Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 398 The Truth and Goodbye to the Great Wizard Sura
In an instant, the entire domain was filled with endless flames, like a solar storm, engulfing Locke and Alicia's bodies.

Endless flames completely engulfed the two of them.

Only the two mages, the Holy Law Master and the Venerable Law Master, were safe within the vast fire field, which was within a kilometer radius, as the flames bypassed them.

Seeing this, the Dharma Master looked at the Dharma Saint with utter admiration. "Is this the forbidden magic that only Dharma Saint-level wizards can use?"

"It's incredibly powerful. It's a spell that can only be used when one's spiritual power is completely aligned with the elemental source of the Hall of Sorcerers. It's a forbidden spell capable of destroying the world. Archmage Sura has issued a decree that, except during times of war, no Sorcerer can use forbidden spells in the mage plane. And today, I actually witnessed the Sorcerer himself making a move..."

“Forbidden Spell: Flame Emperor.” The Archmage’s eyes flashed with fiery red light as he coldly snorted. “Foolish demons, no matter how many times you come, the result will be the same. We Archmage-level mages, under the tutelage of the first Archmage, the ancestor of mages, the Great Sage Sura, comprehended the mysteries of the [Domain].

"Within this domain, I can manipulate your body, your magic, everything about you. I can manipulate all the elements within this domain. Within this domain, how can I be any different from the gods in the stories?"

"In the more than three hundred years of glory of my mage plane, every person who comprehends the [Domain] has been remembered in history and stands at the pinnacle of civilization in this world." The mage saint's gaze was cold. "Coming to the gates of the mage saint's hall to provoke you is just a foolish demon courting death."

"Although I don't know why Teacher Sula cares so much about prophecies, in my opinion, all prophecies are nothing but nonsense. Even we, the holy sages who have already known all the mysteries of this world, cannot predict the future, so who else can?"

"let's go."

The Sage turned around, intending to return to the Sage Hall, back to the Mage Tower, and activate the elemental pool there to prevent the demon army from actually attacking.

But the next moment, his pupils suddenly widened in shock. "How is this possible?"

The moment he released the domain, he saw Locke and Alicia standing there in mid-air, completely unharmed, not even a single hair on their heads.

Alicia was still pondering what exactly a domain was, while Locke stood calmly in place, dressed in a white wizard's robe, his gaze indifferent as he looked at the Archmage. "Your attack was far too weak. You possess 1100 magic pressure, but the power of that spell could not possibly have reached the level of a first-ring spell; its power was roughly at the 0.9-ring level."

Locke said, "But you clearly had 1100 magic pressure, and the spell model of that spell was barely acceptable. So, why? You held back?"

Sweat dripped from the Dharma Master's forehead. After all, in his eyes, the Dharma Saints of the Mage Realm were gods, beings who knew everything about the past and future.

He was a leader who, under the guidance of the great sage Sulla, opened up civilization and distanced himself from ignorance.

Forbidden spells are incantations that can destroy heaven and earth, yet the magic just now couldn't harm the two people in front of them in the slightest.

The mage's pupils dilated. "This is absolutely... impossible. That's forbidden magic."

"No demon can withstand my forbidden magic. In the past hundred years, every time the demons were about to win, as long as our Hall of Magic Saints sent out one Magic Saint, it was enough to suppress their army."

"And what is magic pressure, and what is a spell model? Is a spell model simply an array spontaneously formed by those elemental spirits?"

The Archmage's eyes widened in disbelief. "Forbidden Spell: Great Wind God."

He expanded his domain again and continuously increased the intensity of the forbidden magic. A giant wind blade, a thousand meters long, slashed towards Locke. The earth-shattering scene even caused the world to begin to change.

After all, it's only a medium-sized plane, and its world strength is far inferior to that of the Wizarding World. If it's just about living, it's not obvious, but once the intensity of combat increases, the limits of this world's endurance will be tested.

The direction of a wind magic particle from the 0.95-ring energy manipulation school has caused the sky above this world to change dramatically, and even caused a solar eclipse. The world is warning all living beings in its own way that someone is using an extremely powerful force.

Of course, this kind of magic, which is close to the first level, cannot cause real damage to this world, after all, it is a medium-sized world with relatively complete world power and world principles.

It has reached what can be called the lowest threshold in the world.

The massive wind blade, a thousand meters in diameter, descended upon Locke and Alicia, intending to cleave them in two. The mage's eyes widened, but the next moment, his pupils suddenly contracted, as Locke raised his right hand and, with a human's right hand, grasped the thousand-meter-long wind blade. Incredibly, the entire wind blade was held in Locke's palm.

The solar eclipse that was taking place in the sky suddenly stopped, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Locke squeezed his right hand slightly, and the entire kilometer-long wind blade was instantly covered with cracks. Suddenly, it shattered with a bang, and countless tiny fragments of wind element fell to the ground, carving deep trenches in the mud.

Such power was indeed formidable, yet it was no match for Locke's single-handed grab.

The mage suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, then gritted his teeth and looked up at Locke. "How can there be such powerful demons? They don't have a trace of demonic energy on them. Could they not be demons? No, they are demons. Otherwise, they couldn't possibly be anything other than us mages, attracting the hostility of the elemental spirits and being able to use magic."

“But how could there be such a powerful enemy?” The Archmage looked at the Archmage beside him. “Run! Run until you can’t see me anymore. No, even just being out of sight won’t help. Run as far as you can. Because the forbidden magic I’m about to cast is too powerful, and I can no longer guarantee your safety.”

Locke watched this scene with great interest and said to Alicia, "The laws governing this world are far simpler than those of our world, so the influence of first-level magic is much more severe and its scale is much larger here. For example, that 0.9-level magic just now looked massive, but I was too lazy to even lift my hand."

Alicia nodded and said, "Yeah. Actually, we don't need to pay any attention to that magic. Your Life Field and my Permanent Defense Field [Dragon Scorpion Back Armor] can completely ignore that apprentice-level magic."

The core bloodline of the Plutarch family is the dragon-scorpion bloodline, an artificial magical creature that combines the bloodlines of dragons and scorpions. The most accomplished example of this is the Dark Cave Scorpion Woman, created by the great wizard Sura using magic.

Dragon scorpions possess the powerful defensive capabilities of scorpions, further enhanced by dragon blood, resulting in formidable defense. Consequently, Alicia's Permanent Defensive Field Dragon Scorpion Carapace also boasts considerable defensive capabilities.

The dragon scorpion's defensive power far surpasses that of a permanent defensive field of the same level. Even a crystallized wizard cannot break through the dragon scorpion's carapace. Its only drawback is that... this thing only covers the upper body and does not cover the lower body, neck, or face.

It provides partial protection, but the advantage it brings is that it can completely protect the chest and heart area.

At the same time, its surface can secrete magical toxins, poisoning anyone who touches it.

Therefore, the dark wizard who was on the airship was able to harm Alicia.

The Dragon Scorpion Back Armor is the kind of spell that needs to be used carefully, not used mindlessly; its potential and potential are extremely limited.

Locke looked at the Archmage and said to Alicia, "I think I know why he can only use 0.9-level spells and can't fully unleash his magical pressure. You see, when he uses his magical pressure to the extreme, there is a slight vibration between his domain and his soul. This vibration will intensify as he uses magic, causing his soul to bear a huge burden."

"Essentially, his soul is still at the apprentice level. It's just that he uses a so-called domain, or rather, borrows that giant magic circle to form a special elemental particle field to wrap his soul, creating a temporary first-level magical pressure. But no matter what, it can't change the fact that he only has an apprentice-level soul."

"Therefore, when he tries to use first-circle magic, his soul will be destroyed in an instant by the pressure of the first-circle magic. It's like he's holding a big sword, but he's just a child and can't easily wield that sword."

"Therefore, the magic he casts can never reach the first level. The mages of this plane call spells that gradually increase in power in order to reach the level of first-level magic forbidden magic, and believe that using forbidden magic will consume their own life."

"But in essence, this is simply because their power system has serious flaws. And in my opinion, even so, this problem is not insurmountable."

Locke raised his hand and grabbed the thousand-meter-long earth snake that the opponent was attacking with all his might. Then, with a sudden grab, the entire earth snake began to disintegrate, turning into pieces of stone that fell to the ground.

The mage's face showed shock. He kept coughing up blood, seemingly unable to understand why, despite desperately using three forbidden spells that could destroy the world in the mage plane, he could not harm the two demons opposite him in the slightest.

That male demon is just too powerful.

Could it be that he truly possesses the ability to kill the Great Sage Sura?

The Sage felt a chill of fear. No, the Great Sage Sura brought magic and civilization to this world, saving humanity from the rule of tyrannical feudal lords. He descended from the sky like a god, appearing suddenly.

In his eyes, his teacher, the Great Sage Sura, was the god of magic in this world. "Teacher, I will absolutely kill this prophesied child for you." The Sage continuously increased his magical pressure utilization, bringing his spells infinitely close to true first-level magic. He waved his wooden staff, "All the elves of this world, blessed by the Great Sage Sura, please become my power and destroy my enemy! Forbidden Spell: God of the Great Sun!"

In an instant, surging magical winds roared out from the caves in the floor of the Hall of Magic behind him. At that moment, almost 50% of the modified special elemental particles converged on him.

A thousand-meter radius centered on this mage was enveloped in a layer of blazing white light. The power of this spell was indeed very close to that of a first-level spell, although it was still slightly inferior.

The price for casting this forbidden spell is that the Archmage must completely burn his own soul.

"In other words, the City of the Holy Mage is the root of this mage system. If the City of the Holy Mage no longer exists, this mage system will also cease to exist." Locke pondered, "Essentially, these mages are just people with strong mental power; they cannot be considered wizards. They are merely providing humanoid patches for the magic of the City of the Holy Mage, constantly perfecting that magic."

"Even so, the elemental spirits provided by the mage hall city within a unit of time can currently only allow mages within this mage system to cast two spells that are close to the first level at the same time."

"In other words, the power limit of this mage system is the ability to cast two first-level spells simultaneously."

Locke became a little more serious, using the technique of compressing a defensive field to cover his palm, preparing to crush the opponent's magic with his bare hands once more.

Moreover, he began to consider whether to kill the native to see if his death would have any repercussions.

He was genuinely curious whether a life form whose soul lacked a permanent defensive force field structure but whose magical pressure reached over 1000 would create an echo after death.

Just as the mage was about to push his soul to its limit, a hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder and used its magic to soothe all the restless elemental spirits. The magic then naturally dissipated.

Whether it was the Sage of Magic, or Locke and Alicia, their pupils were constricted.

The newcomer was an old man with a white beard, wearing a yellow cloak, and with wise eyes. His appearance was exactly the same as that of the Great Wizard Sura outside, but he currently had a physical body.

Locke's eyes flickered. 'A clone? Twins? A puppet?'

'This old guy was indeed faking illness. I wasn't wrong. Back in the White Dragon Tower #2 of the Six Towers Land, I felt his illness was rather strange, so I stopped treating him, just looked at his medical records, and focused on my own three projects.'

'Luckily, I didn't treat him like those two did, otherwise it would have been a complete waste of time. No wonder he wanted to drive away the famous healer of the Spiral Basin, [Nix Santos]—of course, if the fake illness were cured by the wizard Santos, it would be troublesome.'

Locke remembered that Santos had been roaring that there was something fishy going on, and now it seemed that what he said was true.

There really is something fishy going on.

The truth is, the old man wasn't sick at all; he was just putting on an act for everyone!
The High Wizard Sura gently patted the Archmage's shoulder and said, "Alright, Faral, it's alright."

Faral looked at the Grand Wizard Sura, extremely excited. "Teacher!"

Grand Wizard Sura snapped his fingers, instantly activating his first-circle magical creature Elder Treant Bloodline Innate Ability [Powerful Human Charm], a contingency plan he had left inside the native. Instantly, the native's pupils dilated, and his eyes went limp; his mind was completely controlled by Grand Wizard Sura.

High Priest Sura glanced at him casually. Faral was just a native, so he certainly wouldn't take him too seriously, nor would he really consider this native his student.

"Farael, you saw nothing today, yet you went out and destroyed two demons. The two demons were destroyed by your domain, and you have once again upheld the honor of our mage plane's three-hundred-year-old civilization."

The native sorcerer immediately froze and began repeating the words of the great sorcerer Sura.

Immediately afterwards, he turned around blankly, and at the moment he turned around, he regained his senses. Then, ignoring everyone, he happily returned to the City of the Holy Law Hall.

The Dharma Venerable who had been there earlier had already been accidentally killed by his own domain during the battle.

Alicia, seeing this, could hardly believe her eyes and said to the Grand Wizard Sura, "Grandpa?"

High Wizard Sura turned around, his expression one of intense affection. “Yes, it’s me. Alicia, you’ve come. You’ve really grown up. I’ve considered all the possibilities, but I never imagined you could come to this plane through your own efforts.”

Grand Wizard Sura looked at Locke. "This must be Augustine, the Potions Master. He's truly young and promising. I'm grateful for your help to my granddaughter, Alicia, all this time."

"However, since you have come here, it means that even if I am trying to use feigning illness to hide my true purpose, some of my old enemies seem to have noticed my true intentions."

Grand Wizard Sura looked at Locke's hand and said, "This is a spell from the School of Prophecy: Predestined Death. By spreading a large number of rumors in a place, making many mortals believe them, and then collecting these beliefs, all the possibilities of the future are gathered into the future conveyed in the prophecy. Thus, the power of destiny can be gathered to give a wizard the greatest possible power to kill his enemies."

"It's complicated, isn't it? I think so too. The magic of the prophetic school is always so slow. Ironically, time is never a thing in this world, so this slow pace often causes those prophetic wizards who claim to be able to manipulate fate to miss their chances."

High Wizard Sula laughed and said, "That's why I was very resistant to taking courses on visceral divination when I was a student."

“I think this kind of magic is meaningless. Using prophetic magic can easily distort fate. It can cause you to lose even though you could have won, because you were backfired by manipulating fate. I really think this kind of magic is useless.”

"By the way. I studied at the Sun Shadow Peninsula. Back then, the wizards there didn't advocate learning astrology courses. Instead, they liked to use animal organs for divination. I remember I really came up with a lot of ways to skip class."

Grand Wizard Sura laughed, "In fact, later my mentor even forced me to learn visceral divination in order to appease the wizard instructor of that course's anger towards me."

The great wizard Sura, like a kind old man, chatted with the two young people, recounting his past from his youth.

Locke glanced at the war-torn city of the Holy Temple behind him, frowned slightly, but still asked, "Grand Wizard Sura, of course, I know this matter has nothing to do with me, but as the potion master you invited to treat your illness, I'm still very curious why you're deliberately feigning illness? So, now that the Land of the Six Towers is no longer my concern, I can leave?"

Locke looked cautiously at the Grand Wizard Sura.

Grand Wizard Sura glanced at Locke, then at the fleeting look in Alicia's eyes when she looked at Locke, and a slight smile curved his lips. "Wizard Augustine, please rest assured, my Plutarch family is a prestigious clan in the Land of Six Towers, and we would never do anything to harm our guests."

"Moreover, I think you've done a very good job with those three projects you organized. You're a talented person, and our Plutarch family, as your financial backers, is currently cooperating well with you."

“You probably wouldn’t have been able to get this much free money anywhere else,” Grand Wizard Sura said with a kind smile to Locke. “As for my feigning illness, I’ll naturally have a reasonable explanation. Actually, I was…”

Grand Wizard Sura's expression changed. He turned to look at the City of the Archmage behind him, then sighed softly. "Did he fail to advance to Archmage?"

The demon army in the distance, for some reason, stopped its attack after the female native failed to advance and began a methodical retreat.

High Priest Sura's face revealed undisguised disappointment, seemingly stemming from the native woman's disappointment at advancing. Even for someone as shrewd as him, this was unacceptable. "This shouldn't be. Why, no matter how many times I try, can't a thirty-second Archmage be born? Could it be that there's something wrong with the magic circle I set up?"

High Wizard Sura turned to Locke, his tone becoming much more intimate. "Locke, you just said you have a way to make the native sorcerers of this world truly use first-circle magic. Is that true?"

"Can you tell me about it? I can make a deal with you. Don't you like doing projects? My granddaughter can only give you 1.5 million magic stones for research funding, but I can give you more, and I can also give you more excellent personnel. Projects not only require funds, but also equipment and personnel. I can give you all of those."

Grand Wizard Sura said, "I can also recommend you to represent the Six Towers in this year's Eastern Boundary Combat Plant Competition. That competition is organized by the White Wizard Association of Cloud Marsh Wetland, the third largest wizarding territory in the Eastern Boundary, and many wizarding territories in the Eastern Boundary will participate. It has considerable influence, and at least eleven wizarding territories will participate this year. Although it is not a true boundary-level competition, it is still a cross-regional competition."

High Wizard Sula coaxed, "If you can lead your team to a ranking there, it will be of great benefit to your future job search. Moreover, there are no restrictions on participation in this competition. As long as you are from a wizarding land in the Eastern Boundary, you can get a spot. So this year, perhaps my Six Towers Land can be an exception and participate."

"I can also support you in participating in other smaller competitions between multiple wizarding territories. But the prerequisite is that you can help me, Locke, and secondly, keep it a secret."

(End of this chapter)