Chapter 404

Leaving the Sea Abyss Bai Ta, Gao De first went to the Walmart Magic Materials Store, put his harvest from this trip into the store, and set the price.

Joel is just from a farmer's family, although he has been an apprentice in a large magic materials store in the city for several years, magic material knowledge is high-end knowledge, not something an apprentice can come into contact with.

Therefore, these pricing matters can currently only be done by Gao De himself.

It is conceivable that the scarcity of talent is also a major problem for the Walmart Magic Materials Store if it wants to grow bigger and stronger.

Either hire professional talent at a high price, or find a way to cultivate Joel and let him become a professional talent.

Obviously, neither of these two routes is that easy.

Gao De just thought about it first and was not in a hurry.

The primary task of the Walmart Magic Materials Store is still to acquire tree seeds.

What is truly regarded as an industry by Gao De is actually the Harland Shipyard located in Lagos City.

As long as the shipping route between the northern realm and Luo Jun is opened, even if you need to be cautious in acting in the early stage and dare not make big moves, relying on the huge potential trade demand between the two places, the expected profit will also be very considerable.

Due to the goods in the store being put on the shelves one after another, the magic materials store has obviously become much livelier recently.

After having a little popularity in the nearby blocks, the business of acquiring tree seeds has also become much more prosperous than before.

Gao De flipped through Joel's account book.

During this period, the store received nearly thirty new tree seeds, but seven of them overlapped with the tree seeds he acquired in Brost City.

This belongs to the oolong event caused by information asymmetry.

Gao De specifically listed a directory of existing tree seeds; tree seeds on the directory are not acquired, and Joel is asked to update in real-time. Every time a new tree seed is acquired, it is added to the directory.

But he stayed in Brost City for three or four days, and during this period, the tree seeds he acquired himself could not be updated in the directory at the first time.

Of course, this is all small money; even if Gao De offered a high price of fifty copper to acquire tree seeds, this high price is only relative to the value of the tree seeds themselves.

What surprised Gao De was that after the Walmart Magic Materials Store had been officially operating for so long, it finally acquired magic tree seeds for the first time.

It is a first-rank magic tree seed: Firefly Willow.

After the Firefly Willow matures, the ends of the drooping silver branches will swell into fruits.

The thin-as-cicada-wing fruit skin wraps the glowing firefly liquid, presenting blue/gold according to the alternation of day and night.

These glowing firefly liquids can be used to make magic potions, the most common of which is making revealing magic potions.

According to Joel, it was sold to him by someone who bought a first-rank magic material in the store.

The other party was originally aiming to buy magic materials, and then saw that the price of acquiring magic tree seeds in the Walmart Magic Materials Store was much higher than other stores, so he sold the goods by the way.

This is the reason why Gao De wants to acquire tree seeds in the form of a magic materials store.

In most cases, magic tree seeds will only be in the hands of mages, so the store must first be able to attract mages to visit, so that it is more likely to acquire magic tree seeds from them.

"Although the buzzing tree seed is in the directory, it will still be acquired at the price of fifty copper for a long time to come." Gao De thought for a while and gave Joel an instruction.

Buzzing resin is of great significance in his eyes and must be planted on a large scale.

He plucked all the buzzing tree seeds over at Esmer Lake, and the quantity was not small, but it was far from enough to satisfy large-scale planting.

He believes that there must be other places in Luo Jun where buzzing trees exist, so as long as they are acquired at a high price, there should be gains.

"Okay, sir." Joel agreed quickly.

Afterward, Gao De checked the account book in the store again, confirmed that there was no problem, and ended the matter here.

He opened the newly obtained spell formula.

【Appraisal 【Rare】】 (Divination, First Circle):

You specify an object and keep in contact with it throughout the spellcasting process.

If the object is a supernatural item or other object with supernatural power, you will know its attributes and usage methods, whether it needs attunement, and if it is a rechargeable item, you will also know its current remaining available times.

You can also discover whether any spells are affecting the object, and which spell the possible spell effect specifically comes from; if the target is created by a spell, you will know which spell it specifically comes from.

If the item you touch is a supernatural material, you will be able to know its rank.

If the item you touch during the spellcasting process is a creature, you will know whether it is affected by a spell, and which spell the spell effect specifically comes from.

Spell magic potion: one faded bookworm, mirror iron ore powder...

After writing down the main and auxiliary materials required for the spell magic potion, Gao De went out and hailed a carriage, going straight to Kensington District to buy materials.

Other materials were bought in stock very smoothly, but the faded bookworm was a very unpopular material.

This is a translucent worm that feeds on expired ink from ancient books, only exists in ancient books, and its use is not wide, so it is not common.

After Gao De asked in several magic potion stores to no avail, he had to find a magic potion store with a large scale and good reputation and placed a pre-order.

The staff carefully recorded his requirements and promised to notify him immediately once there was stock.

In the following time, Gao De focused his main energy on cultivation, while continuing to refine his sword skills at the Collingwood Art Museum.

As the art museum of the Sea Sentinels, its "faculty" is unusually powerful; whether it is introductory or advanced, as long as you have money, you can find corresponding mentors to teach.

For most of the remaining spare time, Gao De put it in the library of the Sea Abyss Bai Ta, absorbing various knowledge like a sponge.

Under the powerful foundation of the Sea Sentinels, even the free books opened to apprentice mages are much more precious and rare than those in the Ceris Spell Academy.

The longer he stayed in this world, the more Gao De could perceive the importance of knowledge.

Not just knowledge on the mage side, including knowledge in governance, urban management, commerce, etc., were all urgently needed supplements for him now.

A mage, relying on his own ability and status, has too many fields to come into contact with.

Fortunately, mages have extremely long lifespans and memory far exceeding ordinary people, allowing them to adapt to this multi-field learning.

And every time he came out after reading books in the library, Gao De would go to the lobby to see if there were any missions he could accept.

It's just that it seems that luck has been bad recently, and he has never encountered any missions he could accept.

But Gao De's mentality is very flat.

It is still 7 drops of liquid magic power away from the first-circle completion, which will take at least half a year, so there is still time.

Besides, he is still young now; if his spell library has not reached a satisfactory quantity by then, he can just stop at the first circle for half a year or a year.

Judging from the long lifespan he obtained after practicing the 【Green Wood Longevity Scripture】, this year is really nothing.

Of course, for Gao De's current age, the earlier he advances to a second-circle mage, the more dazzling his resume in the Sea Sentinels will be:

There is not much difference between a fifty-year-old second-circle mage and a fifty-one-year-old second-circle mage, but there is still a gap between a sixteen-year-old and a seventeen-year-old second-circle mage.

On the other side, the bookworm Gao De pre-ordered in the magic materials store was late to arrive.

He had no way to deal with this, so he could only wait slowly.

Just like this, another seven or eight days passed.

A piece of good news came down.

The half-month observation period of the 【Crab Disaster Hidden Danger】 mission ended, and it was confirmed to be completed.

Immediately following was six third-class merits in the account.

After calculating this, Gao De's military merit in hand was third-class merit * 7.

The spell magic potion for 【Appraisal】 was late to arrive, so he simply went to the Material Department to consume again and exchanged all the military merits he had just obtained for spell formulas.

This also caused Neil's gaze toward him to become more and more strange.

Mages like Gao De who take all their military merits to exchange for spell formulas, he has been working in the Material Department for so many years, and this is the first time he has seen it.

Seven third-class merits were finally exchanged for two ordinary first-circle spell formulas: 【Entangle】 and 【Burning Hands】; the former is three third-class merits, and the latter is four.

【Entangle】 (Transmutation, First Circle): This spell will cause tall grass, weeds, and other plants to entangle creatures that are about to enter or are in the area; the creatures will be in an entangled state, and the entire effect area is regarded as difficult terrain.

If the area is covered with thorns or other similar plants, the creatures in the area will receive damage in addition to falling into an entangled state.

【Burning Hands】 (Evocation, First Circle):

Cone-shaped scorching flames spray out from your fingertips. All creatures in the flame area will receive fire damage; if the flames come into contact with combustible materials, they will burn.

One is a group control spell, which is somewhat similar to 【Tidal Capture Net】, and can be called the land version of 【Tidal Capture Net】; of course, it is a low-profile version.

After all, the casting of 【Entangle】 has higher requirements for natural conditions; for example, in a city, it has almost no use.

No wonder it is an ordinary spell, while 【Tidal Capture Net】 is listed as a rare spell.

【Burning Hands】 is a group damage spell.

This is Gao De's current weakness; he lacks effective first-circle group attack means.

Another thing is that in the low-circle stage, the applicability of fire element spells is always wider, so 【Burning Hands】 was ranked very high by Gao De.

The main and auxiliary materials required for the spell magic potions of these two spells are relatively common, and Gao De bought them very smoothly.

This is an advantage of ordinary spells relative to rare spells: in most cases, the materials required for the spell magic potions of ordinary spells are easier to obtain.

The reason is also very simple: the threshold for obtaining ordinary spells is lower, there will be more learners, and the demand for spell magic potions will be greater.

Demand determines the market, an eternal truth.

Encheng is the capital of Luo Jun after all, so on the day after the military merit arrived, the bookworm Gao De had pre-ordered for a long time finally arrived.

As soon as the bookworm was in hand, he immediately prepared the corresponding spell magic potion and drank it in one gulp.

The mental power at the second-circle level, plus the original spell model construction method, made it easy for him to learn first-circle spells.

For the three first-circle spells, he only spent two days constructing all the spell models.

Looking at the first-circle origin number of "4" he had left, Gao De thought for a while, took out one, and clicked on 【Appraisal】.

This is not just because it is a rare spell.

【Appraisal】 can even be called the spell with the longest sustainability among first-circle rare spells.

Even when reaching the fifth circle and sixth circle, mages will still use this spell at a high frequency.

Just for this point, Gao De could not be stingy with this point of origin for it.

Moreover, this spell is indeed very practical.

First of all, the most common and basic usage of this spell is to judge the rank of supernatural materials.

Although mages can roughly judge the rank of materials through the level of magic power contained in them, and generally won't make mistakes.

But this can be faked.

Some mages who are proficient in this way have the ability to disguise low-rank supernatural materials as higher-rank supernatural materials and resell them at a high price.

To see through such a scam, either your own knowledge is sufficient to see the falsification, or you can use brute force to directly use 【Appraisal】 for appraisal.

In a mage's lifespan of hundreds or even thousands of years, there must be many situations of trading with others, so the necessity of mastering such a spell is conceivable.

Another thing is, after an accident (killing someone), you get some unclear equipment, such as a mysterious sword; using Appraisal can tell whether the sword possesses supernatural power, whether it has special abilities, whether it is cursed, etc., which is also essential for avoiding pitfalls.

Moreover, many supernatural items need attunement to exert their full power.

So-called attunement actually refers to the fact that some supernatural items need special ways to start and activate in order to exert their full power.

The most common is that some family heirlooms passed down for a long time often need secret magic seals to start; or some holy light-type supernatural objects need to absorb sunlight at dawn to completely release their own power...

And whether attunement is needed, except for the creator, others generally cannot know directly.

If you get a supernatural item but don't exert its true power because you don't know it needs attunement, that would be a pity.

Finally, it is to encounter creatures controlled by strange spells; through Appraisal, you can also quickly judge what spells they have been hit by, so as to quickly find a way to lift them.

【Appraisal】 itself is not an attack spell, but for mages, its functionality is better than most attack spells, which is also the reason why it is on the rare spell list.

First-circle origin -1 again.

After a familiar "cutscene," the spell model of 【Appraisal】 extended many new branches, and the change was far greater than other first-circle spells with added points.

【Appraisal+ 【Rare】】 (Divination, First Circle): You specify an object and keep in contact with it throughout the spellcasting process,

Extra: When the item is a supernatural item that needs attunement or other objects with supernatural power, you will possibly know its attunement method (the probability depends largely on your own supernatural knowledge level);

When the item is a supernatural material, you will be able to perceive some of its characteristics;

When you touch a creature affected by a spell, you will be able to know the remaining duration of the spell, so as to better judge whether you need to lift it or wait for the effect to end.

Higher-rank supernatural items want to consume more magic power for appraisal.

Comprehensive strengthening, this kind of strengthening is equivalent to adding a "mod" to the spell.

Gao De immediately went to the Walmart Magic Materials Store and tested the effect of 【Appraisal+】 preliminarily.

He cast 【Appraisal+】 on the scales of the Black-Winged Scaled Snake he had just brought back some time ago.

After the consumption of two drops of liquid magic power, some information emerged from his brain.

Second-rank supernatural material, sturdy, water-resistant...

Gao De had just returned to the Vantrolen District from the Walmart Magic Materials Store and had not yet entered the dormitory when two Sea Hai Shao Bing staff members ran over eagerly, shouting loudly from a few steps away: "Master Gao De!"

"What's wrong?" He stopped and looked puzzled.

"Emergency mandatory mission."

"A super cyclone hit Oakland City, the situation is not optimistic, and all Sea Hai Shao Bing mages currently waiting in Encheng are required to go to Oakland City immediately to participate in disaster relief operations, and no delay is allowed!"

(End of chapter)