Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

As a single drop of the Zero Potion was poured onto the rock, the spiritual power of the entire stone seemed to undergo a certain change at once.

This Zero Potion had been refined by King Otto during the Historical Milestone Curse as a demonstration for Locke, and through the power of the king's artifact, the false had been made real, transforming it into a genuine bottle of potion.

In essence, the wizard who consumed this potion would gain a portion of blank spiritual power, of ordinary Second Circle quality.

The main reason Locke had not consumed it before was that this substance touched upon the most fundamental element of a person, their spiritual power, and that was a level which, at his current state, could only be observed using the Queen's Chessboard.

Therefore, without knowing its effects, without anyone having taken it before, and without it having passed through modern magical civilization's three-phase trials, he did not dare gamble with his own spiritual power and fuse himself with the mysterious spiritual power contained within some unknown potion.

Besides, blank spiritual power contained nothing. Apart from increasing one's spiritual power slightly, it served no function whatsoever.

A person's soul would not undergo any change simply because their spiritual power reached the Second Circle level.

The soul shackles between the First Circle and Second Circle remained firmly in place.

But now, after the rock absorbed the Zero Potion, a remarkable change occurred immediately. The surface of the rock rapidly drew the Zero Potion's spiritual liquid inside, as though gestating some new form of life.

From deep within the stone, which had received the worship of the Dune People for decades, a response came to Locke on the spiritual level, as though some vague and nascent awareness had been born within it.

"The rock has produced life?"

Locke was completely astonished. All he had done was add Second Circle-level spiritual power to this rock. "Although stone people are extremely common in the wizard world, stone people are elemental life forms. But what does this rock count as? Elemental life forms have a distinct life structure, possessing a distinct biomolecular-type structure, an ordered energy flow."

"That is the characteristic of life."

"But this really is just an ordinary rock. Even if Curse School magic were used to grant it a form-binding intelligence and capacity for action, it would still only be a magical construct, not a true life form."

Locke had been deeply involved with the Curse School in both the southeastern quadrant and the Land of Six Towers, and so he understood that granting a dead object intelligence through the Curse School and creating true life were two entirely different concepts.

He had once had several Corrupt Soil Taro Emperors, and had used Curse School magic to grant them the ability to make independent judgments and choices.

But they had remained non-intelligent life forms.

And yet now, in Locke's spiritual sight, this stone had reached a state somewhere between life and non-life on the spiritual level.

Locke's expression turned odd. "This isn't something I or the Zero Potion caused directly. I only used the Zero Potion to strengthen the special spiritual power inside the rock, which caused me to accelerate its original natural evolution."

"I personally accelerated its formation. Though I have no way of knowing whether it has become a completed form, or whether it is still in the process of forming."

"Never mind that for now. Let me first extract its spiritual power, then use Full Moon Growth to fuse that spiritual power with my climbing fern, and see whether it can promote the climbing fern's evolution."

Locke placed his palm against the rock. The peculiar spiritual power, somewhere between life and non-life, was guided out by him. Then, beneath the illumination of a full moon, this spiritual power blended with the spiritual power of the ordinary climbing fern in his hand, melding together as water and milk.

Immediately, the branches and leaves of the climbing fern gleamed brilliantly, shimmering with the pure light of the moon. The moonlight settled over it like a dusting of gemstone powder.

This ordinary climbing fern, shaped like a spiral staircase, broke free from his grasp and floated into the air.

Because of the addition of the blank spiritual power, the special spiritual power had expanded in both quantity and quality. What had previously only been able to accelerate the faintest evolutionary change in ordinary plants could now directly interfere with a First Circle magical plant and force it into a state of rapid evolution.

All of the climbing fern's latent potential was being drawn out, evolving in whatever direction held promise.

The energy required for the evolution was supplied by the special spiritual power, whose quantity had been increased by the blank spiritual power.

The special spiritual power was then channeled into Full Moon Growth by Locke, transformed into lunar essence, and amplified by approximately twofold, reflecting down upon the climbing fern.

The ordinary climbing fern seemed to transform into a moon fern, awakening in the midst of the moon's light.

Locke furrowed his brow. "Has the special spiritual power been influenced by my magical power? No, that's not right. The special spiritual power itself is a kind of possibility, and it may be neutral. It's just that this possibility was granted by my magic, so the possibility leans toward the characteristics of my magic."

"Whether it is the blank spiritual power or that special spiritual power, both are easily influenced by other forms of magic and tend to merge with them."

At that moment, beneath the moonlight, the ordinary climbing fern changed entirely in color, shifting from golden-green to a gradient of silver and blue. White spiritual power coiled around it.

The fronds emitted moonlight on their own, their veins conducting the moonlight like optical fibers. In the center of every frond, a semi-transparent crescent-shaped pattern appeared.

Locke glanced at it and gave it a name, the Crescent Mark.

Locke called back into his hand the magical plant that had grown the Crescent Mark and changed in color.

"The magical plant's physical ability seems to have doubled, and the ordinary climbing fern, which originally had a golden magic attribute, appears to have gained an ice attribute."

"The appearance of the Crescent Mark represents its acceptance of my blessing." Locke thought, "As long as a contract mechanism is guided into this blessing at the moment these magical plants receive my gift, it would be possible to have them sign a contract with me in that very instant."

Locke glanced at the Dune People who had been disturbed by all of this. These Dune People were looking at the climbing fern floating in midair and prostrating themselves in worship, calling it the Moon God.

Locke gave them a look, then placed the ordinary climbing fern in his left palm. "Going by a rough reading of the spiritual power, the life level has risen by about half a tier. In other words, Second Circle-level spiritual power can guide a magical plant to advance by half a tier."

"Though for now it is still unclear exactly what level of magical plant can be guided at most."

"Would it be effective on a Second Circle magical plant? Would it be effective on a First Circle peak-level magical plant?"

"And..." Locke placed his palm against the fronds of the climbing fern, drew out its spiritual power with his fingertips, and extracted it.

As the lunar-essence-like spiritual power was extracted, the original climbing fern began slowly returning to its former state.

"Because of the special property of blank spiritual power, which can both fuse and separate, I can bestow the gift upon a magical plant, and I can also take it back."

"Whatever magical plants fall under the illumination of this moon, I can give and take from them at will."

Locke opened his left hand, the ordinary climbing fern floating in the center of his palm. "In practice, using this special spiritual power cultivation method to cultivate magical plants doesn't necessarily mean they will be forcibly elevated by half a tier in life level in a short period of time, the way this climbing fern was, and undergo corresponding changes."

"That was only because, while urging its evolution, I injected a large amount of special spiritual power into it as energy, forcibly accelerating its maturation."

"If only a portion of the special spiritual lunar essence is injected, it will only give the magical plant the possibility of elevating its life level within a short period of time."

"So the amount of special spiritual lunar essence injected determines whether the result is direct forced maturation and evolution, merely a possibility of evolution, or, with a bit more given, the triggering of some specific evolutionary change."

With only a brief moment of reflection, Locke had already identified three distinct uses for this special spiritual power.

In combat, a large amount of special spiritual lunar essence could be directly injected into a magical plant in a very short period of time, forcibly accelerating its maturation.

In everyday cultivation of magical plants, this special spiritual power cultivation method could be used alongside other cultivation methods to accelerate the process.

It was worth noting that one of the greatest limitations determining the speed and quality of magical plant cultivation was the number of growth generations.

The more powerful a magical plant, the longer each generation took, and the higher the cost of every generation.

But if this special spiritual power cultivation method were used to accelerate the rate at which generations turned over within other cultivation methods, it would provide an enormous boost to the cultivation work on other magical plants.

At the same time, the method itself could grant a magical plant the possibility of an upward leap. With careful application, it might even be possible to give a magical plant whose traits had stabilized and could no longer advance any further a small chance of continuing to evolve.

Inside the Dune People's cave, Locke looked up at the moon. "The Lunar Mirror? No. This is the Moon of Evolution."

"This is the true essence of the Grand Magic I need."

"Only with this essence does it have enough height to support me on my path forward, and even to become a higher-Circle wizard in the future. I have found the path for my Grand Magic. What remains is to lay a solid foundation and completely construct the spell model for my Moon of Evolution along with the ecological cycle."

The Grand Magic modeling competition in the Silent Chalice appeared to be a contest of the resilience of each participant's ecological cycle construction.

So being able to simulate Grand Magic modeling in the Silent Chalice would indeed be very useful.

Locke looked at the special spiritual power transformed into moonlight and thought, "For ease of reference, I'll call it Lunar Essence."

"So the abbreviated name is Lunar Essence."

"This cultivation method, I'll call it the Lunar Cultivation Method."

"Though for now I still can't quite figure out what this special rock spirit actually is, it is undeniably very useful."

Locke spent another full day analyzing this stone from every angle and determining what would happen if it were moved.

He eventually confirmed that the stone had become self-contained. Even if it were relocated, nothing would change.

Only then did Locke store it in the space of his Forest Sanctuary.

When the group of Dune People saw the Stone Spirit suddenly disappear, they immediately became alarmed. Locke hesitated for a moment, then blinked his right eye and opened a half-plane gate.

These two hundred Dune People were nothing more than ordinary mortals.

Even if they were allowed to enter his Forest Sanctuary and face five thousand acres of magical plant forest, if they could cause any damage, he would be a laughingstock.

Letting this group of mortals in posed no real problem. Even if they wanted to disturb the ecology, their current numbers were insufficient for that.

He would temporarily house them here for now. He had money on hand, and could go to the Dragon Blood Market to rent a plane conquest service, find a plane pioneer team, and have them help him find a small-scale world where these Dune People could be properly settled.

At least until he found a way to replicate this rock spirit, these Dune People were non-renewable treasures.

Of course, once he could replicate it, the Dune People might become even more precious. Because out in the endless void, as an individual wizard trying to find on his own a life race as well-suited as the Dune People for creating special rock spirits, it might truly take some luck, some time, and a large expenditure of magic stones.

These Dune People looked through the dimensional gate and saw the Stone Spirit. Without much hesitation, they immediately concluded that this was the Stone Spirit's guidance and blessing.

Because, no matter how they looked at it, the world on the other side of the dimensional gate was, without any question, an absolute paradise.

Compared to the Dune Plane, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.

And so, every single one of them went through.

Locke spent another day keeping watch over the Dune People who had entered his half-plane, and confirmed that they had established some simple structures near his Forest Sanctuary and had begun to settle in.

All he needed to do was periodically drop in some water and food, and they would all be able to survive, reproduce, and live within it.

In any case, these mortals would probably assume that all of this was the blessing of the Stone Spirit.

He was too lazy to step forward and reveal himself.

With the all-powerful Stone Spirit there, he only needed to act in the Stone Spirit's name to keep them compliant.

Although this meant the Dune People had effectively moved to a different world to live, without the slightest awareness of what had happened.

Everything, to them, looked exactly like the Stone Spirit's blessing.

They did not even know wizards existed.

Locke returned to the research facility and soon received a message from Witch Camilla.

At his workstation, Locke saw a message that Witch Camilla had sent him. "That trade you mentioned last time, I thought it over for a while. I think it might be possible."

"But I have one condition. I want one Dragon Viewing Peach from your teacher!"

Locke furrowed his brow. A Dragon Viewing Peach?

That was a special magical peach capable of breaking the boundary between humans and animals. When consumed by an animal, it granted that animal human spiritual power and human intelligence.

It was one of the Twelve Peaches of Golden Crown Mountain, and this was going to be no easy matter.

Locke did not immediately refuse. Instead, he sent back a message, "What made you change your mind?"

Witch Camilla sent a reply. "My sister... I found many potion masters to treat her, but she is still in the same state of stupor. Turned from a person into a beast. That damned Twin Demon Realm, those shameless thieves and bandits!"

"Locke, I need a Dragon Viewing Peach. The Demon Hub City thought of some options for the two of us sisters, but in the end told me that Golden Crown Mountain has refused to provide us with a Dragon Viewing Peach."

"The Demon Hub City told me to give up. But how could that ever be possible?"

"My sister is the only family I have left in this world. I must save her. As long as you can get me a Dragon Viewing Peach, no matter how many natal witch porcelain pieces you want, I can get them for you. Can you or can you not help me get a Dragon Viewing Peach? If you deceive me, I will fight you to the death!"