Chapter 119: Finding Another Way

It was noon, and the sun was like fire overhead.

The river beach covered with gravel emitted faint points of golden light.

This bit of golden luster did not come from the reflection of light, but was inherent in these gravels themselves.

Lu Ka, with a somewhat pale face, walked out of the mine cave.

As the first person to enter the mine cave, he was also the first to leave the mine cave.

Compared to when he entered the mine cave, his back basket was already filled with pieces of light golden ore of various sizes, about thirty kilograms.

This weight, for Lu Ka, who had almost never done heavy physical labor, was definitely not a small challenge.

So just digging it from the mine cave and carrying it out, without even starting to transport it to the top of the cliff, Lu Ka was already sweating all over his forehead, and his face was slightly pale.

However, when he saw that only Instructor Sha Hu was on the river beach, knowing that he should be the first person to leave the mine cave, he still felt a little proud.

Lu Ka unloaded his back basket and sat on the ground panting without caring about his image.

But the next moment, Lu Ka, who was still panting, heard a splash of water coming from the riverside.

He subconsciously turned his head to look in the direction of the sound.

Gao De, also with a somewhat pale face, emerged from the river surface.

He shook his head vigorously to shake off the water on his hair while breathing the fresh air on the river surface in large mouthfuls.

Until he spat out all the turbid air in his lungs, Gao De recovered, his body rising and falling slightly with the ripples of the water surface.

"Do you want to come up and rest for a while? You've been practicing all morning, your physical strength consumption is too great, it's very easy to have an accident underwater. Even with a safety rope, it's best not to take such a risk." Instructor Sha Hu, who was expressionless, greeted Gao De.

On the river surface, there were many thick logs protruding from the water.

Special elastic ropes were tied to the thick logs, and the other end of the rope was tied to Gao De's waist.

If Gao De encountered an emergency underwater, he could press a lock on the rope, and the rope would pull Gao De out of the water quickly with a great force.

This was a "safety rope," ensuring as much as possible that students would not have accidents underwater.

"I still have some strength, let me try a few more trips." Facing Instructor Sha Hu's reminder, Gao De just shouted loudly.

Then he lowered his head, dived, and after his feet slapped the water surface, he dived into the water again.

"He... he is not preparing to mine, but to dive to collect clams?" Lu Ka, who witnessed this scene, asked Instructor Sha Hu while panting.

Instructor Sha Hu nodded silently.

"Ah?!" Lu Ka exclaimed subconsciously, and then hurriedly asked: "How many Maid Clams has he collected all morning?"

Hearing this question, the meaning in Instructor Sha Hu's gaze was somewhat inexplicable, and he shook his head lightly, "Not a single one."

Lu Ka twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a reluctant smile, "Then his luck is really bad."

"It's not that his luck is bad; he didn't even try to collect clams at all," Instructor Sha Hu gritted his teeth, somewhat hating that iron could not become steel: "He spent all morning just learning to dive here."

"What?!" At this, Lu Ka was directly shocked to the point of being unable to pant, stood up from the ground, and looked at the river surface where the water splashes had dissipated and returned to calm, finding it hard to believe.

Someone who didn't even know how to dive and had to learn it on the spot was actually preparing to complete the enrollment task by collecting clams?

Should one say he was whimsical, or should one say he was courageous? "When this kid went into the water this morning, his body couldn't sink at all. To learn to dive, he could only hold a stone and go into the water, learning to dive with this stupid method."

Instructor Sha Hu witnessed Gao De's "magical operation" all morning, and had long accumulated a belly of complaints to spit out, so naturally, he poured it out like pouring beans:

"Just tossed like this all morning, now he can barely dive into the water without relying on stones."

"Whoosh!"

While Instructor Sha Hu and Lu Ka were talking, two more people walked out of the mine cave one after another carrying full back baskets of water-gold ore, also sweating all over and with pale faces.

It was Kaplan and Jielika.

Kaplan also collected about thirty kilograms of water-gold ore on this trip, and Jielika was much less, about twenty kilograms or so.

In terms of magic user talent, Kaplan and Luke couldn't catch up to Jielika even if they chased for a lifetime.

But in terms of strength alone, Jielika really couldn't compare to these two "brothers" from the same family. The light in the water was very weak, and in the shallow water area, one could see water plants swaying along the water current and common water fish swimming past one's side.

One could even see the sandy beach at the bottom of the river. The sunlight shining on the river surface, under the rolling reflection of the water waves, formed large pieces of wriggling fish-scale-like light and shadow on the sandy beach at the bottom of the river, colorful and extremely dreamy.

However, in the shallow water area, there were almost no Maid Clams.

To collect Maid Clams, one must search in the deep water area.

Gao De was like a clumsy little fish that had just learned to walk, while trying hard to widen his eyes, while trying hard to slant downward toward the direction of the deep water area.

As he dived deeper and deeper, his vision slowly turned dark.

Moreover, Gao De had just learned to dive, and his diving technique was not skilled enough, so he temporarily dared not dive too deep.

Swimming was a skill he had mastered in his previous life.

Although he had crossed over, the skill of swimming was something he knew if he knew it; it wouldn't fail just because he crossed over.

The problem was, it didn't mean that if you knew how to swim, you would know how to dive.

Swimming was just the ability to move on the water surface, while diving involved underwater activities.

Gao De could only learn it on the spot.

In the process of learning to dive, he also understood that Instructor Sha Hu's advice for them to take the mining route was really not wrong at all.

Diving itself was a very professional thing that required professional equipment.

Without equipment, humans could not breathe underwater and could only constantly surface to breathe, and their underwater activity time was extremely limited.

Another thing was the water pressure problem. As the diving depth increased, the water pressure increased, and the human body gradually began to feel uncomfortable. Then there was the water temperature problem in the deep water area, which was also difficult to solve.

The visibility in the deep water area was also extremely poor.

Within the limited underwater activity time, one needed to endure the body's discomfort and grope to find Maid Clams in the river bottom with extremely poor visibility.

With so many buffs superimposed, one could imagine how high the difficulty of the clam-collecting job was.

And the water area was not absolutely safe either.

This water area belonged to the Sairisi Magic Academy.

The academy's magic users would regularly hunt and kill earth-vein creatures approaching this water area.

But even excluding these, the dark currents and whirlpools at the bottom of the river were also very dangerous.

But facing so many "difficulties," Gao De still firmly chose the clam-collecting route.

The reason was also very simple.

In the water, Gao De, with wide eyes, had faint, almost imperceptible spiritual light flickering in his eyes.

This was the sign of casting the 0-circle spell 【Detect Magic】.

It was just that Gao De cast 【Detect Magic+】.

【Detect Magic+】 (Divination, 0-circle):

You can detect the spiritual light of spells and spell items within 20 meters: determine whether there is magic spiritual light, and perceive the quantity and intensity of magic spiritual light.

Extra: Besides spells and spell items, you can also detect the spiritual light of creatures.

Clams belong to creatures.

Maid Clams are magic auxiliary materials and naturally possess magic spiritual light.

So, as long as he casts 【Detect Magic+】, Gao De can ignore the darkness at the bottom of the river, ignore the hiding of the Maid Clams, and accurately find Maid Clams within 20 meters through magic spiritual light.

It was as if he had brought a "radar" with him.

This was his reliance.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 120 =====