Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

In truth, Wizard Smith's timing had been very well chosen.

He had seized the critical one-breath window during which Locke was restoring his magic pressure after the clash between his Grand Magic and Wizard Edgar's Grand Magic.

As a high-ranking descendant of Storm Tower, his understanding of Grand Magic was far from shallow, and so he had accurately assessed Locke's current state and approximate capability limits.

He knew that Locke was currently the most powerful existence in this plane, possessing a magic pressure of 16,000, three Grand Magic Runes, and having in a single instant allowed two First Circle crystallization stage assistants to descend simultaneously.

These factors had given Locke an overwhelming advantage.

But he also knew that because an initial-forging Second Circle Grand Magic had only just been forged and was in its first forging stage, the un-forged stage, the energy dissipation of the Grand Magic at this point was too high, the degree of separation too great, and the instantaneous magic pressure output multiplier would not be particularly high. So after one strike from Locke using his Grand Magic, regardless of how much capital, total magic pressure, Grand Magic Runes, and assistants he had, there would still be a brief moment of exhaustion.

So he immediately seized this opportunity and went all-out using his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens Grand Magic to launch a direct attack on Locke.

Only, what even Wizard Smith had not anticipated was how perfectly the Kingdom Domain and the Moon of Evolution worked together.

One plus one exceeded two.

He had estimated that Locke would need at least one minute to restore his total magic pressure, and that one minute would be enough for him to seize the opportunity and deal Locke a severe blow. He had not expected that in just a single breath, Locke's Moon of Evolution had already restored his total magic pressure.

He had even less expected that Locke had long since inferred his current thoughts and actions from the energy dissipation behavior of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

Behind Wizard Smith, within the planar space of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens cluster, meteors flashed. After the meteorite that had delivered the Star Realm Behemoth, the Second Circle Star Realm Insect King, over a thousand smaller meteorites came falling together behind it. Each of the smaller meteorites had a bug clinging to it, and all of these insects were star realm insects at the magic pressure limit of a first-class wizard apprentice.

Smith was only an ordinary Second Circle wizard, so he had managed at full effort to summon one Second Circle Star Realm Insect, while the rest of the insect swarm was merely at the apprentice level.

The Star Realm Insect King's full name was the Tivora Tyrant Insect, a Second Circle queen insect from the star realm's planet-devouring insect swarms.

Its entire body was covered in deep space-blue chitin exoskeleton. It had no eyes, but eight star core crystals were embedded in its brow that could refract light.

Its overall form resembled a weaponized beetle. Its insect wings on its back were spread wide, displaying semi-transparent wings with projections of the Heavenly Beetle Constellation map.

This Tivora Tyrant Insect was actually not under the control of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, because the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was a meteorology school spell, not a spell from the insect curse school, and simply had no means to control this insect queen that Wizard Smith had sent down from the star realm.

This spell was more like taking some dangerous disaster from the star realm, dropping it via meteorite, and then washing one's hands of the matter.

However, Wizard Smith had incorporated the Grand Magic Rune into the Starlight Projection and used the Starlight Projection to enhance a portion of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens' control over the Star Realm Behemoths it delivered. So at this moment a cluster of starlight perpetually surrounded the Tivora Tyrant Insect's field of vision.

This was Wizard Smith's indirect control over it.

By using starlight as an inducement to indirectly influence the insect queen's actions.

But to speak plainly, he had absolutely no ability to control this Second Circle-level existence that was his equal in tier and not lower in magic pressure than himself.

Sending this insect queen down was nothing more than his attempt to disrupt the situation and break up the dynamic in which Locke dominated the Silent Plane unchallenged.

But Locke had been waiting for exactly this moment.

Locke turned his left hand over. He used the Moon of Evolution for the second time. "Smith, the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens of your family has one enormous weakness."

At this moment, Locke, who had maintained the state of acting from one's heart without overstepping, had the world's will of the Silent Plane effectively helping him think at every moment. His thinking was exceptionally clear, his capacity for action was formidable, and his calculations were without gaps.

This was the reward the world was giving him.

For an extended period of time, his intelligence, comprehension, memory, and logical capacity were all receiving enormous enhancement.

This state was extremely precious to him as well.

And after entering this state, Locke could see the flaws of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens even more clearly.

Wizard Smith paused. "The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens of my family has a flaw?"

His eyes showed panic and confusion. "What flaw?"

In the next instant, Locke's Moon of Evolution rolled forward slightly. The Moon of Evolution flipped over, and the moon plant Golden Palace Legacy Branch transformed into a bow. Then a beam of moonlight flew forth.

A thunderous boom rang out.

The collision of two Grand Magics shook heaven and earth, sending all living things into a panic.

Wizard Smith's eyes were strange. Locke's Grand Magic was extraordinarily suppressive toward magical plants, which was also the reason Wizard Edgar had been so easily overwhelmed.

Otherwise, the gap between two initial-forging Second Circle wizards would not be this large.

But the moonlight of the Moon of Evolution should be ineffective against his insect swarm and his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

Because none of those were plants.

Only, after Locke's moonlight surged into the dark cosmic-like interior space of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, Locke's moon hung within the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens like a bright mirror.

The Moon of Evolution could reflect the past and present. Wherever the moonlight reached was a place where the full moon could manifest.

At this moment, Locke's moon entered the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens and forcibly coexisted with it.

But it was not only that. At this moment the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens had also opened a space, namely the channel that connected the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to the star realm.

At this moment, Locke's moonlight also shone into that channel, and Locke's moon appeared within the channel.

In this way, the Moon of Evolution had illuminated both the interior and exterior of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens entirely.

Locke took one breath, and the Moon of Evolution once again collected fragments of the collective consciousness energy of the treants throughout the realm, fully restoring his magic pressure.

And this time, a Moon of Evolution was already hanging at the point of the channel connecting the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to the star realm.

Wizard Smith's expression changed drastically. "This is bad."

"There is no time to close the channel. You are going to blow up my Grand Magic!"

"You beast!"

At this moment, the Moon of Evolution suspended within the channel flipped over. Locke used the Grand Magic, Moon of Evolution, for the third time. The full moon rolled, revealing the moon's dark face. A branch of the Golden Palace Legacy Branch fell away, then the Golden Palace Legacy Branch spontaneously curved into a bow, and that branch automatically became a wooden spear arrow.

Bow drawn, arrow nocked.

Peach Bow Thorn Arrow.

This was only a First Circle spell, but under the massive amplification of the Grand Magic, it directly attacked the most vulnerable point of this channel at this critical moment.

One wooden spear arrow was released and in an instant shot deep into the star realm.

Even from deep within the star realm, the starlight of the Sacred Dragon Star appeared in response.

In an instant, because Locke had destroyed the channel between his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens and the depths of the star realm, a chain reaction was triggered.

Wizard Smith let out a pained cry. His magic pressure in an instant descended into complete chaos.

A Grand Magic was a Second Circle wizard's magic source. With the magic source now severely damaged, his magic pressure could naturally not function normally.

Ordinarily a Grand Magic itself would certainly be more resilient than a wizard, but Locke had seized the moment when Wizard Smith was using the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to open the channel leading to the star realm and struck directly at the star realm channel.

As a result, the energy dissipation of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens instantly surged to its maximum value.

The entire interior of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was thrown into chaos, with shooting stars flying in all directions and the entire formation in complete disorder.

And because the star realm channel had been destroyed, the Star Realm Behemoths naturally could not be sent into this world and were directly blocked within the star realm channel.

This meant that the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens could no longer lower its own energy dissipation rate by throwing debris at the earth.

It also could not replenish energy through the star realm, could not channel energy in from the outside to lower the energy dissipation rate.

Moreover, the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens had already lost its energy source, and so even if nothing more was done, the energy dissipation rate would gradually escalate on its own.

Either the entire Meteor from Beyond the Heavens would explode in an instant, or it would disintegrate in an instant.

If this had been in the outside world, Wizard Smith would already be dead.

Wizard Smith's mind was reeling as he looked at the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens behind him.

What was he supposed to do?

Who could help him stabilize his magic pressure and lower the energy dissipation of his Grand Magic?

What knowledge could possibly help him now?

Regarding knowledge of Grand Magic at the Second Circle stage, whether it was Locke, him, or Edgar, all of them were still only explorers at this point.

At this moment of life and death, through desperate racking of his brain, Wizard Smith suddenly had a thought leap into his head.

Although he had not understood the Kingdom Domain, he did know that Locke's world-scale realm was situated along the three-dimensional spatial coordinates combined with one dimension of the spirituality axis.

And the semi-plane cluster of the Grand Magic Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was a simulated star realm plane, which was also situated along the three-dimensional spatial coordinates combined with one dimension of the spirituality axis.

It was simply located on a different phase from Locke's realm.

If Locke's world-scale realm was on the negative axis of the spirituality axis, then his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens semi-plane cluster was on the positive axis of the spirituality axis.

And this world was located at the zero point of the spirituality axis.

Because the main material plane alone belonged to the three-dimensional spatial coordinates combined with one time dimension, while the world itself was a higher-dimensional existence.

Just as the star realm itself was also not four-dimensional.

So his Grand Magic in this world was nothing but a crude imitation of the star realm.

'If I suspended my Grand Magic within that realm, it would form a positive-negative balance on the spirituality axis...' Wizard Smith thought. 'In that case, perhaps I could use the realm to help maintain the stability of my Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.'

'Only, if I did that, I would essentially become a laborer working for his assets. You beast. It was you who destroyed my assets, and now you are forcing me to work for you.'

Wizard Smith gritted his teeth.

Unless he was completely cornered, he absolutely could not consider entering the realm.

In his eyes, the fact that Locke was repeatedly pressuring him to willingly enter the realm must mean the realm was full of traps and pitfalls everywhere.

If he went in, would he have any hope of surviving?

Wizard Smith's expression shifted back and forth. There was no help for it. He would have to use the trump card that Witch Medea had found for him.

At the same time, the alliance between Edgar and Wizard Smith had been dissolved by Locke in the blink of an eye.

Relying on his current overwhelming size advantage, along with the combined advantage of the Grand Magic and the Kingdom Domain working together, Locke had used his Grand Magic three times in succession, restoring his total magic pressure within a single breath each time through the Kingdom Domain.

As long as the energy on the realm's side did not run dry, it was very difficult for his own side to run dry.

And the realm was being sustained by the spirituality of an entire world, which in practice meant he possessed an extraordinarily high level of endurance.

This was the greatest reason he could currently overpower everyone.

Were it otherwise, an initial-forging Grand Magic with enormous constraints trying to fight three opponents at once would have presented considerable difficulty.

Locke looked toward the emperor. When Edgar and Smith had been fighting against Locke in tandem, the emperor had been trying to find an opportunity to strike at Locke first, only to find that Locke was watching him constantly. Because his mind network had collapsed, his abilities had been severely diminished, and he could find no opportunity to strike at Locke at all.

The emperor saw Locke walking toward him and spoke from within his armor. "Rebel and traitor. Those two from the Other Shore Great World just told me everything. I also know that you will certainly move against me, because at this moment I am your creditor, am I not?"

"You leveraged me a hundredfold and borrowed from me. Although my mind kingdom and my empire have been borrowed dry by you, I am still your creditor. You still owe me!"

"This is where you are most likely to fail, which is why you want to move against me. At this moment, I am your weakness!"

Locke gave a slight smile. "That is quite right. However, your empire and mind network can no longer be sustained."

"If this continues, the mind network will collapse and your light of the mind will be extinguished. You must find someone to help you maintain the mind network."

"Otherwise you will die."

Locke looked at him and said coldly, "Once you die, the debt I owe you will naturally be cleared. So there is no question of you being my weakness."

The emperor's expression shifted.

Locke said, "You should already sense it. No matter how long you delay, no matter what methods you try to use to find power in this world and sustain your mind network, it will all be useless."

"Because this world has been borrowed dry by me."

"You have only two choices left. The first is to enter the realm, which is the one place in this world that has not yet been borrowed dry. You may be able to find a solution to your problem within it."

"The second..." Locke revealed his true intent. "You open the mind network's permission to me and allow my moon to enter it as the primary authority."

"At this moment I am the only person who can provide the energy your mind network needs to continue existing."

If he did this, he would effectively be acquiring his own creditor.

Once that was done, the debt would naturally cease to exist.

It would vanish entirely.

Locke looked at the emperor, directly opened the gateway to the realm, and gestured in an inviting manner. "Choose one of the two. Emperor."

"Of course, if you believe you can defeat me and force me to repay the debt, you are welcome to try. Was that not your plan just now?"

The expression beneath the emperor's armor changed abruptly.

An ordinary person at this point would have already started considering entering the realm. But at this moment the emperor was instead thinking about why Locke had repeatedly invited each of them to enter the realm.

And Georgina, who had entered the realm earlier, had gone completely silent.

There must be a serious problem.

The emperor thought, 'That world must already be completely under his control. If I go in, I will be completely controlled by him. But if I open the mind network and let him in, I can still rely on my authority within the mind network to retain a certain position.'

'So it seems that letting him enter the mind network would be the more appropriate choice.'

Locke smiled, because the emperor had opened the mind network to him.

In truth, he had been deceiving the emperor.

Even if the mind network disappeared, the creditor would not disappear.

The original creditor was the emperor, so as long as the emperor died, the creditor would be gone.

His creditor was not the mind network but the emperor, so if someone else absorbed the mind network, they would only also need to pay the realm.

Because under the direction of the world's will, everything in this entire world would prioritize channeling spiritual resources to the realm.

But the emperor was the creditor, and if he died, his creditor would truly be gone.

Only at this moment, a variable had appeared because of Wizard Edgar's Grand Magic, the Temporal Shadow Fern.

If the emperor's existence spirituality were to be taken by the Temporal Shadow Fern, causing the emperor to be reincarnated as a plant spirit and transformed into a magical plant, then his creditor would become Edgar.

Locke looked toward Edgar.

He could not afford not to guard against this move from him.

From beginning to end, his primary adversary had always been Edgar. Smith was no longer a threat to him. Only Edgar still had something Locke could not see through.

But both of their Grand Magics were in the process of collapsing. Because the permanent defensive force field had already been elevated to the second tier, he simply had no way to quickly drive them out directly.

Furthermore, both of them were currently using holy avatars, so killing them would be pointless. So Locke only needed to cause both of their Grand Magics to collapse and automatically win this competition.

There was no need to go to the crystal wall system of the main material plane and directly move against their true bodies.

But as long as everything went smoothly, both of them would soon be driven out of this plane by him.

Wizard Edgar was dealing with the Eight Buddha Claw Tendril inside his Temporal Shadow Fern. The Eight Buddha Claw Tendril was burning all over its body, experiencing spontaneous combustion due to the Type 2 Tyrant Element.

Edgar was using the magical resonance cultivation method, summoning a magical power sun, doing his best to stimulate the Eight Buddha Claw Tendril's life force and help it adapt to the toxicity of the Type 2 Tyrant Element.

'Although the Type 2 Tyrant Element is only a naturally occurring magical power structural component extracted from First Circle magical plants, at this moment it has been injected into my Second Circle magical plant by that beam of moonlight, and every internal cell is undergoing tyrantification.'

'Even a Second Circle magical plant cannot hold up under this,' Edgar thought. "The volume injected all at once was very large as well, so my Eight Buddha Claw Tendril is currently in a near-death state."

"The best way to resolve this would be to inject the cell combination compound for the Type 2 Tyrant Element," Wizard Edgar's eyes flickered.

"Directly complete the tyrantification of my Eight Buddha Claw Tendril."

"Only right now, in the middle of a sudden battle, even I, as a breeder, could not possibly produce a cell combination compound for the Type 2 Tyrant Element in a short period of time."

Wizard Edgar let out a sigh, stepped out of the Land of All Spirits, and returned to the mortal world of the Silent Plane. The moment he did, he caught sight of the emperor, who had just opened the full permissions of his mind network to Locke.

In an instant, he furrowed his brow. "Damn Locke, calculating this tightly."

He had long since known the emperor no longer had much power left. Even if he had drawn him in, he would not have been of much use to their alliance.

The reason he had still tried to rope the emperor in was to use the emperor to scheme against Locke and turn the tables.

Or rather, even joining forces with Wizard Smith had been nothing more than a dispensable idle piece in his strategy.

Because Locke currently possessed the highest total magic pressure on the entire field, and even without the swift and decisive resolution he had shown earlier, he could simply win by grinding them down through sheer health advantage.

So it was only a question of how impressively Locke would win.

His purpose in roping all three together was to force Locke to kill the emperor, exploiting Locke's urgency to eliminate his creditor and compel him to remove his last weakness.

The moment he killed the emperor, he would use the Eight Buddha Claw Tendril to absorb the emperor's life force. That life force would wrap around the emperor's existence spirituality and drag it along as well.

Then he would immediately arrange for the emperor to be reincarnated, which would make his Land of All Spirits into Locke's creditor.

And since he had not touched the mind network, although he would be Locke's creditor, he would not need to pay Locke the corresponding spirituality.

He could even use his creditor status to maintain certain specific advantages in his battles with Locke.

But he had not expected Locke to predict this step in advance and seal it off entirely.

Wizard Edgar felt that this competition had turned into a game of chess.

You place a piece, I place a piece.

Whoever saw through the other's thinking first, anticipating and guarding against it beforehand, would win.

Edgar furrowed his brow and found that even standing right in front of Locke, Locke was not moving against him. Instead he was single-mindedly waiting for the Land of All Spirits to collapse on its own, while working to absorb the emperor's mind network as quickly as possible.

Edgar's heart sank.

The situation was developing in the worst possible direction. Locke had not moved against him directly as he had hoped.

Had he guessed at something?

'It was always like this from the very beginning.'

'At the Cloud Marsh Cup, Locke's instincts were formidable as well.'

'It must be his instincts alerting him to something abnormal, which is why he has avoided moving against me directly,' Wizard Edgar thought with growing urgency. "If nothing changes, this competition is about to come to a close."

"As long as Locke moves against me, I can turn this around."

In the next instant, Locke directly seized the emperor, brought him along, and entered the internal permission space of the mind network, disappearing from the mortal world.

Wizard Edgar's heart plummeted.

After the world-scale realm appeared, his Land of All Spirits had become far less significant to the Silent Plane, something that was practically dispensable.

The Silent Plane was even inclined to allow the realm to merge with his Land of All Spirits.

At this moment, the realm was squeezing into the Temporal Shadow Fern's space. On top of that, Locke had injected a massive amount of Type 2 Tyrant Element into the magical vines of his Land of All Spirits, and so his Grand Magic was collapsing rapidly.

Just before Locke stepped into the mind network, he glanced sideways at Edgar. 'I originally intended to use the Moon of Evolution, suspend it into the Land of All Spirits, and seize partial control of the Land of All Spirits and the Temporal Shadow Fern.'

'I could have pushed the Land of All Spirits to merge with my realm, then used the Moon of Evolution to control that region, indirectly controlling another Grand Magic.'

'But my super-intuition suddenly gave me a warning.'

'So it is better for me to do nothing and wait for the two of them to bring about their own destruction. As for Smith, his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens is already in collapse, and his true body has not descended, so killing him now would only mean killing a holy avatar.'

'Besides, judging by his demeanor he seems capable of going berserk. I will not entertain him any further. Unless he actively enters the realm, there is no way for him to stabilize his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.'

Locke's Moon of Evolution hung perpetually within the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, which amounted to having it completely locked down.

Furthermore, the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow used by the Moon of Evolution carried within it the light of the Sacred Dragon Star. The Sacred Dragon Star was a force of revolution, a force of instability.

This had increased the energy dissipation of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

In essence, the moon's dark face was an alternative form of Grand Magic Rune, equivalent to giving him one more Grand Magic Rune than anyone else.

At the ordinary Second Circle stage, this gave him an enormous advantage.

Were it otherwise, he could not possibly have just become a Second Circle wizard and immediately overwhelmed two wizards of the same tier.

In the mortal world, Wizard Smith saw Locke leaving and called out, "Wait, do not go."

Wizard Smith gritted his teeth, then drew from within his soul a soul artifact bound to his soul, which was a die.

A soul artifact was bound to the soul, and so his holy avatar was still able to draw this artifact out from the soul.

"Witch Medea, I truly thank you."

"This time it was thanks to you obtaining this world rarity for me in advance. Otherwise I truly would not have known what to do. Once I take the championship, when you ask me to help you find work in the future, I will absolutely find you a job with plenty of overtime allowances."

Beneath the Silent Throne, Medea gave a strange smile.

She looked at the Second Circle wizards of the Smith Family around her, then lowered her head with a smile. "Thank you, Lord Smith."

"I truly am in need of such a job."

"Then, all of you wizards hired by Wizard Smith, the game is about to begin. Who will be the first?"