Above the mage!

Chapter 469 Departure to the Blue Flame Islands
Mandora's Eye, Mandora's Eye. According to what that kid Du Wei said back then, the abilities that Mandora's Eye can awaken after upgrading vary from person to person.

However, whether this ability awakening is purely random or involves randomly acquiring several abilities from a fixed ability pool remains unknown.

Although Mandora's Tears is only a fourth-tier magical plant, it is extremely rare. Furthermore, consuming Mandora's Tears does not guarantee obtaining the Mandora's Eye; in fact, it is an extremely low-probability event.

For most people, the vision impairment simply disappears after it's enhanced.

This combination of two low-probability events resulted in very few people actually awakening the Mandora's Eye.

The insufficient sample size has resulted in virtually no development, understanding, or documentation of the Mandora's Eye.

However, Gaode believes the former is more likely.

In short, after gaining the ability of [Insight & Calculation], the necessity of acquiring more knowledge has increased once again.

If the "local database" is useless, then no matter how powerful the "algorithm" is, it's all for naught.

In addition, Gao De had some concerns. After all, Mandora's Tears was only a fourth-tier magical plant. So, after upgrading Mandora's Magic Eye to the fourth tier, would it reach the upper limit of Mandora's Magic Eye's ability?
The fact is, although he still doesn't know the upper limit of Mandora's Eye, he is certain that Mandora's Eye still has room for improvement and can be further enhanced through fourth-tier ice marrow.

Despite the great success, Gaode felt a wave of fatigue wash over him after the initial excitement.

The energy expenditure from absorbing the ice marrow in seclusion for twelve hours straight was still quite significant, so Gao De immediately cast a [Comfortable Sleep+] spell on himself.

With the help of magic, he only slept for five hours before recovering to his full potential.

Because the time was tight this time, and several important matters had been settled, it would have been better to leave as soon as possible.

However, since astral teleportation requires forty-five days to complete one charge, and currently only two days are needed for a charge, Gaode does not intend to return to the Golden Flower Dynasty via astral teleportation this time.

—By the time the astral plane is fully charged, the Nightfall auction in Black Sails City will have already ended.

His plan this time was simple: to sail south with Lan Wen on a merchant ship into the waters of the Golden Flower Dynasty, and then head straight for the Black Sail City.

One reason is that even if he were to return to the Plantagenet Dynasty via astral teleportation, he would have to wait for his "bodyguard" Lanwen to arrive in Lagos City by ship from the North before they could travel together to Black Sails City.

It would be better to just take a ship from the North to Black Sails together; that would even save several days.

Because the Blue Flame Isles, where Black Sails is located, are due west of Dorne, stopping at Lagos Port first would actually take an extra detour.

Another point is that with Lanwen, a fourth-ring Iceborn mage, accompanying them, it would be a good opportunity to transport a batch of high-value goods to Black Sails City for sale.

To avoid attracting attention, the value of goods transported from the North to Lagos has been kept very low so far, in an effort to avoid arousing curiosity and prompting investigations into the origin of the goods, thus tracing the route of the North.

But in Black Sails City, a lawless zone, a so-called "city of sin," no one ever cares where your goods come from.

They only care about whether your goods are valuable or not, and whether there's a way to buy them from you for free.

Gao De's decision was certainly reasonable, but the decision to go to Black Sails City was also made on short notice.

So, unfortunately, there were no merchant ships docked in Vallar Bay when he returned.

Fortunately, one of the merchant ships was expected to arrive at Vallar Bay within ten days.

This was also thanks to Sunafa's foresight in using most of the profits from the route that year to expand the shipyard and build ships.

With a large number of ships and staggered arrival times, the vacuum period without cargo ships docking in Vallare Bay becomes extremely short.

Without remote communication methods, the exact time for a cargo ship to return to port is naturally uncertain.

What else can we do? There's only one word: wait.

While waiting, Gao De was not idle. In addition to reviewing and processing some engineering projects submitted by Sunaifa and offering his own suggestions for modification, he focused on practicing the two cultivation methods, "Qingmu Changsheng Jing" and "Zhenbing Michuan".

Plans can't keep up with changes. Gao De, who wasn't in a hurry to improve his progress in "The Secret of True Ice" and was letting it level up on its own, now has to start diverting some of his energy to "The Secret of True Ice" because of the existence of the fourth-tier Mandora's Eye.

The fourth-tier Mandora's Eye is powerful, but the classic problem arises again—for a mage whose level is only at the second ring, its "energy consumption" is a bit too high.

They're the kind of people who can afford to be promoted, but can't afford to use.

In this situation, the most practical solution is to accelerate the progress of the second cultivation method, "The Secret Transmission of Zhenbing," as soon as possible.

Even setting aside the possibility of directly advancing to the fourth ring, simply catching up with the cultivation progress of the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture" and reaching the second ring would be a qualitative leap for a high-ranking cultivator.

When the two magic crystals are in the magic pool, his magical power will be twice that of other second-ring mages.

Relatively speaking, this is sufficient to support the long-term use of the fourth-order Mandora's Eye.

After waiting for two more days, Gaode couldn't wait any longer and decided to set off for Vallar Bay ahead of schedule.

After all, even if the merchant ships arrive at the port, it takes time for the news to get back, and it will take him some time to get there after receiving the news.

Moreover, Flora had already gone to Flora Forest a couple of days ago to start her tree-planting project, which is related to Yugathira's advancement. It's a good opportunity to go and take a look.

After considering this, Gao De immediately notified Lan Wen to pack up and prepare to leave.

He himself came to the core spiritual land where the Ice Jade Wutong Tree was located.

Before leaving the North, he had one more important thing to do.

The vast collection of spell recipes accumulated over a thousand years by the Duchy of Westden stored in the Heart of the North means that God will not need to spend any more time acquiring spell recipes in the short term.

But obtaining a spell recipe and mastering a spell are two different things.

Even for Gaode, building spell models doesn't require too much effort.

There is no shortcut to collecting materials for magical potions and mixing them into corresponding potions.

The basic formula for preparing spell potions is as follows: two main ingredients of the same level as the spell + three to five secondary ingredients of the next lower level.

Second-level spells consist of 2 Tier 2 main materials plus 3 to 5 Tier 1 main materials.

The price range is roughly between 180 and 200 gold, depending on the quantity of auxiliary materials and the scarcity of the materials themselves.

Suddenly acquiring such a large number of spell recipes, only a very small number of these recipes will have the same ingredients for a few spell potions; most of the ingredients for spell potions will be completely different.

Based on this calculation, to concoct all the magical potions, one would need to collect two hundred different magical materials, and the required amount of money would exceed 5000 Golden Bird Flower Coins.

Money is a secondary issue; at worst, we can just sell a few more "leaves".

The main problem is that gathering these two hundred different magical materials is not something that can be done in a short time, and Gao De didn't expect to be able to do it quickly.

But there's no need to rush. As a sea sentinel mage, he's always on the move.

The Golden Flower Dynasty is one of the two most prosperous countries on this continent, with abundant magical resources.

If it's just the materials for second-circle spell potions, it's just a matter of spending more time and effort; I can definitely gather them all.

And coincidentally, Gaode was preparing to depart for Black Sails City.

The magical material resources in that place must be incredibly abundant; perhaps this trip alone will allow him to collect most of them.

However, before that, he first needs to memorize these spell recipes, especially the magical materials required for the spell potions.

Even for a mage with a memory far exceeding that of ordinary people, memorizing dozens of spell formulas in a short period of time was still quite a headache.

However, for Gaode, it was not a difficult task—the reason why magic is magic is that it can solve all problems.

If you can't, it's because you don't have enough spells, not because your spells are bad.

Beneath the ice-jade parasol tree.

Gao De picked up the kettle and drank the liquid inside in one gulp.

The aroma of orange and pine needles intertwined, with a faint metallic scent, wafts through the air.

A chill ran through his mind, making him incredibly clear-headed, and his temples throbbed.

The Panacea: The Super Memory Elixir.

Entering a state of hyper-memory, Gao De retrieved the access key to the [Heart of the North], concentrated his mind, closed his eyes slightly, and quickly connected to the [Heart of the North], entering its knowledge base.

An hour later, Gao De, having exited the [Super Memory] state, also exited the [Heart of the North] knowledge base.

All the second-circle spell recipes accumulated by the Duchy of Westland were now firmly imprinted in his mind, and he even memorized the third-circle spell recipes as well.

When Gaode arrived at Flora Forest, Flora had already planted a small portion of the magic tree seeds he brought back.

Planting trees is not difficult in itself.

The main task, which involves using the power of the Mother Earth to transform the frozen soil into the native soil of various magical tree species, is extremely taxing on Flora's stamina.

Flora's stamina is closely related to Yugathira's level, and Yugathira is currently only a second-tier magical plant.

In other words, Flora is still very "weak".

Therefore, the area of ​​soil she can convert each day is relatively limited, which restricts the progress of tree planting.

At the current pace, and considering that the seeds also need time to germinate, no matter how hard he tries, he won't be able to witness Yugathira's ascension before leaving the Northern Territory, which is quite a regret.

However, the thought of seeing the Tier 3 Yugathira on his next trip back to the North still filled God with great anticipation.

After inspecting Flora's Forest and praising Flora for her "hard work," he headed towards the rudimentary port still under construction in Valar Bay.

Speaking of which, although he always lands at Vallar Bay when he returns to the North, Gaode has never actually visited the port project, which ranks among the top three in terms of both importance and investment among all the projects currently underway in Phoenix.

Each time he returned, he would check on the changes in Yugathira and then head straight for Phoenix, passing the port three times without entering.

However, even though he hadn't been to the site, he still noticed the huge changes at the port thanks to the powerful far-sightedness of Mandora's Eye.

However, the experience of watching from afar is quite different from seeing it in person.

When the wind howls fiercely on the snowy plains of the North, it cuts like a knife, stinging one's face.

However, the unique topography of Vallar Bay, with its two cliffs, effectively cuts off the icy winds.

Warm currents converge beneath the sea, and behind them lies the ever-expanding Flora Forest.

Therefore, the entire environment here is exceptionally peaceful, with almost no wind.

Even when there is a breeze, it is an extremely gentle sea breeze, carrying the crisp scent of seawater and ice rocks, along with the faint fragrance of grass and trees spreading from the Flora Forest, forming a stark contrast with the desolate atmosphere of other areas in the North.

Gao De walked along the winding ice walkway toward the port—the North has almost no timber resources, so the materials used to build the entire port were all locally sourced, mainly ice and bone.

The dam's flood control dikes were all made of ice.

The giant ice blocks were carved into hollow arch-shaped structures by ice-born mages, with iron anchor piles embedded at the bottom, and the dock floor was paved with ice rock slabs solidified by magic.

The surface of the ice rock board has a textured design to enhance friction, so walking on it is not only free from slipping, but also more stable than ordinary wooden boards.

Bone rings were used instead of mooring stones.

These bones are all taken from terrestrial organisms, and their value and efficacy far surpass those of ordinary rocks.

Gaode Maps commented that although the port looks far less "refined" than the ports outside the North Gate, its solid materials and practicality are in no way inferior, and may even surpass them.

The cost was exorbitant. The bones taken from the creatures of the earth's veins could be used to make extraordinary equipment in the outside world, and were quite valuable. But here they were used to build a port.

If a visiting monk were to see him, he would probably call him "the coal boss of the North."

During this period, no merchant ships docked at the port to unload or load cargo, so the port workers took the opportunity to speed up the construction and expansion of the port.

The workers here were seeing Gaode come to inspect for the first time, and they all bowed respectfully.

“My King!”*n.

Gaode briefly circled the port and left again without lingering for long, so as not to disrupt their normal work.

Fortunately, the merchant ship that Gaode was waiting for sailed into the bay and stopped at the port the day after arriving at the Vallar Bay.

Even more coincidentally, it was the very ship named "Columbus" by Gaode himself.

Knowing that Gaode was in a hurry, the guard mages of Flora Forest personally stepped in to help unload and load the goods.

In less than an hour, they had replaced all the cargo on the Columbus.

After loading the prepared supplies onto the ship, the Columbus, which had just entered the Vallar Bay, set sail again and sailed out of the Vallar Bay.

This time, however, there were two more people on the ship: Gao De and Lan Wen.

(End of this chapter)