Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 533 The Invasion of the Disc Creatures and the Precursors

Inside the Golden Crown Library, Locke was browsing books in the free section, comparing Albert's detailed information with the records in the classics.

“The inscribed runes of the permanent defensive force field can conflict with magic power; this situation also exists in the Cloud Marsh Wetland.” Locke’s eyes narrowed. “As expected of the Golden Crown Mountain Library in the Cloud Marsh Wetland, this kind of information about souls that is impossible to find in the Southeast Corner Region can be found in the free area here.”

"The identification method is the magic pressure map. The wizard drinks the map potion, and a mass spectrometer is used to map the wizard's magic pressure map for the next hour."

"If the diagram is continuous, it proves that there is no foreign object in the soul. Albert is an exception. If the diagram is broken, it means that there is a foreign object in Albert's soul."

Locke's expression shifted slightly. "The spectrograph... I remember there's one in the Healing Hand Clinic at Lilith's Hut, though it's rather old and outdated, but it should be usable."

"If that doesn't work, we'll have to borrow equipment from the University of Verdandia. If that still doesn't work, we'll have to borrow equipment from the nearest wizarding land."

Unfortunately, it's already quite remarkable that any wizarding organization in the southeastern corner region possesses such advanced equipment.

Although at Jinmian Mountain, regardless of the level of the experiment, there are always several state-of-the-art spectrometers for this kind of thing.

Locke summoned the Gray Mist Tablet and simultaneously used the telepathic connection to contact Albert and Harun Vera.

He informed Harlan Vera and Albert of the results.

Harlan Vera looked thoughtful. "You mean, you believe that Albert's problem lies in the presence of something foreign within his soul?"

Locke calmly said, "After reviewing similar cases in Yunze Wetland, it is indeed the case. And if this is the case, then he can indeed use the Forest Sanctuary to advance to a formal wizard."

"Because the main defensive magic of the Forest Sanctuary is not inscribed on his soul, this magic will be less affected. However, if this problem is not solved, even if he becomes a formal wizard, it will be difficult for him to continue to materialize his spiritual power."

“A problem with the soul is no small matter, even for a wizard.”

If his spiritual power were not materialized, Albert would remain an ordinary, formal wizard for his entire life, unable to make any further progress.

Albert's face lit up with excitement. "Locke... all I need is to become a certified wizard. I'll be satisfied as long as I can become a certified wizard."

Albert quickly realized that Harlan Vera was also present, so he immediately changed his tune. "Professor Augustine, please help me with this problem."

"I am very grateful to you."

Harlan Vera glanced at him, knowing that he and Locke had a good relationship. He wasn't some old fogey, and since Locke was willing to let Albert be his peer, what could an outsider like him say?

Harlan Vera smiled and said to Locke, "Locke, you really do see more when you go to bigger places. It's unbelievable that a problem that has troubled our Lilith Hut for a year and a half, a problem that many of our potion masters find baffling, has been solved by you after just one meeting with Albert."

Locke said calmly, "It's not that I'm particularly good, it's just that there's a lot of relevant information about Yunze Wetland."

So far, my biggest gain from Yunze Wetland is the ability to freely access this high-quality information.

Locke himself had even searched in the library, and found that knowledge that only high-level wizards in the Southeast Corner Region knew, such as the Cursed Seed, was readily available in the free area.

Harun Vera said, "Even just becoming a formal wizard is enough for our Southeast Corner Region. Formal wizards with the power of Myster are exactly what our Lilith Hut is currently in dire need of."

"Locke, then I'll leave it to you. It's an honor for Lilith Hut to produce students like you and the Witch Sophia."

Harlan Vera said, "Now, your knowledge of potions may have surpassed mine, so as a wizard and a potion master, I am also very curious about one thing—if the foreign object in Albert's soul really exists, is it innate or acquired?"

Locke glanced at Albert and said, "It's very likely acquired. If it were congenital, he should be showing some physical symptoms."

"For example, confusion, loss of the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and so on."

"In other words, it is impossible for Albert to maintain normal human cognition."

Harlan Vera frowned, looked at Albert, and said, "That's strange, Albert. What exactly did you come into contact with?"

Albert frowned, lost in thought. "I don't know either."

Locke looked at the data collection on soul foreign body syndrome in his hand and said, "The appearance of foreign bodies in the soul after birth is generally due to bloodline mutation or soul experiments by high-ring wizards. If it is not one of these two situations..."

"That means you've come into contact with some kind of alien life form. Don't you remember?"

Albert's expression was blank, as if he was deep in thought, but no matter how he thought about it, he had no recollection of when he had come into contact with any alien life forms.

"For the past two years, I have been staying in Lilith's Hut, preparing to advance to a formal wizard, and I haven't gone out at all."

Locke had a guess in his mind. "During the two years you were at the Lilith Hut headquarters, did you hear anyone calling for help, or hear someone calling your name while you were walking?"

Albert pondered deeply. “No, after Andy died, you and Sophia left Lilith Cottage, and for a long time, I was almost always alone.”

"During that period, I enjoyed rescuing injured small creatures in the wild. That's the only rescue I've ever done. Oh, right..."

Albert said, "I remember once I heard a pink magic rabbit with an injured left leg crying for help in the wild, but after I bandaged its wound, it ran away in a flash."

"But that night, I had a very strange dream."

Locke immediately pressed, "What dream?"

After thinking for a moment, Albert said, "It was a blue light, a blue ring, that appeared beside my bed. I suddenly woke up and realized that it was just a dream."

Locke and Harlen Vera's images exchanged a glance, and they both thought of the ghost bride that the Blood Lord had summoned at the Lilith Hut headquarters. But that ghost bride was just a facade; behind her was something far more powerful, something that had never been human, or even something that had never been a life form in the prime material plane.

Back then, Locke once orchestrated a large-scale ecological restoration, temporarily suppressing that life form with the power of the earth.

But Locke knew that the unknown life form could not be destroyed in this way; it was still trying to fully enter the Prime Material Plane and the Wizarding World.

Harun Vera said to Locke, "Could it be that thing summoned by the Blood Lord?"

Locke nodded. "I had suspected this before. Many victims of the Soul Abnormality Syndrome have come into contact with extraterrestrial evil gods or some kind of extraterrestrial evil beings."

"A team of first-class wizard apprentice explorers from Yunze Wetland once entered a new colony plane. In that tropical rainforest that seemed to be only at the stage of primitive tribal civilization, the team of wizard apprentices encountered the evil god worshipped by those primitive tribal civilizations. As a result, when they returned, without exception, they all failed to advance to become formal wizards."

"The reason is that during the process of eliminating the evil god, some fragments of the evil god's soul managed to enter their souls. That's a characteristic of the evil gods in that plane; eliminating their existence will automatically absorb their soul fragments to become the next one."

"After careful consideration, I realized that the only unknown life forms Albert could come into contact with were those that I had suppressed using the earth's ecology."

Locke said, "Moreover, I also found information about it in Yunze Wetland."

Locke held up the spellbook for Albert and Harlan Vera to see. On the spellbook was a ring emitting an eerie blue light. "This is a disc-shaped creature, something that originated in our wizarding world."

"This is what the Earth Wizards are researching. The disc creatures are a kind of distorted extreme natural force that was created because of violent large-scale geological disasters that caused natural forces to be in an extreme state for a long time."

Locke said, "The earth wizards of Yunze Wetland discovered this thing a long time ago and have been trying to capture this disc-shaped creature."

"The disc-shaped creatures were born because of a geological catastrophe that the earth wizards could not locate, and were eliminated from the problem by the life energy of the natural state of the wizarding world after a period of time."

Locke flipped through the documents in his hand and said, "Natural forces in their normal state only maintain life, but natural forces like those of the Disc Creatures, which are essentially in an extreme state, are exactly the opposite; they only want to destroy all life on this world."

Locke said, "Disc creatures are a kind of twisted natural life form that originated in the wizarding world. Even for us wizards, they are strange enough. At least first-ring wizards have no way to destroy disc creatures."

Harlan Vera asked, "Why is that?"

Locke said, "Because the disc-shaped creatures are essentially a part of nature in the wizarding world, albeit a part that has been excluded from it. A first-ring wizard cannot destroy nature itself; this is almost a matter of the rules."

"The earth wizards call the disc-shaped creatures Dark Nature Lifeforms. For the Dark Nature Lifeforms to return to this world, they need to be summoned by the life forms of this world itself, and then use the life forms of this world itself, whether by possession or combination, or by any other strange and unpredictable means, in order to return to this world."

Locke said, "As a dark, natural life form, the disc-shaped creature naturally hates all life forms in a normal state. Therefore, it desperately desires to return to the wizarding world."

"However, the disc-shaped creature beneath Lilith's Hut should not have fully arrived yet, otherwise the entire Lilith's Hut would have become a dead zone."

"Every mortal and wizard in Lilith's Hut may die. Because the disc-shaped creatures are the embodiment of extreme nature, formed over hundreds of thousands of years after that great catastrophe!"

A flicker of fear crossed Albert's eyes.

The disc-shaped creature Locke mentioned was so bizarre that it seemed even a first-ring wizard couldn't handle it.

Locke told Harlan Vera, “However, the Disc Creatures are coveted research material for the Earth Wizards. The Earth Wizards of Golden Crown Mountain have been trying to capture more Disc Creatures for their research. Most Disc Creatures are, in essence, embodiments of the twisted, extreme earth.”

"Most of them tend to distort the earth, but there are also some that distort the sky and the ocean, which will attract the attention of the ocean wizards and sky wizards of the Life School." "Teacher Harlan, if Lilith's Hut finds this troublesome, I can tell Golden Crown Mountain about it. I think the earth wizards of Golden Crown Mountain would be happy to help us get rid of that disc-shaped creature."

A flicker of interest crossed Harlan Vera's eyes. "So, because of the Blood Lord, our Lilith Hut possesses a resource point that all wizards of the Life School dream of?"

Harlan Vera immediately refused. "No need. Locke, if we do that, it's like we're sick and need to see another wizard for treatment."

"But in fact, there is such a unique life form beneath the land of our Lilith Hut. That is our best research resource. Our Lilith Hut also has a field of Earth Wizard magic that studies life."

"Moreover, our Lilith Hut also has a large number of botanical wizards from the School of Life Sciences."

"Breeder, potion master."

"So, let's do our own research. Locke, cough cough... I still hope you'll keep this matter of Mount Golden Crown a secret."

Locke was both amused and exasperated.

Indeed, for wizards, such dangerous things can lead to great discoveries; they are both danger and opportunity.

Which wizard would resist such a hard-won opportunity?

Opportunity always comes with danger.

Locke nodded: "This is the academy's own business, I won't interfere. I only need to focus on the work I'm responsible for."

Albert asked Locke, "But Locke, why did my soul get invaded by that disc-shaped creature after I saved a rabbit?"

Locke looked at Albert seriously and said, "The Blood Curse Court should still be at war with us. Then you should understand that for a curse caster, any form of consent is tantamount to voluntarily allowing a curse to enter your body."

"The same applies to the disc-shaped creature. You offered help and saved the rabbit that the disc-shaped creature was incarnate, so in its eyes, you allowed it to enter your body."

"Your soul."

"To respond is to agree."

Albert's expression was one of disbelief. He had never imagined that the origin of all his misfortunes and suffering over the past two years was simply a rabbit he had casually rescued in the wild two years ago.

Albert said, "But these are two different things, this..."

"I can't accept..."

Locke said, “I know what you can’t accept. But this is the nature of the Disc Creatures. The Disc Creatures are the embodiment of extreme natural forces, and are naturally hostile to life. The morality, law, kindness, evil and hatred of life, and extreme emotions of life are all tools that it uses to destroy us. So it took advantage of a moment of kindness you had and then entered your soul.”

Locke said, "This world is just that dangerous."

"That's why we wizards are needed to explore the unknown in this world, so that people like you won't be taken advantage of by beings who have never been human just because you did a small act of kindness."

Albert paused, then said, “Locke, you really look like a wizard mentor now.”

"Thank you for your guidance, I understand. Please help me become a formal wizard. If so, I want to explore this subject after becoming a formal wizard, so that, as you said, those who come after me will never have to suffer this pain again."

Locke held up the documents in his hand and said with a smile, "Actually, you're already considered a latecomer, Albert. You've already enjoyed the benefits that those explorers brought you."

"Without so much data, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint your problem so quickly. Let's work on the magic pressure transformation spectrum first."

"We need to confirm what kind of disc-shaped creature it is, or have actual evidence to prove that a disc-shaped creature invaded your soul, causing a foreign object to appear in your soul and reject the permanent defensive force field engraved on the surface of your soul."

Harlan Vera looked at Locke in silence, a relieved smile on his face.

He may have been destined to be just an ordinary first-ring wizard for the rest of his life, but he achieved something new in the field of teaching—he trained an outstanding wizard.

I taught him for at least a period of time.

And that's exactly what he wanted.

Locke spent some more time in the library discussing with Albert, giving him a reading list for studying the Forest Sanctuary, as well as some other things he needed to prepare.

Both using a magic pressure mass spectrometer and purchasing red holly require funds.

Fortunately, the Myster Power Research Center at Lilith's Hut has provided one million magic stones to support this project.

This can be considered Locke's undertaking of a horizontal project.

It's just a collaboration with his alma mater.

Locke removed the Gray Mist Slab and received a letter from an owl messenger. The letter stated that his application for the Third-Class True Knowledge Institute Fund had been approved, and he had been given 300,000 magic stones. He could also use the equipment in the laboratory that was worth more than 30 million magic stones.

For example, the ice mirror, sunlight mirror, and electromagnetic mirror in the laboratory.

If you only need to verify a discovered natural magical structure, you only need to use a structure comparison machine, and at most, you can use the Ice Magic Mirror.

In fact, the structural comparison machine is sufficient; the use of the Ice Magic Mirror is only for the sake of rigor.

However, if you want to analyze the new natural magical structure components yourself, you will need to use the two magic mirrors behind the three magic mirrors of the breeder.

Each of these magic mirrors is inaccessible to outside wizards.

“I have the Synthetic Cube to help me determine my research direction. After completing those four projects, I won’t need 300,000 magic stones at all.” Locke thought, “In order to complete the first-class True Knowledge Institute fund project as soon as possible, there is no need to wait for these funds to be applied for one by one.”

"With a portion of these 300,000 magic stones, we can continue to discover more about the coexistence of reproductive capabilities between pineapple-type magical plants and bird-like magical creatures."

"Let's use that one acre of magical field under the banyan tree on Red Mountain to discover more symbiotic relationships between pineapple magical plants and bird magical creatures. I'll also rent a few more acres of magical field to grow the four pineapple magical plants for which I've already designed the research framework, and analyze them as soon as possible to conclude the project."

After returning all the documents, Locke went to Dragonblood Market and rented a normal matrix-style magic field at the foot of the mountain again at the Fertile Field Contract.

Meanwhile, Locke purchased a large amount of breeding supplies in preparation for planting a large number of Rubber Duck pineapples and even more Rubber Duck Crown pineapples.

By the time Locke finished his busy day and returned to his dormitory, it was already midnight.

In a makeshift laboratory in his dormitory, Locke watched as a lightning bee, living inside a giant rubber duck pineapple, developed queen bee markings on its body in an isolated ecosphere.

Locke affirmed the role of the Royal Lightning Field, which was to cause the Lightning Bees to undergo a bloodline transformation, turning them into Lightning Bee Queens.

To Locke's surprise, he also placed an electric ant, an apprentice-level magical creature, on the surface of this giant rubber duck crown pineapple. As a result, the electric ant also underwent some kind of bloodline mutation, turning into an ant king, whose magical pressure was faintly between the first ring and the apprentice level.

Locke's expression was strange. "Although it may sound harsh, this ant's soul level is already higher than that of the natives of the Mage Plane, a colony of the Six Towers."

"On the one hand, it benefits from the high concentration gradient of magical tides in the Jinmianshan-Luxuqiao area, and on the other hand, it is due to the natural magical structure components of the Royal Lightning Field secreted on the surface of the scale-like leaves of the Giant Yellow Duck Crown Pineapple."

"This is absolutely amazing."

Locke had an idea. Since the Lightning Bee and the Electric Ant could evolve by consuming a certain substance on the surface of the leaves of the Giant Yellow Duck Crown Pineapple, could the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat also transform into a two-ring creature by consuming a certain plant in its natural environment at that time?

Is that kind of magical plant extinct now, or does it still exist?
If they become extinct, it will be very difficult for me to transform the bloodline of the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat to the second ring level.

Unless one combines archaeology and breeding science to directly revive that ancient magical plant.

One more thing, Locke said, looking at the giant rubber duck and pineapple in front of him. "Basic research can indeed always uncover some unexpected things."

"The symbiotic relationship between magical plants and magical creatures is not only reflected in enhancing their reproductive capabilities, but also in many other aspects, such as causing symbiotic magical creatures to undergo certain aspects of evolution or transformation."

"The natural magical structural components secreted by the giant rubber duck crown pineapple are such an example. If I continue this kind of research, I can discover more magical plants that can help the bloodline evolution of magical creatures."

Locke pondered, "If I could help the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat's bloodline evolve, would this project be at least a first-class, or even a top-class, grant from the True Knowledge Institute's funding program?"

"Let's take it one step at a time."

"According to circumstances."

There are still too many unknowns about Jinmian Mountain to me; what I have seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg.

(End of this chapter)