Above the mage!

Chapter 546 Leni Thornvine
The successful arrival of nine cargo ships from the City of Black Sails is fantastic news for Phoenix.

The cargo on this ship can solve many of Phoenix's most pressing problems and serves as a signal of connection to the outside world and accelerated development.

Therefore, not only was Gaode excited about this, but even Sunafa's eyes showed a genuine joy.

Claude immediately led his men to check and verify the supplies on each ship. After confirming that the supplies matched the cargo list, he immediately sent a detailed cargo list to God and Sunefa via spirit mail.

After reviewing the goods list, Sunafa went directly to Gaode.

“The drilling rig can be used for the construction of the Valar Tunnel,” Sunafa said as he walked into Gaode’s office.

Gaode is looking down and carefully studying the data.

He copied down the documents Claude sent him so that he could mark and take notes.

When Sunefa came in, he was drawing on a piece of parchment.

Hearing Sunefa's words, he looked up and smiled, "Yes, I thought of that too."

As a large-scale metallurgical engineering machine, drilling rigs not only play a significant role in resource exploration and mining, but are also extremely applicable in many other fields.

For example, the construction of the Valar Tunnel.

"This drilling rig is an old-fashioned one from thirty years ago. It was put up for sale after it was phased out and replaced with a newer model, and then Sarah got her hands on it."

"This old fellow may be old, but he's definitely enough for the North. With the [Rapid Excavation] spell potion we've purchased this time, the construction progress of the Valar Tunnel will definitely be greatly accelerated, and it may be completed before March next year."

Gaode had already made preliminary calculations before Sunaif arrived.

"This is only the first voyage with Black Sails City, and we've already achieved such great results. As long as the subsequent cooperation goes smoothly," Sunefa couldn't help but sigh.

“That’s not all,” Gao De interrupted her, lowered his head, drew another circle on the parchment in his hand, and then handed it to Sunefa along with a thick stack of parchment below. “This is the biggest gain from this voyage.”

Sunefa took the stack of parchments, and the first thing that caught her eye was the top parchment.

This is a roster.

This refers to Sarah's list of the first batch of foreign talents introduced to the North.

The roster listed exactly one hundred names.

The thick stack of parchment at the bottom contains the basic information of the people on the roster.

The information includes their age, gender, special skills, mage level, and origins, specifically where they came from, why they fled to Black Sails City, and even their life trajectory in Black Sails City, making it incredibly detailed.

Sarah obtained most of this information through the Raven Claw Gang. She had the data compiled and handed over to the people in the North along with the personnel during the transportation of the talent.

This is equivalent to providing Gaode with a 'user manual' so that Gaode can assign tasks based on each person's strengths.

What Claude did was simply register and summarize information, verify each person's identity, confirm that the information matched the person, and then compile it into the roster.

Sunafa's eyes quickly swept across the roster:
"A total of one hundred people, including twelve alchemists, one third-tier alchemist, ten second-tier alchemists, and one first-tier alchemist."
There are ten alchemists, including nine second-tier alchemists and one first-tier alchemist.
There are four plant magic masters, including one third-tier plant magic master and three second-tier plant magic masters.
Four beast tamers, two second-tier prospectors, two second-tier appraisers, one second-tier puppeteer, two second-tier soul nurturers, and one second-tier rune master.

One hundred technical talents were introduced, covering more than twenty different professions, including even the extremely niche professions of Soul Nurturing Masters who specialize in providing high-quality souls for necromancers and Puppet Masters who create human puppets.

Such a diverse range of professions can only be found in the City of Black Sails.

The most common profession is potion master.

This is to be expected.

Potionist, alchemist, and runemaster are the three main secondary professions.

Among the three main classes, the potion master has the lowest entry barrier.

While being easy to learn, potion makers can also quickly generate income, whether by selling potions or for personal use. As a result, the number of potion makers on the continent far exceeds that of other secondary professions.

The reason why alchemists are the second most common profession is also because of this.

However, there is only one rune master among the three starter families—there's no way around it, the threshold for becoming a rune master is too high, and very few people can enter this field.

Things are valued for their rarity. Once someone becomes a runemaster, they become a sought-after figure by various factions. Very few people are forced to the point of having nowhere else to go and flee to Black Sails City.

With such a double buff, it's only natural that there's only one runemaster out of a hundred people.

Even having a second-tier runemaster was beyond Gao De's expectations.

This second-tier runemaster previously worked for a mage faction. He was framed for treason and forced to flee because he refused to add a hidden door to the city's defensive rune array for the leader of a malicious faction.

In addition, these professionals came to Black Sails City because they had been ostracized and persecuted on the mainland and had no other choice.

This background has led to a shortage of professionals who are relatively numerous but have a more "lifestyle" lifestyle and do not pose a significant conflict of interest.

For example, the plant magician.
As suppliers to potion makers, they are mainly responsible for cultivating magical plants. The entry threshold is lower than that of potion makers, and there is practically no requirement for talent. Any mage who is willing to learn can do it, so the number of them is actually far greater than that of potion makers.

However, the profession of plant magician rarely involves core conflicts of interest.

Even if someone is ostracized by a certain force, they can simply rent a piece of land in another city and continue "farming." It's rare for anyone to be hunted down and silenced.

This "low persecution" means that plant magicians are rarely forced to flee to the Black Sails City.

Therefore, out of these one hundred people, there are only four plant magic masters.

There are also magic chefs, a supernatural profession that focuses on combining "deliciousness and extraordinary effects" and is almost exclusively for nobles and mages. Although not mainstream on the continent, there is still a stable group of practitioners.

But the nature of their work as chefs means they almost never offend forces capable of killing.

Even if a nobleman's cooking skills don't suit his taste, he might at most be dismissed, but he would never be exterminated.

Naturally, this led to a situation where there wasn't a single magic chef among a hundred people.

In fact, the extraordinary artisans of Black Sails City possess three main characteristics:
The first is the high degree of persecution, that is, those engaged in relatively "taboo" and "dangerous" professions have the highest exile rate.

For example, Soul Nurturer, Puppet Master, and Bone Peeler.

Secondly, there is a high demand. Black Sails City is a lawless place with a rigid demand for combat, healing, stealth, intelligence, and weapon crafting.

Therefore, these types of craftsmen were able to make a living and survive in Black Sails City, and their numbers were naturally large.

Typical examples are alchemists, especially the robe craftsmen and staff makers within the alchemist branch.

Thirdly, there is low stability. Craftsmanship fields that are easily monopolized or suppressed by large organizations on the mainland are also prone to producing exiles, such as potion masters.

In addition, there are obvious patterns in the distribution of talent at different levels.

This is because traveling to the City of Black Sails involves a perilous sea voyage.

Junior apprentices or first-level professionals often lack the ability to protect themselves and sufficient funds to pay for the fare, making it difficult for them to successfully reach their destination.

Those at the third rank and above are either firmly controlled by powerful forces or are strong enough that they do not need to flee, so their numbers are also small.

Only second-tier professionals, who possess a certain degree of self-defense ability, are easily marginalized due to their "neither here nor there" value, thus becoming the main force fleeing to Black Sails City. After briefly glancing through the roster, Sunefa was slightly excited, "There are quite a few professionals that Phoenix is ​​currently in dire need of."

"Moreover, there are four 'high-end' talents, which is remarkable."

The "high-end" that Sunafa mentioned refers to the four third-tier professionals on the roster.

Aside from Flora, whose professional rank is difficult to determine, the most powerful professional in Phoenix is ​​Quentin, a true fourth-tier beast tamer.

Then, going further down, it almost breaks off.

In Phoenix, there are hardly any artisans, let alone high-level ones.

For Phoenix today, a Tier 3 craftsman is practically the pinnacle of extraordinary craftsmen.

Their addition will not only enable them to perform highly challenging tasks, but also train apprentices, laying the foundation for Phoenix's extraordinary career system by complementing the extraordinary career knowledge within [Heart of the North].
Just as Sunefa was feeling happy for these four third-tier professionals, she suddenly remembered something and glanced at the roster again.

Yes, on that list of 100 people, one person's name was circled heavily by Gaode Maps as a special note.

“Lenny Thorns, a first-tier potion master,” Sunefa read out her name, frowning as she did so.

Clearly, she couldn't understand why Gaode had highlighted such an inconspicuous "first-tier potion master".

"Of the hundred people Sarah sent, the most remarkable one isn't the four third-tier craftsmen, but this first-tier potion master," God laughed, looking at Sunefa's furrowed brows, and said seriously.

Sunafa was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

She thought for a moment, then immediately began searching through the stack of parchment at the bottom of the register, and soon found the page marked "Lianie Thorns".

The edges of the paper were slightly curled, indicating that it had been repeatedly flipped through by Gaode Maps.

She laid the parchment flat on the table and carefully examined it word by word.
It records Leni's detailed origins and background.

It's not a particularly convoluted or bizarre story.

Sunefa quickly discovered the secret within:

"Lenny Thorns, while running a small apothecary in the slums of Carmond, manufactured a large quantity of cheap, weak healing potions within a year and sold them to the common people."

Each bottle of mild healing potion is extremely inexpensive, and although its effects are weak, it is sufficient to treat common injuries such as cuts, bruises, and minor burns.

This move caused the three major potion shops to lose half their revenue from healing potions, prompting them to launch a joint crackdown.

When Leni Thornton pushed open the door to her temporary accommodation, a wave of warmth washed over her.

Of course, there was no heating inside; it was just that it was too cold outside, making the room feel warm.

This is a simple house built of stones. Although the walls are not exquisite, they are built tightly and can firmly block the wind and snow from the north.

It was also more spacious than Leni had imagined. In the corner was a wooden bed covered with animal hides, and at the foot of the bed were two thick wool blankets, soft to the touch, clearly carefully tanned.

She gently closed the door, slowly sat down at the stone table, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the surface, recalling her experiences after coming ashore, still feeling somewhat incredulous.

Besides the overly clean and orderly environment, even the meals she ate after arriving here far exceeded her expectations.

Leni raised her hand and touched her lower abdomen, where a warm, full feeling still lingered.

In the harsh, cold North, she actually ate barley, and it was blood-red barley that she had never seen before.

The barley grains were plump, and upon entering the mouth, a warm current slid down the throat, instantly spreading to every part of the body.

The body, which was originally exhausted from the sea voyage and shivering from the extreme cold of the North, suddenly warmed up.

This greatly boosted her spirits and restored much of her physical strength.

Not to mention in the North, even in the bustling cities outside, barley of this quality is rare; it should only be available to nobles.

According to the locals, this type of barley seems to be called Northwest Barley No. 2.

Type 2?
There should be a third species, and perhaps a fourth species later on.

After a moment of daydreaming, Leni finally snapped out of it, patted her cheeks, and remembered that she hadn't done her business yet.

She took a package from under the bed.

The package was made of coarse linen, with frayed edges and reinforced handles with hemp rope, indicating that it had been used repeatedly for a long time.

It contained all the belongings she had brought from Black Sails City.

Leni placed the package on the stone table and untied it.

The package contained very little stuff, partly to travel light, and partly because she was really poor.

Her specialty is making weak potions.

What is a weak potion? Simply put, it's a pirated potion, or a Huaqiangbei version of a potion.

That is, the same kind of magic potion with much weaker effects.

For example, the weaker healing potion that forced her into exile in Black Sails City had only one-third the potency of the genuine healing potion.
However, its price is only one-fifteenth of that of the genuine healing potion.

Such amazing cost-effectiveness led to the fact that after Leni started selling weak healing potions, almost all commoners stopped buying genuine healing potions from the three major potion shops and instead purchased them from her.

However, while this weak potion is a good thing for ordinary people, it is absolutely inferior in the eyes of mages.

And the city of Black Sails is mostly inhabited by mages.

This resulted in her potions becoming virtually unsellable after arriving in Black Sails, making it difficult for her to even earn enough to make a living.

In addition, she was only a first-ring mage with low strength, and being a female mage, she lived on thin ice in Black Sails City, constantly on edge.

Therefore, upon receiving Sarah's invitation, she nodded and boarded the ship bound for the North almost without hesitation.

Leni took out the items one by one.

She had very little luggage.

Aside from two changes of clothes, several scrolls of parchment, and a very old set of potion-making tools:

A small crucible the size of a palm, a somewhat worn mortar and pestle, and a spiral stirring spoon with a missing corner.

Claire still organized them with great care and attention.

Because these are her livelihood, her means of survival in this frigid snowfield.

Thinking of this, Leni couldn't help but feel a little worried again.

(End of this chapter)