Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

The last senior fellow appeared to be roughly the same age as Locke, with no great difference between them. He looked at the two senior brothers and two senior sisters, smiled, and said, "Each of the senior brothers and sisters here is a Third Circle wizard. In the distant past, that would have been the rank of Wizard Kings and wizard monarchs."

"I am quite different. I am only a sun ring wizard."

Great Senior Brother Georuta and Second Senior Brother Heidegger, along with Witch Fiona and Witch Zeira, all laughed softly at that.

Witch Yekaterina had not taken on another disciple in the sense of the old-era teacher-student relationship for a very long time, and so this junior fellow named Trajan had a considerable age gap between himself and the other four.

In practice, it was also the four of them who communicated most frequently among themselves, because the gap between Third Circle and Second Circle wizards was absolute. The two levels of wizards occupied fundamentally different roles in the wizard world.

At every previous gathering of the teacher-student circle, it had always been Trajan sitting alone on one side while the other four discussed things among themselves.

Now that Locke Augustine had joined, junior Trajan would finally no longer be alone.

Wizard Trajan had a sharp and formidable bearing, with a crew cut and a scar running through his right eye. Within that scar, a special dark energy flowed.

His right eye was a normal biological eye, while his left was a sun ring-grade brass magical eye, which looked extraordinarily terrifying, radiating an intimidating authority.

Yet when he looked at Locke, his eyes showed warmth and curiosity, along with a measuring appraisal. Unlike the four senior fellows, who regarded Locke entirely as a junior in the same manner they would look at their own personally tutored disciples, with the distinction being only that because Locke was Witch Yekaterina's student his standing would be somewhat more special, making his relationship with them slightly more equal.

But in truth the four senior fellows had not taken Locke's measure seriously. They simply assumed that anyone Teacher had taken on as a student would certainly be someone capable of satisfying Teacher.

At this moment, however, Locke and the sun ring wizard Trajan were both Second Circle wizards, and so the social interaction between the two carried real meaning.

The two actually treated each other as equals.

Wizard Trajan looked at Locke and said, "I am nothing more than a plant hunter."

A plant hunter?

A look of puzzlement crossed Locke's eyes.

Great Senior Brother Georuta said, "A plant hunter is already among the wizard elite. To summarize your senior brothers and sisters, we have someone selling decorative curiosities, someone selling rice, someone selling heartwood, and someone hoarding rare plants. Witch Zeira is not much different from someone in finance."

Witch Zeira laughed awkwardly.

Great Senior Brother Georuta added with some amusement, "All things considered, the only one in our entire teacher-student circle doing something serious is Junior Trajan."

Trajan coughed.

"Senior is too kind."

"I am nothing more than a laboring worker. How much money can someone like me actually earn? It is our senior brothers and sisters, who have built their businesses into what they are, who have the kind of experience worth drawing on to support a few projects."

Wizard Trajan looked toward Locke and said, "Second Circle wizards and Third Circle wizards are the absolute mainstream among those who conduct plane conquests directly, and sun ring wizards are the absolute backbone among these wizards. By comparison, Fourth Circle wizards tend to direct their attention more toward discipline construction."

"That is to say, toward the Truth Ladder."

At this, all four senior fellows exchanged smiles without offering any further explanation.

For Second Circle wizards, Root Fields were already extraordinarily profound, while the Truth Ladder was knowledge that was even more abstract and advanced. And forcing an explanation would be harmful to Locke and Trajan's physical wellbeing.

There was a condition called Cognitive Dissonance Collapse Syndrome.

That is, when a lower-circle wizard comes to understand knowledge belonging to an exceptionally high circle, because their body and soul have not yet adapted to receiving such advanced knowledge, they would experience severe cognitive dissonance upon learning that content, and would see everything around them as though all things were breathing.

This condition involved damage at too deep a level of the soul, and required at minimum a Third Circle-level alchemical master to treat and cure.

And so things like the Truth Ladder path were something they could mention in passing, but doing so would lead to one of only two outcomes.

The first was causing irreparable deep-level soul damage to both junior fellows.

The second was that the two of them would simply not hear it at all, or would hear it but believe they had not, or would simply remember selectively only the portions they could readily understand.

Generally speaking, the second outcome was far more common.

Wizard Trajan said, "As sun ring wizards, we are the backbone of plane conquest operations, and even the primary offensive force and breakthrough fighters in external wars. And so what is called a plant hunter is someone who travels to various worlds within the infinite void, seeking crops of economic value on behalf of the White Wizard Association of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"If something is found, we find a way to bring it back."

"If it must be cultivated locally, we can try to purchase land through economic means, and if the opposing side declares war on us, we can, under the supervision of the Eye of Truth, launch a war."

Wizard Trajan was absolutely a formidable individual.

Locke knew that many wizards in white wizard society, after spending long periods immersed in research or other productive or service-oriented activities, were not skilled in combat.

But those white wizards who spent their days immersed in plane conquests were an entirely different matter.

Locke could sense in this senior fellow Trajan a rare quality that could only be born from countless battles on countless fields, a quality that exceeded even all of the black wizards he had ever encountered.

If black wizards' conflicts could be described as petty posturing, then what this senior fellow of his radiated was something cultivated over unknown stretches of time through the declaration of war against any number of civilizations.

Plant hunter...

That was simply a more pleasant way to put it.

Great Senior Brother Georuta looked toward Trajan's right eye and asked, "By the way, junior, I have been meaning to ask. What happened to your right eye? A very special power is wrapped around it."

Wizard Trajan gave a nod and said calmly, "About a year ago, I made contact with the Dark Great World. The Dark Great World is a newly discovered great world on the New Sea Route's side, and it is considered a large-scale world."

Trajan glanced at Locke and said, "Only worlds at the large-scale level or above can be called great worlds. A great world possesses very fully developed world laws, and even a Second Circle wizard who enters one is only an ordinary individual. Those worlds contain special power lineages, and some of them can rival the magical systems of an entire wizard land of ours."

"Of course, this is only the case in the lower-circle stages."

Grand Wizard Georuta gave a nod. "The Dark Great World? I suspect that world has some connection to the Chaos Sea. The wound on your right eye has a trace of chaos energy in it. I imagine it cannot be treated with potions?"

Wizard Trajan said, "I found an expert-level alchemist and used a special potion to suppress the wound, keeping it confined to my right eye and preventing it from spreading further. This wound is consuming my life force and converting it into dark energy."

"A connection to the Chaos Sea?"

Trajan's expression became serious. He looked toward Great Senior Brother Georuta and asked, "Thank you, eldest senior. If not for you, I would not have realized that that world has a deep connection to the Chaos Sea."

"No wonder the power was this formidable."

"That world has quite a few plants with potentially high economic value, and so I infiltrated it three times. Three times I was intercepted by the dark gods of that world."

"On one of those occasions, I was bitten by the Dark Fang God, a deity of moderate divine power..."

Great Senior Brother Georuta showed a contemplative expression.

"It is not converting your life energy. Your perception is mistaken. What remains on the wound in your right eye, that so-called Dark World Energy, is at its core dissolving your form. That is to say, it is extracting the ether structural form of your flesh and soul."

"In other words, the correct description is that it is transforming your form, converting it into chaos energy."

"And that is precisely why I recognized at a glance that this force has a connection to the world of chaos."

Wizard Trajan showed a look of sudden understanding.

"No wonder I have been unable to treat my wound no matter how long I have tried, and cannot even properly control it. I can only barely suppress the rate of its expansion."

Locke listened from the side, somewhat at a loss, able to sense that the conversation between these people contained certain enormous pieces of information, but at his current level he could only understand fragments of it.

Wizard Trajan looked toward Locke, smiled slightly, and explained, "The Chaos Sea among the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' Five Great Wars is nothing more than a crude imitation of the Chaos Sea, that one and only world."

"Only it is unclear which ancient wizard, after drawing on part of the Chaos Sea's structure, created a chaos vessel. That chaos vessel was buried deep underground and was later discovered one day by a black wizard with a certain amount of luck. That chaos ship then became their base."

"And so they called themselves the Chaos Sea. But in reality they are nothing more than a group of pirates raiding our void shipping lanes."

"And so some people also call them the Pirate Mothership. They were also among the earliest raiders of the void shipping routes and wizard airship lanes."

"Before the Five Great Wars system was established, that pirate mothership raided wherever it went, living off its plunder, while also..." Wizard Trajan hesitated for a moment.

"Cough, cough... that mothership did something controversial, which was to take a portion of the plundered resources and distribute them among lower-level white and black wizards."

"Have you heard of the rain from the sky?"

"Junior, did you ever witness rain from the sky in the southeastern quadrant?"

Locke shook his head slightly. "What is that, Senior Trajan?"

Wizard Trajan said, "The pirate mothership would fly through the sky, cleaving through space-time, and then all manner of resources would rain down from above like water from the sky."

"Those pirates were generous with others' belongings. They split what they had stolen seventy-thirty, keeping seventy percent for themselves and indiscriminately casting the remaining thirty percent down to the earth below."

"This was very controversial, but the White Wizard Association has classified it as robbery."

Locke blinked. Keeping seventy, distributing thirty.

Was this wealth redistribution?

The Twin Demon Realm was thieves, the pirate mothership was pirates engaged in robbery. The Crimson Deep Court was simply fanatical...

And what about the Seventy-Two Demon Gods of the Abyss?

Were they just giving up entirely, which was why they wanted to destroy the world?

The five varieties of black wizards in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' Five Great Wars each seemed to have more character than the last.

Locke said to Trajan with regret, "What a shame, senior. My luck is terrible. I have never once witnessed this rain from the sky."

Wizard Trajan paused, took a closer look at Locke, and then burst into laughter. "Before this I had only heard that our junior was so skilled at competitions and assumed you must have been an excellent lecturer with a somewhat serious personality."

"But I never expected you to be this interesting. I almost thought you were a fellow plant hunter."

Locke was momentarily confused.

"How are competitions and lecturing connected?"

Wizard Trajan smiled. "For a competition at the formal wizard level, what is competing in a competition if not delivering a public lecture?"

Locke thought deeply about this, then gave a nod.

Before this, his reasons for competing had been to sell and promote products, using two competitions to build up his wizard shoe brand, while also contending for honors and winning resources.

Later, he had progressed rapidly under the pressure of competition, so another part of the competition's purpose had been to accelerate his own growth rate, to give himself pressure, and also to compete alongside other wizards of equally outstanding ability.

But thinking carefully about it, from the perspective of higher-circle wizards, competing in a competition was like delivering a public lecture.

Demonstrating one's magic to all wizards, showcasing one's academy's research achievements, propagating one's own ideas.

Just as Witch Georgina had done during the Silent Chalice, demonstrating to Cloud Marsh Wetlands wizards and old textile school wizards what the new textile school was.

In the Silent Chalice, the meaning of competition was no longer about rankings. It was about the discourse of ideas.

Looking at it this way, the competition system was itself one of the keystones of the modern magic era.

Wizards of this era were no longer interested in concealing and hiding away. They had come to view public combat as a means of intellectual discourse.

Of course, this practice of open competition to influence magical development philosophy and showcase advanced magical construction levels was also something wizards had gradually come to recognize for the hidden interests it carried.

Wizard Trajan said, "I have a unique understanding of competition that differs from most people. I believe a good competitor is a good lecturer."

"But we plant hunters, to put it bluntly, are simply a group of conquerors."

"By the way, junior, you have a coordinate for an unexplored plane in your possession, correct? What are your plans?"

Wizard Trajan smiled. "Do not misunderstand. I have no interest in a medium-scale plane. Within the fifty years since I became a sun ring wizard, my exploration targets have shifted to half great worlds and half medium-to-large-scale worlds."

"The plants within medium-scale worlds do not interest me. Only, exploring a world requires a great deal of money. Trying to do it all yourself will not be easy. Unless you grind it out with time."

"But only wizards with low time costs and limited prospects do things that way."

For some reason, Locke thought of Grand Wizard Sulla.

Wizard Trajan said, "If you have needs in that area, I happen to know quite a few solid plane exploration service shop alliances. Oh, and by the way, this is my gift to you, a wizard sword capable of cutting an enemy in half."

Wizard Trajan handed Locke a sword in its scabbard. Locke drew the Second Circle magical artifact wizard sword, and saw that it was a silver sword made entirely of wizard silver, the blade extremely clean and bearing almost no decoration, only a single rune inscribed at its midpoint.

Wizard Trajan said, "This is the personal sword I carried during my ordinary Second Circle stage. Its name is Star-Cutter."

"This wizard sword incorporated the technique of making a wizard staff as well as the traditional magical artifact technique of wizard swords. It can amplify magical power, enhance magic, and sharpen magic, meaning it strengthens the offensive power of all your spells."

Locke's eyes brightened.

"It can sharpen my Grand Magic and increase my Grand Magic's instantaneous magic pressure amplification?"

Wizard Trajan said, "It can. That is also its greatest function. Beyond that, a Second Circle spell from the force energy school is enchanted into it, the Star-Cutter Meteorfall."

"It can be used three times per day."

"Once activated, only a negligible amount of magical power is needed from you to activate the force energy school spell on it. In combat, it is quite practical. After all, it is equivalent to having one additional spell available to use simultaneously at no cost. The price of this sword is not low..."

"It was worth around ten million before. Now it is probably only worth around five million."

Wizard Trajan explained, "After all, magic advances day by day. My Star-Cutter has fallen behind the times. The approach of combining a wizard sword with a wizard staff is no longer in fashion. In the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, because of the alchemy school's secondary discipline of wizard staff fabrication, wizard staffs have become independent."

"After all, the current mainstream view is that combining the functions of two objects may look like it achieves versatility, but in practice neither function ends up being done well."