Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 693 Completion of the Dissertation and the Sunshade Wizard's Reminder
Locke pointed to the image projected by the Illusionist school of magic and said, "In the traditional view, the energy storage of magical plants is extremely dependent on seeds or tubers. But my team and I have discovered a special root structure that can temporarily store energy."

"This root has a special structure—a glandular root sac—that can temporarily store energy and release it in a short time."

"Therefore, this is my cross-disciplinary innovation in plant physiology and energy metabolism. After testing, the glandular root sac structure can effectively enhance the instantaneous burst ability of the magic plant."

“I used grafting to transfer this structure to a large snow-capped pineapple. The normal magical plant traits of that large snow-capped pineapple generally increased by about 10%, but the peak magical pressure that bursts out at an instant is... twice as high.”

Locke said, "In other words, this method of storing energy as agave ketones and then releasing magical energy by converting the agave ketones into agave acid..."

"Each unit of agave ketone body converted into agave acid can release the magic pressure of approximately three first-ring fireball spells."

"Similarly, each unit of agave body can store the magic pressure equivalent to three first-level fireballs."

"The process and result of converting agave ketones into agave acid is harmful to the plant, and after the plant withers, it will cause a lot of soil acidification."

"Agave acid is a natural magical component that the Conjuration and Evocation schools often use to create acid magic bullets. It is inherently a dangerous spell."

Locke said, "Agave ketone is a very explosive substance. Therefore, this energy-locking structure, the glandular root capsule, has a special structure on a spiritual level to stabilize agave ketone."

"But this requires a significant amount of additional energy resources to maintain the structure."

Locke went on to explain the significance of his research findings, saying, "My research fills a gap in the study of 'short-term energy regulation in plants'."

"This fully demonstrates that the prejudice against the insufficient burst magic damage ability of magical plants in some articles within certain alchemical and summoning schools is narrow-minded."

The three judges exchanged glances.

As they expected, Locke's Institute of Knowledge was of very high quality.

Although it was just a project used by the Institute of True Knowledge to give young wizards practice, it always produced results that were both innovative and highly practical.

In Locke's case, basic research and commercial applications always seemed to intertwine.

It's as if he possesses a special magic that allows the abstract and the concrete to intertwine.

This is different from most of the young first-ring wizards on Mount Golden Crown, who prefer a high-level perspective.

Locke possessed a very contradictory temperament; he had both the qualities of a well-educated person and the qualities of someone who had worked his way up from the bottom.

They were familiar with this quality, because it was also present in Catherine the Great.

Much of the theoretical research on the Catherine the Great could eventually lead to a large volume of commercial research.

That's why she, as an outsider wizard, was able to have so many shops in the Golden Crown Mountain region and Yunze Wetland.

She could then use the profits from those shop alliances to influence the Academic Committee, the Holy Wizard Court of Mount Golden Crown, and even to bribe the wizards in the major laboratories who had clearly maintained neutrality among the four major factions of Mount Golden Crown.

Only then could she maintain a massive surveillance system, monitoring the approximate movements of each member of her teams.

The Senate's Sun Ring Wizards weren't very familiar with Locke, but at this moment Locke was already a participant in the Great Magic Modeling Competition, and there was no conflict of interest between them and the Senate, so they only had pure admiration for Locke.

He nodded repeatedly. "This glandular root sac structure does indeed fill the research gap in the energy-locking structure of a ring-shaped magical plant for short-term energy storage."

"Although it seems to come at a high price, it is not common among magical plant communities in various worlds."

Locke then explained the mechanisms of action, energy conversion, and the unique spiritual structure of the glands and root sacs of the four natural magical structural components.

He explained in a simple way the function, principle, mechanism of action, potential future applications, and significance of this newly discovered energy-locking structure.

Locke grasped his main innovation: the temporary energy-locking structure, which is rare in plants.

He knew this was a huge advantage, making it easier for him to pass the final defense of the first-class project grant and avoid being rejected by the judges.

Locke glanced at the three judges.

The wizard Hao is a breeder who specializes in researching plant varieties with special characteristics, such as dominance.

The wizards of the Senate and the Rose Council, on the other hand, place greater emphasis on whether the biomimetic structures of plants can be applied to mechanics.

One approach focuses on the specific spiritual structure of the plant and whether it can be applied to the study of rose symbolism.

All three are wizards specializing in breeding within the major school of life sciences, but they are also wizards in various sub-categories of magic.

The Sun Ring Wizard of the Senate belongs to the subcategory of bionic structural engineering of magical plants.

The Sun Ring member of the Rose Council is a flower language master.

The wizard Hao is a third-circle wizard, and I don't really understand his field of study.

Third-ring wizards and second-ring wizards occupy different ecological niches.

Before the defense, the group leader, Sith, had provided the judges with their academic backgrounds, which made it easier for him to focus on key points during the defense.

After all, if there were more ecologists on the judging panel, I should have emphasized the impact of glandular root capsule-locking energy structure on the plant's ability to adapt to the wild.

However, there are currently more wizard judges who favor the application of magical plant structures.

Therefore, Locke focused on explaining the role of the glandular root sac energy-locking structure in the reference of various schools of magic.

Locke explained in detail, and in the final stage, he summarized what he thought were possible applications. "I believe that this structure would be of great reference value to the energy buffering systems of the mechanistic school, especially wave dynamics."

"In the language of roses, magical bouquets also have the effect of enhancing basic spirituality..."

The three judges nodded in agreement, all agreeing that Locke had put a lot of thought into it.

Locke could say this because he had read their works separately; otherwise, he wouldn't have specifically mentioned the potential applications in their familiar fields in the summary phase.

The three judges developed a more favorable impression of Locke.

Locke said, "Overall, the glandular root sac structure is more like a niche attempt by plants. While incurring the additional costs of consuming a lot of resources, taking risks, and contributing to soil acidification, it adopts the glandular root sac as a temporary energy storage structure..."

"Overall, it cannot be said to be too efficient, but it will certainly have its unique uses in certain specific fields."

Fifteen minutes later, Locke concluded his defense.

The three wizards exchanged glances, but the Sun Ring Wizard of the Senate did not speak.

As the wizard of Golden Crown Mountain, he needed to be the final speaker and control the pace of the questioners.

To prevent the two high-ring wizards from stumping the young first-ring wizard with their questions.

However, he also knew in his heart that this was just a habit he usually maintained during his defenses, and the young man in front of him didn't seem to need him to be the grand finale.

The Rose Council's Sun Ring Wizard thought of his friend, the witch Lana, who had praised Locke several times in front of him.

She had a good first impression of Locke.

The wizards of the Rose Council are all quite sentimental, or perhaps this is a common trait among flower language masters.

Wizards they admire are naturally wonderful in their eyes, while wizards they dislike are simply unpleasant to look at.

But in reality, it has little to do with whether these wizards themselves are truly excellent.

This is simply a personality trait of those flower language interpreters.

Even a very talented young wizard can find many faults in you if they don't like you.

However, this Sun Ring Wizard Nina already had a good impression of Locke because of Lana.

Locke's excellent performance at this moment naturally won her even more favor.

Nina the witch looked at Locke with shining eyes. As a flower language master, she studied the spirituality and natural magical structure of rose-type magical plants. Her perception of spirituality surpassed that of ordinary wizards, and her emotions were naturally richer than those of ordinary wizards.

She nodded to Locke. “Excellent. Lana told me about you, and at the time I thought she was prejudiced. But now I realize she was right; you are indeed a very good wizard.”

Locke replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Thank you for your praise, Lady Lana. I was just doing my job diligently, and Lady Lana probably recognized my diligence, which is why she gave me some guidance a few times before. I am very grateful to her."

Nina the witch smiled. "Lana said you're a very comfortable wizard. That's certainly true. Recently, you've had some unpleasantness with some wizards in our Rose Council, and I've heard a lot of prejudice and rumors."

The witch Nina laughed and said, "Now it seems that seeing is believing. I've met you and I think you're a very sincere young wizard. Those harsh words really shouldn't be taken seriously."

The witch Nina asked Locke, "Will this grafting of energy-locking structures affect the metabolic pathways of the original magical plant's natural magical energy components?"

Locke paused for a moment, then admitted, "Lady Nina, I do indeed lack research in this area."

"Time is limited, and costs must also be considered, so there isn't much data available in this regard yet. But overall, there are no negative effects on the plant traits of the transplanted large snow-capped pineapple."

Nina the witch nodded.

She was just asking a question casually.

This research is quite complete; it's certainly enough to qualify for a first-class grant from the Zhenzhi Institute.

As for what she just mentioned, it's only suitable for higher-level project funds that require such detailed data.

Nina the witch nodded, her eyes filled with admiration. "Alright, I've finished asking."

The witch Nina suddenly spoke up, saying something completely unrelated to the previous topic. "By the way, do you have a World Stone? If not, I think it's a bit of a shame."

Locke glanced at Nina the Witch with surprise.

This statement had absolutely nothing to do with the final defense, yet she suddenly uttered it without any prior context, and Nina the Witch showed no intention of continuing.

In that instant, Locke's mind raced, trying to decipher the meaning behind the other person's words.

'Nina the Witch is undoubtedly reminding me,' Locke thought warily. 'She's a Sun Ring Wizard, a very high-ranking position among Second Ring Wizards. Since she said that, she's probably implying that I should acquire a World Stone as soon as possible.'

'I don't know exactly what it means, but the world the Sun Ring Wizard sees must be different from mine.'

'The world I, a first-ring wizard, see is completely different from the narrow world seen by a wizarding apprentice.'

'There must be a reason she said that. Most of the wizarding shop alliances I've offended have ties to the Rose Council. Even those without a Rose Council background have connections to wizarding academies in Rose Council-controlled regions.'

Wizard Hao coughed, drawing Locke's attention back. He smiled knowingly. "Little Locke, no one can predict the future. But you certainly have a lot of friends."

"Alright, I have some questions for you. How can you prove that this is an active 'energy-locking structure' and not an accumulation of metabolic waste from a magical plant?"

The wizard Hao pointed out the crux of the problem.

He truly lived up to his reputation as a high-ranking wizard; with a single, insightful question, he hit the nail on the head, like a skilled butcher dissecting an ox.

Fortunately, Locke had made preparations in advance. Locke said, "I conducted specific energy labeling experiments on the Snowtop Pineapple grafted with glandular root sacs, and labeled four key natural magical structural components."

"I've confirmed that after being coerced, the energy of the Snow Pinscher pineapple was actively mobilized, and the key natural magical structural components underwent specific changes."

"The order of magnitude of the four natural magical structures changes from increasing to decreasing, reflecting the process of energy release and transformation."

"This is a chart." Locke proactively displayed the chart he had created in his illusion magic.

Locke realized that since Nina the Witch had reminded him, he should try to get a Worldstone as a backup as soon as possible.

A World Stone that no one has ever used is unlikely to be something you can buy with money.

Or perhaps the money required is an astronomical figure.

But perhaps I could spend money to buy a regular World Stone first.

While Worldstones can only be obtained by conquering planes, it's not impossible to purchase one in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands by spending a fortune.

However, this kind of thing is a case of too many monks and too little porridge; there will never be a shortage of people wanting it, and there will never be a surplus.

Because even if a wizard doesn't use it, it can be stored away for future use.

This is hard currency in the absolute sense.

However, the academy does offer some rewards and special channels for purchasing World Stones.

Regardless, since Nina the Witch said something so out of the blue, I'd better take her advice and get a Worldstone as a safety net first.

In any case, when constructing a great magic spell, one can choose which Worldstone to use based on the situation.

Wizard Hao nodded in satisfaction. "That's quite rigorous. Second question, is this structure commonly found in other plants?"

"Or is it something that is prevalent in plants of a certain world?"

Locke hesitated for a moment before saying, "I've consulted the literature, but I haven't found any other wizards with relevant findings in this area. In my opinion, the glandular root sac structure cannot be common."

"Because for magical plants, evolving this energy-locking structure also requires additional energy expenditure."

"This presents a typical state of energy imbalance."

"Among magical plants, the less common plant organs are in a state where the energy consumed to evolve and maintain the plant organ may exceed or be equal to the energy increase or effect caused by the plant organ."

"Therefore, I believe that this energy-locking structure is unlikely to appear widely in all parts of the world. Rather, it will appear in certain specific environments."

"Considering that the disadvantages of agave ketones and agave acids outweigh the advantages, I think this environment will be relatively niche."

Locke said, "But I will look for such environments later."

"I believe that in some rarer planes of the endless void, there should be a small number of such environments, and those environments may contain similar energy-locking structures."

This matter itself is also closely related to the curse of being removed from the list.

I'm just temporarily unable to get away and conduct further research.

Given the right conditions, I can explore further and further.

How exactly did the era of stars end?

What exactly was the era of ordinary people used to cover up?

Why is there a problem with the Tower of the Black Sun? Why does the princess think it cannot be trusted?

Do those immortal rulers still exist? Will they ever return?

I'm curious about all of these things myself.

Wizard Hao commented with a smile, "The crisis-reproduction trade-off theory is a classic theory of our Throne Wizard of Quinjol, Galen Armstrong."

"The energy distribution of magical plants does not follow the principle of maximum energy utilization efficiency, but rather involves a trade-off between survival and reproduction."

"In order to increase survival efficiency, improve survival rate in extreme environments, and facilitate the long-term transfer of plant essence, some magical plants will evolve an energy-locking structure in high-risk environments that consumes more energy than it gains."

"The crisis-reproduction tradeoff theory is to explain why magical plants would specifically evolve aggressive energy-locking structures that consume more energy. Back then, he was a young man when he proposed this theory. Sigh, in the blink of an eye, we're all old men."

Locke bowed to the wizard Hao. "Yes, Lord Hao, this is the theory proposed by Lord Galen Armstrong."

I've made a fool of myself.

Wizard Hao laughed and said, "Not at all. Seeing you young people so full of energy makes me happy and reminds me of the old days."

Wizard Hao asked, "You previously mentioned that this energy-locking structure could be applied to certain specific fields. Do you have any ideas of your own?"

Locke said, "Yes. That's why I designed my fifth set of wizard shoes, which I'm about to give to Arthas."

The wizard Ha'ao was somewhat unaware of the complicated relationship between Locke, Solas's barefoot, and Melochy's magic steps.

After all, wizard shoes are just a category of sports products, not a category of magical artifacts.

For a third-ring wizard of Ha'ao's caliber, who is usually extremely busy with countless affairs, it is naturally impossible for him to notice such a sordid affair between Locke and two top-tier wizard shoe shops.

Moreover, even many magic weavers are not entirely clear about this.

After all, Locke's competition for the wizard shoe market is still relatively low-level; it's merely a threat.

After listening to the explanation from the wizard beside him, the wizard Hao laughed and said, "You do indeed resemble Catherine the Throne. When Her Majesty the Throne was a first-ring wizard, she also took action against the wand industry. Back then, cough cough... the fight was quite fierce."

"I never imagined that her student would now be fighting with the wizard shoe industry's shop alliance. You two are really alike."

“What’s wrong, Locke? You look strange. Your teacher is very rich; many shops in Dragonblood Market are her businesses.”

"I remember that the famous breeding shop, Golden Peach Garden, was opened by her."

Locke stared wide-eyed, completely dumbfounded.

Because I genuinely didn't know that.

I've been to Golden Peach Garden so many times, and good heavens, no one ever told me that it was my teacher's property!

No, wait.

Locke recalled that he had once encountered the third generation of the Dragonblood Society inside the Golden Peach Garden.

Looking back now, I think it was probably because Golden Peach Garden was a place where those three generations often gathered.

Because that's the property of the academic committee.

Locke then realized that the waters of Mount Jinmian were much deeper than he had imagined; the other party's words had revealed what he had not seen clearly before.

Only by standing tall can you see far.

However, I'll soon become a second-circle wizard myself.

Only by becoming a second-circle wizard can one be considered to have gained a foothold in the wizarding world and secured a place for oneself.

With a joking smile, Wizard Hao said, "How come she never told you that the Golden Peach Garden was her property?"

Locke gave a wry smile and nodded. "Yes, Lord Hao."

Wizard Hao laughed. "Actually, it's pointless to say anything, because I won't give you any discounts. Many industries have complex ownership structures, changing hands multiple times. Even the wizards who run the shops might not know who their real boss is."

"Those who think they're on this side are actually on the other side. However, with such a large operation under His Majesty's control, if he doesn't have any profitable businesses, he'll probably go bankrupt the very next day."

"The resources the White Wizard Association throws down from above are scarce, and it would be too difficult to do research entirely with grants. So she won't give you any preferential treatment."

“When my students buy things from my shop, the price sometimes even goes up because it's harder to bargain. So sometimes, not knowing is much better than knowing.”

Locke remained silent.

Therefore, the witch Catherine had made the same choice as herself in the past, making money horizontally through shop alliances to support her research progress.

Wizard Hao asked curiously, "But where exactly did you discover this special energy-locking structure?"

The wizard Haw knew that Locke's ability to discover this energy-locking structure stemmed primarily from finding a plant with this structure, rather than from any other factor.

Everything else can be accomplished by throwing money and manpower at it.

But finding this plant in the first place was extremely difficult.

Locke hesitated for a moment, omitting all the key points, and only said that he had found the ancient plant seeds in a deep abyss ruin.

Wizard Hao looked thoughtful. "That works too. The advantages of interdisciplinary research certainly seem appealing. Should I also recruit an archaeologist for my research group next quarter?"

"However, the number of positions is limited recently. Even if we were to recruit, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to recruit archaeologists from the second ring; at most, we could recruit from the first ring."

When the wizard Hao heard that Locke had actually dug it out from the ruins, his mind immediately became active, and he felt that this was indeed a rather novel direction.

He also wanted to find some people to dig through various ancient ruins to see if they could find any valuable magical plants.

Wizard Hao said, "Locke, you're lucky. Or rather, you have ideas, ability, and flexible thinking, plus a bit of good luck. That's how you discovered this special energy-locking structure. Well then, I wish you even better sales for your next pair of wizard shoes."

"I'm all set. You'll pass your defense. It was really interesting listening to your presentation. I really hope to see you here again next time."

Locke has already completed the first-class work.

If you want to hold your dissertation defense here again, there's only one way—to achieve a top-tier final grade.

After all, the key sub-projects are projects under the supervision of the cooperating supervisor, and are entirely managed by the supervisor, so there is no need to defend them here.

Therefore, if Locke wanted to meet with the wizard Hao again, the only option was to apply for a special project grant.

Locke nodded and said, "Lord Hao, I also hope to see you here again. I will try my best."

Wizard Hao said with a smile, "I'll say it again. I still have high hopes for you; you will definitely become a second-circle wizard."

Since the wizard Hao had no objections, the other two wizards naturally had no objections either.

The final defense for the first-class grant project is complete!

(End of this chapter)