Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 733 Welcome to the World of the Second Ring Road

At Jinmian Mountain, the sun appears as a golden-red crown over this mountain range, which is large and has three smaller peaks.

At this time, tree figures were conveying messages throughout the main part of Mount Jinmian.

The Demon Realm War has ended, and Golden Crown Mountain has emerged victorious. The 'Gate of Hell' on Little Peach Mountain will close once again. Meanwhile, the military merits accumulated during the war will be converted into points on a one-to-one basis and reported to the White Wizard Association of Cloud Marsh Wetland.

Secondly, the Three Kings Tournament concluded with the Jinmianshan team winning the final championship.

Finally, the Silent Holy Grail Tournament came to a close, with the team led by Locke Augustine winning the championship. Golden Crown Mountain won 50% of the enrollment quota for the unclaimed lands in the three "natural barriers" bordering Cloud Marsh Wetland for the next ten years, as well as priority selection for outstanding students.

Quinnjoll, who came in second, could only get 30% of the admissions slots.

The last place will only receive 5% of the enrollment quota.

Inside the castle of True Knowledge, the witch Catherine naturally heard the results of the competition, because a second-circle level tree king, a tree of the peach tree race, was walking through the mountains of Golden Crown Mountain, proclaiming these results.

The victories in two top-level competitions in Yunze Wetland and a war in the Demon Realm signify that Jinmian Mountain's position for the next decade is unshakeable, and it has also gained access to a wealth of resources.

The Silent Holy Grail determines the allocation of students in the three unclaimed territories, the priority selection of talent, and the construction of the college system.

The Three Kings Tournament determined the future of a long, narrow wizarding land along the Tianjiang River in the Eastern Boundary, including a large number of cheap, high-quality wizards and the ownership of that land's market for the next ten years.

That was a match between Golden Crown Mountain and the Rose Council, and between Bonifacius University.

The Three Kings Tournament is divided into two levels: the second-level competition, the first-level competition, and the apprentice level competition.

Therefore, the school teams participating in this competition consist of three parts. So far, apart from the apprentice stage competition, which they lost to Boniface University, Golden Crown Mountain has won both the first and second ring competitions.

The academic committee is responsible for this part.

But in fact, ever since Catherine the Witch seized the position of vice-chairperson of the Academic Committee, her status on the committee has been rising higher and higher, so she is in charge of this Three Kings Tournament.

Inside the office, Wizard Jack smiled confidently upon hearing the news. "It seems my choice was right. For the next ten years, Golden Crown Mountain will hold a dominant position in Yunze Wetlands."

"With the presence of a wise witch like you, Mount Golden Crown will have a very active role to play in the coming years."

The witch Catherine curled her lips into a smile. "It's just that we gained resources through the competition. Whether we can transform those resources into strength and improve our academic ranking is another matter entirely."

Ultimately, academic rankings are the most important thing.

The witch Catherine looked out the window, and she was unusually surprised that Locke had won the Silent Grail.

In fact, her plan for Locke was that he could pass if he got third place in the Silent Grail, and be considered excellent if he got second place.

Because Mount Golden Crown only ranked third in the previous Silent Grail War, it only has 15% of the students from the three unclaimed lands.

The entire Mount Golden Crown could actually accept the defeat of the Silent Grail.

At least the Academic Committee doesn't really care that much about the Silent Grail; it's the Senate and the Deacon who care about the outcome of the Silent Grail.

They have greater interests in unclaimed lands.

Along the Tianjiang River, the wizarding land needs a large number of magical plants, requiring the two breeding specialists from Jinmian Mountain with relevant disciplines.

The first discipline is Jinmianshan's traditional strength: a subfield within breeding science called high-efficiency agriculture.

The second discipline is the second strongest subfield within Jinmianshan Breeding Science: water conservancy and agriculture.

Both of these subjects are subjects of the Academic Committee.

Therefore, the Academic Committee values ​​the Three Kings Tournament most, not the Silent Grail. In fact, the Silent Grail can be traded for the sake of the Three Kings Tournament.

By proactively conceding on the Silent Grail, they ensured that Bonifacius University would not become an obstacle in the Three Kings Tournament.

What Catherine the Witch didn't expect was that Bonifacius University would lose again this time.

This surprised the witch Catherine, who rarely felt a sense of astonishment at Locke's growth. The fact that Locke could achieve this level meant that some of his growth had exceeded her expectations.

This is not in line with her plan.

The witch Catherine looked at the Water Hyacinth System and saw that the throne wizard on Bonifacius's side was indeed contacting her, asking why she had gone back on her word.

Behind the competition lies a power struggle among various academies. The participants are merely a group of low-level wizards, subject to the arrangements of the academy's higher-ups.

Only by standing tall can you see far.

A first-ring wizard's perspective is completely different from that of a wizarding apprentice, and a second-ring wizard's perspective is completely different from that of a first-ring wizard.

As third-ring wizards, and the backbone of the wizarding world, they naturally have a different perspective.

Wizard Jack seemed to have reached an agreement with Ekaterina, so he said in a relaxed tone, "This time, Bonifacius University has voluntarily given up and will go head-to-head with your strong second-ring contestants in the Three Kings Tournament."

"So they bet on the Silent Grail. It seems that Bonifacius University, through the Three Kings Tournament, reached a cooperation agreement with your Mount Golden Crown. They also reached a cooperation agreement with Quinnjoll by giving up a market. But unexpectedly, the Silent Grail is still in third place this time."

"I imagine Boniface must be furious."

The witch Ekaterina said, "The deals between the higher-ups are one thing, but for those lower-level wizards, the competition is quite another."

"Trading only increases the chances of their academy's participants winning the championship, nothing more. I think the main problem with Yunze Wetland is the difference in perception between high-ring and low-ring wizards, and many high-ring wizards haven't realized this yet."

"Admittedly, for high-ring wizards, the higher they stand, the farther they can see. But one reason why low-ring wizards are still very important to us is that sometimes, when you stand too high, you can't see things in such detail. At the same time, some things are not so easy to do."

The witch Ekaterina said, "For high-ring wizards, these competitions may seem like just a transaction, but for low-ring wizards, they are a crucial opportunity to acquire resources for advancement."

"Therefore, confirming the deal doesn't determine who wins the game. I think Bonifacius will realize this soon."

The witch Catherine thought of how Locke had unexpectedly won the Silent Grail, and a smile crept onto her lips.

But she soon remembered something that wasn't so pleasant—the traitors under her command.

……

Beneath the Silent Throne, Locke stepped out of the Silent Plane, whereupon seven Sun Ring Wizards, the tournament committee, and wizard reporters from various newspapers in Cloudswamp Wetlands rushed to greet him.

These people are eager to win the championship, but they have another purpose.

A wizard reporter asked Locke directly, "Augustin Breeder, were you able to successfully prevent the end of the world in the Silent Dimension because you already knew the truth about the Silent Dimension?"

Locke felt that the magic power within his body had dropped back to 9999, and he had returned to the period of soul decay.

His own soul was like a candle flickering in the wind, like an old man on his deathbed.

But since I thought of the leaves of the World Tree, I wasn't so worried.

At the same time, because he won the championship, he was able to bring out the Moon of Evolution and the world-class law realm combined with the Moon of Evolution directly from the Silent Plane, so he could sense the Moon of Evolution at this moment.

However, since the Moon of Evolution no longer has a World Stone, it has reverted from the state of ultimate magic and returned to the state of basic magic.

Meanwhile, the world-class Dharma realm, having lost the support of the Silent Plane, has shrunk again and again, now only about one-thirtieth the size of the original Silent Plane.

Moreover, as time goes by, there is a possibility of extinction, so I must reach the second ring as soon as possible to ensure the existence of the Dharma Realm.

To restore the Dharma Realm to its original scale, it is necessary to create an environment similar to that of the Silent Dimension.

Before Locke could even speak to the wizard reporter's question, the Sun Ring Wizard, Tatar, the chairman of the competition committee, asked Locke with some urgency, "Augustin, have you discovered the truth about the end of the world in the Silent Dimension?"

"That's a question left over by the Silent Witch during her second-circle stage. Although she is now a Wizard of Truth, her magical pressure far exceeds that of the Silent Dimension, like a carriage unable to fit a snail shell, so she cannot enter it in her true form."

Actually, you can also enter using a clone.

But in reality, this is also impossible.

Because the wizard avatar of the truth wizard possesses the truth she represents, when she enters a plane where the total magical pressure is far greater than that of her original body, her truth will pollute that world.

As a result, the appearance of that world will change.

If such a thing were to happen, she would naturally be unable to know what had happened in the Silent Dimension back then.

This doesn't mean she can't do certain things.

For her, the problem back then was far too simple; as long as she appeared, the problem would automatically disappear.

This is one of the reasons why high-ring wizards need their own students so much.

Some things are actually simpler to handle when a low-level wizard is involved.

The wizard Tatar spoke with a sigh, saying to Locke, "If you could answer the Silent Witch's question, that would be wonderful."

"This is something we all hope will happen."

"Locke, you've already obtained the truth about the Silent Dimension, haven't you?"

The expressions on the faces of the six Sun Ring Wizard judges became very subtle.

Locke glanced at the seven wizards who possessed powerful magical pressure. At this moment, his weakened soul was so vulnerable in front of these seven wizards that he was somewhat dazed. Therefore, he hesitated for a moment and almost revealed that he already knew the truth because of his weakened soul.

But he quickly came to his senses. Under the expectant gazes of the crowd, Locke shook his head slightly.

"I'm sorry, Chairman Tatar. I'm sorry to disappoint you all and my friends, but I have not found any reason why the Silent Dimension is destined to perish."

The eyes of the seven Sun Ring Wizards lit up slightly in an instant.

Immediately, the Tatar wizard revealed a satisfied look, then said with a regretful expression, "What? Why is that? We all saw you solve the apocalypse before."

Locke pondered for a moment and said, "Well, actually it's like this. I discovered that the disc-shaped creatures were able to descend into that plane mainly because, although the total number of life forms in that plane was large, the composition of that total number of life forms was entirely humans, with no plants. I descended into the Dharma Realm and summoned a large number of plants to make up for the lack of plants in that plane."

"At the same time, I used my Evolution Moon to cause those magical plants to produce a phenomenon called Surging Evolution."

"Furthermore, after the Leap Evolution, I caused the collective magical plants to undergo a second collective evolution, allowing them to collectively acquire the earth element. This change in the plant's attributes triggered a change in the magical tides of the plane, causing a conflict between the magical tide attributes of the two worlds, which led to a series of changes. Moreover, the magical tides with water and earth elemental biases will cause a large amount of wood elemental particles to be generated..."

Locke simply made up a bunch of nonsense. "This led to the forced departure of the Fallen Rain Realm."

This is possible.

Because Locke obtained a World Leaf, and if that World Leaf could be taken from the Second Ring Sea Sands and placed on the Moon Plant on the Dark Side of the Moon, Locke could use the Evolution Moon to grant the magical plants in his ecosystem a set of [Earth Plant Essence] that came with the World Leaf.

This is something Locke noticed when he obtained the World Primal Magical Plant. Because of the World Tree Leaf, the World Primal Magical Plant has the special function of spreading its own plant essence to other magical plants.

The seven Sun Ring Wizards, along with other wizard reporters from various newspapers, all wore thoughtful expressions.

Even the seven Sun Ring Wizards, who knew that Locke was making things up in a serious manner, began to think deeply at this moment.

Because what Locke said seems to be a line of thought.

This is possible.

However, to realize this, a large amount of data monitoring and repeated experiments are needed, and Locke's current idea is only at the stage of thought experimentation.

It has not been truly verified.

To verify this, the required magic stones would be in the tens of millions, and the number of qualified wizards needed would likely be in the double digits.

In other words, it is absolutely impossible for Locke to realize this idea in a single match.

The seven judges of the Sun Ring Wizards, though they knew Locke was talking nonsense, all continued to smile and nodded in agreement.

They knew it was an excuse.

But at this moment, Locke had given them face, and they were naturally extremely satisfied.

This kid really knows how to handle people.

No wonder even the Silent Witch thinks highly of him.

He really is a good kid!
Locke looked at the wizard Tatar and said, "I was able to successfully prevent the two planes from colliding this time because I used the [Evolutionary Leap] mechanism between plants to change the magical tide attribute, which in turn changed the attribute of the plane's power. Through the special relationship between the attributes of the two plane's power, the apocalypse was destroyed."

"This provides strong evidence for an evolutionary leap and also demonstrates the importance of plant ecology to the plane. Perhaps, this could lead to two articles in a journal in Zone 1 or Zone 2?"

The smiles on the faces of the seven Sun Ring Wizards immediately froze.

The seven people exchanged glances.

Good heavens, this person is incredibly audacious, openly making a deal with seven Japanese rings in public.

The Tatar wizard's lips twitched. He had just thought Locke was good at dealing with people, but wasn't he being a little too good at it?
It's simply impossible for Locke to complete his project—which would require tens of millions of magic stones, a dozen or so professional wizards, and over ten years—in a single plane of existence, during a competition.

However, as the tournament committee of the Silent Grail, the seven of them did not want Locke to reveal the reason why he had discovered the Silent Dimension was destined to perish.

Therefore, Locke wanted to use the approval and consent of the seven of them to forcibly obtain strong academic support or evidence so that he could quickly use this academic support to publish one or two related second-ring journal articles after becoming a second-ring wizard.

In other words, they were forced to pretend to accept Locke's conclusions and assume that Locke had completed the aforementioned project.

The Tatar wizard was both amused and exasperated.

He truly lives up to his reputation as the Eye Demon Wizard.

However, he had no problem with Locke. Seizing every opportunity and pursuing performance was the way the wizards of Yunze Wetland did things.

Locke's actions did not provoke his dislike; rather, he found them somewhat amusing.

The Tatar wizard laughed and said, "The logic of publishing a second-ring journal is completely different from the logic of publishing a first-ring journal."

"Publishing in a second-tier journal is more difficult than Locke imagines. Therefore, this is open to discussion. Even if we agree with your conclusion... well..."

The Tatar chairman abruptly stopped, leaving the matter unresolved.

"But I think that what you've said is more than enough to publish two articles in 'Green Grass and Clouds'."

The other six Sun Ring Wizards nodded in agreement.

"Yes, that's what I think too. Even if you become a second-circle wizard, you can still publish in first-circle journals. Most first-circle journals don't prohibit second-circle wizards from submitting articles."

"Yes. Especially Green Grass Clouds and Marsh. Even if you don't need it yourself, your students and friends will definitely find it useful. Once you become a second-ring wizard, you'll realize how easy it is to get into first-ring journals. After all, for first-ring journals, creating a lively atmosphere and playing house are far more important than their actual purpose."

Locke frowned slightly.

For some reason, the publication of the journal seemed to become more stringent in the second stage. So much so that, despite the fact that it concerned the Silent Holy Grail Tournament, not a single one of the seven day-ring wizards on the tournament committee dared to promise to help them publish the journal.

His original plan was that he definitely wouldn't be able to get into the first section, but maybe he could manage to get into the second section.

But given the current situation, there must be something about this that I don't understand.

Therefore, the seven Sun Ring Wizards in front of him refused to make this promise to himself, and could only promise to help him release the Green Grass Cloud Marsh.

Locke had no choice but to give up.

He spoke for a while more with the seven Sun Ring Wizards from the tournament committee, who congratulated him on winning the championship and achieving final victory, followed by a series of polite exchanges.

Then they stepped aside.

Because next up is the segment where four contestants will go up to the awards stage.

Of course, there are three players now.

Locke, Edgar, and Georgina the witch ascended the stage and, amidst applause from numerous wizards, each received a medal representing the competition.

The Silent Grail's medal is also a second-circle magical artifact badge.

The emblem is shaped like the Silent Throne, and this artifact also comes with a second-circle spell, [Silence].

Once activated, this spell can create a silent zone within a kilometer radius around the caster.

This would cause many illusions that rely on air vibrations to strike enemies, or certain illusions that rely on sound as a medium, to become completely ineffective.

The three badges have the same enchantment, but Locke's badge has a gold number 1, Edgar's badge has a silver number 2, and Georgina's badge has a copper number 3.

On the awards stage, just as the champion's speech was about to begin, the wizard Chad muttered behind Locke, urging Locke, as the champion, to give a proper speech to make up for the regret he had ten years ago when there was no champion's speech segment.

Although Locke didn't know how this had anything to do with making up for his regret.

The Preston Witch was also extremely excited and wished she could go on stage and give a speech herself.

At that moment, the crowd suddenly fell silent. The wizards spontaneously made way and bowed to the silent figure.

The Silent Witch descended from her heavenly seat and walked silently through the crowd, standing before Locke and Edgar.

Locke and Edgar paused for a moment, then bowed to the Silent Witch.

Two ink cartridges floated in front of the Silent Witch, and then these two ink-colored magic cartridges floated to Locke and Edgar respectively.

"Welcome to the world of the second-ring wizards."

"You remind me of the days when I first became a second-circle wizard. That time seems so far away now, I really miss it. Youth...it's so good."

"This is a gift for you. It contains a resource that is most suitable for you."

"I was very happy to watch the game."

The next moment, the Silent Witch vanished.

The wizards whispered among themselves that the Silent Witch would give two contestants extra gifts, though they didn't know what those gifts would be.

Unfortunately, Locke and Edgar wouldn't be here to openly reveal it.

The seven judges of the Sun Ring Wizard were also quite surprised by this.

Meanwhile, the wizard reporters in the wizarding newspapers were using the True Sight Crystal to frantically photograph the scene and had their students quickly write a lecture script.

(End of this chapter)