Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 658 Superintuitive Problems and the Mandelbrot Spiral
Two weeks later, Locke, the witch Shirley, along with Warwick and McKinley, completed the first draft of the great article.

The four decided to revise the manuscript a few more times before submitting it to the archaeology journal "One Ring History" in the Starfield Sea.

Locke learned from the Ash Cult that "The First Ring of History" was a journal that Warwick and others had dreamed of submitting to, but had never been accepted before, so they had never dared to submit it.

After all, submitting a manuscript from here to the Starry Sea would cost a lot of money just for the travel expenses. Since there's no chance of it being accepted, there's naturally no need to submit it.

As for who to choose as the corresponding author, the four of them discussed it and decided to do it themselves.

After all, for the Starry Sea, it doesn't really matter who is in charge of communications.

"First Ring History" is the most prestigious journal at the first ring level in interstellar archaeology, and it doesn't discriminate much against seniority.

If they can't get through, they can settle for something else.

They will also use this article to apply for the Istoria Archaeology Prize.

This long article will basically explain why the Nameless King of the Age of Stars was removed from the list, as well as the mortal era and the investigation of the tomb of the Loom Princess.

Of course, Locke and the witch Shirley still kept the last part about the princess a secret.

This part actually states that, for their current goals of publishing top-tier journals and winning archaeological awards, it is not very beneficial, and may even be harmful.

“Master Augustine…Master Warwick, please let me deliver the information you requested to you…” The first-class wizard apprentice, a dark wizard, appeared extremely frightened. There was a wound on the corner of his mouth, making his entire face look as if it had been cut in two. The wound had not scabbed over, and the flesh was exposed.

Locke glanced at his face and frowned slightly. "You're alright, so why did you use the Face-Cutting Curse on yourself?"

The first-class wizard apprentice, a dark wizard, was clearly not expected that Locke would suddenly ask about his physical condition. He said somewhat awkwardly, "Master, the Face-Cutting Curse can make my dark energy talent stronger. My dark energy talent is only level 4, which is not comparable to the Child of Elements, so I can only use this method to enhance my necromancy talent."

Locke frowned slightly. "The disadvantages outweigh the advantages."

"Level 4 talent...not bad."

I only had a level 3 talent back in Lilith's Hut.

Locke glanced at him. "Crush the Kurumos Obsidian Snail and apply it to your face. It can alleviate some of the side effects of the Facebreaker Curse. Hopefully, this will help you."

This was probably Locke's instinct as a potion maker, or a habit he picked up at the Healing Hand at Lilith's Hut. Upon seeing the face-cutting curse on the wizard's face, he immediately and subconsciously came up with a solution and a way to temporarily reduce the side effects.

The first-class wizard apprentice, a dark wizard, was overjoyed and almost immediately knelt before Locke. "Thank you, teacher."

"Thank you. You...you're so kind."

The dark wizard thought for a moment, then presented Locke with five hundred magic stones. "Teacher, these are all the magic stones I have right now. To thank you, I'm giving them to you."

Locke glanced at him and said coldly, "No need. You can leave now."

The dark wizard apprentice hesitated for a moment, then immediately chose to leave the room before Locke could become impatient.

As he stepped outside, sunlight shone on his face, and a look of doubt flashed in his eyes. "Could it be that this formal wizard isn't implying that I should offer him all my wealth?"

"Otherwise, why would he give me guidance?"

A flicker of doubt crossed the first-class wizard apprentice's eyes. He looked at a stone at his feet, his confusion deepening. "There's no such thing as a free lunch. But could it be that the fully-fledged wizard really just casually offered a suggestion that might be useful to me?"

"Isn't that a trap?"

He suddenly fell silent. "It's a pity that when I first entered the wizarding world, I didn't go to a white wizard's academy."

……

Inside the accommodations arranged for Locke by the Ash Cult, Locke sat on a leather sofa, took a sip of coffee, and shook his head slightly. "What are these dark wizard students thinking? They actually think I'd be interested in the little bit of money they have."

They actually thought I was just casually reminding them to ask for money.

“Never mind, it’s not the good people’s fault that they are in bad places,” Locke said. “I was just acting on my potion-making instincts.”

With a wave of his hand, a historical projection spell model appeared before his eyes.

An ancient flower appeared before me.

Locke took the data and began comparing it with the ancient flower. "The botanical data of the Black Wizard Academy is really too little, but it's enough. Hmm, I guessed right, the distribution of the flowers and leaves of this ancient flower is completely abnormal. It's really bizarre, no wonder it's an unnatural plastic flower made by the Tower of the Black Sun."

"This is extremely strange. This is not a plant at all."

"Generally speaking, magical plant flowers will be arranged in a certain spiral and grow according to certain mathematical rules, so that optimal and suboptimal resource allocation can be carried out, including light, space and water, magical tides, and growth dynamics."

"Generally, it is a golden angle spiral, an equidistant spiral, an equiangular spiral, or a certain composite spiral, but they all must conform to a certain mathematical beauty that conforms to mathematical laws due to the optimal allocation of resources."

"But this ancient flower... the reason it gives me a strange feeling is because it doesn't conform to the natural laws of growth at all."

Following his own magical model, Locke used a magic quill to draw a unique spiral on the blueprint. It was a spiral that could never appear naturally due to energy utilization considerations.

"Between each nine-petaled flower, smaller flowers will grow, and within each smaller flower, there will be smaller flowers, like nested spirals. They are not regular, they have no symmetry, and they are all random."

"From a microscopic perspective, the surface texture of the flower also runs through this spiral... This spiral is very unique, but there is a spiral called the Mandelbrot spiral that is very similar to it, almost identical. However, this spiral is not visible in botany at all."

"Only a very few cauliflower magic plants and a few fern magic plants may have leaves that are slightly similar, but they are definitely not the same. However, in the field of the Evocation school, this is everywhere, in lightning magic and water magic, because the Mandelbrot spiral is most common in rivers and lightning."

Locke's expression was strange. "It's clearly a plastic fake flower, not a flower at all, but it insists on pretending to be one."

"Since it is a flower that imitates a real flower, the growth pattern and texture of its flowers and leaves are completely different from those of plants, but rather resemble lightning and the eddies of a river."

"So random."

"I need to record this spiral curve first. This new spiral curve, which is similar to the Mandelbrot spiral but slightly different, seems to be some kind of energy-locking structure."

"If we continue our research, we may make new discoveries."

Locke sat on the sofa, feeling the flower's eeriness more and more now.

No wonder King Otto told himself not to touch it, not to be curious about it, and that studying it would be of no benefit.

Locke took out a seed of the flower from his Astral Ring, removed the Angel's Tear bracelet, and then used an ordinary grafting knife to cut his index finger, from which some blood immediately flowed.

“If I drip my blood onto this seed, according to King Otto’s description, this plastic flower will bloom…”

“My superintuition tells me that I… should put a drop of blood on it.”

Locke looked at the seed, placed it on the table with his left hand, and then moved his right hand above it, about to flip it over, but at that moment, Locke suddenly withdrew his hand. "This isn't right."

“King Otto told me that to sow the Ancient Flower at the Tower of the Black Sun, one must use sacrificial magic to scatter a rain of blood. This flower destroyed a vast dynasty. I must handle this with caution.” Locke pondered, “But my supernatural intuition tells me… I should immediately sprinkle a drop of blood on this seed. Wait, this supernatural intuition comes from the bloodline of the dragon.”

"Most of the time, the Demon Dragon bloodline is on my side. But last time, it betrayed me. It was my teacher who helped me with the Peach Blossom Thorn Arrow."

Locke took out the Ganoderma lucidum plant and simultaneously sent a video call request to the witch Catherine.

You should ask your teacher.

This is a very important matter.

To Locke's surprise, he thought that the witch Catherine might not pay attention to him, but she answered him directly.

The witch Catherine sat in front of a dressing mirror with her hair down, while a half-dragon maid combed her hair.

The half-dragon maid was a hairdresser, a niche profession within the School of Prophecy.

A haircut can alter a person's appearance, thereby indirectly changing their luck, making them appear more imposing, or shaping them in the direction desired by the sorcerer.

Every morning, Catherine the Witch needed to hire a professional hairdresser to style her hair.

Catherine the Witch looked at Locke. "Locke, it's been a long time. When are you planning to come back?"

Locke said, "Teacher, thank you for your concern. My senior sister and I are guests at the Ash Cult, and so far, the experience has been quite good."

He briefly recounted what had happened, quickly going over everything except what concerned the princess.

Catherine the Witch was not an archaeology witch, but a third-circle witch, so it was fine to say it.

Besides herself and the witch Shirley, she had no other archaeology wizards under her command.

Regarding matters concerning the princess, Locke used a simplified description, skipping over details and specifics.

For example, it is said that the Tower of the Black Sun placed a curse of exile on the tomb's owner and the Nameless King, and that he wanted to investigate some kind of message left to him by the tomb's owner.

This method helps avoid the negative effects of the "expulsion curse" on oneself.

Catherine the Witch applied a special lipstick to herself and then said, "Oh, you did the right thing. Don't study that resin ball outside of Mount Golden Crown."

Locke asked, "Teacher, does this mean that Mount Golden Crown has a way to counteract the curse of exoneration?"

The witch Catherine said, "Hmm. There is a way."

Locke then realized that the magical pressure of Otto, the former overlord of the Age of Stars, was perhaps only comparable to that of the witch Catherine.

Both of them were quite close to becoming fourth-ring wizards.

Even if Otto's magical pressure is slightly higher, it's not by much, and Catherine the Witch possesses magical artifacts from modern magical civilization.

The witch Catherine said, "If it's just a side effect of the expulsion curse, you don't need to worry. As one of the seven top universities in Yunze Wetland, Golden Crown Mountain is naturally not afraid of the side effect of a mere expulsion curse."

"But you shouldn't conduct research in other regions."

"You will die, Locke."

Locke was startled.

As expected, my previous judgment was correct.

The witch Catherine said, "Show me the seeds of that so-called plastic flower."

Locke turned around, pointed the Ganoderma lucidum plant at the table, and showed the seeds of the ancient flower to the witch Catherine.

Catherine the Throne, who had been casually applying lipstick, let out a soft exclamation upon seeing the seeds on the table. "The Tower of the Black Sun..."

“This thing… has traces of ritual magic on it, and it’s not a seed, it’s an artificial object. And it’s an artificial object that’s trying to disguise itself as a normal seed.”

Locke asked疑惑地问道, "Teacher, have you figured it out?"

The witch Catherine said, "Hmm. Stay away from that ominous thing."

“You said before that dripping your blood on it would make it ‘grow.’ I advise you not to. Because you are my last disciple, I really don’t want to see Shirley bring back a dried-up corpse of yours.”

Locke was startled. "Teacher? My supernatural intuition confirmed my safety and urged me to drip the blood on as soon as possible."

The witch Catherine looked thoughtful. "Hmm... one can't completely disbelieve in prophetic abilities, but one can't completely trust them either. But in any case, this is just a magical artifact. I ask you, since it's a magical artifact, it can't grow like a real seed life. So how can it gain life and grow like a natural creation?"

Locke was startled. "Take my life... and it will have life."

The witch Catherine laughed and said, "You're quite clever. But your rank isn't high enough. If you become a second-circle wizard, I think your rank will be sufficient."

“Sacrificial magic has long since disappeared, replaced by ritual magic. You could observe those seeds and make good use of them; you might gain something from it.”

"As for dripping blood on it?"

"I advise you not to."

Locke bowed to Catherine the Witch and said, "Teacher, thank you for reminding me. You saved me from disaster."

Locke broke out in a cold sweat.

This ancient artifact is far too dangerous; I never imagined I almost killed myself just now.

The witch Catherine said, "It's not really like I saved you. Since you came to me specifically for this matter, it means you yourself already have doubts."

“Locke, you should treat these ancient artifacts with more caution. Their origins are mysterious, and they are fraught with danger. They are not a safe and harmless little rabbit that you can play with at will.”

Locke bowed again to Catherine the Witch. "Thank you for your reminder, teacher."

The witch Catherine said, "Show me your full moon growth."

Locke chanted the incantation and summoned a full moon.

The witch Catherine watched this scene with satisfaction. "Indeed, the essence of this great magic is very high."

"Although it is still very simple and crude, and is nothing at all, it has a very high foundation from the very beginning."

"Rather than a small but complete ultimate magic, I would prefer you to choose an ultimate magic with lofty goals, even if it is temporarily rudimentary. With lofty goals, even if you cannot achieve them, you will at least gain more in the process of trying to achieve them."

(End of this chapter)