Chapter 318

Leaving the town council, the matter of naturalization was temporarily put to rest; next, there was only waiting for the results.

Gao De turned his head to look at Bade, who had accompanied him all morning, and expressed his gratitude: "Thank you for the trouble today."

If it hadn't been for Bade mentioning the naturalization matter and recommending Knight Gerald as a guarantor, the process would not have progressed so smoothly.

"What kind of trouble is that!" Bade waved his hands repeatedly.

Gao De checked the time; it was already lunchtime, so he took Bade to a nearby tavern and treated him to lunch to show his gratitude.

The tavern was filled with the aroma of food and the fragrance of malt ale; there were already many customers, and only two empty tables remained.

Gao De sat down at one of the empty tables and ordered two servings of "Shepherd's Pie," which had a very local Dezhen flavor: a pie made by mixing minced lamb with vegetables into a filling, then covering it with a thick layer of mashed potatoes and baking it.

Such a hearty lunch only cost 1.5 silver dragon coins.

From this aspect, one could also see the richness and abundance of materials in the Jin Quehua Dynasty.

After finishing lunch, the two said goodbye and parted ways; their connection actually ended completely here.

Gao De chose to return to the Swan Inn.

Borrowing a pot from the inn's kitchen, he returned to his room and began to prepare magic potions.

Having purchased magic materials for 307 Jin Quehua coins, he always felt uneasy in his heart if he didn't prepare them into potions and take them as soon as possible.

Moreover, Gao De still knew nothing about what the assessment for the Sea Sentinels was specifically like.

Joining the Sea Sentinels was related to his future roots in the Jin Quehua Dynasty.

So he still valued this matter very much; to be more certain, mastering a few more spells would definitely not be wrong.

No sooner said than done; because the magic potions only needed to be stewed in a pot, and there were no operational details to pay attention to throughout the process, Gao De soon prepared all eight portions of magic potions and stored them in potion bottles.

After thinking about it, he decided to start building the spell model for 【Heavy Burden Spell】.

This was still a functional spell.

But its function was too practical: it increased a creature's load-bearing capacity to 3 times.

In this world, in terms of physical sensation, Gao De felt that the most scientific point was that space storage equipment, or rather space storage capacity, was too precious.

Up to now, he had only seen so-called storage space on Flora, and it had many limitations and the space was extremely small.

The lack of storage equipment, although causing many inconveniences in life, would feel quite reasonable upon careful thought.

After all, time and space are in a supreme position in any supernatural power system.

Power in the time domain has always been something only the strongest can master, and any equipment involving the time domain is revered by the world as a "divine artifact," without exception.

Then why should space storage equipment, which is closely related to the space domain, be common? Moreover, if this world were really like what he saw in the novels of his previous life, where every mage had a space ring, the trade system of this world would probably collapse instantly.

Sea transport, land transport, trade routes, and checkpoints would all cease to exist.

The simplest example is that the Jin Quehua Dynasty relies on the Sword Bay and the checkpoints of the three major rivers in the east to collect unknown amounts of tariffs from passing ships every year, which is an important source of wealth for the Jin Quehua Dynasty.

But once space storage equipment becomes rampant, it would be impossible to collect tariffs because you would have no way of knowing what is in their space storage equipment.

In fact, let alone Gao De being a first-circle mage, even a fourth-circle mage like Su Naifa still has to honestly carry his own belongings.

Thinking about it this way, the 【Heavy Burden Spell】, which can increase load-bearing capacity, seems extremely practical for mages in this situation.

Not to mention really carrying a lot of things, at least it won't easily affect actions and slow down the journey due to weight.

Thinking this way, Gao De had already taken the newly prepared 【Heavy Burden Spell】 magic potion and began the construction of the spell model.

Three days passed in a flash.

Gao De came to the town council again.

"Congratulations, from today on, you are an official resident of our Dezhen, that is, a subject of the Jin Quehua Dynasty."

The staff member called Li De had a smile on his face, expressed his congratulations to Gao De, and handed over an exquisite "Naturalization Certificate."

Sure enough, as the staff member said, in the case of no major problems with the answers and having a guarantor, he passed the naturalization review very smoothly.

Gao De took the naturalization certificate.

The certificate was made of high-quality parchment, with silver-stamped decorative patterns around the edges, outlining a gorgeous and regular frame.

The text on the parchment used exquisite handwritten floral script, and the ink was black and shiny.

The certificate stated Gao De's name at the beginning, followed by his date of birth and place of birth, accurate to Hogen Town.

In addition, it also recorded in detail the submission date of the naturalization application, the guarantor, and the date of approval for naturalization: Nolan Calendar 9657, Frost Gold Month 4th.

Finally, at the bottom of the certificate was the seal of the Dezhen Town Council, along with the highly recognizable signature of the relevant person in charge.

"From today on, you will be able to obtain the rights that our Jin Quehua Dynasty subjects should have, such as freely purchasing land and property, and engaging in various industries to start a business without hindrance..." After Gao De took the naturalization certificate, Li De also introduced the rights he enjoyed to Gao De.

In the Jin Quehua Dynasty, nationality is a strict threshold.

If one is not naturalized, there are many industries that one cannot enter, including but not limited to those related to the political field, the military field, and the education field.

And the Sea Sentinels that Gao De wanted to join belonged to the military field.

"Thank you for your trouble," Gao De bowed to express his gratitude.

"No need, it's just part of the job," Li De waved his hand, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over Gao De's extremely young face. After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but ask an extra question: "I remember you said you wanted to become a Mount Dandong Sea Hai Shao Bing?"

Gao De nodded slightly, "Yes, what's wrong?"

Li De sighed and revealed a bit of secret information to Gao De, "To be honest with you, although you have been naturalized and become a subject of this country, and it is said that you can obtain the rights that our Jin Quehua Dynasty subjects should have, you know that there is certainly still a gap between locally born subjects and foreign naturalized persons."

"And the status of the Sea Sentinels is extremely high here, and it also involves the safety and secrets of Mount Dandong, so it's not that they don't accept foreign naturalized persons at all, but the difficulty you want to face to pass the assessment and enter the Sea Sentinels is certainly much higher than that of locally born citizens."

"You'd better be mentally prepared."

Hearing this, Gao De was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly, "I know, I will try my best." He had actually thought of what Li De said.

But one always has to try.

"I was completely not optimistic about you at first, but after knowing your background, I feel that perhaps you have a certain hope," Li De said with great emotion.

The background he mentioned referred to the "wandering beggar" identity that Gao De mentioned.

A first-circle mage of this age is not rare in the Jin Quehua Dynasty, but adding this bottom-level background makes it a bit extraordinary.

That means that Gao De should not have enjoyed too many resources in his cultivation until now, and his potential is unlimited. If he gets the resources of the Sea Sentinels, he might be able to soar into the sky.

This is Gao De's plus point.

Just like in Gao De's previous life, one student comes from a bustling capital and enjoys the best educational resources and environment; another student comes from a remote mountain, relying entirely on his own grit and hard study, and finally both get into Jing University.

Although both are Jing University students, how could the hardship and gold content behind the two be the same? "As the Holy Empire grows stronger, in recent years, the Holy Empire's meritocratic ideology has also had a little influence on our country. Gradually, some nobles have proposed to absorb more excellent foreign talents, which can be considered good news for you," Li De mentioned at the end.

"I hope your words come true," Gao De thanked him, but in his heart, he noticed the key information hidden in Li De's words—does this mean that the Sea Hai Shao Bing assessment is not a separate, purely rigid indicator assessment, but will comprehensively consider the individual's actual situation, including background, age, and other factors? After leaving the town council and returning to the Swan Inn, Gao De immediately started packing his luggage.

He did not renew his room but prepared to leave Dezhen immediately and head to Mount Dandong.

In the one-by-one, no-error version!

Although Dezhen is a small town under the jurisdiction of Mount Dandong, there is still a not-so-short distance between the two places.

However, unlike the Saint Xi En Principality, in the Jin Quehua Dynasty, except for those three mountain ranges, all other territories within the country have been completely developed.

Therefore, not only is the traffic network in the dynasty crisscrossed, the roads are flat and wide, water transport is busy and orderly, and the air routes are unobstructed, making travel extremely convenient. Moreover, there is little need to worry about sudden attacks by subterranean creatures along the way, and the safety is quite high.

And from Dezhen to Mount Dandong, there are three ways to travel: by boat, following a caravan, and by airship.

It just happens to include the three realms of water, land, and air.

That's right, within the Jin Quehua Dynasty, even if it is just a small town, it is equipped with airships, that "high-end" stuff that only the capital of the Saint Xi En Principality had.

In fact, for the subjects of the Jin Quehua Dynasty, airships are no longer a rare thing, and ordinary people have more or less had one or two riding experiences.

Gao De has always been frugal, but he wouldn't be stingy on this necessary expenditure, so he decisively chose the airship, which was the most comfortable and took the shortest time.

The airship base requires a huge amount of land, and take-offs and landings generate noise, so the airship base in Dezhen was built in a remote corner of the suburbs.

Gao De stood on the street, got on a "fast-line carriage" specifically heading to the airship base, and arrived directly at the airship base half an hour later.

Following the bustling crowd, Gao De came to the ticket building located on one side of the airship base gate and bought an airship ticket to Mount Dandong.

As the most bustling city in this area, just in Dezhen alone, there are seven batches of airship "flights" to Mount Dandong every day.

And the air route from Dezhen to Mount Dandong is 655 kilometers in total, reaching in four hours, with a total fee of 4 Jin Quehua coins, equivalent to a fee of 6 copper per kilometer.

Of course, this is the price for the ordinary cabin.

If you want to sit in a luxury cabin, the price will go up several times.

He honestly spent 4 Jin Quehua coins to buy an ordinary cabin airship ticket, and then followed the crowd toward the boarding inspection area.

There stood several guards with cold expressions, wearing crisp uniforms, their leather boots polished until they shone, but the content of the inspection was very simple: first, check the proof of identity and ticket, and after confirming there were no errors, use an alchemical machine that detects magic light to scan each passenger.

When Gao De was being inspected, the supernatural materials in his backpack that had not yet been sold and the North Wind, which was wrapped tightly in its scabbard at his waist, both bloomed with magic light at the same time.

It was just that the other party let Gao De open his backpack for them to take a look, and then let Gao De pass. Because the North Wind could be seen at a glance, they didn't even ask him to draw the sword to show it.

After successfully passing the inspection and boarding, and waiting for another half hour, this airship named "Huo'erde No. 87" slowly ascended into the sky with the sound of the propeller turning and the wind, and went with the wind.

Compared to the old-fashioned airships he rode in the Saint Xi En Principality before, although this "Huo'erde No. 87" could not be considered very new, the riding experience was much better.

The most vivid contrast was that "Huo'erde No. 87" almost didn't bring him any physical discomfort when it ascended, unlike the previous head congestion and ringing in both ears.

And when the airship rose to a high altitude, Gao De looked down at the earth below, and the scenery was completely different from the past.

There were no continuous mountain ranges; instead, there were vast plains as far as the eye could see, with wheat waves turning gold; the crisscrossed river network was like silver blood vessels spreading on the earth, sparkling, with large ships full of cargo or passengers weaving back and forth on them.

This picture left Gao De with two words: prosperous.

After Gao De watched the scenery for a while, he returned to his seat and closed his eyes to build the spell model.

The existence of 【Magic Endurance Body】 allowed him to easily enter a state of cultivation in any environment.

His mind instantly sank into the sea of spell stars.

Soon, Gao De opened his eyes again, a smile appearing on his face.

In the quiet environment of the inn where no one disturbed him, the 【Heavy Burden Spell】 spell model that had never been built actually succeeded at once on the noisy airship.

However, for Gao De, the successful construction of the spell model was just the beginning.

His mind focused on the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow, and he lightly clicked the yellow "+" sign after the newly appeared 【Heavy Burden Spell】 spell entry.

A moment later:

【Heavy Burden Spell+】 (Transmutation, 1st Circle):

The target's load-bearing capacity becomes three times for the duration of the spell (two hours).

But under the effect of the spell, except for the weight the creature can carry, its actual strength is not affected in any way.

Extra: The duration of this spell is doubled, the consumption is reduced by half, and in addition, this spell will also take effect on the hindrance of armor other than load-bearing.

After adding the points, he checked the time; it was still a long way to Mount Dandong, so Gao De simply focused his mind and began the cultivation of the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture."

"Dear passengers, our airship has safely arrived over Mount Dandong. We are currently preparing to land; please do not get up in a hurry, wait for the airship to stop completely, and then get up and leave in an orderly manner..."

It wasn't until a loud and clear arrival prompt suddenly came from the loudspeaker machine in the airship that Gao De finally recovered from his focused state of cultivation.

Mount Dandong, here we are!

(End of chapter)