Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

At this moment, quite a few wizards in the Golden Crown Mountain spectator section had risen from their seats. Each of them wore expressions that, while trying not to appear as overtly astonished as the wizards from other academies, could not fully conceal the surprise within.

It had actually happened. The evolution was complete.

Without using any known Second Circle cultivation method, without using any of the five great cultivation methods, but instead using a special cultivation method, a climbing fern had been brought to the Second Circle tier in such a brief span of time.

Even though it looked like a wild magical plant.

Wizard Fischer maintained a rare silence. He was beginning to suspect that Locke was not someone Witch Yekaterina had found and brought back from outside. Otherwise, how could there be such an enormous coincidence in bringing back a wizard like this from outside?

Perhaps Witch Yekaterina had been cultivating him externally for ten years, carefully guiding him back to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands all along.

That was not impossible.

The Council of Elders had done exactly this before.

And the Academic Committee's wizards, recovering from their surprise, one by one began to applaud for Locke.

Becoming a Second Circle wizard was when one truly stepped into the wizard world and could begin to see a small part of this world's true face.

Today, they had gained one more fellow traveler on the path of exploring truth.

Golden Crown Mountain had gained one more outstanding breeder.

Every wizard faction in the Golden Crown Mountain district who saw this scene had thoughts of their own.

The wizards of Magic Pivot City felt more envy and jealousy, sensing that Golden Crown Mountain having one more excellent breeder was a blow to them.

Kungudin Academy's wizards expressed simple appreciation. The wizards of Eternal Glory Hall and Sandbar Tower each had their own varied reactions.

A Second Circle academy director from Seven-Color Nursery looked up at the scene, eyes flickering. "It looks like a very powerful personal proprietary breeding method."

"If we could invite this excellent breeding expert wizard to come to our Seven-Color Nursery's Red Garden for a lecture and open a course like this, that would be wonderful."

Seven-Color Nursery had been cultivated by Golden Crown Mountain specifically to check the momentum of wizard academies in the Golden Crown Mountain district like Kungudin Academy and Magic Pivot City, and had a de facto alliance relationship with Golden Crown Mountain, naturally having accepted more of Golden Crown Mountain's principles of favor.

At this moment, this Second Circle academy director only dared to consider the possibility of inviting Locke to the academy he led at Seven-Color Nursery, perhaps for a generous fee to conduct a dedicated public course, which would strengthen the prestige of Seven-Color Nursery and the Red Garden.

Seven-Color Nursery contained seven gardens in total, with the Red Garden being the most powerful, and simultaneously the one that most advocated an alliance with Golden Crown Mountain.

At the same time, the wizard agents of the Melechi and Solas shop alliances were each wearing grim expressions, looking as though they had lost their parents.

Things were developing in exactly the direction they had least wanted to see.

What their two alliances could accept least was Locke winning the Silent Chalice competition's championship on behalf of Golden Crown Mountain.

They could almost predict how their shop alliance stock prices would crash the following day.

If Locke took the Silent Chalice championship, his Augustus Wizard Shoes would become a champion brand. And most troublingly, once he became a Second Circle wizard, things would change.

Several individuals exchanged glances.

Capital normally appeared as polite and cultured gentlemen. But faced with matters that could result in enormous financial losses, the wizard agents of these shop alliances, and even some wizard shareholders, had cold light flashing through their eyes.

For the sake of expanding itself, capital would stop at nothing.

It would even seize control of a wizard's subjectivity.

Inflating assets purely for the sake of inflation, entirely detached from the human element.

At this moment, the atmosphere between the wizard agents and wizard shareholders had become very peculiar.

On the other side, in the Mithril Law Firm's spectator seats, Hussein was in his seat working through a case file while watching the competition at the same time.

The senior partner beside him smiled at Hussein, "You said before that this was your friend. Well done, young Hussein. Hold onto friends of this quality."

"I can see that he has no shortage of trouble ahead of him."

The Mithril Law Firm's senior partner looked toward the people from Solas and Melechi Magic Step, and his eyes were full of amusement.

"In our line of work, we cannot afford to be slow to notice things. We have to detect conflicts between people before they arise. In fact, even earlier than when those conflicts are about to arise."

"It looks like your friend is about to be entangled in lawsuits for some time ahead. Or possibly worse."

Hussein smiled. "From the very first day I met Locke, I felt he was always deep in the vortex of trouble."

At the same time, Quinn Jol University's Wizard Hao Brooks narrowed his eyes with a smile, saying to his good friend beside him, Master Mirei of Cassirose Arts University, "I told you that child was impressive, did I not? I once said he would certainly become a Second Circle wizard. Now I am saying he will certainly become a sun ring wizard."

Master Mirei of Cassirose Arts University said, "You are that confident?"

"A sun ring wizard is a different matter entirely. That requires forging the Grand Magic four times. In the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, one who achieves that can call themselves a great wizard."

"Do not make claims you may not be able to back up. Reserve a little room for adjustment, Prophet friend. Relationships are easier to predict than markets. Leave three parts leeway and seven parts style, and our accuracy rate stays reliable."

Master Hao smiled dismissively. "This is not a prophecy. He has already taken the first step that separates ordinary wizards from sun ring wizards, which is to have something of his own."

"Worthy of a student trained by that Throne-level wizard. Just having become a Second Circle wizard, he already carries the possibility of one day becoming a sun ring wizard. Second Circle wizards tend to develop a serious system inclination, but in this world, wizards who have someone else's system are many, while wizards who have their own system are very few."

Master Mirei did not speak. Instead, a Third Circle witch from Cassirose Arts University sitting nearby suddenly said, "I find that the difficulty of properly inheriting someone else's system far exceeds that of creating your own. Inheriting another person's system requires deeper research into the work of high-circle wizards, while your own system... even a First Circle wizard can attempt that."

"What this world truly lacks is precisely those wizards who can properly inherit and carry on a system. But most wizards chatter incessantly like larks, saying all day that they want to create their own things, yet fail even to preserve the systems created by the great wizards of the past."

The black-and-white witch said, "I see this wizard as one who has fallen into this same trap."

Wizard Hao countered, "On the contrary, the matter is more complex than that. Given systems of equal quality, creating a new system is certainly more difficult than inheriting one. But in the end, most wizards' so-called system creation amounts to creating one or two minor spells, and quite possibly these spells are something others have already developed."

"Creating a system and having one's own style is actually less productive than a wizard who simply and honestly studies another's magical system."

"Only through professional academic training can one truly develop the ability to create a system of one's own. That is precisely the purpose behind the existence of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' seven premier academies."

The Third Circle witch with half-black, half-white hair pushed back, "Second Circle wizards are only just beginning to have their first true encounter with the real harshness of the wizard world. How can they possibly create their own system at this stage?"

"Even for a sun ring wizard, in reality all that is needed is to improve upon existing systems, and that is already sufficient. When all is said and done, in the entire Second Circle stage, one cannot truly possess one's own system. You know what I am referring to."

"Master Hao, my view differs from yours."

"That is only a wizard with some magical experience. One could say he has talent in breeding studies, but to say he will certainly become a sun ring wizard is by no means certain. There are far too many surprises in this world."

Master Hao smiled and looked at the black-and-white witch from Cassirose Arts University. Cassirose Arts University had always had a reputation for nonconformity, and the witches from that academy were one and all natural contrarians.

So he had no intention of continuing the argument.

Besides, the black-and-white witch was invariably arrogant and difficult to persuade.

If she could be convinced, she would not be an artist.

Master Hao looked toward Master Mirei and said quietly, "Let us make a bet. I still believe that child will become a sun ring wizard within ten years."

"Would you like to wager a Third Circle magical artifact?"

Master Mirei's eyes lit up. "Agreed. Though I also believe in that child."

The black-and-white witch immediately jumped in to argue. She was in truth only arguing for the sake of arguing.

Furthermore, for a wizard to become a sun ring was genuinely not easy, filled with too many potential interruptions.

A sun ring wizard represented a special achievement and was the final step on the path to becoming a Third Circle wizard.

Every wizard in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands who managed to become a sun ring wizard would be no ordinary wizard.

A sun ring wizard was like a sun in the infinite void. Once one became a sun ring wizard, one's status would rise yet another tier.

So she was naturally willing to take the bet. "Then I will wager with you, Prophet Hao. One Third Circle magical artifact."

"I bet he will not become a sun ring wizard within ten years."

The wizards around them could not help but look over, especially some sun ring wizards who raised an eyebrow and showed expressions of incomprehension.

Was becoming a sun ring wizard so easy? Betting on ten years?

Would thirty years, or perhaps fifty, not be more appropriate?

Only since the ones betting were two Third Circle wizards, these sun ring wizards, though somewhat dissatisfied inwardly, dared say nothing.

Quite a few sun ring-level breeders were whispering among themselves, discussing how Locke had managed to evolve a magical plant into a Second Circle magical plant in such a short time.

His cultivation method seemed to be related to some kind of potion.

But after discussing it at length, they arrived at no conclusion, and could only go and look at Locke's past articles.

One of the Tower of Transmutation's tower heads, a sun ring wizard, scrolled through all of Locke's articles downloaded from the water hyacinth network and shook his head slightly. "The number of articles this breeder has published is truly staggering. He actually has sixteen Tier 1 publications."

"But there is genuinely nothing mentioned about how he rapidly causes magical plants to evolve. I imagine he has not had time to publish the paper yet. This is probably his most recent result."

A group of sun ring wizards felt somewhat regretful.

After all, regarding this cultivation method, everything else was secondary. Its cultivation results were not particularly impressive by the standards of true Second Circle breeders and would be considered mediocre at best. But its greatest use lay precisely in its efficiency.

Evolving a Second Circle magical plant in under one hour, regardless of the cost involved, was an efficiency level high enough to attract their interest.

It was just a pity that since Locke had not published it yet, it would likely be some time before he made this method public.

And even if they wanted to reverse-engineer it, with no material available at this moment, these wizards had no real leads to follow.

After all, the Lunar Cultivation Method had taken shape through discoveries and research across multiple stages, with the most important turning point being the Dune Plane that Witch Yekaterina had arranged for him to visit.

Locke was even beginning to wonder whether Witch Yekaterina had known of the Sandpeople's existence long ago.

There was also another critical stage, which was the Zero Potion.

Both of these stages were matters of chance rather than guaranteed outcomes.

For an ordinary wizard, even a sun ring wizard would find it difficult to fulfil both conditions.

In the Rose Council spectator section, Witch Lana smiled and said to Witch Nina, "You see, I told you this young person was quite good."

"Do you understand now?"

Witch Nina smiled. "That should be my line. When he was defending the conclusion of his first-grade Veriditas Foundation grant, I was one of the judges."

...

In the Silent Plane, Locke looked at the climbing fern in his hand. Surrounding this climbing fern were many sapphire-like water droplet spores floating around it.

At the same time, he gripped this crystal crown spiral staircase-form magical plant, then turned and swung it toward the distance, toward the Rain Mantis swarms in the sky. At the same time, two emerald rings appeared in his right hand, the Second Circle botanical magic, Standing Alone Against the Many.

This was a Second Circle spell from the Orah Ecology Curse spell table. Back when Witch Yekaterina had recommended a reading list for him, he had read the Orah Ecology Curse magic book countless times. Even though he had not managed to construct this Second Circle spell at the First Circle stage before, at this moment he had the ability to quickly put this spell into use, since he had learned it for ecological curse studies and knew it so thoroughly.

Locke recited the spell. Standing Alone Against the Many was a spell within the Orah Ecology Curse used to command general-purpose Second Circle magical plants.

It was also very commonly found in other Second Circle botanical spell systems. Taken on its own, it was a classic botanical magic.

This spell, similar to the apprentice-stage All Plants Are Soldiers, possessed the power to command general-purpose Second Circle magical plants and could drive any Second Circle magical plant.

Under Locke's use of this general-purpose botanical magic, the Second Circle climbing fern in his hand quickly curled inward on itself and transformed into a spiral long spear. Around the spiral spear hung ice-blue crystal water droplets like gems, which were in fact the sporophytes floating around it.

Then Locke swung it forward.

In an instant, countless ice crystal water droplets shot forward like fired projectiles.

In moments, every Rain Mantis standing in his path was torn to pieces.

'What is this exactly?' Locke looked at the gilded fern spear in his hand. After becoming a Second Circle magical plant, the climbing fern seemed to have undergone a special evolution in its vascular bundle as the plant's material transport system, producing a highly efficient central bundle locking energy structure.

Furthermore, the climbing fern's leaves had developed numerous stomata that continuously absorbed water vapor from the air, producing a Vortex Fluid that could convert water vapor, reducing the external energy required for various binding and converting special energy materials by increasing water vapor concentration.

In other words, it used water vapor as a means of lowering the threshold for energy reactions, thereby indirectly obtaining the ability to convert water vapor into energy.

Because this magical plant's evolution had occurred through the planar information flooding of the disc creature's Fallen Rain Realm, this climbing fern seemed to have naturally adapted to one hundred thousand years of rain. In this heavy rain environment, not only did its combat power not drop, but it was actually anomalously powerful.

Although it was only a wild plant that had undergone no intentional design, in this environment, the main domain of Disc Creature Omega, its combat power was forcibly enhanced, giving it very impressive fighting capability.

Magical plants cultivated through the Lunar Cultivation Method under the Surge Evolution Mode inherently possessed the characteristic of adaptive combat.

What was sought was not the greatest possible capability, but the capability most suited to adapting to the environment.

At this moment, those raindrops transformed into bullets filling the sky, streaking across it. The astonishing water element conductivity, water element magical power conversion rate, and water element magical power absorption rate caused the Second Circle botanical magic Standing Alone Against the Many, after fully displaying its original capabilities, to produce countless water current arrows covering one third of the mortal world's sky.

Rain Mantis after Rain Mantis had their rain-pattern stone cores pierced through by water current arrows.

Devastatingly effective.

All of this was because under the flooding of the Fallen Rain Realm, his Second Circle climbing fern possessed three key plant factors from the Fallen Rain Realm plant essence set.

The Vortex Fluid Plant Factor.

The Super-Hydrophobic Central Bundle Tube.

The Leaf Multi-Pore Water Film.

This set of Fallen Rain Realm plant essences had given this Second Circle climbing fern powerful water manipulation capability.

Many wizard spectators who saw this scene immediately recognized the various Second Circle-level plant factor characteristics of the climbing fern in Locke's hand.

This indicated that the magical plant in Locke's hand had undergone a Horizontal Gene Transfer, also known as Non-Vertical Inheritance, which referred to the process by which a magical plant obtained special plant essences from other species, or from other sources, through non-reproductive means.

Locke's Lunar Cultivation Method, by borrowing large amounts of planar information and planar power, caused magical plants to undergo accelerated evolution over an extremely brief span of time. This was in essence a form of atypical Horizontal Gene Transfer.

This was something that Locke, as the originator of the Lunar Cultivation Method, only came to understand after becoming a Second Circle wizard.

In the early stages of plant evolution, plants had originally borrowed extensively from the essences of external species such as bacteria and fungi. Planar Information Reverse Flooding was in essence simply using the evolutionary power of a plane to shorten this process.

Also because of this, the magical plants cultivated through the Lunar Cultivation Method rarely produced genuinely new concepts or new structures. More often they evolved classic structures.

Especially the Second Circle magical plant characteristics generated through the use of the Fallen Rain Realm, which were essentially classic Second Circle magical plant characteristics.

So those wizard spectators found them somewhat familiar.

But even so, combining these classic Second Circle magical plant characteristics produced a genuinely new set of plant essences.

This aspect of the matter was therefore not particularly problematic. It was simply the evolutionary direction of the cultivated magical plants resulting from the Lunar Cultivation Method's mechanism.

The true nature of the Lunar Cultivation Method was probably that it made use of the innate tendency of plants to steal essences from other things.

Only regarding this point, Locke still had much careful research to do.

With one strike, Locke temporarily cleared the mortal world of Rain Mantises and Cascade Golems. At the same time, the treant community within the realm launched a counterattack, because after evolving into apprentice-level treants their strength had greatly increased, and they had also adapted to the Rain Realm climate.

Locke noticed that Witch Medea's magic pressure had suddenly vanished from both the mortal world and the realm of the Silent Plane. She seemed to have used the wreckage of Wizard Smith's Meteor from Beyond the Heavens that had remained in the crystal wall system of the mortal world, modified it, and turned it into a crude and unsafe void aircraft. She then boarded it and plunged headlong into Disc Creature Omega's Fallen Rain Realm.

Under normal circumstances, this act would have meant certain death.

Because the moment she left this world, the virtual World Stone within her would disappear, causing her to drop back below the Second Circle. And a First Circle wizard in the void was extremely vulnerable.

But because Omega's planar gravity had locked onto the Silent Plane and was continuously pulling everything in the Silent Plane toward itself, this gave her the possibility of traveling to the disc plane.

Locke understood her thinking in an instant.

At this moment, after going through tremendous hardship, she had ultimately only obtained a Second Circle wizard experience card, constructing one Grand Magic model. But she judged that she could no longer gain any more from here, so she had to find a way out first.

At this point, outside the Silent Plane, Storm Tower's people had her surrounded.

She had no way to escape in any direction.

So her only escape route was to leave the Silent Plane, enter the void, and enter the disc creature's world.

And because disc creatures possess the characteristic of all timelines unified, as long as she entered the disc creature, she could leave from within it and enter the void, returning to other places in the wizard world.

Of course, this was easy to say but in practice every step was a matter of ten deaths with little hope of survival.

For instance, the disc world itself was a place with ten deaths and no hope of survival.

She had paid such an enormous price and taken so many risks, yet still had not obtained what she wanted, which was to become a true Second Circle wizard.

But this came as no surprise.

For many formal wizards, breaking through from First Circle to Second Circle was like crossing an unbridgeable chasm.

What Witch Medea had gained from this journey was already more than enough for an ordinary formal wizard. This was a chance to construct a Grand Magic model.

As long as one did not consider who she had managed to offend.

At this moment, Omega let out a furious roar in the sky, apparently extremely displeased with Locke's act of intercepting its planar information, infusing it into his magical plants, and evolving a Second Circle magical plant from it.

In an instant, enormous torrential rain transformed into water tornadoes and bore down on Locke.

Waterspout after waterspout came thrusting toward Locke.

That was Omega's true body acting in its capacity as a Fallen Water God.

This showed that its power had risen yet another step during this period.

At that moment, Locke swung the ice-blue fern spear in his hand, and in an instant every one of those waterspouts was broken apart by the climbing fern in his hand.

This was the climbing fern's own power. He had only crudely used the general-purpose botanical attack magic Standing Alone Against the Many to command it.

This climbing fern, fighting in a Rain Realm environment, was receiving far too many bonuses, and its manipulation of rainwater was so effortless and instinctive that it inherently countered Omega's power.

And Omega, as a moon ring-level being, had its true body far outside the world and simply could not exert its true power or display all its characteristics.

Locke said, "Let this magical plant be called the Flow Arrow Climbing Fern."

"And, Omega, I have finally figured out the trick you have been playing. This competition should now come to an end as well."

At this moment, pieces of woven fabric appeared around Locke on all sides. Those pieces of fabric drifted down around him, rolling on the ground and spreading out in a loosely arranged ring.

Evidently, Witch Georgina was making her move against him with her Grand Magic.

Locke raised the Flow Arrow Climbing Fern and used the second Second Circle magic under the Orah Ecology Curse system, Alternation of Generations.

At the same time, with Antoine and Preston's assistance, he quickly incorporated a Grand Magic Rune into this spell.

This was also the second Second Circle spell he had selected for his Moon of Evolution to incorporate and use as part of its forging.

Alternation of Generations, like Standing Alone Against the Many, was a very classic spell. It was also a key core Second Circle spell within the Orah Ecology Curse system.

Witch Georgina's voice appeared beside Locke's ear. "Locke, this is the spell I have been preparing for you."

The fern spear leaves in Locke's hand trembled and continuously scattered spores into the air.

Those spores, in the air filled with water vapor, rapidly became gametophytes.