Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

As Wizard Edgar fought the emperor using his Grand Magic, Temporal Shadow Fern, his mind moved quickly. "The emperor and Smith have joined forces. Then I had best join forces with Witch Georgina."

"Take them both down together first."

At that moment, Witch Georgina was in the middle of hunting Wizard Smith. Because Wizard Smith had not managed to understand her Fate Loom, he had chosen not to fight her head-on and had instead turned and fled.

Wizard Smith kept looking back at Witch Georgina as he ran. He could see that silver shuttles flew and needle and thread darted in all directions around her. Everywhere she passed, needle and thread repaired the world's energy, adjusting the positions of existence spirituality within it through various weaving methods, granting that spirituality order and causing it to flow actively, until the entirety of everything around her was being continuously drawn into the fate network that the Fate Loom represented.

Wizard Smith gritted his teeth. "If she can manipulate fate, she is clearly beyond what I should be dealing with. How could I possibly defeat her? Wait, how can she manipulate fate?"

Wizard Smith came to his senses.

Witch Georgina saw the sudden blank look on Wizard Smith's face and immediately understood that he had caught on.

After all, the act of manipulating fate was simply too outlandish. As long as Wizard Smith thought it through a few more times, he would immediately become suspicious.

Witch Georgina was not a pure divination school witch. What she primarily studied was textile studies, and even the Grand Magic of a full Second Circle divination school wizard could not completely control the fate network.

So her Fate Loom absolutely could not completely control the fate network.

He did not need to understand the underlying principles to see that. It only required basic common sense and logical reasoning.

But in the next instant, the Fate Loom appeared behind Witch Georgina, and countless threads of spirituality fell toward Wizard Smith. In an instant, using the three weaving methods adapted for him, plain weave, twill weave, and satin weave, his spirituality was rewoven, disrupting the smooth operation of his spiritual circulation, throwing his magical power into chaos, and creating an obstruction at the point of connection between him and his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens, increasing the energy dissipation of his Meteor from Beyond the Heavens.

'Done.' Only upon completing this step did Witch Georgina allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

As long as she completed this step, Wizard Smith would fall completely into a disadvantaged position.

The world would only see the power of her new textile studies.

As for the details within it, how many people would really care?

Wizard Smith had been right about one thing: results were always somewhat more important than process.

At least in the eyes of most people.

Wizard Smith's expression immediately darkened. He noticed that under the effect of the textile studies magic, the spirituality on his body's surface had become completely disordered, which prevented him from continuing to think deeply and instead forced him to focus entirely on how to break the situation.

Or rather, how to escape from Georgina's pursuit with his life intact.

Wizard Smith rapidly recited spell after spell and summoned star power to surge into his soul, hoping that the total magic pressure on the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens side would be enough to break through the shackles on his spirituality.

He needed to shatter the magic pressure knot that Georgina had tied around him.

But in the next instant, Witch Georgina recited a spell. She did not use the Fate Loom to attack Wizard Smith directly, as she still had to guard against the emperor and Edgar.

Instead, she summoned a First Circle crystallization stage wizard from Bonifacius University to descend from beyond the crystal wall system, granted him a Grand Magic Blessing, and gave him honorary shares in her Grand Magic.

Then, with his assistance, Witch Georgina rapidly constructed the first Second Circle spell infused with a Grand Magic Rune, the Prisoner of Fate Cloak.

It was a Second Circle magical garment from the Fate Loom series.

In the next instant, the Fate Loom went into full operation. Because the Fate Loom was running at full speed, the turbulence in the fate network grew dramatically worse, and the energy dissipation suddenly became severe.

Large amounts of magic pressure bled away into meaningless dissipation.

And on Wizard Smith's body, a cloak appeared. It was the Prisoner of Fate Cloak.

Wizard Smith's expression changed drastically, because this new textile studies spell first altered the surface order of the spiritual structures on his soul's magic pressure through textile studies magic, and then used a second spell to weave a garment on his body.

"This is... this garment seems to amplify the misfortune on me. Wait, I have finally worked out the trick behind her Fate Loom."

"Her Fate Loom cannot directly interfere with fate. Instead, it indirectly influences fate by constructing an existence spirituality network and controlling the power of distribution. She cannot directly change fate, but rather achieves an indirect method of distributing misfortune and fortune to others, maintaining the fate network in the process."

"The reason she was blocking my magic earlier was because she had stacked the maximum possible fortune onto herself, and had used textile studies magic to find the structural weaknesses in my magic, then assigned the misfortune of my attacks on her to my own magic. Through misfortune, my magic underwent a structural self-induced collapse."

"And because she herself had the maximum fortune, she remained completely unharmed. From the moment we started fighting until now, she has been continuously stacking fortune on herself, keeping herself perpetually in the position of fortune's darling."

Wizard Smith jolted to full alertness. "She only holds the power of distribution, so she has the right to give others misfortune or fortune. But she does not have the right to truly interfere with fate. Which means that within her Fate Loom system, fortune exists in a finite total amount."

"However much fortune you give to others, the same amount must be taken from other people, and those people must bear corresponding misfortune. So who bears the misfortune?"

Wizard Smith looked down at the silver-white cloak on his body. "Damn."

"I bear it?"

Witch Georgina smiled. "Pardon me, Wizard Smith. Your body is now draped in the Prisoner of Fate Cloak that I wove using the fate triple-shuttle weaving method. The greater part of the misfortune this entire system owes as a cost is being paid by you."

"And a portion is being paid by me."

There was nothing to be done about it. The degree of separation and the rate of energy dissipation in an initial-forging Grand Magic were too high, which meant she could not, through the Second Circle spell Prisoner of Fate Cloak, transfer all of the cost that needed to be paid onto Wizard Smith.

The act of transferring itself generated corresponding energy dissipation, so she still had to bear a certain share of the misfortune.

This was also the greatest vulnerability of her magic at present.

The cost she had to bear was simply too high.

In theory, as long as the Fate Loom had not reached its total magic pressure upper limit, she could mobilize all the fortune within the entire system and stack it on herself. But in that case, she would have to strip the fortune from every entity within the system, and then bear two times the corresponding misfortune.

Because paying out fortune required an equal amount of misfortune, and stripping others of their fortune also required paying an equal amount of misfortune.

So one unit of fortune was equal to two units of misfortune.

As a result, the sustainability of the entire Fate Loom at the time of its initial construction was very poor.

However, Bonifacius University cared most about the golden triangle standard of Grand Magic, and paid little attention to the other standards, so they were not overly concerned about this.

She had used a new textile studies spell, the Prisoner of Fate Cloak, infused it with a Grand Magic Rune and connected it to her Grand Magic, which effectively resolved this sustainability problem.

And at present, Wizard Smith's pace had fallen completely into her calculated trap, which was why she was winning so cleanly and decisively.

Wizard Smith was at this moment bearing the overwhelming majority of the misfortune, and his complete connection to the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens was naturally severed, causing his energy dissipation to rise sharply.

The sky above his head was continuously raining meteors, and total magic pressure was steadily leaking.

Wizard Smith's expression was grim.

He was finished.

The Prisoner of Fate Cloak was like his skin at this moment. This cloak draped over his body had become his representation in this world, his walking signature.

As a result, his existence spirituality was contaminated by misfortune, causing the entire world to despise him intensely and want to drive him away.

'A garment is a second skin?' Wizard Smith looked down at the garment on his body and finally understood what the so-called new textile studies actually was.

This new textile studies took divination studies as its foundation and old textile studies as its starting point, shifting its focus away from the alchemy roots of textile studies and toward the weaving principles of the world's underlying structure.

It was no longer primarily a study of textile materials, but a primary study of weaving methods.

Wizard Smith could only do his best to flee, delaying the pace of his defeat for approximately one week.

After that week, he was completely spent.

Witch Georgina came after him through the sky, continuing her pursuit. "Our new textile studies can not only incorporate the magic of the divination school. It can also incorporate the magic of the evocation school, the enchantment school, the illusion school, the psychic school, and many other schools of magic."

"What I have demonstrated is merely the Prisoner of Fate series of magical garments formed through research into the fate network composed of the world's underlying principles. These garments are also available for purchase through the corresponding shop alliances. You are all welcome to log on to the shop alliance and search for my personal brand to purchase my Prisoner of Fate series of magical garments."

"And if a textile studies wizard were to research the lightning and thunder woven from the world's underlying principles, they might discover that by optimizing the weaving of lightning, they could weave magical garments of lightning..."

"The new textile studies is a secondary optimization of energy and a school of thought concerned with altering and beautifying the skin of the world. For any of you who are interested, consider enrolling in the new textile studies program that Bonifacius University recently established."

"Since it has just been established, the benefits are generous," Witch Georgina said. "Even Third Circle Throne-level wizards will actively give lectures in the foundational public courses."

...

Below the Silent Throne, many wizards were murmuring to one another, and in particular some wizard apprentices who had come along with their academy mentors were buzzing with spirited discussion.

"This new discipline feels like it has a lot of potential. I could have my friends go and study it."

"I am not completely opposed to transferring myself... cough cough, just joking, I have academy contracts on me. If it were not for those contracts, this new textile studies might not be a bad opportunity to get in on the ground floor."

The wizards in the Storm Tower spectator section were wearing expressions of livid fury one and all. They looked toward the Bonifacius University spectator section as though fire were about to shoot from their eyes.

This was clearly an open trampling on the thousand-year-old honor of Storm Tower for the express purpose of elevating their so-called new textile studies.

The sun ring wizards from Storm Tower were each wearing expressions of intense displeasure.

"Bonifacius, you have gone too far. Where is our advertising fee? We did not receive a single coin, and yet we are being used as your backdrop!"

A sun ring magical weaver from the Bonifacius University side was all smiles. "Apologies to everyone, some collateral damage was unavoidable. We were not targeting any of you specifically, but a competition is a competition."

"Our Bonifacius University's new textile studies is simply this impressive. We directly demolished your Storm Tower's established powerhouse discipline of meteorology studies."

This sun ring wizard sighed with feeling. "Nothing can be done about it. That is what a competition is. Who is stronger and who is weaker, visible at a glance."

A sun ring wizard from the Smith Family at Storm Tower stood up in fury, pointed at the man's nose and snapped back, "Everyone knows you were pulling tricks. If Smith hadn't been intimidated by you people and failed to perform at his actual level, would the gap have been this large?"

"He only lost because of the design laid out by your university's Third Circle Throne-level wizards. He did not lose to your university's Witch Georgina. Make sure you understand that point."

On the other side, the Rose Council's spectator section was also full of sour expressions among the magical weavers gathered there.

Because the dispute between old and new textile studies was about to erupt.

Textile studies had never been a particularly prominent discipline to begin with, and now Bonifacius University had stabbed them in the back by deciding to break away and establish an independent faction.

How were the Rose Council's magical weavers supposed to feel about this?

So the Rose Council's magical weavers had fallen into a complex tangle of emotions, feeling betrayed and furious, mixed with a measure of genuine admiration for the new textile studies.

After all, the new textile studies had indeed broken free from the attribute domain of alchemists, enhanced practical combat capability, and strengthened the spell model attributes of this magical category.

But the infuriating thing was, if that was the case, why could they not have remained within the textile studies system? Why break away and go independent?

Going independent like this would offend so many people.

This was no longer just a matter for Second Circle wizards, or even Third Circle wizards. This matter would threaten the interests of high-circle wizards.

Behind every discipline stood a group of high-circle wizards.

At this moment, every wizard present believed that Wizard Smith was going to be the first one driven from the competition. Even the wizards from Storm Tower had largely given up hope.

Wizard Smith had been hit by the Prisoner of Fate Cloak and could barely do anything meaningful, while Witch Georgina was clearly resolved to eliminate him, exacting revenge for his earlier act of threatening to come out by destroying a portion of the world.

In Witch Georgina's eyes, Smith was a malignant tumor.

A disgrace to white wizards.

But just at this moment, the scene above the Silent Throne suddenly underwent a dramatic change.

The emperor actually mobilized the mind network and used the deepest-level authority within the mind network to summon his own light of the mind. He then used his light of the mind to temporarily replace the world's will, completing the act of substituting the human heart for the heavenly heart.

However, doing so would cause him to continuously bear enormous worldly pressure, and at the same time the entire world could no longer operate normally, causing the coming catastrophe to grow increasingly severe.

But he had no time to worry about all of that at this moment.

At this moment, using his light of the mind to take over the world's will, he seized this opportunity and did one thing, suppressing Witch Georgina's Grand Magic.

Witch Georgina, who had been hunting Wizard Smith, suddenly felt that her total magic pressure was continuously declining, that the dissipation rate of her Fate Loom had broken to a new high, and that her Grand Magic was at risk of direct collapse.

She herself was not a conventional Second Circle wizard. The World Stone she had was not one she had obtained on her own. It had been lent to her by the Silent Plane.

So the degree of interference that the world's will could exert over all four of their Grand Magics was very high.

And the emperor had been holding one trump card in reserve all along, which was the ability to substitute his own heart for the heavenly heart.

He temporarily assumed the role of the heavenly heart and directly attempted to withdraw the World Stone that had been lent to Witch Georgina. However, because his mind network was only a semblance of one and not a true Grand Magic, he was unable to maintain this state for very long before directly withdrawing from it.

But in the next instant, both Georgina's and Edgar's Grand Magics experienced serious problems as the world's will withdrew its favor, falling into a state of near-collapse.

And the emperor himself suffered severe backlash, with his light of the mind heavily damaged.

The emperor's voice traveled through the mind network, broadcasting to the entire world, "Smith, kill them."

Wizard Smith was stunned. He looked at Witch Georgina, who had abruptly stopped before him, and broke into a roaring laugh. "Hahaha..."

"A sudden reversal of fortune. Well done, native. I did not expect you to have this move up your sleeve. This technique is very similar to the effect produced by incorporating a Grand Magic Rune into a Grand Magic... right, the Grand Magics of the Age of Enlightenment were already very refined. That era had already advanced all the way to Crown Magic."

Wizard Smith looked at Witch Georgina before him, who had fallen into magic pressure chaos. Although he was still bound by the Prisoner of Fate Cloak, Georgina's current state was worse than his.

Wizard Smith laughed. "Hahaha, as flowers bloom and fall, in the end everything returns to me!"

A burst of laughter that was not Wizard Smith's rang out through this world. "Hahahahaha..."

Wizard Smith paused, and his scalp began to prickle, because a terrifying magic pressure was appearing somewhere in the distance.

The fourth Grand Magic had descended.

A full moon, no one could say when it had appeared, hung in the sky, side by side with the sun, casting its light across the entire earth.

It carried a total magic pressure the likes of which had never been seen before.

In the imperial capital, Locke closed the book in his hands and felt the emperor's light of the mind and the entire world's will both simultaneously weaken.

"This is the moment I have been waiting for."

"If your light of the mind had not weakened, there was still a chance it could interfere with my plan. Whether it is forcible plundering, exploiting great nobles to plunder, or controlling distribution, the speed of accumulating capital through these methods is still far too slow."

"So I said your understanding of capital is too shallow."

"Today, I will borrow the emperor's capital to do my own work. And I will not just borrow. I will borrow a hundredfold. I will borrow the emperor's capital completely dry."

At this moment, every member of the Spiritual Cultivation Society across the entire world was channeling their total magic pressure entirely toward Locke.

And the emperor, who was in the midst of clashing with Edgar and still believed he could eliminate this rebel and traitor, suddenly snapped his head around toward the direction of the imperial capital. "Impossible."

"I took so many precautions against you. Every endpoint of your followers' faith leads back to faith in me. If you could draw power from them, that power should flow toward me."

"Rebel and traitor. I thought you were a loyal subject. It turns out you were a rebel and traitor all along. Let that power return to me."

The emperor discovered in horror that vast amounts of spirituality were converging toward the direction of the imperial capital instead of toward him.

Wizard Edgar blinked, and immediately understood what had happened. "Wait. Those subjects are indeed worshipping you. But Locke Augustine bound you together with all the beauty and goodness in the world. So when those people worship you, they are worshipping the beautiful world they envision in their hearts."

"In essence, those people are only revering and yearning for a beautiful world in their hearts. They are not worshipping you."

"Which means that bastard Locke used this world's personal cult of you to spread his own doctrine. Your subjects are no longer worshipping you. What they are worshipping is the two words, 'beauty and goodness.'"

Edgar finally understood it after the fact. "When those people adored you and placed every beautiful concept on your person, you were replaced by those beautiful concepts. They were only yearning for goodness and beauty, yearning to live well. You yourself are irrelevant. It could be you, it could be someone else, it could even be any thing in the world."

"It could even be a piece of dung. Because your subjects are simply choosing the life they want."

"You have been shorted, Emperor!"

The emperor was wide-eyed with fury. The terrible cold light of the mind blazed from his eyes beneath his helmet. "They can do without me?"

"What need is there for a world without me to exist? I am a one-man civilization. Civilization is me. All this civilization needs is me!"

"No!"

Wizard Edgar looked toward the imperial capital. "But you borrowed this much spirituality. What are you going to do? Wait, how can there be this much spirituality? Is the current inventory of spirituality in this world actually this large?"

"Locke, what are you doing? This does not look like bringing a Grand Magic down."

Wizard Smith beside him stared at the staggering volume of spirituality, utterly dumbfounded. "This world has this much spirituality?"

Witch Georgina looked toward that flood of spirituality. "That is not the current world's spirituality alone. There is also this world's future, and its past..."

"Locke... he is not just borrowing. He is borrowing on leverage. He has borrowed the emperor dry in a single move. All of this comes from the spirituality within the emperor's mind network. But he used some method to borrow all the spirituality within the emperor's mind network, from the past through the present and into the future, completely dry."

"Heavens, his method of accumulating capital is moving far too fast."

"But what is he borrowing this much capital for? This already far exceeds the total magic pressure needed to bring a Grand Magic down."

Inside the imperial capital, Locke took a step forward, his gaze resolute and his mind clear. "The rules of the Silent Chalice state that the champion may bring everything here out with them. So I intend to be the champion. Furthermore, I am not only going to establish a Grand Magic here. I am also going to establish a Kingdom Domain."

"The three elements needed for a Kingdom Domain, I have already fulfilled all of them at this moment. The faith of the people, I already have. The magical tides, I also have thanks to the emperor's mind network. The ley line power of the entire world, I also have because the world's will is at this moment looking upon me with complete favor."

"I am the dark sun, and then the moon, sun and moon operating together. I possess every element needed to construct a Second Circle Kingdom Domain."

A Kingdom Domain had one particular quality, which was that it created a magical realm covering the entire world, forming a second space.

The attributes within this space were shaped by the perceptions of the people.

And at this moment, by using the emperor's personal cult, he had successfully made the ordinary people of this world desire a world of green mountains and clear waters.

Which meant he could immediately create a Kingdom Domain magical realm equivalent in area to this entire world, a place with not a trace of industrial pollution, all green mountains and clear waters, all of it... plants.

And because of Wizard Edgar's Land of All Spirits, the plants in that world could also be magical plants.

And because of Witch Georgina's Fate Loom, the spirituality conflict within that world-scale magical realm would be reduced to its minimum. The power of the Fate Loom, though not strictly necessary, had in practice lowered the conflict between the magical realm and the real world.

Equally, he also intended to borrow the power of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens to channel star power into his magical realm, strengthening it further.

In this way, he could complete the creation of a world-scale magical realm.

And because of this action, which would inevitably nearly double this world's total magical volume, fully revive the world's will, and completely free it from the emperor's control and suppression, what Locke was doing at this moment received the world's will's complete approval and favor.

He had truly reached the state where heaven and earth moved in concert with him.

Although this time becoming a Second Circle wizard, the World Stone was borrowed, the Kingdom Domain was borrowed, everything was borrowed.

Then he would simply borrow to the absolute limit in one go.

Everywhere the eye could see could be borrowed.

Not just borrowed, but leveraged, fifty times over, a hundred times over.

In an instant, every wizard in the spectator arena beneath the entire Silent Throne fell into complete silence.

This was simply ferocious.

A sun ring wizard from Storm Tower was trembling with fury. "Find out for me. Find out where that person comes from. This person is far too ferocious. Is he even a white wizard?"