Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 545 The Secret Society of Golden Crown Mountain
The Celtic team leader seemed to have been terrified by fabricated data, and reminded Locke, "Unless it's a confirmatory experiment, how can your data possibly be close to theoretical expectations? Random errors are ubiquitous. Therefore, we always modify the data to some extent."

"But if you haven't modified any data, and your experimental data is very close to the theoretical expectations, this situation is very unusual."

The Celtic leader glanced at Catherine the Witch with concern.

Locke instantly realized the problem. He had never actually done any formal wizard-level projects in the Southeast Corner Region, and when he was working on projects in the Six Towers, no one paid attention to the details of his experiments, so there was no problem.

However, this habit of his led the wizards of Golden Crown Mountain to notice that he could always quickly find the right direction, so much so that when conducting experiments, the curves of the actual data would fit the ideal curve.

Locke frowned, pondering how to respond.

Actually, this problem isn't very serious, because even if some wizards noticed this, the result shows that they did indeed find out the mechanism of action of these magical plants, but the process was puzzling.

However, these can indeed be attributed to experimental methods.

Just before Locke could come up with an excuse, the witch Catherine suddenly spoke up, "Locke, I have a question for you, and you must answer it honestly."

"This matter is extremely important; it may even determine your future and your potential."

Locke bowed to Catherine the Witch. "Yes, teacher, may I ask?"

Ekaterina said, "When you're doing experiments, do you always have an intuition, a feeling that you're on the right track? If it's wrong, you feel a headache and discomfort, and you lose the desire to continue, even though you can't explain why you don't want to continue."

"But you will definitely feel very uncomfortable. Sometimes you will feel that you are tired, and sometimes you will feel that you are not in a good state."

"Only when you are on the right track can you be full of passion and boundless energy."

The witch Catherine looked directly at Locke and asked, "Have any of these situations ever occurred to you?"

The Celtic wizard looked puzzled. He didn't understand what the witch Catherine was talking about at all, so he looked at Catherine and then at Locke, his eyes full of confusion.

Locke was still hesitant, but then he suddenly remembered something, breathed a slight sigh of relief, and said, "Yes, teacher."

"I do often experience the phenomena you described, and I suffer greatly from them."

"Sometimes, I don't even know if these feelings are illusions or real things."

Locke appropriately showed confusion and distress on his face.

These emotions were not all false; rather, they were nine parts true and one part false, otherwise they could never have fooled the Third Ring Throne Wizard.

The Celtic leader looked even more confused. He couldn't help but whisper to Locke, "Locke, what are you and the Throne Lord talking about? I can't understand a word of it."

The Celtic wizard was having some existential questions.

He was clearly a second-ring wizard, with experience and knowledge several times greater than Locke's, but now he was completely baffled by Ekaterina's words, while the young first-ring crystallization wizard could understand them.

This is very strange.

The witch Catherine glanced at Celt, then looked at Locke and said, "I see, just as I predicted. You have awakened the special ability of the True Dragon Clan—super intuition."

"It's a talent with both high risk and high effect. If used poorly, it becomes a cursed talent."

The witch Catherine said, "So, I've found the reason why you were able to quickly discover the general mechanism of magical plants and cultivate magical plants with new natural magical structural components."

"Because of the dragon's super intuition, it can give you a vague sense of direction. If your direction is wrong, you will experience a physical reaction. If your direction is right, you will feel very comfortable."

"The True Dragon Clan possesses such powerful talent."

“Using super intuition, one can achieve a level of scientific research efficiency that is difficult for ordinary wizards to attain. At least when it comes to simple, repetitive research into the mechanisms and pathways of magical plants’ specific functions, it will be very useful,” said the witch Ekaterina. “In other words, you and I both possess the super intuition abilities of the dragon race.”

Ekaterina the witch said, "When I was a first-ring wizard, it was because of my supernatural abilities that I grew faster than other wizards and did better research than other wizards."

The Celtic leader didn't dare to speak, but looked at Locke in surprise, because the witch Catherine admitted that Locke possessed the same special talent as her.

To possess the same talent as a third-ring wizard at the first ring stage is an immense honor.

It is also a form of proof of talent.

The Celtic team leader lowered his head, unable to suppress a smile. 'We've struck gold this time.'

"Fortunately, His Majesty the Throne assigned Locke to our Group Six first. Originally, Group Six was the worst group under His Majesty the Throne, but unexpectedly, we received such a great benefit."

'Our six groups all have a chance to improve our standing. Whether I can stay at Golden Crown Mountain depends on my performance, and right now it seems I still have to rely on Locke.'

Locke breathed a slight sigh of relief.

That's great. Fortunately, there are countless super geniuses and invincible freaks in the wizarding world. In this way, I can quickly achieve results in Group Six. Moreover, my strong scientific research talent can be attributed to the dragon race's super intuition.

Although her super intuition had only appeared once before and had not been consistently effective since, it was enough for the witch Catherine to believe that she possessed it.

As a beneficiary of the super-intuitive abilities of the True Dragon Clan, the witch Catherine naturally possessed immense confidence in her super-intuitive talents.

Moreover, this can also explain one's talent.

Locke stood up again and bowed to the witch Catherine. "Teacher, thank you for answering my question. It turns out this is the dragon race's super intuition; I originally thought it was just a psychological problem on my part."

The witch Catherine smiled and nodded. "I can understand your pain; you are much like me when I was young. This is a side effect of having such a gift."

Although Locke hadn't really experienced super intuition yet, and naturally hadn't carefully felt the side effects, he still chose to accept it for now.

Nod directly.

Locke asked, "Teacher, with wizards possessing super intuition, will scientific research be much easier than for ordinary wizards? And will wizards of the prophecy school have an advantage in scientific research compared to wizards of other schools?"

Catherine the Witch shook her head slightly. "That's not the case."

"First of all, you asked me whether wizards of the prophetic school have an advantage in scientific research compared to wizards of other schools. I cannot give you a simple answer to that question—whether it is yes or no."

"Because the issues involved are very complex."

“Any school of wizards may have advantages in certain aspects when it comes to scientific research, so you can’t say that wizards of the prophecy school have no advantages when using prophecy magic to do scientific research.”

"But the advantages aren't as great as you think. In many cases, it can even backfire and lead to a detour. This involves the characteristics and weaknesses of divination spells, as well as the costs that must be borne."

"Furthermore, our super-intuitive talent, possessing immortal dragon scales, cannot be simply equated with the magic of ordinary schools of divination. It is a magic of a very high level of divination. If an ordinary wizard were to master it, he would inevitably have to pay a huge price. But with the super-intuitive abilities of the dragon race, the price is not paid by the individual, but by the entire race."

The witch Catherine glanced at the Celtic wizard who was eavesdropping nearby, and then suddenly said, "Celtic wizard, you can go back now."

"Remember, I hope you can give me a good answer in six months."

The Celtic wizard stiffened. He rose from his seat and bowed to Catherine the Witch, knowing that she meant—

He has six months left to try and achieve something so that he won't have to leave Jinmian Mountain.

Of course, he could also choose to leave Mount Jinmian now.

He is free, and always has been.

However, with Mount Golden Crown, the Institute of True Knowledge, and the Throne Wizards, there will never be a shortage of excellent second-circle wizards coming to work for her.

The second-ring wizards of Yunze Wetland, as well as a large number of excellent second-ring wizards from outside the wizarding land, will continuously pour into Jinmian Mountain.

His position was also being watched by countless wizards outside, who wished he would leave Golden Crown Mountain six months earlier than expected.
The Celtic wizard quickly adjusted his mindset. He understood that Catherine the Witch did not want him to hear what was about to be said, so it was best for him to leave beforehand.

The Celtic wizard bowed to the witch Catherine and said, "Your Majesty, I know what to do. I will work hard for the next six months. Furthermore, I plan to develop on two fronts. We will not abandon the original work focus of Group Six, and I will also give priority to Locke with some resources to make full use of the advantages of Group Six."

"To achieve results that satisfy you."

Then, the Celtic wizard left the round table meeting room.

After he left, the witch Catherine said to Locke, "Within the Institute of True Knowledge, my ten-person project has a total of six groups, which are divided into groups one through six according to the importance of the work."

"The work of Group Six is ​​the least important among the six groups. Group One, on the other hand, has my best wizards and researchers from the Advanced Institute of Truth. That's why I let a Celtic wizard whose qualifications are only average give him a try and become the leader of Group Six."

"Among the six group leaders, he is the only second-circle wizard who has not had experience in the Advanced Institute of Truth."

"But now it seems that he is indeed not capable of being the leader of Group Six."

The witch Catherine said with regret, "I used to admire him quite a bit, but now it seems that choosing him was indeed a mistake. It's not a matter of ability, but rather that he has a problem with his mental fortitude."

The witch Catherine looked at Locke and said, "Alright. Now that the outsiders are gone, only our own people remain. So we can have a more in-depth discussion."

Catherine the Witch glanced at Locke's left hand, and instantly a patch of golden, immortal dragon scales appeared on his left hand. For a fleeting moment, Catherine the Witch's eyes turned into red vertical pupils—the eyes of a dragon.

The witch Catherine said, "The full name of Mount Golden Crown is the Dragon Blood Society of Mount Golden Crown. The earliest Mount Golden Crown was established by a group of wizards with true dragon bloodlines and their ordinary wizard friends."

"The wizards of that era still retained a pure-blood-centric view, only recognizing that pure-blooded humans could learn magic. If a non-human or hybrid human learned magic, then... the magic had to be retrieved immediately. In that bloody era, wizards who were not human but knew magic were considered by the wizarding world to have stolen magic from us and needed to have it retrieved."

“In that era, Dragonblood Wizards were outcasts, while the ordinary wizards among the founding members of Golden Crown Mountain were a group of more idealistic beings.”

The witch Catherine said, "The wizarding world at that time made a big mistake, namely, that you must have been human within fifteen generations of your ancestors, otherwise you are an illegal wizard. But later the wizarding world realized that our pursuit of pure-blooded humans may actually have limited the development of the human race."

"To make humans lose their competitiveness."

"Moreover, in the later stages, the definition of humanity became increasingly strict. It started as a broad definition of humanity, then it was defined as the humans of the wizarding world, then as the humans of a specific region, and then the scope became smaller and smaller. Eventually, humanity itself was divided into thousands of races. Finally, the wizarding world at that time believed that it could not continue like this, so it initiated the current [Pan-Magical Race Wizarding Law] - anyone who studies magic can be classified as human, unless they join the dark wizarding world."

"Under this law, everything can be considered human, except for black wizards, who are not considered human under the laws of white wizards."

The witch Ekaterina said, "Of course, many things remain in the law from the era of pure-blooded humanism. For example, for the White Wizard Association, only by becoming a legal human can one have their own rights and obligations and be protected by the White Wizard Association. A lizardman, as long as he becomes a formal wizard and joins the White Wizard Association, is human in the legal sense of the White Wizard Association."

"Whether or not one is human is very important. If one is not human, one will not receive any protection in the Supreme Truth Council."

The witch Catherine said, "That's a long story, Locke. We've always had a secret society on Mount Golden Crown."

"It's a secret society that only dragonblood wizards can join. It's a secret society that has continued from that pure-blood humanism era. Although the situation has changed now, this tradition has been preserved and has been given new uses."

"The name of this society is protected by magic and cannot be obtained by outsiders. Once it is mentioned, some of us wizards can sense it. Only wizards with dragon blood, who have passed the test, can join the secret society of Mount Golden Crown."

"As you know, there are four major forces in Golden Crown Mountain: the Senate, the Academic Committee, the Deacon Inspection Group, and the Luxu Bridge Academy. Leaving Luxu Bridge Academy aside, there are actually three major forces within Golden Crown Mountain. Most of the members of the Academic Committee... are members of secret societies."

The witch Catherine said, "In other words, the academic oversight and project review of Mount Golden Crown are basically in the hands of us Dragonblood Wizards. And the entry requirements for the Academic Committee have always concealed this necessary condition."

"In contrast, the Deacon Inspection Team is dominated by ordinary wizards other than those with dragon blood. The Senate, on the other hand, is comprised of the descendants of those ordinary wizards who were founded at the beginning of Golden Crown Mountain, or even the wizards themselves."

"As for Luxu Bridge, Luxu Bridge Academy is even more unique. It is different from our Golden Crown Mountain. It seems independent, but all actions of Golden Crown Mountain and Luxu Bridge are consistent at the higher levels. If outsiders mistakenly think that we are two wizarding organizations, they will definitely learn a lesson from this."

Locke's mind stirred slightly.

The witch Catherine glanced at him. “That’s right. The main reason Golden Crown Mountain invited you is not because you are the champion of the Cloud Ze Cup, but because you possess the Immortal Dragon Scale.”

Locke finally understood.

In the eyes of the Catherine witches and other witches who possessed the blood of true dragons, she, possessing the blood of true dragons, was considered one of their own.

Of course, to truly become one of them, one must join that secret society.

The standard for this "one of our own" relationship should be deeper than that of ordinary colleagues at the True Knowledge Institute, or even the mentor-apprentice relationship within the institute.

It's a label that's very useful for me right now.

Perhaps, I can gain a lot of benefits from this.

Locke asked the witch Catherine, "Then, teacher, what kind of test must I pass to join that secret society?"

The witch Catherine said, "You are now in the midst of a test."

"If you pass, I will tell you and let you join this society. At that time, you will know the specific name of this society."

Locke wondered what exactly this test was if he was already under trial.
But obviously, the witch Catherine wouldn't answer him, so there was no point in asking any more questions. It would just be a rejection for no reason, and might even annoy a wizard of the Third Ring Throne.

'Although I don't know the specifics of the test, it seems my progress is going well; otherwise, the Witch Catherine wouldn't have mentioned it to me.'

Locke pondered, 'In that case, I just need to continue with my previous approach: diligently manage the fund within the Institute of Truth and strive for top-tier grants.'

'Nothing needs to be changed.'

Locke, as if struck by a thought, asked the Catherine Witch, "Then, the Mason Witch..."

The witch Catherine nodded and said, "You are indeed very clever. It seems that your supernatural intuition has developed quite well."

"Your intuition is very sharp."

"The Witch Mason possesses the bloodline of a second-ring dragon—the Frost Dragon. The earliest membership requirement for the Secret Society was to have the bloodline of a true dragon, but later, due to changes in its function, the requirement was continuously lowered. So, strictly speaking, as long as you have the bloodline of a second-ring dragon, you are eligible for membership."

"It's just that your priority within the society is higher than that of Mason Witch."

"Although she is also very good, she is a very hardworking young girl."

Locke nodded.

Jinmian Mountain was indeed not as simple as he had thought. He had only been a member of Jinmian Mountain for four and a half months, but he had already seen undercurrents surging within it.

Ekaterina the Witch said, “On the contrary, your good friend, Wizard Daniel, has Wizard Fyodor as his mentor. Fyodor is in the Deacon Patrol, which maintains its existence and recruits new members through mentor-apprentice relationships.”

"Your friend is a key person being investigated."

"As for the Senate? Those old guys are still stuck in the ancient era. Although their bodies have come to the modern wizarding world, their minds are still in the past. Some of them might even be a bit retro, able to go directly back to the era of the magical empire before the era of pure-blooded humans..."

"The Senate can only be entered through blood relations. People like you and Wizard Daniel will never be able to enter."

Even if you want it.

Locke nodded thoughtfully. "I see, teacher, I understand."

The witch Catherine said, "These things actually have nothing to do with you little wizards. You just need to do your own thing."

"Getting back to the main point. The side effect of the super intuition is borne by the entire dragon race, namely, the difficulty in producing pure-blooded offspring. Therefore, the two of us do not have to directly bear the side effect."

“Under normal circumstances, studying prophetic theories will not be of any use to scientific research.”

“We are special. First, not all wizards have the talent to study the School of Prophecy. Second, prophecies are always vague, and the more detailed they are, the higher the price and the higher the level. For example, to conduct research at the first level, one needs prophetic magic that is essentially at the third level to truly play a decisive role. That is why I can sense from your data that you may have awakened supernatural abilities.”

"The same ability as mine. But this ability can only play a limited supporting role at the second ring level, and at the third ring level, it is just icing on the cake."

"Third, every prophecy comes at a price. A prophet can always resolve the accumulated costs in some form before they become unmanageable."

The witch Catherine said, "Therefore, top prophets will try to use complex methods to forcibly deduce an important research project through prophecy. There is even such a research group on Mount Golden Crown. However, this method is not conventional and is very costly and resource-intensive. It belongs to the second type of scientific research, which is the way the academy obtains breakthrough technology."

"And this method is indeed being tested by research groups within top wizarding organizations around the world."

"It's just that the efficiency of producing results is very slow."

"In general, super intuition can only give you a vague direction. What plays a decisive role is still the knowledge you have accumulated yourself."

The witch Catherine handed Locke a crystal bracelet, mainly composed of a type of white crystal called Angel's Tear Crystal, strung with mithril wire.

"This is a second-level magic weapon I used when I was young. It's useless to me now, so I'm giving it to you."

"Angel's Tear Crystal can cloud your destiny, distort prophetic magic on you, rendering it ineffective or misleading you."

"This can render other people's prophetic magic ineffective on you, and it can also make your own prophetic magic lose its effect on you."

The witch Catherine said, "Although we don't have to pay for the side effects of supernatural abilities, it's not a good habit to use prophetic abilities for a long time. It will gradually erode your perception of reality. As you use it more often, you may not be able to distinguish whether it is your prophetic intuition or your conjecture and fantasy."

"Wearing this magical bracelet allows you to control how often you use your super intuition. As long as you use your super intuition within reasonable limits, you won't confuse your perception of reality due to overuse."

Locke stared at the bracelet in the witch Catherine's hand, momentarily stunned, unsure whether he should accept the gift of the second-circle magical artifact.

That's a second-ring magic weapon!

Each second-ring magical artifact is worth at least a million magical stones.

Many second-circle wizards are poor and don't own any magical artifacts. Of course, some once had magical artifacts but later mortgaged them and lost them.

Before Locke could react, the witch Catherine grabbed his left hand and personally put the crystal bracelet on his wrist.

"My magical pressure remains on the artifact, so you can also use the Angel's Tear Bracelet."

A first-ring wizard's magical pressure is insufficient to activate a second-ring magical artifact, or at least insufficient for normal, prolonged use of a second-ring magical artifact.

(End of this chapter)