Chapter 526: Success Rate of Ascension

The additional effects of [Long-Range Strike] and [Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy] are simple and brutal, but the changes to [Wanling Elixir] are more flamboyant, adding two new elixirs and two additional effects.

But this is also reasonable, since [Wanling Elixir] itself is already flamboyant enough.

Compared to additional effects, Gao De actually values the [Supermemory] elixir more.

Isn’t this essentially a junior version of that robot cat’s memory bread?

This was a device countless people once dreamed of possessing.

Although there are no longer monthly or final exams, learning is necessary in any world, and for learning efficiency, besides insight, memory is also a crucial factor.

Three rare one-ring spells have been fully upgraded, leaving three origin points remaining.

After pondering for a short while, Gao De selected three ordinary one-ring spells from those he knew but had not yet upgraded, choosing the ones he deemed highest priority.

[Artisan’s Blessing+] (Alteration, one-ring):

The target will become luckier during the next craft’s luck-dependent phase.

Additional: During the next craft, you will coordinate more closely with your tools, gaining higher precision and longer operational stability.

[Diagnose Disease+] (Divination, one-ring):

You can determine whether a living being, an object, or an area carries a specific disease or infection.

Additional: After confirming the presence of a disease or infection, you may observe the target’s living environment (such as water sources or food storage) to deduce its transmission route.

[Decompose Corpse+] (Necromancy, one-ring):

Through this spell, the caster can rapidly decompose the fleshy portions of a corpse no larger than giant size.

Additional: During decomposition, the caster can also use the spell to swiftly extract the corpse’s blood.

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

Because the additional effect of [Wind Spirit Moon Shadow] primarily enhances functionality, it complements functional spells well.

Another reason is that Gao De’s commonly used combat spells have already been upgraded.

The combat spells not yet upgraded are those used infrequently—backup spells that are “not needed but must be available.”

Compared to functional spells, their upgrade priority is naturally lower.

City Hall, Gao De’s office.

Morning sunlight, carrying the crisp chill unique to the Northern Region, slanted through the window lattice, casting long shadows on the floor.

Thin frost bloomed on the windowsill.

Gao De was bent over his long desk, writing furiously, his quill scratching across the paper.

He was drafting a proposal of extreme importance to Phoenix.

Namely, the construction blueprint for the Northern Region’s second city.

Phoenix is currently the only city in the Northern Region.

Yet its population has already surpassed one million and is projected to exceed two million within the coming year.

This is still a rough estimate.

Although the opening of Jin Hui Farm has ensured relatively abundant food production and Phoenix is developing rapidly, it is impossible to keep pace with population growth.

The resource and administrative pressures from this massive influx of people will eventually burst Phoenix apart.

Therefore, the construction of a second city must be planned as soon as possible, and part of the population must be relocated there.

As for location, there is no need to think twice—Gao De had already decided long ago:

Varal Bay.

It is both the port connecting the Northern Region to the outside world, the center of its commercial activity, possessing unparalleled economic value, and also a sacred tree domain of immense importance to the Northern Region.

Building a city at Varal Bay would, on one hand, serve as the Northern Region’s transportation hub, enabling better cross-border trade.

And with this new city as a foundation, establishing a deepwater port at Varal Bay would develop shipbuilding, warehousing, logistics, and port-side commerce, turning it into the core engine that activates the Northern Region’s commercial lifeline.

On the other hand, the sufficient manpower and resources brought by city-building would allow the establishment of an integrated “protection-research-utilization” system around the Sacred Tree, ensuring better protection, more effective reforestation, and improved utilization of timber resources.

After writing for a long time, Gao De lifted his head, stretched out with a heavy yawn, and glanced out the office window at the landscape of Phoenix.

Now that all things are on track, Phoenix’s potential is gradually being unleashed.

Like a massive train accelerating steadily along a smooth track.

And this is even after Gao De deliberately slowed development slightly, prioritizing stability.

You eat a meal one bite at a time—whether it’s your personal cultivation path or the Northern Region’s development path, neither can be rushed.

But saying so is one thing; in reality, both have already accelerated beyond reason.

Forget half a month—describing Phoenix’s changes as daily would be no exaggeration.

Under the tribal unification and the immigration program led by Guardian Chief Quintin, new Northern Region residents join Phoenix almost every day.

With the growing population, houses and living facilities rise one after another according to Gao De’s Phoenix urban design plans, and road construction is a top priority.

Who could have imagined that a year ago, Phoenix was still a near-primitive tribe where people died of hunger every year?

And who could have imagined that Gao De, now preparing to ascend to the second ring, has only been a one-ring mage for nineteen months—less than two years?

This is Gao De’s seventh day back in the Northern Region.

After so many days of rest and adjustment, his condition has reached its peak—he is nearly ready to attempt ascension.

The requirements for ascending to a second-ring mage, Gao De had already researched in the Sea Sentinel Mage Tower’s library.

These requirements are expensive knowledge elsewhere, but the Sea Sentinels are unusually generous, offering them freely to their own mages.

However, his current clearance level only permits him to read the requirements for ascending to second ring.

So Gao De is unsure whether the Sea Sentinels will continue offering higher-ring ascension insights for free.

After all, second-ring mages are still low-ring mages, insignificant to an organization like the Sea Sentinels.

Just like in his past life, elementary and middle school were free compulsory education, but high school was not.

To ascend from mage apprentice to first-ring mage, there are four stages: cleansing the blood, enhancing life vitality, transforming mana into liquid, purifying mental energy, and expanding the spell star-sea.

These correspond respectively to increased lifespan, purified mana, enhanced mental energy, and final ascension.

Ascending from first-ring mage to second-ring mage differs in process but shares the same essence.

Ascending to second ring will also increase lifespan, raising the theoretical upper limit from 150 to 225 years.

But this time, it is not the first stage, but the last—after expanding the spell star-sea.

And instead of cleansing the blood, it becomes [Elementalize the Body].

[Elementalize the Body] is the signature ability of second-ring mages, equivalent to the first-ring mage’s [Precise Perception].

At this stage, the mage’s mana radiates into the body, allowing selection of one element to reinforce the flesh—elementalization—granting corresponding elemental resistance and lifespan increase.

Mana liquefaction becomes crystallization, the first stage of second-ring ascension.

Crystallization is easy to understand: it is a further upgrade of mana’s form, solidifying from liquid mana into a mana crystal.

The second stage is mental energy breakthrough—breaking past the 200 threshold.

In mental energy, second-ring mages differ from first-ring mages only in intensity, not essence.

And Gao De had already broken through long ago, effectively completing the second stage of second-ring ascension ahead of schedule.

The third stage remains expanding the spell star-sea—from first-ring star-sea to second-ring star-sea—enabling the capture of second-ring spell seeds and the formation of second-ring spell models.

Within minor stages, mage level advancement, though difficult, has no true bottleneck.

It is simply a matter of slow, steady cultivation—mana will always grow with consistent practice, differing only in speed.

The division into three sub-stages exists only because difficulty increases a notch at each new stage.

For example, in the first-ring stage, a mage with exceptional talent can advance from early to peak first ring in a short time.

A mage with average talent, if well-connected and wealthy, can use mana elixirs and high-tier cultivation chambers—or rare treasures like dragon-bird blood fungi—to artificially force himself from early to late first ring in a short span.

But in the mage world, most mages never reach peak first ring before attempting ascension.

The reason is simple: mages with “exceptional talent” or “outstanding background” are rare, and the latter are even rarer than the former.

Most mages rely on average talent and average resources, cultivating painfully, day after day.

One hundred and fifty years of lifespan may seem long, but for mage cultivation, it is truly insufficient.

Gao De’s mage talent is already mid-tier.

Yet without high-tier spiritual land or mental energy beyond his current realm, at early first ring, it would take roughly one year to condense a single drop of liquid mana.

At mid first ring, condensation difficulty rises a notch—about one and a half years per drop.

At late first ring, difficulty rises again—two years per drop.

Thus, even with mid-tier talent, it would take ninety years to advance from early to peak first ring.

Normally, a mage with mid-tier talent who becomes a first-ring mage at twenty is already remarkable; most achieve it after twenty-five.

That means a mid-tier mage would normally reach peak first ring only after age 115, then begin attempting second-ring ascension.

This assumes no accidents and daily cultivation throughout—ideal conditions.

Mages with talent below mid-tier, without extraordinary fortune, cannot reach peak first ring before their lifespan expires.

—Such mages are already lucky to become first-ring mages; second-ring mage is beyond their reach.

Cultivation is cruel enough, but before ascension, you are nothing.

Because mana growth has no bottleneck or danger.

Ascension is different—it is dangerous and has an extremely high failure rate, a brutal trial.

According to the Sea Sentinels’ ascension guidelines, without external aid, low-rank (first to third ring) mages have less than a 20% success rate.

That is, among ten late first-ring mages, only two will ascend to second ring.

Behind this cold number lie countless mages’ blood and tears.

Some might think: if ascension fails, just try again.

Twenty percent success is low, but if one attempt fails, try five times; if five fail, try ten—surely success will come eventually.

It really won't work.

You can indeed attempt Ring Ascension multiple times.

But each failure brings magical backlash, leaving irreversible bodily injuries that require vast time to recover one’s vital energy, and drastically reduce the success rate of the next attempt.

If your first attempt has a twenty percent success rate, the second might drop to just ten percent.

The third attempt’s success rate becomes virtually invisible, nearly zero.

Moreover, the injuries from magical backlash accumulate with each failed attempt.

If, after multiple failures, you still refuse to accept defeat and recklessly try again, another failure could cost you your life on the spot.

Statistics show that over ninety percent of successful ascenders pass on their first try.

Only one in ten lucky individuals succeed on their second attempt.

Cases of breakthrough after three or more attempts are so rare they aren’t even counted in the statistics.

Under these conditions, Ring Ascension Elixir emerged.

It has two functions: first, to increase the success rate of Ring Ascension.

For example, the [Green Vine Spirit Dew] Gao De obtained from the Sea Sentinels boosts Ring Ascension success by a full forty percent.

After drinking it, Gao De’s success rate surged to sixty percent.

Second, it protects the mage from backlash, shielding against the magical backlash of failure.

This is like granting the mage an extra life.

Because of the elixir’s protection, the body suffers no injury, so the mage’s next attempt retains the original twenty percent success rate.

Of course, the effect of each stage’s Ring Ascension Elixir occurs only upon first consumption.

Thus, there is no bug allowing infinite attempts with sufficient elixir.

In fact, the one percent who succeed on their second ascent generally drank the elixir on their first attempt, using its protection to preserve their foundation and keep the spark of ascension alive.

Added to a bit of sheer luck, they reverse fate—failing the first attempt despite the elixir’s boost, yet succeeding the second entirely on their own. That is truly fortune.

Gao De silently calculated his own Ring Ascension success rate.

Twenty percent plus the forty percent from [Green Vine Spirit Dew] equals sixty percent.

My spiritual force has already broken its limit—equivalent to having already passed one of the three Ring Ascension trials. This alone should raise my success rate by another ten percent, bringing it to seventy percent.

Moreover, my ascension site will be the core spiritual land where the Ice Jade Wutong resides—a fifth-rank spiritual land.

With the magical concentration of a fifth-rank spiritual land, it greatly aids the first trial’s magic crystallization, adding at least another five percent success rate.

Seventy-five percent.

Having reached his final calculation, Gao De exhaled slowly.

This success rate is already extremely high.

Reality isn’t probability theory—it can’t strictly control variables, and countless factors influence outcomes; thus, a 75% event, with a sample of one hundred, often occurs over ninety times, not the theoretical seventy-five.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be.” He set his ascension day.

For now, back to work.

Gao De bent his head again, refining the construction draft in hand.

(End of Chapter)