Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Before leaving, Locke marked the Dune People's dwelling with a specific marker, then departed and used Full Moon Growth to search for other Dune People across the desert.

Over the course of roughly three days, Locke found two more underground settlements of Dune People in the vast desert, both smaller in scale.

These Dune People were also surviving temporarily by relying on the underground glaciers in their respective areas. But unlike the first group of Dune People Locke had encountered, no peculiar phenomenon occurred during the rituals of these groups.

Locke returned to Group 2's facility base. "So it's only the first Dune People community I encountered where something like that occurred. The other Dune People, though one group worships a rock and another worships a piece of silicified wood, a wood fossil, have both had their rituals proceed without any anomaly."

"None of their ritual worship produced any unusual result." Locke thought, "Looking at it this way, the kind of stone that can absorb the spiritual power of its worshippers and have it exist in some particular state is itself not something common or easily reproduced."

"Should I retrieve it? Or should I wait a little longer? Arbitrarily disturbing that environment might very well cause me to miss an important discovery."

"There are still many things about what I found in that tribe that I have yet to understand. I need to investigate it further."

Locke looked at the ordinary climbing fern in his hand. "Hmm... I can't say there's been any particularly major change. Aside from some of the climbing fern's fronds taking on a serrated shape, nothing much else has changed."

"This is different from directly injecting Type 2 Tyrant Element, or the Abyssal Devourer Body organ."

The fusion of that special spiritual power with his magical plant could accelerate a certain evolutionary change in the plant, but at the end of the day, the special spiritual power was far too scarce, and its quality was not sufficient enough.

It was completely incapable of producing any significant evolutionary advancement in a First Circle magical plant in his hands.

He could try combining the special spiritual power from that stone with an apprentice-level magical plant again.

Only there was almost nothing left of the stone's special spiritual power.

Locke found himself in a dilemma. He had very likely made a major discovery, yet for some reason he now had the frustrating feeling of having nowhere to begin.

The Silent Chalice Competition was fast approaching. He needed to extract, as quickly as possible, the key knowledge from this unknown phenomenon he had stumbled upon by chance, knowledge that could help him win the championship.

Locke walked into the public office. When Witch Mason saw him return, her eyes brightened slightly. "Team leader, you're back. Lord Zalan Bailey said you should go see him when you get back."

Locke gave a slight nod, then sat down at his workstation with a heavy expression, deep in thought.

Witch Mason, Witch Freya, and Wizard Barrett all looked at one another, completely baffled.

Witch Freya said, "What's going on with the boss? He looks like he has a lot on his mind."

"About Zalan Bailey..."

Witch Mason muttered, "Perfect excuse not to go, then."

Wizard Barrett said in a low voice, "Let's just get back to work quickly and help the boss finalize the specific structural results for the Glandular Root Pouch organ as soon as possible."

"Come to think of it, where on earth did the team leader find that special magical plant energy-locking structure? We looked through every known magical plant energy-locking structure in both Group 2 and Golden Crown Mountain's records, and it wasn't there anywhere."

"This energy-locking structure can give a magical plant a specialized short-term energy storage organ, capable of briefly enhancing the plant's traits."

"It's truly remarkable. Helping the boss analyze the specific mechanism of this energy-locking structure has been quite educational for me. I've made a lot of progress myself and gained a much deeper understanding of botanical magic."

Meanwhile, Locke had no attention left for Wizard Zalan Bailey. He was at his workstation, going through reference materials.

Then, looking urgent, Locke left the Dune Plane, left Little Peach Mountain, mounted the Rainbow Sparrow, and made his way back to Golden Crown Mountain's library.

Once inside, he immediately found a First Circle general knowledge wizard working in the library and asked for help accessing research materials related to totemic gods and totemic spirits.

Unlike the southeastern quadrant, the Cloud Marsh Wetlands had a large number of colonial worlds, and therefore also had detailed records on totemic gods.

In the southeastern quadrant, the only one likely to have such materials would have been the Blood Lord of the Blood Curse Court.

Locke asked the ordinary human First Circle general knowledge wizard, "In either the free section or the paid section, are there any articles on totemic gods being capable of accelerating the evolution of plants?"

The First Circle general knowledge scholar, Wizard Portsmouth, immediately showed a look of puzzlement, then shook his head slightly.

He recognized Locke's identity and remained respectful. "Mr. Augustine, I'm sorry, but at least within Golden Crown Mountain's library, I don't believe so. I have read a great deal of literature on totemic gods and have not come across a single article mentioning the ability to accelerate plant evolution."

"Oh, there are a few articles that mention some totemic spirits possessing the ability to make plants grow rapidly. If plants can be made to grow rapidly, it might be possible to increase the number of generational iterations? Of course, that is quite different from true evolution."

Locke furrowed his brow and said, "Exchange the relevant articles for me."

Wizard Portsmouth was a wizard whose appearance was that of a middle-aged man, with greying temples. He raised his right hand, and a series of articles fell from the bookshelves into his grasp.

"No exchange necessary. This content is all in the free section. Research on totemic gods is not a popular topic in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"In that regard, the Crepuscular Border Region tends to place much more emphasis on it."

Locke nodded and quickly flipped through the materials. Sure enough, he found nothing related to what he was looking for.

Locke said, "Wizard Portsmouth, I would also like to access articles related to the formation of totemic gods, or primitive divine spirits."

Wizard Portsmouth nodded and raised his right hand again. A stack of articles automatically flew into his hands. "These are still free section content. Please take your time reading them. The library recently had a sponsorship with leftover funds, so it is currently offering some expensive wizard teas for free, such as the Eagle-Beak Red Mist Tea."

"Mr. Augustine, just let the library attendants know."

Locke nodded.

He then took the stack of materials to a reading area and began going through them. As he read, he gradually confirmed one thing.

The special stone he had found in the Dune Plane was most likely not a totemic spirit, a totemic god, or any kind of primitive divine spirit.

It appeared to be in a more peculiar state than any of those.

"No wonder no wizard before me discovered this special method of accelerated evolution. For one thing, this special acceleration method seems to have an extremely faint effect, and has not produced any significant impact."

"For another, the stone capable of absorbing human spiritual power was, in its original form, just an ordinary rock. And this is indeed a very rare phenomenon."

A thought flashed through Locke's mind. "But there was indeed accelerated evolution taking place. Perhaps the quantity and quality of the special spiritual power was simply insufficient. I have yet to fully work out the production mechanism of this special spiritual power, its specific mechanism of action, and its intrinsic structure."

"But I actually have a way to rapidly improve the quality and quantity of this special spiritual power in a short period of time."

Locke reached into his astral ring and took out a glass tube. Inside the tube was a wisp of transparent spiritual power.

That was the Zero Potion.

The Zero Potion was blank spiritual power, which meant that if the special spiritual power were combined with blank spiritual power, the quality and quantity would increase out of nowhere while the inherent characteristics of the special spiritual power itself would remain completely unchanged.

If he used the Zero Potion to enhance that special spiritual power whose true nature had yet to be identified, it might be possible to truly cause a First Circle-level magical plant to undergo a degree of accelerated evolution.

Or perhaps it was not even evolution.

Locke thought, "This is a serious matter. It involves the most critical piece of my Grand Magic, and I cannot casually invite another wizard to work with me on this. But could I ask my teacher?"

"On second thought, let me try researching on my own first. Witch Yekaterina is my cooperative supervisor, but she is also everyone else's cooperative supervisor."

"I trust her character, but if it can be avoided, there is no need to test human nature."

Besides, since this was his own discovery, he would of course do everything in his power to see it through himself.

And he did believe he genuinely had the ability to do so.

Stealing a moment between tasks, Locke opened his back-end dashboard on the Arthas platform and found that during this period, thirty pairs of the same design from the Demon Realm War had already been sold, bringing him revenue of six hundred and sixty thousand magic stones.

Adding in the scattered sales from the three earlier wizard shoe designs, just these past few days had brought him a full seven hundred thousand in income.

Of course, the number of magical weavers leaving messages in his back end, cursing at him, had grown even more. Some were even demanding that he issue a public apology and cease what they called the dangerous research into purely plant-based wizard shoes.

Locke ignored all of this foolishness outright.

At the same time, Locke noticed that the top-ranked comment in his message feed was a forwarded video.

He tapped on it and saw that the video featured Wizard Stuarts George, a renowned First Circle wizard from the major league of the Spell Combat Tournament who had been invited by Solas Light Foot, speaking confidently in front of a host.

"I have personally worn the wizard shoes of the Solas Light Foot shop alliance, and I believe Solas Light Foot's wizard shoes should be the finest wizard shoes in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

The host asked, "Mr. George, is that why you absolutely insist on wearing Solas Light Foot's wizard shoes in the major league?"

Stuarts George considered for a moment, then settled in his chair and said, "Of course. Solas Light Foot isn't just one of the major league's sponsors. That part is unimportant. The major league is not short on sponsors. What truly matters is that they genuinely make the best wizard shoes."

"Wearing Solas Light Foot's shoes on my feet truly gives me the illusion of having become light itself. They have greatly enhanced my mobility."

Locke was left speechless.

At that moment in the video, the host seized the opportunity to ask, "Have you heard, Mr. George? Golden Crown Mountain recently procured a batch of purely plant-based wizard shoes."

"What do you make of that?"

Stuarts George flashed a mocking smile. "Purely plant-based wizard shoes? I don't think that's quite feasible. For starters, not everyone is a botanical wizard. Alright, I know some people will think that enchantment school magic can also be used to treat magical plants as magical instruments."

"But everyone should understand, magical plants are not well-suited for movement. I think purely plant-based wizard shoes are more of a flash in the pan. That said, I'll say it again: as the First Circle major league champion of the Spell Combat Tournament, I only endorse quality."

"Welcome everyone to purchase Solas Light Foot (30K)."

Locke was left at a bit of a loss. He closed the video. "How much did Solas Light Foot pay him? Well, fine. Doing it for the money is nothing to be ashamed of."

Locke turned back to the materials at hand. "My main focus right now still needs to be on figuring out exactly what that special spiritual power is, and coming up with a practical way to use it."

"Also, I need to find a way to check in on the progress of Daniel's research into the special spirit mist."

"And then there's the special energy-locking structure of the ancient flower root, the Pixiu Angle Fractal Spiral Constraint Equation System. These things may all be useful for helping me construct my Grand Magic."

...

One week later, at Solas Light Foot (30K)'s technical seminar, the wizards sat around the long table staring at one another.

Because their Solas Light Foot had suddenly been ranked first on the Hand of the Jungle's list of the most backward shop alliances, and had been declared a life-unfriendly product.

On top of that, the wizard shoe brand they had discussed at their previous meeting and agreed could be quickly suppressed and acquired before it grew any further, had been suddenly listed by the Hand of the Jungle as a life-friendly brand.

With this back-and-forth, the wizards of Solas Light Foot (30K) were all left completely dumbfounded.

This meeting had of course not been convened specifically for something they had previously considered a minor matter, but since the situation had developed so suddenly, the meeting immediately became entirely devoted to discussing it.

The moon ring executive of Solas Light Foot (30K) said furiously, "What is going on? Why did those lunatics from the Hand of the Jungle suddenly come after us?"

"The Hand of the Jungle has suddenly listed us as an unfriendly brand, and has been slandering us across the board."

"Everyone, our brand is built on a full-spectrum positioning strategy. We produce high-end wizard shoes, mid-range wizard shoes, and low-end wizard shoes alike."

"The Hand of the Jungle's slander has relatively little impact on our apprentice-level and First Circle wizard shoe sales, but it is having a very significant impact on our Second Circle and Third Circle wizard shoe sales."

"High-Circle wizards strongly dislike purchasing wizard shoes from a brand embroiled in controversy."

The moon ring executive continued, "And then there is this life-unfriendly product designation. Once it is applied, any wizard academy that purchases from our shop alliance will have a portion of their already-completed environmental index deducted."

"In other words, anyone who wants to buy from Solas Light Foot now has to indirectly bear a certain environmental quota burden. This is going to create pressure on our high-end wizard shoe brand sales and will have a lasting impact on our brand's reputation."

Everyone looked at one another in bewilderment. None of them had expected that they had only just made their move, intending to crush a new wizard shoe brand with money, and yet this brand that should have been absolutely incapable of hurting them had delivered a combination blow right back at them.

This combination, even for Solas Light Foot, was enough to sting.

Although this kind of move could not have too great an impact on Solas Light Foot, it was enough to leave every wizard present somewhat stunned.

A mere First Circle wizard actually dared to take things this far?

He could actually make them feel "pain"?

The moon ring wizard executive said angrily, "What exactly is our Crisis Pre-Processing Department doing?"

"Why is it that every single time, you fail to fulfill your proper role?"

The other wizards immediately seemed to find an outlet for their frustration, one after another looking toward the head of the Crisis Pre-Processing Department and firing off accusations.

"Exactly, what has your department been doing?"

"The Hand of the Jungle suddenly targeted us, and we didn't receive even a single warning!"

The Second Circle chief designer of Solas Light Foot (30K) suddenly spoke up. "Everyone, let's focus and deal with this matter as quickly as possible. This is just a conflict with a small, emerging wizard shoe brand. Are we really going to let this turn into some kind of prolonged commercial rivalry?"

"Find a way to resolve this brand situation quickly. As for the Hand of the Jungle, I actually think that is a separate issue altogether. We can send someone to speak with the Hand of the Jungle's branch in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands and ask whether they need us to provide financial support."

"If money can solve it, then solve it with money. As for that purely plant-based wizard shoe brand, I recommend initiating the acquisition process as soon as possible and buying it out."

"From what I understand, quite a few breeders are already thinking about how to enter this wizard shoe market. If we don't want anyone disrupting our wizard shoe industry, we need to prepare ahead of time and cut off the source of this trend before it spreads."

The moon ring executive nodded and looked toward a First Circle wizard at his extreme magic pressure limit seated at the table, the head of the acquisitions department.

"Has Augustus's side agreed to be acquired by us?"

The head of the acquisitions department stood up and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Executive."

"I sent our Solas Light Foot wizard to negotiate with Augustus's gold-ranked trader at Arthas, and we offered a generous and immediate payment of ten million magic stones, but we were still refused by that wizard."

Along the long table, a number of wizards began murmuring to one another.

"He's only a First Circle wizard, and he won't sell even for ten million magic stones?"

"Has he lost his mind? At the end of the day, he's just a First Circle wizard. With that much money, can he even hold on to it?"

"I think he's heading for big trouble. That is not the kind of money he is capable of holding on to."

The moon ring executive of Solas Light Foot said, "Then try approaching that wizard directly instead of going through that gold-ranked trader."

"We can also apply pressure through his academy. We can go directly to his teacher and his classmates, find his friends and his students..."

The head of the acquisitions department broke into a violent cough. "Executive, have you forgotten? He is a researcher at Golden Crown Mountain."

The moon ring executive clasped his hands behind his back. His expression twitched slightly, and he said calmly, "Oh, right. Forget what I said then."

"Oh, and when your people go to approach him, remember to be polite. Don't be too overbearing. We don't want to look like we're not a proper shop alliance."

"Understood?"

The head of the acquisitions department said quietly, "Understood."

At that moment, the Second Circle chief designer leaned back in his chair and let out a yawn. "This time, even Melechi Magic Step got listed on the life-unfriendly products list as well, and ended up in the Hand of the Jungle's newspaper right alongside us."

"We at Solas are ranked first on the most backward shop alliance list, and Melechi Magic Step is ranked second. We've really made a complete embarrassment of ourselves this time. I imagine at this moment, Melechi is just as much of a headache over this."

"Augustus is a minor matter, but the Hand of the Jungle is a behemoth. If they keep their eye on us, that's a serious problem. Which shop alliance doesn't have at least some wizard factories under its umbrella that discharge wastewater and waste gas without fully meeting environmental standards?"

"If we truly had to comply with every environmental standard, what money would we even be making?"

Along the long table, a wave of indignation swept through the group.

"Exactly. If we had to meet every environmental standard, our costs would go up, so shouldn't prices rise accordingly? They always complain about our wizard shoes being expensive, and yet they also demand we go green."

"We absolutely cannot let the Hand of the Jungle keep hounding us."

"So we still need to come up with a way to quickly force a small little Augustus into selling its assets."

The moon ring executive tapped the table with his fingers. "Let's see what his reaction is when we approach him a second time about the acquisition. If he doesn't know what's good for him, then don't blame us."

"With Golden Crown Mountain in the picture, it is indeed not easy to use force or take other kinds of action. But there are far too many ways to solve a problem in this world."

"At the end of the day, he's just a First Circle wizard. His standing is ultimately limited. It's only because the Silent Chalice Competition has temporarily elevated his status that we can't make a move right now."

Around the long table, several high-Circle wizards exchanged a smiling glance.

The moon ring executive said, "Alright, let's leave this matter here for now. Those above have ordered us to double our annual net profit again within three years."

"So everyone, please redirect your attention to the real work. Starting now, let's discuss ways to increase our sales volume..."

...

In the Dune Plane, Research Base 2.

After a week of sustained, in-depth research, Locke finally confirmed one thing.

He now stood inside the Dune People's cave. "The spiritual power of a person, stripped of its animal characteristics, fuses with the spiritual power of the stone, and then fuses again with the spiritual power of a plant."

"As a result, the plant's spiritual power is enhanced, and a change in state occurs in a short period of time. But this is not true evolution. It is only a state enhancement, a direct change from the fusion of spiritual power. However, within this process, genuine evolution does take place."

"This special spiritual power seems capable of compressing the original hundreds of thousands of years of slow evolution down to a span of roughly a thousand years. Even so, it has not shortened the timeline by all that much. So whether it is these fern plants or this special Dune People tribe, both are only halfway through their evolution, incomplete products, which is why their bodies display those deformed characteristics."

"The ritual they are able to perform can shorten the time required for this evolution. But because the time needed for evolution is inherently so long, no matter how much the ritual shortens it further, it holds little practical meaning for these ordinary mortals."

"In other words, the special spiritual power is grafted onto the spiritual power of a plant, and two stages of change occur. The first stage is the simple enhancement from spiritual fusion."

"The second stage is the accelerated evolution."

"This special spiritual power seems to give a plant a possibility, and the plant can in turn pass a possibility back to the living beings that consume them. That is, the possibility of upward evolution."

"As for how much upward evolution can occur, it seems to be determined by the quality of the spiritual power of the worshippers, that is, these ordinary mortals."

"In other words, it is determined by the quality of the special spiritual power in my hands."

Locke sighed. "So the greatest significance this mechanism I discovered holds for me lies in the fact that it can accelerate the widespread evolution of a certain environment. But in terms of cultivating magical plants, its significance is not quite as great, because the quality of the special spiritual power determines the maximum ceiling of this evolutionary potential."

"And the current quality of this special spiritual power, for my purposes, does not even reach the level of a first-class wizard apprentice. But..." Locke stood before the rock, and took out a vial of the Zero Potion.

"I could try using the Zero Potion on this rock."

"Before I become a Second Circle wizard, I only have one bottle of the Zero Potion... but it really is worth trying. The Zero Potion is a Second Circle-level... potion. If the fusion truly works, then I would be able to harvest a Second Circle-level special spiritual power."

Locke's pupils suddenly contracted slightly. "Then I could use this special spiritual power to grant the magical plants I need the ability to evolve toward the Second Circle level."

"Does that mean I've discovered a niche cultivation method that currently belongs only to me?"