Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 845 The Winning Over at the Crossroads of All Things and the Supreme God of the Three Cavern Worlds
Flavius ​​asked Salonius, "Give me a reason for rejecting this article?"

The wizard Salonirus looked up at Director Flavius, but he did not answer immediately. He neither admitted his mistake nor refuted it, nor did he try to find a reason. Instead, he picked up the article on the table and began to read it quickly.

As a high-ranking wizard of the Moon Ring and the editor of "The Crossroads of All Things," he has the right to refuse any one-sided opinion on any article.

This is his right.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, even if he directly rejected an article, even the head of the Sun Ring Wizarding wouldn't have a very solid reason to question him.

If this article is accepted, there is indeed a reason to reject it.

The wizard Flavius ​​did not rush him, but tacitly allowed him to finish reading the submitted article. After all, he had to wait for the wizard Salonerus to understand the whole story before they could continue the discussion.

Ten minutes later, the wizard Salonirus finished reading the article quickly, and his heart gradually calmed down. "I'm sorry, Director Flavius, this was indeed my mistake. Although the research in this article is not as good as that of the Sun Ring Wizard and the Moon Ring Wizard, it is still questionable whether it can be published in Zone 1 if we do not consider its special characteristics."

"After all, it's just an ordinary second-ring level magical plant. The research value of a magical plant of this level cannot be compared with that of a Sun-ring or Moon-ring level magical plant. Also, although the depth of its basic research theory is good, it is still lacking. But... there is really no reason to reject the manuscript."

"This article is guaranteed to be published in Zone 2, and we can also try publishing it in Zone 1, although it depends on luck."

After reading the article, the wizard Salonerus knew that he could not find a way to shirk responsibility.

the reason is simple.

Even disregarding the subject of this article, given the unique nature of the boundary between light and darkness, this article might still be published in a lower-ranked Q1 journal.

It only requires a few minor revisions and the addition of some key experimental data.

Based on the wizard Salonerus's experience, if that young talent from Mount Golden Crown is lucky enough to encounter a reviewer who doesn't discriminate too much against seniority and patiently helps him revise and point out the problems in his article, then the article should be able to be published in a Q1 journal.

Therefore, his previous act of directly asking students to fabricate reasons to reject the manuscript was a clear dereliction of duty.

Considering the unique nature of the research subject in the border area between the obscurity and the light, this article represents one of the most popular research directions in the border area.

This article could be published in "The Crossroads of All Things" almost immediately.

Perhaps at this very moment, someone has already reported this article to the higher-ups of the Golden Dynasty, testing their attitude and whether the wizard should be given an extra reward.

The wizard Salonerus looked up at his student, who was startled and stammered, "I went to find you right away. But your secretary stopped me, and then I happened to run into the director in the corridor. The director cured my cognitive imbalance and, by chance, saw the article I wanted to give you."

The crystallization wizard was terrified, fearing that his direct superiors would think he was up to no good, using underhanded tactics, or that he had sided with certain people in "The Crossroads".

The wizard Salonirus nodded, the suspicion and wariness in his eyes disappearing.

Through logical reasoning, he concluded that this was indeed the case. He was not a suspicious person and knew his student's character. Moreover, as a second-circle wizard, he could see more things, so he naturally knew that this matter was indeed his oversight.

The wizard Salonelus could only admit his mistake.

“Director Flavius, I take full responsibility for this. If I had rejected the article at the time, it would have been revised and submitted to another Q1 journal, which would have been a great loss for our border region and for our border area between the obscure and the light.”

"I am willing to accept your punishment."

Flavius ​​the Sun Wizard nodded, his attitude softening.

"This is indeed a serious mistake. If this article were to end up in another journal and the author of that article indicated that we rejected his work, it would damage our journal's reputation in the field of Golden Magic."

"Especially that second-district journal called 'Southern Gold' that was recently established in the Southern Witch Capital."

Flavius's expression turned somewhat ferocious when he mentioned the journal's name.

A witch secretary from the Star Ring Wizarding Group beside him whispered, "Director, *Southern Gold* isn't a Zone 2 publication. Recently, they've increased their influence factor and invited renowned wizards from the Gold School to promote themselves from Zone 2 to Zone 1. Director..."

Flavi gritted his teeth.

The witch's secretary realized something and immediately changed her tune, saying, "But they only got there through connections, which doesn't change the fact that they're a small, unknown publication. I estimate that in a few years, they'll go back to Section 2."

Flavius ​​Sun Ring Wizard sneered, "It's not that I lack tolerance. It's just that the Golden Magic Journal established by those dark wizards in the Southern Wizarding Capital—to put it nicely, it's Golden Magic; to put it bluntly, it's necromancy. Those damned bastards hid their identities, thinking no one knew they were necromancers, and dared not establish a separate journal under the guise of necromancy, so they dragged us, the Golden Magic Wizard, into it as a cover."

"Many ignorant young wizards were actually fooled by such a stupid tactic. During such an unpleasant time, Wizard Salonirus, you almost sent out such an article."

Flavius ​​the Sunshade Wizard looked around at everyone, then turned to Salonirus the Wizard and said, "This matter will result in a deduction from your year-end bonus. Do you have any objections?"

The wizard Salonerus sighed helplessly.

"This was indeed my mistake. I was definitely too biased in terms of seniority."

"Next time, I will read his article before making a judgment."

In an attempt to save those ten minutes, he made such a huge mistake.

damn it.

Year-end bonus!

The wizard Salonerus belatedly realized the cost and began to feel the pinch. He had saved up a sum of money, intending to buy the staff he had always wanted at the end of the year.

Flavius ​​the Sun Wizard suddenly changed the subject. "Of course, there's also a chance you won't have your year-end bonus deducted."

The wizard Salonirus's eyes lit up slightly, and he immediately said, "Master, please speak."

Flavius ​​Sun Ring Wizard chuckled and said, “I wanted this little fellow to work on the project for this article and participate in the Golden Cup competition at the border of light and shadow. But as far as I know, because of his senior brother, the Executioner Wizard, his project has already entered the Lesser Rest Cup.”

“But I want him to use this project to participate in the Golden Magic Plant Competition in our Golden Cup. In this way, the Golden Cup in our border area between darkness and light will definitely increase its popularity.”

"As far as I know, Augustine has already entered his project into the Lesser Cup. So, I want you to persuade him to enter it into the Golden Cup instead."

Saronirus the wizard was in a bind. Although he was a Moon Ring wizard, he had no connection with Locke. If he were a wizard from a small wizarding organization, he would definitely be giving them face when he associated with them.

An ordinary second-circle wizard would likely be somewhat polite to him, or even grateful.

The problem is, this wizard is a second-circle wizard of Golden Crown Mountain, a senior researcher.

Mount Jinmian has many lunar rings, solar rings, and even triple rings.

A Moon Ring Wizard looks very ordinary; in other people's eyes, he might not be considered a particularly important figure.

Of course, from an objective point of view, the Moon Ring Wizard is considered a big shot in the Three Swamps or other wizarding lands, as long as it's not the Starfield Sea.

They should have their own team by now.

It can be said that he is only one level below the Sun Ring Wizard, so he is second only to one person and above ten thousand others.

The wizard Salonirus smiled wryly to himself. This was a tricky task, but he thought of his year-end bonus and the moon ring-level wand he had his eye on.

He said to Flavius, the head wizard, "Yes, Master. I will have my clone handle this as soon as possible. I just hope it's not too late."

The wizard Salonerus sighed inwardly. It was truly a case of one wrong step leading to eternal regret. If he had known it would turn out this way, he should have been more patient when he was reviewing the manuscript a week ago.

If he had simply turned one more page back then, he probably wouldn't be facing the current situation. Instead, he would have been credited with developing a decent article, which would have been a small achievement.

Director Flavius ​​said, "Wizard Salonirus, you need to hurry. Because you may not only need to compete with the Little Rest Cup for people, you also need to compete with the Southern Gold."

“After our journal is published next month, I estimate that Southern Gold will be eyeing him.”

The wizard Salonirus's expression changed slightly, because this was quite possible.

Recently, the people in the office of that no-name journal have been trying to contact the contributors to each issue of their journal after subscribing to it, urging them to submit their articles to "Southern Gold".

Breeding geniuses and young wizards like Locke Augustine, who don't have much of a foothold in the world of the Second Ring and are now in dire need of articles and projects to prove themselves, are exactly the kind of contributors that Southern Gold is trying to recruit.
Wizard Salonirus nodded and said, "I understand. I will try to get this wizard to participate in the Golden Cup Golden Plant Competition."

……

At Mount Golden Crown, Locke's main body was already seated in the streamlined, spindle-shaped [Explorer Vanguard].

Explore the cockpit of the pioneer.

Locke donned the standard exploration gear for a second-ring wizard.

He wore a deep red wizard's robe, woven from the wool of a second-circle magical creature called the "Vulcan Goat," a mixture of dozens of materials, and woven by magic weavers into Vulcan wool yarn.

It is enchanted with magic circles in every corner, possessing a complete layer of enchantment, called the [Flame Body] enchantment spell model.

Once activated, this robe, made of Vulcan wool and styled as the "Flame Light" wizard's robe, will combine the Flame Light enchantment model on the robe with one's own permanent defensive force field shell.

This means enchanting yourself with a permanent defensive force field.

However, this is almost impossible to achieve at the first stage.

Because the permanent defensive field of a first-ring wizard is three-dimensional, it is impossible to inscribe it.

Locke wasn't entirely clear on the specific principles, but this technique of enchanting a permanent defensive force field shell was already considered very advanced in the field of enchanting, and it was the foundation for the existence of wizard robes and magical artifacts.

This enchantment grants a permanent defensive force field!
Locke activated his Flame Body, and a beam of spiritual light erupted from the soles of his feet and the top of his head. Of course, this was invisible to those who couldn't directly perceive spirituality. But if one could see it, one would see that the top of his head resembled an erupting volcano, and flames were constantly being released from the soles of his feet.

Flame Body is an enchantment for a permanent defensive force field shell, but it's a general-purpose spell. After all, it's a universal wizard robe that can be sold to all wizards, so there won't be any incompatibility issues.

If someone dares to sell this product, then all compatibility issues must have been resolved.

In fact, after activating his Flame Body, Locke felt a change in his physique.

He simply gained high resistance to the fire magic particles of the Emanation School out of thin air, and the strength of his permanent defensive force field shell was increased by about 10% because of the Flame Body.

At the same time, it seems that his permanent defensive force field shell has gained some fire magic attributes, which can cause damage to the enemy when they attack him.

Logically speaking, adding fire magic to one's own permanent defensive field, even just an enchantment, would immediately trigger a conflict between plant magic and fire magic.

But it didn't happen.

After thinking for a while, Locke immediately realized that this was definitely an application of spiritual science.

"The so-called 'Flame Light Body' is actually an artificially added constitution for me. This is done at the 'rank' level, adding a layer within my 'rank' that grants me the Flame Light Body constitution. Therefore, my constitution has become the Flame Light Body."

'This radiant form was meticulously designed with a magical model; it was simply enchanted onto my Permanent Defensive Field and my own magical power, without causing any harm. This is likely the result of countless hours of research by magic weavers and enchanters.'

Locke glanced at the instruction manual for the wizard's robe. The reflective magic power of the Flame Body was actually related to the magical pressure intensity of its permanent defensive force field shell.

In any case, it can only enhance one's permanent defensive field by about 10%, and at the moment of the opponent's attack, it will reflect the attack back in the form of flames with one-tenth of the magic pressure intensity of its permanent defensive field.

Fortunately, this set of second-ring magical artifacts was powerful enough that wearing it directly increased the defensive power of his Permanent Defense Field Shell by 10%.

At the same time, he was wearing a pair of gloves called the "Silent One's Gloves," which had turned into two points of light, hidden in his palms.

Normally, it can be hidden, but when used, with a slight thought, a set of magical gloves woven from the silk of the second-circle creature, the [Ogra Giant Spider], will appear on his hands.

Those magical gloves can block most biological invasions, energy invasions, and curse damage, and can also block magical energy and reduce the influence of abnormal spiritual forces.
In short, it can protect oneself when coming into contact with unknown objects; and it can also protect the unknown object, preventing the precious unknown object specimen from being subjected to any unnecessary contamination due to contact.

Locke's wizard hat, called the Spellweaver, increases his casting speed and boosts his instantaneous magic multiplier by about 10%.

The accompanying Weaver Mask, when worn, makes Locke look as if he is wearing some kind of mecha mask that emits a blue dazzling light.

At this moment, the other wizards in the cockpit, like Locke's attire, looked like wizards wearing mecha masks, full of fantasy.

However, these ten first-ring wizards of different ranks were only wearing ordinary first-ring wizard robes provided by Locke, and the wizard shoes on their feet were also black hummingbird pineapple wizard shoes provided by Locke.

It is also currently the best first-ring wizard shoes in the Three Swamps.

At this moment, the old pirate Henry was still dressed as before, except that he was wearing a pirate wizard hat. He himself was a human-machine, and he could enchant himself. Many of the components on his body were magical artifacts, so he did not have a high demand for items such as wizard robes and wizard hats from the White Wizarding Society.

It can only be said that Locke previously overwhelmed the old pirate Henry by relying on the combination of high magic pressure and the magic dragon rose and magic dragon bloodline, but the old pirate Henry still had a lot of high-tech magical artifacts.

Hussein's situation was actually similar to his; as the true form of the Blood Ancestor, he inherently served to replace the wizard's robes to a certain extent.

At this moment, the Infinite Mountain continued to rise, and the Vanguard Explorers, under Locke's control, flew towards the sky above the Wizarding World, breaking through the barrier of the Wizarding World.

Old pirate Henry took a sip of wizard's wine, smacked his lips, and then looked excitedly at the scene outside the cockpit, saying, "The Great Void, I'm back. Hahaha..."

"Captain Locke, get into the Golden Passage quickly."

"Dimensional gravity locks onto the target dimension..."

The old pirate Henry's eyes seemed to have a gleam in them.

"Great! I haven't received a raiding mission in months. My hands are itching to get back to it."

"Damn this system of dungeons! I think it's designed to be anti-wizard! A single failed raid can actually affect subsequent project applications! The margin for error is too low!"

Hussein glanced at him, then whispered to Locke, "Locke, this operation will be monitored by the Eye of Truth because we'll be using the Golden Route. If our teammates do anything out of line, we'll lose civilization credit points. Are you aware of that?"

Locke smiled.

Old pirate Henry glared at Hussein and took another sip of wizard's wine.

"Do you think I'm some kind of ruthless killer with a penchant for murder? If there's nothing to rob, do you think I need to use force?"

"I will follow the captain's orders in this operation. This is the fundamental principle of us pirates."

Old pirate Henry glanced at Locke and assured him.

In his eyes, Locke was the captain of this operation and the person in charge of it.

At this moment, Locke piloted the Exploration Vanguard Void Battleship, rushing into the Golden Channel, while simultaneously manipulating the control panel to lock onto the Three Hole Worlds.

A magic wand floats in mid-air inside Locke's cockpit; this is the control panel of the void warship. Wizards' void warships can be controlled with magic wands.

This is the same as Momozuki.

At this moment, Locke turned to look at the ten first-ring wizards, three of whom were in the vaporization stage, four in the liquefaction stage, and three in the crystallization stage. He would pay them their monthly wages according to market prices, and at the same time, he would also give them a Void Exploration Subsidy.

That is, double the monthly salary.

At this moment, Locke hired a witch in the crystallization stage, Ida.

Ida is a witch who graduated from Little Rest Mountain and is best known for pendulum divination.

At this moment, a small iron ball dangled from her sleeve. She silently chanted a spell, began to divine good or bad fortune, and observed the trajectory of the iron ball.

Meanwhile, there were also ten formal wizards on board, each accompanied by two students who served as their assistants. The students' salaries were paid by the ten formal wizards themselves.

Locke could no longer directly command them.

In a sense, these wizard apprentices were merely equipment for the first-level wizards they had hired.

He only needed to give instructions to these official wizards, who in turn could command their students to help them complete the instructions and requirements given by Locke.

At this point, Ida's two students began recording the results of their teacher's pendulum.

Ida's eyes emitted a deep blue arcane light.

"My beloved Archmage Augustine, my dearest friend, the one who holds the power of wisdom. At this moment, I will activate the pendulum divination for you throughout the entire process, and I will inform you of any abnormalities. My two students will record each pendulum divination I perform every twenty minutes and record the results as pendulum spectra."

“I use the results of pendulum readings every twenty minutes to predict our short-term fortunes and misfortunes, and I read the pendulum spectrum to foresee our overall future and past.”

"I, the Ida Witch of Little Rest Mountain, will ensure our void voyage is safe and sound, and try my best to prevent any accidents."

Hussein and the old pirate Henry nodded repeatedly, extremely satisfied with the Ida Witch that Locke had invited.

Although Hussein's original goal was for Locke to recruit a prophetic wizard from Quinnjoll, Little Rest Mountain itself was a branch of Quinnjoll's group.

Therefore, the divination wizards of Xiaoxi Mountain are also quite skilled.

Old pirate Henry chuckled, "With so many of us traveling together this time, we can be considered a fairly large void exploration team. I'm really looking forward to this void exploration."

……

The three worlds, separated by a great distance, were locked onto by the Exploration Vanguard Void Battleship.

On the crater, eleven giants were enjoying the service of the world spirits they had conjured, beings called Eeves, in their palaces, and admiring the beautiful songs and dances.

Just then, their palace suddenly began to shake violently. The ornate roof began to collapse, and the exquisite crescent-white pillars began to fall. The giants who were enjoying Aifu's service stood up one by one, picked up the weapons beside them, and glared angrily at the whole world.

They stood atop the crater, gazing down at the mortal world below, the region they called "the Earth."

But they found no trace of anything that could have shaken their divine power and caused the palace to begin to collapse.

At this moment, the Oracle Giant among the giants suddenly spoke: "The Supreme God has sent a message. He says that the power that descended last time has once again locked onto our world. With his arrival, our divine power will begin to decline every day. Because our divine power is based on the fact that we are the strongest, the only ruler, and the only god in this world."

“When the power of outsiders locks onto our world, they intervene in the fate of our world, and we brothers and sisters are no longer the sole rulers of this world, and our divine power will decline.”

"The Supreme God said that the outsider is extremely powerful, possessing incredible strength. His breath, when it falls upon our world, will become a storm that tears the world apart. His gaze, when it descends, will cause flames to spread throughout our world. He is a demon god!"

The fire giant frowned. "I fear no enemy. In my youth, I once single-handedly defeated seven demonic wolves. You all know my power; my trident will burn my enemies to ashes like a raging fire."

The sea giant said, “Ask the God-King what he thinks. He is the most powerful among us. Even if all of us were to grab onto a single rope, he could easily pull us all off the earth and onto the crater with a single tug of his wrist, and hang us on that rope.”

At this moment, a female giant spoke up: "Wait, if that outsider has already become part of the destiny of our world, can we influence their destiny by manipulating the destiny of this world?"

“We have another brother who exists beneath the earth, controlling the life and death of mortals on earth, and in his mansion resides his daughter who can manipulate fate. Perhaps he can be of help.”

(End of this chapter)