Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Antoine said to Locke, "Locke, I also do not know what is happening. First observe within this realm, and Preston and I will think it through with you and discuss it together."

A large blue-leaf dragon sparrow appeared at Locke's back, and he used the First Circle botanical magic, Banana Wings, to fly above the realm. In an extremely short time he had surveyed the realm, and partway through encountered several Rain Mantises.

These Rain Mantises looked throughout their bodies like rainwater, like transparent bubbles, with only a rain-pattern stone core at the center of their bodies.

Their overall form resembled that of a mantis, roughly human height, with four legs and a pair of hooked forelegs.

The way these Rain Mantises moved through the rain was extremely unusual. Essentially, it was as though the rain had merged with them entirely. They were not passing through the downpour but fusing with it, so their movement was not continuous but flickering, broken. In the blink of an eye they would jump from one point to another.

Only at this moment, Locke's magic pressure bore down like a vast sea, and those apprentice-level Rain Mantises disintegrated on their own before they could even get close.

Only three Rain Mantises with magic pressure of roughly 1,000 at the First Circle level, whose souls had developed something resembling an Elemental Shell similar to a Magic Pressure Shell, managed to charge before Locke and raised their mantis sickle-claws to attack him.

The dragon tail of the large blue-leaf dragon sparrow at Locke's back swept through them in passing. Under the enhancement of the Grand Magic, even the absolute advantage of magic pressure in a single First Circle spell or a single First Circle magical plant produced inconceivable power.

In the next instant, the three Rain Mantises were cleaved in half, and the three rain-pattern stone cores shattered apart.

At this moment, however, the realm still contained hundreds of First Circle-level Rain Mantises like these. These Rain Mantises were organisms that the disc creature had captured from conquered worlds, which had been transformed into disc worlds and had their life forms converted.

Although they were all ordinary First Circle magical creatures and had only basic elemental shells, they had overwhelming numbers on their side.

If Locke had still been at the First Circle stage, because of the elemental shells, even killing a single Rain Mantis like this would have required casting quite a few spells. But at this moment, being in the Second Circle, he destroyed three of them in an instant.

Only at this moment there were at least a hundred of these Rain Mantises inside the realm, and the disc world was continuing to send more. Locke furrowed his brow.

For a Second Circle wizard, a group of creatures like this, if there were only ten, was a trivial matter. After all, he was not a First Circle wizard, and these were just living beings at the First Circle level through innate bloodline alone, with limited actual strength.

Acting purely on instinct and limited intelligence.

But if a hundred of these creatures existed, that was a minor annoyance.

If a thousand existed, things would become complicated.

And if tens of thousands of such creatures existed?

That would be a small-scale planar war, and Locke, as a Second Circle wizard under wizard civilization's planar war conventions, would normally have some First Circle wizards and wizard apprentices as a command structure. At this moment, as a lone commander with no army, facing battlefield-scale combat power, he would naturally fall into trouble.

And the disc creature was still pouring more of these beings in here. The numbers were clearly staggering. If he could not find the reason why the other party could directly intervene in the realm even with the realm's gateway closed, then going forward the other party would pour tens of thousands of First Circle Rain Mantises into this place, along with countless apprentice-level ones.

Locke looked at these Rain Mantises. To him they were only frail creatures, but to the treants and ordinary trees within the realm, they were terrifying destructive forces.

Causing destruction everywhere.

Like pests in a vegetable garden.

Although he could stomp a pest to death with one foot, there were too many of these pests, and the realm was far too vast. Moving through the vegetable garden himself, he would have difficulty wiping them out completely.

In the next instant, Locke crossed back from the realm into the mortal world.

At this moment, the mortal world was still shrouded in darkness. In the uppermost sky, there were signs of Edgar engaged in combat with Omega, and the entire sky was a collision of blue and green radiance.

Edgar's Perfect Tree treant was projecting an endless Life Spear Formation upward into the sky.

Locke flew low over the earth and observed, "Although I still have not figured out what exactly is happening, I have worked out at least part of why the Silent Plane is so easily invaded."

"At least one of the reasons why it is easily invaded."

"It is a matter of total biomass."

Witch Preston, speaking to Locke from within his Grand Magic, said, "Total biomass? The biomass of this plane is fine, is it not? The Silent Plane's total biomass count is enormous. Among medium-scale planes, it has one of the highest populations."

"That should be because they received our civilization seed, which caused their population to multiply significantly."

Antoine said, "The canopy that wizard Zorro built for this world was highly effective. It overcame this world's limitations and doubled the population."

"Ten billion people... that is a relatively rare number for a medium-scale world. Locke, the Silent Plane's total biomass is substantial. This plane is very powerful."

Locke looked down across the earth. "The total biomass is large, but that is not what I am talking about. You cannot only look at the total number in the data without looking at its composition."

Antoine walked on the surface of the Moon of Evolution and looked down at the ground from the sky, then immediately came to a realization. "Wait, you mean the plants. This world has basically lost the concept of wilderness. Industrial urbanization is at an extremely high level. Since this world has no plants and no wild animals, the so-called total biomass refers to the spirituality of these ten billion people."

Locke said, "Yes. The composition of the spirituality within this world's total biomass is far too singular. Singularity invites problems. So although the total biomass is large, it is still easily invaded by disc creatures. Have you noticed? Omega's blue radiance can parasitize the retinas of those human pupils, yet cannot parasitize plants."

"Or rather, I believe it cannot parasitize any existence with less than a certain degree of self-will. If the spirituality of the Silent Plane's plants were somewhat greater, the disc creature would have a harder time invading this world. Now, after my and Edgar's botanical magic has transformed this world, this world's mortal world does have some plants, but it is still not enough."

Locke said, "This is also why I do not believe Omega can truly assimilate others and merge the living beings of this plane with itself. The ecological occupation ability of disc creatures does not include this capability. But it is genuinely displaying this ability right now."

"And then there is the ability to invade the realm. Where exactly is the problem coming from?"

Locke tried to use his super-intuition to pinpoint the problem, but this infuriating ability was far too unstable. When he consciously wanted to use it and tried to concentrate his focus, he felt as though his mind was completely blank.

Antoine fell into thought. "Now that you put it that way, that is indeed the case. If the other party only has the ability to mislead higher intelligent beings, then it fundamentally does not have the ability to assimilate the living beings of this world. It is simply deceiving us."

Witch Preston said to Locke, "Locke, the dragon bloodline's super-intuition is an ability that triggers on its own to begin with. We have absolutely no way to actively trigger it. Furthermore, the super-intuition ability is extremely susceptible to the influence of existences with high spirituality."

"Omega's true body is far too close to us. It is a moon ring-level existence."

"At the moon ring level, spirituality has undergone some kind of essential change. That spiritual gravity alone is sufficient to interfere with your super-intuition. And compared to wizards, the disc creature also has the advantage of an overwhelmingly enormous total magic pressure."

Disc creatures were in essence a very unique category of beings capable of freely navigating the infinite void.

They could basically be called void insect swarms.

Their total magic pressure was fundamentally at the plane level.

And although wizards' Grand Magics were uniquely powerful, when it came down to it, wizards had originally been individual living beings. Even with a Grand Magic, they could not possibly compete with a plane in terms of total magic pressure.

Locke said, "If this world's plant count could reach one third of the total biomass composition, Omega would not find it so easy to invade this world."

Locke noticed something, suddenly stopped in place, and stood still.

Twelve or so apprentice-level Rain Mantises that had drawn close to him, along with one Cascade Golem, had not had time to get near before being crushed by the magic pressure radiating from Locke's body.

On Locke's body, a purple magical pressure light appeared from the release of excess magic pressure.

It was the radiance that appeared when magic pressure concentrated to a sufficient degree and triggered a special reaction. The wizard world alone had a large volume of papers studying this radiance.

A large number of Second Circle wizards had related research on it.

Antoine said with concern, "Locke, what is wrong? Why did you suddenly stop?"

Locke said, "The temporary plan has changed. Regardless, the realm is something I intend to take with me, and those Rain Mantises are rampaging destructively inside my realm, damaging my assets. I must stop this, and a follow-up move I prepared before the competition can now be used."

"When this follow-up move can be activated and when it can be used is entirely not up to me, but up to the people of the Twin Demon Realm."

On the Moon of Evolution, Antoine stood on the smooth rock surface of the moon beside the Golden Palace Legacy Branch, and said with astonishment, "A follow-up move? You left a follow-up move before the competition?"

Antoine had not even considered that Locke, even now, still had trump cards he had not played.

At this moment, the magic pressure on Locke's body surged upward.

Heaven and earth trembled.

The entire Silent Plane seemed to begin trembling before this surge of magic pressure.

The Silent Plane was only a medium-scale plane, and Locke's magic pressure had already reached 16,000. His magic pressure was simply far too high for the Silent Plane.

In the realm, when Witch Georgina was faced with a surrounding assault, she looked toward Locke with astonishment. "He opened the realm's gateway? That makes sense. At this point, there is no longer a need to keep the gateway closed. Only why is Locke raising his magic pressure to the limit right now? What is he trying to do?"

In the sky of the Silent Plane, Edgar looked down at the earth from above, and at this moment a look of puzzlement appeared on his face.

What was Locke trying to do, raising his magic pressure to the limit like this? He had not even done this when he used his Grand Magic directly before.

On the other side, Omega looked down toward Locke. "These two wizards are truly troublesome, infuriating. At this moment, my true body has already used void gravity to completely lock onto this plane."

"Once my true body completely swallows this plane and descends directly, I will kill these few puny Second Circle wizards utterly. A handful of petty little wizards, and yet they dare to offend me multiple times."

Disc Creature Omega was an existence known as a foreign god by many worlds in the infinite void.

The name it was more widely known by in the infinite void was not the academic name given to it by its home world, the wizard world, disc creature.

It was, the Fallen Water God, Omega.

At this moment, in the Silent Plane, Locke voluntarily withdrew from the state of acting from one's heart without overstepping.

Although being in this state could elevate his intelligence and other comprehensive qualities, there was one drawback. His spirituality became too closely merged with this plane, which actually made many things he wanted to do inconvenient.

Especially things unrelated to the Silent Plane.

At this moment, Locke did one more thing. He transformed the mind network into a chessboard, then threw it outward.

In a single instant, Grand Duke Westminster perceived that Locke had voluntarily withdrawn from the mind network.

He stood in the Emperor's Hall, staring at Locke with astonishment. "How could there possibly be someone willing to voluntarily give up the emperor's throne?"

"Do you not want to be the emperor?"

At this moment, in the sky of the Silent Plane, Locke smiled. "I took the mind network only because I wanted to use the state of acting from one's heart without overstepping to properly study and research this world's Grand Magic. At the same time, I asked the emperor of this world the questions I needed answered about what had happened within the mind network."

The psychic school was something he had never had any contact with.

And this thing could not be taken out of the Silent Plane, so holding onto it was of no practical use to him. On top of that, because he had to take responsibility for maintaining the mind network, it was consuming a large portion of his attention.

Holding onto something like that was purely a reduction in his own combat effectiveness.

Locke said, "I am a wizard, not an emperor. What would I want with being an emperor? Grand Duke, I never had any intention of occupying this mind network from the very beginning."

"And furthermore, I have to return it to its true owner."

"Zorro, consider this me helping you complete the plan you once had."

Locke clasped his hands behind his back and looked toward Grand Duke Westminster's direction with a cold, indifferent gaze. "Emperor, you are ultimately an emperor, and only an emperor. So you still did not tell me the full truth."

"Given that wizard Zorro elevated you to Grand Duke Westminster on his deathbed, there is no way he left no arrangements for his mind network. Yet from beginning to end you never mentioned any arrangements he made for the mind network, for this world, or for his successor. That told me you were concealing something from me."

"You thought that by not telling me, I would not know. But you forgot that I was in this world's state of acting from one's heart without overstepping, and with a holy avatar. The stories of Zorro you disclosed to me were already enough for me to deduce his true final arrangements."

At this moment, Locke extended a finger and pointed at the mind network floating in the air.

Grand Duke Westminster's lips trembled.

No.

He knew.

He knew of Zorro's arrangements.

How had he known?

If he knew, then what did that make him?

No!

At this moment, the moonlight of the Moon of Evolution descended, and Locke used the moonlight of the Moon Mirror to connect the spirituality of the majority of this world's living beings to the emperor chess piece.

At the same time, as though activating a follow-up function that had been built into the chessboard itself, the emperor chess piece directly had this function opened and began continuously merging that spirituality.

Locke broadcast to the entire world, "Let it be known to all. I convey the final wish of wizard Zorro in his lifetime. He wanted all of you to be your own masters. Whether this action is right or wrong, I cannot say. But out of respect for a wizard predecessor, I will honor the promise he made regarding the arrangement of his Grand Magic."

In an instant, every one of the tens of billions of living beings across the entire Silent Plane, regardless of age or gender, had all of their spirituality connected to the emperor chess piece.

Grand Duke Westminster saw this scene, his eyes wide with fury. "No!"

He fell into utter despair.

Because among those whose spirituality was connected to that chess piece was also him.

He was reconnected in spirituality to the emperor chess piece. But what use was that? Because at this moment all of the Silent Plane's native inhabitants had connected their spirituality to that chess piece.

At this moment, Grand Duke Westminster seemed to see again that afternoon, that study, Zorro Ryke sitting in the room playing with the chessboard on his desk, who suddenly looked up at Grand Duke Westminster.

"Rick, if in the future every person could be their own master, every person could be their own lord, what would this world look like?"

"Based on my lifelong knowledge, a society cannot be without a head. Even to build the canopy requires someone to take charge and maintain it. The magic recorded on the civilization seed requires establishing a system of ruler and minister to sustain it."

"I believe there are people in this world who can think of better methods than mine, such as a plan better than my canopy plan. Perhaps they can easily resolve this world's sky problem. There are also certainly people who can think of a way to construct the mind network Grand Magic outside of the ruler and minister system. But I cannot. This is the limit of my ability..."

Zorro picked up the emperor chess piece. "So I cannot conceive of a structure beyond ruler and minister. I feel there is no more stable social structure than this one. So there will be an emperor, grand dukes, and great barons. But... from a different angle, what if instead of a constitutional monarchy, every person became an emperor?"

"Then this system would still hold."

"My Grand Magic would still work."

"Only every person would be their own master."

The boy who was still called Rick at that time immediately stared wide-eyed, looking toward Zorro. "Your Majesty, please stop. What are you saying? What you are saying is too frightening. I completely cannot understand it. And furthermore... I have seen many people, and people can be very bad."

"If there is no one to manage them, they will certainly bully the weak. They simply are not capable of governing themselves. If they are allowed to govern themselves, they will become worse and worse, bullying more and more people. Would a world like that truly be good?"

The Grand Duke Westminster who was still Rick tried hard to persuade his overly idealistic elder brother.

"Elder brother, although you are very powerful, but..."

"In any case, if every person could manage themselves properly, that would of course be wonderful. But precisely because they cannot, that is why emperors and kings need to exist. Only with their existence can this world be managed. Just like how a person cannot be without a head..."

Zorro Ryke leaned on the desk, looked toward Rick, and suddenly smiled. "Rick, do you not believe that every person wants to become better? Do you not trust them?"

"But I believe that if they are not given the chance to make mistakes, they have no chance to become better either. This world has already given kings and emperors thousands of years, yet I am still not satisfied with this world. So I think this world's people can be given a chance. As for what the future holds, I do not know either."

Zorro Ryke's eyes radiated light. "I am an idealist and have never been practical. I am sorry, Rick. I cannot listen to you."

Rick said, "Your Majesty, you have been reading the records on that stone too much. What is recorded on that stone about the so-called Other Shore Great World may not even be true."

At this moment, the scene before Grand Duke Westminster's eyes merged with the scene of that afternoon.

The emperor position within the mind network completely merged with the spirituality of every native inhabitant of this world.

At the same time, a light of the mind rose from the chessboard. That white light of the mind fell directly into Locke's hand.

A voice from Zorro appeared in Locke's ear. 'Rick, I knew you would honor my dying wish. This is my gift to you.'

'I modified the response protocol of the mind network. The emperor chess piece is no longer exclusive but is now a shared protocol.'

'But I am worried about the consequences of doing this. I genuinely want to give them a chance, but I also know that what follows may not turn out as I wish. The future world will be chaotic. You will be in great danger. I am very worried about you, Rick.'

'So this is the last thing I give to you, a gift in repayment for you honoring our agreement. This is one of my lights of the mind. It is the hope in my heart, and can guide you at critical moments.'

This was a powerful star ring wizard's light of hope. A trace of surprise flickered in Locke's eyes. He had not expected to stumble upon such an unexpected gain.

He had simply been in a hurry to break free of the mind network, redirect his attention, and focus it back on his Grand Magic, the Moon of Evolution, as well as utilizing that last follow-up move.

He had fulfilled Zorro's dying wish as an incidental act.

Locke let out a sigh. "Zorro, you trusted that emperor Rick far too much."

"All right. Now I can concentrate. Twin Demon Realm, I must thank you for delivering such a large trump card to me."

At this moment, Locke suddenly clasped his right hand behind his back and extended his left hand toward the sky.

In both the sky of the mortal world and the sky of the realm, a hand appeared simultaneously. That hand seized the moon in the sky, then, as though picking up a porcelain bowl, brought the moon down from the sky.

Locke smiled. "Edgar, since you have put in such effort, let me show you something. Let me show you how I win this competition. Edgar, you have forgotten that I am a breeder and also a potion master."

"And from the very start of this competition, I have never used any magic related to either of those two identities."

"Because I was waiting for this moment."

"Edgar, I want you to lose without a single complaint. Let me show you the true power of my Grand Magic, the Moon of Evolution."

Locke smiled and held the moon in his grasp.