Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 531 The First Project Application from the True Knowledge Institute
The second-circle wizard in charge of the class waved his hand, and all the words written with magic chalk on the magic wall moved crookedly, then disappeared as if they were pulled away by something in the air.

The second-circle wizard smiled and said, "Congratulations to the four of you. You have all completed the course, earned 100 points, and are qualified to teach students of Mount Golden Crown."

"Next, the academy will assign students to you. These students will also be your experimental assistants. They will be your students and your experimental assistants as formal wizards."

The second-circle wizard pointed to the perfectly smooth black wall and said, "By the way, I will now teach you a spell that can activate the Black Hole Peach Tree located in the center of Mount Golden Crown. It is a powerful peach tree. By using the spell, you can summon a portion of the power of that peach tree to devour the 'unnecessary' things that you need to erase."

"It can swallow everything from small pieces of trash to out-of-control experimental subjects. Other wizarding organizations like to dump their experimental waste into Cloud Lake, but we are more environmentally conscious. We will let the Black Hole Witch Peach...eat our experimental waste."

The second-circle wizard ate a can of food, then threw the can, along with the waste, on the ground, making the area filthy.

But as he chanted the incantation, the ground seemed to grow an invisible giant mouth, and in the blink of an eye, everything disappeared.

The classroom floor was spotless.

Wizard Daniel whispered in Locke's ear in surprise, "Did Golden Crown Mountain put a black hole inside the mountain so that wizards could easily dispose of their trash?"

"Using black hole gravity to throw garbage?"

"No wonder the buildings here are so clean."

Locke was somewhat speechless. "This should just be a side effect. If the experimental waste from tens of thousands of wizards on Golden Crown Mountain is constantly being thrown into that Black Hole Witch Peach, I think it would also be meaningful for that magical plant."

Locke tried using the spell that the second-circle wizard had taught him, and immediately he felt a towering ancient tree appear behind him in the darkness, as if it were its spiritual form.

But the peach tree was surrounded by infinite gravity, and there was also a black hole-like event horizon.

Its spiritual form was like a black and white photograph. After realizing that it had nothing to lose, Locke came to its senses and its attention returned to the classroom.

Wizard Daniel also tried it, and he said in an amazed tone, "That magical plant... I can't sense its magical pressure at all, as if it doesn't exist, but I can clearly see where its spiritual body is."

"It's just for throwing away trash, yet it can summon such a powerful magical plant. No wonder it's called Golden Crown Mountain."

Locke said, "Well, it's quite useful anyway."

"From now on, when I do experiments, I won't need to throw away any experimental waste myself anymore. I can just recite a spell and throw it towards the Black Hole Peach."

Wizard Daniel sat in his seat; now only the two of them remained in the classroom. Wizard Daniel said, "Speaking of practicality, we've been at the True Knowledge Academy for over a month now. What do you think of Golden Crown Mountain and Cloud Marsh Wetland?"

After thinking for a while, Locke said, "Well... I've been very busy lately, so even in Jinmian Mountain, let alone Yunze Wetland, I only go to a few fixed places: the library, the laboratory, and my magic field."

"So, it's hard for me to say what special impression I have of Yunze Wetland. But it's definitely completely different from the feeling I had when I came to participate in the Yunze Cup last time."

Locke said, “Overall, life here is convenient, with many things that are not available in other wizarding lands, but the cost of living in Golden Crown Mountain is very high. I have tried my best to save money, but who knew that I would still spend a thousand magic stones for living expenses in the past month.”

Locke asked Daniel, "And you, how are you feeling at Golden Crown Mountain?"

The two are neighbors, colleagues, and have taken classes together for over a month. They also entered Shinchi Institute in the same year, so their relationship is quite good now.

Wizard Daniel pursed his lips and said, "Thinking about it carefully, it feels like yesterday. Anyway, this place is very different from the Golden Crown Mountain I imagined. The pace of life in the Fission Plains is much slower here. Every wizard here seems to be fighting against an invisible enemy. Everyone is trying their best to make the most of their time to conduct experiments."

"Also, I'm in the Fission Plains, researching every day how to create more effective weather systems. But here, my team leader has been making me observe the shape of fog within five meters of the canopy of different pine trees for a whole month..."

Wizard Daniel covered his head and said, "I'm a little confused right now. I feel like I've gone from being a great chief engineer to a tiny spare part."

“My field of vision here has not only not expanded, but has actually become very small.”

Wizard Daniel was bewildered. "I don't know if I've come to the wrong place."

Wizard Daniel thought for a moment, then immediately realized what was going on and looked at Locke, saying, "Don't you have this feeling that we haven't thought about anything useful in a long time, anything that can be directly translated into results and commercialized?"

"I'm afraid that after I stay here for five years, I'll have forgotten all the knowledge about the ingenious weather systems that create them, and all I'll have left is the knowledge of observing the different forms of fog."

Locke nodded slightly. "I'm fine."

Wizard Daniel looked at Locke with a puzzled expression. "It's alright. You don't have this kind of predicament as me? That can't be..."

Locke shook his head. “Daniel, don’t you realize something? The research here is so specialized, which is a huge benefit to us two ‘engineers’.”

"Here, you can look up any information you want directly. I've tried it, and you can find almost any information in the Jinmianshan Library. You just need to contribute points to borrow paid books. Of course, the free section also has a rich collection of materials."

Wizard Daniel's body trembled.

Locke said, "The research here is so detailed, it's a boon for the two of us. By reading this research, we can more easily use this information to create the practical things we want, right?"

Wizard Daniel nodded, tapping his outstretched left hand with his clenched right fist. "I almost got tricked by Wizard Thomasson."

"To hell with abstract concepts, we don't need to worry about so much. We just need to see what's beneficial to us."

Daniel the wizard slapped his forehead. "I should also use my spare time to borrow some books from the library."

"For the past month or so, I've been mechanically recording the shapes of the fog every day. It's time to borrow some materials and improve myself."

"I'll create a special weather system to please myself."

Wizard Daniel said gratefully to Locke, "Locke, thank you for reminding me. You're much more insightful. You've adapted to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands much faster than I have."

Locke shrugged and said, "Even if I don't tell you, I think you'll figure it out yourself soon enough."

"I'm going back now. My project proposal is almost finished."

Daniel said, "Wow, that was fast. But my project proposal is also coming along. See you later."

Locke returned to his residence. In his study, Locke took out a Sea Gold Fern from his Astral Ring. This Sea Gold Fern was not only a mutated tree fern, but it was also covered in ice crystals.

Its triangular leaves are surrounded by snowflake-shaped ice crystals, and its golden spores are predominantly blue.

Over the past month, Locke has learned two remarkable pieces of botanical knowledge in the library's free area—

First, the success rate of grafting tree ferns and tree-like magical plants is very high.

Secondly, by using the drilling and grafting method, the branches of the six-sided prism sentry tower ice tree can be grafted onto tree ferns under the aurora, allowing the tree fern to acquire the natural ice magic abilities within it.

Using these two points, Locke employed grafting and synthetic cube techniques to cultivate another mutated variety of Hypogold Sand within the Druid's Ring over the course of a month.

The Six-sided Prism Watchtower at Haijinsha!
At this moment, six ice crystal snowflakes surrounded the Sea Gold Sand Tree Fern, transforming into six snowflake ice crystal mirrors. Locke used this Frosty Sea Gold Sand, and immediately, as he used the Golden Sand Torrent spell model, a large amount of ice-blue golden sand erupted out, which was golden sand spore powder mixed with ice shards.

A blend of gold magic and ice magic.

Golden magic inherently possesses excellent conductivity, and now, using the mutated version of Sea Gold Sand, it is naturally easy to imbue the golden magic with the power of ice while using it.

Locke watched this scene with satisfaction.

"This mutated variety of sea ginseng has a unique effect. Although it has lost the purity of golden magic, it can be mixed with specific frost power when attacking."

"Perhaps it will play a crucial role at certain times."

Locke pondered, "This way, I can use the Scorching Gold Sand Stream to summon both ice sand and gold sand at the same time. Next, when I have time, I can also see if I can create more Sea Gold Sand mutants."

The Golden Crown Mountain Library is a free treasure trove.

There is a lot of information in it that can give you ideas you never thought of before, help you quickly lock in special synthesis formulas, or cultivate special subspecies.

Next, Locke went into his study and began to write a project proposal based on the experimental data he had collected.

……

A month later, Locke walked into the public laboratory and into the office of the Celtic second-circle wizard leader.

I have finished writing my project application. Although, according to the contract, I do not need the approval of a Celtic second-circle wizard, only the signature of my cooperating mentor.

But Catherine the Witch was very busy. In the previous two months, he had only met her once, together with a group of people, during a group meeting.

Since I haven't entered the first-ring crystallization stage yet, there's no need for me to waste her busy time by spending an hour specifically choosing an advanced meditation method.

Therefore, Locke did not seek help from the Catherine Witch for the time being.

In the past two months, the witch Catherine has not contacted him once. Perhaps she was too busy, or perhaps he was not special among her cooperating witches, as she had dozens of students from the Institute of True Knowledge who cooperated with her.

In any case, the Celtic wizard possesses a magical stamp bearing the name of Empress Catherine, which he can affix to his project application whenever he deems it appropriate.

Then, you can go to the White Wizard Association branch, the Fund Management Division, to submit your project application.

Of course, the Celtic wizard couldn't control himself, because he was merely a ruthless stamping machine set up by Catherine the Great's throne for convenience, possessing only a little right to his own judgment.

If the Celtic wizards made things difficult for him, Locke could simply ask Catherine the Witch for a signature.

That's just a bit more troublesome.

In the office of the group leader, the Celtic second-circle wizard looked at Locke and said, "You completed the preliminary experimental data and wrote a project proposal in just two months?"

The Celtic second-circle wizard nodded slightly; he certainly acknowledged the positive aspects.

He wished that everyone in Group Six was a capable wizard, so that his pressure would be much less.

The Celtic wizard frowned. "There's just one problem. In the past two months, the wizards in Group Six have told me that you've hardly discussed anything with them or asked them for any data."

"You didn't even come to ask me for advice. In fact, although I have a lot of opinions about you, I'm still happy to discuss academic issues with you. Let me see what you've produced after two months of working behind closed doors."

The Celtic wizard looked up at Locke.

The Celtic wizard frowned as he looked at the title of the project application, because Locke's chosen topic was the symbiotic relationship between avian magical creatures and pineapple-type magical plants.

This clearly has no overlap with the current research directions of the six groups.

The Celtic wizard frowned immediately, his tone turning cold. "The worst thing I could have imagined has happened. You did the same thing as that other researcher from the Advanced Institute of Truth who was rejected. He also ignored my advice and went ahead with his research."

The Celtic wizard said, "Our group six conducted most of the research on pineapple-type magical creatures twenty years ago and achieved great results. Therefore, recently our group six has been focusing its main efforts on the relationship between ant-type magical creatures and madder-type magical plants."

"That was the direction chosen under the leadership of the previous leader of Group Six. Empress Catherine was very patient and did not interfere much."

“I suggest you… um?” The Celtic wizard continued reading, and with his sensitivity to data, he immediately realized that the quality of the preliminary experimental data in the project proposal in front of him was extremely high.

"How many magic stones did you spend to produce such high-quality data ahead of schedule?"

The Celtic wizard's tone softened. "Although you made the same choice as that fool, you are undoubtedly far more capable than him. The requirements for this project application are very high, so if you insist on applying, I have no choice but to agree."

"But...the number of projects you have to do is far too many."

"It might be better if we reduced it to just one thing."

The Celtic wizard frowned because he saw in the Locke Project application that it was an analysis of the coexistence relationship between four types of pineapple-like magical plants and specific magical creatures.

However, to avoid appearing strange, Locke did not mention the giant rubber duck crown pineapple in the project application, nor did he mention the natural magical structural components of the Royal Lightning Field.

Although Locke confirmed that it was a naturally occurring magical structural component that had not yet been discovered and existed in nature.

In his project application, he only mentioned that the giant rubber duck pineapple might have other natural magical structural components that could be beneficial to the growth of lightning bees, and he clearly stated that the thunderbirds enhanced their natural reproductive capacity by eating lightning bees.

The Celtic wizard looked at Locke with puzzlement and said, "I admit that the data from each of your preliminary experiments is exceptionally solid, and your work is better than I expected."

"But aren't you being too hasty, trying to investigate four pineapple-type magical plants at once?"

The Celtic wizard still had his mind on the two projects he had wanted to give Locke. "However, if you're interested, you can work on those two projects I wanted to give you at the same time."

Locke shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Professor Celtic, but I'm still more interested in the topics mentioned in this project proposal."

"I think... interest is still quite important."

"I'm more motivated to do things that interest me."

The Celtic wizard glanced at the project proposal in his hand, somewhat unwilling, and frowned, saying, "If you could listen to me and work with our Group Six, things would be much easier. Never mind..."

He muttered to himself, "Young people need to hit a wall before they know how to change direction."

(End of this chapter)