Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

The wizard who had spoken first was Wizard Georuta, a Third Circle wizard. After Locke entered the room, he proactively said, "I am Georuta. Like you, I am a breeder. I was Teacher's first disciple."

"I was already following Witch Yekaterina when she was an ordinary Second Circle wizard. And at that time, we were not in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands but along the Celestial River."

Georuta was an elderly wizard who appeared to have a full white beard. He looked very old, of advanced years, but he gazed at Locke with a smile full of warmth.

He wore a magnificent wizard robe like that of a grand elder, held a peach wood staff in his hand, and appeared to be so elderly that he was slightly stooped, looking not tall.

"I have achieved nothing remarkable. I am nothing more than an ordinary peach grower. My Grand Magic is one of Golden Crown Mountain's Twelve Peaches, the Clear-Chime Peach. Consuming it can make the soul clear and alert, granting immunity to heart school and enchantment school spells, and also immunity to many mind-controlling dangers found in perilous worlds..."

"Because my peach garden is called the Chime Peach Garden."

"I enjoy selling a few peaches, some peach resin, some peach pits... nothing more than following in Witch Yekaterina's footsteps."

Grand Wizard Georuta seemed extraordinarily humble. As he spoke, his white beard fluttered, but Locke observed plane laws drifting from his body, appearing extraordinarily powerful and exceptional.

Simply by drawing close to Locke and exchanging a few words with him, the Root Field had lifted Locke's Grand Magic, causing the surrounding botanical magic to become extraordinarily active.

Grand Wizard Georuta sighed. "I have lived nine hundred or so years in vain. I fear that in this life I will go no further. Now I am at Golden Crown Mountain, surrounded by students on all sides, and I also serve as a wizard on the Academic Committee."

"At Golden Crown Mountain I have quite a few Second Circle wizard students, and even three sun ring wizard students. Junior, if you ever have needs in the future, you are more than welcome to come to your eldest senior."

"Because of the relationship with Teacher serving as the Academic Committee's vice-chairperson, I currently hold the position of Director of Academic Ethics within the Academic Committee as well."

Locke blinked. This was no ordinary position. It meant this was the highest post within Golden Crown Mountain's internal ethics and moral review system.

He had not expected that his eldest senior fellow would hold such a significant position within Golden Crown Mountain.

Locke bowed to Wizard Georuta. "Greetings, eldest senior."

"Senior is the inheritor of one of Golden Crown Mountain's Twelve Peaches, Six Teas, and Three Rices' Grand Magic. That is truly impressive."

Wizard Georuta curved the corner of his mouth and gave a satisfied nod. "You once had the opportunity to possess one of the twelve peach gardens. Even now it would still be possible."

"The Dragon-Saliva Peach Garden has no master, and you have the demon dragon bloodline, which means you can possess two Grand Magics."

Wizard Georuta pointed to a serious-looking middle-aged wizard beside him. "This is Wizard Heidegger."

Wizard Heidegger had the appearance of a very serious person, wearing a comparatively simple and unadorned white wizard robe. Only when he looked toward Locke did the faintest trace of a smile appear on his face.

He gave Locke a slight nod. "Greetings. I am Wizard Heidegger. I am likewise a member of Golden Crown Mountain's Academic Committee, serving internally in the role of the Professional Technical Appointment and Evaluation Committee."

"I did not follow Teacher from the Celestial River era. I am a native wizard of Southern Wizard Capital. At that time, Teacher was serving as a wizard instructor at the Black Iron Tower in Southern Wizard Capital."

"Now, the Black Iron Tower has fallen, and no longer exists."

Wizard Heidegger said, "My Grand Magic is one of the Three Rices, the Cloud Rice Cloud Field."

"One-third of the cloud fields in the sky above Golden Crown Mountain are my estate, and the estate of the Cloud Rice Cloud Field's masters throughout the generations. I have not achieved much either. I am just a rice seller."

"Heidegger's Rice Market and Arnstone Rice Shop are my businesses. Junior, you are welcome to come by and visit in the future. Beyond that, I have opened quite a few other shops as well, all opened casually in my youth."

Grand Wizard Georuta smiled.

"You are too modest."

Locke bowed to Heidegger. "Greetings, senior. Are you the inventor of the Seven-Color Rice?"

Heidegger looked at Locke with mild surprise.

"You actually know about Seven-Color Rice. Impressive."

Seven-Color Rice was an auxiliary spellcasting material used in the defensive school.

The reason Locke knew was that when he used to browse the Dragon Blood Market, he would occasionally wander into Heidegger's Rice Market by mistake. He now understood that it was his second senior's business.

Grand Wizard Georuta smiled. "Second junior Heidegger, are you not going to give the little junior a gift? Your cloud field cloud rice would be perfect for our junior at this stage."

Heidegger looked at him.

"You want all the credit for kindness."

"Hmph."

"It was always like this in the early days. When we were in the same research group, everyone thought you were the good person, and I was the..."

Wizard Heidegger and Georuta clearly had some unresolved history between them, but realizing this was not the moment to bring it up in front of Locke, he stopped himself from continuing.

Evidently this was old business from long ago.

Locke also immediately sensed that Georuta and Heidegger had probably been the first and second senior fellows of Witch Yekaterina's research group in the early days. In that kind of situation, there would certainly have been friction between them.

After all, in a large team, the eldest senior was an informal manager, while the second senior was the heir apparent to that informal manager, creating conditions that objectively tended to generate conflict.

Of course, because he had never been part of a large team himself, he did not have a deep intuitive feel for this.

After all, by the time he had arrived at Golden Crown Mountain, Witch Yekaterina's team had already been divided into groups. Because it was so large, the management was already professional, with each group's leadership even having two leaders operating in rotation.

Wizard Heidegger took a bowl from his astral ring and handed it to Locke. "Junior, consider this a gift from your senior. Go ahead and eat."

Locke looked down and saw that the fist-sized bowl contained only a very thin layer of white rice at the bottom.

This white rice looked completely ordinary, with nothing exceptional about it at all.

Locke looked up at the five senior fellows before reaching out to pick up the magical rice in the bowl.

It was extraordinarily heavy.

Locke immediately sensed the anomaly. The magical rice had a tremendous weight. Each grain seemed as heavy as a mountain, and Locke could not even lift a single grain.

"This is wrong. Why is this rice so heavy?"

Locke continuously elevated his magic pressure, and in the end used the three True Blood within his body along with the Scorpion Woman's Ring, activating Berserk, Second-Stage Berserk, Beast Form, and Bloodline Harmony, drawing on his two Second Circle-grade bloodlines to strengthen his entire body's power. And yet he still could not pick up a single grain of rice from the bowl.

At this moment, Wizard Heidegger's expression remained blank. The two female senior sisters covered their mouths and laughed softly. The sun ring wizard senior brother burst into open laughter.

Great Senior Brother Georuta smiled. "Junior, allow me to pick it up for you."

Locke at this moment looked at the thin layer of cloud rice in the bowl and began to think. Something was wrong with this rice.

In the next moment, he directly cast the Moon of Evolution's moonlight onto the rice, and this moonlight had always been resting on the botanical Root Field. Now, with the moonlight lifting the magical rice, the magical rice was equally positioned upon the botanical Root Field.

At the same time, Locke suddenly felt that the magical rice, which had previously been immovable, suddenly became lighter.

Locke picked up the magical rice, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes.

It worked.

He had succeeded.

The five looked at one another, each seeing a trace of mild surprise in the others' eyes. They had not expected Locke to work out the key so quickly.

He truly possessed a very sharp intuition.

Meeting in person was better than hearing by reputation. In this moment, they had all seen his ability through Locke's reaction just now.

At the very least, Locke possessed a powerful insight.

No wonder he had become a genius breeder.

Locke looked at the handful of cloud rice in his hand and understood what kind of magical plant grain this was.

This magical plant grain was being lifted by the Root Field. It was an extremely rare magical plant product, and it seemed its entire ability to function was built upon its existence within the Root Field.

And so if he tried to lift it without using the Root Field as its foundation, it meant relying on his own individual power to lift a magical plant grain that ordinarily required a Root Field to even be lifted.

That would be equivalent to trying through sheer personal power to replace the entire botanical Root Field of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

In an instant, Locke thought of even more.

"If this mechanism were properly utilized, this cloud rice could be used as a sealing object. To counter the pressure of this cloud rice, one would have to use one's own magic pressure to replace the entire botanical Root Field of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

Wizard Heidegger's expression was no longer blank. He broke into a smile. As someone serving in the Professional Technical Appointment and Evaluation Committee, he was naturally very sensitive to the capabilities of a formal wizard.

Beyond that, he was a wizard instructor who believed in the genius theory, and always had a fondness for talented people.

"Excellent. Junior, your botanical foundation is very solid. My cloud rice was precisely designed to be used as a sealing object. Many wizards purchase cloud rice not for eating, but for suppression."

Locke ate one grain of rice, and in an instant, that single grain of cloud rice exploded with countless streams of energy from beneath his tongue, surging ceaselessly through his entire body.

In just moments, the bloodline power deficit left from his consecutive use of bloodline spells was completely replenished.

And furthermore, his physical strength rose by a small additional increment.

Wizard Heidegger said, "By consuming a small amount of my cloud rice daily, your physical body will strengthen incrementally, up to the theoretical physical strength ceiling of your body."

Locke said, "Second senior, does that not mean this is most beneficial for bloodline school wizards?"

Wizard Heidegger said, "That is correct. Otherwise, junior, who did you think was buying it?"

"The Three Rices are magical rice sold publicly by Golden Crown Mountain. Junior can purchase them at the rice market. Only cloud rice generally has a daily quantity limit, so you will need to send students ahead of time to buy it."

"Approximately one hundred thousand magic stones per grain."

Locke blinked and coughed.

This...

No wonder the rice was so extraordinarily heavy. This was literally worth its weight in gold.

So the weight of the rice was the weight of magic stones.

Locke thought to himself, no wonder Golden Crown Mountain was the exemplar of high-value-added agricultural industries.

The rice in the rice market could be this expensive.

Wizard Heidegger seemed to read Locke's thoughts and said, "Not all the rice in the rice market is this expensive. It is only the cloud rice that is special, each grain worth a fortune. The remaining nine grains, you can eat them or use them as sealing objects, either is fine."

"For a non-botanical wizard, this single grain of rice is an immovable mountain."

"Even if you have not specifically studied sealing school magic, you can still make use of it."

Locke bowed to Wizard Heidegger. "Thank you, second senior. This gift is extremely precious, and it has also opened my eyes considerably."

Wizard Heidegger gave a nod and looked toward Grand Wizard Georuta.

"Eldest senior, I have given mine. Are you not giving something?"

"Your peach garden seems to have had a good harvest this year. Can you actually sell it all? You are not planning to let your peaches rot on the trees?"

The smile on the old Grand Wizard Georuta's face stiffened slightly.

"I was just waiting for you, junior, to give first, to make a good impression on our little junior. My gift has already been prepared. Little junior, this is a Clear-Chime Peach from me."

A peach shaped like a bell was produced by Grand Wizard Georuta. The moment it appeared, the surroundings seemed to fall completely silent, as though even the air had become still.

Wizard Heidegger chuckled.

"So that was how it was. You wanted to see how many grains of rice I would give, and then decide how many peaches to give. After all, a single Clear-Chime Peach is worth a million magic stones, and with how stingy you are, there was no way you would give one willingly."

"But as eldest senior you were afraid of losing face. So you had me give first. You watched from the side to see exactly how many grains of cloud rice I would give, and then decided how many Clear-Chime Peaches you would give."

Wizard Heidegger said, "Eldest senior, was I right?"

Grand Wizard Georuta appeared not to have heard anything and pointed at the Clear-Chime Peach in his own hand, telling Locke, "The Clear-Chime Peach flees from sound, so if you make a loud noise, the peach will fly away."

"Therefore, one must absolutely not make a loud sound in the vicinity of a Clear-Chime Peach."

"The Clear-Chime Peach tree also loves absolute quiet."

"I heard that the Silent Witch originally had the opportunity to obtain the Chime Peach Garden, but she did not want to remain at Golden Crown Mountain permanently, and so she did not accept the inheritance."

Locke gave a nod. He did not eat this peach. For a Second Circle wizard, this peach would not enhance the soul or magical power by very much. But if this sweet peach were consumed as a potion-grade elixir...

Then it would be an entirely different matter.

It could grant near-immunity to the majority of Second Circle heart school and enchantment school spells.

At a critical moment, it might prove to be of tremendous use, and so he placed it into his astral ring.

At this moment, the two Third Circle senior sisters exchanged a glance, then each introduced themselves.

The third senior sister was named Fiona Brick, and the fourth senior sister was named Zeira Hock.

Witch Fiona's main research was in heartwood studies within botanical magic, and she was also a member of Golden Crown Mountain's Academic Committee, serving as a senior wizard instructor.

She said she had opened quite a few shops across the Cloud Marsh Wetlands specializing in the sale of modular heartwood.

Locke was rather astonished, and looked at this traditionally dressed Witch Fiona in wonder. "I never knew that a tree's heartwood could be removed and sold separately. I had never noticed before."

Witch Fiona smiled. "Junior simply was not paying attention."

"And in fact, the First Circle market is actually smaller than the Second Circle market. Because for First Circle magical plants, especially those at the liquification stage and below, replacing the heartwood is less efficient than simply replanting a new tree."

"A tree's heartwood is only a structural support element, a mass of dead material. An old tree might have fully ninety percent of its body as dead material, with only ten percent alive. Only the branches, leaves, bark, and the vascular bundle region close to the bark are alive. The heartwood is dead. The heartwood can only serve a structural and magical energy storage function."

Witch Fiona smiled. "But replacing the heartwood can rapidly restore a dying magical plant, and can also enhance a treant's magical power, bringing different magical forces."

"Only I imagine junior has not learned how to replace heartwood. Replacing heartwood requires a certain foundational ability."

"So let me give you a grafting knife as a gift."

"This is a Second Circle magical artifact grafting knife of reasonably good quality. Its name is the Spiritual Vein Suture."

Locke accepted a silver dagger thin as a cicada's wing, covered in enchantment inscriptions. "Thank you, third senior sister. I have been lacking a proper grafting knife recently."

"This is tremendously practical."

Witch Fiona smiled. "As long as you like it."

Locke had long suffered from not having a suitable grafting knife. Every time he used the ordinary grafting knives he had been making do with, they cracked and broke very easily.

He had long wanted to find a grafting knife magical artifact of good material and craftsmanship, and now a senior sister had sent him exactly that.

Locke examined the grafting knife, finding it enchanted with extensive magic, and seemingly crafted from a special material, which meant it could easily bear his magic pressure without snapping the way his previous grafting knives had.

At the same time, the grafting knife had received special treatment. Locke rotated the blade and found that the grafting knife could effortlessly cut through planar force and through the spirituality flowing through the air.

Locke saw this and his eyes brightened slightly.

Having used inferior grafting knives for so long, he could appreciate far better than anyone else what it meant to have a good grafting knife in hand.

Only the price of this...

Locke said to Witch Fiona, "Senior sister, this grafting knife seems quite expensive..."

Witch Fiona nodded. "Yes. Five million magic stones to acquire. After all, it is a magical artifact needed by a Second Circle wizard. Below this price point, I would not even be able to give it away."

"Because for a Second Circle wizard, something below that level would be more useless than nothing."

She seemed to realize something and quickly added, "I am not as versatile and talented as eldest senior and second senior. I am just a poor witch who sells heartwood."

"I have nothing to speak of. I could only spend some money to buy a passable grafting knife."

Witch Zeira said, "I have even less to offer. I only recently advanced to become a Third Circle wizard. I had consumed all my resources before then and truly have nothing impressive to give."

"How about this. I run a botanical museum."

Witch Zeira smiled. "Let me give junior a Second Circle magical plant. I watched the Silent Chalice competition previously and noticed that the Golden Palace Legacy Branch used in junior's Grand Magic appeared to still be a First Circle magical plant."

"This is a Golden Peach Tree."

Witch Zeira took out from her astral ring a magical plant that was golden all over, its branches, leaves, and roots all golden in color.

The moment this peach tree was produced, it gleamed with golden splendor, as though the entire room had been brightened by several degrees.

Witch Zeira smiled. "The Golden Peach Tree, also known as the Undying Golden Peach. Its leaves and its fruit never wither."

"Although it is only an ordinary Second Circle magical plant, it is a unique specimen."

"The Golden Peach Tree is also one of the symbolic plants of the twilight boundary. But it is currently an endangered species, with fewer than one in ten surviving. It is only because I have long been in the business of running botanical museums and plant markets that I have had the fortune to collect one."

"If sold, it is difficult to put a price on it. Based on its magical plant performance alone, it would be somewhere between three million and five million. But if rarity is factored in, perhaps several more million could be added."

Witch Zeira gave a slight shake of her head.

"But price is not calculated that way. This is ultimately just a collectible of mine. It has never been put into circulation in any market before, so these prices are only my estimates. This thing itself was also a gift from a friend of mine."

"Who found it in a colonial world."

Locke accepted the magical plant and bowed to Witch Zeira.

"Thank you, senior sister."

One had to say, the two senior sisters were truly generous.

After all of this, the gifts from the two senior sisters were worth several times the value of the gifts from the two senior brothers.

Wizards Heidegger and Georuta both had slightly awkward expressions on their faces.

They had not anticipated that their two junior sisters, after so many years apart, had become so wealthy that they would give gifts this lavish.

Great Senior Brother Georuta felt a pang of regret.

"I should have waited longer. I have lost face as the eldest senior."

"If only I had waited until after the two junior sisters gave their gifts. But a key laboratory experiment went out of control a few days ago, and the compensation I had to pay was beyond counting. I am truly in difficult financial straits lately. Ah."

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