Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 447 Three Magic Rings and Inspiration

The ability of Shadowweed to transfer spells is obtained by watering it with the blood of the demon Mammon. Essentially, Shadowweed is a magical plant from the Abyss series.

This is why Locke can use visual teleportation spells at medium to long distances, as abyssal energy itself has the characteristic of long-distance transmission.

Otherwise, so many planes wouldn't have been invaded by abyssal energy, resulting in abyssal ecosystems.

Even within the Wizarding World itself, there exist numerous abyssal ecosystems, such as the Southeast Corner, which was also the site of an abyssal plant catastrophe.

Locke located the dark wizard using the Eye Grass. He crossed the street, walked to the top of the sewer, and used Sea Gold Sand to gather Gold Sand Spore Powder. He then used the Earth Elemental Magnetic to knock out the powerless dark wizard and pulled him out from below the sewer.

They took the four rings from his fingers: a star ring and three defensive magical artifacts.

Locke glanced at the three defensive magical artifacts and discovered that the details of the three rings were engraved with their origins, revealing that they were actually made by a second-ring wizard from the Land of Dragonfall.

Because it bears the signature of the second-ring wizard, along with his wizarding rank, a small 2, and indicates that it was created during his first-ring phase.

"Zosimus Keinridge".

"It seems that the Land of Dragonfall is known for producing famous alchemists." Locke used his telekinesis to attack the three magical artifacts, temporarily removing the soul imprints left on their surfaces and sealing them. Once he returned, he could imprint his own spiritual imprints on these three magical artifacts, making them his own.

Come to think of it, this is the first time I've ever obtained a defensive magical artifact.

Judging from the exchange just now, these three defensive magical artifacts, when combined, can withstand a full-force attack from me without using Abyss Energy or the Beast Panel, which is indeed a pretty good item.

Meanwhile, Locke quickly searched the other person's belongings but found nothing else, only a letter. In addition, to Locke's surprise, the dark wizard's astral ring was only the smallest size, with an internal space the size of a room, and it was completely empty.

Aside from some Transfiguration spellcasting materials, some useless tools and potions, only a silver dagger magic weapon looked decent.

Locke also cleaned the soul imprint from it and placed it into his astral ring.

The wizard Sphinx rushed over and, seeing Locke capture the dark wizard, breathed a sigh of relief. He told Locke, "I will hand over my student, Barnaby, and several other students to the Plutarch family and explain everything here."

"This time... it was indeed my presumption, and perhaps I was also taken advantage of by some people with ulterior motives."

Barnaby was deathly pale, but he was sealed by a blood rope using a universal bloodline spell by the wizard Sphinx, rendering him unable to move.

After the wizard Sphinx bowed apologetically to Locke, he hurriedly left with Barnaby and headed to the Enforcement Department of the White Dragon Tower. The Enforcement Department was headed by a first-ring crystallization stage wizard from the Plutarch family.

Clearly, the wizard Sphinx wanted to sever ties with Barnaby, who had obvious connections to the dark wizards. This situation had brought him to the point where he was willing to offend the Cooper family in order to clear his name from Barnaby.

Locke then looked at the black wizard in his hand, who was now under the influence of the Earth Magnetic Field.

The three-eyed tiger-eyed cat's innate demonic eye emits an earth-polar magnetic field that can interfere with a person's consciousness magnetic field. At this moment, the black wizard in his hand has obviously had his consciousness magnetic field scattered by his attack. At least for the next few weeks, without the help of external forces, he will probably fall into a coma.

As Locke pondered what to do with him—whether to kill him, torture him first, use him as fertilizer, or use him as experimental material—the letter he had taken from the black wizard suddenly floated into the air.

Lines of text appeared above—

[I am the head of the Ladybug Raiders, a large dark wizarding organization, in the Land of Six Towers. Hello, this wizard, Jax, is one of our Ladybug Raiders' assets.]

We, the Ladybug Raiders, specialize in stealing lab data, whether it's peripheral or internal data. We can even steal the experimental data you want and publish your paper before the original project team does.

[To appropriate their achievements for oneself.]

We, the ladybug raiders, serve the many wizards who suffer from a lack of writing skills.

Locke raised an eyebrow. The wizard behind this letter actually called this a service.

The letter continued—[We detected that Wizard Jax has lost his mobility and has found him in a coma. Your choice to send him to the wizarding prison will not bring you any benefit, nor will it serve much purpose as experimental material. Our organization's wizards have many safeguards in place; even if captured, they will not reveal anything related to us, and their bodies will self-destruct to reduce the torture they suffer.]

Therefore, I want to make a deal with you.

Locke raised an eyebrow. No wonder this Transfiguration wizard, Jax, carried almost nothing in his Astral Ring when he went on missions, only some necessities.

So, is it because after the ladybug raider is captured, the organization behind it will try to negotiate with the person?
[The terms of the transaction are as follows: If you agree to release this wizard, we will provide you with a set of checks from the fairy family bank. You can collect the checks after confirming the wizard's release. There are a total of five magic crystal cards.]

[At the same time, the Three Elemental Shield Magic Rings of Master Keinridge that you possess require a special magic lock password; otherwise, even with a soul imprint, they cannot be used, and the protective school's enigmatic lock will forever shroud these three rings.]

Let it turn into scrap metal.

[The same applies to the Shadowstab dagger in your hand. The Three Elemental Shields can stack, forming a multi-layered magical shield similar to a golem. This temporarily amplifies defense to the level of a wizard's permanent defensive field, with impressive results. Would you like to make this deal with us?]

Locke pondered for a moment, "Three-element shield?"

Stacked shields?

He suddenly thought of the Chain Vine project he was working on, and realized, 'That's right, I've been going in the wrong direction all this time. I don't need to accumulate the wizard's permanent defensive field like magical pressure; I only need to layer and stack the wizard's permanent defensive field.'

That will do.

Locke suddenly seemed to have a flashback, realizing, 'The original permanent defensive field's spell model was extremely complex. Different permanent defensive fields stacked together couldn't simply merge like energy and magical pressure; instead, they would clash and weaken each other.'

'Therefore, it's not a fusion of permanent defensive force fields, but rather a layering and stacking, just like those three elemental shield rings from before, simultaneously encasing three elemental shields on a single wizard.'

'A wizard can wear three different outfits, and my Chain Vine can do the same. It can already stack magical pressure and parasitize permanent defensive fields, absorbing a particular field through the plant and displaying it on its leaves.'

"What I need to do next is not the incredibly difficult fusion of permanent defensive fields, but rather to fuse the permanent defensive fields separately into the leaves of different chain magic vines, and then stack those leaves together. In this way, at the first stage, the strength and quantity of the permanent defensive fields of different wizards can be stacked, making this a foreseeable reality."

Locke suddenly realized what was happening.

I had made it too difficult for myself, but it didn't have to be that difficult, and the same effect could be achieved. Sometimes, inspiration just comes like that.

Through long-term experimentation and gradual accumulation, one day, the accumulated knowledge suddenly bursts forth, and ideas become clear immediately.

Following this line of thought, creating the magical plant in my project application would be completely easy.

Making it within the remaining eleven months will no longer be a pipe dream.

Locke immediately took advantage of the moment of inspiration to adjust his thinking, modify the formula, and take out paper and pen to write down his insights.

The letter, floating in mid-air, waited for a long time before finally writing—[So, did the deal fail?]

Locke took out his magic quill and quickly wrote a line of elegant text on it: "No, it can be traded."

But there's one more condition: tell me who hired you to steal my experimental data.

This guy is so disgusting.

But I'm genuinely curious about who could be so bored.

There was no response for a long time on the other end of the letter, then a line of text suddenly appeared on it—[This has been a difficult transaction. Protecting our clients' privacy is something we Ladybug Raiders are obligated to do. But we are dark wizards, so we don't necessarily need to be so rule-bound. I can only tell you that the other party is from the Spiral Basin; this is the limit.]

"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. Besides, I can activate the protective magic on this wizard."

Locke saw black lines appear on the black wizard's body.

Locke immediately recognized it as a protective school of magic—a warp seal.

This is a spell that can only be used by sacrificing one's own life as a sacrifice to a special zone in the void, the warp. The person and all objects around them will be sealed within this special zone in the void, the warp ring.

This is a typical sub-direction of the Protection School of Sealing Magic, and it is a relatively niche and unpopular form of exile magic within the Sealing School.

This is the same type of magic as the first-circle spell "Forced Exile" that I developed from the purple Path of Exile that I encountered on the wizard airship, but because it requires the sacrifice of a first-circle wizard to activate, its effect is even more astonishing.

Locke pondered for a moment and realized that the other party was indeed a dark wizard, as he was able to tattoo such magic on a wizard in the liquefaction stage.

'I'm afraid this ladybug raider is also using this method to threaten these dark wizards into working for them,' Locke immediately thought. 'Otherwise, with these dark wizards' abilities, why would they choose to do such dirty and tiring work as stealing laboratory data for others? Perhaps they were already imbued with these sealing spells during their apprenticeship.'

Even if one becomes a formal wizard, one will still be exploited by higher-ranking dark wizards.

As expected of a dark wizard.

Students in the Land of Six Towers generally only need to become a first-ring wizard to at least qualify for a life of leisure.

As long as you don't have any dreams, you can live happily in the Land of Six Towers. As a teaching assistant, you can bully the third-class wizard apprentices and act arrogantly all day long. You can still live like a superior person in the eyes of the third-class wizard apprentices.

As for the dark wizards, once they join the organization, there's no turning back.

Even a genius like Hussein made such great efforts and took such huge risks to get rid of the dark wizard.

Locke wrote on the letter: "Alright. But I'm only letting him go; I'm not responsible for getting him back."

A line of text immediately appeared on the letter: the numbers on a check from the Fairy Bank, along with the activation codes for four magical artifacts.

They also left a message: "[Of course, as long as the infamous Bewitching Wizard doesn't interfere, we have a way to bring him back; we don't need anyone's help.]"

[If the bewitching wizard desires our services, he only needs to recite this incantation... and then add at the end, "Quickly offer true knowledge to my hands." This will allow him to contact the astrological system developed by our ladybug raiders. However, our astrological system covers a vast area and must remain undetected, so the signal may be weak. If there's no response the first time, try again; sometimes it may take several days.]

[Whatever data the Eye Demon Wizard wants, we can steal it for you, as long as you pay. Would you like the development progress of the Ancient Tree of Life of the player currently ranked first in the Cloud Swamp Cup, the player from Sun Shadow Peninsula, and the development progress of the witch from Cloud Swamp Wetlands, currently ranked second?]

Locke simply waved his hand, and the letter instantly burst into flames under the influence of the Primordial Flame. "No interest. What good does knowing someone else's progress do?"

"Doing my own thing well is the only thing I can do."

The primordial fire can burn anything, even a letter, and the hidden power of the bloodline within it is gradually released and dispersed into the air.

At the same time, Locke saw a new sealing magic circle appear on the chest of the black wizard beside him. It was also a spatial exile type of sealing magic. Three concentric circles appeared on his chest, and several black ink marks were in the middle of the concentric circles. Drops of black ink flew out from the pattern on his chest, and then gathered together to become an ink ball.

Then, the sealing array took about ten minutes to construct.

Suddenly, the black ink sphere grew larger, enveloping the black wizard within it, before rapidly shrinking back down.

The dark wizard had vanished, and his ink sphere shrank infinitely before disappearing into the air.

"This is... it seems to be a dimensional exile spell, a spell used to exile certain wizards to a designated demiplane..."

"This was originally a sealing spell, but it's being used to retreat? No wonder I didn't stop it; it took ten minutes just to set up the magic circle."

"I don't know if he originally planned to use this magic to leave the White Dragon Tower. No, this magic can indeed teleport you to a designated demiplane, then you can come out of the demiplane, return to the Land of the Six Towers, and then find a way to leave the Land of the Six Towers. But the process of exile will damage your magic power and your body."

"Even for ladybug raiders, this should be an uncommon method of retreat."

Locke entered the password into the four magical artifacts, and they were immediately activated, completely erasing the soul imprints within them.

Locke was able to successfully imprint his soul onto the four magical artifacts. "What they said was actually true."

Locke opened the Gray Mist Slate, clicked to enter the small group, and left a message: 'Recently captured a dark wizard, a member of the Ladybug Raiders, who claimed someone hired them to steal my data. After I captured him, he said the person who hired them came from the Spiral Basin.'

(End of this chapter)