Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Inside the realm, Witch Georgina was operating her Fate Loom. Several times she had been about to make a move and ambush Locke, but each time she had suppressed the impulse and held back.

Because every time she prepared to act, a warning came from deep within the Fate Loom.

The foundational spell of the Fate Loom was the textile studies magic, Fate Triple-Shuttle Weaving Curse, which could weave existence spirituality through three weaving methods to form a specific fate cycle. It was in essence one of the rare offensive spells of the new textile studies.

It could directly weave the existence spirituality on an opponent's body to indirectly influence their luck.

Equally, a large number of divination school spell models had been incorporated into the Fate Loom's inner workings, so it also had a certain capacity to sense danger and avoid disaster.

For this reason, Witch Georgina did not dare to suddenly ambush Locke while he was in the middle of a great battle with the others, or ambush Locke's girl priestess and force him to dissolve his holy avatar.

The thought stopped her in her tracks.

Wait. She actually still had a chance to turn things around.

This stemmed from the curse she had previously placed on the existence spirituality of Wizard Smith's body, using the Fate Triple-Shuttle Weaving magic.

The Prisoner of Fate wizard robe that Wizard Smith was wearing was the prisoner garment she had woven using the Fate Triple-Shuttle Weaving method.

Wizard Smith was currently bearing all the misfortune within her Fate Loom. Thinking about it in reverse, if Smith was miserable enough, he would be paying her the corresponding fortune.

She would receive a portion of fate energy out of nowhere.

The Fate Loom behind Witch Georgina began to move. The axle turned and the flying shuttle drove. She transformed her own magic pressure into thread, then using the Fate Triple-Shuttle Weaving method, began weaving a new magical garment.

This was the second garment in the Prisoner of Fate series of magical garments, and part of the Prisoner of Fate magical garment set.

It was a wide-cut wandering judge's robe of judgment, though it was a temporary adaptation made using the Prisoner of Fate magical garment as a base.

Witch Georgina put this garment on.

A garment was a person's second skin. So when a different garment was put on, the existence spirituality of the person would undergo a corresponding change.

When a person puts on a judge's garment, they will be regarded as a judge.

When a person puts on a prisoner's garment, they will be regarded as a criminal.

This was also the principle behind the Fate Loom, treating garments as the second skin of a person and elevating the concept of garments. This was exactly the core conceptual thinking of the new textile studies, and a core part of its doctrine.

Dimensional Elevation Thinking.

That is, when thinking about problems, elevating the significance of garments and other textile studies objects to a higher dimension, thereby raising the status of textile studies and deepening the discipline.

Witch Georgina said, "Right now, as long as Wizard Smith suffers misfortune as a prisoner, and suffers enough of it, I will receive enough fortune."

"As long as Wizard Smith is fortunate enough, I will suffer enough misfortune."

"I am betting against Wizard Smith. As long as he is sufficiently unfortunate in what follows, I will receive enough fortune to replenish my Fate Loom. I can use fortune as existence spirituality, and in this way escape the predicament before me."

The key still rested with Wizard Smith.

As long as he suffered enough misfortune, or something happened that counted as sufficient misfortune, she would receive enough fortune.

But in reverse, if Wizard Smith gained the upper hand next, if Wizard Smith was fortunate enough, then she would have to pay two times the misfortune.

Her misfortune would have no upper limit.

Witch Georgina, at the very edge of elimination, had improvised this extremely dangerous method.

Because the gains of this method were very large, but the risks were equally unlimited.

The reason was simple, because the degree of Wizard Smith's misfortune was finite. The greatest misfortune he could experience was death.

And once he died, she would receive the fortune produced by the death of a Second Circle wizard, and could use this fortune as the total magic pressure of the Fate Loom.

She would obtain capital.

But the degree of Wizard Smith's fortune was without upper limit. Fortune had no ceiling, and once he became fortunate, for the duration of the spell she would have to bear two times the misfortune.

So Witch Georgina was making a big gamble.

She had to be completely convinced that Wizard Smith would suffer defeat to dare use the Prisoner of Fate set and put her own luck against Smith's in a direct wager.

Witch Georgina said, "Wizard Smith, whether I can turn this around depends entirely on you."

"Please be unfortunate."

"Please give me a big one."

...

At the same time, after Wizard Edgar had been thinking for a long time about how to resolve the situation, he found that the only opportunity to turn things around still rested with Wizard Smith.

'Locke evaded my traps twice. His intuition and perceptiveness are too powerful. He is not someone who would fall into my scheme so easily. He is a powerful opponent whom I must go all out against, and even then I may not win.'

'Nothing at all like that idiot Smith.'

'And at this moment, the only person who can trigger my follow-up move is Smith. Only he currently does not have enough magic pressure.'

'What am I supposed to do? If he does not have enough magic pressure, my follow-up move cannot be triggered either. I will still lose.'

'Can it really be that at this point, I am completely without options? Infuriating.'

Edgar turned things over and over in his mind, feeling some unwillingness.

He had not yet used his full strength, and now he was about to lose.

...

Beneath the Silent Throne, the spectators looked on at this dramatic upheaval, holding their breath and focusing their full attention.

Many wizards who had not been in the spectator stands also received alert messages sent by their students and were now boarding various forms of transport and rushing over.

Because the competition had reached its most climactic moment.

The seven sun ring wizard judges were on the side commenting on Locke's Grand Magic.

"Although this Golden Crown Mountain researcher appears to be overwhelming the other three competitors through sheer total magic pressure, it is actually more than just that. The construction of his Grand Magic is extremely special and extremely refined. The potential of his Grand Magic is very great, and its current construction is also very impressive."

"He used his Moon of Evolution only three times and destroyed Edgar's Temporal Shadow Fern and Smith's Meteor from Beyond the Heavens. Even if he had been at the same tier of total magic pressure as those two, I believe he could still have won against the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens and the Temporal Shadow Fern combined."

"This is simply a gap at the level of construction itself..."

One sun ring wizard nodded in agreement. "Among the golden triangle standards, the Moon of Evolution's instantaneous magic pressure output multiplier is already quite good."

"Somewhat above average."

"In energy compatibility as well, it is quite good. About above average among the Grand Magic constructions in this competition."

"The key is in its degree of energy dissipation."

The seven exchanged a glance. As judges for the Grand Magic modeling competition, they naturally possessed a high degree of professional expertise, and in an instant they had all seen the greatest advantage of the Moon of Evolution compared to the other Grand Magics.

One sun ring judge spoke, and as he did, his voice would also be broadcast as competition commentary to the entire arena. "Look here. The Moon of Evolution recovers energy by absorbing the consciousness energy fragments of magical plants, and also uses a special spiritual mist to transport and store energy."

"So its inherent degree of energy dissipation is not high."

"In essence, it has the lowest degree of energy dissipation among the four competitors' Grand Magics. The Fate Loom has the problem of fate network disturbances. The Meteor from Beyond the Heavens has the problem of gravitational tides from the star realm. The Temporal Shadow Fern has the problem of instability in the Land of All Spirits space. But the Moon of Evolution, it resembles a true moon so closely that its stability is very high, and it has none of these problems."

"And that special spiritual mist further reduces the energy dissipation problems that occur in the intermediate processes."

"But what has truly widened the gap is the combination of the Kingdom Domain and the Moon of Evolution. The Moon of Evolution collects and distributes energy through the Kingdom Domain with an efficiency enhanced by at least three to five times, and the degree of energy dissipation has been reduced to its absolute minimum!"

"That is why he can fully restore his magic pressure in a single breath. That is why the Moon of Evolution has consistently maintained its advantage in battles against the other Grand Magics."

"That is why the Moon of Evolution, with a single beam of moonlight, could shine all the way into the deepest interior of the Meteor from Beyond the Heavens and destroy its most vulnerable point."

"Among the eight major indicators of Grand Magic, the Moon of Evolution performs very well on all of them. The one that performs most poorly is probably the instantaneous magic pressure output multiplier."

"But even that is already quite good. The level of scholarship that Golden Crown Mountain has showcased this time is truly remarkable."

The seven sun ring wizards lavished the Moon of Evolution with praise, adding one commendation after another.

The addition of the Kingdom Domain was undeniably the finishing stroke that made the whole picture come together.

There was also the Moon of Evolution resembling a true moon plane, and the addition of the moon's dark face and moon plants, which gave Locke at 16,000 magic pressure one additional Grand Magic Rune over anyone else.

These were all points worthy of attention.

Although it was still only an initial-forging Grand Magic, it could at least be said to have laid an excellent foundation.

As long as the subsequent development did not falter, once all four forgings were completed in the future, the finished Grand Magic would certainly not fall short, and its ceiling would absolutely not be low.

And if the subsequent development continued well and maintained this momentum, there was even a possibility of entering the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' anthology of outstanding Grand Magic examples.

A Grand Magic had two indicators, future potential and present power.

Only when a Grand Magic had completed all four forgings and been fully finalized could it be said to have converted all of its future potential into realized value. That was when a Grand Magic was truly complete.

So only a Grand Magic that had been fully finalized through four forgings had any chance of entering the White Wizard Association of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' anthology of examples.

That was an extraordinary honor.

At this moment, the seven judges were actually saying that Locke's Grand Magic had a future chance of entering it, which sparked heated discussion among many wizards.

In Kungudin Academy, the eyes of Wizard Mac flashed with passionate emotion. "Worthy of Locke. I never expected the Moon of Evolution to be this impressive. The outstanding Grand Magic anthology of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands?"

"I want to get in there too."

His teacher beside him smiled. "Mac, that is an honor only sun ring wizards possess. Your ambition is admirable, but something like that is still far beyond where you are right now."

"But the Grand Magic of that young man from Golden Crown Mountain... was it truly constructed by him alone? Or is it the culmination of many years of research at Golden Crown Mountain..."

"That moon has almost become a genuine moon plane. With an energy dissipation rate that low, and then with the Kingdom Domain working alongside to further reduce energy dissipation, the quality of the construction has nearly reached the level of what our Kungudin Academy... would be unable to replicate..."

This wizard fell into deep thought.

On the other side, the two Second Circle wizards from the Tower of Transmutation exchanged a glance, then both let out a long breath.

The two of them had watched Locke's journey from the very beginning, from an ordinary First Circle wizard to someone whose magic pressure now far surpassed their own.

Both let out a sigh of mixed feelings.

It was not only the magic pressure, actually. Whether in terms of the Grand Magic's potential or its current architecture, it also far surpassed both of them.

That architecture gave them the feeling of something they could only look up at from far below.

That moon alone, which resembled a true moon plane almost exactly, was something they could not achieve.

Let alone anyone else.

The two of them sighed, then exchanged a glance and gave a bitter smile.

This was a case of watching a competition and ending up feeling frustrated about themselves.

Though that was also fairly normal. Locke was a Golden Crown Mountain researcher with boundless prospects ahead of him, while the two of them were only quasi-wizard instructors at the Tower of Transmutation, and had only signed contracts to enjoy the treatment of wizard instructors. Their officially recognized teaching position with the White Wizard Association was still only that of a lecturing mage.

However, being able to witness the rise of a brilliant young wizard star was also something worth experiencing.

Locke was a talent that Golden Crown Mountain might not see once in a hundred years.

In Magic Pivot City, Witch Camilla heard the wizards around her calling Locke a once-in-a-century genius even by Golden Crown Mountain's standards and found herself stunned.

She looked up in astonishment at Locke in the competition.

"Surely not. Is that scoundrel really that impressive? Could it be that I have just spent too much time around him, which has led me to underestimate him? Perhaps he truly is a genius of extraordinary caliber even by Golden Crown Mountain's standards."

Witch Camilla looked at Locke's Moon of Evolution, and her eyes flickered. In a certain sense, she had also participated in the construction of the Grand Magic that was now receiving so much praise.

The natal witch porcelain had been provided to Locke by her.

Witch Camilla let out a sigh. "I truly could not see it back then, that he would turn out to be this kind of person."

The teacher beside Witch Camilla asked strangely, "Could not see what back then?"

Witch Camilla immediately coughed once. "Nothing. I only felt that when he was fighting alongside me in the spellcasting competition, he did not seem this impressive."

On the other side, the reactions of the four school team leaders varied widely.

The Storm Tower team lead's face was grim.

The moon ring witch from Bonifacius University also furrowed her brow. It seemed she had not anticipated that at this critical juncture, someone like Locke would come charging in to overshadow the competition just as their new textile studies was trying to use the event for promotion.

This was quite troublesome.

And Wizard Rush from Quinn Jol also wore a displeased expression, his narrowed eyes fixed on the competition screen.

Wizard Chad Schultz pumped his fist in the air. "Locke, well done! Hurry up and win this competition!"

The faces of Wizard Rush and the others grew even darker.

At this moment, in the Silent Plane, Locke stepped into the special permission space of the mind network.

It was a phantom chessboard.

The entire chessboard was pressed down over the mortal world.

"Hmm? So this is the core of the mind network." Locke stood on the chessboard and smiled.

The chessboard was covered with many empty squares, and upon them were many chess pieces. The chess pieces represented different identities.

The most ordinary pieces were soldiers and common people.

Then there were somewhat rarer pieces, representing merchants, nobles, and so on.

And there were some uniquely singular pieces, clearly representing certain special positions. Among them, one of the largest special positions was the emperor.

"I see. The mind network contains pieces representing mental status and identity, corresponding to the identities of people in the mortal world. You are the emperor, so you should appear at the very center of the chessboard."

"These are all corresponding symbols of the mind."

"Wait, that is not right. This mind network contains many special pieces of the same size as the emperor's piece. This means that originally this mind network was never supposed to look like it does now."

Locke looked toward the nine special pieces that were the same size as the emperor's piece.