power. Once this power supply stops, the knowledge stored in the [Heart of the North] knowledge base will begin to suffer irreversible loss or damage."

"Therefore, try not to let the [Heart of the North] fall into a state of energy depletion."

"The costs involved are enormous."

It's just like adding new users increases the load on the "server," and then the "traffic" and "power consumption" increase simultaneously. Gaode instantly understood the principle.

The only difference is that a power outage will not cause the data stored on the server to be lost or corrupted.

Gaode did not "let go" of Elsa, but instead took her straight to Sunefa's office.

The goal, naturally, still revolves around the [Heart of the North].

Gao De couldn't guess what Elsa had gone through, or what had moved her to decide to offer up the Heart of the North.

However, Sunefa was still unaware of the existence of the Heart of the North.

Therefore, after Gao De explained his purpose and gave a detailed introduction to the [Heart of the North], even the composed Sunefa couldn't help but show surprise. Seeing Sunefa's astonished expression, Gao De felt a little pleased before returning the topic to the main point.

"The Heart of the North requires strict protection; it is too precious and too important. Furthermore, it needs a sufficient supply of magic to maintain its daily operation."

"Having mages channel their magic power to power the Heart of the North is both a waste of human resources and prone to accidents. As for powering it with magic crystals, the North currently does not have enough magic crystal reserves."

"Therefore, my idea is to set up an energy-supplying array in the core spiritual land where the Ice Jade Wutong is located, specifically to supply energy to the [Heart of the North]."

"At the same time, the Ice Jade Wutong can also continuously protect the [Heart of the North]."

Upon hearing what Gao De said, Elsa's eyes lit up.

Gaode's approach is undoubtedly brilliant.

The core spiritual land where the Ice Jade Wutong is located is a fifth-order spiritual land, and it is slowly transforming into a sixth-order spiritual land under the ability of the sixth-order Ice Jade Wutong to gather magic power.

Therefore, although the magic concentration there has not been tested with a special magic concentration tester, it definitely exceeds 50,000 based on the perceived level.

This level of magic concentration is more than enough to supply the daily needs of a [Heart of the North].

However, Elsa was still a little worried and hesitated, "Will it affect the Ice Jade Wutong?"

The Heart of the North is precious, but the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree, as the guardian tree of Phoenix, is equally important.

As a sixth-order magical tree, it was already somewhat wronged to live in a fifth-order spiritual land, which almost stagnated its growth. Now, it even has to give up a portion of its magical power to the [Heart of the North].

"As long as we don't mass-produce keys first, the little bit of magic power consumed by the [Heart of the North] will have almost no effect on the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree. Let's leave it at that for now."

"Later on, after Yugathira's rank is upgraded, we can transfer [Heart of the North] to Flora Forest, and then we can increase the number of users visiting in large numbers." Gao De's thinking was exceptionally clear.

Yugathira's special ability is to transform spiritual lands, but she herself has little need for magical energy concentration.

Unlike the Ice Jade Wutong, which relies on the concentration of magic in its environment, the growth of Yugathishira depends primarily on the essence of plants and trees in its environment.

After hearing what Gao De said, Elsa and Sunefa exchanged a glance, both finding it reasonable, and nodded in unison without further hesitation.

“Then let’s do it this way.”

Without hesitation, Gaode immediately took action after reaching a consensus.

Elsa first took the Heart of the North to the core spiritual land, while God and Sunai were preparing materials to draw the rune array.

The magic transfer array is a very basic rune array. It is not complicated, and the materials required are not demanding.

After a quick tour of the warehouse, Gaode gathered all the materials and headed to the core spiritual site. After a brief survey and setting up the locations, he immediately began setting up the rune array.

In fact, the principle of the so-called magic transmission array is extremely simple, consisting of only two modules.

One is the Magic Gathering Module, which uses basic runes such as Magic Gathering, Storage, and Spirit Locking to draw more efficient composite runes, thereby gathering magic power within the rune array area.

One is the magic transfer module, the center of which is the [Heart of the North].

Then add a monitoring composite rune to both rune modules.

Once the "energy" within the [Heart of the North] reaches the set warning threshold, the monitoring composite rune will be triggered, transferring the magic power stored in the magic gathering module into the magic power delivery module.

Through the runic veins, this magic will continuously flow into the [Heart of the North], replenishing its required magic power consumption.

Runic arts is the most profound and difficult subject in the field of metaphysics, but for Gaode, a rune architect, drawing rune arrays is much simpler than creating rune constructs.

After all, the former only needs to achieve simple functions in an almost unlimited space, while the latter needs to combine and coordinate multiple rune arrays in an extremely limited area to achieve extremely complex rune effects.

Therefore, from the design to the implementation of this rune array, Gaode achieved success on the first try.

Watching the dense magical power gradually accumulate within the rune array, transforming into a long rainbow of magical energy that precisely surged towards the [Heart of the North], Gao De breathed a sigh of relief and felt at ease.

At least for the time being, there's no need to worry about the [Heart of the North] running out of power.

"Besides the three of us, we also need to select a few trustworthy individuals to be responsible for expanding the [Heart of the North] knowledge base," Gao De added.

Elsa certainly couldn't do the "scanning" herself; she was too busy.

With the Ice Jade Wutong protecting it, there's no need to worry too much about the safety of the [Heart of the North] for the time being, so there's no need to completely hide or destroy it.

However, wealth should not be flaunted, and ultimately, not too many people should know about [Heart of the North].

“Okay,” Sunefa readily agreed.

She was naturally in charge of this matter; she was most familiar with the people in Phoenix and had an exceptional ability to manage personnel.

Gao De is at ease leaving it to her.

After thoroughly arranging matters concerning the Heart of the North, Gao De finally had the leisure to notice some changes in the Ice Jade Wutong.

When the Ice Jade Wutong advanced to the sixth-tier magical plant, it sprouted three new flower buds.

According to Sunafa at the time, these three flower stamens could eventually condense into Ice Jade Fruit.

Consuming one Ice Jade Fruit can increase a mage's liquid mana by thirty drops of ice-attribute cultivation techniques.

At the time, Gaode didn't take it seriously.

Because the Ice Jade Fruit can only increase the liquid mana of ice-attribute cultivation methods.

His cultivation method is the "Azure Wood Longevity Scripture," so the Ice Jade Fruit is obviously useless to him.

Who would have thought that just one year later, he would awaken the [True Ice Bloodline] and simultaneously cultivate the [True Ice Secret Technique].

In this way, the Ice Jade Fruit would be useful to him.

However, under normal circumstances, the Ice Jade Fruit ripens only once every thirty years.

However, after Flora communicated with the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree, she understood that she only needed to wait 251 days for the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree to stabilize. Then, she could accelerate the growth of the Ice Jade Fruit by grinding fire-elemental magical materials into powder, mixing them with water, and spraying the powder onto the flower's stamen.

Sunefa did the same.

Therefore, at this time, all three flower buds had already borne fruit.

However, the fruits are still very small, and the color transition is abrupt, with a dull surface luster, lacking the shine of ripe fruits.

"What year's status are they equivalent to now?" Gao De's mind raced.

“Fifteen years,” Sunefa said. “The method to accelerate ripening isn’t difficult; the main problem is that fire elemental materials are relatively rare in the North.”

That makes sense. Gao De thought for a moment and said, "Next time I come back, I'll see if I can bring back some fire elemental materials."

In the outside world, fire elemental materials are relatively easier to find.

The reason for his sudden enthusiasm was that Gao De realized he could use the Ice Jade Fruit to quickly skip the mage apprentice stage of the [True Ice Secret Transmission] and fully awaken the [True Ice Bloodline], thus preparing for the magic duel competition a year later.

(End of this chapter)