Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 672 Daniel's Research and the Fifth Stage
The witch Camilla quickly replied, asking, "Continue the trade? What kind of trade?"

Locke sent a message: 'Since you already sold me your personal magical porcelain once, why don't you sell it to me again?'

'This won't do you any harm.'

The witch Camilla asked, "How much do you want?"

Locke pondered for a moment and decided that with twelve pieces, twelve porcelain moons could be created, and then four synthesiss would be sufficient.

The main issue is that each porcelain month requires a significant amount of resources to grow.

If I could synthesize ceramic moons myself, I would synthesize them hundreds of times and then find the best one. However, considering the cost, this is not realistic.

Moreover, having more is of no benefit.

Almost there.

The witch Camilla of the opposite city of Nexus was somewhat shocked. 'Are you insane, or am I? If you were only buying one or two pieces of Cancer's natal witch porcelain, I might be able to help. You want to buy twelve pieces of Cancer's natal witch porcelain? Absolutely impossible!'

Camilla the Witch quickly sent Locke two final messages: 'I refuse to make the deal. This will definitely alarm the Chief Wizard Instructor of Nexus, and I'll be punished. You'll be fine, but I'll be the one fined.'

'I refuse to contact you. Please respect my decision and do not send me any more messages.'

Locke raised an eyebrow, not particularly bothered by Camilla the Witch's refusal, after all, she had rejected him directly in the same way last time.

Camilla the Witch is an opportunist; for such a person, missing any opportunity feels like some kind of loss.

Although the other party is refusing at this moment, they may simply be weighing the pros and cons.

Locke thought for a moment and realized that if he rushed to find her now, he would inevitably put himself in a passive position.

However, if you reply directly, such as accepting the result, you will stop the other person from thinking.

The natal witch porcelain is indeed only found in the Demon Pivot City, and after consulting numerous sources, I have confirmed that the natal witch porcelain is the best medium for constructing the Porcelain Moon.

Locke thought for a moment and said, "Let's leave it at that for now."

Locke returned to his dormitory and meditated for a while. He found that the more he meditated, the higher the magical pressure rose, the wider the cracks in his soul became, and the more he declined.

Locke abandoned meditation altogether and decided to stop all attempts to improve his mental strength until he broke through to the second ring.

He used the makeshift potion room in his dormitory to light the primordial fire and brew a potion.

Locke poured the magic pressure liquid from the crucible into a crystal potion bottle. The potion was purple in color; it was a standard weakening potion.

It can be used to reduce one's mental strength.

Essentially, this is a poison that is very difficult to refine. Ordinary first-level alchemists simply cannot refine it, and the failure rate is also very high.

"I must try to avoid taking any potions that can enhance my power," Locke pondered. "Right now, my magical pressure has reached a point where it cannot be increased in the slightest. Every increase would be detrimental to my soul."

"I shouldn't have increased my magic pressure so quickly."

“No…” Locke realized, “This is a dead end. In order to obtain magical resources, I must constantly improve myself, and once I improve myself, every step forward will lead me toward this period of soul decay.”

Locke drank a weakening potion, reducing the magical pressure generated by his constant conversion of natural force into magic. "I have to drink a bottle of weakening potion every day to reduce the magical pressure I'm converting from natural force. I never imagined that at this stage, the backflow of natural force would be the most terrible drawback."

"I can no longer use any advanced meditation techniques."

"The converted magical pressure cannot be completely reduced by simply using a weakening potion, so I need to increase my spell load and use magic at all times to reduce my own magic."

This is like temporarily creating a reservoir.

Locke snapped his fingers, and instantly a moon descended. The bright, full moon landed behind him, then transformed into a sphere, flew into his right eye, and entered the sky above his forest sanctuary.

"The soul decay period is too terrifying. I don't need to create two ultimate spells at the same time. As long as I successfully create one ultimate spell, I will be a second-circle wizard. It's better to create one ultimate spell first, and then create the second ultimate spell after I become a second-circle wizard."

Locke recalled his experience of becoming a second-circle wizard through the Great Realism spell during the Historic Landmark Curse and quickly made a judgment.

"By the way, go check on Group 2. I found a special energy-locking structure called the glandular root sac on the ancient flower roots. I wonder how Mason Witch and the others are doing."

After drinking the weakening potion and waiting for it to take effect, Locke immediately jumped onto his cloud whale and headed towards Little Peach Mountain.

At the summit of Mount Momo, Locke sat atop the Narwhal, looking down at Mount Momo with astonishment.

At this moment, the entire Little Peach Mountain was shrouded in demonic energy. The evil power of the Twin Demon Realms, like a dark purple cloud, entwined around the mountaintop.

Even the radiance of the sun behind Mount Jinmian was blocked by this demonic energy.

At that time, Daniel also arrived in a rainbow pheasant. He had recently paid off his debts and was in a happy mood.

Wizard Daniel looked at Locke and said, "Locke, you've come to Little Peach Mountain too? Are you going to colonize a plane? By the way, I'm tired of riding this Rainbow Sparrow."

Locke looked at the peacock-shaped rainbow he was sitting on and said, "How about we switch?"

Daniel had been waiting for this. "Great. I'm getting tired of it anyway. Sitting on this rainbow leopard all day is so boring. I've been craving your cloud whale for ages."

Locke laughed as the rainbow finch landed on him, and Locke jumped on it, commanding his cloud whale with his eyes to fly toward Wizard Daniel.

Locke asked the wizard Daniel, "Have you paid off your debts?"

Wizard Daniel chuckled, "I just paid it off last month. My second-tier project should be finished in about six months."

“If I hadn’t been scammed, I probably would have finished the project long ago. Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it,” said Wizard Daniel. “I was too inexperienced before, and I had no choice but to suffer some losses.”

"We can't avoid it, we can't avoid it."

"By the way, Locke, I'm heading to the Gray Fog Dimension. My mentor and his research group are waiting for me there. I made a huge fool of myself in front of them before. Thanks to your and Julian's encouragement, I'm able to keep going."

“So, I have to get there right now. Because of what happened before, my status is a bit low.” Wizard Daniel pursed his lips and shrugged. “Not everyone is like you and Senior Sister Julian, who don’t judge people with old eyes.”

Daniel couldn't help but feel annoyed when he thought of the wizards in his research group who were gossiping behind his back and looking at him strangely.

In the White Wizarding Society, being in debt is not terrible; what is terrible is going bankrupt.

He had accumulated too much debt and had to borrow money from the bank to pay it off. Unable to repay the bank loans, he nearly went bankrupt and became a debt slave.

Fortunately, at this time, the witch Julian brought him an investor, otherwise he would have really gone bankrupt and become a debt slave.

They could only pay off their debts by selling their labor.

Therefore, the wizard Daniel experienced the full spectrum of human emotions.

He has now paid off all his debts to his friends, but some of the wizards in the research group still look at him with suspicion and talk about him behind his back.

In this white wizard society, which is largely built on a credit system, someone who has been on the verge of bankruptcy will inevitably be labeled with discriminatory tags.

Thinking of this, the wizard Daniel, who had been quite happy, became gloomy. "Besides you and my senior sister, basically no one wants to talk to me now. The good thing is, it makes the world suddenly feel very peaceful. I'm forced to put all my energy into the project."

Wizard Daniel looked at Locke and said, "I have a great idea recently. It's still related to fog. If it succeeds, it will definitely surprise everyone."

"That's good." Locke nodded and said, "The only moat a wizard has is his own research. Daniel, don't worry about what others think."

"It's enough for us to do our own thing well."

“Think about a bright future,” Locke said. “Sometimes, people need to have some idealism in them, otherwise everything is too realistic, and if that reality is too harsh, then we will inevitably live a difficult life.”

“I think that from the very first day we arrived at Golden Crown Mountain, the second-circle wizard there told us to avoid the real and seek the unreal, which might have meant something like that. Who knows?” Locke said to Wizard Daniel.

Wizard Daniel sat atop the cloud whale, gazing up at the sky, at the massive, red sun behind Mount Golden Crown that resembled a divine wheel. "Imaginary?"

"You're right. Sometimes reality is too harsh; if we don't indulge in idealism, it's really hard to get through."

“When I was so in debt, and nobody wanted to talk to me or help me, it would be really hard for me to get through it if I couldn’t immerse myself in fantasy.”

“Perhaps the high-ring wizards of Mount Golden Crown didn’t mean that at all, but abstract thinking can indeed help us get through the most difficult low points,” Wizard Daniel said. “It’s probably about having dreams.”

“By the way, speaking of this,” Wizard Daniel said with a long face, “I had a student who, during my lowest point, tried several times to use his connections to get a different teacher. I’ve held a grudge against him.”

Locke did not respond.

Wizard Daniel glanced at Locke. "I was just kidding."

"How can it be."

Wizard Daniel said to Locke, "Let me tell you about my recent ideas. Don't let my appearance fool you, I am also a winner of the Sanze Cup. I entered our Golden Crown Mountain as the best first-ring weather master in the Sanze region."

"They all think I'm down on my luck now, but I don't think so."

Wizard Daniel opened his palm to Locke, and a water droplet appeared on his palm. The water droplet was constantly evaporating, and then it turned into many smaller water droplets.

The tiny water droplets were also evaporating, and then they formed a magical mist.

Wizard Daniel took out a poison bead alchemical artifact from his astral ring, crushed it, and all the poison gas entered the mist.

Instantly, the spiritual mist turned into a green poisonous mist.

Locke said, "Is this all you're thinking? It's just turning into poisonous mist. A very common first-circle spell model, nothing special."

Wizard Daniel blinked, then immediately realized what was happening. He took out the heart of a dark magical creature from his astral ring, crushed it, and forced out the magical energy. This dark energy then combined with a small wisp of mist in his right palm.

Wizard Daniel said, "Look, do you see anything?"

Locke looked at the cloud of mist and shook his head slightly.

Wizard Daniel blinked, then looked down at the cloud of mist in his hand. "My demonstration before was wrong. The second one I'm showing you is the one I really want to show you."

"Look, some of this dark energy has merged into the mist."

Locke glanced at Wizard Daniel. "Hmm...maybe a little. Hmm? Very little, almost negligible, but...it's persistent."

"You mean that fog has the potential to become an excellent energy-locking structure?"

Wizard Daniel said, "Lock energy? You're too quick. That's my idea, and I haven't even explained it yet. You've already thought of it. It really makes me feel no sense of accomplishment."

Locke said, "No, it's just that I've been studying energy-locking structures lately."

Wizard Daniel paused for a moment. "The energy-locking structure of magical plants? Oh, it's a special structural organ used in life magic to store and transform life energy, right? Our meteorology mainly studies macroscopic energy scheduling, the coupling interface between the environment and energy, the capture of meteorological energy, and the problem of cross-regional energy transportation."

"Therefore, it's on a larger scale. And it's not just about locking energy, but also about transferring it. Look at this magical weapon; because the water is condensed into droplets, it essentially has an exaggerated surface area and a corresponding surface tension."

"Moreover, there are some mechanisms that I haven't fully understood yet. If successful, this would be an excellent distributed energy storage network, as well as an energy transport carrier controlled by wind load and temperature difference."

Wizard Daniel said, "There is a very important concept in meteorology, which is roughly equivalent to the energy-locking structure in your life magic, which is the energy transport carrier."

"In aerodynamics, an energy transport carrier is a medium that enables the macroscopic flow of energy and transports objects. This small detail I discovered in ordinary fog might help me accomplish a different kind of great magic."

“I’m gathering information to complete the last piece of information,” said Wizard Daniel. “I’m not bragging, but if I hadn’t been deceived by that wicked witch back then, I would definitely be one of your opponents in the finals of the magic combat tournament.”

"Locke, you may not be the champion."

Locke smiled. "Yes, I believe you."

Locke, gazing at the mist in his hand, pondered: 'I've always wanted to find the fourth link within the Moon—All Things—Me, to increase system redundancy.'

'Later I tried using the Forest Alliance Charm to create a redundant structure. But the redundancy still wasn't enough. And today, my conversation with Daniel suddenly made me realize that my Forest Alliance Charm has a serious flaw. Or rather, a flaw in the plants themselves—the plants have limited mobility.'

Using a forest sanctuary as an energy storage structure raises the issue of excessive concentration of moonlight energy within a specific localized area of ​​the earth.

Locke carefully examined the incantation, a sudden chill running down his spine. 'Back then, the reason I was invincible within the Historical Boundary Marker spell was simply because I stood atop the giants of the era; those people didn't understand my ultimate magic. Moreover, I never fought against truly powerful ancient wizards. Thinking about it carefully, the flaws in the ultimate magic I constructed back then were simply too great.'

In an energy storage environment, the problem of excessive energy concentration is very serious.

'Not to mention the fact that it doesn't even have an energy transport medium.' Locke looked at Daniel, deep in thought. 'If Daniel can figure out how to solve this mist, it sounds like I could use it to further enhance my ultimate magic.'

'I didn't make a bad friend.'

(End of this chapter)