Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 564 Planting the Ancient Tree of Life and Expanding the Sacred Forest Domain Again

On the first floor of the Dragonblood Market Castle, in the largest magical plant shop in the Dragonblood Market, [Golden Peach Garden], Locke walked among the powerful magical plants and breeding equipment displayed on the shelves.

"The Four Elements Ring is very rare, and it's not just a matter of price."

"That's the latest invention from the Land of Dragonfall; it hasn't been sold in other wizarding lands yet."

A botanical wizard at the first stage of liquefaction walked ahead of Locke. His eyes darted among the lotus boxes, and he suddenly stopped in front of a shelf. He picked up four lotus boxes, opened them, and took out four magic rings from them.

The style of the four rings is very simple.

It is imbued with powerful elemental energy.

The trader took out one of the fire elemental rings and personally placed it on Locke's left index finger. He clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "Many people think these magical artifacts are just magical artifacts, but I always felt that they possessed their own thoughts. Perhaps it's because I don't understand alchemy and enchanting that I have this mystical association. But be careful when using these magical rings..."

"They are dangerous."

"It looks like a good deal. Each ring costs 200,000 magic stones, for a total of 800,000 magic stones."

Locke reluctantly took out eighty magic crystal cards and exchanged them for four elemental rings.

In this way, he had spent a total of 900,000 magic stones in the past few days.

If I hadn't taken out a loan, I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Of the 1.7 million magic stones he had on hand, including the loan amount, a large portion did not actually belong entirely to him.

The 500,000 is a loan, the 500,000 is a project fund, and the 700,000 is my own personal savings.

After all this spending, I only have 400,000 left in savings, all the loans have been used up, and I still have 400,000 left in the project fund.

Therefore, I currently have 800,000 magic stones in savings.

Locke thought to himself, 'Money really flies by.'

Locke adjusted the order of the rings on his hand, putting the Druid Ring on his thumb, then the four elemental rings on the remaining fingers of his left hand, the Scorpion Woman Ring on his right thumb, the White Dragon Ring on his right ring finger, and the Astral Ring on his right index finger.

The Three Elements Shield Ring is now relegated to the Astral Ring and gathering dust.

Locke, fearing he might buy something else, quickly left the Golden Peach Garden.

He returned to his dormitory and immediately opened the Druid's Ring, entered it, took out a polygonal seed of the Tree of Life, walked to the center of the forest sanctuary, gently dug a small patch of soil, and then placed the seed of the Tree of Life into it.

But suddenly, the seed of the Tree of Life floated up from the pit, shimmering with a green magical light.

Locke was taken aback for a moment, then understood. "Is it because there's not enough energy?"

Inside the Ring of the Druid, four enormous orbs of light suddenly appeared in the sky, representing wind, water, fire, and earth.

First, the flames transformed into a fireball, replacing the sun's reflected light in the prime material plane and becoming the sun here. Then, the water transformed into a ball of ice, becoming the moon here.

Next, the earth elemental orb disappeared into the earth, followed by the wind elemental orb whose shape merged into the high sky of the demiplane.

The four elements of Feng Shui, fire, and earth are the foundational forces of the world. The simultaneous action of these four forces even makes the demiplane more similar to the real world.

Locke looked at the seed of the Tree of Life and noticed that it was closer to the soil, but still about a finger's width away, and had not yet completely fallen.

"Not enough? Logically speaking, the Four Elements Rings should make the space inside the Druid's Ring more like the real world."

Locke thought of something and placed all the remaining mossy pith that he had brought from the Six Towers in his Astral Ring into the pit.

Ten pieces of mossy wood marrow released magical light in the pit.

Among them were gifts from Senior Brother Anthony and gifts from Alicia. After these mossy wood marrows melted, they transformed into a vast amount of life energy, enveloping the earth in a layer of life magic radiance, and powerful natural primal forces burst forth.

These mossy pithes were buried underground for tens of thousands of years, and after countless years of incubation, they were conceived into crystals.

At this moment, all of this energy burst forth.

Thus, the seeds of the ancient tree of life, which had been floating on the surface of the muddy ground, finally settled down and entered the soil.

In just a moment, a green seedling sprouted from the ground, lush and green, a seedling, two tender leaves, and a little green bud.

Essentially, the Ancient Tree of Life is a three-ringed magical plant, meaning that he now possesses the first seedling of a three-ringed magical plant.

However, the Tree of Life requires an enormous amount of energy, which is considered very high even among three-ring magical plants. Therefore, Isisdale was only a Nightmare at the first-ring crystallization level back then.

Even though it had already polluted large areas of the Emerald Dream, gained a lot of energy, and killed at least five Jungle Hand Scavengers.

This clearly demonstrates just how enormous the resources required to make the ancient tree of life grow.

Thinking about this, Locke suddenly rubbed his temples in distress. Upon reflection, he realized that he seemed to have raised a super money-devouring beast.

However, he could stop inputting resources at any time, but when faced with a magical plant that was at the third ring level, he had no reason or justification to stop investing.

The seed of the Ancient Tree of Life is definitely a treasure among treasures.

If the Jade Dream hadn't summoned him, he might not have had the chance to come across this treasure.

From this perspective, Edgar, who used the Tree of Life in the Yunze Cup, was indeed a genius among geniuses.

At the same time, a large amount of energy was absorbed into the seedling of the Tree of Life, but the seedling did not change much, only maintaining the magical pressure of the apprentice level.

This is because there is not enough energy. The energy that one invests can only make the ancient tree of life sprout, but cannot support its continued growth.

Nevertheless, within his 1500-acre Druid's Ring and 100-acre Forest Sanctuary, there are 671 trees, including 71 first-ring enchanted trees.

The magical plants in the ring... Golden apple trees, cloud sea mist pines, blue ginkgo trees, winter and summer giant trees, red earth holly, water sage beech, and six hundred double-ball sycamore trees all expressed their welcome and submission to the seedling of the ancient tree of life.

The Ancient Tree of Life is naturally a superior magical plant!

The Tree of Life was expressing its submission to him. With the presence of the Tree of Life sapling, the overall power within his Forest Sanctuary, while not increasing significantly, had become much more integrated. Locke touched the surface of the Tree of Life with his palm. Perhaps due to a special agreement with the Emerald Dream, he completed the magical grafting with the Tree of Life with very little effort, without even going through the most basic stage of subjugating a magical plant.

It's as if... this ancient tree of life was born for itself.

“Isisdal did say that, in gratitude, it gave me a part of its reincarnation. And another part went to reincarnate. In other words, this new sapling of the ancient tree of life before me is indeed... born for me.”

"Existing for me".

Locke used the sapling of the Ancient Tree of Life to raise the integration level of the Forest Sanctuary's power by at least one level.

Three golden apple trees, each with a ring of magic, were lush and green, bearing golden apples. Locke walked over, picked a golden apple, and put it in his mouth.

The Golden Apple is a special magical plant fruit that can restore some of one's youth after consumption. If a mortal eats it, it can prolong life by about ten years and ensure that they will never age before death, thus maintaining eternal youth.

After all, death does not equate to aging.

The Cloud Sea and Mist Pine is shrouded in mist, the soil around the blue ginkgo tree is covered with a layer of frost, and six red holly trees are lush and green, silently guarding the forest and becoming silent forest guardians.

Locke, on the other hand, looked at the Winter and Summer Giant Trees and the Beechwood. The Beechwood was full of vitality. These fifty Beechwoods only increased the total number of organisms in the Forest Sanctuary. Their strong vitality was their greatest advantage, so they had no other special effects.

Beech trees are the backbone of the forest.

The six giant trees, which stand out in the forest, are enormous in size. They are not only tall but also thick; even twenty people standing in a circle could not encircle them.

The surface of the giant tree in winter and summer is a mixture of blue and red. It is also relatively simple in its overall appearance, consisting of only one giant tree, roots, and two branching branches, each with a few leaves.

Locke took out the golden engraving knife. Because of the sapling of the Tree of Life, his forest maturity had increased significantly, allowing him to do two things he hadn't done before—

First, it is inscribed with the combined defensive magic runes of Life Armor, possessing Lady Mister's second special permanent defensive force field—Life Armor.

Second, expand your forest sanctuary once again.

As the former headmaster of Lilith's Lodge, Wizard Levi, once said, forests also have ages, and a mature forest is just the beginning.

Locke, on the other hand, wanted to continue to grow his already established Forest Sanctuary and move closer to the ancient forest.

This will have at least three major benefits.

First, it actually increases one's own power. The stronger the Forest Sanctuary becomes, the more solid one's magical pressure will become, even though it cannot continue to increase due to the limits of the soul.

Secondly, the continuously growing forest sanctuary helps one explore the boundaries of the second ring.

Third, the continued growth of the Forest Sanctuary can enhance one's understanding of botanical magic and nature. It also represents one's comprehension of the world.

The reason I didn't rush to expand the forest before was because I had just transplanted more than sixty first-ring magic plants into it. The forest needed to adapt. Otherwise, if I rashly increased the total biomass without maintaining the cycle, the ecosystem would easily collapse, which would be a loss.

But now that there are saplings of the ancient tree of life, Locke realizes that the capacity of his forest has increased by at least two times, and will continue to increase in the future.

That means that I can continuously bring in new magical plants into this sacred forest.

Locke took out a spellbook from his astral ring. To improve the Forest Sanctuary and the Forest Alliance envisioned by Dean Levi, Locke had borrowed a lot of materials to read. "The moment a wizard reaches the second ring, the limits of their soul are broken through once again. Thus, through the increase in external magical pressure, coupled with the increase in their own magical pressure, the permanent defensive field can also be passively improved."

"But I'm different. A large part of my permanent defensive field isn't actually at the level of the magical pressure structure of my soul, but rather in the Forest Sanctuary. Therefore, after becoming a second-circle wizard, I actually need the Forest Sanctuary to grow in sync. But this isn't a problem; there are plenty of first-circle and second-circle magical plants in this world."

"Moreover, the Tree of Life is a seedling of a three-ring magical plant, but I lack the resources and magical power to help it become a three-ring magical plant."

"In theory, the total magical pressure of my Forest Sanctuary will always be dozens of times higher than mine, thus giving me a huge advantage."

Locke said, "I'm afraid Dean Levi's original data on the Forest Sanctuary came from his research on the power of Mister, or even... from Lady Mister's manuscripts. I'm getting more and more curious about the fate of such a powerful witch. Why is it that I've looked through all the materials but can't find Lady Mister's fate?"

Is she still alive?

Although Mrs. Mister was an ancient person, she should have been dead for a long time by anyone else's standards.

But Locke couldn't help but think that if she were still alive... then she was far beyond what could be explained by a fourth-circle wizard.

Locke inscribed the magical runes of the oak belt and oak crown onto the surface of the Winter and Summer Giant Trees, as he finished carving the last stroke.

A 'click' sound.

The golden grafting knife from the ancient ruins of the Golden Dynasty suddenly shattered.

Locke looked at the broken sword in his hand and sighed slightly. The moment he started to inscribe it, he immediately sensed something was wrong. As his Forest Sanctuary grew stronger and he inscribed too many permanent defensive fields, the difficulty of inscribing it became increasingly greater.

This is probably because the entire forest sanctuary is his permanent defensive field, and as it becomes stronger, the difficulty of inscribing it will naturally increase.

Each rune he had just inscribed carried immense magical pressure. When that pressure was applied to the grafting knife, the ancient relic could no longer withstand it and broke apart.

He was also hoping for the best, using his own magical pressure to withstand it while continuing to use it. Who knew that the grafting knife would break when he finished the last stroke?

Locke continued engraving with the broken sword, refining the last rune to prevent any engraving errors due to the sudden breakage.

As he continued to carve, the grafting knife finally gave way and shattered.

Locke sighed softly as he looked at the damaged gift Harlen Vera had given him. "There's nothing I can do. If I want to inscribe runes on the Forest Sanctuary again, I'll need to buy better equipment."

"Furthermore, the magical plants in my forest sanctuary can be doubled."

"Even if we use only water sageborg beech... it would still be a huge sum of money, at least 400,000 magic stones, or even more."

Beech trees are the most suitable for filling in the gaps, because other special first-level magical plants, especially those that are more suited to combat or defense, are not as effective as beech trees in making the forest stronger.

Combat-type first-ring enchanted trees, or first-ring enchanted trees with special functions, are like the fangs of a venomous snake or the claws of a tiger. Then, the pure first-ring enchanted tree, the beech, is the venomous snake and the tiger itself.

Those are the magical plants most suitable to form the power of the forest itself!
"Another sum of money. The Forest Sanctuary is really expensive. I hope my Hydra and Five-Headed Serpent will sell like hotcakes on September 1st, otherwise I'll really go broke. I'm finally starting to understand the pain of Griffin Wizard... the pain of poverty." Locke thought with a headache, "But, the oak belt and oak crown..."

"I'm done. Now, I can try using all three of Life Reinforcement's permanent defensive spells simultaneously!"

(End of this chapter)