Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 834 Simplification of the Beast Panel - The Way of Nemesis

Locke glanced at Jack, who was wearing a linen shirt stained with sweat and mud, soft leather boots, and a leather belt that tightly bound his sheepskin trousers. In his hand, he held a gleaming wrought iron dagger.

"I will teach you the forest patrol power I just used to manipulate vines and control vegetation. The one I used just now, and the one I use now."

The holly tree spirit stroked the dagger in Jack's hand, and suddenly the dagger was covered with a layer of rust.

Jack looked at the dagger in his hand in surprise. This dagger, which had been passed down from his father to him and from his grandfather to his father, had rusted just from being touched by the Tree Lord.

What kind of power is this?
This was originally a treasure that could cut through iron like mud!

A picture flashed through Jack's mind: if someone raised a knight's sword and slashed at him, wouldn't the knight's indestructible sword rust and corrode just like this sword if he touched it with his palm?

Is that why the Tree Man Lord said that those monsters were trying to resist him?

Is this the power that the Tree Man Master was talking about?
That seemed to be a power far greater than that of a knight!
He longed.

As someone who received traditional knightly education from a young age, he wanted to have the power to protect those who deserved it.

Jack immediately knelt on one knee before the Holly Tree Ent and performed the vassalage ceremony for Locke.

"Lord Tree Man, I am ready to accept the power you bestow upon me. What do I need to do? Swing my sword a thousand times a day, or run 10 kilometers every day?"

"Master Tree Man".

Susan then looked at Locke and asked, "Can...can I also obtain your power?"

Jack turned and looked at Susan in surprise.

“Miss Susan, bloodshed is a man’s job. You are an elegant lady; you only need to stay quietly in the rear and await the victory horn. Fighting is not your thing…”

Susan stubbornly tossed her fluffy black curly hair back, her gaze scrutinizing.

“Jack, I originally thought you were different from the other knights’ squires.”

“You know, I’ve loved playing with weapons since I was little, and I don’t like the summer games that ladies play. Jack, that’s why we’re friends. Because you respect my hobbies, and I respect yours—your hobby of sculpting clay figures.”

"If your friends saw this hobby, they would laugh at you for the rest of their lives."

"But I think you are skillful and have the talent of an artist. You also have an eye for beauty and a kind heart."

Jack's face flushed slightly.

"I'm sorry, Susan."

"But as you saw, that monster was incredibly powerful. I'm worried about you..."

Locke glanced at the two of them. In fact, even without the Elemental Emerald potion, he could sense from his spiritual intuition that both of them possessed a certain level of wizarding talent, around level 1 or 2.

It's hard to confirm.

The Ranger's own power system is a system within the larger Wizarding system.

This means that every Star Ring Wizard has essentially created a subsystem within the larger wizarding hierarchy. This is an astonishing achievement.

The diversity of civilizations has reached an unprecedented level.

It's easy to imagine how powerful the wizarding civilization could not be!
Locke turned to look at Susan, who had a resemblance to his student, the witch Williams, to that characteristic witch-like quality.

"You don't need to argue."

Locke said, “I can share my power with you. This is the Leaf of Power.”

The Holly Tree Tree plucked two leaves of power from its crown. It gave the leaf containing the power of "Plant Tricks" to Susan and placed the leaf containing the power of "Plant Hands" on Jack.

"By collecting more Power Leaves, you can amplify your power."

"But each person can only withstand one Leaf of Power at the beginning. After obtaining a Leaf of Power, you need to adapt and adjust to it. Only after you have fully adapted to the power of the Leaf of Power can you obtain a second Leaf of Power."

"As for how to accelerate your adaptation to the power of the Leaf of Power, it's simple: you need to gain the Leaf of Power's approval."

Jack and Susan's bodies glowed with emerald green light, and they each shimmered with emerald green light once, then each gained the power of [Hand of Grass and Trees] and [Grass and Trees Tricks].

This also means that the Holly Tree Treant, having lost these two leaves of power, has also lost the power of these two spell models.

Of course, from Jack and Susan's perspective, they are encountering the mysterious and infinitely powerful forces of the forest.

Therefore, after hearing Locke's words, the two of them thought there would be many leaves of power, completely unaware that Locke had only created 3 leaves of power so far.

That's all.

Jack stretched out his right hand, and saw a small blade of grass in front of him grow rapidly, then move along with his palm. Jack's mouth dropped open.

"Amazing."

However, his forehead was soon covered in sweat.

Susan clasped her hands together as if holding water, a gentle breeze swirling in her palms, and she breathed slightly heavily.

Since neither of them possessed any magical power at the moment, they relied entirely on the power leaves within them to cast spells.

However, since they are the ones who actively cast spells, some of their physical strength will be extracted and converted into magical power as a price for casting spells.

After the two became Rangers, Locke immediately realized that his Great Magic, Evolution Moon, seemed to have undergone some minor refinement.

Like a very light hammer striking its own Moon of Evolution, it generated a tiny bit of power.

The process of creating a power system involves highly abstracting what one has learned.

The process of establishing a symbol system is like refining one's ultimate magic, bringing it into a state of virtual forging. Once the virtual forging is complete, one's ultimate magic will be at the level of star-forged ultimate magic.

Locke said, “Two rangers, remember, the Leaf of Power in your hands is a kind of life. You chose the Leaf of Power, and the Leaf of Power is also choosing you. To fully unleash the power contained within the Leaf of Power, you need to increase your compatibility with it.”

"The best way is to eliminate those monsters, namely vampires."

"And there's the protection of the forest. The Ranger's duty is to protect the forests that react to the Power Leaves in your hands. Every battle you fight will increase your affinity with the Power Leaves, and your power will rise accordingly."

Jack grasped the key.

"Tree Lord, does that mean the battle is the key?"

Locke gradually retreated.

"You can understand that."

"Remember, as Rangers, you will become thorns in the side of those monsters. Jack, Susan, you need to fight constantly and hone your skills in battle. But never forget that you are not fighting alone. The Power Leaves in your hands are living beings; they are your companions."

"Similarly, the forest will accompany you. And the forest is what those monsters fear most. If you encounter an insurmountable enemy, return to this forest."

Locke gradually retreated, and the trees behind him, which had been incorporated into the ecological community of the Moon of Evolution by the moonlight, transformed into tree-people under the blessing spell of the Moon God.

These tree-people rose up one by one from the ground, towering like guardian trees, leaving Jack and Susan stunned.

Jack and Susan now firmly believed that they had encountered a fortuitous encounter while being chased by monsters, and had obtained some kind of ancient power from the tree-man lord in the forest.

Although this power was merely something Locke had casually created.

Locke controlled his tree-man clone, which walked through the forest.

"Next, all I need to do is let them roam freely. There are only two things I need to do: first, to use moonlight to cover more of the trees in this world, and to incorporate all the plants in the world into my ecological community. I have only completed one-thirtieth of the progress so far."

"I need the world's nature to support me further."

"This requires me to officially exterminate the vampires under the Life Stealing Instrument of this world."

"Secondly, we need to create more Power Leaves. Let's start by creating Power Leaves based on these three templates."

Locke pondered for a moment before making this judgment, since the more types of Power Leaves there were, the more difficult it would be for him to control them.

Since this is the first attempt to build a power system, there's no need to create too many different ones.

"Two Rangers are not enough. I can create more Power Leaves and make them available to those who desire power."

"Fortunately, the natural forces of this world are naturally restrained by the various levels of vampires created through the rituals of this world. So even a 0.1 level spell is like an irresistible force to them."

"The Leaf of Power is my simulation of the leaves of the world."

Locke maneuvered the tree-man, moving slowly and powerfully through the forest.

"But to be honest, I created a shortcut to cultivation."

Because the Leaf of Power is a living entity, Locke essentially has the Rangers fight alongside the Leaf of Power. During the battle, the Rangers will spontaneously learn from the Leaf of Power and passively enhance their mental strength while using it. The Leaf of Power will also absorb the Rangers' growth and grow as well.

Essentially, the relationship between the Ranger and the Leaf of Power is Locke's simulation of the relationship between a botanical wizard and a magical plant.

But there are differences.

Because the Leaf of Power was set to be able to grow.

The foundation of the Moon Cultivation Method lies in human spirituality, which, through the transformation of stone spirits, enters the spirituality of plants, leading to the rapid evolution of plants.

Therefore, this was one of Locke's experiments.

Let's see if the combination of human spirituality and the power of the leaf can similarly accelerate plant evolution.

He used the forest sanctuary as a transit space for spiritual transformation.

This can also serve as an experiment.

Locke pondered, "If this direction fails, so be it. I can simply change the direction of my power system development. If it succeeds, that would be a truly unexpected bonus."

"Wait, I'd better create two Power Leaves. Rangers who can only use 0.1-level spell models are fine fighting low-level vampires because the natural forces of this world are effective against them." "This is tit for tat."

"From an ecological perspective, this should be considered a kind of ecological niche that naturally arises to counteract the power of immortality, which is achieved by stealing the power of immortality and becoming an undead race like vampires."

"Therefore, the nature of this world can actually kill the vampires born here."

Locke fell into deep thought.

"If I think about it from this perspective, I can definitely leverage this niche to strengthen my position."

"First, we need to create another bloodline spell with a 0.1 ring, and change Berserk to a 0.1 ring spell called [Light as a Feather]."

"Next is..."

Locke pondered, "The beast panel can essentially be simulated using spell models, but my current skill level is insufficient to fully simulate it; I can only approximate it."

"But combined with the natural forces of this world that naturally restrain those vampires, I can create a simplified version of the spell model."

At this moment, Locke, in his state of "doing whatever he wants without overstepping the rules," combined with the natural power that spontaneously restrains vampires generated by the stimulation of the Life Stealing Instrument in this world, is somewhat similar to the ferocious beast panel. Moreover, the spell model that Locke wants to create is still at a very low level.

Therefore, in just one day, Locke created a super-budget version of the [Beast Panel] - [Path of Nemesis].

Locke looked at the five leaves of power before him. The Path of Nemesis was the core power leaf he had created for the Ranger, because the Beast Panel was originally one of his core powers as a guardian of nature.

Furthermore, he created a super-basic version of the ferocious beast panel within the power system of the Evolution Moon, which helped to organize and enhance his own power.

This prompted him to reflect on the nature of his power, and the nature of the ferocious beast.

"With the Leaf of Power, the Way of Nemesis, the Rangers' spell damage against all vampires in this world is doubled."

"In this way, even if the rangers encounter some high-level vampires, they can defeat them by using the spell combinations of the Leaf of Power."

At this moment, Locke sensed that in just one day, more than a hundred people in this world had obtained their own Leaf of Power.

He also produced over a thousand Power Leaves in that single day.

His own immense magic grew stronger and stronger, and his ecosystem expanded. Meanwhile, the vampires behind the Heidelberg Plane were clearly restless, impatient, and filled with fear.

Seeing that they hadn't launched an immediate attack, they finally couldn't resist and, under cover of darkness the following night, organized an army of vampire servants to launch a surprise attack on the forest.

This time, however, Locke did not cast the Moonlight Blessing spell to summon the treants. He simply had over a hundred rangers fight to increase their own power, and these rangers were able to kill the low-level vampire servants who had intruded into the jungle.

Even if someone faces a life-or-death crisis, they can use the tree people in the forest to help them resolve the crisis.

Overall, Locke was very satisfied with this result.

The more than three hundred low-level vampire servants that raided the forest were repelled by the more than one hundred forest rangers.

Locke glanced at the vampire servants and said with satisfaction, "My Rangers have already received formal knightly training in this world. They are already quite capable in combat, and with the addition of the Leaf of Power, they can easily defeat those low-level vampire servants."

Those low-level vampire servants, in the Wizarding World, would hardly even have reached the level of a 0.1-ring modification.

Locke also realized that the three dark wizard brothers only had about 15,000 magic pressure, and each of them had worked their way up through years of service.

Naturally, they were quite far from the star ring.

Unlike the Morgan wizards he had encountered before, who had a group of Dead Winter Knights as the core power of their great magic, these three hadn't even touched the edge of the Star Ring.

The vampires under their immense magical powers seem not much different from ordinary people.

A week later, Locke watched as Ranger Susan and Jack, who had mastered three Power Leaves, joined forces to kill an ancient vampire elder, and he was speechless.

That ancient vampire elder was really too weak.

With his aged body and pale skin, Locke assumed that the ancient elder possessed at least the level of a third-class wizard apprentice and was prepared to make a move in secret, as well as to confront the three dark wizards in this plane in advance.

But to everyone's surprise, his two rangers, through a series of fierce attacks, stepped on the vampire elder's head and chopped him off.

These so-called ancient elders are basically just a little more powerful than ordinary vampires in this world.

The ancient elder's head rolled across the plaza, causing hundreds of ordinary vampires around to turn pale with shock.

How could such a powerful ancient elder in their eyes lose his head so easily?

At this moment, Jack and Susan, panting, mounted their two warhorses and quickly retreated from the square, leaving behind a group of vampires gripped by fear.

At this moment, the three second-ring wizards were examining the world.

They saw this scene from deep within the church, and the three of them exchanged a look of fear and unease.

"It's a power system. That senior researcher from Golden Crown Mountain has already developed a prototype of the power system. How could the three of us, those laughable inferior vampires in this world, possibly be a match for them?"

"Therefore, I say we should unite and cooperate. Forget about the grudges outside. Right now, our magical pressures are clashing, and our ultimate spells are colliding, making us inseparable. But we do have three people, three ultimate spells, and our total magical pressure is greater than his. If we can unite..."

How to unite?

“We have three ultimate spells in total. By sacrificing a vampire under one ultimate spell to the other two, we can quickly enhance the strength of our vampires and thus suppress the opponent’s ultimate spells.”

"Can you stop talking nonsense? Is that even possible?!"

The three dark wizards looked at each other with suspicion.

The three men's eyes gradually turned fierce and menacing.

Because they all noticed the problem.

They are all descendants of the ancestral wizards, they all use the Life Stealing Instrument, and the World Stones they use are from the same world.

Their ultimate magic could completely absorb the opponent's ultimate magic to enhance their own.

At their peak, the three could cooperate seamlessly and appeared to be good friends. However, when faced with an invading enemy, the same thought simultaneously popped into their minds: "First, take care of these two, then strengthen ourselves; that way, we can win."

Moreover, what's most frightening is that this chain of suspicion is impossible to break.

Because in reality, as soon as someone fights Locke and loses power, the next moment, someone will stab him in the back and consume his great magic to enhance their own power.

Therefore, they dared not suggest fighting Locke first; instead, they had to be wary of each other to prevent themselves from being swallowed up by the other.

Because the three possess immense magical power and live in the same world, their interests are intertwined. This is why they chose to hold their rituals in one place.

Only in this way can we monitor the other party and prevent them from causing trouble in the Heidelberg plane, in places we cannot see.

This is also one of the drawbacks of several people using a world stone from a single plane to construct a massive amount of magic.

Therefore, true genius wizards, as long as they have the ability, will each have their own plane to enjoy.

……

At this moment, Locke was watching Jack and Susan. In just one week, the two of them had undergone one transformation after another in battle. From the initial excitement of gaining power, to doubt, to the fear and terror caused by injuries in battle, to retreat, and then to making up their minds.

Their abilities have been enhanced, and their magnanimity has been increased.

They gradually became able to hold more leaves of power, and a week later, the two chosen ones obtained two new leaves of power from the forest.

Their complex and intense emotions repeatedly impacted the Leaf of Power.

Locke could sense that the Leaf of Power was indeed undergoing some kind of change.

However, this change is different from the Moon Cultivation Method.

Locke fell into observation, while simultaneously preparing to summon the Rangers, who had already grown to a thousand men, to launch a full-scale attack on the Bright Mountain Church in the Heidelberg plane, destroying the ritual base there that could convert vampires. If successful, he could win this world war.

……

At Mount Golden Crown, in the library, in the clone of the Ancient Tree Fruit, Locke received Alaric's reply.

Alaric replied to himself: "Dear Archmage Locke, I have missed your former glory since we parted ways at the Cloud Cup. I have done a good job of handling the matter you asked me to do."

“My teacher sent you a reply, saying that it contained something you needed.”

Locke took out the second letter, then opened it, revealing a golden foxtail grass specimen.

Locke looked at the specimen and first showed a strange expression, because apart from this specimen, the wizard Russell had not replied to any letters.

The next moment, he looked at the specimen and suddenly had a look of realization.

"So that's why some of the green foxtail grass reverted to golden foxtail grass during the natural evolution process. It's such a simple reason."

Locke noticed a tiny specimen of a dodder-like magical plant attached to the golden foxtail grass specimen.

Clearly, this golden foxtail grass has been parasitized by some kind of magical plant.

Locke quickly searched through the library for picture books of dodder-like magical plants and began looking for the scientific name of this magical plant.

He also found a magic book that described the habits of golden foxtail grass.

"It's confirmed. This is a first-ring magical plant, the Golden Lamp Vine. Its common host is a certain type of tree, and it has a habit of actively nurturing the host magical plant. In order to nurture the host magical plant, the Golden Lamp Vine will actively absorb some of the host's plant essence to better disguise itself and prevent the host magical plant from detecting it."

"But as a parasitic magical plant, the Golden Lamp Vine must parasitize trees; otherwise, smaller magical plants will easily be sucked to death by it."

Locke closed the spellbook.

"I see. I've got the last piece of the puzzle. Now, all I need to do is conduct one more experiment to confirm my hypothesis, and the atavism will be completely complete. And it'll be even better than I expected!"

"Of course, the premise is——"

"The experimental results must meet my expectations."

(End of this chapter)