Above the mage!

Chapter 541 Bloodline Awakening

"Hmm, let me see." Sunafa nodded and lowered her eyes, somewhat awkwardly focusing her attention on the "Flora Forest" communication card, and gently tapped it.

A sudden burst of light erupted, and the card unfolded instantly, revealing a semi-transparent frame that popped out like an unfolded piece of magic letter paper.

This is the "dialog box".

On the left side of the dialog box is a small tree-shaped light pattern (avatar), with a green light band extending from it. Above the light band is a question in common font:

Why are elephants destined for extinction?

“Received, Your Majesty.” Sunefa’s gaze swept over the question before she replied.

"Great! The comment function is working successfully too!" Gaode was overjoyed.

"Elsa is also very curious about the Ethernet you mentioned. Shall I have her connect and try it out?"

As Sunafa spoke, she typed a reply in the chat box, then gently touched a quill pen pattern outlined with light patterns at the bottom of the chat box.

That's the "Send" button.

【why? 】

“Sure!” Gao De replied immediately.

So Sunefa stepped aside, made room for Elsa, and nodded to her, who was standing to the side with curious eyes, "Why don't you give it a try?"

Elsa didn't stand on ceremony. A hint of anticipation flashed in her eyes. The moment Sunefa stepped aside, she stepped forward and placed her warm palm firmly on the cool orb of light.

—Because it requires "broadband access", the key is more like a "computer" and not easy to move, rather than a portable "smartphone".

Therefore, Sunefa couldn't directly hand the orb of light to Elsa, as that might sever the spiritual vein fibers that acted as the "network cable." The only option was for Elsa to take her place.

After Elsa used Sunefa's key to log into the Ethernet, Sunefa looked at Elsa's focused profile, stood there for a moment in a daze, then curved her lips into a smile, a hint of amusement flashing in her eyes.

The instant she logged out of the Ethernet connection, she saw a reply from Gaode Maps in the chat box:

Because there is only one truth.

However, compared to this somewhat "cold" reply that made her laugh, she was actually more concerned about a word that Gaode had inadvertently mentioned.

"empire".

That's something to look forward to!
Having been in this world for over three years, Gaode's experiences are something many people cannot imagine in a lifetime.

These experiences and his current status have made him more composed and reserved, somewhat resembling Sunefa. He rarely experiences such a significant change in emotion as he does today.

Sunefa could tell that God was very excited, but she couldn't really understand where his excitement came from.

In her eyes, Ethernet was a magical invention that enabled remote communication, but she didn't understand the revolutionary impact it held.

Even Gaode himself didn't know how to describe his feelings at that moment.

There's definitely joy, but more than that, it seems like "bullshit"?
For Sunafal, and indeed for everyone in the world, the advent of Ethernet was a truly remarkable achievement.

But they couldn't understand how illogical this thing was—it defied the scientific norms in Gaode's understanding.

What is the current situation in the North?
They were still in the transitional stage from primitive tribes to city-states, and even currency used to measure value had not yet appeared.

Not to mention basic technological products like electric lights and telegraphs.

This place, where even "long-distance text transmission" relies on magical falcons, possesses an "Ethernet" equivalent to the internet of the previous life.

This is as absurd as if the villagers shared nuclear fusion technology with you.

Yes, that's not scientifically sound.

But it's magical.

The Mage Realm is, in essence, a magical world.

When fireballs can ignite out of thin air, healing spells can repair wounds, and gem berries can be created out of thin air, the so-called "scientific logic" should give way to the "laws of magic."

Therefore, from this perspective, it is actually quite reasonable.

The world of mages should naturally have mages' solutions.

If we must explain it using the scientific perspective of our past lives, then the underlying logic of the extraordinary world and the technological world are fundamentally different.
Magical civilization and mechanical civilization have never progressed along the same path.

Many things that require overcoming countless technical hurdles in a mechanical civilization can be solved extremely easily in a mage civilization, and vice versa.

In a mechanical civilization, the birth of the internet requires many prerequisites, such as electricity, and the technological foundation of breakthroughs in digital communication and computer technology.
From the telegraph machine that transmitted Morse code, to the telephone that could make real-time calls, to the massive mainframe computer, then the breakthrough of the transistor computer, and finally the emergence of ARPANET.
By focusing on each technology one by one, we can eventually arrive at the concept of internet technology.

Each step requires the groundwork laid by countless technical nodes, none of which can be omitted.

However, the principles of magical civilization, or rather, its "technology tree," have a completely different growth path and cannot be applied to the path of mechanical civilization.

This leads to many such situations in the world:

[Gaode: I need a telegraph machine that can transmit messages over long distances to solve the basic communication problem first.]

My King, I'm sorry, this is too difficult. Could I please get you a "computer" to use for now?

This sounds counterintuitive, but it is a highly likely true situation.

Because what it "opposes" is never the common sense of this world, but the inherent cognition of mechanical civilization brought by Gaode in his previous life.

This is why, when Gaode first came into contact with the Ether Spider, which can weave a network of spiritual veins, it did not immediately associate it with its potential applications in the "Internet" field.

He also retains empiricism from his previous life, subconsciously applying his familiar traditional technological path to the development of the technology tree in the North.

Little did people know that in the mage realm, many advanced "technologies" already existed; they just needed an opportunity to be integrated and applied.

Thinking of this, Gaode couldn't help but slap his forehead, both as a pleasant surprise at breaking through cognitive limitations and as a reflection on past habitual thinking.
He silently warned himself: he must abandon past dogmatism and habitual experience, and no longer use the framework of mechanical civilization to restrict the possibilities of this world.

After all, how could magic be such an inconvenient thing?

After the internet connection was cut off, Gaode unconsciously let out a long sigh of relief, feeling both amused and deeply moved.

His trip to the Blue Flame Islands was meticulously planned and fraught with danger, but ultimately yielded fruitful results.

Who could have imagined that after returning to the North, a casual whisper from the spirit world would bring even greater gains than the trip to the Blue Flame Islands?

A relatively inexpensive, convenient, stable, and reliable method of long-distance communication undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the development of a power, a nation, and even a society. It is far more than a simple tool for transmitting messages; rather, it is a core fulcrum that can leverage the efficiency of the entire Northern Territory.

Real-time communication covering the entire territory enables the government to manage the entire territory to the fullest extent, which is an expansion of its governance and management capabilities.

Not only is Vallar Bay connected to Flora Forest, but also various resource areas, including mineral veins, that are about to be developed will be closely connected to Phoenix through this Ethernet network.

Moreover, Ethernet has far more than just a communication function; the role of "World Wide Web" for mages is unimaginable.

After reflecting on the experience, Gaode quickly settled his thoughts: the next step was to increase the number of Ethernet users.

What kind of internet is it if it doesn't have enough users?

There are two issues that need to be addressed: network connectivity and equipment.

The first issue is network connectivity.

Previously, when setting up an Ethernet network, Gaode Maps needed to communicate with the Ether Spider through the "Whispers of the Spirit Realm" to tell them where to "run the network cable".

The process is cumbersome and time-consuming (the "Whispers of the Spirit Realm" charge is needed every two months), and it is extremely dependent on the individual, making it difficult to popularize.

Fortunately, he had foreseen this and, when setting up the Ethernet with EtherSpider, he specifically asked them to reserve a dedicated node for him, namely the key "King".

Now that Ethernet is running stably, this node has become the "master switch." From now on, if you want to install new "broadband" or communicate with the Ether Spider, you no longer need to use [Whispers of the Spirit Realm].

Simply connect to the Ethernet using the "King's" key and communicate directly with the EtherSpider in the "Friends List" to exchange information.

Then there's the even more crucial issue of "equipment".

In other words, it is the "key" for accessing the Ethernet.

[Heart of the North] Each time an access key is generated, a certain amount of pure elemental material is required.

According to a rough estimate based on external prices, the elemental materials required to generate an access key are worth approximately 50 Gold Sparrow Coins.

It's definitely not cheap.

Even in the most developed cities, a family of five would only spend fifty or sixty gold coins a year.

It's like a family of five having to save all their income for a year without eating, drinking, or sleeping just to buy a single "computer".

In Gaode's previous existence, the price of a "computer" was actually no more than the monthly salary of one person in an ordinary working-class family.

But it's not exactly expensive.

Because Gaode Maps envisions Ethernet being targeted at mages, not the general public.

Mages are a group with excess productivity, or rather, a group with extremely high salaries.

The theoretical cost for a first-level mage to learn a first-level spell is as high as 65 Gold Sparrow Coins.

Therefore, it seems that even a first-level mage can raise enough money to buy a key by slightly reducing expenses and gritting their teeth and saving for a while.

More importantly, the North itself is a "treasure trove of extraordinary materials," with its vast ice plains storing extremely rich elemental materials.

These resources can be acquired at a cost far below the market price if a team is organized and a little development is done.

At that time, the production cost of the key can be reduced by another significant amount.

Putting aside other issues, ensuring that mid-level mages in the North, and even some promising low-level mages, can use Ethernet shouldn't be a problem.

Gao De tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, pondered for a moment, and then set the initial user targets for Ethernet:
The first batch of 300 keys were generated, and each of the three ring mages in Phoenix was equipped with an Ethernet key.

At the time of the first census last year, Phoenix had 207 registered third-ring mages and 4 fourth-ring mages.

However, over the past year, the progress of the tribal integration plan has brought many new third-ring mages to Phoenix.

But just one year later, the situation has changed drastically.

On the one hand, with the steady progress of the Northern Tribal Integration Plan, many small and medium-sized tribes in the surrounding area have successively merged into Phoenix.

Many senior mages from various tribes also joined, with dozens of third-ring mages alone being brought in from outside.
On the other hand, the resources in the North are becoming increasingly abundant. Many mages in the tribe who had been stuck at the peak of the second ring for a long time have successfully broken through the bottleneck and advanced to the third ring with the help of this "tailwind".

With these two factors combined, the number of third-ring mages in Phoenix has quietly approached three hundred.

Three hundred keys are just enough to achieve full coverage, and the extras can be used for office needs.

Phoenix does not currently have a monetary system, and people's daily needs are mostly allocated by the city hall.

Therefore, these first batch of keys were essentially "office computers," with the production costs borne entirely by the city hall.

However, this is not a particularly heavy burden.

After all, almost all of Phoenix's output is controlled and managed by the city hall.

Moreover, if the number of users is not large enough, Ethernet cannot guarantee continuous operation and therefore cannot achieve the protocol with the Ethernet Spider: long-term, large-volume fresh information.

With the Ethernet network successfully established, there was no longer any need to worry about message delays. Gaode settled down in Flora Forest with great peace of mind, waiting for Ibrahimovic's condition to stabilize before returning to Phoenix.

Here, free from the toil of official documents and the distractions of trivial matters, one can truly spend a period of seclusion and study.

Cultivation, spell model building, and rune learning.

This takes up most of Gaode's daily time.

A month passed in the blink of an eye, and the days were peaceful and fulfilling.

This period of focused cultivation, aided by the Bone and Blood Thorn Elixir and his second-ring limit of spiritual power, coupled with the Northern Territory's sacred environment for the "True Ice Secret Manual," caused his cultivation progress in the "True Ice Secret Manual" to skyrocket at a visible speed, changing every day.

Before they knew it, they had already reached the threshold of the first stage of advancement.

To be honest, being promoted to a higher level is nothing new to him.

As a second-ring mage who had already opened up a first-ring magical sea and whose mental strength had reached the limit of the second ring, this ring advancement felt more like "going through the process again," with a sense of familiarity far exceeding the tension of the first advancement.

He didn't even need to prepare expensive leveling potions in advance like ordinary mages to stabilize his mana and aid in breakthroughs; everything happened naturally.

Sitting cross-legged and entering a meditative state, Gao De did not need to take any enhancement potions. The moment his mental energy touched the mana pool, he directly began his advancement.

Under his control, the icy blue mist-like mana within his mana pool, belonging to the "Secret Transmission of True Ice," ceased to be calm and began to spin violently.

(End of this chapter)