Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 657: The Idea of Establishing a Wizard Shoe Store Alliance and the Pixiu Angle Fractal Spiral Constraint Equation System

Locke hadn't expected this thing to conceal such a grave safety hazard, and a chill immediately ran down his spine.The wizard world was fraught with danger. Even conducting research alone carried the risk of losing one's life. Countless high-Circle wizards had died in their own laboratories from experiments gone out of control, and he himself had come within one step of following in their footsteps.

Locke said, "Teacher, I understand. I will handle these things with great care."

Witch Yekaterina gave a nod. "Show me the adult form of these seeds. You should be able to project it using an archaeology spell. The advantages of an archaeology wizard in certain respects are indeed quite useful."

Locke said, "Of course, Teacher."

He waved a hand, and in an instant, an ancient flower appeared before Witch Yekaterina.

Witch Yekaterina looked at the ancient flower with great interest, then said, "This is nothing but an artificial flower. Do those ancient wizards of the Black Sun Tower have that much leisure time?"

"Hmm..." Witch Yekaterina said, "A few fake friends of mine from the Rose Council might actually enjoy something like this. Wait, the shape of this artificial flower is rather interesting. I once encountered a magical plant of this shape in the deepest depths of the Jade Dream. Of course, that was a Third Circle magical plant, and it was entangled with quite a few things."

"The creation of this artificial flower must have touched upon that secret. It seems that the Era of Stars under the Black Sun Tower's leadership, while making no great contribution to the exploration of the vast void, did delve quite deeply into the secrets of certain special planes within the endless void."

"Hmm... actually, that makes sense. In an era without void warships, exploring special planes would have been far simpler than developing the vast void. Void warship technology wasn't perfected until that dark and oppressive colonial era... but in the Era of Stars, star projection body technology should have already emerged."

"With star projection body technology, exploring special planes becomes much simpler, and even Second Circle wizards can use star projection bodies."

Locke listened to what Witch Yekaterina was saying with a completely blank expression.

This was presumably common knowledge at the Third Circle level.

Or at least common knowledge at the Second Circle.

Locke didn't dare interrupt Witch Yekaterina's train of thought, but Witch Yekaterina took the initiative to address him. "Locke, I recall that in your earlier research, you mentioned that the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad mimics the surrounding plants during its growth."

Locke looked at Witch Yekaterina in surprise. He hadn't imagined that a Throne Wizard would have the spare time to read the papers of such an obscure young First Circle wizard as himself.

Locke nodded and said, "That is correct, Teacher."

Witch Yekaterina said, "Then use the First Circle botany spell model, Rapid Growth, to grow a Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad right now."

"And have it mimic this ancient flower."

"If my guess is correct, the spiral contained within the shape of this ancient flower's blossoms is not an ordinary spiral."

Witch Yekaterina said, "Many magical plants carry certain theorems within their forms. You and I both know this as breeders."

"But among extremely rare magical plants, the shapes they carry go beyond ordinary theorems and represent a special energy-locking structure. Moreover, this kind of energy-locking structure often possesses particular functions."

"Have a Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad mimic this ancient flower right now, immediately. I want to see exactly what happens."

Witch Yekaterina's tone turned serious. She dismissed the magical hairdresser with a glance, then sat up straight.

Locke sensed the atmosphere growing more grave.

He nodded and said, "Understood, Teacher."

Locke took a Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad from his astral ring and placed it directly on the table in front of the sofa, then set a piece of moss-wood pith beside the table.

Air bromeliad magical plants have one special characteristic, which is that their roots serve only as anchoring roots.

Their leaves simultaneously perform the functions of both roots and leaves in ordinary magical plants, absorbing moisture, absorbing nutrients, and conducting a special form of photosynthesis.

Therefore, they do not require soil cultivation.

This was also one of the reasons they were well-suited for use as wizard shoes.

If it were a different magical plant whose roots could not be separated from soil or a growing medium, it would naturally be impossible for it to serve as wizard shoes and travel with a wizard to different places every day.

There is a common saying that captures this simply: people thrive when they move, trees die when they are uprooted.

But the growing medium of air bromeliads is air itself, and that is precisely what makes purely plant-based wizard shoes a possibility.

Locke used Rapid Growth, and the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad absorbed the nutrients of the moss-wood pith and, under the refinement of Locke's exquisite botanical magic, began growing rapidly.

At his current level of life magic, cultivating an ordinary First Circle magical plant like this presented absolutely no challenge.

Soon, the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad grew to its adult form, and its black scale-furred leaves curled into twisted shapes, displaying eerie and uncanny spiral patterns resembling those of the ancient flower.

The spiral patterns contained smaller spiral patterns within them, seemingly infinitely divisible.

"The Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad has a mechanism for mimicking surrounding magical plants and pretending to be other plants to prevent itself from being eaten by specific herbivorous magical creatures," Locke said. "Using the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad, it can indeed spontaneously mimic surrounding magical plants."

Witch Yekaterina said with praise, "Not bad. Your skills as a breeder are improving considerably."

"You are simply still lacking in the rich experience that comes with years of practice."

At that moment, the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad suddenly underwent a dramatic change. A small magic tide whirlwind appeared above it.

Cracks began to appear across the surface of the table where the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad was placed.

Both Locke and Witch Yekaterina looked over.

Locke thought, "This special form with its unique spiral angle actually possesses this kind of power. The Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad merely had its leaves shaped similarly to it, and this kind of change appeared."

Locke picked up the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad, and it appeared to be frantically absorbing the surrounding magic tides, with an efficiency more than ten times that of an ordinary Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad.

"Teacher, congratulations. You have discovered a new energy-locking structure."

Witch Yekaterina was quite taken aback, then looked at Locke through the image call on the water hyacinth system with an amused expression. "I discovered it? Isn't this something you discovered?"

"What does it have to do with me? I was simply helping you out."

Locke said, "Teacher..."

Witch Yekaterina waved a hand and said, "I have no need for a discovery at this level. It is not even icing on the cake for me, but for you, it is... a lifeline in the snow."

"I merely gave your thinking a slight nudge. Say no more, or I will actually get irritated."

"All right. Follow what I tell you and run some tests on this magical plant. I have a hypothesis."

Locke listened to Witch Yekaterina's instructions and ran a series of tests on the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad. To his great surprise, he found that the overall expression of the plant's magical traits had improved by at least twofold as its efficiency in absorbing magic tides increased.

Of course, it was not without its drawbacks. The speed at which it absorbed the surrounding magic tides was so fast that it formed a magic tide vortex.

Witch Yekaterina said, "If this kind of magical plant were planted in large numbers across an area, what do you think would happen?"

Locke said, "An ecological-scale disaster. But Teacher, when I saw the ancient flowers growing in groups, that kind of phenomenon did not occur."

Witch Yekaterina said, "That is merely an inauspicious thing, a fake flower. This shape did not originate with them. The Black Sun Tower copied this from a naturally existing magical plant somewhere in nature."

"That inauspicious thing must have other design features incorporated into it, which is why that phenomenon didn't occur. All right, I have some materials from my earlier research on fractal function spirals. I'll send them to you. They should help you accelerate your progress in discovering the function equations for this spiral."

A strange look crossed Witch Yekaterina's face. "By the way. If you have time recently, come back to Golden Crown Mountain. There is a sun ring wizard and a Third Circle wizard looking for you."

"No need to rush too much. Let them wait a while. If they are willing to wait, that is."

"At Golden Crown Mountain, no one can bully you."

"Your return this time should be quite eventful, I imagine. I can see that there is also a Second Circle wizard over in Group 2 waiting for you to come back. Locke, enjoy your vacation in the Jade Splendor Enclave."

Locke paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Understood, Teacher."

At the same time, he wondered inwardly how, after just one extended trip away, so many high-Circle wizards had come looking for him.

One Third Circle, one sun ring?

One Second Circle?

Was he really that popular?

At this moment, Locke received the data package Witch Yekaterina had sent over. He looked at the materials and felt his confidence surge. "These are far more detailed than anything I could purchase here in the Jade Splendor Enclave."

"Teacher has previously conducted research into the relationship between plant forms and special spirals, so she has already done a great deal of function equation spiral simulations."

"Some of the spiral patterns here even resemble the form of my ancient flower. This is wonderful. It will significantly reduce the time I need to reverse-engineer the special spiral equation system from the ancient flower's form."

"Once I have that equation system, I can try to incorporate this spiral into many of my magical plants. This special structure, the energy-locking structure, should have a great many applications."

"One of the major factors limiting magical plant traits is the rate at which they absorb magic tides. I never expected that through the ancient flower, I could obtain this special energy-locking structure that increases the speed at which magical plants draw in magic tides."

It should be noted that the greatest difference between Second Circle magical plants and First Circle magical plants lies in the virtual root.

And this special spiral could, in a certain sense, also increase the efficiency with which magical plants absorbed nutrients and magic tides.

Locke rubbed his palms together. "Perfect. I can spend the remaining time here both researching my spiral and finishing up the major paper on the abyssal ruin excavation."

At that moment, a black wizard apprentice knocked on the door again and, upon being granted entry, stepped into the room and told Locke, "Professor Augustine, I was unable to find the Ice Magic Box equipment..."

Locke furrowed his brow.

Now that he was staying in the Jade Splendor Enclave, Locke truly understood the advantages of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. This place had nothing.

No equipment, no reference materials, and talent, to be honest, was also somewhat lacking.

The quality of these wizard apprentices here was simply incomparable to the level of those at Golden Crown Mountain.

Having to direct these wizard apprentices was making Locke feel as though his two students, Williams and Gregor, were absolute geniuses.

Locke said, "No Ice Magic Box? Then substitute a Hibernation Cabinet from the Summoning School. They use those all the time."

"Go and borrow a Hibernation Cabinet for me."

"I will pay in magic stones. Even double the price is fine." Locke let out a sigh. In a place like this, he had no choice but to solve problems by spending extra magic stones.

Fortunately, there was a Goblin Family Bank branch here, and with payments coming in from various sources, he had received another six hundred thousand magic stones combining this month and last.

Because this was a black wizard academy, he had essentially had no living expenses. As for some daily necessities, the moment he took them, no one dared to charge him.

If he actually tried to pay, the other party would be scared to death.

So having stayed here for a period of time, he hadn't incurred any expenses at all.

The first-class wizard apprentice black wizard swallowed nervously, fearing that Locke would suddenly fly into a rage and punish him.

He hesitated before speaking. "Professor Augustine... please forgive me. What is a Hibernation Cabinet? I'm so sorry, Professor. I truly don't know what that is..."

The student was so frightened that he was nearly bent double, just short of dropping to his knees before Locke.

Locke pressed a hand to his forehead.

Right. A shaky grasp of foundational knowledge was indeed a distinguishing characteristic of wizard apprentices in the Jade Splendor Enclave.

This was not the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, after all. There were no wizard apprentices here as capable or as easy to direct as there.

Everything had to be explained three times before they could manage to get anything done.

Locke said with a patient tone, "I'm not going to eat you. There is no need to be so tense."

The student grew even more tense and trembled all over.

Locke gave him a cold look.

The student immediately stopped trembling.

Locke said, "A Hibernation Cabinet is a piece of equipment commonly used by official wizards of the Summoning School when conducting animal experiments. Its interior can maintain a specific temperature and a magic tide concentration gradient, allowing magical creatures to hibernate inside it. If there is no Ice Magic Box for my experiments, then go and check whether there is a Hibernation Cabinet."

"It will do well enough as a substitute."

"Hibernation Cabinets are more commonly available than Ice Magic Boxes. Many magical creatures have a habit of hibernating, so a great many routine experiments in the Summoning School make use of Hibernation Cabinets."

He wanted to use the Hibernation Cabinet to determine the germination temperature of the batch of ancient magical plant seeds.

Because during the abyssal ruin exploration, Locke had sensed that the temperatures of that era were extremely cold, which may have had a collective effect on magical plants.

Through this experiment, he could determine the average temperature of the Era of Stars.

This point would play a critically important role in corroborating his ruin survey and findings.

The student, having listened to the full explanation, left with a somewhat guilty look, and Locke wasn't even sure whether he had understood.

Half a month later.

Inside the laboratory the Cinder Esoteric Order had lent him, Locke finally confirmed the simplified function equation for the spiral of the ancient flower.

It was a set of elegant and concise formulas, fifteen function equations in total.

Yet they represented a rare energy-locking structure.

Locke said, "This set of formulas is extraordinarily complex. If not for the research materials Teacher provided, I might have needed at least ten years on it alone. No, perhaps even longer."

This was because, while reverse-engineering the special spiral of the ancient flower, Locke had discovered that the spiral seemed to carry a built-in cognitive suppression effect.

Without Witch Yekaterina's research manuscripts, even just resisting the strange phenomenon of his mind going blank partway through the calculations would have been immensely difficult.

"It must be that my level of being is insufficient," Locke thought. "This special spiral angle curve may truly have originated from the depths of the Emerald Dream, or from within some other special plane."

"But discovering this special spiral curve is to my benefit."

Locke looked at the special pattern on the paper before him. It was an uncanny spiral pattern drawn by his own hand, extraordinarily complex, with curves contained within curves.

Even when examined closely with a magnifying lens, one would find that there were details within the details.

It was clearly nothing more than a pattern on a sheet of paper, yet the amount of ink used was extraordinary.

Just like the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad, once it mimicked this spiral angle fractal curve, it would inexplicably be able to rapidly absorb the surrounding magic tides, as though its leaf surface area had increased and its efficiency in drawing in surrounding matter had improved.

Moreover, this special structure only worked on plants.

Locke had tried applying this structure to a simple alchemical object, and the alchemical object showed no increase in energy transfer efficiency or energy absorption efficiency.

So this special energy-locking structure was only useful for magical plants.

Locke looked at the laboratory table, and on its surface sat a pair of Big Snow Crown Bromeliads. Their leaves had also developed the special spiral angle.

These were the product of a magical plant synthesis he had performed using the Big Snow Crown Bromeliad and the Big Black Diamond Swan Bromeliad that had already mimicked the ancient flower.

Though in truth, he could also have achieved this through graft breeding.

Using magical synthesis had simply reduced the cultivation time and improved the cultivation quality.

Locke took them outside, came to an open area, and put them on.

At the same time, he felt as though an ice track had appeared beneath his feet. The pair of Big Snow Crown Bromeliads transformed into ice skates, and with a slight push of effort, he glided forward along the ice track.

Locke moved as though wearing a pair of ice skates, gliding rapidly in a circle across the edge of the sky.

"As expected, applying this spiral angle form provides a comprehensive enhancement to my Big Snow Crown Bromeliad wizard shoes. This means that an ordinary wizard, simply by putting on these shoes, can use ice-magic-oriented botanical magic to glide through the sky just as Witch Diana did when she competed in the Cloud Marsh Cup."

"The speed is very close to the speed at which Witch Diana glided through the sky back then."

Locke ran a test.

It should be noted that Witch Diana at the time had been a First Circle crystallization wizard.

If an official wizard wearing his shoes could come close to the speed at which she had glided through the sky, that spoke to the superiority of the pure plant-based wizard shoes he had crafted.

Enabling wizards who were not adept at movement to possess the ability of high-speed movement by putting on wizard shoes, while also adapting to certain special terrain and providing a degree of defensive capability, that was precisely the meaning of wizard shoes.

And it was also the basic requirement, as well as the primary requirement, of the collective procurement tender for the Demon Realm War.

Wizard shoes existed in the first place to increase the movement speed of wizards.

All other functions were secondary. Whether they could increase speed was what truly mattered.

And right now, Locke had achieved this with nothing more than an ordinary Big Snow Crown Bromeliad, after subjecting it to the Tyrant transformation and the special spiral angle treatment.

This was sufficient proof that pure plant-based wizard shoes, in Locke's hands, had become a genuinely realizable possibility.

And that possibility would also bring Locke enormous wealth.

Locke looked at the pair of Big Snow Crown wizard shoes and said, "Though it does require a considerable amount of magical power. That is a drawback."

"But the advantage is that an ordinary First Circle wizard, simply by putting them on, can achieve the speed Witch Diana demonstrated at the Cloud Marsh Cup."

Locke glided through the air on the ice skates, circling a small hill to test the limits of the shoes as thoroughly as he could. "I never expected that the path of wizard shoes would actually be one I could walk all the way to the end."

Originally, the reason purely plant-based wizard shoes had been a completely dead end, aside from the collective resistance and rejection from magical weavers, was also a critical factor: the quality and performance of purely plant-based wizard shoes genuinely could not match those crafted by magical weavers.

The wizard shoes made by magical weavers had their textile materials and structures continuously developed by alchemists, with enchanters optimizing them further, and they had a complete and established development history and supply chain.

As a result, the magical plants of breeders had been comprehensively outclassed by magical weavers in the development of wizard shoes, wizard robes, magical gloves, and wizard hats, and breeders had therefore ceased development in those four areas.

They had instead focused their efforts on combat-type magical plants and potion material-type magical plants.

But Locke, through the Tyrant transformation and the special spiral angle, had now opened up the path of developing purely plant-based wizard shoes.

"I am in desperate need of large sums of money right now to break through to the Second Circle. But if I concentrate my efforts on combat-type magical plants or the areas breeders commonly pursue, I will be entering a saturated red ocean market."

"The Cloud Marsh Wetlands are overflowing with talented breeders. Common magical plant markets are all red oceans, but wizard shoes are different."

Locke landed on the ground and put the wizard shoes away. "Based on my earlier market research, the current wizard shoe market has been completely monopolized by magical weavers. In order to maximize their profits, magical weavers have used industry rules to load a single pair of wizard shoes with an excess of functions, pursuing comprehensive development."

"Wizard shoes can be fireproof, cold-resistant, invisible, erosion-resistant, and self-cleaning. The functions are numerous, the prices are steep, and the average price is far higher than that of other soul artifacts crafted by alchemists, and higher than wizard shoes from other wizard lands, with more features too. All of this is because magical weavers control the entire wizard shoe industry ecosystem of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

"But anyone else, such as a breeder trying to enter this industry, faces the problem that the performance of purely plant-based wizard shoes simply cannot measure up to wizard shoes made by magical weavers. So outsiders cannot enter this market, and over time, the pricing in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands wizard shoe market has become increasingly distorted."

"The major wizard shoe textile workshops have captured the wizard academies, even establishing industry rules that use standard design blueprints to ensure that all magical weavers, from the very beginning of their training, are accustomed to designing wizard shoes with redundant features and adding unnecessary functions, all in order to raise the standard selling price."

"But the precondition for all of this is that wizard shoes made by magical weavers can stand above wizard shoes made by wizards of other schools. Now that I am involved, however, the rules have changed."

"As long as I launch the Augustus series of wizard shoes, with a singular focus on function and a reasonable price point, I should be able to generate substantial income. I can even establish a breeder's studio dedicated entirely to this."

"That way, it would sustain the enormous expenditure I need to fund my research and achieve the Second Circle by constructing two Grand Magics."

Locke had been perpetually troubled by the money problem.

Constructing two Grand Magics meant spending twice as much, and the Forest Sanctuary was an absolute money pit on top of that.

And if he wanted to construct a Grand Magic with a fundamentally higher quality than others, he would need to invest even more.

So it all came back to money. Everything circled back to money.

And Locke had decided to establish a wizard shoe brand, or even a wizard shoe store alliance, and use that income to fund his path to becoming a Second Circle wizard.

As for making enemies?

That didn't need to be considered anymore.

From the very first day he had arrived at Golden Crown Mountain, he had understood that unless he amounted to nothing, simply living well was already enough to make enemies.

Locke said, "I'll name this spiral equation system the Pixiu Angle Fractal Spiral Constraint Equation System."

"Oh right, I should get in touch with Witch Scarlett. I wonder how much money my two wizard shoe designs have earned me this time."