Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 642 Become a Mortal! Become the Protagonist of This Era!
The ferry approached the tombs surrounding the River Abyss.

Without hesitation, Warwick stepped onto the tomb city. He crouched down, using a Focused Single Lens to peer at the rocks on the ground. "Just ordinary M-shaped magical granite, that matches up. In the Age of Stars, alchemy was far less advanced than it is today."

“If the base material of this ship burial mausoleum complex is a very high-grade magical material, then this city must be a forgery from later times, or a product of several later eras. But if it is this kind of fine granite, then it makes sense.”

"These magical granites are products of nature. Although they are exquisite, they are naturally formed and reliable in function, but mining them is extremely destructive to the environment. The White Wizard Association has restricted their mining for a long time."

Wizard McKinley laughed and said, "Even if you demolished the city and sold it as high-grade building material, magical granite, it would still be worth a lot of money."

“The mining of Magic Granite is now restricted, and the annual output is limited.”

The next moment, he saw both the witch Shirley and the wizard Warwick staring at him with dagger-like eyes.

Wizard McKinley quickly replied, "I was just joking."

"Gentlemen, I'm also an archaeology professor, how could I not know the value of historical materials? Hahaha... I was just kidding."

Under the murderous glares of the two men, Wizard McKinley quickly raised his left hand and swore, "I swear to all my savings, I have absolutely no intention of demolishing this city to sell the M-shaped magical granite."

"I'm not joking anymore."

Warwick scoffed. "You really shouldn't joke around like that."

Locke swept his gaze across the city and saw that the main part of the city was built with M-shaped magical granite, and all kinds of buildings had a special ancient style.

The parts that should have been residential houses all had the structure of a fortress.

This reflects the fact that in the Age of Stars, medium-sized wars could break out at any time, with countries constantly fighting each other. In that era, ordinary people almost never enjoyed peace.

Unlike the current modern magical era, where peace is the main theme, the wizarding world's native mortal society has long enjoyed a period of peace.

As Locke and his companions walked through the streets and alleys, they noticed that these ancient buildings rarely had windows, and where there were a few places that resembled windows, they were equipped with crossbows and other devices.

To Warwick's dismay, they saw several skeletons on the street, their bodies reduced to mere skeletons, with only their wizard robes remaining.

Warwick examined them briefly and confirmed their identities. "Some are native wizards of the Qionghua Enclave, while others are wizards from your Yunze Wetlands. Look at this one, this one is actually a wizard from the Rose Council, and this one is a wizard from the Storm Tower."

"They must have fought each other on this street; some buildings show signs of damage. It's just that we don't know why they died here."

Warwick frowned and used archaeological magic to summon the King of the Dead, a tall, dark warrior undead appearing.

He communicated with the spirit for a while, but ultimately shook his head slightly at Locke and the others. "We didn't find any useful information. This street should be safe."

"At least I haven't detected it. Or perhaps, not yet."

The witch Shirley examined the corpses and said, "Based on my years of experience examining corpses, these corpses are basically not those of archaeological wizards. In other words, these people did not come here because of an archaeological expedition."

"They came here not for academic research, but to find some kind of special magical resource."

Locke frowned. "In other words, these wizards have mistaken this for a wild wizarding sanctuary and trespassed upon it."

Locke suddenly thought of something else: wizarding realms usually have wizarding echoes, so could there be an echo of the Loom Princess in this ancient tomb?
Wizard Warwick was getting anxious. "In that case, we should quickly find the location of the princess's main burial chamber within this mausoleum complex."

"If those novices find it first, they might destroy the information about the ancient tomb. That could mean that some mysteries will be forever buried in history!"

"Never to see the light of day again!"

Locke said, "Warwick, we need to maintain our previous pace. This tomb city is very dangerous."

Warwick, reminded by Locke, nodded, took a deep breath, and said, "That's true."

"I was too anxious."

"But if we lose our composure, we may pay an even greater price."

Locke looked down at the bricks of the street and noticed that some of the granite bricks were engraved with a line of words: "There are one hundred people here, ninety-nine of whom are mortals, and one is a wizard. Among them, who is civilization itself?"

Locke summoned his Sovereign's Book and recorded the information about the negative energy particles on the brick.

Warwick and the others also noticed this problem. "Who is civilization itself? It must be that wizard."

Locke frowned and asked doubtfully, "Is civilization a person? If civilization is that wizard, doesn't that mean that even if those ninety-nine mortals die immediately, it won't affect civilization?"

Is a person's civility still considered civility?

Warwick paused for a moment. "Indeed. But why is this question left on the ground at the Loom Princess's tomb complex?"

Locke pondered, "If this truly is the tomb of that nameless king from history, then this is a question worth exploring. Perhaps it's related to the nameless king's curse of being erased from the public eye."

Warwick looked down at the inscription on the brick and frowned. “But out of a hundred people, only one is a wizard. By all accounts, that wizard is the most important. He should be the leader.”

Locke coughed, reminding him, "Mr. Warwick, just a week ago you were still speaking up for those hardworking but talentless wizards in the Enclave of the Blossoms. Have you forgotten so quickly?"

Warwick the wizard instinctively retorted, "Locke, how can wizards and mortals be equated? They are not even the same species."

Locke glanced at him in surprise, but did not refute him.

Because this is an insignificant question.

After Warwick finished speaking, he was stunned. "That's not right. I also had a mortal period. Every wizard has a mortal period. It's not quite right to say that I'm not mortal."

"McKinley, and Miss Holy Master, what do you think?"

“Look, there are words on the bricks ten meters ahead.”

At this moment, all four opened their respective Sect Master Books. The four Sect Master Books continuously released magical radiance, using the [Historical Projection] spell model to absorb historical data from the surrounding negative energy particle field.

Enrich your own patriarchal book.

The four looked down at the small characters carved on the second brick—[If, out of these one hundred people, ninety-nine are mortals who are single-mindedly focused on developing their own civilization, living good lives, wearing decent clothes, and building respectable structures; while the wizard is a necromancer who spends his days with bones and befriends ghosts, then who is the civilization?]

The four people looked at the passage and were completely baffled.

"That Loom Princess is quite the troublemaker," said Wizard McKinley.

The witch Shirley pondered, "Right. Can necromancers be considered human? If something isn't human, how can it be considered civilization? So... under this extreme assumption, the ninety-nine mortals out of these one hundred are civilization." Warwick and McKinley immediately looked at her indignantly.

Warwick the wizard coughed. “Miss Holy Mage, you have a prejudice. But necromancers… if they are obsessed with those corpses, they really have no motivation to develop other civilizations.”

"In this hypothesis, those ninety-nine mortals are indeed more representative of civilization."

Locke said, "Instead, we should say that all one hundred people are part of civilization. Since everyone is part of civilization, there is no need to argue about who constitutes civilization."

All three wizards nodded, suddenly realizing that they had fallen into the habitual line of thinking about the brick, thus being led astray in their thinking.

It was only because these were the words of the ancients that the three of them were unconsciously led astray by them.

The three continued forward and discovered a new inscription carved on a granite brick ten meters ahead: 'If these one hundred people are all part of civilization, then why do ninety-nine mortals obey the wizard?'

Perhaps one day in the future, all mortals and wizards will be equal in status. Mortals will also have the power to determine their own destiny. Will that day ever come? My great…

The four men's eyes narrowed.

Because the last part of the writing was erased out of thin air, only the scar-like traces of erasure left after the destruction were left.

Locke pondered, "The inscriptions on these three bricks suggest that the Loom Princess harbors a very dangerous ideological tendency."

'The Age of Stars was founded on the power of the Witch King alone, maintaining a kingdom and forming numerous magical kingdoms. But these ideas were already threatening the very foundation of that era.'

'If the Loom Princess was just talking, that would be fine. But if she actually did it... then...'

McKinley retorted, "Only wizards can guide mortals to become better. This princess is talking nonsense."

The witch Shirley couldn't help but say, "But in that hypothetical scenario, the wizard was just a necromancer who would only lead civilization to destruction. He was nothing but a walking corpse, an underground rat."

“I think those ninety-nine mortals would be happier without him.”

Wizard McKinley retorted indignantly, "What if that necromancy summoned spirits to help mortals live?"

The witch Shirley said, "He won't. He'll just turn those mortals into his own skeletons. The necromancer tramples on the dignity of both life and death; he has no respect for life."

"Since he has already despised life every day, what moral compass does he have to refrain from harming mortals? Even if he can deceive himself and endure it at first, as soon as those mortals do something he considers unforgivable, he will immediately find a reason to use evil magic against them."

“Besides, the existence of the undead is evil. The undead cannot consume…” The witch Shirley coughed and changed her words: “The undead themselves are products of negative energy. Just getting close to mortals will cause mortals to die quickly.”

"I don't think the existence of necromancers is of any benefit to mortals."

Warwick was panting heavily. "Miss Holy Wizard, aren't you too prejudiced against us dark wizards?"

Wizard McKinley said, "I've tolerated Warwick all this way! If she looks down on us so much, why bother traveling together!"

The witch Shirley sneered, about to speak, when she suddenly frowned. At the same time, the holy mage spell protecting her soul, the first-circle spell model of the Celestial's Embrace, flashed through the depths of her soul.

The witch Shirley suddenly came to her senses.

At the same time, she looked at Locke, walked directly to his ear, and snapped her fingers. "Wake up!"

Locke was also taken aback, but then he saw that the surrounding environment had changed drastically, and that the four of them had not entered the street.

They did not enter the city.

They simply stood on the dock of the city where they landed.

There were indeed many corpses of wizards from the modern magical era on the dock, and the architectural style of the city was exactly the same as what I had observed before, except that I had never been close to them.

Locke saw the different colored brick mosaics on the wall next to the steps and stairs on the dock.

The brick painting depicts the scene the artist had just witnessed as he ventured deeper into the 'city'—an aerial view of a small mausoleum city.

At the same time, through the lenses of his spectacles, Locke saw three problems on the bricks depicting the street scenes in the details of these brick paintings.

“This is… a magic painting.” Locke reacted quickly. “It’s a brick painting technique similar to magic paintings. The moment we landed at the dock, we were all trapped in an illusion.”

Locke broke out in a cold sweat.

The witch Shirley nodded. "If I weren't a holy mage, and the most intelligent of the four of you, we probably would have already fallen out. The brick paintings on this wall are not just illusions, but also enchanting magic, which can make us angry and argue without us even realizing it."

"The three questions in the painting are probably just meant to provoke us. They are questions that are easy to cause conflict."

Locke glanced at the witch Shirley. "Is that so?"

At this moment, the mural on the brick wall suddenly started moving on its own, with each brick moving one by one.

The witch Shirley immediately exclaimed, "This is not an illusion!"

The brick painting transformed into a line of text: "Ignorant descendants, how dare you tread upon the final resting place of the Loom Princess! This will become your eternal hell!"

Abandoning your magical powers is your only option to leave this place! Become mortals, become the protagonists of this era!

This is the final mercy of our Lord.

Locke frowned.

The witch Shirley said, "The brick wall is moving... This seems to be a Transfiguration spell..."

At that moment, Warwick suddenly rushed towards the witch Shirley, angrily shouting, "Explain yourself!"

The witch Shirley shoved him away. "Get away from me! Don't touch me. If you touch me again, I'll kill you."

Warwick flew into a rage. "Fine, fine, Holy Mage girl, then we have nothing more to say. I'm going to kill you today."

The witch Shirley didn't care that he was under an enchantment; she was about to cause trouble. At this moment, a murderous intent flashed in her eyes, and a magic wand appeared in her hand.

Locke quickly stopped her. "Wait, Senior Sister. This person still has the historical materials I need. By the way, this operation is so dangerous, he promised me that he would give me the historical materials before the official start of the operation."

“I will wake him up now and have him give me the historical materials.”

(End of this chapter)