Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 547 Nightmare Creatures and the Reencounter with the Hand of the Jungle

Locke's soul, deep within his heart, automatically evolved into a dimensional portal in the realm of the mind. Thus, his soul and body remained in place, while his mind entered the special dimension of the Emerald Dream through that dimensional portal.

The witch Catherine placed it on her chair, while Fafnir, who had been concealing himself with a spell, appeared in the conference room, his body shrunken.

The witch Catherine curled her lips into a smile and looked at the golden dragon Fafnir, saying, "Well, I won this time. This child has adapted to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands very well."

Has your opinion of him changed?

Fafnir, the golden dragon, swished its tail in annoyance, circling around the unconscious Locke. "My opinion of him has never changed. He's excellent, with many strengths but few weaknesses. I just didn't expect him to awaken such a special ability that only true dragons possess so quickly—super intuition."

"If he had this special ability, it would be very convenient to do basic research, and his intuition would become his most powerful weapon."

Jinlong Fafnner said, "But my opinion of him has not changed. He is no longer adapted to Yunze Wetland. You know the difference very well, Ekaterina."

"He simply used his talent to get Yunze Wetland to accept him. His weakness still exists—teamwork ability."

"There's also the problem of insufficient understanding of higher paths. I've observed that Wizard Daniel is developing much faster in this regard."

Fafnir, the golden dragon, suddenly said, "Ekaterina, perhaps that outstanding young first-ring wizard who graduated from our school and whom you rejected can grow even faster than this little dragon."

Catherine the Witch glanced calmly at Fafnir, the Golden Dragon. "You are far too afraid of the unknown."

"Moreover, it's not just me who's choosing him; the organization behind me is also choosing him. A wizard with immortal dragon scales will be considered an excellent reserve member by the organization."

"He's one of us."

Fafnir, the Golden Dragon, shook his head slightly. "I'm not afraid, I just find it troublesome."

"Fine, I still believe my assessment of him is correct. Even excluding the influence of political factors within the organization, my judgment of him remains unchanged."

"Let's wait and see; things will develop on their own."

Fafnir, the golden dragon, looked down at Locke. "But what's wrong with this little dragon? His soul and body are here, but his mind has long since left. What happened?"

The witch Catherine said, "It's nothing. It's just that the world's will of the Emerald Dream summoned him."

Fafnir, the golden dragon, knew nothing about botanical magic, so a look of confusion flashed in his dragon eyes, and then he stopped thinking about it. "The Emerald Dream? Oh, that's the world that's so special among botanical wizards. When I was young, I encountered a botanical wizard enemy who used ritual magic and borrowed the power of the Emerald Dream."

"Therefore, I am aware of this."

"That plane is indeed quite troublesome. Moreover, the Emerald Plane has a ten-thousand-year-old contract with the Green Dragon Clan. I rarely see Green Dragons keeping their promises so seriously. I've always suspected that those Green Dragons have some unknown conspiracy in the Emerald Plane..."

Fafnir the Golden Dragon was not a botanical wizard, so he could not understand that the summoning of the world's will from the Emerald Plane was a very special case.

Simply put, it can be understood as ritual magic in the first stage of crystallization.

The problem is that the first crystallization stage is the stage of a young dragon for a true dragon, while for the golden dragon Fafnir, he would not pay any attention to the memories of his life as a young dragon, so he did not care much about it.

The witch Catherine glanced at the golden dragon Fafnir. After all, the golden dragon was not a wizard, so he naturally did not realize that ritual magic was not so simple.

Unlike true dragons, which are born as three-ring creatures, wizards have devoted themselves to building a comprehensive advancement path in order to achieve a second breakthrough after the first.

Ritual magic and advanced meditation are both methods that help a first-circle wizard become a second-circle wizard.

Ritual magic is not that simple.

However, most wizards were so short-sighted that they turned ritual magic into a form of usury, thus making ritual magic a synonym for something dangerous.

Catherine the Witch pondered for a moment. “He has fallen into the Emerald Sleep.”

"He won't wake up anytime soon. I should go and ask for leave from the lab for him, otherwise he'll lose points for every day he's absent. Wait, if I ask for leave for him, it'll cause a chain reaction."

Ekaterina glanced at Locke and pondered, "A few days of absence shouldn't be a big deal."

"It's just a matter of deducting some points."

Although she was the one who created the rules for this points leaderboard.

The witch Catherine summoned a female half-dragon servant whose bloodline power had reached the first level. "Place him on the bed in the lounge next to my office, and keep an eye on him until he wakes up. Don't let anyone near him."

A wizard who has fallen into the Emerald Sleep can have his body replenished with natural energy, so he does not need to worry about food or other issues.

In fact, upon waking up, the wizard often feels refreshed and invigorated, his condition restored to an unprecedented peak, as if he has been reborn.

You might often find that the world has changed dramatically, and hundreds of years have passed outside.

This half-dragon maid held the witch Catherine in high esteem, but the moment she touched Locke's body, she cried out as if burned and quickly took a half-step back.

And the immortal dragon scale on Locke's left hand also appeared.

A look of awe flashed in the half-dragon maid's eyes. "A true dragon."

She bowed to Catherine the Witch and gave a slight bow to the unconscious Locke before struggling with her fear and lifting Locke up.

……

Emerald Dream.

Locke was now immersed in a vast green jungle. Every plant in the Emerald Dream was enormous; even a blade of grass was as tall as a pillar.

The ants, grasshoppers, and other insects living here look like tiny black dots, so minuscule. In contrast, the original animals, such as tigers, cheetahs, and black bears, look like insects living in the grass in the real world.

However, the good thing is that it seems like everyone no longer has to worry about food, as there is an endless supply of food here.

Locke looked up at the towering apple tree in front of him, somewhat speechless. Each apple on it was as big as a house.

The entire apple tree resembles a skyscraper.

All I could do was stand at the base of the tree, gazing up at the apple tree that seemed to disappear into the clouds.

"It's called a plane of idealism, but it looks no different from the Wizarding World," Locke said. "The only difference is the physical rules, which makes the plants here exceptionally large. It's understandable, since it's a natural plane. Here, plant life is the dominant form, and other life forms have to give way."

Locke observed for a moment. "However, the plants here are indeed very strange; these are not magical plants from the material plane."

Locke used the wizard's unique vision, the "spiritual vision," to observe the world from a spiritual perspective.

"As expected, these plants are not plants in the real sense of the material world. These plants are essentially... a collection of plant spirits." Locke summoned the sea gold sand from his palm.

Instantly, countless pale green spirits appeared in the air of the Emerald Dream World, entering the sea gold sand in his palm like specks of light.

The power of the shimmering sea sands was enhanced out of thin air.

"No wonder Instructor Ekaterina said that by signing a contract with the Emerald Dream, the power of magical plants would be enhanced when I used them in the wizarding world. The Emerald Dream is essentially a world composed of plant spirits; it can almost be considered... the final resting place of plants after they die, the underworld of plants..."

"The main expression of the world's power here is plant spirits. As long as these plant spirits enter my magical plants, I can gain a boost to the power of the magical plants in a very short time."

Locke had an idea. He took out Hydra from his Astral Ring and coiled it around his right hand. Suddenly, he could use the power of Myster.

"As expected, in this special world, the pressure on wizards to use magical plants is reduced to the greatest extent. Therefore, tactical magical plants that originally required at least three wizards to use can now be easily used by an individual in this world."

In other words, in this world, he was no longer limited to using Hydra for only half an hour.

This means that he can activate the power of Myster at any time.

"My current special state, and the animals in this world, all seem to be real living beings. These things are still mysteries, but it seems that these are not things that a first-ring wizard like me can understand."

Locke summoned the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow and used the Plant Mimicry Technique: Green Dragon to fly into the sky. In a very short time, it quickly climbed up a thousand meters and arrived at the top of the apple tree, standing on the oval leaf of the apple tree.

“All the plants have grown a hundred times larger,” Locke said. “But there is one advantage: I can observe the structure of these plants more clearly now.”

Locke looked down and saw the apple tree leaves magnified a hundred times. The green granules inside the leaf tissue were slowly moving as the angle of the sunlight changed.

At the same time, one can also see some bubbles on the surface of the leaves. These are gaseous element bubbles that the leaves continuously produce and release through photosynthesis. Because the leaves have become many times larger, even a first-level wizard can observe these phenomena with the naked eye.

“What a magical world,” Locke said. “Every plant here is not a magical plant, but the soul of a plant. Although I did not enter here in my physical body, nor can I even be considered to have entered here in my soul.”

Locke didn't even know what he was now. He touched himself and found that he had a completely real sense of touch.

Therefore, Locke believed that he was likely a spiritual incarnation, and that this incarnation was a special type of natural incarnation.

It's like the relationship between Edgar and his Tree of Life.

This resulted in his own magical power being amplified here. His magical pressure intensity remained unchanged at 9045, but he was able to easily replenish his power here.

"However, what exactly does the world consciousness of the Emerald Dream Plane want from me?"

Locke saw that there were actually many kinds of life in this plane.

There are even quite a few magical creatures at the first level.

For example, there are life-sized mantises, fire foxes, and wild boars that roam the jungle.

Moreover, these creatures live here without food shortages, and there are many fruits from plants that can provide healing effects, so there are hardly any diseases. Therefore, these creatures are very peaceful and serene here, seemingly detached from worldly affairs.

Even the most ferocious first-order magical creature in the wizarding world, the Purple Panther King, has become a nice guy here. Locke just saw a Purple Panther King leaping on a rose petal, jumping past an apprentice-level fluorescent rabbit without even glancing at it, even though the fluorescent rabbit should have been on its menu.

Instead, they started eating nectar.

In this world, there seems to be no distinction between carnivores and herbivores; all magical creatures are vegetarians, and here, there is an inexhaustible supply of plant-based food.

Locke stood on an apple tree leaf, his expression strange. "Is this some kind of plant paradise?"

"If a soul came here, it would probably enjoy it very much."

Locke turned around and saw a witch in a purple wizard's robe who used a wind chime dandelion to fly to his side. She saw him and seemed to be surprised, feeling that her presence here was quite astonishing.

She is also a wizard in the first stage of crystallization.

Locke looked at the wind chime dandelion in her hand. He had only ever seen this kind of thing in books before, and it was not a common flying magical plant in the Eastern Boundary.

The wind chime dandelion is about the size of an egg, like a bell. It can be hung on the wizard's hand. When used, a gentle shake will generate a huge buoyancy around the wizard's feet, allowing the wizard to float in mid-air temporarily.

Each time the wind chime is shaken, a burst of buoyancy is generated, so with a certain amount of learning, the wizard can achieve the ability to move in mid-air by shaking the wind chime.

At this moment, the witch looked at Locke in astonishment and asked, "A wizard from the Eastern Frontier? Which wizarding region are you from? How did you end up here?"

Locke frowned and said, "Aren't you here too? We're both botanical wizards, so it's normal for us to be here together."

The witch immediately realized that her words had sounded strange, as if Locke shouldn't be there.

“Oh, please don’t misunderstand. The Emerald Dream is a public botanical treasure trove, but I rarely see wizards from outside our Southern Border’s Green Steel City Wizarding Land here—on the conscription battlefield.”

"Wizards who voluntarily enter the Emerald Dream will only appear in other areas. The recruitment battlefield is special and requires an invitation from the Emerald Dream plane."

"Hello, you can call me Grace Jeffries."

“I come from the Southern Frontier, the Green Steel City, which is also the headquarters of the Jungle Hand. I am a member of the Jungle Hand.”

Locke then noticed the badge of the Hand of the Jungle worn by the witch Grace on her chest.

Locke said, "Hello, I come from the Eastern Boundary, Yunze Wetland."

Grace thought for a moment, seemingly unfamiliar with the place names in the Eastern Boundary, then it dawned on her. "The Land of Three Swamps? That's a good place, I've heard it's no worse than our Green Steel."

"It's truly regrettable that the Land of Three Swamps always refuses to accept the advanced ideas of the Hand of the Jungle. My third-circle wizard mentor once said that if the Land of Three Swamps accepted the advanced ideas of the Hand of the Jungle, the scale of its magical industry each year could increase tenfold!"

Locke completely ignored the outrageous claims about the Hand of the Jungle, but he didn't expect that the Hand of the Jungle's headquarters were not in the Eastern Frontier, but in the Southern Frontier.

“I was summoned into this world by the Emerald Dream, Grace. Do you know what this world wants us to do?”

Grace suddenly made a gesture, putting her finger to her lips, and said, "Keep your voice down. The nightmares are coming."

"This plane demands our battle."

"The Hand of the Jungle has a contract with the Emerald Dream, so I'm doing social work to obtain special magical resources within the Hand of the Jungle. This is the first time I've met a wizard who isn't from the Hand of the Jungle but is still doing social work. You're quite unique."

"Nightmares are nearby. Be careful; they are unlike any enemy you've ever encountered before!"

(End of this chapter)