Above the mage!

Chapter 492 Blue Flame Immunity
"Thank you for reminding me, I will pay attention," Gao De readily agreed.

Having confessed everything she needed to, Sarah left behind two valuable fifth-tier extraordinary artifacts and then leisurely departed.

The man called Baozai smiled and said to Gao De, "I'll show you around the boat so you can get familiar with the surroundings."

He was no longer the fierce man who had previously drawn his gun.

Gao De carefully put away the two pieces of jewelry and nodded in agreement.

The two pushed open the cabin door and, led by Baozai, toured the entire Fire Knife Ship from beginning to end.

Undoubtedly, his appearance as a stranger caused a small sensation on the Fire Knife.

This caused almost everyone on the ship, regardless of what they were doing, to come out of their rooms and "welcome" this stranger by gathering around him.

These guys in leather armor either wore wide-brimmed hats pulled low over their heads or had their heads shaved and had crooked tattoos on their foreheads.

They were scattered throughout the Fire Knife, scrutinizing Gao De with eyes that scrutinized his prey.

That was all; though it was a scrutiny, it was not provocative, and there were no dramatic incidents like conflicts.

Many people even took the initiative to greet Gaode and invite him to have a drink together when he had time.

That's normal, since Sarah's faction is a bounty hunter group, not pirates.

Although bounty hunters aren't exactly righteous in places like the Blue Flame Islands, they're practically saints compared to pirates.

One interesting point is that the bounty hunters on the ship usually carry holsters and daggers at their waists, while "traditional mages" carrying staffs are extremely rare.

This fully demonstrates that the monks have regional characteristics and follow a development path that adapts to local conditions.

From Gao De's perspective in his previous life, the magic gun was definitely far superior to the staff. One was a "firearm," while the other wasn't even a melee weapon, so they were not comparable at all.

However, the truth is that in the mage plane with extraordinary power, the staff is undoubtedly the mainstream magical weapon for mages. Whether in terms of applicability, strength, or many other aspects, it is generally superior to the magic gun.

Compared to staves, the biggest advantages of magic guns are their small size, ease of carrying and use, and faster attack speed.

These two characteristics perfectly match the needs of bounty hunters and are also in line with the overall environment of Black Sails City.

Therefore, the proportion of mages using magic guns as magical weapons in Black Sails City is far higher than in other regions.

This figure is even higher, exceeding 80% among bounty hunters.

After leading Gao De on a tour of the Fire Knife, Bao Zai finally brought him to a fairly spacious cabin.

"This is the bedroom we've arranged for you. It's not great, so please make do."

Gao De glanced around and saw that although the cabin still had a salty, damp smell from the sea breeze, it was relatively clean.

In the corner stood two brass-rimmed wooden crates and a tin bucket, the rims of which were free of rust. A clean coarse cloth was draped beside them, and the copper oil lamp on the cabin ceiling was polished to a shine.

The environment here is even better than that on the Columbus.

After Baozai left, Gao De closed the door, got into bed fully clothed, and cast a [Comfortable Sleep+] spell on himself. The magical energy instantly spread out like ripples and flowed into his body.

Then, Gaode, quite nonchalantly, fell fast asleep.

While he was asleep, the transformation of his body continued.

If someone were to use Mandora's Eye to observe at this moment, they would see that God's skin is covered with a layer of blue energy so faint as to be almost imperceptible.

They are as fine as stardust, seeping into the skin through the pores and then into Gaode's head.

Within Gao De's body, faint silver patterns appeared along the pathways of the blue energy.

[After being in the Abaddon Blue Flame domain for an extended period, you have begun to adapt to this biological domain, and your tolerance to Abaddon Blue Flame energy has increased by 0.4%].

Yes, ever since they approached Black Sails City, Gao De's first-ring perk, [Adaptive], has been continuously and slowly increasing its adaptation to Abaddon's Blue Flame energy.

Upon entering the Ash Isle region, likely because it is a semi-burnt island rather than the safe zone of the main island, the blue flame energy is more concentrated, and the adaptation process is accelerated by leaps and bounds.

Before arriving at Ash Isle, it took most of the day for Abaddon's Blue Flame Energy tolerance to increase by only 0.3%.

After arriving at Ash Isle, in less than an hour, the tolerance level increased by 0.1% to 0.4%, and the adaptation efficiency has more than doubled.

Even when he enters a deep sleep, this remains true; in fact, the improvement is even more rapid due to the complete relaxation of his body and mind.

Gao De slept for a full six hours, which may not seem like a long time, but it's important to know that with the support of [Comfortable Sleep+], those six hours of sleep were all high-quality deep sleep.

Six hours of deep sleep would normally take an average person three nights to get, so it's no wonder Gaode woke up feeling refreshed.

Even more encouraging is that Gaode is now sensing its own adaptive progress.

Six hours have passed:

[After being in the Abaddon Blue Flame domain for an extended period, you have begun to adapt to this biological domain, and your tolerance to Abaddon Blue Flame energy has increased by 1.2%].

This is what it means to continuously grow stronger simply by breathing!
Gao De got up, pushed open the cabin door, and went to the deck. The sky had already changed from pitch black to bright light.

A sea breeze carrying the smell of sulfur rushed towards him, ruffling his hair.

Gao De took a deep breath.

It was still early morning, and there weren't many people on the deck, only a few scattered monks, seemingly chatting or standing guard, observing the outside world.

The location where the Fireblade was docked was well hidden; even with Mandora's Eye, God only discovered it after circling the island.

But being hidden doesn't mean you can rest easy. For one thing, wherever there's water, a sea monster could suddenly appear at any time.

Even at the slaughter docks of Black Sails City, incidents of sea monsters suddenly attacking ships have occurred frequently.

When the mages saw Gao De come out, they glanced at him subconsciously, but did nothing else and quickly looked away.

It is clear that Sarah had spoken with all the members and had not restricted Gao De's freedom.

Gao De stood on the deck for a while, seemingly admiring the scenery, but in fact he had already activated the Mandora's Eye to observe the situation on Ash Isle.

After watching for about ten minutes, Gao De summoned Boeing and, with the help of its possession and qi manipulation abilities, left the Fire Blade and flew towards Ash Island.

Inside a cabin of the Fire Knife, a splash of red swirled in the wind through the open window.

Sarah looked out the window, silently watching Gaode fly towards Ash Isle, lost in thought.

"Should we stop him? Ash Isle isn't safe. He's playing with fire." Behind Sarah was Baozai, who had just rushed over to report Gao De's whereabouts.

“No need. I’ve told him everything I needed to. Although he’s young, he’s not reckless. On the contrary, he’s extremely cautious and knows his limits. I’ve already said I won’t restrict his freedom, so let him be.” Sarah said calmly. “I’m not one to go back on my word.”

"This..." Baozai's expression changed, and after a moment of hesitation, he cautiously asked, "Should we send someone to follow them?"

If we don't restrict Gaode's freedom, sending someone to follow it shouldn't be a problem, right?
"Don't go overboard. Since it's a collaboration, just adopt a cooperative stance. We've already somewhat forced him to agree to the collaboration, so don't push your luck in other aspects, lest you provoke his rebellious side." Sarah still rejected Baozai's suggestion outright.

“I understand,” Baozai replied, bowing his head.

Sarah's prestige within the Gold Coin Hunters far surpasses David's prestige in Black Sails City.

It can be said that Sarah is the soul of the Gold Coin Hunters. Without her, the hunters would have fallen apart the very next day.

In this situation, her words, while not quite equivalent to an imperial edict, were nearly so.

On the edge of Ash Island, in an area where no blue flames burned, Gao De slowly descended.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he sensed the difference between this place and the main island.

The ground here is a mixture of fine obsidian and burnt ash. With each step, you can hear the crunching sound of gravel rubbing against the soles of your shoes, as if you are walking on a parched crust.

There are no traces of life here; all that remains in sight are rolling black rock hills and one pit after another.

Those were traces left by people who came to the island to mine the Blue Flame Crystal vein in the past.

The ground was covered with irregular cracks, like a spider web.

Deep within the crack, Gao De could vaguely see a surging, thin, pale blue mist—Abaddon's blue flame energy. If it were just a little more concentrated, it would burst forth from the ground and transform into burning blue flames.

Further ahead, the scenery suddenly changed, with a blurry, distorted, and irregular boundary stretching across the way.

On one side of the boundary lies a desolate, scorched earth, while on the other side, patches of eerie blue flames spread out, one after another.

These blue flames did not have extremely high temperatures, and their shape was unusual; they did not surge upwards significantly, but rather flowed slowly along the ground.

However, because the blue flame itself is not dense and diffuses like mist, it looks like a huge veil dancing in the wind close to the ground from a distance.

Gao De walked forward for a while, and when he got close to one of the blue flames, he felt a bone-chilling cold directly affecting his mental state, as if countless tiny needles were piercing his consciousness.

The pain followed, reminding him that it was very dangerous there and he should leave immediately.

However, Gaode remained unmoved.

With the [Body of the Ninja] by his side, this pain was nothing to him.

There's no need to force yourself to endure hardship, but his hard work genuinely brings positive feedback.

[After being in the Abaddon Blue Flame domain for an extended period, you have begun to adapt to this biological domain, and your tolerance to Abaddon Blue Flame energy has increased by 1.3%].

Upon arriving in the Ash Isle region, the already rapidly improving adaptive progress has reached a new level.

Eat the food one bite at a time.

Gao De wasn't in a hurry. He simply took a few more steps forward and stopped abruptly when he was almost within reach of the blue flame.

At this moment, the pricking sensation brought by the blue flames had become even more intense. It was conceivable that if one took another step forward and made direct contact with the blue flames, what one would feel would not only be the pricking sensation, but a real mental attack.

Under this distance and stimulation, Gaode's Abaddon Blue Flame energy tolerance increased at an even faster rate, reaching a height of seven or eight stories.

Gao De didn't just stand there waiting. He casually sat cross-legged on the ground and, amidst the continuous pricking sensation and on the edge of the absolutely dangerous and deadly blue flames, entered a state of concentration and began to cultivate seriously.

对阿巴顿蓝焰能量的耐受度提升1.3%——1.5%——1.8%——2.2%——2.5%——3.2%——3.9%
When Gao De finished his training, his tolerance level had increased to 13.6%.

Even with the "newbie bonus period" bonus, this speed is still astonishing.

In fact, Gaode Maps discovered the speed at which the "adaptive" feature improves progress long ago and has been continuously improving it.

This may be partly due to his increased mage level, but Gao De believes the more fundamental reason is that he has evolved more and more bodies through [Adaptive] evolution.

It's like an athlete: in most cases, the more sports you're proficient in, the faster you can learn and master a new sport.

This is a more down-to-earth way of putting it.

According to the concept of the supernatural power realm, it should be close to "understanding one method leads to understanding all methods".

Of course, there's no need to get too hung up on the underlying principles.

A faster adaptation speed is definitely a good thing.

"The rate at which tolerance is improving has slowed down significantly, which is clearly due to insufficient stimulation."

Gaode muttered to himself, "13.6%, that's some resistance. Maybe we can take the risk and give it a try. But if it's a one-touch-and-go situation, even if it can't withstand it, it definitely won't die. As long as it doesn't die, [Adaptive] should be able to gradually adapt."

He wasn't reckless or blind.

When the body is injured, [Adaptive] can trigger an increase in the body's injury recovery ability, evolving into [Primary Healing Body].

Similarly, the mental damage caused by the blue flames should also trigger the mental injury recovery ability, and it is not impossible that it will eventually evolve into a youth version of Sarah's three-ring feat.

Thinking this, Gao De stared intently at the blue flames so close to him, gritted his teeth, and slowly reached out his hand.

Even though he was mentally prepared, the next moment, the instant his fingertips touched the ghostly blue flames, Gao De still felt as if his consciousness had been struck hard by a heavy, icy hammer.

A chilling cold that could freeze one's soul exploded from his fingertips.

What was just a slight pricking sensation a moment ago has now transformed into countless sharp ice spikes, piercing deep into his consciousness.

The blue flames, which even a fifth-ring mage's mental strength couldn't withstand for long, were naturally as terrifying as a raging flood or a ferocious beast to a second-ring mage like him.

Even though he has a certain tolerance to blue flame energy and his mental strength is higher than that of a typical second-circle mage.

Cold sweat instantly soaked my back.

Upon sensing the life fluctuations, the blue flames churned violently, then began to flow slowly, surging towards Gao De.

Gao De quickly jumped away, separating himself from Lan Yan.

But the pain did not disappear when he withdrew his hand.

However, in this extreme pain, the "operating speed" of [adaptive] also reaches its peak.

Gao De was panting heavily, but his spirits were jolted, because the [Adaptive] information coming into his mind had undergone a huge change:
[Your spirit has been damaged by the Abaddon Blue Flame energy attack. Your tolerance to Abaddon Blue Flame energy has increased by 14.5%, and your spirit injury recovery ability has increased by 0.5%–0.9%–1.6%.]

(End of this chapter)