Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

One day later, Locke had just stepped out of the large metal telescope, a steel structure the size of a house located on the fifteenth floor of the research facility base. It required an enormous supply of energy poured into it at every moment, otherwise the telescope could not function.

In essence, it was a large Second Circle magical instrument.

With enough magical energy fed into it, even a sun-ring wizard could not withstand its irradiation with their bare body.

Locke had used this equipment, paying ten thousand magic stones as the usage fee, and had conducted a preliminary analysis of the internal structural characteristics and specific mechanism of action of the ancient flower root.

Witch Mason and the other two had worked on this portion alongside him, saving him a great deal of time.

As Locke walked out, Witch Scarlett reached him through the water hyacinth network and told him that Solas Light Foot (30K) and Melechi Magic Step had joined forces with every wizard shoe brand to launch a coordinated strangulation campaign against their Augustus Wizard Shoes.

Locke's eyes showed confusion. "A coordinated strangulation?"

"They're going to come after me directly?"

Witch Scarlett opened a video call. "That's absolutely impossible. Even a capital behemoth like Arthas wouldn't dare to directly defy the laws of the White Wizard Association. After all, directly defying the White Wizard Association's laws is the same as acting like a black wizard, which means opposing the collective will of all wizard academies, the orders of the Supreme Council of Truth."

"Suppressing black wizards has never required following the law. What they're doing is a commercial action, so no one can say anything about it."

"Right now, these two have put out a campaign, a wizard shoe trade-in program. Every single pair of our Augustus Wizard Shoes can be directly traded in for a better version of any product from Solas Light Foot (30K) and Melechi Magic Step's respective lineups."

"In other words, by using an old pair of Augustus brand shoes as a trade-in, you can exchange it for a slightly better pair of magical weaver wizard shoes. And the original Augustus wizard shoes must be destroyed."

Locke's expression turned strange, and he immediately understood what the two top wizard shoe shops were doing.

On the surface, this move might very well bring them some opportunistic new customers.

But these opportunistic customers were people who would essentially never become genuine long-term customers of any shop alliance or wizard brand to begin with.

On the contrary, his was a newly established wizard shoe brand, and building up seed users was the most critical factor in determining whether his brand could take root and survive.

Winning the First Circle wizard shoe procurement bid for the Demon Realm War was a landmark milestone. Going forward, his brand would gain tremendous renown, and the monthly order count should naturally grow.

The entire brand would enter a phase of positive momentum and rapid growth, and what Solas Light Foot and Melechi Magic Step were doing was using their position as dominant capital giants to get ahead of that and break this cycle of reputation and sales before it could take hold. With the trade-in scheme, they aimed to cut off his process of accumulating seed users.

The goal was to reduce the Augustus Wizard Shoes brand to nothing more than a transitional product under the shadow of their major brands, and to flood his wizard shoe brand with a wave of opportunistic customers who would very likely tarnish the brand's reputation.

Especially those scalpers.

The true objective of those wizard shoe giants was not to directly destroy the Augustus Wizard Shoes brand, because after his brand had won the Demon Realm War procurement bid, that goal was simply unachievable in the short term.

So their aim was to ensure that his Augustus Wizard brand could not grow in a healthy manner, to instill in him a fear of being crushed by giants, and to intimidate any potential wizard investors who might be considering partnering with him.

At the same time, if he was reading the situation correctly, this was a combination move. The next step would likely be the two major wizard shoe brands joining hands to acquire his fledgling little wizard shoe brand.

Locke asked directly, "Scarlett, what price are they offering?"

In the video call, Witch Scarlett paused for a moment, then said, "Locke, your reaction is really fast. I hadn't even gotten to that part yet and you already figured it out. Someone from Solas Light Foot's side did indeed come to us."

"They even tried to get Arthas to stop serving as the manufacturer for the Augustus Wizard Shoes brand, but nobody here paid them any attention."

"Arthas operates on a scale far beyond theirs. The most powerful wizard forces in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands are the Seven Major Academies, followed by those mid-to-large-scale wizard organizations, like the Demon Hub City you encountered before, the Kungudin Building Materials Academy, and so on..."

"And then there's the Little Repose Mountain on the side of Quinn Jol University..."

"Or the Witch Porcelain Dynasty on the Rose Council's side..."

"The Ten Great Shop Alliances of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands are universally recognized as a rare breed of non-wizard-academy special wizard organizations that can genuinely rival a powerful wizard academy in terms of depth and influence."

"Arthas is a transcendent behemoth, and it is not something two wizard shoe shop alliances can buy off. As for their offer, Solas Light Foot put up ten million."

"And they said that if you're willing, they can pay immediately, no delays."

Locke's expression turned odd. "Ten million magic stones? That's stingy enough. Just from this Demon Realm War procurement alone I earned ten million magic stones. And this is all they're willing to offer right now."

Locke sighed. "It seems they still don't think much of us."

Witch Scarlett, acting as Arthas's trader, seemed genuinely delighted at the prospect of going head to head with the two wizard shoe giants of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. The corners of her eyes were full of amusement. "Who could disagree?"

"These wizard shoe giants always look down from on high, thinking that with the amplifying effect of their scale and numbers, they can remain undefeatable forever."

Witch Scarlett said, "Also, I checked the stock market, and the share prices of both companies haven't budged at all."

"It seems the public still has plenty of confidence in these two wizard shoe brands."

"So, Locke, are you going to accept?"

Locke refused without hesitation. "No, what are you talking about? Witch Scarlett, you know how hard I worked to find a commercial opportunity like this. If I give it up and have to find another one, do you have any idea how much effort that would take? And I don't have that kind of time anymore."

"Whatever I'm doing, I need money right now. And large amounts of it. If those two shop alliances were willing to give me enough money directly, I might consider stepping back."

Witch Scarlett looked into Locke's eyes and saw that they were bloodshot, as though he had not slept in a long time.

She exclaimed, "The soul declining phase? Congratulations... but isn't this too fast?"

Even Witch Scarlett couldn't help but feel a flicker of envy and jealousy in that moment, though she quickly caught herself.

Locke was a researcher at Golden Crown Mountain, while she was just a local wizard of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, a gold-ranked trader at Arthas.

Although the title of gold-ranked trader was more than enough to make many wizards in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands envious, there was a fundamental difference between that and a wizard like Locke who had entered Golden Crown Mountain through the Cloud Marsh Cup.

Thinking about it that way, Witch Scarlett simply accepted the fact that Locke had entered the soul declining phase faster than she had.

A person's standing is, to a large extent, not only a label in the eyes of others, but also a form of self-understanding for the person themselves.

So Witch Scarlett could never accept an ordinary wild wizard progressing faster than her, yet she could fully accept that a researcher at Golden Crown Mountain's advanced Origin Academy would simply outpace her by a wide margin.

This was also one of the reasons Locke had originally pursued entry into the Star Domain Sea.

Locke said to Witch Scarlett, "Help me ask them something. If the people in charge of the two shop alliances are each willing to provide me with an entry slot to a medium-scale world, the kind that has never been stepped on by any wizard before, then I'd be willing to give up developing wizard shoes entirely."

Witch Scarlett looked at Locke with a complicated expression. "I'll try."

Before long, Witch Scarlett came back on the video call and said to Locke, "The head of the crisis pre-processing department that contacted me from Solas Light Foot's side refused outright."

"The person in charge of reaching out to me from Melechi Magic Step's side asked me... and you... if we had lost our minds, and whether we needed to see a wizard from the Mind School."

"He said he could pay for it."

A flash of irritation crossed Witch Scarlett's eyes. "These people are truly too arrogant."

Locke said, "It seems the talks have broken down. There was actually a deal to be made, only they simply don't think I'm worth that price."

"Well then, Witch Scarlett, please keep running things on your end. When I have time, I'll put out a fifth wizard shoe design."

"Let's keep pressing the advantage. I just haven't had much inspiration lately, and I've had a lot on my plate."

Locke thought it through. "I've clearly rejected the acquisition, but I don't think either of those two will give up that easily. Their trade-in strategy can indeed disrupt our healthy growth right from the start. The most dangerous part is that it could reduce our brand to one that only exists as a second-hand market product people use to trade in for their shoes."

"Once that perception takes hold, it becomes a serious problem. It would clash directly with our image as a dark horse brand from the Demon Realm War. Witch Scarlett, haven't the experts from the Hand of the Jungle been contacted yet?"

Witch Scarlett shook her head. "I'm still working on it. Oh, actually, I did manage to secure something for you, a special accommodation from Arthas. According to the unwritten rules of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, a First Circle wizard can only sell their products within a single wizard district."

"Only a Second Circle wizard is permitted to sell across multiple wizard districts within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. Arthas has granted you a special accommodation, giving you a status equivalent to that of a Second Circle breeder. So you're allowed to choose a second district from among Golden Crown Mountain's ten districts and sell there simultaneously."

"I expect that going forward, your monthly income from wizard shoes will grow by several multiples. Your revenue will increase substantially."

Locke nodded and said, "That's wonderful. I'll choose the Bonifacius District."

The reason he chose that district was because he had a few friends there, Witch Diana and Contract Master Hussein.

As far as he was concerned, all ten districts were more or less the same, since purely plant-based wizard shoes were a blue ocean market, and the Cloud Marsh Wetlands had plenty of breeders and botanical wizards throughout.

So he might as well choose a district where he had a little familiarity and some acquaintances.

Witch Scarlett nodded, weighed the matter in her mind, confirmed there were no issues, and said, "Alright."

Locke said, "Let me reach out to the Hand of the Jungle people myself."

Witch Scarlett said in surprise, "You know someone from the Hand of the Jungle?"

She looked genuinely taken aback. "Those people are really difficult to deal with."

Locke said, "They're not so bad. As long as you know how to get along with them, they're actually quite likable."

Locke thought of Wizard Salvador and Witch Grace from the Southern Border Region's Green Steel Capital.

The latter was impossible to reach at the moment, but the former he could contact through the gray stone tablet.

Witch Scarlett raised an eyebrow and gave him a look of complete incomprehension. "Likable? Um... well, I suppose that must be a figure of speech."

The two of them exchanged a little more, settled on the direction for the future development of Augustus Wizard Shoes, and then ended the video call.

Locke found an empty room in Group 2's facility and walked in. He recited the incantation, summoned a gray stone tablet, and looked up Wizard Salvador's contact information on it.

He sent a video call request directly. Because the slate had been cracked, he did not need to purchase the ten-thousand-magic-stone-per-month gold membership to use that feature.

The call request was answered quickly.

The old man Salvador was not wearing a lotus leaf on his head this time, but rather a large winter melon. The melon was entirely white like jade, roughly the same size as Salvador's head, and its green vines wound around his chin like a ceremonial sash.

Wizard Salvador said with evident surprise, "Good afternoon, Wizard Locke. It's been a long time since we last spoke. I didn't expect you to contact me out of the blue."

"Hmm? Aren't you in the Land of Six Towers? The magic tides on your end feel a bit off to me."

Locke noticed a stretch of tropical rainforest behind Wizard Salvador. The backdrop appeared to be nighttime, which led him to guess that it was the land of permanent night with its settled darkness, the Sunshade Peninsula.

"Wizard Salvador, are you on the Sunshade Peninsula? I'm no longer in the Land of Six Towers. I'm in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

Salvador looked astonished. "The Cloud Marsh Wetlands? What are you doing in a wizard land of such high caliber?"

"Yes, I'm on the Sunshade Peninsula. The Sunshade Peninsula has a Hand of the Jungle Origin Academy, and I'm currently working for the academy here. Are you visiting the Cloud Marsh Wetlands for leisure or for business?"

"Just look at the tropical rainforest behind me and you'll know, most of the Sunshade Peninsula looks like this. The magical plants here are quite unique, too. Because sunlight is scarce here, all the magical plants have been forced to evolve special magical plant organs to use geothermal energy as their power source."

"Because the Sunshade Peninsula's magical plants rely heavily on geothermal energy, the chloroplast organs of the magical plants here have undergone regression, and they have instead come to broadly possess the Vortex Body organ, which converts geothermal energy into life energy. And the magical creatures have changed accordingly."

"Changes in plants drive collective changes in the higher-level consumers within the ecosystem. That is why plants are so vitally important in ecology."

Wizard Salvador said, "By the way, I've been keeping that old promise in mind. Just wait a little longer. Perhaps I'll soon have a chance to get you into the Hand of the Jungle's Origin Academy here on the Sunshade Peninsula!"

Locke's expression turned odd. "Wait, Master Salvador, thank you for your kind thought. But I may not need that anymore."

"I'm currently in the advanced Origin Academy at Golden Crown Mountain in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"As a researcher."

Wizard Salvador's expression turned strange, and his pupils suddenly contracted, as if he found it somewhat unbelievable. "You? Golden Crown Mountain? The Cloud Marsh Wetlands?"

"The Three Marsh Lands are territory that even the Hand of the Jungle has great difficulty entering."

In the Eastern Border Region, the Hand of the Jungle's main base appeared to be the Sunshade Peninsula, where their influence was considerable.

Locke nodded and said, "Right. The reason I'm reaching out to you this time is that there's something I need your help with."

He briefly explained to Wizard Salvador his concept of purely plant-based wizard shoes, then described how the wizard shoe shop alliance giants of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands were currently joining forces to suppress him.

Sure enough, after the old man Salvador finished listening, he immediately fell into a state of extreme fury. "What! Those despicable magical creature butchers, those who force mountains to labor for them, how dare they do such a thing!"

"These people should be apologizing to every wizard in the world!"

"How terrible these people are. The world has gone rotten, and so have people's hearts."

The winter melon Salvador wore on his head sensed its owner's emotional state and gradually shifted from jade white to a deep, smoldering red.

Locke hadn't expected that his headpiece could actually react to its owner's emotional changes.

Wizard Salvador said with righteous indignation, "The concept of purely plant-based wizard shoes is so perfectly in line with the Hand of the Jungle's advocacy of energy conservation, environmental protection, and long-term development."

"Just wait, Locke. Rest assured, I won't let those terrible life butchers bully you. I will contact my friends in the Hand of the Jungle and help you get your wizard shoe brand designated as a Life-Friendly Brand."

Locke's pupils contracted slightly.

That was exactly what he wanted.

No matter how small the Hand of the Jungle's influence might be within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, for an individual wizard, it was already quite significant.

The major wizard academies of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands all needed to meet their annual green environmental protection quotas, and rather than genuinely doing something environmentally responsible to offset those quotas, they would simply purchase green-certified products outright. Who would actually sit down and think seriously about taking real environmental action?

After all, the Three Marsh Lands was a place where the Hand of the Jungle currently had no way to intervene.

But as long as his wizard shoe brand was recognized as a green, environmentally friendly brand, he would receive large volumes of orders simply from academies trying to meet their environmental quotas. And it would help stabilize his brand's reputation against the impact of the other parties' trade-in strategy.

Wizard Salvador said, "And that's not all. I'm also going to contact my friends and have the Hand of the Jungle list that Solas Light Foot and Melechi Magic Step on this year's ranking of the most backward shop alliances, so their disgraceful names appear in the Hand of the Jungle Newspaper!"

Locke looked completely lost. "What is that?"

Wizard Salvador said, "In the past ten years, we in the Hand of the Jungle have put together a ranking table that lists the shop alliances that are the most unenviromentally responsible. As you know, we receive a lot of investment every year, more than we can spend, so we used some of it to start a newspaper. In the interest of environmental charity, we give the newspaper away for free, no charge."

"The newspaper has some very useful sections, as well as a portion dedicated to promoting the Hand of the Jungle's philosophy. Among those sections is one featuring the most backward shop alliances. Just wait, I'll contact people right away and get those two listed."

Wizard Salvador gesticulated furiously. "These devils, why weren't they born in hell or the abyss instead of here in the wizard world? They are truly wicked."

"I'm going to make every wizard in the entire Eastern Border Region see their shameful names."

Locke blinked. Wizard Salvador was only an ordinary First Circle wizard, but because he was a renowned jungle ecological restoration expert, he held a special kind of authority within the Hand of the Jungle.

In most situations, or when purely pursuing academic appointments, that authority amounted to very little.

But in precisely this kind of commercial competition, or something similar to it, that authority would make itself felt in a very powerful way.

Locke hadn't even considered that Wizard Salvador would have the ability to get those two shop alliances plastered across a newspaper covering the entire Eastern Border Region and thoroughly denounced within its pages.

Wizard Salvador said, "I'm also going to contact friends to launch an environmental investigation into those two shop alliances."

"They're bound to have violations!"

"Also, Locke, this concept of purely plant-based wizard shoes you've put forward is actually very much in line with the Green Magic Plan that the Hand of the Jungle has been pursuing for a long time. This Green Magic Plan wasn't something our Hand of the Jungle came up with alone. It was jointly launched with the White Wizard Association's headquarters."

For some reason, after mentioning the White Wizard headquarters, the old man Salvador's expression became noticeably more serious, and he seemed far less worked up. "In other words, this is a plan launched by the Hand of the Jungle together with those above."

"Over the years, the Hand of the Jungle has continually sought to strengthen the Green Magic Plan's presence in the Three Marsh Lands. But we have always only been able to make a superficial mark."

Wizard Salvador thought it over and said, "But this commercial plan of yours makes me feel that the Hand of the Jungle might have an opportunity to partially realize this plan within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"The so-called Green Magic Plan consists of a complete set of rigorous metrics. The main objectives are to reduce pollution to the environment, cut down on the consumption of non-renewable resources, achieve a series of future goals including reducing emissions of heavy-element particle gases and wastewater, and produce products with the smallest possible environmental impact."

"On that front, we in the Hand of the Jungle have always felt this goal is far too lenient. So much so that over the years it has been paid lip service everywhere while being quietly ignored, and the plan has even permitted many so-called objectively unavoidable forms of pollution."

Wizard Salvador said, "In any case, I can find people to work on getting your brand designated as a Life-Friendly Brand, then channel investment into your brand through the Green Magic Plan, and apply to the local White Wizard Association for brand protection and anti-competition protection."

"After that, it would be possible to levy fines against those two shop alliances running the trade-in campaign and compel them to directly cede a portion of their market share to you."

"Either way, I still need to consult with some people. Locke, just wait. In a few days, the local Hand of the Jungle experts should be reaching out to you."

Locke knew, of course, that things would not unfold as easily as Salvador made it sound. After all, those capital powers were not going to cut their own flesh just for the sake of some so-called Green Magic Plan and simply hand over a specific slice of the market.

But as long as he could bring the Hand of the Jungle in, he could use one predator against another, letting the Hand of the Jungle stand in front of him and absorb the pressure that the various capital forces were jointly applying to him. In the meantime, all he needed to do was use that time to advance to the Second Circle, strengthen his own position, and simultaneously strengthen his brand, until the major wizard shoe shop alliances had no choice but to accept the new reality.

Time was on his side.

As long as he could survive the first wave of coordinated suppression and weather the heavy pressure, every subsequent attack against him would cost his opponents more and more.

Capital always chases profit. The further things progressed, the more likely those wizards who had staked their bets on the traditional wizard shoe industry would end up placing their bets on his side instead.

His Augustus Wizard Shoes might even manage to turn the tables and become a new wizard shoe brand giant within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

Of course, that would also require him to advance to the Second Circle as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if large volumes of capital currently sitting on the sidelines decided to join the collective suppression effort, things would become very problematic.

At the same time, to truly claim a real share of the wizard shoe market, winning at the First Circle level was not enough. He would also need to win at the Second Circle, and even at the Third Circle.

And the two top wizard shoe brands were still locked in a standoff with him at the First Circle level, where they held an overwhelming advantage. The Second Circle went without saying, and the high-end realm of the Third Circle was obviously beyond anything he could touch right now.

So Locke estimated that the two shop alliances' actions against him were unlikely to be a desperate, all-or-nothing fight to the death. Rather, it was more of an attitude of suppressing a newcomer and guarding against unexpected developments.

As long as he could raise the cost of suppressing him high enough, the two sides would reach an equilibrium. For a long stretch of time, until he attempted to break through their barriers in the Second Circle wizard shoe market, the two sides should be able to stay out of each other's way.

Bringing in the Hand of the Jungle was also just a means of raising the cost of suppressing him.

For now, this strategy appeared to be the right one, and he might even be able to ride the tailwind of the Green Magic Plan.