Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 821: A loan of 30 million magic stones!
The magic carriage drove straight away from there.

When the first-class wizard apprentices saw that Locke's magic carriage ignored them and left, they became anxious. Their pupils suddenly shrank. They knew that their only chance of survival was Locke in the magic carriage, who was now under a heavy curse.

They were all wizard apprentices in this remote and desolate mortal country, unable to access any processed magical resources. As first-class wizard apprentices, they naturally lacked the ability to process those raw magical resources.

Or rather, the processing efficiency is appalling.

The only chance was to ask the official wizard in the carriage that happened to be passing through this mortal country.

Although they didn't know what rank or identity the formal wizard inside the magic carriage was.

The five first-class wizard apprentices chased after Locke's magical carriage in a panic.

"My lord, please save us! We are students of Arnos Academy, a higher education institution under Mount Xiaoxi. We have been attacked by a dark wizard and cursed by him. We..."

The next moment, all five people suddenly stopped, their shadows fell to the ground, and from the shadows crawled out a skeleton undead.

The skeletal undead exhaled a wisp of necromancy, and then the five first-class wizard apprentices stood frozen in place, their pupils rapidly losing their life force. Then the five skeletons walked towards them.

A moment later, the skeleton undead seemed to put on clothes and transformed into five low-level liches wearing wizard robes, whose white robes quickly turned black.

The five liches lingered in place for a while before floating towards the nearest major city of this mortal nation.

Not far away, inside the magic carriage, Locke sensed the magical pressure emanating from the five low-level lich servants as they slowly departed, and immediately sneered.

"At a time like this, are you still trying to lure me there?"

"Who was behind this? The Rose Council? No, I just left the Rose Council. If something happened, it would be too obvious. Besides, the Witch Lana didn't inform me."

"Who else could it be?"

"Or is it not targeting me, but rather targeting every wizard who comes near this area? This location is Yunze District 1, one of the ten districts of Yunze Wetland. There are no top-tier wizarding universities here, only medium-sized wizarding colleges."

"No matter what, I'm used to it. It's always better to go straight back to Jinmian Mountain."

Locke said to the vapor wizard driving the carriage, "Go directly to Mount Golden Crown, and do not stop no matter what happens."

The gasification wizard cautiously replied, "Yes, sir."

Locke sat in the carriage and began to read the documents in his hands.

"The wizarding world is still very dangerous and mysterious."

Before long, the magic wizard driving the magic carriage saw a group of refugees on the post road ahead, and they all seemed to have signs of plague on them.

They were wailing on the road when they saw a lavishly decorated magic carriage, and their eyes lit up as they gradually approached it.

"Help! A plague has broken out in the city ahead!"

"Please, adults on the bus, help us. We're begging you."

However, the magic carriage did not stop at all. The hellish warhorse took off and the entire magic carriage drove through the air without stopping at all.

Since there were always obstacles on land, the vaporization wizard simply chanted a spell, used the soul contract to control the hellish warhorse, and took the magic carriage into the air, leaving from there.

In the nearby forest, two high-ranking liches were whispering to each other.

"We finally managed to get a second-ring wizard to pass through this mortal country, but we couldn't fool him at all. After all, he's a second-ring wizard. If he were a first-ring wizard, we could just intercept and kill him on the way. But if he's a second-ring wizard, we can't be sure of winning unless we lure him into a magic array. It's a pity that we tried to lure him three times, but he didn't fall for it even once."

"Should we try again? I don't believe he'll be completely indifferent, or that he has absolutely no interest in the mysterious plague that has appeared in this mortal country. Should we try again?"

"Forget it. He traveled by land without stopping for anything. If we intercept him in the air, it will only make him more wary. I checked his spirituality; he's not the target. Letting him go won't hurt. He was just an extra, a mere snack anyway."

"Hehe. We must seize this opportunity presented by the Starfield Sea's simultaneous boost to the magical tides of fifty-three wizarding lands. Hahahaha..."

……

As soon as the magic carriage left the mortal country located in Yunze District 1, Locke lifted the curtain and looked back at the ground behind him.

"It seems it wasn't directed at me."

"I must have stumbled into a trap set for a wizard or for some purpose. The wizarding world is quite dangerous. I've been living in one of the seven top wizarding universities, which is why I feel that this society is so orderly and well-organized."

"I don't think even in those small and medium-sized wizarding universities, there's much emphasis on order and law."

Locke said, "While it's true that we should meet force with force and water with earth, I don't need to be foolish enough to walk right into someone else's trap."

"Sigh. I thought they would hunt me down so I could retaliate. I'm really broke lately and need some unscrupulous wizards to donate money to me."

"It's a pity that those wizards who set the traps had good willpower and didn't catch up."

Locke activated the Water Hyacinth System and marked the location using its built-in map function, so he could bypass it the next time he passed by.

"But it's strange that the necromancers who had disappeared from the Yunze Wetlands have become quite active in the wizarding world recently."

Locke opened the Water Hyacinth System and saw that the wizard in the tournament committee office of the Little Rest Cup had already added him as a friend.

The Star Ring Wizard sent him a message directly: "Wizard Augustine, I am a member of the Small Rest Cup tournament committee. You can call me Serlo."

"I've already spoken with your senior brother. After discussion by our competition committee, we believe that your research on the targeted reversion of the two types of foxtail grass is very promising. Therefore, we are willing to provide five million magic stones to support your research and help you participate in the Xiaoxi Cup hosted by Xiaoxi Mountain. What do you think?"

"If there are no further questions, we can sign the contract."

Locke glanced at the contract sent to him, confirmed that there were no problems, and replied, "Of course, we can sign the contract."

Anyway, I'll eventually have to find a competition to vote for, so it doesn't matter who I vote for.

Wizard Celeste seemed to be in a good mood. "Alright. I can send you a contract, and you can sign your name on it. Since it's a horizontal funding arrangement, we can directly deposit one million magic stones into your account. If you need further funding later, you can apply to me for additional funds."

Wizard Cyrus said, "Money is a minor matter. As long as the final project is of high quality, that's all that matters."

Inside the magic carriage, Locke pondered the words of the wizard Celeste.

"It seems that Xiaoxishan is indeed eager for a high-quality championship project to help them elevate the status of the Xiaoxi Cup."

"This is the first time I've seen someone transfer funds so readily."

"You don't even need to go through the finance department; you can just transfer the money to me directly."

Are you so eager to have outstanding projects participate in the competition?

Locke replied to the wizard Seror, "Yes, Lord Seror."

Locke thought to himself, "After we get back this time, we can finish this project first."

"In addition, there is the Golden Cup Flying Magic Plant Competition."

Locke carefully read through the specific requirements of the match.

The main form of this flying magical plant competition is a sports meet, in which second-ring breeders hire athletes to participate in the competition, and the highest magic level of the participants can only be an ordinary first-ring wizard.

They manipulated the second-ring magical plants, flying on the track prepared by the race committee at the boundary between darkness and light. Whoever could fly to the final finish line the fastest would be the champion.

Clearly, the reason for limiting the magic level of flying wizards is to reduce the user's level and thus the impact on the performance of flying magical plants.

Although first-circle wizards cannot use second-circle enchanted plants, this problem can be solved if a second-circle wizard applies second-circle botanical magic to the enchanted plant beforehand.

The skill gap between ordinary first-ring wizards is not enough to affect the performance of second-ring magical plants. Therefore, the competition mainly focuses on the basic level of second-ring flying magical plants.

Locke opened the data package in the Water Hyacinth system, and saw a racetrack in the orange-red sky appear in front of him.

"Hmm? So it's the Sky Illusion Realm. The race track is in the ancient Sky Illusion Realm."

Locke immediately recognized it as a special dimension from which he had almost signed a contract when he was a Crystallized Wizard.

"The track is mostly straight with only a few curved sections, which means that the outcome of the race is almost entirely determined by the characteristics of the flying magical plants."

Locke looked thoughtful.

"The participants in this competition are limited to ordinary second-ring wizards. In other words, my opponents are only ordinary second-ring wizards. The competition that my senior recommended to me is indeed very suitable for my current needs."

"But this means I expect to run into some old rivals in this match."

Again.

The second-ring wizards of Yunze Wetland are in great need of resources.

It is estimated that even second-circle researchers from the Advanced Institute of Truth at Mount Golden Crown might participate in this competition, and second-circle wizards from the Rose Witch lineage will also likely participate.

Locke pondered, "Actually, this competition might not be impossible for me to exploit. The Ancient Sky Illusion Realm... If I can enter it and use the Moon Cultivation Method to make my flying magical plants surge and evolve, I can gain adaptive evolution in the Ancient Sky Illusion Realm."

"In addition, the ancient Sky Realm greatly welcomes flying species and is very interested in true dragon bloodlines and dragon races. The unique feature of that plane is that dragons can have a unique advantage there. If my Demonic Dragon Rose were there, it should be able to stand out."

"My chances of winning this competition are not small."

Locke took out the Demon Dragon Rose and the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow from the carriage.

"The Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrow adapted to my spirituality and magic, to my traits and fighting style, while the Demon Dragon Rose shares the same origin as my demon dragon bloodline."

"If we can combine the power of the two to develop a new magical plant, it will be of great benefit to me personally."

"I don't have any ideas right now. Wait a minute."

Locke began to ponder.

"The Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow is formed by mimicking a giant dragon. I can use the Moon of Evolution to elevate it to a second-ring magical plant. Then I can use the Synthesis Cube and the Blooming and Falling of Flowers to elevate it once more."

"But if we want to seriously carry out breeding before that, we can consult some literature related to winged fruit."

The so-called winged fruit is a special type of fruit in botany. Its core characteristic is that the pericarp extends outward, transforming into thin sheets or wings, which allows this fruit to travel across oceans and spread between various islands.

The powerful winged fruit can even move between different worlds and even traverse the void.

【Winged Fruit】is not a particularly important concept in the first stage, but it is very important in the second stage because it is the entry point for studying second-stage flying magical plants, and it is also one of the reasons why the same kind of magical plants and magical creatures appear in various planes of the void.

Once a winged fruit matures, it will leave this world and travel to other worlds in order to spread the fruit to areas where it can grow better, or because it believes that the local environment can no longer support the growth of the same magical plant.

In the process, a large number of local magical creatures and plants may be taken away.

One hypothesis suggests that winged fruits help local magical plants and animals travel to other worlds to ensure that the local ecology of the new world remains similar to that of the original world. This would ensure that the seeds inside the winged fruit can properly take root and germinate.

In short, the Winged Fruit system of magical plants did indeed enable communication between the various planes within the void, therefore, the study of second-ring flying magical plants cannot be separated from the study of Winged Fruits.

Essentially, the Dragon Rose used by Locke was a mishmash; it wasn't a flying magical plant at all, but rather a second-ring magical plant with some flight ability.

Because the Demon Dragon Rose does not have the [Winged Fruit System].

Locke pondered in the carriage: "If a small petal of the Demonic Dragon Rose is grafted onto the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow, and then the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow undergoes a [reversion to ancestral evolution], wouldn't that activate the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow—the Demonic Dragon bloodline essence hidden within the Demonic Dragon Rose?"

"This is also very beneficial to me personally."

The bloodline of the dragon has always been shrouded in mystery.

This method allows for further exploration of this mysterious bloodline.

Similarly, one could use the same method to reproduce the bloodline essence of the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat on the magical plant.

"The bolder a person is, the more they can get."

Locke thought, "If only the Rose Throne could use its magic on me again, extracting the bloodline from one of my avatars and turning it into a Three-Eyed Tiger-Eyed Cat Flower."

"Alas, such opportunities are rare and precious. If the Rose Throne realizes what's happening, I might really die."

The Red Dragon Throne and the Rose Throne were already on the verge of war, so if he were to deliver himself to their doorstep and be killed, how could she possibly refuse?

Moreover, he did not possess a second World Wonder.

Locke thought, "But it is indeed possible to use grafting and atavism to give the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow the characteristics of the Demon Dragon bloodline."

"Similarly, by mapping the essence of the dragon's bloodline onto the magical plant, I can... use the Queen's Chessboard and various magical mirrors to sequence its bloodline factors! If I'm lucky, I can even sequence all the bloodline factors within a complete set of the dragon's bloodline essence!"

Locke's heart pounded as he thought about this.

When I was working in various laboratories, I sought help from the bloodline wizards of the True Knowledge Institute to try to sequence the essence of the dragon bloodline, but all attempts failed.

Both the bloodline essence of the Demon Dragon and the bloodline essence of the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat are specially encrypted and difficult to sequence.

This is also why the blood essence of advanced magical creatures with bloodline knowledge is difficult to analyze.

But as long as it can be analyzed, one can find someone to help perfect and shape one's bloodline... There are simply too many methods available!
Locke's eyes were piercing.

"Leaving aside the Demon Dragon bloodline, the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat bloodline has already become my foundation. If I can find a way to further advance the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat bloodline, even if I don't break through to the third ring, I can still reach the Star Ring, Moon Ring, and Sun Ring."

"So the road ahead isn't completely blocked."

The World Tree had previously given it a hint: to allow the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat's bloodline to break through to the third ring, it needed to find the World Tree's fruit.

But this is a condition for the second ring road to break through the third ring road.

The World Tree didn't tell him how the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat's bloodline evolved into the Star Ring, but now he seemed to have found a clue.

Although the hope is still very slim.

After all, he couldn't very well run up to the Rose Throne and expect the Throne Wizard to cooperate with him.

"So, first I need to complete the project that Teacher Sophia gave me. It's to allow my Evolution Moon to undergo a primordial evolution. Once I can do that, I can use the Demon Dragon Rose to recreate the essence of the Demon Dragon bloodline in my Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow."

"Such a second-ring flying magical plant, regardless of its magical plant characteristics, will certainly easily gain the favor of the ancient sky illusion realm. Winning the Golden Cup will be as easy as taking candy from a baby."

"Moreover, this process is extremely beneficial to my great magic. Quickly completing projects not only allows me to acquire resources, but also greatly improves my academic level. And this is the foundation of me as a wizard."

"By completing the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow Demonization project, I aim to bring my breeding skills close to, or even reach, the level of a second-ring breeder. I also can't neglect potion-making; I can start learning a new second-ring potion next month."

Locke was quite troubled, as learning potion-making required a lot of energy and resources.

Ultimately, I'm short of money right now.

Locke said, "We can look for any potion-related quests or projects. We can also try selling our practice works for money. In my opinion, for my ultimate magic to reach the Star Ring stage, my potion-making skills will probably need to reach a certain level."

Three days later, the magic carriage arrived at Golden Crown Mountain.

Locke's main body entered Golden Crown Mountain. He traveled outside for more than two months and finally completed the second-ring pure magic plant wizard shoes.

Locke left the magic carriage, paid 10,000 magic stones, and stepped through the gates of Golden Crown Mountain.

The elder tree spirit at the entrance led the tree spirits to bow to him.

"We've made it back safely, though it was a close call."

Locke relaxed. This trip out had taught him that not all places outside are orderly.

Locke saw that someone on the Water Hyacinth System was trying to add him as a friend. It turned out to be a wizard from the Seven-Colored Nursery. He first arranged to meet the wizard manager of the Wizard Bank at 4 pm today in the Witch's Kitchen No. 1 private room in Dragonblood Market to discuss loan matters.

Next, Locke accepted the friend request from the second-circle wizard at the Seven-Colored Nursery.

An ordinary second-ring wizard should be a formal wizard mentor in a wizarding organization like the Seven-Colored Nursery.

Soon, a message came from the second-circle wizard at the Seven-Colored Nursery.

"Hello, this is Jeep."

The other party placed themselves in a very humble position.

“Wizard Augustine, I saw your second-circle wizard shoes for sale on the Water Hyacinth website, and I’m very interested in them. To be honest, our Seven Colors Nursery is preparing for a Void exploration soon, and we desperately need inexpensive wizard shoes.”

Locke sent him a question mark.

Jeep seemed to realize that there was something wrong with his words.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault, Wizard Augustine. I didn't mean to insult your wizard shoes, but they are indeed of excellent quality and inexpensive, while our Seven Colored Nursery is a wizarding organization that is far from comparable to Golden Crown Mountain."

“We don’t have any spare funds. I’ve noticed that it seems we can no longer place orders on the Arthas platform. Could you sell us ten more pairs of second-ring wizard shoes?”

Locke sent him a message: "Which world are you going to explore?"

Jeep seemed to hesitate for a moment, but still replied, "To be precise, it's a meteorite plane cluster in the void. It's called the Dolma Meteorite Cluster, and there's a special life form on it called Rainbow Slime. Rainbow Slime's blood is a high-quality nutrient soil material, and research on Rainbow Slimes isn't very detailed yet. My research group's main focus right now is to figure out why using Rainbow Slime's blood as fertilizer affects the color of the leaves of the magical plants we grow."

“Wizard Augustine, Golden Crown Mountain and Seven Colored Nursery have a deep friendship. Could you please give Seven Colored Nursery some more shares?”

Locke frowned, surprised that his second-ring wizard shoes were so popular because of their low price.

It seems that wizard shoes are very necessary in many situations.

Previously, the high price and bundled sales made many wizarding organizations hesitate to purchase wizard shoes.

"Strange, why can't the price of Solas Barefoot and Melochy Magic Step be lowered so that wizarding organizations and individual wizards who can't afford wizard shoes can also buy second-ring wizard shoes?"

Locke was puzzled.

"Forget it, this has nothing to do with me."

Locke replied to Jeep, “Hello, Jeep Wizard. I do indeed intend to continue increasing sales of my first two-ring wizard shoes. Don’t worry, I will be able to confirm how many pairs of two-ring wizard shoes I will increase production by around 5 p.m. today.”

"You can wait patiently."

The jeep wizard sent a message to Locke.

"That would be really nice."

“Wizard Locke, the seven garden masters of our Seven-Colored Nursery have a very close academic relationship with you. Being able to use the wizard shoes designed by you is a very reassuring thing for us. We have great trust in the second-ring wizard shoes you designed. Well then, I await your good news.”

Locke suddenly realized.

Therefore, the Seven-Colored Nursery can be considered part of our own lineage of learning.

"The interests of academic lines and wizarding universities are not always entirely the same. Colleges have their own interests, and academic lines have their own interests. Of course, even factions within colleges have their own interests to consider."

Locke pondered.

"Just like the previous Three Kings Tournament and the Silent Holy Grail Tournament, the three major factions within the academy each had their own interests to consider, which led to a series of events."

He first returned to his dormitory, and then in the afternoon, as agreed, he arrived at the Dragonblood Gathering and found three fairy wizards wearing white wizard robes in room number 1.

Two crystallized wizards and one second-ring wizard.

The ordinary second-circle wizard ran his long-fingered fingers along the ledger in his hand. When he saw Locke enter, he stood up from his seat, even though he was about the same height as the seat.

The second-ring fairy wizard coughed and said to the waiter, "Waiter, your stools are too high. Please get me a stool that fits my height!"

Then, the second-ring goblin wizard looked at Locke.

"Wizard Augustine, I've seen your request. You want a loan of thirty million magic stones?"

"I need you to provide the transaction records of your store affiliates."

Locke handed him the documents.

"How to call it?"

The fairy wizard looked at the flowing water, his brows furrowed so deeply they seemed capable of trapping a fly.

"Your store alliance has a lot of revenue, but why is there no asset retained?"

"You have almost no savings."

Locke said, "This proves that my shop alliance is developing rapidly."

The fairy wizard said, "But this doesn't make sense to me. The better a shop alliance develops, the more its turnover increases as its scale expands, the more deposits it will have, and the stronger its ability to withstand risks. Your turnover is unlikely to be enough to get you a loan of 30 million magic stones."

"Unless you're not using a store alliance loan, but taking out the loan in your own name. Or you can provide some kind of collateral?"

Locke frowned; he sensed a dangerous odor emanating from it.

　It's finished!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)