Chapter 106: Progress

After confirming Gao De’s intention to stay, the staff wrote “Harvest Month 4” on his summons and stamped it with an official seal.

Then, Gao De received another five gold coins as his “daily wage.”

At the same time, he estimated that the original number of recruited mages was about five hundred.

After one day, one-tenth had chosen to leave.

The rest had chosen to continue.

If calculated at four hundred fifty, even if all were mage apprentices, the daily hiring cost for Bremen City would be roughly 4,500 Xien gold coins.

In one day, the team could advance only ten or so kilometers.

If everything went smoothly, it would take nearly half a month to complete this mission.

One day, 4,500 gold—by purchasing power, this was roughly equivalent to 4.5 million yuan on Earth.

This labor cost was astonishingly high.

But after careful thought, Gao De felt it wasn’t unreasonable.

On Earth, the construction cost for one kilometer of highway ranged from 20 to 30 million yuan.

In comparison, spending 4.5 million yuan to advance ten kilometers—and gaining loot from corpse harvests of ground-pulse creatures—was quite efficient.

The value of these ground-pulse creature corpses might not let the authorities break even or make a small profit, but at least it would offset much of the cost.

For this trip, Gao De had bought five sets of “Blue Light Elixir” from the potion shop, and replenished another five sets of “Basic Magic Elixir.”

The ten sets of Basic Magic Elixir purchased on Harvest Month 2 had been fully consumed yesterday.

Just for potions, his monthly expenditure reached 60 gold.

But Gao De could only grit his teeth and accept it.

The more battles he experienced, the more he felt his mana was insufficient.

Thus, spending gold to accelerate mana growth, though seemingly extravagant, was absolutely necessary.

After dinner, Gao De found a quiet corner, took out a bottle of Basic Magic Elixir, drank it without drawing attention, and sat in stillness to begin his guiding practice, ignoring the surrounding noise.

Even in the wild, he had no intention of interrupting his cultivation.

After all, this journey would keep him outdoors for nearly half a month.

Gao De could not tolerate such a long interruption in his cultivation.

The next day, as dawn broke, the logistics guards had already boiled meat broth in large pots.

In this world, there were no notions—scientific or otherwise—that “breakfast is the source of daily energy” or “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

In fact, not everyone in this world ate breakfast.

Especially among the laboring class, rising at dawn to begin work was common.

If breakfast was served, it was simple: leftover rice or dishes, cold bread from the previous day, paired with water or weak wine.

Though everyone needed to perform their duties and expended great physical strength, serving each person a bowl of meat broth was already an exceptional privilege.

Staple food remained dried rations.

After breakfast, everyone gathered according to yesterday’s team composition.

“Yesterday was the first day; some came on a whim.”

“After today’s mission, those still here won’t leave anytime soon.”

“Let me introduce myself—I’m Ma Qieyi, a 1-Ring mage, member of the Enforcement Squad.” The team’s leader, who had withheld his name yesterday, now volunteered it before departure.

“Please share your names and mage ranks—we’ll be together for nearly half a month.”

With Ma Qieyi setting the tone, everyone exchanged basic information.

Gao De counted: their temporary team, including Ma Qieyi, totaled twenty-three people.

Aside from Ma Qieyi, the 1-Ring mage, the remaining twenty-two consisted of eleven Third-Class mage apprentices and eleven Second-Class mage apprentices—exactly half and half.

A quick glance told Gao De that he was likely the lowest-ranked member in the entire team.

Because even the youngest among them looked to be well into their twenties.

At that age, even as a Second-Class apprentice, they were far beyond this “new recruit” who had only just advanced to Second-Class a month ago.

“Even if my rank is low, I know more spells.” Gao De thought to himself.

Yesterday, when clearing the Grey Spike Bee swarms, over half the team could only stand by helplessly.

Without mana, knowing more spells meant nothing.

And vice versa.

After a brief cleanup, the main force resumed movement.

The arrangement was identical to yesterday’s.

Advancing along the imperial road, every kilometer or so, two teams were deployed into the dense forests on either side to clear land and open up new areas.

Days passed. Everyone’s ability to handle ground-pulse creatures and their coordination steadily improved.

But as clearing progressed, casualties gradually emerged.

Almost every day, several mage apprentices died.

Gao De’s team was lucky: though some were injured, no one had been lost yet.

The only thing that disappointed him was that he hadn’t encountered another “reward event” like the Grey Spike Bee swarms.

Harvest Month 8.

Five days had passed since the main force departed from Bremen City.

Night.

Beside the cart near the campfire.

Gao De sat cross-legged, already in a meditative state.

In the temporary camp, many mage apprentices were doing the same.

After all, wild mages who answered the summons mostly still had a fighting spirit.

Diligent cultivation was the most basic requirement for any mage.

Half an hour later.

Gao De opened his eyes, a smile on his face.

“Finally another breakthrough!”

His guiding technique had just advanced a small level.

Now, Gao De’s mana could support him casting eight cantrips.

He calculated: his last guiding technique breakthrough had been on Sunlight Month 1, right after arriving in Bremen City.

Only thirty-seven days had passed, yet he had advanced again.

Faster than expected by several days.

“Perhaps it’s because I’ve been constantly using and restoring mana.” Gao De thought.

He paused, then closed his eyes again, focused, and opened the crude information panel for “Wind Spirit Moon Shadow.”

Origin:

0-Ring—【Human】(2/7), 【Digging Worm】(1/7), 【Wolf Rat】(4/7), 【Magic Burst Frog】(1/7), 【Ferocious Rat】(3/7), 【Earth Magic Bat】(2/7)

Of the total eleven entries, five origin points had been fully collected and used; six remained in progress.

【Human】could be ignored for now.

【Digging Worm】too—throughout these five days, neither his team nor any other had encountered one.

It seemed the ground-pulse territory connected to “Hogen Ground-Pulse” did not contain this creature.

【Wolf Rat】was only three short—closest to completion.

As for 【Magic Burst Frog】, just thinking of it still gave Gao De chills.

It seemed the weakest among these entries, labeled “frog.”

But in the supernatural world, one must never judge by conventional logic.

In fact, over these five days, the Magic Burst Frog had been one of the most troublesome 0-Ring ground-pulse creatures Gao De encountered.

It possessed supernatural power, with spell-like abilities, capable of firing a powerful energy beam from its mouth—devastating in strength.

According to Ma Qieyi, the Magic Burst Frog’s spell-like ability was equivalent to the cantrip 【Magic Burst】.

And 【Magic Burst】was nearly the strongest cantrip, even surpassing 【Flame Arrow】.

Fortunately, the Magic Burst Frog could not fire its energy beam continuously.

So after injuring one mage apprentice, Gao De swiftly and precisely struck it down with a 【Flame Arrow+】, reducing it to charcoal.

【Ferocious Rat】was the weakest among these entries—neither as large as the 【Wolf Rat】nor appearing in swarms like the 【Ferocious Bat】.

So as soon as it was spotted, the team’s mage apprentices would casually dispatch it.

【Earth Magic Bat】was another 0-Ring ground-pulse creature with supernatural ability, but not spell-like—it could spit out cone-shaped stones from its mouth.

Its power was no less formidable, and it appeared in groups of eight or nine—a rare sight.

But thanks to Ma Qieyi’s timely intervention as a 1-Ring mage, the group of 【Earth Magic Bat】caused no major damage to the team.

Moreover, as flying ground-pulse creatures, Gao De had managed to kill two of them using the extended range of his 【Flame Arrow+】.

Of course, over these five days, Gao De’s team had cleared far more ground-pulse creatures than these.

But “it’s damn hard to get the kill!” Gao De muttered again—this complaint had repeated countless times these past days.

(End of Chapter)