Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Locke and the other three exchanged glances.

Locke thought aloud, "In the Era of Stars, a first-class wizard apprentice could live four hundred years, and a full wizard could live a thousand years? That is twice the lifespan of wizards in our era."

"Could it be that ancient wizards could live significantly longer?"

Warwick, McKinley, and Witch Shirley all wore expressions of stunned disbelief.

Clearly, this archaeological discovery had astonished them deeply.

Each revelation was more staggering than the last. It was hard to say how many top-tier journal articles this alone could generate.

Wizard Warwick's whole body was trembling with excitement. "This is content that has never been discovered before!"

"Coming to this ruin was absolutely the right decision. Despite all the unexpected incidents, we have been remarkably successful..."

"The lifespan of wizards before the Era of Stars was at least twice that of later-era wizards. We just do not know in which era the dramatic reduction in wizard lifespan occurred, or what event caused it to happen."

"We..."

Under the setting sun, Otto seemed lost in thought. He turned his head and looked toward the spot where Locke and the others were standing.

He opened his mouth as though to say something, then stopped.

But in the next instant, a dark sun appeared in the sky.

In that single moment, something within Locke seemed to be violently stimulated. His pupils shifted into golden vertical slits, and at the same time the entire space began to tremble.

A disembodied voice appeared, like the pronouncement of a verdict.

"Otto Heliothos, you have failed. Of the four great problems, you solved only one. All your accomplishments and achievements, all your crimes and failures, are hereby expunged."

"Unless time can be remade and the past reclaimed; unless the name of wizard brings demons to weep and devils to tremble in fear; unless wizards are elevated to demon gods across ten thousand times ten thousand magical kingdoms, there shall be no record of you anywhere in the history of civilization."

"The prophecy of the Black Sun Tower is truth. This prophecy is hereby made eternal."

"The Era of Stars shall continue to endure, until the historical answer that ends this cycle is found."

As that voice sounded, four Suzerain's Books materialized in the void, and the entire world plunged into darkness, as though during a solar eclipse.

A heartrending woman's voice tore through the sky. "No. How can time be reclaimed? How can the past be remade? Demons and demonic races number in the billions, cruel by nature. How could they possibly tremble in fear at the mere name of a wizard? Elevating a single city to demon god status already defies the laws of nature. How could anyone elevate ten thousand times ten thousand magical kingdoms? Even to the end of time, to the edge of the universe, these things could never happen. You have not merely killed my husband. You have sentenced everything about him to an eternal death!"

"Black Sun Tower, you are too cruel. Black Sun Tower, you are unjust. Black Sun Tower, answer me! Black Sun Tower, where is your prophecy now, where is your order? The Era of Stars has problems that everyone knows about. My husband only wanted to solve them!"

The young wizard's voice appeared in Locke's ear. "The Expungement Curse of the Black Sun Tower has invaded this place. This is bad. The Black Sun Tower's prophecy magic is far too powerful."

"This was bound to happen eventually. Locke, be careful. The Expungement Curse will expel you from this place... of the wizards who entered this space alongside your group, apart from the four of you, the others have either been refined into fertilizer for the magical kingdom's domain, or have escaped using special spells."

"Locke, consider this a favor I owe you. Please hold on and keep watching, at least until you have seen everything the princess wanted to tell you... please help the princess achieve her final victory."

In the next instant, the dark sun in that space erupted with a blazing corona.

Despite being a dim sun, its temperature was immense. In a single moment, scorching flames enveloped all four of them.

In the span of a breath, Wizard McKinley's Suzerain's Book was forcibly expelled and vanished from the space.

Immediately, a quarter of the space collapsed.

The Abyssal Werewolf Warwick strained to open the Eye of Wisdom on his forehead, but to his dismay, the abyssal energy within his own body became his greatest danger at that moment.

The instant his abyssal energy made contact with the light of the dark sun, it was set ablaze entirely.

Warwick cried out in pain. "Locke, I am sorry. This is my limit. I have to leave."

"You are on your own from here."

In the next instant, one Suzerain's Book disappeared.

Only two Suzerain's Books remained within this Historical Reconstruction space.

More than half the space began to collapse.

Locke furrowed his brow. In that moment, he too felt an enormous scorching heat enveloping him.

His Myst's Power had held out the longest, but there was no nature or earth here to draw upon. Without those, he could not use Life Heavy Armor to establish an infinite energy loop, which meant he had no unlimited magical power.

Sooner or later, his Myst's Power would be burned through by the dark sun.

Locke also realized that as time passed, the temperature within the entire space would keep rising. If he did not think of something, he would not even last five minutes.

He could only hold out a few minutes longer than McKinley and Warwick had.

'Both of my permanent defensive fields have been suppressed.' Locke summoned the Abyssal Devourer Body Sea Gold Sand, transforming it into a Flowing Gold Fern Spear, but against this kind of all-encompassing assault, it was simply not up to the task.

'The only option is the prototype of Grand Magic.' In his mind, Locke rapidly cycled through every possible solution, and in the end could only think of Porcelain Moon Growth, his closest approximation to Grand Magic. 'Otherwise, I will be forced out of here immediately.'

He summoned a moon, and as it rose into the sky, it rapidly began absorbing the heat of the dark sun.

Very quickly, Locke saw cracks spreading inch by inch across the surface of his Porcelain Moon.

Clearly, even though the Porcelain Moon could reflect the dark sun's radiance, it had its limits.

Enormous quantities of energy converted from high heat were accumulating on the surface of the Porcelain Moon, causing countless cracks to appear, as though the Cancer-sign wizard porcelain was about to shatter in the next instant.

The young wizard's voice appeared in Locke's ear. "Locke, I need at least two Suzerain's Books to maintain the Historical Milestone Curse. Locke, consider this a favor I owe you. Please find a way to stay in here. If anyone can, I believe it is you."

"Locke!"

Locke gritted his teeth. "Founding ancestor, you need not say a word. I want to keep exploring. Which wizard could refuse the temptation of truth, could refuse to see what is real? Whatever the Black Sun Tower has done, right or wrong, is none of my concern. But the one thing I absolutely refuse to accept is being denied the chance to see the truth of that past. As an archaeology wizard, as a botany wizard, not merely as a wizard, I will not stand for it."

Locke looked into the darkened space around him. 'We should still be within the Historical Reconstruction. If we are still within it, then the kingdom's domain of the Heliothos Imperial Court must still exist here.'

'A kingdom's domain requires three elements united, the spiritual energy of the ley lines, the collective consciousness of the people, and the magical tides within the kingdom. It is the true underlying reason the Era of Stars was established... a result produced under the special celestial phenomenon of the dual motion of the sun and moon.'

Locke's pupils shifted into golden vertical slits as a wild idea flashed through his mind.

At this moment, the kingdom's domain was still here. The dark sun had already appeared. And he had a moon in his hand.

The sky was pitch black.

Then he would use his own magic to replace the moon, and let that moon illuminate the entire territory of the Heliothos Kingdom within the Historical Reconstruction.

He would use his own magic to replace the moon of history!

Why not?

In the next instant, every last bit of energy accumulated within Porcelain Moon Growth was released and scattered across the land.

In a single moment, the world that had been plunged into darkness was filled with light once more.

Sky and earth reappeared.

On the same land, two spaces now existed simultaneously. One was the magic domain of Heliothos, and the other was the physical earth of Heliothos.

Locke had leveraged this era's kingdom's domain to forcibly bring an incomplete Grand Magic to a point where it could temporarily function at the level of Grand Magic.

In this moment, Locke's spiritual essence and the full moon fused into one.

Locke sensed that his spirit and the moon had achieved unity, but it was not stable. There was no buffer between himself, the moon, and all living things.

Moreover, the connection between himself and the Porcelain Moon was not actually that strong.

It was his magic, yes, but the connection between his magic and himself was not as deep as the connection between himself and his own soul.

Furthermore, within the Porcelain Moon there was a natal wizard porcelain that had not been made by him, something foreign that acted as an obstacle and further prevented his spiritual essence from fully merging with it.

But that was solvable.

The situation was critical right now. Even if it had to be cobbled together, he needed to fully stabilize this magic.

Otherwise, he would be expelled from this space immediately.

Locke used the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow, summoning the Golden Palace Legacy Branch. The branch landed at the peak of the Porcelain Moon, and its roots coiled around it, branches intertwining.

The golden leaves of the Golden Palace Legacy Branch took on the cool clarity of moonlight, transforming into a shade of blue-gold.

The Golden Palace Legacy Branch was connected to him through the distributed spiritual-energy network, through magical power grafting, and it had also been incorporated into his Forest Sanctuary and was part of his own forest.

And on top of that, the Porcelain Moon was his own magic.

These four connections together, while still short of truly reaching the level of Grand Magic, produced a bond of strength that was extraordinarily close to the intensity of his connection with his own soul.

And so Locke felt it. The magic he had cobbled together in haste had fully taken shape.

His spiritual essence and the spiritual essence of this magic had temporarily achieved a state of unity.

With the assistance of this magical kingdom's domain, this moon became the unchanging moon that had hung above the starry river since time immemorial, scattering moonlight across the world.

Every plant in the world flourished under the refracted moonlight, growing and reproducing, vegetation spreading without cease.

Because this was a botany spell, its influence on animals was not as powerful as its effect on plants.

However powerful the dark sun's heat was, the light and gravitational pull of his moon were equally powerful in response.

In that very moment, Locke felt his magical pressure flickering as though it were on the verge of breaking through its final constraint. Then his magical pressure surged past 9999 and reached 10000.

Locke's expression grew strange. "Of course. The kingdom's domain is itself a Second Circle-level magic. By leveraging the kingdom's domain to complete this imitation Grand Magic, I have effectively completed a Grand Magic. Though I only managed to barely break through this second limit by borrowing the accumulated power of this past kingdom's domain built over untold ages."

"But whatever the case, I have genuinely broken through the limit right now!"

Locke clasped his hands behind his back, feeling a deep and expansive sense of clarity. At this moment, amplified by the kingdom's domain, his magical pressure had reached the Second Circle level.

He had obtained a Second Circle experience card.

He could feel an illusion as though heaven and earth were lending him their combined strength, as though all things in existence were working in concert with him.

Locke looked at the dark sun before him and extended his right palm. The moon continued to rise, pulling the dark sun up along with it, stabilizing the two great celestial pillars of this world.

"The dual motion of the sun and moon, the dark sun overhead, the bright moon shining everywhere."

"This is the Mirror Moon. The moon like a magic mirror, capable of reflecting every form of energy in this world, illuminating and reflecting it back across the land."

Locke said, "This is the culmination of the lunar magic I have been developing all along. Coming to this same world in a different era, observing the trajectory of this world's moon for six months, I finally understood that a world's moon can cross through space and time and continue its motion unchanged."

"Therefore, the internal biological clocks of plants and animals can be measured by lunar time. The moon is the most accessible and lowest-cost method of timekeeping in the natural world."

"The seasons of the moon are therefore the seasons of farming, the seasons when all living things reproduce and vegetation begins to sprout. The moon hangs in the sky like a great bright mirror, faithfully reflecting all things. This is the prototype of my Grand Magic, the Lunar Mirror."

"The moon becomes the greatest magic mirror in the sky, reflecting my power across the world, and reflecting the energies of other things across the world as well."

"At the same time, the world transmits energy back to the moon. Magical plants gain their order from the moon, their seasons from the moon, and their vitality from the moon."

Locke looked down at the land. "But this system still needs a three-tier structure. However, maintaining the Historical Milestone Curse requires at least two Suzerain's Books. As for senior fellow apprentice..."

Locke was somewhat worried about Witch Shirley, but when he looked over he heard her let out a sharp "hmph." She was chanting spells in rapid succession, and eight great angels were circling her from all sides.

The eight great angels represented the eight great virtues of wizard civilization in the modern magical age.

Protected by those eight great angels, the assault of the dark sun was being blocked.

This was the most powerful defensive spell available to a First Circle divine master, the Guardian of Eight Angels.

And it was not a spell any divine master could learn.

This spell was Witch Shirley's permanent defensive field.

She was an exceptionally gifted divine master.

This spell model summoned the power of faith in the eight great virtues from within the divine master's divine domain, and simultaneously transferred the opposing magical attacks to that divine domain.

In theory, as long as the attack did not reach Second Circle level, it could essentially be deflected.

Of course, if the divine master casting this magic had even a shred of doubt in their heart, it would immediately backfire.

It was an extremely demanding defensive magic. The moment even the slightest stray thought arose during casting, the magic would instantly turn on its caster.

Witch Shirley's expression was contemptuous. "This is precisely why I detest all these so-called kings and heavens and such. Heaven is dead. This is the age of money. All this grandiose posturing, does it put money in anyone's pocket?"

"The time these people wasted would have been enough to grow one's assets through several cycles of reinvestment. Whether it is the Black Sun Tower, the Nameless King, or the lich king, they are all doing nothing but devaluing their own assets."

Witch Shirley gritted her teeth. "The lich king especially. A dead person with no consumer needs whatsoever. If he were to rule the world, the market's liquidity would evaporate overnight."

"Everything about this era is utterly distasteful to me."

Witch Shirley noticed that the dark sun was steadily climbing higher, the scorching heat receding with it, and that light had returned to the space once more.

She tilted her head back to look at Locke, and a flash of astonishment crossed her face as her pupils contracted sharply. "That magical pressure... junior fellow apprentice, you..."

"Your magical pressure broke through 9999?"

"How did you manage that?"

Locke pointed at the full moon in the sky above. "Before I entered this space, I had already spent six months observing the movement of the sun and moon of this era. Looking back now, that was the most correct wish I could have made."

"That wish helped me more than I can say. If I had made a different wish at the time, I might not have been able to achieve anything close to this."

Witch Shirley raised her eyes to the moon. "So that is actually your magic."

"I thought it was the real moon."

"I see. Your magic has replaced a celestial body in this space."

Locke smiled. "Mostly I just took advantage of the circumstances. It was because I borrowed this era's magical kingdom that I was able to rapidly bypass the need for vast amounts of accumulation and complete this passable Grand Magic in this era. But this is not truly Grand Magic."

"This is just an experience card. But even with only an experience card, I can use this opportunity to try a few things."

The Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow on Locke's back spread its wings and he flew up into the sky, looking down at the land.

From midair, he channeled his Forest Sanctuary, drawing on five thousand acres of forest, while rapidly taking control of a considerable number of ordinary forests in this world.

He wanted to make use of this experience card while it lasted, to do things that only a Second Circle wizard could do.

After breaking through the magical pressure limit, Locke felt as though his soul too had transformed into the bright moon in the sky. His understanding of magic rose rapidly along with the elevation of his soul's fundamental nature.

In an instant, through this state resembling the union of person and moon, he saw through many details that had previously eluded him, and also discovered many details he had never noticed before.

This was especially true regarding the Forest Alliance Curse.

"Witch Lana once said that an ecological corridor must rely on a material foundation to exist. Communication between one forest and another must have a material basis for exchange, so different forests must be connected by some physical plants."

"At the time, I suggested whether some form of non-material connection might be possible, and was immediately refuted by her, who guided me toward a line of thinking that could never produce results."

Locke reflected, "But now that I have the moon, things are different. What is the moon? The concept of my Lunar Mirror is to reflect all things, to reflect the light of a third party."

"To become a medium of connection within the world of magical plants."

"And that connection will be the foundation of my Grand Magic going forward." In his Second Circle state, Locke continued to refine his Grand Magic without pause.

His Grand Magic had been nowhere near completion, but by borrowing this era's magical kingdom, he had been able to work backward from the result to reconstruct the process.

Locke blinked his right eye. Within the thirty thousand-acre half-plane inside it, a thread of moonlight descended, and then more moonlight fell upon the forests of this world.

'I can use my Lunar Mirror as a relay station of connection, linking the entire world, forming ecological corridors through moonlight!'

'Completing the Forest Alliance Curse!'

'If this succeeds, my degree of control over the subordinate forests under the Forest Alliance will also increase.'

Locke immediately had even more ideas for his Grand Magic. "My moon can serve as a second moon for those forests, providing all living things with their temporal rhythms and illuminating them with light."

"It can increase the flourishing of those forests, and of course also serve as an ecological corridor, completing the Forest Alliance Curse."

The spell model constellation of the Forest Alliance Curse appeared within Locke's sea of consciousness, and as he chanted the incantation, one forest after another composed of ordinary vegetation and low-grade magical plants bathed in his moonlight was forcibly drawn into the Forest Alliance Curse.

At that moment, the magical pressure of his Forest Sanctuary began to rise continuously, reaching an extraordinary level.

"It is done." Locke quickly spent a period of time working backward from the result to refine the process, correcting piece by piece the parts of the spell model that were undermining the effectiveness of the Forest Alliance Curse.

"A mirror is something that reflects and connects. With the moon as a magic mirror, it can reflect and connect all things. My Lunar Mirror can become the core of my Forest Alliance Curse and ecological corridor."

"In this way, as long as I truly complete the Grand Magic, I will effectively have completed the Forest Alliance Curse as well."

"Of course, there are still a few problems left to resolve." Locke recognized that his current state was only an imitation of Grand Magic.

And fortunately, it was only an imitation.

Because at this moment, his Grand Magic was still riddled with problems.

And once a wizard completed their Grand Magic, they could only make adjustments and repairs to the original foundation.

So the fact that he could currently imitate a Grand Magic was genuinely a stroke of fortune.

Right now, the problems with his Grand Magic were as follows. First, within the core of this moon, there was a foreign object, namely the wizard porcelain. Second, the connection between this moon and himself was still too weak. Even the four connections combined were insufficient. Third, this moon still lacked a three-tier structure, and the redundancy structure needed to be added. Fourth, the problem of offensive magic remained unsolved, and this problem had not been addressed at all.

But incorporating the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow into the Grand Magic and making it a part of the whole seemed to offer a glimmer of hope for resolving that issue.

For now, however, the Grand Magic he had hastily cobbled together was genuinely mediocre.

If this truly ended up being his Grand Magic, his future prospects would be quite limited.