Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 738 Weighted Parliamentary System and Yunze's Focal Coordinate Axis

At this point, Locke also has the right to vote on the Yunze Wetland Council interface, and can choose to vote for or against.

But when Locke selected a voting option on this screen, a prompt box suddenly popped up—

Every vote you cast will determine the future of Yunze Wetlands and the Eastern Boundary District, so please treat your vote with care. The Supreme Truth Council of Yunze Wetlands and the Eastern Boundary District believes that all wizards of the second ring and above possess sufficient wisdom to judge how to make a reasonable choice.

[Note: The Supreme Truth Council of Yunze Wetland reserves the right to initiate a revote and question the relevant voters if it deems an issue to have been voted on arbitrarily.]

This message will not appear again.

Locke glanced at the options but did not choose to vote, mainly because he was unsure of Golden Crown Mountain's stance.

Moreover, it seems that most of the second-ring wizards in Yunze Wetland did not vote at this time.

Choosing to agree with or disagree with a topic is something that feels very distant to me right now.

At this moment, Locke looked at the Cloudze Council's interface with curiosity. There was a line of text on the interface: "Eastern Boundary Basic Wizard System · Weighted Council System".

Locke clicked on this interface to quickly learn that the so-called weighted parliamentary system was actually related to the representative quota law that Hussein had told him about earlier.

In other words, in the Eastern Boundary, every 'person' is equal. However, a first-class wizard apprentice is considered equal to ten thousand mortals, while a full-fledged wizard and a second-circle wizard represent an even larger number of mortals.

Therefore, in principle, a second-circle wizard is considered to represent a large number of 'people', and their opinions and voting rights are important not only because they are second-circle wizards with power and knowledge.

At least within the discourse of the White Wizarding Association in the Eastern Boundary, second-circle wizards hold an extremely high status and possess numerous magical legal privileges, precisely because a second-circle wizard can be legally regarded as an aggregate of a large number of mortals.

The so-called weighted parliamentary system is this concept, where the number of wizards' rings plus the number of wizards equals their voting rights and importance.

Weighted parliamentary systems achieve fairness of outcome, but not fairness of process.

It acknowledges that people have different talents and temperaments, so wizards who become second-circle wizards through their own talents and efforts, and through a certain amount of learning, will have more rights than ordinary people and wizard apprentices.

Locke looked at this Eastern Boundary Basic System/Weighted Parliamentary System and pondered:

'This should be a bill confirmed by the Eastern Boundary Council, so the basic system for the fifty-three wizarding lands in the Eastern Boundary will be a weighted parliamentary system.'

Locke pondered for a moment and realized that whether it was the Southeast Corner Region, the Land of Six Towers, the Qionghua Enclave, or the Yunze Wetland, there were indeed traces of a weighted parliamentary system.

Locke also noted that the Yunze Council interface showed that Yunze Wetland adopted a standard weighted parliamentary system.

Locke had an idea. He summoned the Gray Mist Slab directly within the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council space. The Gray Mist Slab resonated magically with the second-circle wizard badge he wore on his chest, and the Southeast Corner Regional Council interface appeared on the Gray Mist Slab.

However, it seems that I am not a member of the White Wizard Association in the Southeast Corner Region at the moment, so I cannot enter the council interface and can only see the outermost display interface.

The above displays the two states of the Southeast Corner Regional Council—

1. Total War

2. Adopt a standard weighted parliamentary system.

Locke thought for a moment and realized that the Southeast Corner Region used the most standard weighted parliamentary system, which assumed that wizards would gain more power in the council because their ring level would increase, thus representing an increase in the number of mortals.

Essentially, this is a supplement to the rights of high-ring wizards who hold teaching positions.

Locke pondered, 'What kind of system is the Land of Six Towers?'

'It's probably not a standard weighted council system. In a standard weighted council system, the number of rings largely determines everything, but in the Land of the Six Towers, it's not just that. If I'm not mistaken, in the Land of the Six Towers, it should be a weighted council system for wizard families, based on ring number, bloodline rank, and number of members, favoring family bloodlines.'

That is to say, all fifty-three wizarding lands in the entire Eastern Boundary adopted a weighted parliamentary system, but the weighted parliamentary system varied from place to place.

Like a template, but this template will change and have different content in different wizarding lands.

This is why all fifty-three wizarding lands have a wizarding law that represents the number of wizards.

The fifty-three wizarding lands should all have an academy system, a mentor system, and a council system, which may be the common rules and three pillars of the modern magical age.

Therefore, Locke reasonably speculated that these three pillars might be decrees from the White Wizarding Association headquarters, and thus would exist in all eight districts of the wizarding world.

However, the weighted parliamentary system is only a feature of the Eastern Territory; the other seven territories may not use this system.

Locke instantly realized a problem.

"The wizarding world seems to be avoiding a single system, so there are different variations in the various districts and wizarding lands."

"Why is that? Is it to better explore the truth... or is there some special purpose?"

Only by standing tall can you see far.

At this moment, Locke had very little information, so he was completely confused.

Locke looked at the Yunze Wetland Council interface, where there was a focal coordinate system composed of two number axes.

There are two number lines.

The two ends of a number line are: mercantilism and the free market!
The two ends of a number line are: consumption-driven – production-first!
These two number lines intersect to form a special coordinate system, through which Locke can see the impact of past issues related to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, as well as the legislation of the Eastern Boundary Council of the Wizarding Council at a higher level.

Therefore, Yunze Wetland is currently entirely at the free market end, and at the same time, it is basically at the production priority end.

Therefore, Yunze Wetland has now chosen a free market + production priority approach.

But this was not Yunze Wetland's own choice; it was decided by the entire Eastern Boundary Council.

In other words, the entire Eastern Boundary currently leans towards increasing production capacity through technological development and hopes to have a free market with as much free trade as possible.

Standing on a wooden boat on the blue waves, Locke finally understood many things that he had never understood before.

A question has been lingering in my mind for a long time.

The White Wizards Association, as an organization, is responsible for a large amount of public infrastructure and public safety.

These things all cost money.

The most basic commodity in the White Wizarding Society is money!
Organizations that can't get money, whether it's a wizarding academy or the White Wizard Association, are just empty shells. But for a long time, I've always been puzzled as to why the White Wizard Association doesn't pay any taxes on any market or any commodity for the transactions.

If the White Wizards Association is just an empty shell, that's not right either.

Because the Association directly controls the airship routes of wizards in various regions, controls a large amount of assets in the white wizarding society, and the various departments under the Association, whether it is the Dispatch Department or the Witcher Force, are all very powerful.

Essentially, the Witcher squad is a group of wizards supported by the White Wizarding Association, specifically for fighting against dark wizards and dealing with law enforcement issues. This definitely requires a large sum of money to maintain.

But where will the money come from?

Why not collect any commercial taxes, so that I don't receive any tax revenue when buying goods or selling my magical plants?

Whether in the Southeast Corner, the Land of Six Towers, or the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, the White Wizard Association does not essentially take any cut from any of its goods.

I hadn't thought about it carefully before, but now I realize it's because the entire eastern border region is biased towards a free market.

Locke looked at the definition of the free market, which was roughly that it was a complete belief that the flow of funds would bring wealth, so the entire Eastern Boundary was currently a zero-tax zone.

At the same time, the entire Eastern Boundary recognizes that production is the key to economic activity, and therefore requires the Eastern Boundary Wizarding Land to strengthen production capacity, enhance all academic activities related to production energy, and allocate some related special funds.

Locke pondered, “That’s why the economy is so developed in the Eastern Frontier. The wizards here believe that as long as a huge market is maintained, everyone will benefit from it.”

In contrast, mercantilism treats taxation as a checkpoint or valve to retain wealth.

Just as only the Eastern Frontier fully utilizes a weighted parliamentary system, the free market and emphasis on production are likely characteristics of the Eastern Frontier under the leadership of Starfield Sea.

As for the other seven wizarding districts, the specific situation is unknown.

Therefore, the Eastern Boundary is characterized by a free market with no commercial taxes or customs duties. In this free market, even the properties of the White Wizarding Association and Wizarding University can only enter the market as ordinary properties and fight alongside numerous wizards.

It can be said that the entire Eastern Boundary is a super-large free market, and may have a super-large-scale production chain.

Locke only realized this after seeing the Yunze Council's focal coordinate axis.

This is just a common feature of the Eastern Boundary; other boundaries should be different, and the fifty-three Wizard Lands in the Eastern Boundary are all different.

For example, Locke's observation of Yunze Wetland shows that he has invested a lot in protecting logistics and transportation, as well as light industrial production. The dozen or so past issues are basically either related to protecting logistics and transportation or to certain magical light industrial production.

Locke wrote these things down and marveled that, indeed, the view was different depending on where you stood.

He had only just become a second-circle wizard, and many things he hadn't understood before were now completely clear to him.

Locke exited the illusion space of the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council and returned to the real mountainous area. As soon as he returned to the real world, he heard a familiar voice beside him.

“Hello, breeder. I’m Jesse Bailey, you can call me Jesse the Witch. I’m a Platinum Trader who just became a member of the Soras Barefoot Shop Alliance this year. Hmm, have you heard of the Soras Barefoot Shop Alliance?”

Locke turned his head in surprise and saw that the supposedly dead witch Jesse was standing in front of him. There was a large gash in her abdomen, but she seemed not to realize that she was dead and was talking to him.

She looked so young, and most importantly, she showed no signs of being burdened by debt, nor did her eyes show any signs of despondency or despair.

At this moment, the eyes of the witch Jesse, who had just become a second-circle wizard and a platinum trader, seemed to shine. She was so radiant that she never imagined that she would soon become a debt slave of the Solas Barefoot Shop Alliance and be actively abandoned by Solas Barefoot.

Solas saw her as a worthless asset and wanted to trade her for himself in exchange for the shop alliance's enemy.

Jesse the Witch looked at Locke and smiled.

"Young second-circle wizard, it's truly remarkable that you've reached the second-circle level at such a young age. You're not even 24 yet, are you? I'm so envious, but I'm not far behind. I'm only 150 years old, and I've already become a second-circle wizard!"

Locke did some mental calculations and concluded that Jesse the Witch was indeed unable to keep up with the requirements of the Temple of Truth at Mount Golden Crown.

Because she became a second-circle wizard at the age of 150.

Even a researcher of Jinmianshan's caliber, or even just an ordinary researcher, needs to reach the first stage of crystallization (in reality) before the age of fifty.

Even if one doesn't follow the path of a True Knowledge Academy like Golden Crown Mountain, other ordinary True Knowledge Academies, or most medium-sized or larger wizarding academies in Cloud Marsh Wetland, have strict age requirements for a wizard's teaching position.

Wizard Rush, for example, is not even fifty years old yet, but he's almost a Sun Ring Wizard, and Team Leader Chad is in his early forties, but he's already a Moon Ring Wizard.

It's not that a 150-year-old second-ring wizard isn't good enough, but in the Cloud Marsh Wetland, an environment teeming with geniuses and high-ring wizards, there are simply too many wizards and too many geniuses.

Therefore, being slow at one step means being slow at every step.

If the Yunze Wetland is like this, one can imagine how much more terrifying the Starfield Sea will be.

Every choice you make will either lower or raise the ceiling of your future.

Locke sighed. He glanced at Jesse the Witch's abdomen. Now that she was dead, Locke no longer harbored any hatred towards her.

The Witch Jessie is dead. The younger version of her before us is only there because of the existence of [Echo].

Not far behind this younger version of the witch, Jessie, who had just become a second-circle wizard, lay her dead body.

Centered on her body, waves of magic surged forth, forming vortexes. At the same time, the massive magic shattered on her body struggled to maintain its existence, but the massive magic had already broken and was gradually unable to sustain itself.

It was like a dying person grasping at anything that could help them survive, so it struggled for a while before finally dying.

But at this point, the Great Magic had completely shattered, and the entire Great Magic was falling into chaos. However, the fragments of the Great Magic were still trying to find order in the chaos.

Then, a younger version of the Jesse Witch appeared before Locke.

But this Jesse the Witch was merely an afterimage created by the echo; she was never the witch in question, for the original witch was dead.

Locke didn't want to get too involved with the debt slave, lest he be harassed by her creditors. So he walked over to the terrified first-class wizard apprentice groom and said, "Alright. The matter is resolved."

"Thank you for your hard work just now. Here are five hundred magic stones as compensation."

The coachman was flattered and hesitated to accept the reward from the second-ring wizard.

Jinmian Mountain had already paid him two thousand magic stones for his services, so this was a tip.

A first-class wizard apprentice earns about a thousand magic stones a month, while his income as a coachman specializing in beast taming magic in the Summoning School is slightly higher, but still only about two thousand magic stones.

Locke had obviously done the math on the fly, so he simply gave him a sum of money, one-fifth of his monthly income. This was a considerable amount for a first-class wizard apprentice.

Therefore, the first-class wizard apprentice did not dare to accept it at first, until he saw the impatience flash in Locke's eyes, and then he dared to accept it.

The first-class wizard apprentice thought to himself that this second-circle wizard was very generous, unlike many stingy second-circle wizards.

Locke straightened his wizard robes and, finding that they were indeed undamaged and spotless after the battle, cast a cleaning spell before stepping into the carriage. "Alright, let's rejoin the main force."

The coachman immediately drove the two fiery spirit steeds away from the valley and headed towards the main road.

Meanwhile, at the primary academy on a small hill in the nearby mountains, the headmaster of the second-class wizard apprentice academy breathed a sigh of relief as if he had been granted a pardon.

Those adults, radiating terrifying magical pressure, finally left.

What level of wizards are they?
This doesn't look like an ordinary, formal wizard. Could it be a legendary wizard at the vaporization stage?
The old headmaster, a second-class wizard apprentice, looked at the group of apprentices, who were of noble and commoner origins, and saw that they seemed completely unaware of what had just happened. Instead, they looked at him with awe, waiting for his reprimand, and seemed not to understand why he had been so serious earlier. The old headmaster suddenly sneered.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

The old dean said in a low voice, "The adults have left, you can do as you please. Don't leave the academy without permission these next few days. Be careful."

The nobles and commoners looked at the old headmaster with awe. After he left, they looked at each other, wondering what had just happened.

It was as if they could really guess what had just happened.

Meanwhile, in the large procession of magical carriages, Wizard Chad stepped down and asked Locke, "Locke, have you become a second-circle wizard?"

Seeing that everyone had stopped and were waiting for him, Locke walked to the carriage and said to the wizards of Golden Crown Mountain in a frank manner, "Yes, Senior Chad, I am now a second-circle wizard."

Inside the magic carriage, Antoine rolled down the window and looked at Locke curiously. He hadn't expected Locke to become a second-circle wizard immediately after leaving the competition.

It seems he needs to speed things up as well.

Antoine's lips curled up, and his eyes were filled with joy as he looked at Locke. He actually felt relaxed.

'Very well. It is precisely because of people like these that I can completely let go of my airs as a reincarnated third-ring wizard.'

Antoine also gained something from this competition; he didn't have the memories of a third-ring wizard, so he had to relearn everything.

When he becomes a Sun Ring Wizard and awakens his past life memories, it will be like several lifetimes of memories being superimposed. He will have several more lifetimes of scientific research experience than ordinary wizards, so he will naturally have a greater chance of becoming a Third Ring Wizard.

On the other side, the Preston witch frowned in disbelief.

For her, Locke's advancement speed was simply too fast.

In the blink of an eye, Locke had become a second-circle wizard, no longer on the same level as her.

At the same time, Wizard Chad's eyes lit up slightly, and he asked with great interest, "How much magic pressure do you have after becoming a second-circle wizard? Before, the distance was too far and the magical power was too chaotic, so I couldn't estimate your magic pressure."

Chad the Wizard offered an explanation.

Locke said, "Sixteen thousand magic pressures."

In this way, he possessed five extremely powerful magic runes.

Chad the wizard was delighted. Locke's wizarding level didn't really have any real connection with him, but as the leader of Locke's Silent Grail team, he naturally felt honored.

He said, "Well done. You truly deserve to be the champion of the Silent Grail. You're much more accomplished than me."

On the other side, Wizard Fisher rolled down his car window, glanced at Locke, and nodded slightly.

As the last student of Empress Catherine, Locke was indeed remarkable. He not only won the Silent Grail Championship for Mount Golden Crown, but also killed a dark wizard from Crimson Deep in front of everyone.

This greatly enhanced the prestige of their Golden Crown Mountain.

Wizard Fisher said, "I've already contacted the White Wizard Association and informed them of the situation. Someone will come to handle it automatically soon. Let's return to Golden Crown Mountain first."

"The White Wizarding Association will send a witcher squad over. Any case involving dark wizards will be thoroughly investigated by the witcher squad."

“Locke, the wizard you just killed… was a second-circle bishop of Crimson Deepgard, nicknamed the ‘Butcher of War’.”

Wizard Fisher spoke calmly.

Locke paused for a moment, about to say, "How can someone like him be called a war butcher?"

But Locke suddenly realized that even a second-circle wizard would be very powerful on the battlefield.

Wizard Fisher, having probably guessed Locke's thoughts, added, "The Butcher of War is known for his aggressive attacks on low-level wizards during the Five Great Wars. He also has a notorious reputation in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, where many low-level white wizards have died, often in gruesome ways. However, because he rarely provokes the seven top academies, no powerful wizards have bothered him before, allowing him to live a carefree life for a while."

"Now he's met you. So, he's dead."

(End of this chapter)