Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Inside the imperial capital, Locke stood on a bustling street beside a large smokestack, looking up at the sky and giving a slight shake of his head. "That fellow Smith had the gall to say I would regret trading the Revelation Witch Stone to him."

"And yet he turns out to be this foolish, frightened off by a few words from Witch Georgina. A Grand Magic at the initial-forging stage of the Second Circle, still in the un-forged stage, how could it possibly achieve perfect control over fate?"

"A Grand Magic is nothing but assets, while fate is the lifeblood of an entire world. A Grand Magic that has just been forged is merely a relatively large asset. Even after being forged four times and becoming a superasset in the future, the lifeblood of an entire world's fate could never, at the level of underlying principles, be entrusted to a Grand Magic."

Because a superasset carried the possibility of capital flight.

A Grand Magic could never grasp the lifeblood of a world. If it ever did, it would no longer be a Grand Magic.

Wizards themselves would never strive in that direction.

Throughout the entire Second Circle stage, even the fate of a medium-sized plane, the most elementary kind of world, could absolutely never be controlled by a wizard's Grand Magic.

In that case, the principle and structure by which Witch Georgina's Fate Loom could interfere with fate was worth examining carefully.

There were certainly peculiarities and gaps hidden within it.

As a wizard, when faced with a strange phenomenon resembling a conjuring trick like this, the correct response was to remain composed, analyze the situation, observe the enemy, and find the weaknesses and openings in the opponent's approach.

Yet Wizard Smith had been frightened by the other party's so-called new textile studies. Judging from the behavior of his magic pressure, Wizard Smith had even displayed signs of fear and apprehension.

"Witch Georgina intends to use Storm Tower as a stepping stone to promote the new textile studies of their Bonifacius University," Locke said. "Wizard Smith said she had harmed herself while benefiting someone else. He really was the foolish one. Georgina was simply using Wizard Smith and Storm Tower as free advertising, and not even paying for it."

"Using this to attract a broad pool of new students from the wizard world to go and study the new textile studies at their Bonifacius University."

Currently, the number of high-circle wizards and formal wizards in any given category determined the present state of that magical category.

While the number and quality of new students and wizard apprentices determined the future of that magical category.

For this magical category to become a first-level discipline, looking at the current number of high-circle wizards, the quality and quantity of projects and papers, and the degree of development of the related infrastructure, it was absolutely not there yet.

So Bonifacius University intended to use the Silent Chalice to promote their new textile studies, encouraging more students in the future to enter the new textile studies program at Bonifacius University.

Locke thought, "In the not-too-distant future, the Fate Loom will also become my opponent. So this is a good opportunity to observe their battle and find the weaknesses in their Grand Magic."

"No matter how extraordinary the effects of a Grand Magic may be, there is one point that remains constant beneath all variations. A Grand Magic is nothing more than an ecology that has just been established in this world."

"A magical ecology built on a foundation of an offensive spell, through which wizards leverage their status as agents of the world to make this Grand Magic their second soul, and thereby one of their magic sources."

"So the way to measure the strength or weakness of a Grand Magic is not to look at whatever extraordinary effects it produces. It is to look at its energy conversion rate, energy acquisition speed, energy storage rate, and energy transmission rate, to examine whether its structure is sound, and whether it has any serious weaknesses or backdoors."

Locke said, "These are the stats panel of a Grand Magic, while the effects of a Grand Magic are its mechanics."

Did mechanics matter?

They did.

But the stats panel was the foundation.

A Grand Magic must first satisfy the requirement of being a qualified magic source before its mechanics could be evaluated.

Locke looked up at the three Grand Magics in the sky. Since he had nothing else to do at the moment, he could conveniently observe them from his position here.

Three Grand Magics. Where the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was, starlight flickered. Where the Temporal Shadow Fern's Land of All Spirits was, plant spirits leaked outward from time to time, and the Land of All Spirits perpetually overlapped with the mortal world in an uncontrolled fashion.

And the Fate Loom had its spirituality network in constant turbulence, radiating golden radiance outward, like a city of the divine.

The magic pressure of all three Grand Magics shook heaven and earth, as though gods and demons had descended, as though the divine realm had gazed down upon the mortal world.

But this was a mistake.

Something was wrong.

Locke's eyes flickered. "So this is the energy dissipation of Grand Magics."

The reason the Fate Loom continuously radiated golden radiance outward and caused disturbances in the fate network was because the woven rules were leaking and dispersing, forming ripples in the rules.

Wizard Smith's Meteor from Beyond the Heavens scattered starlight in all directions, illuminating the night, but that was star power dissipating and triggering elemental tides.

As for Wizard Edgar's Temporal Shadow Fern, the Land of All Spirits was constantly overlapping with some region of the mortal world, which was also a sign of instability.

Although in the eyes of ordinary people these were simply the three Grand Magics displaying their might and power, Locke, as a Second Circle wizard, knew better.

This was a problem common to all initial-forging Grand Magics, namely that the system was unstable, the ecology was unstable, and energy conversion efficiency was low, causing an energy dissipation problem.

Not only theirs. His own Moon of Evolution had the same problem.

It was said that a sun ring wizard's Grand Magic was understated and unassuming, appearing like something that had naturally emerged from this world, fully integrated into the great ecology of the world.

That was because a sun ring wizard's Grand Magic had extremely low energy dissipation, having essentially solved the energy dissipation problem. As a result, the ecology they built, when it fell into a world, did not look like some miraculous thing had appeared. Instead it looked like something plain and unassuming that had always been part of that world.

By the same logic, the energy dissipation problem not only caused wasteful and unnecessary consumption within the energy cycle, it also gave rise to three other major problems.

The first was flaws in control precision.

Wizard Kelt's Grand Magic, for instance, could not precisely kill only the targets he wished to kill in the shallow sea plane without harming the world and its other living beings.

He therefore could not activate his Grand Magic.

Because the energy dissipation problem was too severe, the wizard's control over their own Grand Magic was not precise enough, making it impossible to achieve the fine-grained control that ordinary spells allowed.

The second was that energy dissipation would transform into energy chaos, and this energy chaos would manifest differently in various Grand Magics.

The third was that due to energy dissipation, energy chaos, and energy imprecision, the transmission rate would decrease, meaning the energy would suffer too much attrition in the process of being conducted.

These three problems were interconnected. Pull on one and everything else would shift.

Beyond the three problems arising from energy dissipation, a Grand Magic's upper limit on magic pressure capacity, its instantaneous magic pressure output rate, and the stability and sustainability of its magic pressure were also worth testing and paying attention to.

"The magic pressure container of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens Grand Magic is actually the large semi-plane cluster formed by one hundred and eight comet planes, located within the crystal wall system of the main material plane. These semi-plane clusters convert star realm energy for Wizard Smith and store magic pressure, so that determines the upper limit."

"However, reaching that upper limit value will still take a long time. Additionally, the semi-plane cluster itself can expand by converting total magic pressure, which is why the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens is so outstanding. The upper capacity limit of total magic pressure can expand as time passes."

"The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens is itself an offensive spell from the meteorology sub-branch of weather studies, with an inconceivable instantaneous magic pressure output multiplier."

"Furthermore, this magic can use the existence of star-prayer devotees to raise the upper capacity limit of total magic pressure and the instantaneous magic pressure output rate. Wait a moment."

Locke noticed something. "Unless I am thinking about this incorrectly, the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens takes the chaos of its energy and sends it crashing into the external ecosystem, which is this world, along with the meteorites. Through this method, it lowers the energy dissipation of the entire system."

"If that is the case, by making use of this mechanism together with the existence of the star-prayer devotees, the energy dissipation could be lowered further still. So the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens has not yet shown its full strength."

"Wizard Smith still has trump cards in reserve."

Locke looked toward Edgar. "The eight major indicators of a Grand Magic are: first, instantaneous magic pressure multiplication output rate; second, energy dissipation rate; third, energy stability; fourth, upper capacity limit of total magic pressure; fifth, energy compatibility; sixth, energy sustainability; seventh, ecological contamination; and eighth, energy conversion rate."

"Among these eight major indicators, the three most important are energy dissipation, instantaneous magic pressure multiplication output rate, and energy compatibility."

"These three form the golden triangle indicators."

The reason for this was that energy stability was generally still relatively easy to address, and even at its worst there was a certain threshold.

There were simply too many methods to stabilize the energy within a Grand Magic.

Sustainability, ecological contamination, and stability could all be forcibly disregarded.

The upper limit of total magic pressure was generally not too low as long as the Grand Magic was successfully established.

And the energy conversion rate was directly determined by the energy dissipation rate and energy compatibility.

The higher the degree of dissipation, the worse the energy compatibility, and therefore the lower the conversion rate.

So looking directly at the energy dissipation rate was sufficient.

The one exception was the instantaneous magic pressure multiplication output rate, which was determined by the spell model of the offensive spell chosen as the basis for the Grand Magic.

The energy dissipation problem was determined by the construction of the Grand Magic.

The energy compatibility problem was the key point. For instance, if the star realm energy was in severe conflict with the world's underlying principles, it would cause this world to resist the energy coming from the outside. This would in turn increase the energy dissipation problem and lower the energy conversion efficiency, meaning that even if the externally input magic pressure was enormous, the magic pressure within the Grand Magic could not increase by very much.

So Grand Magic had three golden indicators: instantaneous magic pressure multiplication output rate, energy dissipation rate, and energy compatibility.

And the energy dissipation rate ranked first among the three golden indicators.

Beneath the energy dissipation rate there were three sub-problems that would directly affect how an ordinary Second Circle wizard used their own Grand Magic.

The greatest advantage of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was that the energy compatibility between star realm energy and the energy of various planes would be very good, because the star realm itself provided energy to the many void planes.

The second advantage was its unique method of reducing the energy dissipation problem. Additionally, its instantaneous magic pressure multiplication output indicator was extremely high.

Witch Georgina's Fate Loom was also similar in this regard. By harnessing the energy of existence spirituality, she discovered that untangling the knots of the fate network would itself directly clarify the energy flow network, increasing a portion of energy out of nothing.

What she was doing was itself a form of weaving on behalf of the world, patching the world, so the energy compatibility problem was naturally favorable.

The instantaneous magic pressure output multiplication currently also appeared strong.

The overall energy dissipation was also not high, though the Fate Loom would occasionally cause disturbances in the fate network, producing an overflow of golden radiance, meaning the degree of energy dissipation was in fact not particularly low in relative terms.

As for Wizard Edgar's Temporal Shadow Fern, at present its energy compatibility was not poor. He had drawn in large numbers of plant spirits from the Emerald Dream and built a cycle of life and death, which had not come into conflict with the underlying principles of this world.

So the energy dissipation was also not very high. However, just like Smith's and Georgina's Grand Magics, the energy dissipation problem between the Grand Magic's operation and the cycle of plant life and death transformations had not been resolved.

An initial-forging Grand Magic had a complex system, which itself heightened the degree of energy dissipation.

Among the three golden indicators, the energy dissipation rate ranked first.

It was the most worthy of attention.

And Edgar's greatest problem was actually with his instantaneous magic pressure output multiplier. That multiplier was simply far too low.

So his Grand Magic was the weakest in combat power among the three Grand Magics that had already descended, and also the one with the lowest potential.

Locke said, "But among the three, the upper capacity limit of total magic pressure is actually highest for the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, second for the Temporal Shadow Fern, and last for the Fate Loom."

The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens had an entire semi-plane cluster to expand its upper capacity limit of total magic pressure, and the Land of All Spirits of the Temporal Shadow Fern was also a fine place to hold magic pressure.

The Fate Loom, by contrast, relied on a Second Circle magical artifact loom and the spirituality network formed by the existence spirituality of those ordinary people for its magic pressure capacity.

Its upper capacity limit of total magic pressure could only stand alongside that of the half-baked emperor's mind network.

But then again, the upper capacity limit of total magic pressure was actually not that important, which was precisely why this indicator had not entered the golden triangle.

Because even so, Witch Georgina's Grand Magic, the Fate Loom, still had a respectable total magic pressure.

And to convert total magic pressure into the magic in a wizard's hands, what mattered was the instantaneous output magic pressure multiplier, the energy dissipation rate, which indirectly reflected energy conversion, energy transmission, and energy stability, and the energy compatibility.

As for the ecological problem, the sustainability problem, and the stability problem, those were separate matters.

The three Grand Magics were actually not too far apart on those fronts.

The worst was the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens. Using star power to capture native species was undeniably a form of damage to the original ecology of that world.

Locke fell into deep thought. "Those wizards all treat Grand Magic as an asset. But Golden Crown Mountain has a special definition for Grand Magic. They treat Grand Magic as an ecology."

"In the general view, the wizard world places emphasis on the golden triangle indicators, but different wizard academies and wizard lands have different degrees of emphasis on the other five indicators. Golden Crown Mountain and botanical wizards both tend to place comparatively greater emphasis on a Grand Magic's impact on ecology."

Locke summarized, "The Grand Magics of these three people all have problems right now, and none of them can be said to have low dissipation rates. Edgar's Grand Magic has the highest dissipation rate, followed by Georgina's, and then Smith's."

"If I were Smith, as long as I calmed down, I could use the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to counter the Fate Loom."

"It is not that his Grand Magic is weak. It is that he himself is not as capable as Georgina."

Locke thought, "Given all this, there is no need for me to act right now."

"I will wait for them to determine a winner first. Although my Grand Magic could descend at any time."

"At this moment, regardless of who wins among them, it no longer has any effect on the outcome of this competition. Because their understanding of capital is inferior to mine."

Before Locke, a senior inspector gave him a formal salute and addressed him, "Duke, His Majesty the Emperor has announced the legalization of your Spiritual Cultivation Society and requires you to spread the Spiritual Cultivation Society to every province across the entire world."

Locke nodded, while letting his gaze drift to the three inspectors standing behind the man.

The senior inspector smiled. "Duke, His Majesty the Emperor said he was concerned that you might be shorthanded working alone, so he has specially dispatched three colleagues to assist you. These three can serve as senior administrators within the Spiritual Cultivation Society and reduce your workload."

Locke's expression did not change. "Understood."

It was obvious that this world's native emperor was a master of political maneuvering. These three had not come to assist him. They had come to marginalize him.

He had established the Spiritual Cultivation Society for the emperor. Once he had fully expanded and completed the Spiritual Cultivation Society, the emperor would no longer need him. He would only need the Society itself.

Unlike something like a Spiritual Cultivation Society, a Grand Magic was a wizard's second soul, which meant that if this world needed the Grand Magic, it was equivalent to needing the wizard himself.

A Grand Magic and the wizard were two entities that could not be separated. That was the superiority of the Grand Magic system as a path.

But the leader of the Spiritual Cultivation Society was interchangeable with anyone.

Clearly, the emperor had already begun thinking about how to discard someone after they had served their purpose.

'The imperial family is the most heartless of all. Cooperating with the emperor is like bargaining with a tiger, which is why I could not be bothered to cooperate with this native emperor,' Locke thought. 'The emperor gave me a hereditary noble title to stabilize me and create the illusion that he was permitting me to exist long-term.'

'But for an autocrat like this, even I who have helped him, regardless of who I am or whether I am genuinely loyal, he would never allow me to exist in the long term.'

'This person wants to become a one-man civilization, where apart from himself, not a single capable person remains in the entire world. He wants to be the emperor of a pen full of domesticated animals, not the ruler of a world of humans.'

Locke looked toward the senior inspector and said, "I have a way to accelerate the growth of our Spiritual Cultivation Society."

The senior inspector immediately bowed respectfully to Locke. "Please speak."

Locke said, "I would like the emperor to assume the chairmanship of the Spiritual Cultivation Society, and to issue an order requiring all citizens to join the Society, and further ordering that all their descendants for generations to come also be members of the Society."

The senior inspector paused. "All descendants, for generations to come, as members of the Spiritual Cultivation Society?"

Locke smiled. "Precisely. As long as the parents have joined the Society, every member of a family must join as well. Their children and descendants will also all be Society members. Generation after generation, these people will revere the emperor. Is that not wonderful?"

The look in the senior inspector's eyes gradually brightened. "Only, if His Majesty the Emperor is the chairman of the Society, then you?"

Locke said to the senior inspector, "I do not need any position within the Spiritual Cultivation Society. I only need to manage the Society on the emperor's behalf. The Spiritual Cultivation Society is the emperor's property. It always has been, and always will be."

The senior inspector looked at Locke with an expression full of respect. "The empire needs exactly this kind of person, someone loyal to His Majesty."

"I will convey your suggestion to His Majesty the Emperor."

After these men had left, the gunfighter looked at Locke and said, "Is this the truth you said you would show us? You are still working for the emperor?"

The girl priestess said, "My lord, do not question the deity. The deity surely has a purpose of their own."

Locke looked at the gunfighter and asked, "You also entered the library and saw the gene lock system. Did I show you the truth or not?"

The gunfighter was left speechless. "You did, I suppose."

"It turns out that the people of this world can obtain psi-force, which is the innate extraordinary ability we gunfighters are born with, by studying and unlocking the gene locks within their own bodies. As long as one can unlock seven gene locks, one can obtain the legendary power."

"I wonder how many gene locks the emperor has unlocked."

Locke did not hesitate much. "Eighteen gene locks."

The gunfighter looked at Locke with puzzlement. "How do you know that?"

Locke clasped his hands behind his back and said, "I calculated it from the emperor's current total magic pressure, combined with my understanding of the gene lock system. It is not difficult for me. The entire gene lock system drew its reference from the Four Clarity Waters magic system."

"But after I finished reading the library's contents, I confirmed one thing."

The gunfighter asked, "What thing?"

Locke said, "The gene lock system was not devised by the emperor. The inspector system and the mind network were also absolutely not the emperor's handiwork."

"This world of yours had a genuine designer of the inspector system, a true architect of this empire, but the entire existence of this person has completely vanished."

"I have not yet found clear evidence to prove their existence. But I know that the emperor was not the creator of this world's systems. He was only someone who stole them."

Locke glanced at the gunfighter, who had fallen into a state of shock, and the girl priestess, who was looking at him with worshipful eyes, and said, "I promised to show you the truth of this world. Since I made that promise, I will keep it."

...

On the other side, at the battlefield between the emperor and Edgar, the emperor currently had the upper hand. With the help of the Spiritual Cultivation Society, his empire had grown more stable.

As a result, his total magic pressure continued to rise, his energy dissipation steadily decreased, and he had released his suppression of this world's children of fortune. The inspectors were unlocking higher-tier gene locks one by one, and their combat power was rising sharply.

The emperor intended to harness this world's children of fortune to suppress the world's consciousness in turn.

The emperor quickly received word of Locke's request and smiled at his senior inspector, "This person does know how to read the situation. Regardless of who he is, once this is done I will leave him an intact corpse."

"Agree to all of his requests. And one more thing: I cannot serve as chairman of the Spiritual Cultivation Society. He will remain the Society's chairman."

The emperor was the emperor of the empire. The emperor could not concurrently hold any other position. Taking on any concurrent title meant voluntarily lowering his own station.

And within this mind network system, if he ever dared to lower his station, his position as the master of the mind network would be put in jeopardy.

Locke had known this all along, and so had known from the very beginning that the emperor would refuse the chairmanship.

Locke had only been laying a deliberate trap to get the emperor to agree to his actual request.

The emperor said, "But it is not only my citizens' children and descendants who must join the Spiritual Cultivation Society. Their ancestors and forebears must all join as well."

The emperor thought to himself, 'This Spiritual Cultivation Society is truly useful. How did I never think before that I could use religion to strengthen my position as the master of the mind network...'

'Once this is done, this person will be of no further use. It would be better to kill him.'

The emperor turned to look at the wall at the back of the Emperor's Hall, at the massive portrait he had hidden with his psi-force.

"Did you see that? You are dead, and I am still alive. I am the final victor. Now I am even using outsiders to modify the system you left behind."

"I will prove myself! I am completely capable of managing without you!"

"The system you left behind has finally shown me the room for modification. Those outsiders from the Other Shore Great World are clever after all."