Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 521 Arrival at Golden Crown Mountain and Encounter with Colleagues
Jinmian Mountain is a natural concentration of magic. It is essentially four volcanoes, all of which emit thick smoke every moment, with magma rolling inside. Some volcanoes are dormant, while others are still active.

The volcanoes can erupt with special underground magical tides, increasing the concentration of magical tides around the four volcanoes by several levels.

The main peak of Jinmian Mountain connects to the sky and the earth, and its summit seems to be under the sun, forever shrouded in golden light.

This mountain truly deserves to be called the largest volcano among the nine mountains of Yunze Wetland!
For some reason, Mount Jinmian is not actually very high, and the sun's altitude relative to the ground is normal in all surrounding areas.

However, only at the summit of Mount Jinmian does the sun appear to be directly above the mountain, creating a breathtakingly beautiful scene.

The sun seemed to transform into a halo behind the great Golden Crown Mountain, radiating sacred and majestic light and heat that enveloped the earth.

In other words, Mount Golden Crown itself erupts geothermal energy; it is not an ordinary volcano, but rather a geothermal magical tide that can erupt from underground and is connected to the fire of the sun.

Heavenly fire and earthly fire are linked together by a mountain, transforming into pure magical power that nourishes all things around the mountain.

Therefore, the area surrounding Mount Jinmian is a vast forest region, which is composed of patches of magical plants.

Locke had never seen such a dense forest of advanced magical plants. There were first-ring magical plants everywhere, and even second-ring magical plants. In some deeper parts of the forest, there were also some terrifying auras, which seemed to be even more advanced magical plants.

"No wonder Golden Crown Mountain Academy is the top academy in Yunze Wetland." Locke finally understood. Golden Crown Mountain itself was a great magical creation. Locke hadn't understood why Golden Crown Mountain's spatial layout was the way it was.

When Locke used the [spiritual vision] that wizards all possess, he could see that Mount Golden Crown itself was a huge pillar of fire that stretched from the sky to the earth.

The surface of Mount Jinmian itself is a top-tier magical plant ecological forest, containing twenty-two gardens, corresponding to the twenty-two schools on the main campus.

Inside the garden are also a series of magnificent ancient castles.

Beyond the twenty-two gardens are numerous plantations, bloodline processing factories, architects' construction sites, magic art galleries, wizard commercial streets, wizard markets, and spinning top kinetic power plants, among others.

There is also a wild magical plant forest.

What caught Locke's attention was that Mount Golden Crown was covered with large, fully-fledged gardens of peach-type magical plants. "The cultivation of peach-type plants on Mount Golden Crown is renowned throughout the Three Swamps and even the Eastern Boundary."

On the wizard airship, Locke also saw many planting techniques he had never seen before in the southeastern corner of the region and the land of the six towers—soilless river magic fields, magic fields in lava pools, and magic fields carved out of rocks.

Even the clouds have magical fields, and the top of a giant banyan tree in a forest, which covers 10 acres, can have magical fields. The most common magical fields are actually made of mud.

Around Mount Jinmian, everything in nature seems to be a magical field!
Locke was amazed by this exquisite planting technique; it was knowledge that he could not access in other wizarding lands without coming to Golden Crown Mountain.

A wizard standing next to Locke, witnessing this scene, also had a glint in his eye. "As expected of Golden Crown Mountain, this is too advanced."

"Look, those pumpkin heads floating above the magic fields, flying around, are actually light energy distribution systems. They can absorb the surrounding light and precisely distribute it to different magic fields. Wizards can freely control those pumpkins that look like glowing little suns, placing them on their own magic fields or swiping them away with their fingers."

"The surrounding clouds can be manipulated manually or automatically; those black rain clouds are used to irrigate the magic fields."

“Look, the tornadoes that are stuck at the foot and halfway up the mountain are frozen in place, but as long as the wizard of Golden Crown Mountain draws his finger, those tornadoes will move again.”

“Apart from tornadoes, hurricanes, breezes, strong winds, and light winds, these are all solid weather phenomena that wizards can use at will.”

"Whether it's windy or rainy, the wizards here can manipulate it instantly with just a flick of their wrists, as easily as drawing on a blank sheet of paper."

"This is the work of the weather engineers of Yunze Wetland's Second Ring Road: an all-weather weather control system!"

The wizard spoke with excitement, as if on a pilgrimage, “This is the paradise for agricultural and livestock breeders, Mount Golden Crown.”

"See those spinning tops that are as big as houses?"

The airship Locke was on did not go directly to the airship; there were several docking points and stations along the way.

Because the artificial network of trans-temporal structures is spread throughout the Cloud Marsh Land, making transportation convenient, the airship made stops at many wizarding lands along the way.

Locke remembered that the wizard sitting next to him seemed to be from the wizarding territory of [Fission Mausoleum].

I just don't know what they came here for.

At this moment, the wizard looked at the spinning top power station on Golden Crown Mountain, his eyes shining. "I had heard before that the Power School of Yunze Wetland was very powerful, but I didn't expect it to be true."

"Look, every time that large spinning top spins, all the vibrational energy is recycled, transformed into magical energy, and then distributed to the light energy system, irrigation system, and the transmutation array workshop in the alchemy workshop."

Locke, seeing that he was rambling on and talking to him, said, "This wizard from the Fission Plains, what brings you to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands?"

The wizard turned to Locke and smiled sheepishly, "Ah, sorry, I was a little excited. After all, as a weatherman, I don't have access to these things in the Fission Plains. The weather field in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands is the best."

“I am Daniel Brook. From the Tu Qingshan Order of Fission Plains. However, it is just a medium-sized local wizarding organization, which you have probably never heard of.”

“I came to Jinmian Mountain in Yunze Wetland to join the Advanced True Knowledge Academy of Jinmian Mountain.” Daniel smiled confidently, revealing his white teeth. “I am the champion of the Sanze Cup in Yunze Wetland.”

"As a reward for the competition, I joined the Advanced Knowledge Institute of Mount Golden Crown."

Locke asked in confusion, "The Misawa Cup?"

Daniel nodded and said, "Yes, the Misawa Cup is the largest first-level weather master competition in the Eastern Boundary. It's a very big event, and I won the championship."

"There are six rounds of competition in total, each round more intense than the last. The final round even requires transforming a demiplane whose ecology and climate have been completely destroyed. The final round is extremely difficult, but even our work is not as good as the weather manipulation system of Mount Golden Crown. This system is truly ingenious."

"As a weatherman, seeing this system felt like a pilgrimage to a sacred place."

Seeing that the airship was about to reach Mount Golden Crown, Daniel put down the book and began to talk to Locke. Locke was a warm and talkative man, but he spoke with composure. He would think for a while before speaking, making sure that he was right.

He was cheerful yet steady, a type of wizard that Locke had never seen before. He possessed the unique style and aesthetic of a wizard from the Fission Plains.

Indeed, as the witch Sophia said, every wizarding land has its own style and aesthetic.

The Southeast Corner is about balance, while the Land of Six Towers is extremely conservative. The Land of Three Swamps pursues exquisite beauty, the Star Sea is all-encompassing, and the Spiral Basin is extremely enterprising, seizing every opportunity.

The Fission Plains also has its own collective aesthetic style, which to some extent influences the wizards from this wizarding land.

Locke, through conversations with Daniel, learns from Daniel's description of Fission Mausoleum, a wizarding land with an eight-thousand-year history of magical copper mining.

Most of the magical copper ore comes from Fission Ridge.

The alchemists in Fission Mausoleum are extremely skilled in researching raw materials.

This is actually different from the alchemy field that the Land of Dragonfall, which is the source of most high-quality magical artifacts, excels in.

The Fission Mausoleum excels in materials development and the manufacture of bronze, brass, and copper magical artifacts, while the Land of Dragonfall excels in the development of golem studies and magical artifact studies.

The Land of Three Swamps is a small region specializing in textiles within alchemy, and many magical garments and cloaks originate from the Land of Three Swamps.

In addition to the flourishing of alchemy, the Fission Rift also saw the rise of the School of Mind.

Specifically, the study of proverbs flourished within the school of spiritual thought.

And coincidentally, Wizard Daniel's primary profession is a weatherman, and his secondary profession is a prophet. When Wizard Daniel heard Locke say that he was also coming to join the Advanced Academy of Truth at Mount Golden Crown, he showed a surprised look, glanced at Locke from head to toe, and said, "There are only two wizards who can enter the Advanced Academy of Truth at Mount Golden Crown this year, and one of them is you. What a coincidence, we actually boarded the same airship."

“Your mentor is the witch Catherine, while my mentor is the wizard Fyodor, a third-ring wizard and a throne wizard in the field of weather.”

“Then we’re colleagues,” Wizard Daniel said with a smile. “Land is incredibly valuable on Mount Golden Crown, and even visiting wizards struggle to find affordable housing in wizarding areas. So I guess the dorms the academy has assigned us are probably all together.”

"I never expected it to be such a coincidence."

"However..." Wizard Daniel's expression was strange. He spoke his mind directly, not wanting to hide his thoughts. "Although it's said that to enter the True Knowledge Academy, one only needs to reach the liquefaction stage before the age of fifty, even ordinary True Knowledge Academies generally require reaching the first ring of crystallization stage to join, let alone the advanced True Knowledge Academy in the Cloud Marsh Land. I didn't expect that you, a wizard at the first ring of liquefaction stage, could actually join."

“I remember this year, a first-ring crystallized wizard from their own school wanted to join the Advanced True Knowledge Academy at Golden Crown Mountain, but he was rejected outright. I guess you squeezed out his spot.”

Wizard Daniel looked at Locke with admiration. "I reckon you must be very talented, otherwise you could never have done something like this."

Locke said, "It's alright."

Locke said, "I am very curious about the methods of you prophetists. I have never seen a wizard from the spiritual school before."

Wizard Daniel summoned a brass book, on which lines of text appeared.

This bronze book appears to be the mainstream means of communication in the Fission Ridge Plains.

After replying to the message, Wizard Daniel snapped his fingers to hide the bronze book, then smiled apologetically at Locke and said, "It's one of my wizard seed students from the Tu Qingshan Cult who's contacting me."

“I previously granted him special access so that he could use our wizarding land’s communication system to contact us and ask me questions.”

“I have a good relationship with him, so I’ve spent a lot of time and effort on him.” Wizard Daniel looked at Locke and said, “Back to the main topic, Locke, haven’t you witnessed the Prophet’s methods before?”

"As a colleague I've just met, I can show you the spell model of Proverbs."

With a smile, Wizard Daniel took out a magical quill from his astral ring. Locke should note that this quill was no ordinary goose feather pen.

The quill pen emitted a faint reddish glow, resembling a swirling flame with flashes of electricity within it.

Locke was slightly surprised. "This is... made from the tail feathers of a Thunderfire Griffin?"

The Thunderfire Griffin is a masterpiece of the Summoning School's biological breeding sub-direction. It is a super magical creature created by hybridizing Thunderbirds, Griffins, and Firecats. However, it is infertile and requires experienced magical creature breeders to continuously crossbreed and create in order to produce the corresponding first-level magical creature, the Thunderfire Griffin, on the market.

However, the Thunderfire Griffin is a magical creature at the first stage of crystallization, and since this quill pen is made from its tail feathers, it is priceless.

You definitely can't buy it for 10,000 magic stones; this quill pen is probably worth around 50,000 magic stones.

For a first-ring wizard, it's a genuine luxury item.

Wizard Daniel nodded. "Good eye, colleague."

"This was made from the tail feathers of the Thunderfire Griffin."

Wizard Daniel took out a first-class apprentice-level serpent-tailed yellow lion from his astral ring. As soon as the lion was taken out of the astral ring, it roared, tucked its tail, and tried to run away. But Wizard Daniel pinched a magic quill pen between his thumb and middle finger, chanted a spell, and then wrote the word "stop" on the serpent-tailed yellow lion's forehead with special deep blue ink.

Immediately, the yellow lion with the snake tail squatted down and stopped moving.

Locke saw this and immediately understood that the lion's mind had been suppressed by the "stop" character on its forehead, so it was completely unable to move.

Wizard Daniel said, “Look, this is a branch of our school of mind, the method of the prophet. We can use written words to influence and awe the minds of others. Of course, these words have actually been specially modified. Look at the edge of the word ‘stop’, don’t you see many extra patterns? That’s actually the spell model of my mind magic.”

"The spells of the Mind School are quite special. To use them, you need to transform your magic power in a specific way and mix it with a certain amount of mental power."

Locke nodded slightly. Psychic power and dragon's might are actually mixtures of magical power and mental power in different proportions.

Both are branches of the spiritual school of thought.

Wizard Daniel said, "A prophet needs to first mix magical power and mental power in a certain proportion to transform them into 'psychic energy,' so before using prophetic spells, one must first possess 'psychic energy'..."

The wizard Daniel used white ink to erase the word "stop" from the lion's forehead, and then used a magic quill to dip into deep blue ink to write the word "fear." Instantly, the yellow lion with the snake tail collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

Locke nodded slightly, feeling that he had learned a great deal this time.

As expected of Golden Crown Mountain, I encountered things I had never seen before even before entering it.

Locke used his spiritual vision to observe the lion's spiritual changes, thereby indirectly understanding the lion's mental state.

Undoubtedly, as a sub-direction of the Mind School of Magic, the Proverbs spell model is more refined than its own Mind School's Dragon's Might, but this also means that its range is not as strong as its own Dragon's Might.

Moreover, Locke noticed that this model of prophetic magic was extremely intricate, making it difficult to execute in battles of equal strength, and likely to be ineffective against wizards with greater magical power.

However, it has a very strong restraining effect on wizards with weaker magical power than oneself.

It's a must-have for crushing noobs.

This is different from his own dragon might. Even when facing beings with stronger magical power, his dragon might can still play a role in weakening the opponent's strength.

Of course, this is only relative.

Locke predicted that if the mind were affected by this Proverb-based spell even once, it would be extremely troublesome. He estimated that there would be a series of follow-up attacks, which were impossible to break through; once the defenses were breached, it would be very problematic.

This is different from the curse magic of the curse master. Curse magic is also a great tool for crushing weaker opponents, but as long as a wizard is not completely desperate, a single curse cannot cause a complete reduction in magic resistance. However, mental resistance is something that can easily lead to complete defeat if one is not careful.

The working principle of this Proverb spell model is different from that of the powerful human charm spells of the Enchanting school, which indirectly affect the mind by altering the state of another person's cognition.

The spell model of Proverbs has a more direct, effective, and powerful impact on the mind. The spells of the Enchanting School can only move the mind of others when there is a huge gap between them; otherwise, they can only make some minor changes.

The spell model of the Mind School, on the other hand, works on all Minds of the same level.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. All the magic of the Mind School, no matter how varied, is essentially based on the mind and consciousness as its core and main object of study.

For the Enchanting School, the mind is a relatively unimportant area. They do not engage in idealistic research; instead, they study consciousness as a derivative of the human being as a physical entity.

The Enchantment school studies how to alter the state of things through spells, magic circles, rituals, and magical runes, as well as how to inscribe runes on objects to aid in the creation of magical artifacts.

Locke pondered, "From this perspective, the influence of the Enchanting School on consciousness is external, while the influence of the Mind School on the mind is internal."

"The two may look similar, but they are completely different due to their underlying principles and have different applications."

Wizard Daniel put away his magic quill and the serpent-tailed yellow lion, and said to Locke with a smile, "I've made a fool of myself. What do you think? Our mind magic in the Fission Plains is quite interesting, isn't it?"

"By the way, where are you from? Hmm? The airship has landed."

"I have to go report for duty right away. Let's talk again next time."

(End of this chapter)