Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

At this point in the Silent Plane, two Grand Magics had already descended.

Wizard Smith had chosen not to conceal anything. The instant he completed his Grand Magic model, he had no further need for his summoner priestess or his gunfighter, nor even for those factory workers praying for him inside factory after factory.

As a meteorology wizard, his robe billowed around him as he rose into the sky. Lightning and wind and rain surrounded him, carrying him aloft.

At the same time, above the Silent Plane, one hundred and eight meteor showers appeared, falling ceaselessly through the dark sky, dazzling beyond measure, drawing every eye toward them.

In the Emperor's Hall, the emperor raised his head. The red light within the visor of his armor flickered with icy coldness. "Another traitor and rebel."

With the world in upheaval, both his inspector system and his empire were in a state of turmoil, and the total magic pressure of his mind network fell further still.

At this moment, he finally could no longer suppress the world's consciousness. The world's consciousness became exceedingly active, which also allowed the emperor to clearly identify his enemies.

Inside the Emperor's Hall, in the vast and empty chamber, only the emperor's cold voice rang out. "World, was it you who summoned these foreign gods into this world?"

The emperor's eyes erupted with formidable psi-force, and the immense psi-force he had obtained by unlocking eighteen gene locks burst forth completely. In a single instant, one wall of the palace behind him was shattered by his psi-force.

The wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, sending bricks tumbling down, and behind the wall a portrait was revealed.

Two attendants heard the sound and rushed in to guard the emperor, but the moment they stepped inside, the emperor seemed to come to his senses. He raised a hand, and in an instant both attendants' necks were snapped.

"Your Majesty, what has happened? Have those false gods attacked us?" Three inspectors bearing flintlock pistols and possessing fifth-tier gene locks came charging through the door to protect the emperor, but the moment they entered they caught sight of the enormous portrait hanging on that wall.

The portrait depicted a grey-haired middle-aged man. It was not the emperor's face.

In the next instant, the emperor flew into a towering rage. With a wave of his hand, a surge of psi-force detonated inside their heads, and in a single moment the heads of five inspectors exploded like watermelons.

Before more inspectors could come in, the emperor erected a psi-force barrier ahead of them, preventing the inspectors outside the door from entering.

The inspectors outside, believing the emperor was in danger, fired continuously at the psi-force barrier. Sparks flew and the sound of gunfire was unceasing.

The emperor raised his head and looked at the portrait. Beneath the helmet, his eyes revealed a look of yearning, but that yearning vanished quickly, replaced by a wary gaze fixed upon the portrait. "Feeling pleased with yourself, are you?"

"Did you foresee today's situation long ago?"

"Do you think that without you I would be helpless? No, I will make every person in this entire world forget you. The civilization of this world is me, and I am the civilization of this world."

"You showed me kindness, and so your contribution to this civilization came through me. I am the emperor, and therefore I am this civilization!"

The emperor said through gritted teeth.

He could feel that with the descent of two Grand Magics, his mind network had fallen into complete disarray. Although its total magic pressure still stood at the highest level across the entire field due to years of accumulated power, because his control over the mind network was relatively weak, he could no longer prevent the mind network from spiraling into chaos.

At this moment, Edgar seized the opportunity and ordered the ecological community of the Land of All Spirits under the Temporal Shadow Fern, the Spirit Vines and the treants he had awakened, to march out of the Land of All Spirits and launch a general assault on the Emperor's Hall.

The goal was to seize the moment when the mind network was in chaos and the inspectors could no longer receive infusions of magic pressure, and utterly destroy the emperor and his inspector system.

After that, Edgar's Grand Magic would be able to absorb the total magic pressure on the emperor's side, and in an instant become the wizard in this world holding the greatest amount of capital.

Whoever held the most capital would win.

That flowing magic pressure was capital.

And the Grand Magic was assets.

Wizard Edgar sensed Wizard Smith drawing closer, looked up, and promptly rolled his eyes.

There was Wizard Smith, wind following a tiger and clouds following a dragon, with a clap of thunder at each step as he walked over from the distance, his hands clasped behind his back, looking down upon the world.

Meteors trailed behind him.

A presence of extraordinary power.

The one hundred and eight comet planes at Wizard Smith's back transformed into one hundred and eight meteors, releasing the gravitational pull of meteors, interfering with this world's natural gravity.

Any inspector who drew near was torn apart by the gravitational force.

The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens offered the world a very direct kind of enhancement. If the Temporal Shadow Fern was a joint venture that had produced the Land of All Spirits together with this world, then the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was simply sending money directly to the world and assembling a meteor shower in its sky, capable of continuously summoning more meteors from the star realm.

As long as it did not suffer the loss of the greater half of its meteors in a single moment, the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens could continuously draw more comet planes from the star realm.

This was also one of the characteristics of a meteorology school Grand Magic.

Because of the existence of the star realm, meteorology wizards effectively had a free and natural source of power available whenever they used any magic, which was the star realm itself.

For this reason, the Grand Magic of meteorology school was considerably simpler to establish than those of other schools of study.

The trade-off, however, was that the precision of control over meteorology school Grand Magic and other Second Circle spells was the lowest of all schools.

After all, it made heavy use of star realm power.

Wizard Smith decisively arranged for a First Circle crystallization stage wizard from Storm Tower to descend.

A Grand Magic was a wizard's assets in a world, so it was equivalent to the wizard himself, representing those assets, granting permission for a First Circle crystallization stage wizard to enter.

The greater the assets, the greater the number of wizards that could enter.

At present, the assets of his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens were sufficient to allow at least one First Circle crystallization stage wizard to enter.

After that wizard's true body entered this world, he immediately looked toward Edgar and the emperor with undisguised hostility.

He glanced at Wizard Smith, gave him a nod, then leapt directly into the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens at Smith's back to assist Wizard Smith in operating it.

When wizards conquered colonial planes and established Grand Magics, it was quite common to hire other wizards to assist with various supporting tasks during the construction of the Grand Magic.

After all, a Grand Magic was enormous in scale. Relying solely on one person's strength made it extremely difficult to complete construction within a short period of time, and so wizard assistants were needed.

This was also why the Silent Chalice competition included two assistant slots for each competitor.

When that Storm Tower wizard entered Wizard Smith's Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, Wizard Smith immediately divided a portion of his authority and granted it to him.

This act, in the context of the Second Circle, was called a Grand Magic Blessing.

A Grand Magic was an asset that could not have shares sold from it, because the asset was in essence the wizard's second soul.

However, a wizard could still distribute honorary shares of this asset to other wizards.

Because honorary shares were virtual shares, carrying no capital contribution and no ownership rights, but carrying a dependent relationship, bound to the owner of the Grand Magic.

A Second Circle wizard could share control of the Grand Magic with a First Circle crystallization wizard, allowing the First Circle crystallization wizard to enjoy a portion of the enhancement that the Grand Magic provided.

Of course, they could not truly use or control the Grand Magic, only receive a portion of the Grand Magic's amplification effect and slightly manipulate some specific part of it.

As a general rule, as long as a Second Circle wizard had one or two First Circle wizard assistants, it could substantially increase their ability to manipulate the Grand Magic.

Because a Grand Magic was extraordinarily powerful with an enormous total magic pressure, and an ordinary Second Circle wizard still had a high degree of separation from their own Grand Magic, it was certainly not possible to fully manipulate and control it through one's own efforts alone.

When one or two First Circle crystallization wizards were available to assist with the manipulation, it could improve the utilization rate of the Grand Magic, indirectly enhancing it without any change to its total magic pressure or the quality of its magic pressure.

At this moment, Wizard Smith received another enhancement. He was able to split his attention, directing his full focus toward the emperor, while his Storm Tower assistant helped him operate the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, using the power of the stars to, in a single instant, corrupt all the workers who had been using the Star Prayer Blessings, capturing them with star power and transforming them into subordinate species of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

In factory after factory across thousands of locations, the bodies of those one million and more workers began to transform. Star markings crawled across their bodies, causing these human bodies to mutate and become star realm species.

At the same time, with the assistance of this helper, Wizard Smith was able to split his attention and use the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to drop meteors across the world. Whoever picked up one of these meteors would have the opportunity to choose the power of the stars, transforming into a Child of Stars and becoming a subordinate species of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

These meteors would essentially fly directly to the smartest and luckiest people in this world, tempting them with the chance to have some modest wish fulfilled, enticing them to willingly become Children of Stars and fall into servitude within the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

They would pray within the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, generation after generation, summoning the power of the stars for Wizard Smith.

The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, as a collection of one hundred and eight comet planes, had already assembled on the surface of the main material plane into an enormous semi-plane.

That semi-plane transformed into this world's crude star realm.

Wizard Smith's voice appeared throughout this world, announcing his existence and the existence of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens. "I have come from beyond the heavens, bringing the Star God Realm to this world. All who enter my Star God Realm will become the Star God Clan of this world, enjoying long life and a beautiful existence."

"Only those chosen by fate may become Star Gods and join the Star Spirit Clan."

Across the land, humans who had already been captured by the power of the stars and transformed into Star Spirits rose as meteors into the sky, flying upward toward the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens above.

In truth, once the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was fully summoned, it completed a covenant with the star realm, allowing it to continuously draw power from the star realm and strengthen itself.

Both this world's total magic pressure and Wizard Smith's own total magic pressure could be increased as a result.

These subordinate species were not strictly necessary. The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens needed only a small number of star-prayer devotees to remain active within it.

But in order to rapidly grow the total capital flowing within his Grand Magic, Wizard Smith had gone with the most straightforward and brute-force approach, even at the risk of offending this world, using star power on a massive scale to capture ordinary people and transform them into the Star Spirit Clan.

Wizard Smith glanced at Edgar. By this point, Edgar's Land of All Spirits had already spread to the Emperor's Hall, and Temporal Shadow Fern plants were pushing up through the concrete floor one by one.

Wizard Smith thought, "This is bad. The emperor's magic pressure is collapsing. It is like a disruption of capital flow within an asset, and so the emperor's assets are about to collapse."

"At a moment like this, whoever can eliminate the emperor will obtain a portion of that flowing capital. The one with the most capital is the strongest."

"A Grand Magic needs sufficient flowing magic pressure, which is to say capital, to be powerful. If Edgar gets ahead and kills the emperor first, then the one who falls behind will be me."

Behind Wizard Smith, starlight flashed as the semi-plane composed of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens appeared in the sky of this world, ready at any moment to rain meteorites down and send Star Spirit soldiers.

"I must kill the emperor first."

A meteorite fell, killing a great number of inspectors.

Edgar looked up at Wizard Smith in the sky. "Your arrival is welcome enough. Let us deal with the emperor first. As long as this world's native force holder dies, all four of us competitors will be free to act without restraint."

"The emperor is still the person in this world holding the most capital and the greatest assets. He has only experienced a temporary disruption in his capital flow. If he is allowed to catch his breath, he will still be quite troublesome."

At this moment, inside the Emperor's Hall, the emperor had actually been starting to panic, because the mind network was genuinely in continuous collapse. But suddenly his steadily declining total magic pressure stopped falling and instead began to rise.

Beneath the emperor's helmet, his cold red pupils abruptly released an even colder light.

"Unexpectedly, that believer on the imperial capital side is quite capable. Even at a point like this, he has actually managed to stabilize my magic pressure through devotion to my personal cult."

"He deserves a reward."

The emperor's voice traveled through psi-force, leaping out of the Emperor's Hall. "Pass my order. Reward Locke Augustine of the imperial capital with the title of Duke Schiller, hereditary and transferable."

At this moment, the emperor's magic pressure not only stopped declining but rose. A surge of formidable psi-force passed straight through the Emperor's Hall and shot toward both Wizard Smith and Wizard Edgar.

Wizard Edgar and Wizard Smith ran directly into a fully powered emperor, and both were left momentarily stunned.

Wizard Smith's expression changed drastically. "What is happening? Locke Augustine has become a great noble in this world? No, the real point is that it was him all along!"

"I was wondering why the emperor's magic pressure had not dropped, and it had actually been rising!"

On the other side, Wizard Edgar was also grinding his teeth. "Damn it, Locke. I knew it was you behind this. As I expected, you are my greatest enemy in this competition. If not for you raising the emperor's magic pressure, I would have had the advantage long ago!"

Wizard Edgar looked toward Wizard Smith. "The emperor is currently at full strength. Only if you and I combine our forces can we clear him from the game."

"Set aside our differences for now and cooperate."

Wizard Smith gave a refined nod. "Agreed."

When Wizard Edgar turned and charged toward the direction of the Emperor's Hall, the emperor's psi-force came crashing into Edgar's front, while Wizard Smith swung a hand and sent a meteor streaking toward Edgar's back.

A voice came from within the Emperor's Hall. "Smith, is it? We have a deal."

Wizard Edgar, shocked and furious, spun his head to look at Wizard Smith.

Wizard Smith had sunk into the coldest of calculations. 'Because of Locke, the emperor's magic pressure has recovered to its absolute peak. That means the emperor is no longer a ripe plum waiting to be picked. He is a hard bone to crack.'

'Whoever wants to gnaw through this hard bone risks suffering the loss of capital. If one loses a great deal of capital, one could end up like Edgar, holding an apparent advantage yet falling into a passive position.'

'So the best approach is still to cooperate with the emperor and eliminate one of my opponents first.'

'Locke is not here in person, yet he has been deeply involved in this battle all along. If possible, he should still be the first to be removed.'

'Unfortunately, I am now in an alliance with the native emperor, and Locke has already secured a high position on the emperor's side, which means I cannot touch him. To think that something like this could happen. Damn that Locke, he is far too cunning.'

'Only, as long as you have not yet brought your Grand Magic down into this world, you remain in a passive position for as long as that lasts.'

At this moment, Wizard Smith had completely shifted his target, from wanting to absorb the emperor's assets to wanting to eliminate Edgar.

And Wizard Edgar was seething with rage. "You despicable wretch."