Chapter 203

Afternoon.

Gao De arrived at the Alchemy Department.

Under the pretext of needing to concoct a spell potion to learn 【Comprehend Languages】, he applied to the Alchemy Department to enter the water himself to collect Maid Clams.

This was one of the benefits the academy had always provided to students, and anyone could apply, so the entire application process went very smoothly.

"The water is open for clam collection from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM daily."

The staff member at the Alchemy Department instructed: "Additionally, you are only permitted to collect one Maid Clam, and a staff member will be supervising on the side."

Gao De nodded.

He had already known this information before applying.

After completing the application process and paying the 5-gold-coin fee, Gao De went directly to the waters beneath Labor Cliff where the Maid Clams were bred.

Arriving here once again, Gao De's state of mind was completely different from a year ago.

Under the gaze of the staff member in this water area, Gao De took off his clothes and skillfully dove into the water, heading toward the bottom of the river.

Even after a year, he was still as familiar with clam collection as he had been before.

It was now afternoon, but the current at the bottom of the river was still very cold, stimulating Gao De's body and making him shiver uncontrollably.

Although he was now a first-circle magic user.

Because he had only successfully promoted yesterday, he hadn't had time to construct the spell model for 【Endure Elements】.

Gao De was still like he was during his entrance mission, having to rely on his body to endure the low temperature at the bottom of the river.

Although his body was trembling slightly from the cold, this chill was far from reaching his physiological limit, so he didn't mind it.

Gao De cast 【Detect Magic+】 and began searching the mud and sand at the bottom of the river for any Maid Clams that might be there.

Compared to a year ago, he was a year older, his physical fitness had improved significantly, and his breath-holding time underwater had increased from the previous three minutes to nearly four minutes.

His luck today was not very good.

After surfacing and diving to catch his breath four or five times in succession, Gao De still hadn't found any trace of a Maid Clam.

However, he was not discouraged.

In fact, wasting more time here was exactly what Gao De wanted.

He entered the water once more.

For some reason, Gao De actually felt that the river water this time didn't seem as cold as the previous few times.

"I guess my body is gradually getting used to this temperature," he thought subconsciously.

Then, the next moment, some information naturally emerged in Gao De's consciousness:

【Remaining in cold water for a long time, you have begun to adapt to the current environment; cold resistance in water increased by 0.1%, sensitivity to water currents increased by 0.1%, and oxygen uptake in water increased by 0.1%】.

"What the hell?" Gao De was stunned for a moment.

Afterwards, he suddenly reacted.

【Adaptability】! It was the feat 【Adaptability】 he had awakened when he promoted.

This was the effect of 【Adaptability】.

Gao De had originally thought it might take a long time before he could discover the function of 【Adaptability】.

He hadn't expected that after only one day, the secret of the feat would already be revealed.

So this was what "rapidly adapting to any environment" meant.

Adapting to the environment is the instinct of every living creature.

And the key to his feat lay in this "rapidly."

Adapting to any environment—so at the bottom of a river full of undercurrents and cold, what increased was cold resistance, water current sensitivity, and oxygen uptake.

Then in a hot environment, it should be heat resistance. "If I were in an environment with scarce magic power, would it increase my ability to absorb magic power?" Gao De's train of thought opened up instantly, and he immediately thought of many uses for 【Adaptability】.

Some were obvious, while others needed to be verified.

But in any case, the vast world of 【Adaptability】 was already displayed before Gao De.

This was a feat with infinite possibilities, both in terms of its upper limit and its extensibility.

Although there were no specific indicators to judge the level of a feat.

Gao De could now confidently affirm that 【Adaptability】 was definitely a feat of the super-rank level.

While Gao De was diligently collecting clams in the waters beneath Labor Cliff under the supervision of staff, the number of people gathering outside the rune workshop was also increasing.

But the increase in manpower did not lead to any noteworthy progress in breaking the magic array.

It wasn't until the arrival of Kunxi Ese, the addition of a senior second-rank runemaster, that everything began to get on the right track.

There are two methods for breaking an array.

One is to violently destroy the magic array, and the other is to use runes to solve the runes. A magic array is actually composed of composite runes made of basic runes, and it has its own trajectory of magic power flow.

One only needs to find the key nodes and draw the corresponding runes to cancel out the original runes, thereby cutting off the magic power flow trajectory, and the magic array will naturally fail.

The Great Dao is simple.

The simpler the principle sounds, the higher the difficulty of actual operation.

The method Kunxi Ese was using now was the most mindless brute-force method.

Trying one node after another.

The magic array in the rune workshop was, after all, just a protective alarm array; it possessed no offensive capabilities and was currently unmanned.

In this situation, the mindless brute-force method was actually an efficient way to break the array.

The progress of breaking the array was advancing at a slow but steady speed.

Opening the rune workshop was only a matter of time.

If luck was good, it would be faster; if luck was bad, it would be slower.

The overall situation was settled.

The vice-chairman's mood became pleasant.

Although that young student was a variable that made the situation a bit more complicated, that was all it was.

That student named Gao De was strong because he was young, but he also lost because he was young, so some of his ideas were still too naive.

His persistence would have no effect at all in the face of the academy's powerful will.

Not only would he be unable to protect anything, but he would also lose his own future because of it.

—Having followed Xie Er En for so many years, the vice-chairman knew the dean's character too well.

He was a person who held grudges and was extremely petty.

Don't look at how the dean didn't show anything after he finished reporting the situation.

But the vice-chairman understood that in Xie Er's heart, Gao De had already been blacklisted.

As the academy dean, Xie Er En had so many ways to make things difficult for a student that they didn't even need to be listed.

A sharp, piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the corridor outside the rune workshop.

People who had been immersed in complex runes stopped their movements one after another, looking up blankly, not knowing what was happening.

Their faces were filled with confusion and unease.

What happened?

The next moment, in the astonished eyes of the crowd, the magic array they were working hard to break began to flash with intense light.

Like a giant beast being awakened, it flashed crazily with light of various colors.

These lights were intertwining, rotating, and leaping.

"Stay away!" Kunxi Ese, who was presiding over everything, saw this scene, his expression changed, and he hurriedly shouted loudly.

The people on the scene didn't know the specific situation, but upon hearing this, they also subconsciously retreated.

Immediately following, a deafening roar sounded.

The entire rune workshop seemed to be shaken by an invisible force.

The runes on the walls began to peel off, making a crackling sound.

A scorching, chaotic aura permeated the air.

Following that was a series of intense explosions.

Each explosion was accompanied by strong magic power fluctuations, impacting everything in the surroundings.

Some people were affected by these magic power fluctuations, staggering and even falling to the ground.

Fortunately, the magic array's offensive power was not strong and was not enough to be fatal, and since everyone present was at least a first-circle magic user capable of reacting and casting 【Shield】, no casualties were caused.

Finally, with a loud bang, the entire magic array completely collapsed.

The light dissipated, and the door to the rune workshop also collapsed with a crash.

The rune workshop they had worked so hard to open was now frankly exposed before everyone's eyes.

But the once orderly scene in the rune workshop had been completely overturned; it was a mess everywhere, and those finely carved rune diagrams and rune stone slabs were shattered.

The rune pens and magic ink once used to draw runes were now nowhere to be seen.

Those carefully arranged barriers and energy guidance devices were torn to pieces by the explosion's shockwave.

On the surrounding walls, those once complex and fine runes were now blurred, with only a few places barely recognizable.

And the mountains of data and notes containing He Xi's hundreds of years of hard work in the workshop were melted into powder by the intense energy fluctuations.

(End of chapter)