Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

The Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar required nothing more than a Second Circle ancient tree to incubate its fruit, from which an avatar of oneself would descend.

This avatar was indistinguishable from himself in every way.

Only the avatar before him was suffused with natural spirituality, like a second body of his own.

Locke used the wizard's spiritual vision and saw behind the avatar a dense natural spirituality, like a natural avatar of the world.

When Locke's true body made a motion, his avatar made the same motion.

He raised his right hand, and the avatar raised its right hand too. He lowered his right hand, but the avatar did not lower its hand. Instead, it made a welcoming gesture toward Locke.

"Good morning, Mr. Augustine."

Locke felt no surprise and returned the bow. "Good morning, Mr. Augustine."

Although he had not followed his original plan of using the avatar potion to create an avatar carrying ten thousand magic pressure, using the fruit of the Tree of Life in combination with the Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar Spell had achieved a similar effect.

The Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar before him possessed just over ten thousand magic pressure, and came with the passive First Circle spell Voice of Nature, granting it the ability to communicate effortlessly with forests and grasslands.

The Tree of Life was never an ordinary Second Circle magical plant to begin with.

Its fruit contained the transformative power of life-brewing, something extremely special, a magical plant fruit with the potential of life itself.

A single fruit was an essence of life, and using such a fruit to create an avatar meant that with modifications to the spell model, it might even be possible to produce a complete, entirely new living person.

At this moment, both the avatar and the true body were being operated by himself.

If this were a First Circle wizard, the feeling at this point would be like operating two computers with one person.

But he was a Second Circle wizard with a Grand Magic.

He controlled his true body with his true soul, and controlled the avatar with his Grand Magic. It became one person operating two sets of systems.

An avatar made using the fruit of the Tree of Life would naturally have a somewhat calmer disposition, speak less, and have a stronger natural resonance with nature than his true body.

And so when his consciousness controlled this avatar, even his personality would undergo slight changes. This would give him, or others, the illusion that these were two different people.

But it truly was only an illusion.

The confusion in the pupils of both Locke's true body and his avatar cleared simultaneously, and neither said another word of greeting to the other.

The reason he had greeted himself just now was precisely because he had fallen into this illusion, mistaking the avatar before him for an independent existence.

But he activated the advanced meditation method, entering a state of Non-Self, allowing the spirituality of both his bodies to return to a blank spiritual state, shedding all personality shifts and habitual thought patterns that had arisen from the body, and then discovered... I am still myself.

The me within the Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar was me. The me within the true body was still me.

There was no difference between the two.

Both were me.

Locke's eyes cleared. His true body spoke aloud, "No wonder this kind of avatar magic cannot be learned by First Circle wizards. Those who look at it too long would easily go mad."

"This mystery of the avatar is far too similar to the mystery within the womb."

"If I were to fall into the confusion, I would mistake my own avatar for another person, and the true body would forget this stretch of memory."

Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar spoke, "But what if someone never realizes there is a mystery of the avatar?"

Locke's true body said gravely, "Then things would go badly. That person would, by their own perception, split themselves in two while it was still all in their head."

"Although nothing of the sort would have actually happened, simply because they had not seen through the mystery of the avatar, they would mistake their own different-natured self for a different person. The true self would then fall dormant, and both bodies, whether the true body or the avatar, would be governed by the dormant true self."

The Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar uttered a few words. "This magic is dangerous."

The two looked at each other, and the true body Locke gave a nod.

Of course, this danger was only relevant to First Circle wizards.

At this moment, Locke took out a magic box from his astral ring. This was the magic box the Silent Witch had given him. He had never had time to open it before to see what was inside.

Now he took out a magical key, inserted it into the box, and gently turned it.

The magic box immediately opened, and a Second Circle magical plant lay quietly within it, roughly the size of an adult's forearm. Its leaves were green and its stem was purple, and its overall shape resembled a piercing sword. At the very top were three compound leaves, meaning three small leaflets.

The leaflets were long, elliptical, and lance-shaped.

In front of the three compound leaves at the top was a small flower bud with the spathe structure typical of Araceae magical plants, also known as the energy-locking structure, the spathe.

The spathe was one of the most characteristic features of Araceae magical plants. Its shape resembled a floral sheath, generally formed from a single leaf curved into a canopy shape, with a small cob-like flower in the center, a spadix.

In other words, a specialized leaf enclosing the flower within.

Like an incense stick inserted into a lantern, which was why it was called a spathe.

At this moment, just such a spathe grew from the top of this magical plant. And the flower within the spathe, which was the plant's bloom, emanated magical radiance like a summer day, strikingly beautiful, like the glow of summer dusk, like a setting sun in the west.

The purple stem was hard as steel, and it possessed sparse virtual roots that took root in the spiritual sea, covering its surface.

Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar looked at it and immediately said, "It is very powerful."

Locke nodded. "This is Pinellia."

"I have read through the Second Circle magical plant atlas. Among ordinary Second Circle magical plants, few can be mentioned in the same breath as the Black Demon God and Red Demon God. This Pinellia is one of them."

"Pinellia even has the possibility of absorbing large amounts of energy and resources, causing its virtual roots to evolve into higher-grade virtual roots, and advancing to a star ring-grade magical plant."

Pinellia was an Araceae magical plant.

At the ordinary Second Circle stage, it carried a powerful summer magical force, and the area it occupied would be partially affected in terms of weather, causing the surrounding region to remain perpetually in a state of summer heat.

Locke looked toward its top, where the spathe at the tip of this sword-shaped magical plant resembled a blazing lamp, with summer magical force radiating from within the spathe.

Simply opening the magic box made him feel the surrounding temperature rise by several degrees, and all of the energy around him was rising, including his own magic pressure and spirituality, climbing involuntarily.

Summer governs the blazing upward surge.

The summer magical force caused all things to become hot and rise upward. This was the meaning of blazing upward.

The summer magical force caused Locke's throat to itch, and so he coughed once. The magical power rising continuously within his body had its ultimate destination point at his throat.

If this were an ordinary wizard, there was a good chance the energy would have already surged in reverse toward their throat, causing them to lose the ability to speak.

If it were a wizard apprentice, the abnormal summer magical force from Pinellia's spathe would very likely have triggered a surge of magic pressure throughout their body upward toward their head, literally blowing their head apart.

Locke immediately perceived the characteristics of this formidable magical plant.

"This is a magical plant that commands summer."

"It can cause an opponent to lose their voice, or cause all of an opponent's energy to surge upward. This is very likely a magical plant that the Silent Witch once used, though she should have no reason to give me her own used magical plant, so it is more likely that she gave me a plant of the same variety that she was once fond of."

After all, Pinellia had the characteristic of damaging an enemy's throat the instant it struck.

That would render the person mute.

The Ancient Tree Fruit Avatar said, "The Silent Witch gave it to us because of Pinellia's characteristics."

Locke's true body said, "Precisely. Pinellia possesses the trait of Convergent Evolution, which forces surrounding magical plants to undergo convergent evolution. It is similar to the Tyrant Bromeliad and the Queen-of-the-Night, only Pinellia is a Second Circle magical plant."

"She gave me Pinellia. If I can extract from it the special natural magical power structural component that causes surrounding magical plants to undergo convergent evolution, then just as I used the No. 2 Tyrant Essence, I can use this special component through the Lunar Cultivation Method to grant all ecological communities under my Moon of Evolution the summer magical force."

"I am very interested in summer-type magical plants."

"The Silent Witch is truly generous. To have given me a magical plant like this. I recall reading in the plant gazette at the library a few days ago that Pinellia, as a Second Circle magical plant, is considered relatively rare. It has special growing conditions and is not a commonly seen Second Circle magical plant."

Locke thought to himself, "All of my climbing ferns are actually no longer suitable as my primary weapon, including the Second Circle climbing fern. That is only at the level of a wild Second Circle magical plant. How could it possibly compare to Pinellia, which has been carefully refined by Second Circle wizards over hundreds of years?"

Locke placed this magical plant in his hand. A special magical power flowed across it, which seemed to be the Silent Witch's magic pressure. This allowed him to complete the magical power grafting with this magical plant effortlessly.

He then used Lone Tree Cannot Form a Forest, raising the sword-like magical plant Pinellia and thrusting it forward. A column of scorching fire wrapped in summer air cut through the air in a straight line and fell toward what lay ahead.

A rock in the half-plane before him was directly pierced through by the flame.

Then the entire rock was engulfed in summer flames, and within those surging flames, the rock was scorched and split apart, crumbling into fragments. The heat of the fire caused the fragments to be blown upward into the air.

The stones circled in the air for a moment before falling back down to the ground.

Locke looked at the Pinellia in his hand with a contemplative expression. "That was just a general spell, and already this formidable. If I could learn the Pinellia-dedicated Second Circle spell, the Summer Blaze Thorn, would that not be even more powerful?"

"The Alternation of Generations can also be applied to Pinellia, once again multiplying its instantaneous magic pressure amplification."

Locke made up his mind to go and study the Summer Blaze Thorn soon. He was just not sure whether the free access area had a spell book for it, since it was a relatively new spell model and might not be available.

He looked at the forest sanctuary. Now that he had become a Second Circle wizard, he needed to stabilize his current magic pressure, and equally needed to expand his Second Circle spell pool, accumulating more magical knowledge.

And moreover, now that both he and the Tree of Life had become Second Circle-level existences, the forest sanctuary's area could also be expanded, and the level of magical plants within it could be strengthened as well.

This half-plane was actually relatively small compared to what was now needed.

He had to expand it.

Perhaps he could look to Witch Victoria for help in finding a way to increase this half-plane's area.

Only...

All of that required money.

Locke felt a headache coming on just thinking about all of these expenses.

Locke said, "First things first. Develop the wizard shoes further, earn more money. I need to press the advantage while the momentum from the Silent Chalice has not yet faded, and sell as many wizard shoes as possible."

Unfortunately, his research on Second Circle wizard shoes was still insufficient.

One major problem remained unresolved, which was the cost issue of virtual root grafting. So he had not dared to move forward on it yet.

But releasing several more First Circle wizard shoe models would be sufficient for now.

There was also the matter of finding a plane, activating the Peach Heart Curse on his forehead, and using that opportunity to test the test rings Witch Yekaterina had given him.

That was not urgent.

He could use the plane coordinates he had won from the Silent Chalice competition.

And conducting a plane conquest was expensive.

He needed to prepare thoroughly.

Somewhat counterintuitively, a plane conquest, in the short term, was not necessarily a money-making venture. After all, the act of conquest itself required consuming many resources and large sums of money.

And so many Second Circle wizards ended up going bankrupt from attempting too many plane conquest activities simultaneously.

Whether it was war, or void exploration, or passing through world barriers, it all cost money.

Locke blinked his right eye, left his half-plane, and returned to his dormitory. He looked at the unstable magic pressure of the lucky clover on his left hand and furrowed his brow.

"Why is Teacher Sophia's magic pressure so unstable?"

"It has been slightly more stable over the past few days."

"I should still ask. At the very least I need to know how teacher is currently doing."

"I have no idea what has happened to her."

Locke used the communication spell on the second leaf of the clover, and very soon through this spell he made contact with a distant wizard somewhere in the Star Domain Sea who was wearing the clover ring.

Locke spoke, "Teacher, through the magic pressure changes in the ring, I have observed that your condition has been very unstable. Has something happened? I am now a Second Circle wizard. Is there any way I can help?"

After all, this was his very first teacher in the wizard world.

From the other side of the ring, not a single sound came back.

Locke furrowed his brow.

He was just about to speak again when a voice that was definitively not Witch Sophia's appeared in the communication channel.

"Are you Locke Augustine?"

Locke furrowed his brow.

The voice on the other side continued, "I am Witch Sophia's senior fellow in the laboratory. Witch Sophia told me that if you contacted her, to take your call for her."

"Do not worry. Sophia is fine right now. But she is indeed at a moment that is extremely critical for her future."

"She has gone to take the Grand Examination."