Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Little Peach Mountain, the Dune Plane, outside the ecological base on the thirtieth underground level of Group 2's research institute.

Locke walked through the area with Witch Mason and the others, a slight frown on his brow. He had only been gone three months, yet Group 2's ecological base had already changed dramatically.

Outside Group 2's oasis base, ring after ring of natural gas wells now dotted the desert, along with a vast number of cold industrial buildings. These factory structures stood in dense rows, and a great many concrete chimneys had appeared throughout this Dune Plane, pouring enormous quantities of exhaust into the sky that had been scorched through by the plane's sun.

Numerous golems and first-class wizard apprentices hurried about near these massive chimneys.

The four of them walked alongside one such chimney, a magical alloy structure five hundred meters in diameter and a thousand meters tall, jutting from the Dune Plane like an enormous pipe driven into flesh. The chimney was venting tremendous plumes of black gas, more terrifying in scale than a volcanic eruption.

Locke stared at the dreadful dark haze. "Heavy contamination from ring-elements? And plutonium elements... radon elements..."

"These are all severe pollutants..."

Witch Freya said, "That's right. But in order to separate matter and restore the composite elemental particles that make it up, a large number of entropy-increasing reactions are unavoidable in the process, producing enormous quantities of isolated elemental substances that would ordinarily almost never be exposed on the surface in nature. And in such quantities, too."

"Still, our newly advanced Second Circle wizard, the esteemed Zalan Bailey, considers environmental pollution to be nothing more than a necessary evil."

"His view is that as long as you rapidly restore the plant population of a plane, you can alter the environment through dense plant communities and thereby save the plane. What a grand plan it is."

Locke made no immediate comment, and instead took in the scene, observing this chimney and the vast number of other chimneys and natural gas wells in the distance, all of them discharging heavy particle pollutants every moment of every hour.

To be fair, pure water was indeed flowing out from the pipes connected to the desert conversion factories, and this water was being channeled through the pipe network into Group 2's research institute, where it became the irrigation source for Group 2's many magical fields.

Beyond that, this water was continuously flowing out into the desert as well.

The Dune Plane was desert as far as the eye could see, so no matter how much water was introduced, it either evaporated out of the plane entirely or seeped underground, leaving behind large deposits of salt and alkali on the desert surface.

But here and now, with the endless supply of water produced by the desert conversion factories, combined with Wizard Zalan Bailey's plan for ecological reconstruction through plant life, a scattering of sea-buckthorn thickets had already appeared around the Group 2 research institute base.

Sparse as they still were, they had nonetheless taken on a considerable extent.

There was no doubt that Wizard Zalan Bailey's plan had already produced some results within three months.

Only the massive quantities of exhaust billowing from the desert conversion factory chimneys every hour of every day were also an undeniable fact.

Witch Mason coughed once, feeling an irritation in her throat. "Even after being diluted, this exhaust still seems quite harsh on the body."

Locke glanced at her and said, "The Dune Plane's ecosystem has already completely collapsed. It's barely surviving as it is. And the heavy particle elements in this exhaust are inherently slow to break down and extremely potent as pollutants."

Witch Mason asked, "So do you think this plan is too aggressive as well, Locke?"

Witch Freya said, "Locke, you don't know what it's been like. While you were away, Wizard Zalan Bailey was competing with us for equipment every single hour of the day. Our group could only keep waiting. Using a single piece of equipment might mean waiting weeks before it was our turn."

"The same was true for other resources. And since our group was new arrivals, we had no real voice in the matter."

Locke looked up at the sky and noticed that the vast quantities of exhaust had formed into dark clouds, which were actually serving to block out the sunlight, reducing the surface temperature by at least a third.

This was one of the reasons those magical plants were able to grow again in the desert.

Locke pressed his foot into the desert sand beneath him and felt that the grains had taken on properties similar to soil.

"A Hardening Curse? That's a spell from the Abjuration School, isn't it."

Witch Freya nodded and said, "Yes, Locke. That Wizard Zalan Bailey hired Abjuration School wizards to apply a Hardening Curse to every patch of ground, which solved the problem of the desert surface being too loose and shifting."

"By making the desert as solid as concrete, it becomes easier to build factories on the desert surface, and it also allows magical plant seeds to be sown into it without being swallowed up by drifting sand..."

Locke gave a slight nod. "In order to obtain water, he needed to construct special processing plants, and those plants inevitably produce heavily polluting exhaust. The exhaust rises into the sky, blotting out the sun, and in doing so happens to block the sunlight and lower the surface temperature of this plane."

"He then used magic to forcibly reshape the surface, giving the desert properties closer to those of ordinary ground."

"All he has to do now is wait for large-scale magical plant communities to emerge in the Dune Plane. Magical plants are themselves a source of air elemental and wood elemental particles, and can also generate magical tides."

"Once the magical plant communities recover to a sufficient scale, they can forcibly restore the magical power of this plane to a certain level."

Locke reflected, "That must be his line of thinking, and he's even accounted for the role of the pollutants. Though the plane tidal flow of a plane and the total biomass of its magical plant communities don't exist in an absolute direct ratio. It's a strong planar magical tide that gives rise to top-grade magical plant communities in the first place, but his way of thinking inverts that relationship."

"He creates a top-grade magical plant community and then forces the magical tide concentration gradient of the plane to recover to a certain level."

Witch Freya said, "Locke, why are you singing his praises and putting yourself down?"

Locke shrugged. "I'm only analyzing his approach objectively. If he were simply incompetent, Master Cis would never have permitted his methods, let alone allocated resources to him."

"And from what I can see right now, it is indeed producing results."

"Wizard Zalan Bailey is someone who believes that natural reconstruction through transformation is enough to restore an entire ecosystem, even if that ecosystem is an artificial one."

Witch Mason nodded and said, "He does have that tendency."

"So then, Team Leader Locke, do you think he can succeed?"

Locke gave a slight shake of his head. "I don't know. I'm only a First Circle wizard, and he is a Second Circle wizard."

"Besides, he is actually carrying it out in practice. Whether it works or not, we'll be able to see the results. I won't comment rashly on something that hasn't produced a conclusion yet. But as things stand, even though I'm not fond of his approach, it has undeniably given Group 2 a rapid supply of water."

Wizard Barrett spoke up, "So then, Locke, what would you do if it were you?"

Locke looked at the conversion factories and furrowed his brow. "Personally speaking, I would absolutely never do it this way."

"This is somewhat short-sighted, fixing the front while neglecting the back."

"He wants to rebuild an entire ecosystem the way you might stack building blocks. But even a Second Circle wizard cannot fully decode ecology. He is still very much a student of it. And rebuilding an ecosystem is a systemic undertaking where pulling on one thread moves the entire fabric."

"Using one problem to solve another leaves me feeling uneasy."

"Reshaping an ecology on this scale, letting enormous quantities of exhaust discharge freely into the atmosphere, if even one link in the chain runs into an unexpected problem, I genuinely don't know how he would recover from it."

Since this was not the wizard world, the ethics and morality review committee had very low scrutiny over such matters.

Locke looked down at his feet, where wastewater mixed with heavy ring-element contamination wound along the hardened desert surface and crept toward him.

The terrible image of the Life Nightmare surfaced before him, vivid and immediate.

Locke let out a sigh. "I genuinely do not agree with this approach. Rushing for quick results like this may solve problems in the short term, but the hidden dangers down the line are far from small."

"By the way, that Second Circle wizard... he's nearly due to check out, isn't he?"

Mason and the others exchanged a glance. "He is, yes."

Witch Mason said, "Still, Wizard Zalan Bailey probably isn't all that bad. The monk may run away, but the temple stays put."

"He may be able to leave Golden Crown Mountain, but unless he's prepared to give up every social connection he has tied to it, there's no running from his obligations."

"Social connections at Golden Crown Mountain are precious. Elsewhere, you simply cannot meet so many wizards with potential, or so many higher-circle wizards."

"I've heard he has friends in environmental work, and that he's already been in contact with them. So his environmentalist wizard friends should help him deal with the pollution problems."

Locke looked up at the sky, where the heavily polluted dark clouds blotted out the light. "He really ought to find a few weather-wizard friends to help him keep that under control."

Come to think of it, Daniel did actually have that ability.

Witch Freya smiled. "According to friends in my circle, ever since Wizard Zalan Bailey became a Second Circle wizard, his nose has been pointed firmly at the ceiling. He seems to believe that his former friends are no longer worthy of his company."

"They're simply not in the same social tier anymore."

"So he has proactively distanced himself from those friends. And since he only just became a Second Circle wizard, he hasn't yet had the chance to build connections with anyone truly formidable. So I'd imagine... he won't be finding any weather-wizard friends in the near future."

Mason, Barrett, and Locke all looked at Witch Freya in astonishment.

Locke's expression was odd. "Not in the same social tier anymore? It's hard to believe those words came from the mouth of a Second Circle wizard."

"Perhaps he's just intoxicated by his success at the moment."

"Give it some time, and once he calms down, he'll probably return to normal."

Locke looked at the three of them and said, "All right, everyone. The matter of Wizard Zalan Bailey has nothing to do with us. In any case, all we need to do is handle our own affairs properly."

"Everyone, now that I'm back, we can keep working hard going forward."

"Don't worry. Follow me and the funding will come, the projects will come. I have absolutely no concern about that. Wizard Zalan Bailey is not our rival, not our friend, simply an irrelevant person."

Locke said, "As long as I can put forward good projects, I can still secure substantial funding. This Wizard Zalan Bailey showing up back in Group 2 so suddenly was certainly a surprise, but honestly speaking, it doesn't affect us all that much."

The three of them were visibly energized upon hearing this.

Wizard Barrett scratched his head and said, "I told you two all along. The moment Team Leader Locke came back, he'd find a way. The two of you were just worrying for nothing all day."

Witch Freya gave a rueful smile. "It's mainly that these past weeks were genuinely miserable for me, just suffocatingly so. I've never had to make myself so small anywhere else in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. The last time I had to keep my head down like that was back in my apprentice days."

Locke's expression turned puzzled. "Keep your head down? He may be a Second Circle wizard, but he's not your superior. Why were you keeping your head down for him, Freya?"

Witch Freya laughed and said, "I was doing it to fish for information about why he was targeting us. And I actually got results."

"Apparently, Zalan Bailey wants to rapidly complete a Tier 1 funding project and then apply for a special grant project. So he has come to regard Team Leader Locke, as a senior researcher of the Origin Academy, as a potential rival."

"On top of that, he also believes that now he's a Second Circle wizard, he naturally deserves to claim the majority of resources within Group 2. He had been nursing the fantasy of returning to Group 2 as a Second Circle wizard and receiving enormous attention from Master Cis."

Witch Freya said, "Who could have known... that Master Cis would go ahead and poach us first. Which left Wizard Zalan Bailey extremely displeased."

Witch Mason added, "We've recently been trying to get a Tier 1 funding project approved on your behalf, Locke. It was almost through. Then that Wizard Zalan Bailey pulled some strings, and it ended up not passing."

"Apparently, at the time it was a borderline call either way. Then Wizard Zalan Bailey happened to have a connection with one of the evaluating faculty members, and then..."

Locke nodded. "I understand. Don't worry about it."

"That sort of thing won't happen again."

Locke was eager to check in with Team Leader Cis and then immediately find Witch Scarlett to enter the wizard shoe collective procurement bid for the Demon Realm War, so he could secure more magic stones, and so he was in something of a hurry.

Locke said, "I'm heading over to Team Leader Cis's now. See you all later."

...

On the thirtieth underground level of Group 2's research institute, pure water was striking the waterwheels at that moment. The large waterwheels fitted with their special magical bells pressurized the fresh water in great quantities and dispersed it across the magical fields throughout the minus-thirtieth level.

Team Leader Cis wore a smile on his face, clearly in a good mood lately. "Locke, you're back."

"I was just mentioning you to Wizard Kelt a few days ago. Wizard Kelt has been away recently. He still asks after you."

"Sit down."

"Now that both you and Zalan are back, I feel my strength has doubled." Team Leader Cis spread his hands and said, "How did the trip to the Jade Splendor Enclave go? Any gains?"

Locke said, "Quite a few, actually."

Locke noticed there was also an unfamiliar Group 2 researcher in the office whom he had barely seen before.

Team Leader Cis smiled and said, "That's good to hear. By the way, now that you're back, do you have any research plans in mind? Whatever you need, feel free to say so and I'll do my best to meet your requirements."

Locke said calmly, "Team Leader Cis, I've been extremely busy lately, so I don't have any solid research plans to speak of just yet."

Mainly because the only thing occupying his mind at that moment was getting to Witch Scarlett as quickly as possible, so he could submit the wizard shoe samples he had designed right on the deadline for the collective procurement bid.

Whether he could turn a significant profit from the market's many entrenched interests in a short span of time all came down to the outcome of this procurement bid.

Whether his Augustus Wizard Shoes brand would become a wizard shoe brand of some renown, or burn out like a shooting star at the edge of the sky, just like all those wizard shoe lines that had briefly flared up and faded away before it, the success or failure of it all rested on this single moment.

A flash of disappointment crossed Team Leader Cis's eyes, but he expressed understanding all the same. "I see. You really have been too busy. I can't force the matter."

"Locke, go and get some rest first. Once you've recovered your energy, come and throw yourself back into the work here in Group 2."

The unfamiliar researcher's eyes flickered, and he seemed to be listening carefully.

Wizard Zalan had been cultivating his network within Group 2 for many years, and clearly a number of wizards there were friends of his.

This person was obviously here to gather intelligence.

Though Locke had never once considered Wizard Zalan to be his enemy.

After all, his own goals and Zalan's goals had been different from the very beginning.

Except that they both had their eyes on the special grant project.