Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 272 Frenziedly Scraping Memory Fragments
Locke abandoned Zoena on a wasteland outside the manor, where there were fewer stone soldiers.

When Locke took to the air again and flew back over the manor, he saw that in that manor where the "Border of Life and Death" and "Forbidden Knowledge and Power" converged, which was still echoing with memories, the gargoyles on the roof spread their wings and their eyes shone with red light.

A complex model of a transformation spell appeared on their bodies.

The gargoyles flew into the sky and chased after him.

“This is, after all, only the residual power of a first-ring wizard after his death. All first-ring magic has severely lost its original power.” Locke focused his attention, took out the Three-Headed Shooter Pea, concentrated all his magic power, and poured it into the magical plant. Instantly, nine lines of fire shot out from the Three-Headed Shooter Pea, enveloping all the gargoyles.

The wings of the gargoyles were pierced by the burning pea-shaped steel bullets, and their bodies began to shatter, turning into pebbles that fell to the ground.

Fragments of memory fell into Locke's mind.

Locke flew through the sky, circling the entire manor, shooting at the gargoyles chasing after him and sweeping the statue soldiers on the ground.

One after another, the massive stone statues were reduced to rubble under Locke's attacks. The energy of the Transfiguration spell soared into the sky, turning into pillars of light that dissipated, and fragments of memories entered Locke's mind.

“Using the Great Blue Owl Banana and the Three-Headed Shooter Pea, I possess both high mobility and high output,” Locke pondered. “In addition, the Black Lock Bamboo Sword has raised my magic pressure to 800, and the psionic network and Talmud energy further enhance my magical plant power. Currently, my actual combat strength is almost at the limit of a wizard apprentice.”

"If we keep doing this, we can collect a lot of memory fragments."

Locke examined the memories in his mind. Although he had mined these memory fragments from the echo, he still needed to understand and digest them through his own comprehension. It could only accelerate his progress.

In just a short while, Locke was able to piece together some unique insights from these fragments of memory, discover his previous misunderstandings about first-circle plant magic, and gain a holistic understanding of first-circle magic.

'I see. Essentially, I can piece together a first-level spell using dozens of spell models. All spell models can be understood as parts broken down from a first-level spell.'

'This is an intentional design in the wizarding world; the process of learning spell models is essentially learning a level of magic, so the more spell models one learns, the better.'

Locke understood. "Not only that, the spell model of the first level will be directly engraved in the depths of my consciousness, and will have a greater connection with me. Therefore, it is possible to distort the laws of physics with one's own will."

During this process, Locke quickly learned from others and rapidly understood what first-circle magic was.

'Boom~'

Locke used the Black Chain Bamboo Sword to pierce the heart of an angel statue soldier. Instantly, the entire angel statue soldier's body cracked under the infusion of Locke's black magical pressure, and then rapidly disintegrated. "According to the magic map that Teacher Harlan gave me, killing this kind of angel soldier will give me a higher quality memory echo."

"This is probably because this formal wizard had a particular preference for certain statues during his lifetime, so he was more likely to project important memories onto these kinds of statues."

"Even if a person is born with many identities, there is always one identity that they like the most."

Locke looked towards the manor. "It's been circling over the manor. Let's try getting closer."

As Locke approached the manor from the air, a clock tower in the center of the manor suddenly began to chime.

"Invading dark wizard, you do have some skill. But you underestimate my magic. All your innate identity is merely an initial state before magic alters it!"

As the manor bells rang, a white light enveloped Locke's eyes. When the light disappeared, Locke discovered that all the damage he had caused in the manor had vanished.

All the statue soldiers have returned to their original positions.

But that's not all. Locke noticed that the shape-shifting energy of the stone statues in the manor seemed to have been amplified this time.

Locke looked at the manor's clock and saw that it had returned to zero. At the same time, an angel statue soldier flew behind him, raised its two-handed stone sword, and slashed at him.

Locke raised the Black Lock Sword, intending to block the opponent's attack as before, but suddenly the stone sword in the angel statue soldier's hand began to rapidly transform under the influence of the transformation energy, turning into a stone spear.

The slash turned into a stab. In the midst of the crisis, Locke reacted quickly and improvised, leaping upwards to narrowly avoid the attack.

When Locke tried to use the Three-Headed Pea Shooter to attack the angel statue soldier, silver-blue lines appeared on the surface of the angel statue soldier, dividing it into square blocks of stone.

The stones rapidly rearranged, transforming the statue like a Transformer from an angel into a falcon with a superior aerodynamic structure. This falcon flew at least twice as fast as the angel, completely dodging all of Locke's burning pea bullets.

Locke looked down and discovered that all the human-shaped stone statues below had transformed into various birds of prey and taken to the sky, creating a magnificent scene.

Locke frowned. "What is this? Secondary transformation? We already used transformation magic to change the shape of these statues, giving them corresponding mobility by giving them continuous shape changes."

"But this time, it was actually a second transformation on top of the first one."

Locke dodged a raptor's claw strike. "Each chime of the bell resets time, but I don't know how this is based on the principles of shapeshifting magic."

"Perhaps, it can be found in later fragments of memory."

As Locke battled the aerial statues, he pondered, "No wonder the guardian of this wizarding realm said I didn't need to consider things like the impossibility of dying."

"As long as I kill enough, I will trigger the bell to ring, which will boost the combat power of all the shapeshifting statue soldiers."

"If I keep grinding, the increased combat power will eventually kill me. But..." Locke's pupils turned into golden vertical pupils due to his uncontrollable excitement. "Until then, I can mine as much as possible and collect as many memory fragments as possible!"

Locke looked down at his feet and saw the group of raptor statue soldiers following behind him. In that instant, Locke took out the Crystal Palm Fire Lotus from his Astral Ring and used Scorched Earth Bombs in succession. Immediately, ten Scorched Earth Bombs spewed out scorching flame beams behind him. At the same time, Locke inserted three pea replenishment potions into his Tri-Headed Shooter Pea and sprayed tongues of fire behind him.

Fragments of memories entered his mind.

Locke said, "Sure enough, the memory fragments on the transformed statue soldiers that have been enhanced in strength are of higher quality. I think I understand how this secret realm works now."

"The higher your combat strength, the more advantageous it is here."

“It’s not just a matter of combat strength; we need to think about it.” Locke pointed his gun at the deforming statues. A single incendiary pea bullet could completely shatter a deforming statue.

In an instant, countless stone statues of soldiers within the manor were destroyed by Locke.

"The moment these stone statues undergo secondary deformation is when they reveal their weaknesses."

“The statue is very fragile and can be destroyed by even a slight external force.”

“Seize this opportunity, and I can easily kill these statues.” Locke fought and retreated, destroying a large number of statues in the sky. Fragments of memories converged towards him. At the same time, Locke activated his ancient creature bloodline. His innate demonic eye flashed and destroyed the statue closest to him.

On the edge of the battlefield, amidst the mist filled with lantern grass, the figure of the guardian wizard appeared at the edge of this wizard's secret realm.

The guardian, wielding a scythe and dressed in a black wizard's robe, had a glint of red in his eyes. "I didn't expect this student to be so skilled in combat; that's truly rare."

"There are very few white wizards who are so skilled in combat. In the ever-changing course of battle, using the methods of a formal wizard, they can still maturely find flaws. This is truly..."

"To my surprise."

"Although this echo is maintained by a permanent solidification array of lantern grass, which can restore the echo time and time again, it consumes a huge amount of magical energy every moment. If he continues to kill like this, the energy consumed by the secret realm by him alone will be too much."

"Moreover, the resources in this secret realm are finite renewable resources. If too many memory fragments are plundered at once, the secret realm may become unable to regenerate and shrink in size. The academy's higher-ups will reprimand me."

The guardian wizard hesitated for a moment. "Never mind, he's Harun Vera's student, I'll wait a bit longer."

(End of this chapter)