Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Witch Yekaterina looked at Locke and said, "Now that you have become a Second Circle wizard, you may apply for a special-grade grant. Journal publication and project applications at the Second Circle stage are fundamentally different from those at the First Circle stage."

"Because of the White Wizard Association's protective policy toward First Circle wizards, there is one thing that has been deliberately overlooked throughout the entire First Circle stage across all four major levels, which is the verification of research originality."

"For First Circle wizards, their field of view is generally limited to a single wizard land, or even to a small academy within a wizard land. A wizard land may be the entire world in their eyes, and so the White Wizard Association's grant applications and journal requirements do not require verification of research originality."

"But for Second Circle wizards, all of their articles, literature, and project research must prove one thing, and that is originality."

"Without originality, one cannot apply for grants or publish articles. Because of this, for Second Circle wizards, projects and journals are not things that can be published easily."

Witch Yekaterina said, "To put it plainly, all of the First Circle wizards across all four magical levels, and all of the results they produce, are, from the White Wizard Association's perspective, closer to something that creates atmosphere than to something that can be put to direct practical use."

"As the saying goes in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, if you want one genius, you need a hundred mediocre ones. And so for the White Wizard Association, the greatest value of First Circle wizards' existence lies in the very fact that they exist."

"And precisely because of this, something that is incredibly simple for First Circle wizards becomes exceptionally difficult for Second Circle wizards."

Locke gave a slight nod. The reason the seven old sun ring wizard judges on the Silent Chalice competition committee had immediately refused his hint was probably for exactly this reason.

For Second Circle wizards, the gold content of projects and journals would be even higher than at the First Circle level.

Thinking carefully about it, the competition was also entirely different.

After all, was there any Second Circle wizard who was not relatively a genius?

Publishing articles and applying for projects at the Second Circle stage meant competing against a group of First Circle-stage geniuses.

Wait.

Locke had a realization. "Teacher, so the special-grade grant and the key individual sub-topic plan from the Origin Academy are essentially newcomer welfare for Second Circle wizards. And not welfare that just anyone can receive."

"This is welfare available only to researchers of Golden Crown Mountain's advanced Origin Academy."

"Because for Second Circle wizards, this is a project application that has value, yet whose difficulty of application has been indirectly reduced."

Witch Yekaterina looked at Locke with interested eyes.

"You may understand it that way."

"How interesting. Your interest in the special-grade grant is fairly normal. But do you understand what it means that you want the sub-topic under the key individual plan?"

Locke thought about it for a moment and understood.

"It means I would be deeply entering the struggle between your academic lineage and the Rose Witch's academic lineage."

Witch Yekaterina nodded, showing a satisfied smile.

"Perceptive."

Locke immediately said, "Teacher, I am already your student, and so even if I were unwilling to enter the struggle, I am already in it."

Locke was fairly clear-headed about this. He had also dealt with the Rose Council's people before.

He knew that given the personalities of those Rose Council wizards, he had long since been labeled in their eyes, and nothing he did would make a difference.

Let alone the fact that he was in commercial competition with them.

Witch Yekaterina said, "Good. Worthy of being my student. Your judgment is correct. The weak only lose their own interests. Only those who can assert their own rights can obtain what they want."

"In that case, I can indeed consider giving you a sub-topic. Only, if that is so..."

Witch Yekaterina hesitated slightly and said, "I had not originally intended to tell you too much about the matters between me and the Rose Witch. But perhaps I can try sharing a little now."

"Though not too much."

Witch Yekaterina said this and then looked at Locke with a meaningful expression.

"Anna is too similar to me in many respects. Aside from our personalities, many of our lines of thinking tend to collide. And we are both botanical wizards, we are both breeders, and we are both skilled with rose-type magical plants, because peach trees are also of the Rosaceae family."

Locke thought of the Red Demon God he had once seen in Witch Yekaterina's office. Was that not a Second Circle rose-type magical plant?

Witch Yekaterina said, "And this time, Anna's scheme against my Group Two and Group Three was for the sake of this..."

Witch Yekaterina took out a magical ring, a wooden ring.

Locke could tell at a glance that it was a ring made from peach wood.

Witch Yekaterina tossed the ring to Locke. "A half-finished product."

The moment Locke gripped the ring, he immediately felt as though he were establishing a connection with an enormously powerful existence that had existed since ancient times. His spirituality and magical power were forming a connection, and even his Grand Magic was connecting with that powerful existence.

That existence was so high, so distant.

Yet at the same time as powerful and brilliant as the sun.

But in the next moment, the connection broke, and the ring directly ignited into flame and burned.

Locke saw that the wooden ring on the small finger of Witch Yekaterina's left hand had also ignited, burning down into a pile of ash.

Locke said, "Teacher, was that magical ring just now connecting my Grand Magic and yours together?"

Witch Yekaterina nodded and said, "Your judgment was correct. Your insight is very good."

"Kelt once wore the magical ring I gave him, but he never noticed this."

"What is called a wedding ring is precisely this kind of thing."

"Let me speak about the origin of wedding rings. That comes from a principle mentioned in an article published by a Fourth Circle Truth Wizard of the Star Domain Sea, which stated that ancient wizards could use ritual magic and peach tree sacrificial rites to create a magical power connection between a male and female wizard, forming a special sense of identity."

"That was the earliest form of wizard spousal relationship."

"Many wizards have read that article, but it was probably only Anna and I, along with a small number of other wizards, who thought to borrow the matrimonial relationship framework defined under laws established by modern holy mages, along with the development of modern botanical magic and alchemy, to create a special magical ring centered on a magical plant as its core, the wedding ring."

"At present, the definition of what constitutes a wedding ring is extremely muddled and unclear."

Witch Yekaterina raised one index finger and said, "With the exception of Anna and myself, who have concrete results and products nearly ready for release, no other wizard has any realistic hope of completing one."

"And the problem lies precisely here. The definition."

"Whoever completes a wedding ring first and brings it to market gets to define what a wedding ring is."

Witch Yekaterina said, "My thinking and Anna's each have different emphases. The shared view between Anna and me, and currently the only viable view, is that wedding rings must be distinguished from ordinary magical rings and must be rooted in botanical magic."

"And to do that, one thing must be achieved."

"Wearing a wedding ring must be able to connect the Grand Magics of both the male and female wizard."

Locke's eyes widened. He understood that this was among the most cutting-edge research in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands at this moment, and if it succeeded, the results would be beyond imagining.

It was an entirely new market, an entirely new category of magical equipment, and could even become a specialty of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

Witch Yekaterina said, "In the ancient past, wizard spouses were not merely a legally recognized identity. They were also a special relationship on the level of spirituality."

"The specific principles are far too complex. I will not go into those for now."

"Both Anna and I believe that for a wedding ring to succeed, it must allow both wizards to share the power of each other's Grand Magic. That would constitute a wizard couple relationship."

"But our emphases differ. I believe a wedding ring is a ring of identity, a ring of responsibility, and a ring of contract. Therefore, a wedding ring must first be a soul-bound magical artifact with only one owner for life."

"The wearers of the two wedding rings would have their respective Grand Magics connected to each other, and this would provide an opportunity to construct a third Grand Magic. At the same time, both parties independently forging their own Grand Magics would allow them to forge this third shared Grand Magic."

"In other words, two wizard spouses wearing wedding rings would each gain an additional Grand Magic construction slot, and the construction of this third Grand Magic, because it is sustained by two wizards, along with my carefully designed arrangement, would not consume too much of their mental energy."

"Two wizard spouses could effortlessly possess one more Grand Magic than other wizards, without needing to waste excessive additional resources on that Grand Magic."

"Witch Anna's view differs from mine. She believes a wedding ring is a ring of love, a ring of art, a ring of spirituality, and a ring of romance. And so her perspective on the wedding ring is that it should allow the Grand Magics of the two ring owners to be mutually shared, enabling either one to directly invoke the other's Grand Magic and use both Grand Magics simultaneously."

"Her view is that wedding rings should be transferable between owners, and do not even need to form a stable relationship. They may freely change partners as true love changes, because her ring is in essence nothing more than a lover's ring."

Witch Yekaterina hesitated briefly and said, "I have no objection to her lover's ring. I think it is perfectly fine as well. As long as it does not pollute the wedding ring concept I put forward first."

"The wedding ring is something I prepared for the Ten-Person Plan, which can help me accelerate the completion of the ten-person project and bring me enormous economic benefits. And not only that. Since the concept of the wedding ring has been established by me, I do not want anyone to publish their work ahead of me and use their definition to replace mine."

Locke asked curiously, "Teacher, did the Rose Throne copy your idea for the wedding ring?"

Witch Yekaterina hesitated.

"I am not certain. I can be certain that I conceived of it independently. When Anna published an article defining the wedding ring, I was also very surprised."

"Aside from differing in emphasis, all other aspects, whether it was the craftsmanship, the spell models, or the core concepts and foundational principles, were nearly identical."

"On this matter, I have already had more than twenty disputes with her in the courts. We are not fighting to win, because everyone knows this kind of thing is very difficult to untangle. The goal is simply to let the people of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands know that we each arrived at it independently. The best way to end the academic dispute related to wedding rings is for me to be the first to release a qualified wedding ring product and definitively establish the definition of wedding rings in this market."

"As for Anna's ring? She can change the name. Calling it a love ring is fine. It has nothing to do with me. As long as it does not pollute my wedding ring concept."

Locke gave a slight nod.

Witch Yekaterina's definition of the wedding ring was essentially something like two wizards jointly cultivating one Grand Magic, reducing the resources a wizard needed to expend on opening an additional Grand Magic slot.

Of course, while a wizard could theoretically open unlimited Grand Magic levels, the reality was that in general a wizard could only have one Grand Magic.

He was able to have two Grand Magics only because of his demon dragon bloodline.

And now, Witch Yekaterina's wedding ring would allow ordinary wizards to gain an additional Grand Magic slot without bearing too heavy a burden.

One could say that if this succeeded, it would likely cause a great many Second Circle wizards to choose to marry.

Of course, many wizards would also not simply enter into a complex interpersonal spousal relationship just to gain one additional Grand Magic slot.

After all, this very likely involved ancient sacrificial magic.

And the Rose Witch's wedding ring, on the other hand, was oriented toward allowing various wizards to freely invoke each other's Grand Magic at will, essentially achieving free-matching of Grand Magics.

In truth, both concepts were excellent.

But they seemed to involve a question of whose definition would prevail.

That was the aspect the two Third Circle Throne witches cared about.

It was clear that for high-circle wizards, interests were no longer limited to practical material interests alone.

Witch Yekaterina said, "My key individual plan is in service of the Ten-Person Plan. And the content of my key individual plan is the manufacture and design of the wedding ring."

"You want a sub-topic. It is possible."

"However, it needs to be fair. You will need to do something for me. If you do it well, I will give you this sub-topic. As for the special-grade grant, you will need to compete with the other Second Circle wizards in the Origin Academy."

"This sub-topic... at present you are the only candidate. As long as you complete my two tasks, it will be yours."

Two wooden rings appeared in his palm.

Locke looked at the two wooden rings.

Witch Yekaterina raised a finger. "First, I want you to produce multiple Second Circle-grade blockbuster wizard shoes as quickly as possible, at least three styles, and bring your shop alliance to the level of at least a second-class wizard shoe shop alliance in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"Second, these are the prototypes of two wedding rings. I promised you before that I would devise a method for resolving the bloodline deficiency of the demon dragon bloodline in the modern magic era. What I was referring to was in fact the Wedding Ring Plan."

"Do not misunderstand me. I am not asking you to find a Second Circle witch to marry. Do you remember the Peach Heart Curse? The one I planted on your forehead before."

"I have an experiment I would like your cooperation with. If it succeeds, you will only need to forge one Grand Magic in the future, and it will be equivalent to two Grand Magics being forged by you simultaneously."

"You possessing two Grand Magics would then be not a disadvantage, but an advantage."

Locke nodded without hesitation. "Teacher, I am willing to cooperate."

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