Chapter 349: Guaranteed Second-Class Merit

Arcane Chorus could, according to Gao De's thoughts, play a form of music and then deceive the creatures that heard the music.

The creature must have a mental confrontation with Gao De.

If the confrontation fails, as long as it is within the time the creature can hear the music and for 1 hour afterward, the creature will be deceived and become friendly toward Gao De.

Any attack on the creature will directly break this friendliness.

An ordinary foul-smelling water salamander naturally could not defeat Gao De, whose mental power reached 186, in a mental confrontation.

Therefore, at this moment, because of the spell effect of 【Arcane Chorus+】, it was releasing a friendly signal toward Gao De.

Gao De went to such great lengths, naturally, he did not "take advantage of the insect's danger" and attack the foul-smelling water salamander.

He cast 【Mage Hand+】, using the ghost hand to gently stroke the ugly head of the foul-smelling water salamander, as if stroking a small pet.

It was only "as if," because the foul-smelling water salamander was truly too smelly, and the mucus on the surface was too disgusting.

Therefore, Gao De could only make contact through 【Mage Hand】 and did not do it himself.

The reason for needing contact was not because he had a special hobby, but because the next spell he was prepared to cast required contact casting.

As mana surged, another spell model was triggered.

【Beast Link+】: As long as the creature is friendly to you or charmed by you, regardless of intelligence, a mental link can be successfully established.

【Arcane Chorus+】 and 【Beast Link+】 achieved linkage.

The foul-smelling water salamander, which was incomparably friendly to Gao De under the influence of the former, established a mental link with Gao De without any resistance.

Through the mental link, Gao De could communicate simple information with it.

"Where are your lair and other companions?" Gao De conveyed the question information to the other party through the link.

This was his purpose.

Foul-smelling water salamanders were gregarious creatures; he could completely find the other party's base camp quickly and directly through the foul-smelling water salamander in front of him, carry out a major clearing, and thus save a lot of time and energy, instead of carpet searching like this.

The intelligence of the foul-smelling water salamander was not high, but Gao De's question was not complicated, so Gao De immediately received the other party's feedback information.

"Go that way," Gao De, who received the information, pointed a direction for Shama and then instructed: "It will lead the way; you just follow."

The "it" in Gao De's mouth was the foul-smelling water salamander he had deceived.

At this moment, it was violently swinging its tail fin toward the small boat where Gao De was, as if saying, "Sir, this way."

After a brief period of dullness, Shama also probably reacted that Gao De's methods were brilliant and he had already controlled this ferocious water beast through supernatural power.

He gritted his teeth, finally summoned his courage, rowed the boat, and followed the pace of the foul-smelling water salamander.

A boat oar broke through the dark green water surface, gurgling a series of green bubbles, and the bubbles were also mixed with a nauseating fishy stench.

The two people on the boat had no different expressions.

Shama was born and raised here and had long been accustomed to this smell, without any discomfort.

Gao De... was also gradually adapting to this smell, plus a little endurance.

【You are breathing gas with a huge stench and trace amounts of toxins. You are beginning to adapt to the gas. Your immunity to various toxins is increased by 41.1%. Your body organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and discharge various toxins is increased by 45.9%. Your tolerance to odors is increased by 1.2%.】

Yes, in the Makoko District, doing nothing, just breathing, was equivalent to taking poison; this toxin was even driving Gao De's body, which had gradually adapted to the pulse tincture, to begin adapting and evolving again.

Under the leadership of this "salamander traitor," the small boat gradually sailed toward a corner of the Makoko District.

As they went deeper, the water quality became more and more viscous, and even phosphorescent mucus blocks began to appear on the water surface.

Some small debris, like rotting water plants and unknown fragments, were attached to the surface of the mucus blocks, swaying gently with the water flow.

Just at this time, the "salamander traitor" stopped swimming, and its tail fin violently slapped the water surface, splashing a spray of water.

Some simple emotions and information reached Gao De's mind through the mental link.

Here was its lair, but most of the foul-smelling water salamanders had gone out to forage and would only be prepared to return after they were full.

Moreover, a batch of new babies had just been added last night, and they still had to be responsible for bringing food to the babies, so it was estimated that it would take a long time.

The information in front was still very normal, and Gao De didn't care, but the "added" in the latter part made Gao De frown.

How could it be "added"?

Under normal circumstances, it should be "born" or "hatched."

His first reaction was that the IQ of the foul-smelling water salamander was too low, so it could only express simple information, so there was ambiguity.

However, as a "math person's" rigor, Gao De still instinctively verified: "Are they babies born by you?"

The next moment, another piece of information came from the consciousness of the foul-smelling water salamander.

Afterward, Gao De raised his eyebrows, and his expression changed slightly.

Only on the surface, he had no abnormalities and had already looked at the water surface in front of him through 【Detect Magic+】.

Through the turbid water surface, Gao De saw dense magic light under the water.

These lights flickered with dim dark green light, like countless tiny ghost fires swaying in the water, and occasionally a few colors would be brighter.

Such weak magic light should be the larvae of the foul-smelling water salamander.

With these water beasts, there was no such thing as the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

Gao De's heart moved, regardless of whether it was a larva or not, he pointed his finger slightly toward the water, and magic light had already lit up at his fingertips.

【Blade Burst+】: You create a circle of translucent blades in an instant to clear your surroundings.

After the 【Blade Burst+】 was added by the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow, the center point was no longer limited to himself, but any point within a 20-foot range.

The center point Gao De chose was exactly where the magic light was most dense and core.

In an instant, a powerful magic fluctuation spread under the water.

The originally turbid but calm water surface suddenly began to vibrate violently, and an invisible force began to stir under the water.

A circle of translucent blades appeared, shooting outward at an extremely fast speed.

Those foul-smelling water salamander larvae, originally under the cover of the sewage's own color, were waiting for food to arrive comfortably under the water, waiting to grow up.

But now everything became a delusion.

That circle of translucent blades stirred the water waves, sweeping straight across their bodies.

There was no scene of falling apart, with juices and blood splashing everywhere.

Because the damage type of 【Blade Burst+】 was the most noble force damage, ignoring surface physical defense and reaching the essence.

A faint halo appeared on the surface of the bodies of those foul-smelling water salamander larvae, and then, their bodies began to twist and deform slightly.

The originally soft bodies were twisted and unbearable under the action of force damage, as if squeezed by an invisible giant force, like crumpled paper.

The next moment, fine cracks began to appear on the bodies of these larvae, spreading rapidly like a spider web.

Inside their bodies, something was gradually decomposed by an invisible force.

Finally, accompanied by a faint "pop" sound, these larvae all lost their vitality and floated to the water surface one by one like dead fish.

This all looked long, but it actually happened in an instant.

So in Shama's eyes, it was the young Hai Shao Bing mage in front of him, whose finger just pointed forward, and the next moment, the originally calm water surface boiled like boiling water.

Immediately afterward, there were dense foul-smelling water salamander corpses floating on the water surface, with twisted bodies.

This sudden scene made his heart tremble violently, receiving a certain shock.

"Don't be nervous." Gao De comforted.

The foul-smelling water salamander itself was at most a first-rank level, and these larvae were even less worth mentioning. Even if the power of 【Blade Burst】 was only six degrees, it was enough to kill them instantly.

Of course, one spell was not enough to clear the field. There were still a few foul-smelling water salamander larvae outside the range of the 【Blade Burst】 spell and adult foul-smelling water salamanders whose magic light was slightly brighter, whose vitality was more tenacious, and who had not died after being attacked by 【Blade Burst+】.

Gao De was not prepared to let these fish that slipped through the net go.

He grabbed the air with his right hand.

A dazzling electric arc, like a nimble silver snake, instantly burst out from Gao De's hand.

【Lightning Traction】.

Lightning Traction was a single-target spell, but under the excellent conductivity of sewage, it instantly turned into a group damage spell.

*Zhi zhi zhi! *

The electric arc spread rapidly in the water, like an invisible big net, covering all those lucky surviving foul-smelling water salamanders.

Their bodies twitched violently under the stimulation of the current, and the skin on the surface began to turn black, and their lives were quickly ended.

Even adult foul-smelling water salamanders were actually only at the bottom of the first rank in combat power, posing a great threat to ordinary people, but for a proper first-rank mage, they were nothing.

The reason why this mission could make Hai Shao Bing mages so headache-prone and unwilling to take it was mainly because no one was willing to go into the water.

But for Gao De, he could completely complete the mission without going into the water.

First, find single foul-smelling water salamanders through 【Detect Magic+】, then use the beast-taming spells 【Arcane Chorus+】 and 【Beast Link+】 taken from the Snowland Guardian to attack the foul-smelling water salamander lair directly, and finally attack with 【Blade Burst+】 and 【Lightning Traction】, which could exert miraculous effects in the water area.

After this set of combo skills, even a second-rank mage might not necessarily be able to do better than Gao De.

This was the benefit of a deep spell library.

A sufficiently deep spell reserve allowed Gao De to pick out suitable spell combinations to deal with in most situations.

Although the foul-smelling water salamanders in this lair were almost dead, Gao De did not leave.

Because most of the foul-smelling water salamanders he cleared were larvae, and 99% of the adult foul-smelling water salamanders were currently foraging outside and were not in the lair.

And these adult foul-smelling water salamanders were the existence that truly posed a life threat to the poor people in the Makoko District.

Things reached this point, and it became simple.

Gao De asked Shama to stop the boat here.

What he had to do next was to wait for the rabbit.

If one foul-smelling water salamander returned, kill one.

There was no need to worry about being unable to fight four hands with two fists, and there was plenty of time to restore mana, basically treating this foul-smelling water salamander lair as a "monster refresh point" with a non-fixed time point.

Waiting like this, it was from morning until sunset.

At first, only scattered one or two foul-smelling water salamanders returned.

After the noon period, the number of foul-smelling water salamanders returning to the nest gradually began to increase.

And by evening, it became scattered again.

The whole process of waiting for the rabbit did not have any accidents.

The combat power of these foul-smelling water salamanders was really not worth mentioning.

Gao De roughly estimated that the number of adult foul-smelling water salamanders he killed that day was about 100.

There were nearly 200 larvae.

This was already a very objective number.

Of course, wanting to kill these water beasts completely was unrealistic.

Because the vitality of these foul-smelling water salamanders was too tenacious, and they were oviparous animals, in the water area of the Makoko shanty area, eggs laid by them could exist anywhere.

If you kill a batch, a new batch of foul-smelling water salamanders will appear after a period of time.

The Hai Shao Bing side also understood this, so the strategy was to first carry out a major clearing of the Makoko District, reduce the overall density of water beasts, and then carry out so-called "expulsion maintenance" regularly to ensure that these water beasts would not be rampant.

Gao De also understood this, looking at the hundred or so foul-smelling water salamander tail fins collected on the boat, and was quite satisfied with the record.

The tail fin was a token used to settle the mission and receive merit.

Clearing water beasts must remove a certain part of the water beast's body as proof, otherwise, who could ensure whether your record was true or false.

"Let's stop here for today; I will come over tomorrow to clear out the magic octopuses. You wait for me at the same place as today tomorrow morning, the same reward, no problem, right?" Gao De asked.

"No problem, no problem." Shama nodded continuously.

Having witnessed the whole process of Gao De clearing water beasts today, for Gao De, only awe and respect remained in his heart.

He never thought that Gao De, who looked so young in front of him, would be the Hai Shao Bing mage with the most brilliant methods and the most amazing efficiency among all those who came to the Makoko District to clear water beasts.

"However, now, I still have to trouble you to send me to a place." Gao De asked again.

"Ah?" Shama didn't react for a while.

"Still follow it." Gao De pointed to the "salamander traitor" that he had been continuously casting 【Arcane Chorus】 on to maintain friendliness.

*Creak. *

The sound of the wooden door opening and closing sounded.

Under the dim sunset light, Gao De stepped over the threshold and entered this room that looked no different from other shanties, his gaze scanning the surroundings.

Facing his cautious follow-up questions, the "salamander traitor" gave an important piece of information: those larvae were not hatched by them at all, but came from this shanty not far from their lair.

Even including itself, it also came from here.

After knowing this information, how could Gao De not react:

These water beasts that appeared in the Makoko District and had plagued the residents of the Makoko District for a long time were not appearing by themselves, but were man-made!

This made Gao De excited all of a sudden.

Opportunity! A big opportunity!

Expelling water beasts was just an ordinary mission, and the merit obtained was also the lowest third-class merit.

Double reward was third-class merit * 2.

But if these water beasts were raised by humans and then released to hurt people, the nature of the whole mission would change.

To use an inappropriate metaphor, it was equivalent to the difference between confiscating a batch of drugs and arresting drug dealers.

The merit of the latter was far from comparable to the former.

If he could find the mastermind behind the rampant water beasts in the Makoko District, given the vicious nature of the whole thing, the wide influence, and his strength, he would at least get a second-class merit!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 350 =====