Chapter 434

The extra effects of 【Long-Range Shot】 and 【Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy】 were very simple and crude, while the changes to the Panacea seemed a bit more flowery, adding two new secret medicines and two extra effects.

But it was also very reasonable, because the 【Panacea】 itself was flowery enough.

Compared to the extra effects, Gao De actually valued the 【Hyper-memory】 secret medicine more.

Isn't this equivalent to a youth version of the memory bread from a certain robot cat?

This is a prop that I don't know how many people have dreamed of.

Although there are no monthly exams or final exams now, no matter which world you go to, learning is necessary, and for learning efficiency, besides comprehension, memory is also a very important point.

The three rare first-circle spells were finished, and three source points remained.

After Gao De pondered for a short while, he selected three ordinary first-circle spells he had mastered that he hadn't added points to yet, which he considered to have the highest priority.

【Artisan's Blessing+】 (Transmutation, First Circle):

The recipient will become luckier in the parts of their next craft that require luck.

Extra: In your next craft, you will be more coordinated with the tools you use, obtaining higher precision and longer operational stability.

【Diagnose Disease+】 (Divination, First Circle):

You can determine whether a creature, an item, or an area carries a certain disease or infection.

Extra: After confirming the existence of a disease or infection, you can obtain the transmission route of the disease by observing the target's living environment (such as water sources, food storage).

【Decompose Corpse+】 (Necromancy, First Circle):

Through this spell, the caster can quickly decompose the fleshy parts of a corpse that is huge or smaller.

Extra: During the decomposition process, the caster can also quickly extract the blood of the corpse through the spell.

Yes, the three spells he finally chose were all functional spells.

Because the extra effects of "Wind Spirit Moon Shadow" are mostly based on adding functionality, complementing functional spells.

Another point is that the combat spells Gao De often uses have already had points added.

Those combat spells that haven't had points added are those with lower frequency of use, belonging to backup spells that "you can not use, but you must have."

Compared to functional spells, their priority for adding points is naturally relatively lower.

City Hall, Gao De's office.

The morning sunlight, wrapped in the cold, biting atmosphere unique to the northern realm, cut diagonally across the window lattices, casting long, narrow light and shadows on the floor.

Thin frost condensed on the windowsill.

Gao De was burying his head in writing at the long table, the quill in his hand rustling as it moved.

He was drafting a proposal that was extremely important to Phoenix.

Namely, the construction outline for the second city in the northern realm.

Phoenix is currently the only city in the northern realm.

But now, its population has exceeded one million, and within the foreseeable year, it will expand to over two million.

And this is just a rough estimate.

Although the opening of the Golden Glow Farm has made food production relatively abundant, and Phoenix is developing rapidly, it is impossible to keep up with the population growth rate.

The resource pressure and management pressure generated by this large influx of population will sooner or later "burst" Phoenix.

Therefore, it is necessary to plan the construction of the second city as soon as possible and then transfer a portion of the population there.

As for the site selection, there was no need to think much; Gao De had already determined it a long time ago:

Valar Bay.

That place is not only the location of the port connecting to the outside world and a commercial activity point of the northern realm, possessing unparalleled economic value, but also a sacred tree domain point that is extremely important to the northern realm.

Establishing a city in Valar Bay can, on one hand, serve as a transportation hub for the northern realm to better conduct cross-border trade activities.

And based on this newly built city, establish a deep-water port in Valar Bay, develop the shipping industry, warehousing and logistics, and port-adjacent commerce, making it the core engine that activates the commercial lifeline of the northern realm.

On the other hand, the sufficient manpower and material resources brought after the city is built can be used to establish a "protection-scientific research-utilization" integrated system around the sacred tree, ensuring more sufficient protection of the sacred tree, better afforestation, and better utilization of tree resources.

After writing for a long time, Gao De raised his head, stretched heavily, and through the office window, glanced at the scenery of Phoenix outside.

After everything got on the right track, Phoenix's potential is being stimulated step by step.

It is like a huge train, constantly accelerating along this flat track.

Even this is the status quo after Gao De intentionally slowed down the development speed slightly, prioritizing stability.

Meals must be eaten one bite at a time; whether it is his personal cultivation path or the development path of the northern realm, it is the same; one cannot be too hasty.

It's just that while it is said that way, in fact, both are already fast beyond belief.

Let alone a month and a half, it is no exaggeration to describe Phoenix now as changing with each passing day.

With the great integration of tribes and the immigration reception plan led by Guardian Chief Quintin, almost every day new people from the northern realm join Phoenix.

Along with the continuous increase in population, corresponding residential buildings and living facilities are springing up according to Gao De's Phoenix city construction blueprint, and road construction is also a top priority.

Who could have imagined that a year ago, Phoenix was still a dilapidated city close to a primitive tribe, where people died of hunger every year?

And who could have imagined that Gao De, who is now preparing to advance to the second circle, has only been a first-circle magic user for nineteen months, less than two years?

This is already the seventh day since Gao De returned to the northern realm.

After so many days of rest and adaptation, his state has been adjusted to the best, and he can almost start trying to advance in rank.

Gao De has already checked and understood the key points for advancing to a second-circle magic user in the library of the Sea Hai Shao Bing Magic Tower.

The key points for advancement are expensive knowledge in the outside world, but in this area, the Sea Hai Shao Bing is unusually generous, directly opening it for free to Sea Hai Shao Bing magic users.

However, because his current permission only allows him to check the key points for second-circle magic user advancement.

So Gao De is also not sure whether the Sea Hai Shao Bing will continue to provide advancement insights for higher circles for free.

After all, a second-circle magic user is, in the end, still a low-circle magic user, and for a magic user organization of the Sea Hai Shao Bing's level, it doesn't count for much.

Just like in the past life, elementary school and junior high school belong to the compulsory education stage and are free, but from high school onwards, there is no such treatment.

Advancing from a magic user apprentice to a first-circle magic user has four hurdles: washing the blood, increasing life vitality, liquefying mana, removing impurities in mental power, and expanding the spell star sea.

Correspondingly, these are life extension, pure mana, increased mental power, and the final rank advancement.

Advancing from a first-circle magic user to a second-circle magic user, although the process is different, the essence is the same.

Advancing to the second circle will also have life extension, and the theoretical maximum lifespan will increase from 150 to 225 years.

It's just that this time, it is no longer the first hurdle, but the last hurdle, after expanding the spell star sea.

And it is no longer washing the blood, but 【Elementalizing the Flesh】.

【Elementalizing the Flesh】 is the signature ability of a second-circle magic user, corresponding to the 【Precise Perception】 possessed by a first-circle magic user.

At this time, the magic power in the magic user's body will radiate to the body, and one can choose an element to strengthen the flesh, which is elementalization, thereby obtaining resistance to the corresponding element and... an increase in lifespan.

Liquefying mana is changed to crystallization, as the first hurdle for advancing to the second circle.

So-called crystallization is actually easy to understand; it is a further upgrade of the mana form, solidifying the liquid mana into a mana crystal.

The second hurdle is the breakthrough of mental power, which is breaking the threshold of 200.

In terms of mental power, there is no essential difference between a second-circle magic user and a first-circle magic user, just a simple increase in strength.

And Gao De had already broken the threshold long ago, which is equivalent to completing the second hurdle of advancing to a second-circle magic user ahead of time.

The third hurdle is still expanding the spell star sea, from the first-circle star sea to the second-circle star sea, thereby being able to capture second-circle spell stars and establish second-circle spell models.

The improvement of magic user rank in small stages, although not easy, does not have a so-called bottleneck.

It is mainly a matter of grinding; as long as one cultivates step by step, mana can always be increased, the only difference being speed.

The reason for distinguishing between early, middle, and late stages is just because every time one reaches a new stage, the difficulty of mana improvement rises by a notch.

Just like the first-circle stage, magic users with outstanding talent can improve from the early first circle to the first-circle perfection in a very short time.

Those with average talent, if they have a strong background and outstanding financial resources, can use magic potions + high-rank cultivation rooms or natural treasures like dragon-bird blood fungus to pile up resources and pile themselves from the early first circle to the late first circle in a short time.

But in the magic user world, magic users who cannot cultivate to the perfection of a certain circle and try to advance in rank are often the majority.

The reason is also very simple: magic users with "outstanding talent" or "outstanding background" are a minority after all, and the latter is even rarer than the former.

Most magic users can only use average talent and average resources, cultivating arduously, day after day.

A lifespan of 150 years seems like a lot, but for magic user cultivation, it's really not enough.

Like Gao De, his magic user talent is already at the middle level.

But without the blessing of high-rank spiritual land and mental power exceeding his own realm, in the early first-circle stage, it takes about a year to condense a drop of liquid mana.

By the mid-first circle, the difficulty of mana condensation rises by a notch, which is about a year and a half to condense a drop of liquid mana.

In the late first circle, the difficulty rises by another notch, and it takes two years to condense a drop of liquid mana.

Calculated this way, even with medium magic user talent, it takes 90 years to cultivate from the early first circle to the first-circle perfection.

Under normal circumstances, it is quite remarkable for a magic user with medium talent to become a first-circle magic user at the age of twenty; more often, it is concentrated after the age of twenty-five.

That is to say, those with medium magic user talent, under normal circumstances, have to wait until after 115 years old to cultivate to first-circle perfection and start trying to advance to the second circle.

This is assuming that he never has any accidents during this period and insists on cultivating every day.

Magic users with magic user talent below the middle level, if they don't have special opportunities, simply cannot cultivate to first-circle perfection before reaching their limit.

—For magic users with such talent, being able to advance to a first-circle magic user is actually already a sign of their ancestors' graves smoking; a second-circle magic user is not something they are qualified to covet.

The difficulty of cultivation is already cruel enough, but before advancing in rank, it is nothing.

Because the improvement of mana at least has no bottlenecks and no danger.

Rank advancement is different; it is a very dangerous thing with a high failure rate, a cruel trial.

According to the advancement key points of the Sea Hai Shao Bing, without any external factors, the success rate of low-rank (first to third circle) magic users advancing in rank is less than 20%.

That is to say, out of ten late first-circle magic users, only two will be able to advance to second-circle magic users.

Behind these cold numbers are the blood and tears of countless magic users.

Perhaps some people think, if rank advancement fails, just try a few more times.

A 20% success rate is low, but if it doesn't work once, try five times; if five times don't work, try ten times; you can always succeed in rank advancement, right?

That really doesn't work.

It is indeed possible to try rank advancement multiple times.

But every failure in rank advancement requires enduring mana backlash, which will leave hard-to-recover injuries on the body, not to mention needing a lot of time to recover vitality, and it will also cause the success rate of the next rank advancement to drop significantly.

If the success rate of the first attempt at rank advancement is 20%, then the success rate of the second rank advancement may only be 10%.

The success rate of the third rank advancement is already barely visible, close to zero.

And the injuries caused by mana backlash from failed rank advancement are constantly accumulating.

After multiple failed attempts at rank advancement, if one is still unconvinced and forcibly tries to advance in rank again, if one fails again, it is even possible to lose one's life on the spot.

According to statistics, more than 90% of successful advancers pass in one go.

Only 10% of lucky ones can get what they want in the second attempt.

As for cases that can still break through after three times, they are few and far between and are not included in the statistics at all.

In this situation, rank advancement magic potions came into being.

Its role is only two: one is to increase the success rate of rank advancement.

For example, the 【Green Vine Spirit Dew】 that Gao De redeemed from the Sea Hai Shao Bing can increase the success rate of rank advancement by a full 40%.

After drinking it, Gao De's rank advancement success rate soared to 60%.

The second is to protect magic users who fail in rank advancement from backlash, resisting the mana backlash brought by failed rank advancement.

This is equivalent to providing an extra life for the magic user.

Because of the protection of the rank advancement magic potion, the body did not leave any injuries, so the success rate of the magic user's next attempt at rank advancement is still 20%.

Of course, the rank advancement magic potion at each stage only has an effect the first time it is drunk.

So there is no bug where you can try rank advancement infinitely if you have enough rank advancement magic potions.

In fact, those 10% of magic users who successfully advanced in the second attempt basically drank rank advancement magic potions during their first advancement, using the magic potion to protect their foundation and leaving themselves a spark for rank advancement.

Added with a bit of good luck, they were able to defy the heavens and change their fate—the first advancement with the success rate bonus of the rank advancement magic potion didn't succeed, but the second advancement, relying entirely on themselves, could succeed; this is definitely considered luck.

Gao De silently calculated his rank advancement success rate in his heart.

20% plus the 40% from 【Green Vine Spirit Dew】 is 60%.

My mental power has already broken the threshold one step ahead, which is equivalent to me having already passed one of the three hurdles of rank advancement, which can at least make my rank advancement success rate 10% higher, that is 70%.

In addition, my place for rank advancement will be the core spiritual land where the Ice Jade Wutong is located, which is a fifth-rank spiritual land.

With the mana concentration of a fifth-rank spiritual land, it is also of great help to the mana crystallization of the first hurdle of rank advancement, at least it can provide another 5% success rate.

75%.

Gao De, who got the final answer, let out a long breath.

This success rate is already very, very high.

Reality is not probability theory; it cannot strictly control variables and has various influencing factors, so events with a 75% probability, with a sample of one hundred, often occur more than ninety times, rather than the 75 times in theory.

"Tomorrow, let's make it tomorrow." He set the day for his rank advancement.

As for now, let's continue working.

Gao De buried his head again, perfecting the construction proposal at hand.

(End of chapter)