Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 759 Wizarding Treasure and the Pureblood Cult
When the two dark wizards quickly returned to the living area provided by the wizard airship and found their leader, the female magician in the magic circus, the female magician looked grim.

She glanced at the clown and the puppeteer, and sighed softly.

"You bunch of guys, didn't you notice that lord has cast a spell on you?"

“How many times have I told you that in our circus, if anyone suspects they are under a curse, they must never meet with any member in order not to implicate the others? It seems you have forgotten what I said.”

The newly recruited clowns, puppeteers, and animal trainers in the Magic Thieves Circus all changed their expressions drastically.

The animal tamer glared at the clown and the puppeteer.

"What are you two doing?"

The clown shrugged and rubbed his red nose.

"A curse has been cast? I am a wizard of the sorcery school, and I am most sensitive to sorcery. My permanent defensive field is the [Multiple Secret Spells]."

"Even if the other party is a second-circle wizard, it is impossible for them to cast a curse on me without me noticing."

Zoe the Witch said calmly, "The Eye Wizard's insight far surpasses yours."

"It's normal that you don't realize he's cast a curse on you."

The puppeteer was somewhat panicked and at a loss.

"What should we do now? Let's get out of here quickly."

The clown immediately retorted, "No way. If the Void Battleship is functioning perfectly, as soon as our spacecraft detaches from it, a single Void Cannon can blast it to pieces!"

Zoe the Witch sat there for a while, then sighed.

"It seems this can't be resolved peacefully. I didn't manage to fool him."

Zoe the Witch glanced at the clowns and the puppeteer, surprised that the clowns hadn't misled the bewitching wizard!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Void Battleship, Locke stood on the ship's deck, looking at Zoe, the witch dressed as a sky wizard with an eagle hat, and the female speed painter beside her, and asked, "We meet again, Zoe."

"The first time we met, you were a Holy Wizard. The second time we met... you were a Sky Wizard. What will you be the third time we meet?"

Zoe the Witch paused abruptly.

That's right, the body of Zoe the Witch she left on the other side of the Void Battleship wasn't her original form. She had simply used the sealing magic, Consciousness Seal, to seal a portion of her consciousness into another person's body.

She was preparing a backup plan. If Locke discovered their existence, she would use those three idiots, plus a manipulated puppet, to lure Locke away, while she and the female speed painter who came from her family's servant background would use [Dimensional Exile] to escape.

However, dimensional exile takes ten minutes before one can leave.

Therefore, they need to find a secluded place, and they also need a female sketch artist to quickly draw a magic painting, imitating the surrounding environment, to conceal their dimensional teleportation process.

Unexpectedly, Locke still noticed these subtle anomalies through the methods she had used in the past and the insight brought by her three-eyed bloodline. She also sensed the magical pressure emanating from her true form and found the two witches who were far away from the crowd.

Zoe the Witch sighed, knowing that this matter could not be resolved peacefully. She turned to Locke and bowed, saying, "Greetings, I am Zoe, greetings to the Great Wizard of the Eye."

The female sketch artist beside her was also sweating profusely, looking nervously at Locke.

Although they had encountered second-circle wizards before, they had always remained calm and successfully slipped through the chaos. This was the first time they felt completely exposed.

Of course, this is mainly because before they make their move, they have to repeatedly confirm the passenger's identity, status, and magic level to ensure that the target is safe to attack.

But Locke's advancement was just too fast.

They never expected that such a super genius would appear in one of the wizard airships they had previously tried to plunder.

In such a short time, he advanced to become a second-circle wizard.

The witch Zoe looked at Locke, who was smiling but not speaking, and then gave a wry smile. "Great Wizard of the Eyes, what do you want?"

A tiger's eye appeared on Locke's forehead, sweeping down on the two men like a king of the forest scrutinizing his prey.

“Zoe, tell your maid to give up. She wants to trade her life for a chance to successfully cast [Path of Exile] on me. But that’s ridiculous.”

The witch Zoe immediately said to her maid, "Annie, stop! Don't be foolish enough to provoke a second-ring wizard head-on. Our tricks have worked before because those high-ring wizards have never directly opposed us and have basically no hostility towards us. Deception can only succeed if the other party does not have strong hostility towards us."

“Once hostility is generated towards us, the violence that follows can easily tear apart any deception.”

Locke's super-intuitive ability, which couldn't always be present, suddenly appeared. Immediately afterward, the tiger eye on Locke's forehead looked up at the magic lamp on the ceiling and saw a gecko on the magic lamp.

The next moment, the gecko was crushed by its own demonic pressure, turning into a pile of ink that dripped onto the ground.

The female sketch artist's face turned deathly pale; she was severely affected by the magic's backlash. "A second-circle archmage... truly powerful."

Zoe the Witch turned pale, because her last resort had failed.

The insight of the person before me is truly terrifying.

Locke smiled. The witch Zoe in front of him was truly a big liar. Even the words she used to tell her subordinates were just to deceive him.

No trick can be effective against someone who is already hostile towards her.

That was just to lower my guard.

After all, that only applies to low-level scams.

That gecko contained magical enchantment, which should have been able to instantly enhance the light of the magic lamp, creating a flashbang-like effect, so they could then take the opportunity to escape.

Locke pointed to his eyes and said, "My eyes have a special ability. Even if you create a magical lamp that flashes, I can still see you through the light with my special ability."

Second-circle wizards certainly have a number of ways to gain vision adapted to the flash, but those methods require casting time.

Furthermore, it depends on which type of magic you are good at. If you are good at power magic or are a constructor, you might actually be blinded by the bright light for a short time.

They must be trying to seize this last chance and fight to the death.

Locke looked at Zoe the Witch with a half-smile.

"Stop making a scene?"

Zoe the Witch sighed and bowed to Locke again.

“Great Wizard of the Eyes, we only want to beg for food. We have no intention of offending you. Killing us will not do you any good, and we have no warrants for your arrest…”

“I want to offer you a deal in exchange for us being able to leave.”

Locke said, "I just saw an old friend, so I came to see him."

"I just didn't expect your thief group to change members so quickly."

Apart from Zoe the Witch and the female speed painter, everyone else in the Demon Thieves' Gang is a new face.

Zoe the Witch nodded and said, "Yes. The death rate for airship pirates is very high; once caught, it's death."

"White wizards on airships rarely send black wizards to wizard prisons; they usually just kill them on sight."

Locke nodded slightly.

“You must be a sealing master, right? Where are you from?” The witch Zoe said, “The leader of the Western Region, the High Heaven Plains. My sealing magic was learned from the Purple Exile Path.”

"Great Wizard of the Eyes, do you have any seals that you need me to break? I am skilled at breaking all kinds of magical locks and magical seals."

"I am also skilled at designing corresponding magic locks and magic seals."

Locke said, "Give me a complete set of information on sealing magic, and give me a magical item that you think will allow me to pretend I've never seen you."

He truly had no intention of killing Zoe the Witch. Firstly, Zoe the Witch was only a first-ring wizard, and he, a second-ring wizard, would gain nothing from killing her.

Secondly, Zoe the Witch has powerful backers, so there's no need for Zoe to kill and offend people without any real benefit to herself.

There must be several high-ringed wizards from the white wizarding society behind her.

Upon hearing this, the Witch Zoe breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that Locke had no intention of killing or arresting her.

The next moment, she felt that Locke, who was smiling but not smiling, was somewhat shameless. She had only deceived Locke once before, but she never expected that she would be robbed because of that deception.

He actually managed to extract items useful to a second-circle wizard from an ordinary first-circle wizard; that's incredibly shrewd.

The witch Zoe took out a set of spellbooks and handed them to Locke, saying, "These are a set of purple Path of Exile spells from my collection. They are all publicly available spell models, so the Archmage Eyes is welcome to take a look."

"As for what I have that might be of use to you... I'm just an ordinary first-ring wizard, I'm even just a liquefaction wizard, what could I possibly have that could be of use to you?"

Zoe the Witch looked at Locke with a troubled expression.

A liquefaction wizard is several major levels away from becoming a second-ring wizard, lacking only one breakthrough in soul limits.

Even within the Crystallization Wizard stage, there are distinctions such as Ordinary Crystallization Wizard, First Ring Limit Magic Pressure, and Soul Decline Stage.

The gap between Zoe the Witch and Locke was enormous, so as a liquefaction wizard, she racked her brains but couldn't think of anything that could be useful to Locke and make him spare her treasure.

As time passed, Locke's eyes gradually grew impatient.

Zoe's heart skipped a beat, fearing that Locke would hand her over to the captain of the airship.

"Wait a moment, Archmage Bewitching, let me think again. Is there anything of mine that would be of any use to you?"

"correct……"

Zoe the Witch's eyes lit up, as if she had thought of something, and she said, "Information, it's information. I have some information that will be useful to you."

She quickly took out a map.

Locke took the map with his mage's hand. When Zoe saw this, her eyelids twitched. Of course, she had no intention of plotting against Locke, because Locke had seen through her schemes three times, and she had long since given up on the idea of ​​using her cleverness to escape danger.

But Zoe the Witch's lips twitched slightly at Locke's caution.

You, a second-circle Grand Wizard, actually needed an Apprentice-level spell, Mage Hand, to take the magic map from a mere Liquefaction Wizard?

That's a bit too sneaky.

Zoe the Witch glanced at Locke, gazing at his youthful face, and inwardly marveled at his talent.

Back then, when she met Locke, he was just a wizard at the vaporization stage, but he was good at fighting and had a strong ability to adapt to changing situations.

Now, Locke is a second-ring archmage, while she is still a liquefaction wizard.

Such a young second-ring great wizard.

Even in Takaten no Higanbana, it could be considered excellent.

For a moment, Zoe the Witch was indeed momentarily distracted, but then she regained her composure.

"Great Wizard of the Eyes, this is a treasure I obtained when I raided an airship."

"When I first obtained this map, it was sealed by some kind of sealing magic, so it was a fake map. But after years of breaking the seal little by little, the seal on this map has been basically broken, revealing its true nature."

"Based on my interpretation of the information above, this appears to be a map of a wizard's treasure from the era of pure-blood humans. It shows that this second-circle wizard placed his treasure in a place inaccessible to the pure-blood order."

Locke glanced at the location above; it was actually the Mortal Islands in the southeastern corner of the region!
Locke asked, "Why don't you go and look for it?"

Zoe the Witch swallowed hard. "The Eye Demon Archmage's treasure, a second-ring wizard's treasure, is not something a lowly wizard like me can touch. I know my place."

"My original plan was to find a way to sell it at an auction."

"Secondly, I am an airship pirate. I only do business robbing airships and wizard ships... That's enough for me."

Locke glanced at Zoe the Witch and gave her a deep look.

Are you looking for something specific?

In an instant, Zoe the Witch felt a chill run through her body.

She hadn't expected the bewitching wizard before her to have such keen insight and sharp mind, actually guessing her true purpose.

Locke laughed and said, "Since you're so obsessed with robbing airships and wizard ships, then this is the only way to think about it. You're looking for something that can only appear on airships or wizard ships."

"I'm not interested in this. Do as you please."

"Alright, what you gave me is indeed satisfactory."

Locke turned and left.

Zoe the Witch also has a complicated problem: she has already successfully robbed a liquefaction wizard and actually obtained a map to a level two wizard's treasure from him.

In addition, there's that pile of information on sealing magic.

If I have indeed gained a lot, then there is no need to get involved in this mess.

Zoe the Witch watched Locke's departing figure, feeling both relieved that Locke had kept his promise and somewhat resentful.

A liquefied pirate was squeezed dry by a second-circle white wizard, who extracted all the useful treasures from him.

Zoe the Witch stomps her foot.

"Damn Locke Augustine."

"When I first met him, I thought he was an honest man with thick eyebrows and big eyes!"

"I never imagined he would be so cunning and treacherous, just like those old geezers in the white wizarding society who devour people without spitting out the bones!"

Her maid whispered, "Miss, if you find that thing, you too can have the hope of becoming a second-circle wizard."

"Once you become a second-ring Grand Wizard, it won't be too late to get revenge!"

Zoe the Witch hesitated, "Can we find it?"

"Forget it, he let me off the hook, so I already owe him a favor. If we meet again, I might have to repay that favor."

Zoe the Witch gritted her teeth.

(End of this chapter)