[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-above-the-mage":3,"chapter-above-the-mage-above-the-mage-chapter-127":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Above the Mage!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2257131,4404,"Chapter 127: Paving a New Path","above-the-mage-chapter-127",127,"\u003Cp>It was noon, and the sun overhead blazed like fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the stony riverbank, faint golden glimmers shimmered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This golden sheen did not come from reflected light—it was inherent to the stones themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ka, his face pale, stepped out of the mine shaft.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the first to enter the mine, he was also the first to emerge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to when he entered, his basket was now filled with dozens of uneven, pale-gold mineral chunks, totaling about thirty kilograms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Lu Ka, who had barely done heavy physical labor, this weight was a serious challenge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just carrying the load out of the mine, before even beginning the climb to the cliff top, had left him drenched in sweat and his face pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet when he saw only Instructor Sha Hu on the riverbank, he realized he was the first to leave the mine—and felt a quiet pride.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ka dropped his basket and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the next moment, while still catching his breath, he heard a splash from the river.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He instinctively turned toward the sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De surfaced from the river, his face also pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shook his head vigorously to fling water from his hair, then sucked in deep breaths of the fresh air above the water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after expelling every last bit of stale air from his lungs did he recover, his body gently bobbing with the river’s ripples.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why not come up and rest? You’ve trained all morning—your stamina is drained. It’s dangerous underwater, even with a safety rope.” Instructor Sha Hu called out, expressionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the river’s surface floated several thick wooden logs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Attached to them were specially made elastic ropes, the other ends tied securely around Gao De’s waist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Gao De encountered an emergency underwater, he could trigger a latch on the rope, which would instantly yank him to the surface with great force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the \"safety rope,\" designed to maximize the students' safety underwater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I still have some strength left—I’ll do a few more laps,” Gao De shouted back, ignoring Sha Hu’s warning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he dipped his head, dove sharply, kicked hard against the water’s surface, and sank beneath again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He’s not even going to mine? He’s going to dive for clam shells?” Lu Ka, still panting, asked Instructor Sha Hu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instructor Sha Hu nodded silently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What?!” Lu Ka blurted out in shock, then hurriedly added: “How many maid clams has he collected this morning?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this question, Instructor Sha Hu’s gaze held something unreadable. He shook his head slightly. “Not one.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ka tugged at his mouth, forcing a weak smile. “Then his luck’s terrible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s not bad luck—he hasn’t even tried collecting clams,” Sha Hu gritted his teeth, exasperated. “All morning, he’s just been learning to dive.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What?!” This time, Lu Ka was so stunned he forgot to breathe. He jumped to his feet, staring at the now-calm river surface, disbelief etched on his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone who couldn’t even dive was trying to complete the entrance task by collecting clams?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was he delusional—or admirably bold? “When he first got in the water this morning, he couldn’t sink at all. To learn diving, he had to hold onto a rock and sink with it—some stupid method.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instructor Sha Hu had witnessed Gao De’s “miraculous” antics all morning and had been holding back a torrent of complaints—now he let it all spill out:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"After all that fuss this morning, he can barely dive without the rock.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Phew!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Sha Hu and Lu Ka spoke, two more students emerged from the mine, each carrying a full basket of water-gold ore, both drenched in sweat and pale-faced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was Kaplan and Jelika.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kaplan had gathered roughly thirty kilograms of water-gold ore; Jelika had far less—about twenty kilograms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In terms of mage talent, Kaplan and Lu Ke couldn’t match Jelika by a mile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in raw strength, Jelika truly couldn’t outmatch these two “older brothers” from the same family. In the water, light was weak. In the shallows, one could still see waterweeds swaying with the current and common fish darting past.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One could even see the riverbed’s sandy floor, where sunlight filtering through the surface danced in rippling, fish-scale-like patterns—vivid, dazzling, almost dreamlike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the shallows, maid clams were virtually nonexistent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To collect them, one had to go into the deep water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De moved like a clumsy, newly-walking fish, straining his eyes wide open as he slowly angled downward toward the deeper zone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he descended deeper, his vision gradually darkened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Gao De had only just learned to dive and lacked skill—he dared not go too deep yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swimming was a skill he had mastered in his past life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even after his transmigration, swimming remained intact—it didn’t vanish with the journey.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the problem was: knowing how to swim didn’t mean knowing how to dive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swimming was movement on the water’s surface; diving involved activity beneath it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De had to learn it from scratch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In learning to dive, he realized Instructor Sha Hu had been absolutely right to advise them to mine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Diving was a highly specialized task requiring proper equipment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without gear, humans couldn’t breathe underwater—they could only surface repeatedly to breathe, severely limiting their time beneath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was also water pressure: as depth increased, pressure rose, causing increasing physical discomfort. The cold of deep water was another unsolved problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Visibility in the deep water was extremely poor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within their limited underwater time, they had to endure bodily discomfort and search blindly through the murky riverbed for maid clams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With all these stacked challenges, the difficulty of collecting clams was obvious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the waters weren’t perfectly safe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This stretch belonged to the Ceres Magic Academy’s territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The academy’s mages regularly hunted geopulse creatures that approached these waters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even without them, the riverbed’s hidden currents and whirlpools were dangerously treacherous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet despite all these obstacles, Gao De had firmly chosen the clam-collecting path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason was simple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Underwater, Gao De’s eyes, wide open, glowed faintly—with barely perceptible magical light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the hallmark of the 0-level spell [Detect Magic].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gao De was casting [Detect Magic+].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Detect Magic+] (Divination, 0-level):\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You can detect magical auras within 20 meters: determine whether magic is present, sense the number and intensity of magical auras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bonus: In addition to spells and magical items, you may detect the auras of living beings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clams are living beings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maid clams, being magical ingredients, naturally emit magical auras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, by casting [Detect Magic+], Gao De could ignore the riverbed’s darkness and the clams’ concealment, pinpointing maid clams within 20 meters by their magical auras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like having a built-in radar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was his advantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1116,"2026-06-19T14:28:48.629Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","5459b06a7dc1516f7a660d3a5f703716ed395b7fdaa064cbedf588c0f3a4f126","above-the-mage-chapter-128","above-the-mage-chapter-126",529,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fabove-the-mage-cover.jpg"]