Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 677 Resonance of Collective Consciousness! The Plasticity of Life!
Locke ultimately chose not to interfere. For someone with high magical pressure and high psionic energy like him, it was incredibly easy to prevent the two natives, whose civilization had almost degenerated into cave dwellers, from discovering him.

He followed behind the two men, watching them enter a place filled with natural caves and grottoes, where the remaining Dune people eke out a living.

According to information Locke had read before, the Dune civilization had a population of about 16 billion at its peak, since the original area of ​​the Dune plane was more than three times its current size.

It was just that it was too close to the solar plane before, which caused many areas at the edge of the plane to be swallowed up by the solar plane.

This situation is actually very similar to what Locke saw in the Age of Stars, only a smaller version of the wizarding world at that time. It seems that the wizarding world back then was also severely damaged because of certain events that occurred in the Age of Empires.

However, the foundation and resources of the Wizarding World are incomparable to those of the Dune Plane.

Therefore, the Wizarding World still has a chance to start over, while the Dune Plane's health bar was directly captured and emptied by the Sun Plane's gravity. Over the years, solar storms have evaporated at least two-thirds of its area.

The current Dune Plane is essentially just the core area of ​​the original Dune Plane. The demi-planes, small-scale plane worlds, and edge regions that were originally attached to the Dune Plane's crystal wall system have all been absorbed into the Solar Plane.

The current Dune Plane is a prime material world from the original plane, specifically the prime material world in the core region.

Logically speaking, beneath this endless desert lie the ruins of a civilization dating back tens of thousands of years, once known as the Dune People!

The two dune people Locke had first encountered, the one who had been infected by the residual toxicity of heavy element particles after eating the cold fish, lay on the rocky ground, his whole body swollen.

If Locke hadn't secretly used Moonlight to apply some holy spring dew potion to him, this mortal would have already died, and even his corpse would have turned into a pool of blood.

At this moment, his body underwent another strange change. Steel bones grew out of his chest, piercing through his chest and becoming distorted in shape.

With each breath he took, he let out a scream.

Locke frowned as he watched this scene. "The contamination by the heavy particles of the celestial element would only cause the bloodline essence to completely collapse. This abnormality in his body seems to be something he has had since birth."

"In other words, the Dune people themselves underwent some kind of abnormal change during the apocalypse."

Locke watched this scene and knew that the mortal would die in ten minutes, and in that time, the doctor among the Dune people would not have time to treat him.

wrong.

Locke shook his head. "Where would there be any doctors? The Dune civilization has collapsed. These Dune people are just descendants of a once highly advanced telepathic civilization."

"Even the essence of bloodline has changed."

Locke pondered, "If I don't intervene directly to help them, this mortal will die, and the entire tribe will perish because of that sewage."

"Although ecological restoration should adhere to the principle of minimal intervention, sometimes things are just that straightforward. If we don't intervene directly and stop it immediately, the ecosystem will be destroyed in an instant."

Locke stood directly in front of them, but all the Dune people seemed not to see him, because the difference in magical pressure between the two sides was simply too great.

It is so large that it seems to exist in two dimensions.

The immense magical pressure formed an insurmountable barrier, suppressing the minds of the dune people so much that they could not even see Locke.

This was merely a third-level apprentice-level mental magic spell that Locke, as a wizard approaching the second circle, casually created using his basic knowledge of psychoanalysis and his distributed psionic energy.

But for these dune people, it was a method that was almost like that of a god or a demon.

Locke pondered, "Should we save them? But even if we save one, what good will it do? These dune people will all die from environmental destruction anyway. Should I save all two hundred-plus dune people here?"

“According to this principle, shouldn’t I save all the Dune people in the world?” Locke’s eyes became indifferent. “To feel sorrow for something similar to myself is not because I am weak, but because I have seen my own kind and felt compassion for it.”

"This is simply my personal respect for life."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't be studying life magic, but necromancy."

“But I am just a wizard, not a creator or a god. Therefore, I really have no need to take action.”

Locke wanted to use the remaining Holy Spring Dew potion to cleanse the air above the tribe, purifying them from the pollution, before turning away, thus fulfilling his good intentions.

However, at this moment, Locke noticed that these dune people were wasting some hard-won food and pure water, offering them as sacrifices on a strangely shaped rock.

Meanwhile, the dune people moved the suffering dune man onto the rock.

Then, these dune people used some mud from the ground to smear and draw on their faces, wasting these last remaining resources, seemingly just wanting to do something ritualistic.

Ten relatively strong young men were chosen from among the dune people, and they began to dance a strange dance and chant strange syllables around the rock.

Locke, who had already sentenced the Dune people to death in his heart and was about to sprinkle the potion and leave, suddenly had a look of interest in his eyes after seeing this scene. "Interesting. In this desperate situation, these Dune people are actually wasting their remaining resources by performing a ritual to worship a normal rock."

"In the ancient wizarding world, as far as I know, one of the oldest forms of magic is ritual magic."

"At least for the era of stars, that is certainly true."

"There seems to be some kind of instinctive resonance between sacrificial practices and intelligent life. Is this a psychological comfort that comes from wasting resources, or is there another reason?"

Upon seeing this, Locke immediately abandoned his intention to leave and decided to stay and continue observing. At the same time, he took out a True Sight Crystal from his Astral Ring and immediately recorded the scene.

The dune people surrounded the sick dune man, roaring and singing, and someone even gave him a special plant-based drink.

A middle-aged dune dweller spoke telepathically: "Great Stone Spirit, you guided us to our homeland, protected us until now, and led us to evolve. Great Stone Spirit, grant this warrior the opportunity to transcend suffering and evolve!"

"Please, great Stone Spirit, guide us in our evolution!"

"Great Stone Spirit, grant us the ability to survive!"

Eleven minutes later, the sand dune man on the rock was barely breathing and was almost dead.

It wouldn't be surprising if they died the very next moment.

The rituals that the Dune people used to express their hopes are still being performed.

From the old man's sermon, Locke learned that this tribe developed a specific rock worship practice by searching for rocks that were more likely to appear near water sources.

Meanwhile, at some point, someone began to fabricate a lie that these dune people were protected by some kind of god.

The Dune people, of course, did not understand what gods were, and naturally did not know the difference between the true gods of the heavens and the false gods of the various colonies. However, they did believe, through their own needs, that they had a powerful god protecting them.

The key point is that they not only believe they are protected by a god, but they also believe that this god has been guiding their evolution.

For centuries, whenever they faced the threat of extinction, they would collectively pray to the Stone Spirit, and then something miraculous would happen.

Although those rituals seemed utterly useless at the time, the threat of extinction would always mysteriously disappear, and a certain plant needed by their tribe would grow around the stone.

It was as if... the Stone Spirit truly existed.

At the same time, the blood essence of the Dune people did undergo specific changes. This phenomenon of changing their blood essence through the worship of stone spirits seems to be the reason why their civilization has been able to continue to this day, according to their own sacrificial language.

From the old Dune Man, Locke also learned that the number of this Dune Man tribe had been declining over the years.

On the one hand, the environment continues to deteriorate, and on the other hand, this evolution seems to be entering a dead end, with the mortality rate of newborn babies increasing recently.

Zaran Bailey's plan to transform the Dune plane was the final blow to the last remaining civilization of the Dune people.

Locke frowned. "Stone Spirit?"

He walked directly onto the rock in front of the many dune people, touched it with his palm, and carefully sensed whether there was magical pressure, special magical tides, or special spiritual fluctuations.

But... there was nothing there.

This is just an ordinary rock.

Locke looked at the bloated dune man lying on the rock. The special heavy particle pollution from the elemental pyroxene, though only a little, was rapidly destroying the man's blood essence. In the end, he would turn into a pool of pus and lose his life.

Locke originally wanted to prevent this misfortune from befalling him, since it was just a matter of convenience for him anyway.

If this scenario makes you feel uncomfortable, then your mood is the most important thing, and naturally you should prevent this scenario from happening to you.

But at this moment, he frowned. "I estimated he only had ten minutes to live, but it's almost thirteen minutes now, and this guy still isn't dead?"

"Looks like he's about to die."

Locke looked puzzled and turned to the group of Dune people who were performing a ritual. "No. There are no magical fluctuations or any special spiritual fluctuations. There shouldn't be any supernatural forces involved."

"Could it actually have worked?!"

Locke turned around, completely bewildered. He looked at the Dune Man lying on the rock, whose life was like a flickering lamp, gradually fading into darkness.

"Did I miscalculate? No, I estimated the value based on his remaining spiritual essence. I overestimated it. As a potion master who is close to the second ring, if I can't even determine the life or death of a mortal, then I'm seriously derelict in my duty."

“Even if the Dune people have a special resistance to heavy particles of the elemental rings, it's impossible for them to survive for thirteen minutes without dying. Moreover, as a race with low magical talent, the Dune people have decent talent in the Mind Magic school, but their other magical talents are terrible, resulting in a serious problem of unbalanced and low magical resistance.” Locke pondered, “Considering all the information, I can conclude that the ritual was effective. Or rather, some substance ingested by this person during the ritual had an effect.”

"If I had intervened directly, I would have prevented the ceremony from taking place. If I'm in a bad mood, ignoring these two is perfectly normal."

"We can't let this happen."

"If I hadn't estimated this man's lifespan, I wouldn't have realized that this realization could extend his life by about four minutes. I would have just thought it was a useless ritual, and that this native had died in ignorance and stupidity. But I came anyway, so be it, and I realized that his life had been extended in some way."

Locke's eyes gleamed with intense interest. "An unknown phenomenon is, to me, a hard-won treasure."

"Behind the unknown phenomenon, there must be some undiscovered principle and mechanism of action, or at least I haven't read about it, and it is still a niche and cutting-edge research."

"Whichever it is, I've made a huge profit."

Locke frowned as he realized the Dune Man before him was about to die. If the man died, he would be forced to stop observing.

The next time we can see each other, it may be a while, and I will be responsible for testing every day.

If necessary, he would even need to call his two students, Williams and Gregor, to monitor them daily, and even create an occasion to force these natives to perform the ritual again.

Moreover, one cannot be certain whether this phenomenon is accidental or has a probability of occurring.

Therefore, the best solution is to prevent this native from dying.

Locke guided the moonlight, channeling more of the Holy Spring Dew potion's power into the native's body. At the same time, he directly opened a bottle of Bear Spirit Jade Elixir, injecting its power into the native's body through the moonlight to enhance his magic resistance.

The Holy Spring Dew Potion enhances his vital energy, while the Bear Spirit Gallbladder Potion increases his magic resistance.

With the combined effect of the two methods, along with the unknown power generated by the ritual, the dune man's complexion began to improve, and his body began to return to normal.

Of course, this is just a tendency.

Because Locke did not directly intervene to save him, and because mortal souls lack a magical pressure structure and are more fragile than tofu, Locke could not administer too strong a drug, so he remained half-dead.

If it were an ordinary first-level potion master, they might not be able to save him.

After all, taking potions increases a certain type of magical contamination.

The soul of a mortal is so fragile; if he drinks a potion with even slightly stronger effects, he will die right before your eyes.

“According to my plan, the effects shouldn’t be that strong.” Locke looked at the mortal. “The two potions I gave him were both products that I diluted with moonlight tens of thousands of times before I dared to use them on him. Otherwise, he would have been poisoned to death by my potions first.”

At this moment, the dune man on the rock had regained some of his ability to speak, and he exclaimed joyfully, "The stone spirit has appeared... it guided my evolution!"

"Look at my chest! You can't see me, my deformed bones are starting to become normal. I've evolved, I've evolved..."

The people of the dunes were overjoyed and immediately jumped even more excitedly and sang even louder.

"It's evolved! It's evolved! The Stone Spirit has been guiding our evolution all along!"

"The Stone Spirit bestowed upon us everything that allowed us to evolve!"

Locke suddenly realized something. "The Dune people have always had a stone worship that originated from their search for water, and there has also been a kind of evolutionary worship that is tied to stones."

"They believe that evolution can help them solve their current predicament. Could it be that they believe the Dune Man lying on this rock is undergoing some kind of evolution?"

"Because they believed, they were actually accelerated in their evolution?"

Locke looked at the deformed bones on the chest of the dune man on the rock. "These steel bones must have been developed to cope with extreme drought and to conserve water."

"I've read the data on the Sand Dune Man, and their evolutionary speed was indeed very unusual."

“Life science requires the courage to propose hypotheses so that I can break through the boundaries of my cognition,” Locke thought. “Although this kind of thinking is absurd, I can indeed propose a hypothesis—the Dune people believe that the Stone Spirits help them evolve and obtain the energy and ability for evolution from the Stone Spirits, so their evolution speed has accelerated accordingly.”

"The rituals of the Dune people accelerated their own evolution."

"A certain kind of collective consciousness resonance may accelerate a certain evolutionary direction of organisms."

Locke looked at the dune man on the rock, realizing he was about to die, and frowned. "In that case, I won't allow you to die."

He took out the last bottle of lucky potion he had prepared from his astral ring, and then used moonlight to inject it into the mortal's body.

The Lucky Potion is a rare potion that, when taken, does not require enduring immense magical pressure and places minimal burden on the soul.

Even for ordinary people, it is safe to drink if it is diluted tenfold.

Using this mechanism, one can dilute the Lucky Potion fewer times to maximize its potency and protect the mortal's life.

The luck that Locke had gathered while concocting the potion of fortune was now bestowed upon this mortal, guiding him toward the best possible outcome for him.

This could indirectly help him survive.

Most importantly, this does not undermine the function of the ritual itself; Locke is merely enhancing it, rather than completely distorting it.

This will not affect your ability to conduct observations.

At that moment, a full moon appeared in the sky above the rock.

The people of the dunes were stunned for a moment, then they seemed to think that it was the stone spirit manifesting itself, and called the moon the moon god.

Locke sensed a convergence of cognitive power.

"This feeling... Kingdom Domain? I understand. The collective consciousness of normal organisms cannot be gathered together. It's like a tree without roots or duckweed without water."

"But the Dune people are a natural telepathic race, possessing a high aptitude for telepathic magic. Every one of them, even children, can perform brief telepathic communication."

Unlike Locke's vast distributed psionic network built on a mature spell model, the Dune people's telepathy is like two people face-to-face with walkie-talkies.

Assimilation will not occur if the distance is slightly greater or the environment is slightly more complex.

But this level of telepathy is enough...

Their desire to survive was rooted in the worship of God, which gave them the idea that they could overcome their circumstances. This idea would vanish in an instant and reappear in an instant.

However, due to the existence of the telepathic field of the people of the dunes, it has persisted for a long time and has become a kind of collective consciousness resonance that has resonated for thousands of years.

This unique collective consciousness reflects the collective ideal of the entire Dune people civilization, and this ideal is guiding these Dune people to accelerate their evolution and cope with this crisis.

Once Locke realized this, he immediately thought, "The researchers in Group 2, as well as the researchers from other wizarding academies, probably haven't realized this either."

"There are many reasons. The Dune People did survive temporarily because of some special underground structures in the Dune Plane, such as underground glaciers."

"This so-called hypothesis of accelerated evolution through collective consciousness resonance, even if it does exist, is merely icing on the cake, not the real reason they survived. Therefore, other researchers would likely find it difficult to detect without careful observation."

"There's another point: this is just a low-level, backward colonial plane. If those wizards are arrogant and think they've figured out why the Dune people have survived..."

"That is indeed difficult to think about further."

Locke was able to calculate the native's normal lifespan by chance, due to the sewage pollution caused by the wizard Zaran Bailey, and realize that the native had lived for three minutes longer than expected.

He had come all this way because he was trying to figure out what had allowed the native to live for three more minutes.

Upon closer reflection, Locke even had to thank the wizard Zaran Bailey, because if it weren't for his heavy element particle sewage contamination, he wouldn't have needed to calculate the time of death of a native.

If that's the case, even if I witnessed the ceremony, it would be difficult for me to realize the unusual timing of a native's death amidst this life-or-death crisis.

"The Dune people are exceptionally gifted, and in order to survive, they may have unconsciously created something that developed in the direction of the kingdom's territory. Of course, it's definitely not the same thing."

"After all, they are both vehicles, but bicycles and cars are completely different things. But they are indeed in similar directions."

“If that’s the case, then I should really thank Zaran Bailey.” Locke’s expression was strange. “I knew he wasn’t my enemy.”

"However, if that's the case, my Moon Magic Mirror should be able to reflect this collective consciousness resonance and amplify its effect. If it can be amplified, it can further accelerate evolution, allowing me to observe this change more clearly and prove my hypothesis."

“And once it’s proven, I… will have found a new way of life evolving.” Locke swallowed hard. “I haven’t read any similar literature, which could be due to my limited knowledge. But this is at least very cutting-edge and rare research.”

"If only I could integrate it into my ultimate magic..."

"I'll give it a try; it's all or nothing!"

(End of this chapter)