Chapter 343: Choice

The large spell training field was quiet for a while.

After a good while, the quiet atmosphere was broken by the gradually rapid breathing.

"How could you be so heavy-handed against a colleague?" A Sea Hai Shao Bing mage Gao De didn't know stood out and said sternly.

"The battle was fierce, and I couldn't hold back. I apologized to him." Gao De looked at the strange Sea Hai Shao Bing mage and responded calmly.

The other party's face didn't look good when he heard this, and then said: "Is an apology useful?"

"If it's useless, why did he apologize to me in advance?" Gao De was surprised.

"The training assessment is a simulated actual combat, and injuries are common. When is it your turn to talk about it?" The person still wanted to say something, but at this moment, a vigorous voice came.

Captain Luo Er, wearing a Sea Hai Shao Bing Captain uniform, appeared in the spell training field at some point. Beside him was Naxi mage, who was nodding slightly to Gao De.

"I..." Luo Er Captain's voice made the Sea Hai Shao Bing mage dare not say anything, shrinking his head and retreating in a sorry state.

"Announce the result." He looked at the three Sea Hai Shao Bing mages sitting on the side and said again.

The three examiners looked at each other, and finally the examiner sitting in the center main seat stood up and announced: "Second-Class Apprentice Mage Gao De, knocked down the assessment object Metis in the training assessment, no need to score, can be directly judged as passing the assessment."

The training assessment does not need to defeat the assessment object, as long as the score reaches the standard, you can pass, but if you defeat the assessment object, it is a direct pass without dispute.

This is the default hidden rule.

The assessment has ended, and the results have been announced, so the Sea Hai Shao Bing mages watching the battle have no reason to stay any longer and retreat one after another.

Zuowen Burns looked at Gao De with a calm face, but the gloom in his eyes could not be covered at all.

Because his heart was very annoyed.

It was not annoyed that Metis was beaten like this by Gao De.

After all, Metis was just his tool, not even his person. He didn't care whether he was injured or not.

Zuowen Burns's annoyance point is that he has failed twice in a row at Gao De's place.

The first solicitation of Gao De failed, and this time he wanted to give Gao De a blow, but it also failed.

This is unacceptable for Zuowen Burns, who has been smooth sailing since birth and wants whatever he wants.

Annoyed is annoyed, but Zuowen Burns didn't say much.

However, this does not mean that he has no ideas about Gao De.

It's just that here, verbal threats are the lowest-level and most useless means.

Except for making the other party alert and showing his incompetence, it has no meaning.

Besides, it's just passing the assessment. The subsequent execution of missions and annual ratings are the highlights.

By then, Gao De will understand that no matter how talented and capable a person is, in front of the powerful foundation of the nobles, it is nothing.

"Congratulations." Naxi mage stepped forward.

"Thank you Naxi mage for your careful guidance during this period." Gao De faced Naxi mage and bowed slightly.

Captain Luo Er watched this scene silently and nodded imperceptibly.

He and Naxi mage entered the field halfway through the battle between Gao De and Metis.

Captain Luo Er was very recognized for Gao De's performance in the battle, his use of spells, and his on-the-spot reaction.

It was just Gao De's move of "heavy-handed" against Metis after he had already won. Even though Captain Luo Er knew that the other party was ill-intentioned first, he still had some other thoughts in his heart:

Will this be a violent mage? Will it be the second Jaden?

And Gao De's respect for Naxi mage, not to mention making Captain Luo Er completely trust Gao De's character, at least made him see some positive qualities in Gao De.

"Carry the person down and send him to the Holy Healing Institute." Captain Luo Er waved his hand and ordered.

The staff on the scene suddenly realized and hurried forward to lift Metis, who was still wailing, away from the spell training field.

"The training assessment is over, you can go back first. After that, you come to see me with Naxi. When Naxi first joined the Sea Sentinels, I was his guiding mage, so I can be considered your elder." Captain Luo Er said again.

"Good." Gao De agreed, then nodded slightly to the three examiners to express his thanks, and walked out.

"Gao De!"

He had just walked out of the Collingwood Academy when he heard someone calling his name.

Looking in the direction of the sound, it was Mei Liya.

"You are too amazing," Mei Liya waved her fist excitedly, as if the person who defeated Metis was herself, and sighed in an extremely high-pitched voice: "That is Metis, a bully among our Sea Hai Shao Bing first-circle mages, and he was defeated by you so easily!"

"Thanks to your reminder today." Gao De smiled.

After entering the Sea Sentinels, he had received inexplicable malice, but also gained a lot of kindness.

For example, Naxi mage, for example, Mei Liya.

Mei Liya wanted to say something, and another person walked over.

It was Zuowen Burns's follower, Uer.

"Gao De." Uer looked at Gao De with a complex look.

"Is there anything?" Gao De looked at the other party calmly.

"I can understand your thoughts now. You may be very confident, thinking that you can defeat the well-known Metis on your own. If I were you, I would definitely think so too."

He sighed and continued: "But you have to understand that you defeated only Metis, not the Burns family."

Uer's tone became very serious, "A mage with your talent, and you are of commoner origin, and you are from another country, wanting to perform missions, cultivate, and train safely in the Sea Sentinels, I tell you, that is simply impossible."

"There are many eyes that will always be watching you, forcing you to make some choices. No matter how good your talent is, it is just talent. If you don't make a choice, you will be targeted. This is not something you can block with talent."

"There has never been anyone who can be an exception. Even Jaden, who was guided by Naxi mage before, was the mage with the best talent we have recruited in the Sea Sentinels in the past thirty years, but in the end, he couldn't withstand the suppression of the nobles. This is also the fuse for his final betrayal of Jin Quehua..." It seems that this matter is a taboo, Uer suddenly realized something and stopped.

"Did Zuowen Burns ask you to tell me these things?" Gao De asked.

"No." Uer was stunned. He didn't expect that he said so much, and what Gao De cared about was this.

"Then are you finished?"

"I'm finished..."

Gao De looked at Uer, "Never before doesn't mean there will never be."

"It's very simple, I'll be that exception." He turned around, no longer looking at Uer, stepped forward, and said while walking.

Uer watched Gao De's back gradually move away silently.

After a while, Mei Liya's voice suddenly came.

"If he succeeds, at least it is a good thing to let mages like you have a visible way out, isn't it?"

Uer gritted his teeth and said unconvinced: "How is it possible? Mei Liya mage, you are also of noble origin. You should know that the situation of the dynasty has long been impossible to change by one or two people."

Mei Liya waved her hand, "I can't afford it. My father is just a knight. Where can I claim to be of noble origin?"

"At least for me, it is noble."

"Don't talk to you about these." Mei Liya shook her head, feeling quite boring, and left on her own.

White Church District, inside a restaurant.

In front of a large long table, on the long wooden bench with slurry, sat eleven teenagers wearing gray and brown short jackets.

These are the errand boys Gao De hired to watch the shop for him.

The cuffs of the errand boy teenagers' coarse linen cloth are covered with coal ash and brown stains. This is the proof that they squatted on the chimney and checked the sewer.

Every other day, these errand boys will report their previous day's watching results to Gao De.

And Gao De will list the situation reported by the errand boys on the parchment, forming a visual and intuitive table to facilitate analysis.

"No. 1 tea shop, the information provided by the seller himself is that the location is excellent and the business situation is good, but the seller is preparing to return to his hometown to develop, so he is selling the shop in pain."

"But in fact, according to the observation of stepping on the spot, this shop has only been smoked four times in three days, with an average of less than twice a day. Either the business is bleak, the actual business hours are short, or it is already on the verge of bankruptcy..."

"No. 3 shop is a bakery, smoked 19 times in three days, an average of 6 times a day. The bakery needs to bake bread continuously. The number of smoke emissions is high, which is a scene of prosperous business, and the passenger flow is not small according to the errand boy's observation..."

"But there is a detail. The errand boy found that the sewage discharge of this bakery is very small, and there is no wheat fragrance in the chimney ash..."

"It is likely that the shop owner who is on the verge of bankruptcy deliberately burns fire frequently, and at the same time hires others to pretend to be guests, creating a scene of large passenger flow, so as to sell the bleak shop at a high price that a prosperous shop should have."

"The number of smoke emissions of No. 5 shop perfectly fits once in the morning, middle, and evening. It's just that the errand boy responsible for watching this shop poured lime powder into the chimney and found the sprayed lime traces in the crematorium flue in a block away..."

"It is likely to be a shared flue. It is said to be a prosperous shop. In fact, it is either an illegal workshop or a fraud tool..."

Gao De looked at the data he listed in the table, excluded one shop after another, and soon crossed out three suspicious shops based on the existing information.

And among the remaining eight shops, he focused on three.

One shop is located in the North District, which was originally a herbal medicine shop, on the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management, and the shop owner decided to sell the shop.

The North District is the magic plant shop gathering area in the mouth of the young guide hired by Gao De when he first came to Ducheng.

Most magic plant gardens in Ducheng are gathered here.

This herbal medicine shop is on the verge of bankruptcy because the shop location is not good, located near the Muddy Garden and Mushroom Terrace, and is severely squeezed out, and the passenger flow is squeezed.

Considering this problem, this herbal medicine shop has been hung out for a month, and there has been no transaction, and the price has dropped from 550 Jin Quehua coins at the beginning to 500 Jin Quehua coins now.

Buying a shop here has the advantage of facilitating Gao De's acquisition of tree seeds.

The disadvantage is that the location is not good. Facing the squeeze of the two major magic plant shops, it is not easy to make the shop.

Although Gao De is not prepared to continue to do herbal medicine shops, but tends to magic material shops.

But the North District is a magic plant shop gathering area. Opening a magic material shop in such a place is like opening a hardware store on a snack street. It is naturally inconsistent with the needs of fixed passenger flow, and it is somewhat self-defeating.

The second shop is located on Dezhen Linjie in the East District, which is a street-facing grocery store.

The shop is a two-story structure. The first floor is a street-facing shop for business, and the second floor is a residential area, connected by an internal staircase.

The reason why the shop owner resells the shop is that this was originally a traditional family retail store. The shop owner's son refused to take over the traditional industry and turned to factory work, leading to no successor to the shop, and the shop owner is old, so he began to consider selling the shop.

In addition, in recent years, Ducheng has emerged with many large chain grocery stores, which have seized the market through daily low-price strategies, making it difficult for traditional family retail stores to resist this competition.

Gao De is prepared to transform it into a magic material shop and does not need to consider the competition from large chain grocery stores, so this defect does not need to be worried about.

And the point he values most is that the "black market" Giant Troll Skull Alley is on Dezhen Linjie, near this grocery store.

That is to say, Dezhen Linjie will have many mages who need to buy or sell supernatural materials and do not want to leave traces.

These mages only care about the quality of the materials and do not care about the source.

This is exactly in line with Gao De's situation.

—If he does magic material business, most of the magic materials are brought directly from the northern realm, which can also be considered unknown.

The asking price of this grocery store is 650 Jin Quehua coins.

Because the business situation has not reached the point where it is difficult to continue, the bargaining space is relatively small.

Thinking this way, Gao De drew a circle behind this grocery store and marked it as a key observation.

The third shop is also located in the East District, and it is also a family grocery store forced to resell the shop after being squeezed by large chain grocery stores, but it is on another street, separated from Dezhen Linjie by three streets.

Compared with the second shop, its advantage is that the price is relatively cheap, only 450 Jin Quehua coins, and there is even a chance to bargain.

The disadvantage is that if you open a magic material shop, the potential market potential is far inferior to the former adjacent to Giant Troll Skull Alley.

Gao De calculated his savings:

271 Jin Quehua coins plus 7 silver dragon coins.

This money is not enough to buy any shop.

If you want to plate a shop, you must return to the northern realm, bring some supernatural materials over to sell, and then you can save enough money.

He has now joined the Sea Sentinels, so there are rules for selling supernatural materials, and he cannot be as casual as before.

After entering the "system," a very important point is to ensure the cleanliness of the resume.

If he suddenly has a batch of supernatural materials of unknown origin in his hands, in the case that he is still from Saint Xi En Province, it is easy to be suspected of being a "spy."

And Gao De does not doubt the Sea Sentinels' ability to grasp the information of the mages in the organization.

The reason why he wants to open a "magic material shop" is to reasonably whitewash the supernatural materials he took from the northern realm.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 344 =====