[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-above-the-mage":3,"chapter-above-the-mage-above-the-mage-chapter-460":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Above the Mage!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2257464,4404,"Chapter 460: Upgrade Gear, Fight Boss","above-the-mage-chapter-460",460,"\u003Cp>“That’s all. I’ve told you everything—let me go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to the pain, the man’s entire body convulsed uncontrollably, his facial features twisted into a grimace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice trembled, thick with sobs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you sure you’ve told me everything? If I wake up your companion and he reveals something you didn’t mention, you won’t be needing your left leg either.” Gao De said, expressionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me think… let me think!” The man panicked instantly, eyes bulging, babbling frantically.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body shook even more violently; after a frantic moment of thought, he added scattered bits of miscellaneous information.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now shut your mouth.” Seeing the man had nothing more to say, Gao De snapped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he lifted his foot again, randomly selecting one of the unconscious men on the ground, and stomped hard onto his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a faint crack of bone, the man curled up like a shrimp, then immediately began vomiting violently, spewing thick, foul-smelling green fluid in gurgling bursts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The previous man, still trembling slightly and pale from massive blood loss, turned even paler at the sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After he finished vomiting the foul liquid and regained consciousness, Gao De pointed to his companion’s mangled right leg:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I ask, you answer. Unless you want to end up like him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing this, the man’s facial muscles twitched involuntarily again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, he’d rather be the monkey than the chicken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the horrific sight of his companion still fresh in his mind, Gao De’s interrogation of the second man proceeded with unusual ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He probed repeatedly into minor details, confirming the two testimonies contained no logical contradictions, then pulled out the prepared sheepskin parchment and wrote out the full outline of events based on their statements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afterwards, Gao De repeated the process, “awakening” the remaining men and forcing all seven to press their blood-red fingerprints onto the statement, before rolling it up and tucking it safely into his coat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving traces behind—this was a good work habit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The whole affair was actually not complicated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The seven men were members of the Stitch Nail Gang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Stitch Nail Gang was merely a profit-driven gang in Lagos City, using rusted nails as its emblem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such gangs could be found in nearly every city, with varied natures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some were survivalist gangs formed by the poor, vagrants, and the unemployed, struggling at society’s bottom and forced to band together for survival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others were resistance gangs composed of the oppressed and idealists, faith-based gangs centered on belief or mystical forces, and profit-driven gangs aiming solely for wealth and power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These gangs arose primarily due to “economic inequality, noble oppression, racial and cultural discrimination, power vacuums, and faith.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their main activities typically involved illegal trade, violent crime, intelligence trading, resistance operations, religious rituals, and protection or service.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The relationship between gangs and cities was especially complex.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the surface, the city’s ruling class—mages and nobles—should strive to eliminate such gangs, which destabilized public order.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They seemed to be doing exactly that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in reality, the ruling nobles weren’t indifferent to these gangs—they often tacitly permitted and even supported them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because these gangs frequently maintained intricate cooperative ties with nobles and merchants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They provided illegal services like assassinations and smuggling in exchange for noble protection and funding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or they paid fixed annual tributes, establishing stable channels of profit transfer with the nobles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Stitch Nail Gang was exactly like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had cooperative and profit-sharing relationships with multiple nobles and merchant guilds within the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Put bluntly, the Stitch Nail Gang was essentially the nobles’ black glove, handling dirty work they couldn’t do themselves due to their status.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason these seven men came to the Makako District to release the larvae of stinking water salamanders into its waters was part of a long-term contract the gang had received—they were only responsible for execution and knew no details.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But many things could still be inferred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The purpose of releasing the stinking water salamander larvae was to instill panic in Makako District and force its poor residents to flee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only beneficiaries of driving out Makako’s poor were Lagos’s nobles and rulers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Makako District had long been a stubborn, growing tumor for Lagos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the city’s overall development perspective, Makako’s existence severely hindered its ability to attract merchant investment and industrial growth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Makako’s image cast a heavy negative stigma over Lagos’s entire environment and development potential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nobles owned vast properties within the city; if Lagos couldn’t grow, their wealth couldn’t expand—and might even shrink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, due to poverty and lack of opportunity, Makako’s residents had high crime rates and frequent criminal activity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This severely damaged Lagos’s public order and social stability, forcing nobles to expend more manpower, resources, and funds on security, while also lowering their evaluation by higher nobles and even the royal court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Add to that Makako’s deplorable sanitation, which not only degraded the environment and worsened water quality around the city, posing a potential threat to drinking water safety, but also risked triggering large-scale epidemics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of this drastically reduced Lagos’s appeal to outsiders and talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Lagos’s nobles, the city’s prosperity was directly tied to their wealth and status.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, they had long sought to eradicate Makako’s tumor—to improve Lagos’s image and raise land and investment value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But how easy was that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lagos’s authorities had tried before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For instance, launching large-scale renovation projects or forced evictions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But large-scale renovation involved too many parties with conflicting interests, especially when noble interests were entangled, causing progress to stall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the funding required was astronomical and impossible to allocate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its eventual failure was thus predictable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forced evictions, however, triggered violent conflict and resistance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the scale of conflict was small, nobles could suppress it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Makako’s poor population exceeded two hundred thousand; no matter how powerful these nobles were, they couldn’t cover the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Makako District persisted, growing stronger amid noble discontent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If open methods failed, then use covert ones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For nobles, this was perfectly normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, these were all guesses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Gao De merely noted it briefly in the statement, without elaborating further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire Stitch Nail Gang had two top bosses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Below them were eight minor bosses, dozens of core members, and over three hundred ordinary members—making it a mid-sized gang in Lagos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The strongest member was their boss, Ansel Biden, a seasoned second-ring mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second in command was Aldrich Shaw, also a second-ring mage, though according to their testimony, he had only recently ascended to the second ring this mid-year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To demonstrate his power, the Stitch Nail Gang held a grand celebration banquet for his ring ascension.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remaining eight minor bosses were all first-ring mages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The one who assigned them the task of releasing the water beasts was Aldrich Shaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aldrich Shaw. Gao De recalled the statement, pondering long and hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Undoubtedly, Aldrich was not the mastermind—merely a middleman passing on the task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The true mastermind, as these seven suspected, was likely one of the city’s nobles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water beast disturbance in Makako District, though not exceptionally large in impact or harm, affected over two hundred thousand people—even if they were only the poor, it was still a major incident.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Gao De could resolve this matter outright, a first-class merit would be within reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this now involved Lagos’s ruling class—clearly beyond the scope of a Sea Sentinel apprentice mage like him to handle alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De had no intention of solving the entire case by himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His target was only Aldrich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Capture Aldrich, then return and report.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aldrich’s mage rank was second ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Sea Sentinels, the reward for clearing a second-rank water beast was typically a third-class merit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But don’t forget—Gao De was still only a first-ring apprentice mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The evaluation of merit also heavily considered the rank of the one completing the task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a first-ring Sea Sentinel mage, on a routine mission, encountered a second-rank water beast instead of a first-rank due to faulty intelligence, even merely driving it away—given his rank—would likely earn him a second-class merit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So when Gao De, during a water beast expulsion mission, accidentally uncovered the operation’s secrets and captured Aldrich, a second-ring mage, the merit would be even greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would almost certainly earn more than just a second-class merit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a first-ring mage fighting a second-ring mage was far too risky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure, Su Nai could fight a fifth-ring mage as a fourth-ring, but Su Nai was Su Nai—the one with titles like “Master of the Blizzard,” “Awakened Ice Mage,” “Daughter of Boreas,” “Last Pure-blooded Ice Descendant,” “Born of Snow and Ice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the entire Northern Realm, there was only one Su Nai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De was merely a Sea Sentinel apprentice mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he bore the title “King of the Northern Realm,” it was loud but unrelated to actual power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De knew his own limits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At his current level, under normal circumstances, defeating a second-ring mage was impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So if the opponent were Ansel Biden, the Stitch Nail Gang’s boss, Gao De would think nothing of it—he’d simply return to Duan and submit the signed statement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how great the merit, it’s useless if you’re dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, these gangs wouldn’t dare provoke a Sea Sentinel mage, wouldn’t trouble him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if he came knocking at their door, they wouldn’t be soft targets—they’d truly try to kill him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Aldrich wasn’t a normal second-ring mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had only ascended to the second ring this mid-year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is now mid-Icebind Month (November), less than half a year since Aldrich ascended his ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A mage’s strength is determined by multiple factors: beyond rank and specialization, the most critical are spells, experience, and equipment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among these, spells account for the highest proportion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Other mages do not learn spells as easily as Gao De.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those without extraordinary talent spend at least half a year just to construct a single spell model.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How great could Aldrich’s talent possibly be, if he rose to lead a faction with little future?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That means Aldrich, barely half a year after ascending his ring, has at most mastered one second-ring spell—possibly not even a combat spell—and might not have mastered any second-ring spell at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He is equivalent to a second-ring mage who has not yet switched classes or learned new skills.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to a first-ring mage, Aldrich possesses three advantages from his higher rank: “specialization,” “ascended casting,” and “elementalized body,” along with greater mana reserves and stronger mental power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Honestly, these alone are enough to utterly crush a first-ring mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Gao De, though not matching Su Nai’s unmatched combat power at the same level, is far from an ordinary first-ring mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving aside his bottomless reservoir of spells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, the power of [Icebound Blade+] is nearly indistinguishable from a second-ring spell, and with the further enhancement of [Mid-Grade Ice-Protected Body], it can threaten second-ring mages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, his [North Wind], once a seventh-rank Supreme Ice Magic Weapon, has lost much of its power over time—but its residual might still lingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Third, after consuming Wolf Blood Ginseng, Gao De’s mana surged to 39 drops of liquid, allowing him to barely activate [North Wind].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Furthermore, the third-rank Mandora Magic Eye provides strong combat assistance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, Gao De can first level up and equip himself with “new gear” before “fighting the boss.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His current mana is 39 drops of liquid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the 40th drop has not fully solidified under the Wolf Blood Ginseng’s effects, progress has advanced by more than half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this rate, with moderate use of magic potions as aid, it should take only three or four days for the 40th drop to fully solidify.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once the 40th drop of liquid mana solidifies, he can naturally break through to early-mid first-ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First-ring mages are divided into three sub-levels: early, mid, and late.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each sub-level breakthrough brings a significant boost to a mage’s power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Gao De has long since drawn the design blueprint for his first-rank rune armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that he has the funds, he only needs to purchase the proper materials to turn the blueprint into a physical item.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once he dons his custom-fitted first-rank rune armor, his combat power will surge another major level.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he can lure the battle into a watery terrain, his chances improve further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that requires careful planning—it may not be achievable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After this assessment, Gao De clenched his teeth and made up his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There is risk—but he can go for it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2066,"2026-06-19T14:28:50.414Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","42a82ed1bfa33d276c09c179852ffaf9616044432d70ab632d47f4740ab8ea6a","above-the-mage-chapter-461","above-the-mage-chapter-459",529,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fabove-the-mage-cover.jpg"]