Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 756 The Second Ring Potion Challenge and Completing the Ancient Tree Fruit Clone Technique
Three days later, in the makeshift laboratory in Locke's dormitory, Locke signed a visiting researcher contract with the New Textile Institute of Bonifacius University, receiving a visiting researcher badge from Bonifacius University and the right to use specific breeding equipment and wizard apprenticeships within the New Textile Institute of Bonifacius University.

In the afternoon, Locke promised Antoine that if he succeeded in refining the [Clone Potion], he would share a bottle with him. In return, Locke received a bottle of Antoine's blood.

At this moment, in the makeshift potion room in the dormitory, Locke placed Antoine's blood into the crucible. At the same time, following the reaction rate formula and corresponding process he had designed in his notes, he placed the materials into the crucible in sequence.

Soon, the dozens of raw materials in the crucible, after the primordial fire changed the elemental flame forty-nine times and rapidly changed from large to medium to small flames, finally turned into a pot of dark paste after an afternoon.

Locke thought for a moment, but didn't dare to touch the crucible directly with his hands. After all, many dangerous items were unintentionally created by potion masters.

He casually conjured a first-level spell, Arcane Hand, a potion-making spell that Locke had learned from reading articles in the free section of Golden Crown Mountain.

A translucent arcane energy hand grabbed the unknown paste from the crucible, and in an instant, the translucent arcane energy hand turned into a purplish-black state.

It didn't last long before the purplish-black color instantly turned into a dark reddish-black.

Locke sighed. Arcane Hand was a special potion-making spell that utilized the characteristic of arcane energy being more sensitive to spiritual reactions.

The Arcane Hand will reveal the properties of a substance by changing its color when it comes into contact with it.

Purple, black, and red are all toxins in different directions. Purple is a hallucinogenic toxin, black is a polluting toxin, and red is a deadly poison that can kill instantly.

The intensity of the color indicates the severity of the toxin.

Locke glanced at his Arcane Hand, thinking that it was likely that this Arcane Hand could poison an enemy the moment it touched them.

Arcane Hand does indeed have a variant spell model, which is the offensive magic spell model in Potions: Poisonous Hand.

"Where is wrong?"

A look of confusion crossed Locke's face. He picked up his notebook, looked at the formula in his notes again in detail, and recalculated the reaction time of each material that he had calculated before. After confirming that there were no problems, he looked at his process design section again and reconfirmed the order and quality of material feeding.

"No problem."

Locke looked at the black paste in the crucible, thought for a moment, drank a bottle of Holy Spring Dew potion, and after recovering some of his energy, he ran his hand over the paste.

The primordial fire coiled around it, and immediately used the reverse refining technique to extract the blood that Antoine had given him from this dark paste.

A phantom human spirit appeared above the crucible.

The illusory 'human' spirit was a small male figure with a large mouth that opened and closed, causing the black paste material to disintegrate and gradually separate. Most of the material was wasted, but some black droplets floated into the air, and these droplets gradually turned bright red with each breath.

Locke flipped his right palm, and the drops of blood entered the glass bottle in his left hand.

"Using some techniques from the reverse refining method, we can restore the core materials in the waste of the magic potion."

"The reverse alchemy technique that the wizard Otto passed on to me seems to have many wonderful uses."

With just a little development, I discovered quite a few benefits.

Of course, Locke had tried over the past three days, but he was unable to extract the core ingredients from higher-level potions using the reverse refining method.

The reason is that the medicinal properties of waste potions have not been fully integrated or transformed, while the internal energy of a finished potion of good quality is balanced and has been fully transformed, so the raw materials cannot be extracted again using the reverse refining method.

Locke placed the blood droplets into the cauldron, wiped the sweat from his brow, and added a second batch of dozens of raw materials worth a total of 500,000 magic stones.

The next morning, as the sun was just rising, Locke looked at the still-dark plaster in front of him, his face slightly pale.

He used Arcane Hand to touch the potion in the cauldron again, but the result was not much different from the last time.

Locke fell into deep thought.

"Is there something wrong with my refining technique? Indeed, the formula, heat control, and chain reactions of a second-level potion are incomparable to those of a first-level potion."

"But I've already tried many times before attempting to refine it. Even though my technique is a bit rusty, I believe I can basically meet the refining requirements."

Locke fell into deep thought.

"No wonder some people can become second-circle wizards, but not necessarily second-circle potion masters."

Locke exhaled a breath of stale air, preparing to rest for a while.

Because his magical pressure had been depleted to its limit.

A day later, Locke recovered his magical pressure by receiving the backflow of the Force from the Force plane of nature, and then continued to refine potions.

This time, he suspected that his crafting skills were too lacking, so he did not start refining immediately, since he had already wasted one million magic stones.

Locke first used some incredibly cheap materials to practice, and half a day later, he continued to refine the clone potion.

This time, it took him even longer to refine it.

A day later, Locke looked at the dark paste in the crucible and sighed.

"No change. Either there's still a problem with my operation, and the margin for error in refining second-level potions is much lower than I thought; or my calculations of the reaction rates of each stage of reactants are wrong... I miscalculated."

"Perhaps both of these guesses are wrong."

Locke began to channel his natural primal force back into his body, began to restore his magical pressure, and abandoned his plan to concoct a clone potion in a short period of time.

"A second-circle potion master... I need to reach that level as soon as possible."

"To become a second-circle potion master, one needs the ability to concoct three different second-circle potions using normal methods. The clone potion is not particularly difficult among second-circle potions; it's considered relatively easy. But for some reason, I failed to concoct it three times in a row."

Locke plans to practice repeatedly every day using inexpensive materials to improve his skills before he can concoct the clone potion.

Furthermore, it's best to double-check your own formulation process.

The Ganoderma lucidum plant on the desktop vibrated; Antoine had sent a message.

'Locke, how's the clone potion coming along? Did you succeed?'

Locke thought for a moment and sent a message: 'Hmm, I'm still researching this potion.'

On the other side, Antoine was lecturing in an open classroom when he held up the Ganoderma lucidum plant and grinned wickedly, causing the second-class wizard apprentices below the classroom to look on in horror, wondering why their teacher would suddenly laugh, and why his laugh was so terrifying.

Antoine thought to himself, 'It seems Locke has encountered that hurdle. The hurdle that causes many wizards to give up on further progress in potions.'

There is a qualitative difference between a first-circle potion master and a second-circle potion master.

'Without passing that hurdle, one cannot be considered a true potion master. One is merely a concocter. In my past life, I seem to have remained at the first-ring potion master stage, never becoming a second-ring potion master… Of course, in this life, I've completely abandoned potion studies.'

Antoine chuckled, "I wonder how long it will take Locke, a breeding genius, to overcome this hurdle."

Or should we focus all our attention back on the field of breeding?

Many wizards can learn across disciplines at the lower levels, but at the higher levels, faced with increasingly complex sub-disciplines and a vast amount of advanced content, many will give up learning in some areas and leave some of their magic permanently stuck at a certain level.

With a sense of schadenfreude, Antoine prepared to watch whether Locke could concoct the clone potion.

The wizard apprentices listening to the lecture looked at him with apprehension. Although they didn't know Antoine, they had all heard that this mentor was not easy to get along with.

……

Inside the makeshift potion room, Locke pondered, "I'll hold off on making potions for now. Each failure costs 500,000 magic stones in materials. Fortunately, I can use the reverse potion-making method to repeatedly obtain Antoine's blood."

“Antoine asked me right on cue whether I had successfully concocted the clone potion. When he lent me his own blood, he seemed to have a basic understanding of the difficulty of making the clone potion.”

"Could it be that he studied potions in his past life?"

Locke planned to practice every day and also go to the library at Mount Golden Crown to look up information and find out where the problem was.

The most troublesome thing is not failure, but not knowing where the problem lies.

I checked each of the previous refining steps and found nothing wrong.

Locke opened the water hyacinth system and saw another tax demand from the Yunze Council.

He frowned slightly; it seemed he should pay the taxes as soon as possible.

Moreover, after paying the tax, you can enter the Wizarding Realm, the Forbidden Library, where you can try to find things that can help a second-circle wizard progress quickly in the second circle stage.

Or at least find a way to greatly accelerate the forging process with my magic.

Locke took the waste from the crucible and put it into the demiplane within his eye. He then poured the waste onto the obelisk stone golem in front of the forest.

The obelisk stone demon, nourished by the waste of the magic potion, grew even larger. Small stones rolled off its body, and once they were gone, its eyes glowed red. It resembled a colossal giant, radiating terrifying magical pressure.

Locke glanced at the obelisk stone golem, a potion-making treasure he had obtained during the Heavenly Ladder test at the Feathered Serpent Pavilion. Born from the dregs of potions, and now, under his own sap irrigation, it had reached the first stage of vaporization.

It was truly remarkable. Initially, it was just a regular first-level magic pressure, but after being infused with the waste material of a second-level magic potion—the clone potion—three times, the stone golem's level instantly increased.

It will be blessed for a long time to come.

At this moment, the stone golem rolled on the ground, causing a small earthquake that startled the Dune tribe on the other side of the Forest Sanctuary. Meanwhile, the obelisk stone golem exposed its belly to Locke.

The Stone Golem is a potion-making pet that feeds on scraps, and is therefore extremely close to Locke.

Locke reassured it a little, saying that there would be no scrap to eat for the next few days, since he was almost bankrupt from constantly refining scrap!

The resources required for the second phase are simply too numerous.

One practice session costs 500,000 magic stones!
That's absolutely outrageous!
And now, I still don't understand where I went wrong when I was preparing the mixture.

Locke looked towards the direction of the Forest Sanctuary and saw that his Ancient Tree of Life was now a second-ring magic plant.

The Tree of Life shares its level with its owner, and it possesses the potential to reach the third ring. Before reaching the third ring, it will not encounter any obstacles.

The moment it became a second-circle wizard, the ancient tree of life began to frantically absorb the resources of this demiplane in order to make it a second-circle magical plant.

The Ancient Tree of Life had absorbed enough energy during the previous night meteor shower and almost evolved into a second-ring demonic plant, but it was blocked by its own 'burden'.

At this moment, the ancient tree of life in the center of the forest is lush and verdant, with every vein of its green leaves shimmering with a pale green magical glow.

It seems that a single leaf is a living organism.

A powerful surge of magical energy was unleashed.

Locke looked at the Tree of Life and nodded in satisfaction.

"Since I can't refine the Clone Potion in a short time because it's a second-level potion, I'll use the Ancient Tree Fruit Clone Magic to create a clone to go back to the Southeast Corner Region in my place and take a look."

"These past few days, I've managed to finish reading the spellbook on the Divine Tree's clone magic. Combined with the Ancient Tree of Life, which is already at the same level as me, I should be able to successfully create a clone."

Locke approached the ancient tree of life and discovered that the soil within a 10-meter radius of the tree was cracked, parched, and turning into sand.

Locke frowned slightly upon seeing this, because it meant that this demiplane could not withstand a second-ring magical plant and could not provide such powerful energy.

The imaginary roots of the ancient tree of life stretched downwards and into the distance, drawing a small amount of imaginary energy from the imaginary sea of ​​this demiplane to sustain the existence of this second-ring demonic plant.

Locke took out a second-circle botanical magic book he had borrowed from the free library at Mount Golden Crown. “According to what I have read in the free area of ​​the Mount Golden Crown Library since I became a second-circle wizard, the imaginary roots of second-circle magical plants will penetrate into an imaginary space with three-dimensional spatial coordinates and one-dimensional spirituality.”

"That imaginary space is a spiritual ocean of a world."

“The spiritual sea is an inherent attribute that exists in every world. If the present world is a leaf on a branch of a tree, then the spiritual sea is not another leaf, but a vein on that leaf.”

"Therefore, just as every leaf must have veins, every world hides a sea of ​​spirituality."

"The reason why the imaginary root of plants has become a common evolutionary direction is because the spiritual sea exists in all worlds... Therefore, the imaginary root is a very advantageous nutrient root that demonic plants have evolved in order to obtain nutrients."

As Locke gazed at the imaginary roots of the ancient tree of life stretching infinitely downwards and into the distance, his spirituality seemed to merge with that tree. For a fleeting moment, his eyes also saw a boundless sea of ​​spirituality, seemingly infinitely deep.

The imaginary roots of the ancient tree of life are still sparse fibrous roots without a main root, so they can only float on the surface of this spiritual sea like the aquatic roots of a water hyacinth.

"The Sea of ​​Spirituality, also known as the Sea of ​​Imaginary Numbers. This is a place of primordial spirituality."

Locke caught a fleeting glimpse of it and was forced to withdraw from that view.

"No wonder the imaginary roots have a smooth surface and no root hairs, so they don't need root hairs to expand the surface area; that's a typical characteristic of aquatic roots."

"It turns out that the imaginary space is an ocean."

"According to the general definition, the sea of ​​imaginary numbers is a possibility, a possibility of the past, present and future, a possibility on countless development lines in the present world, a possibility that has been excluded beyond the possibilities that have been confirmed by the past in the present world, a possibility beyond the present, and a possibility that may still occur in the future."

"Plants take root in this imaginary sea and can draw enough energy from it to nourish themselves and achieve further evolution. Imaginary energy is an energy that life in the normal world cannot utilize; it is an energy built on possibility and primal spirituality... I only vaguely understand this part of the content."

It's normal that a botanical magic book can't explain imaginary space clearly, since it's not a field of spiritual science that specializes in this area.

Anything described vaguely in a book can generally be considered as meaning that even the author himself may not fully understand it.

At the second-circle wizard stage, no one is certain that everything can be clearly written down in a book.

I've seen this in a botanical magic book; there's a relatively mainstream hypothesis in botany right now—the theory of the origin of the soul from imaginary roots.

That is, after the imaginary roots of a plant take root in the imaginary space, they absorb imaginary energy and unintentionally draw out the original spiritual energy from the spiritual sea. After the plant dies, it will become the plant spirit.

As time passes, the essence of plants accumulates abnormally in certain areas, eventually forming a soul.

Of course, this hypothesis was full of flaws, and Locke realized its absurdity after reading the book.

First, in theory, plant spirits should have appeared before plants themselves.

Secondly, the imaginary root is a characteristic of second-ring demonic plants. If a world has the capacity to support the development of a second-ring demonic plant, then it would have already given birth to higher life forms.

However, if we work backward from the result, and the imaginary root plunges into the spiritual sea to fish for primordial spirituality, then it is indeed possible to bring some spiritual energy into the present world.

But whether this part of spiritual energy is the origin of the world's spirituality, or even the origin of the soul and spirit, is hard to say.

Locke frowned slightly as he looked at the cracks in the ground. The spiritual sea of ​​the demiplane was relatively weak, and this demiplane itself was not capable of supporting a second-ring magic plant.

Locke bent down and placed the four elemental rings on the ground. As he chanted the incantation of the first-circle spell "Elemental Offering," the four rings automatically embedded themselves into the earth, becoming four ornaments on the ground.

Elemental Offering allows you to bestow elemental power upon a specific area to enhance that area.

This is not botanical magic, but rather earth magic from the life sciences.

Previously, in preparation for a major spell, the core incantation of the Lim Cycle Ecological Spell that I learned was [Elemental Offering].

Originally, he hadn't learned it, but now, thanks to the superior knowledge of a second-circle botanist wizard, and because both botany and earth magic are branches of the life sciences, and Elemental Offering leans more towards botany, he was able to cast this low-circle earth magic.

Using Elemental Offering can slightly enhance this demiplane to support it; otherwise, this demiplane will be directly drained or even destroyed by its own Tree of Life within about a year!

Locke gave a wry smile.

"This demiplane is so fragile for a second-circle wizard and his second-circle magical plants. The resources required to strengthen this demiplane alone are countless."

"The world of second-ring wizards is indeed about spending money."

The key is that your equipment must be commensurate with your magical pressure level.

Otherwise, just holding these equipment would require controlling one's strength to prevent crushing them.

A large portion of the money a second-circle wizard spends is to find something that can withstand their power. For example, with the demiplane in front of them, they need to find a better way to strengthen it and stabilize its existence.

Locke used an ordinary grafting knife to cut his finger, and the enchanted runes on the grafting knife shattered immediately after being used once.

Next, Locke placed a drop of blood onto a branch of the Tree of Life.

Then, two flower buds suddenly appeared among the leaves on the branch.

Locke stood in front of the tree, chanting incantations continuously for about two weeks.

During this time, the Tree of Life continuously absorbed the energy of the Imaginary Sea of ​​the demiplane. As if too much groundwater had been drawn from the entire demiplane, its relative height began to decrease continuously.

Locke glanced at the continuously descending demiplane 'present world' level with surprise, not expecting that the Imaginary Sea could play the role of supporting the 'present world' of a plane.

That's right. The present world is the solidified possibility of this world, while the imaginary sea is those possibilities that have not yet been solidified. The solidified possibilities need to be supported by the possibilities that have not yet been solidified.

On the first day of the third week, as Locke channeled all his magical pressure into the two flower buds, the buds gradually bloomed. After Locke artificially pollinated the two flowers, one of them withered.

The other flower will bloom and bear fruit.

Then, the fruit fell to the ground.

The moment it hit the ground, the hard shell of the life-sized fruit suddenly cracked open, and a person walked out. His skin was smooth, and he looked exactly like Locke.

There was only a green leaf pattern between his eyebrows.

Locke tossed him a white wizard's robe.

finished.

The fruit of the ancient tree has become a clone!

(End of this chapter)