Chapter 337: Innate Talent Again

Another ten days passed in a flash.

After Zuowen Burns came to the door once, he never appeared again.

Gao De naturally wouldn't go to his door to sign a sponsorship contract.

Since no one was interfering, he was happy to be idle and focus on training and cultivation.

First was "courage training." Before constructing the spell model for Feather Fall, the duration he could sustain it finally reached the half-hour requirement initially set by the Naxi mage.

He didn't know if this progress was fast or slow, as there was no one to use as a reference.

However, Gao De considered it to be fast.

In fact, after experiencing a true death in his previous life and then a narrow escape from death after crossing over, his mindset was much more stable and bolder than the average person.

As for the construction of the Li Oumeng magic vein network, it had already reached twenty-one lines.

Gao De knew this speed was shockingly fast without needing a reference—because in twenty days, he had already consumed sixty or seventy bottles of the five-month quota of one hundred bottles of Kai Mai Ding.

【Your immunity to toxins has increased by 40.9%, and your body organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and excrete various toxins has increased by 45.4%】.

This was the progress of current adaptation.

At this stage, Kai Mai Ding was no longer a potent medicine to him; at most, it was like soda, making him feel bloated if he drank too much.

Although the magic vein network was still far from being completely constructed, Gao De could already clearly feel the huge benefits of casting spells through the new magic veins he chose himself.

First, the casting speed increased by nearly 30%, and the mana consumption during the casting process was reduced by nearly 10%, indirectly increasing the power of the spells slightly.

This "slight" improvement seemed negligible.

But as they say, many drops make an ocean; the longer the battle lasts and the higher the mage rank, the more obvious the effect actually becomes.

10% of 10 is 1, which is not eye-catching.

But 10% of 1000 is 100!

This feeling of being able to get obvious positive feedback was simply addictive, making Gao De wish he could always be immersed in it.

In addition, he had also fully mastered the last two first-circle spells he obtained from the northern realm during this period.

Likewise, with his source points still relatively abundant, Gao De still added points without hesitation:

【Feather Fall+】 (Transmutation, 1st Circle):

Designate up to five falling creatures within the casting range (40 meters). The falling speed of the affected creatures is reduced to 10 feet per second for the duration of the spell (1 minute).

If the creature lands before the spell ends, it will not suffer any falling damage and can land safely on its feet.

After landing, the spell's effect on the creature terminates immediately.

Extra: You will be able to guide the target's body posture and direction during the descent through mental power, achieving a certain degree of autonomous flight or turning.

【Detect Animals and Plants+】 (Divination, 1st Circle):

You can detect specific types of animals or plants within a cone-shaped area starting from your front-facing direction.

You must select a type of animal or plant when casting, but you can change the type at any time.

The amount of information you can obtain depends on the time you spend studying a specific area or focusing on a specific type of animal or plant.

You need to concentrate while casting; once the casting is interrupted, the time must be recalculated from the beginning.

The casting time is up to 10 minutes, and the spell's effective range is 600 feet (200 meters).

As time extends, you will first determine whether such animals or plants exist in this area, then confirm the quantity of specific types of animals or plants in the area and the condition of the healthiest creatures among them, and finally learn the condition and location of each individual.

If the individual is outside your line of sight, you can only know its direction, not its exact location.

The categories of biological conditions are as follows:

Normal: No injuries or flesh wounds, no diseases.

Fair: Minor injuries.

Poor: Seriously injured, suffering from disease, or weakened due to trauma.

Weakened: Already dead or suffering from extremely serious disease, or crippled.

If the creature meets multiple categories above (such as having minor injuries but suffering from disease), the spell will show the worse condition.

You can turn to detect new areas.

The spell can penetrate obstacles, but 1 foot of rock, 1 inch of ordinary metal, lead foil, or 3 feet of wood or soil can block it.

Extra: The spell's effective range changes from the original cone-shaped area to a wider circular area, and it can penetrate larger obstacles (twice the original).

While Gao De was focused on improving himself, he didn't know that he had unknowingly gained a little fame within the Sea Sentinels.

First, he was the only mage recruited in recent years who was recognized as having top-tier mage talent.

Because of this, many people were actually paying attention to Gao De when he joined the Sea Sentinels.

Then, Gao De initially mastered the Boundless Breathing Method in one day, and the next day chose the "Li Oumeng Magic Vein Network," which had been sealed for a long time and was regarded as a "chicken rib" (useless).

This was equivalent to a suppression followed by a lift, which immediately sparked discussion among many people.

Finally, there was the solicitation from the Burns family, which Gao De politely declined.

The noble circle is not small, but it's not actually that big either; some news spreading is just a matter of a little while.

Because Gao De had been going back and forth between the Collingwood Academy, his dormitory, and the canteen every day since entering the Sea Sentinels, and had no contact with other Sea Hai Shao Bing mages, he had never realized this.

"Gao De!"

Just as he entered the Collingwood Academy, Gao De heard someone call his name.

Turning his head, it was Mei Liya.

This was the first time he had met her in the academy in such a long time.

"Are you here for training today too?" Gao De nodded in response.

"Yes," Mei Liya explained: "Under normal circumstances, I actually come to the academy for training every day, but a while ago, after guiding you to report, I took a mission to go to Ouseer City to clear out water beasts, and I only just returned yesterday."

"So that's how it is."

Mei Liya had only entered the Sea Sentinels a year earlier than him and was still in the novice period. Her potential had not been fully tapped, unlike those big shots who only needed to train periodically to maintain a basic level, so she naturally needed to persist in training.

"Good luck, I'm going to train." After Mei Liya greeted him enthusiastically, she went to the side to start her own training.

Gao De, as usual, activated the Star-Light Instrument and began his visual reaction training, quickly becoming immersed in it until the voice of Master Naxi arrived.

"You have reached the passing line for the assessment in visual reaction training. Next, you won't take this course specifically, but this is a basic skill, and you need to persist in training on your own."

The Naxi mage called a halt to Gao De, who had just finished this visual training and was still feeling unfulfilled.

"I will." Gao De bowed seriously to the Naxi mage and promised.

In the outside world, training like that provided by the Collingwood Academy might cost several silver dragon coins each time. Now that he could enjoy it for free, he naturally cherished it exceptionally.

"After visual training, the next stage is body movement training."

"Body movement training?" Gao De was slightly startled, somewhat unexpected.

The necessity of visual training was easy to see.

But body movement training was somewhat difficult to understand.

Mages, still need to practice body movement?

Isn't that usually something only those crude martial artists need to do?

When did the "high and mighty" mage lords need to practice this?

This conflicted somewhat with the image of mages Gao De knew from film and novel works.

"Spells can give us speed and flexibility beyond ordinary people, but if we haven't undergone specialized body movement training, our utilization rate of this speed and flexibility is actually extremely low."

"Just like a well-trained soldier fighting a villager who is stronger and has better physical fitness than him; unless the physical fitness gap is truly too large, the former will inevitably win. This is the importance of technique." The Naxi mage gave a simple example, making Gao De understand the role of body movement training instantly.

"Visual reaction training allows you to capture the enemy's spell attacks at the fastest speed, while body movement training allows you to learn how to dodge the enemy's attacks."

"Relying on Abjuration spells to hard-resist attacks is one choice, but relatively speaking, dodging is clearly a more cost-effective and safer approach."

"I understand." Gao De nodded.

What Gao De didn't expect was that the first lesson of body movement training was not any pole technique or footwork, but distance and angle judgment training similar to visual reaction training.

In a specially designated open field, Gao De needed to stand in the very center, and then from every angle and distance around him, specially designed alchemical machines would shoot soft small balls to attack him.

And what Gao De had to do was, when each small ball was shot, quickly judge the distance and angle between the ball and himself, and describe it in language at the first moment.

At the beginning, the throwing speed of the soft balls would be slower, giving the trainee enough time to judge.

And as the trainee's ability improved, the throwing speed of the soft balls would become faster and faster, to improve the trainee's accuracy and speed in judging distance and angle, so as to better apply it to actual combat.

"Don't think this training is very simple. In fact, for those who haven't undergone similar training, even getting started is very difficult."

"Not to mention accurate judgment, even at the beginning, you newcomers often stutter when describing distance and direction." The Naxi mage noticed that after listening to his introduction, Gao De seemed somewhat indifferent, thinking he was looking down on the difficulty of this training, so he couldn't help but remind him.

At least in the years he had been guiding many newcomers, the situation he saw was always like this.

Therefore, he naturally assumed that Gao De's performance in this training should also be the same as others, encountering some difficulties.

"I know." Gao De nodded, hesitated for a moment, and decided to tell the truth, "But I am particularly good at distance and angle judgment."

"So, can this distance and angle judgment training be skipped directly?"

"Have you had similar training before?" Hearing Gao De say this, the Naxi mage's first reaction was this.

"That, I haven't." Gao De shook his head.

"Then you?" The Naxi mage looked at Gao De suspiciously, thought for a moment, and said again: "It's not impossible for you to skip this training, but I need to see your foundation. I am your guiding mage, and I need to be responsible for you."

"And if you can't pass the training assessment in the end, it will also have a bad impact on me."

"Okay... then why don't we try it and see?" Seeing the Naxi mage was half-believing, Gao De said helplessly.

"Okay, if you are indeed fine, we will skip it."

Under the Naxi mage's greeting, Gao De came to the middle of the field.

At this time, it was already late, and there were already two or three Sea Hai Shao Bing mages in the academy conducting daily training.

And right next to the field where Gao De was, it happened to be the training field chosen by Mei Liya.

Originally she was training on her own, but noticing Gao De entering, she subconsciously slowed down her rhythm, and her gaze drifted over here.

Although she had been back for less than a day, it was enough for her to hear some small rumors and anecdotes about Gao De.

So for Gao De's training, she subconsciously wanted to see how the other party performed.

"You just need to report the specific angle and distance to me. For example, I am standing 20 degrees to your front right, and the distance is about 30 feet." The Naxi mage stood there expressionlessly, giving Gao De an example.

Hearing this, Mei Liya knew that Gao De was about to start distance and angle judgment training, and it was his first training.

Thinking of this, she simply stopped her current training and watched with great interest.

She wanted to see how much stronger Gao De, who was recognized as having top-tier mage talent by the "examiner," could be compared to herself.

"No problem." Gao De replied.

"Then let's start."

The next moment, a "hole" suddenly appeared on the floor, and then a soft ball stuffed with fur shot towards Gao De.

The speed was not particularly fast, and dodging it was not difficult.

But this training was not about dodging.

The Naxi mage looked at Gao De.

"43 degrees to the front right, distance about 60 and a half feet." Gao De had already given the answer very calmly.

The Naxi mage was startled, looked at the information displayed on the machine, and found no error.

At this time, the second and third small balls were already shooting out one after another.

"35 and a third feet to the rear right."

"Left rear distance..."

Gao De gave his answers in an orderly manner.

The ball's firing speed was getting faster, and Gao De still had a calm and composed expression.

Mei Liya's gaze went straight.

Can a genius be this all-around? Can't be, right?

The Naxi mage still maintained the composure of an elder on his face, but a few points of surprise inevitably appeared in his eyes.

"Is this also talent?"

It was not just accurate, but accurate to the fraction after the foot.

This degree was too exaggerated.

Only Gao De himself knew what was going on.

The 【Insight】 ability of the Mandra Magic Eye could allow him to build a specific model of creatures; judging mere physical distance and angle was even more of a piece of cake.

Therefore, this training was indeed unnecessary for him.

After all, how could the experience and muscle memory gained through training be as precise as 【Insight】?

"You are indeed good at this. There is no need to conduct training in this area anymore. You can enter the next step of dynamic dodging training directly." After watching for a while longer, the Naxi mage finally became convinced and chose to call a halt.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 338 =====