Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 855 Becoming the Xiaoxi Cup Champion and Obtaining Sponsorship!

The wizard Salonirus looked at the abbreviated report in Locke's hand, which actually listed the magical plant characteristics of the Great Blue Leaf Dragon Sparrow as a first-level magical plant, as well as the magical plant characteristics of the Four-Winged Great Blue Leaf Dragon Sparrow cultivated after being nurtured by the 'Sword Tomb Method'.

His furrowed brows relaxed, because it seemed the project was progressing well, yielding results, and the initial concept seemed promising.

At the same time, he saw in the report a special mention of a magical plant developed in collaboration with the Rose Council, another top wizarding university in Yunze Wetlands, a third-ring throne wizard—the Magical Dragon Rose grafted with the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow, and the idea of ​​achieving a back-to-ancestral evolution.

Upon seeing this, the wizard Salonerus's pupils suddenly contracted.

The Rose Council?

The Rose Council has recently gained a great reputation in the study of rose symbolism, but that is only a niche discipline proposed by the recent generations of Rose Witches. However, the Rose Council is very famous in the Eastern Frontier for its breeding and cultivation of rose-type magical plants.

The Rose Council is also very famous for its textiles and the potion-making branch of incense.

In particular, the study of incense is highly valued. Incense made by the Rose Council has always been a favorite among the golden nobles. In addition, magical bouquets made by florists have recently become popular in the borderlands between the light and the dark. The golden dynasty in the borderlands has always enjoyed all sorts of luxuries.

Therefore, for wizards of Salonirus, the title of the Rose Council is far more useful than any other top wizarding university in Cloudweather.

The wizard Salonirus remembered one of his Moon Ring wizard friends, and asked him to help buy some specific types of magical incense to take back when his clone entered the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

Wizard Salonirus looked at Locke in surprise and said, "The Rose Council is most famous for producing many Throne Wizards in their research on rose-type magical plants. Over thousands of years of history, they have even created the prestigious title of Throne of a Hundred Flowers. Although they have never actually produced more than a hundred Throne Wizards, they have produced dozens, and more than one of them has been a fourth-ring wizard."

"Of course, each Rose Throne is special. To some extent, it represents administrative control over the Rose Council."

"Those fourth-ring wizards certainly can't directly manage those minor matters below, so the management of the Rose Council has always been with the Rose Throne."

"You actually managed to get the Rose Throne to cooperate with you?"

Locke realized that the wizard Salonirus, as a wizard of the border between darkness and light, had no idea about the details of the Three Swamps. He casually said, "Hmm. This Demon Dragon Rose is indeed a work created by the Rose Throne and me together. My teacher is the Red Dragon Throne."

"When they had their last academic exchange, the Rose Throne helped me complete this magical plant."

The wizard Salonirus looked at the Demon Dragon Rose in Locke's hand and sensed the power of the mutated golden dragon contained within it.

His expression changed slightly.

He didn't have any information about the World-Destroying Demon Dragon, but as a wizard of the Golden School, he could naturally sense the considerable golden magic power contained within this magical plant; it was practically a golden magical plant.

Its contained golden magic is incredible.

The key point is that this golden magical energy seems to be a special variant.

The wizard Salonerus said, "May I see this magical plant with my own hands?"

Locke laughed, “Why not? Lord Salonirus, here you go.”

The wizard Salonirus took the magical plant, and a very complex moon-ring level spell model automatically appeared in his left eye. This spell model first summoned three golden orbs, and then the three golden orbs extended and turned into three golden monocles.

Next, the three golden monolithic mirrors were combined together, with an illusory passage made of golden magic connecting them.

This is the model for a lunar ring-level spell: Golden Eye.

This spell is a type-identification spell, with a particular strength in observing the properties of magical energy and spiritual categories.

It is a very high-level form of golden magic.

At this moment, the wizard Salonerus used the Golden Eye, as if he had put on a complex long monocle for his left eye.

Ten minutes later, he said to Locke, "This magical plant contains an isomer of golden magic. The characteristic of golden magic is that its gold nature is unchanging."

"But this magical plant contains a variant of golden magic. I saw many isomers of natural magical structural components similar to golden magic in the apoplast solution between the plant cell walls."

"It seems that these isomers caused this golden magic to mutate, but... I can't really tell what happened."

As a Moon Ring Wizard of the Gold School, Saronerus lowered his head and pondered for two minutes before speaking: "This mutation is as if it is revealing another side of the unyielding nature of gold. Hmm... it's as if it's saying that the indestructible nature of gold is also the most powerful destructive force."

At this moment, the three golden monocles in the wizard Salonerus's left eye began to rotate. He suddenly covered his left eye and bowed his head, saying, "This is bad. I can't study this demonic plant any further."

"The essence of the magical power contained within this magical plant is like two parallel lines with my Golden School magic. Observing it is the greatest challenge to my Golden Magic. A second-circle wizard has not yet been able to make his magic appear real..."

The wizard Salonerus muttered to himself, even biting his lip until blood flowed down, using the pain to remind himself of his sanity.

"A second-circle wizard is not yet able to observe a path parallel to his own, a path that might lead to a greater future and make it easier to access the truth, while remaining indifferent."

“I may waver, but this wavering is only harmful to my inner self.”

The wizard Salonirus returned the magical plant to Locke, and Locke breathed a sigh of relief after he put away the magical dragon rose.

Locke looked at the wizard Salonirus strangely. He hadn't expected that simply showing the wizard the Dragon Rose would elicit such a strong reaction.

'The Golden Dragon is one of the symbols of the boundary between light and darkness. The World-Destroying Demon Dragon is a subspecies of the Golden Dragon, while the Demon Dragon Rose possesses all the bloodline essence of a regular second-ring World-Destroying Demon Dragon, and has transformed that bloodline essence into plant essence.'

"In other words, the wizard Salonirus felt his path was being questioned while observing the essence of the World-Destroying Dragon's bloodline, which is why he fell into pain and doubt?"

Locke immediately realized that the World-Destroying Demon Dragon and the Golden Dragon Clan were probably closely related, or even completely hostile, to each other, especially to the border between the Dark and the Bright.

The wizard Salonirus of the Golden School lost his composure so much just from glancing at the Dragon Rose, which possessed the complete essence of the Dragon Plant!
Could it be that the disappearance of the World-Destroying Demon Dragon and the Golden Dragon Clan is related to the loss of the wizard leadership in the border region between darkness and light?
But why was it the Pale Pilgrimage that attacked the border between obscurity and light back then?

Moreover, the time and scope of their existence and main activities in history do not overlap!
The strangest thing is that the World-Destroying Dragon has a deep connection with the Tower of the Black Sun, and based on the information I currently have, the Tower of the Black Sun is in serious conflict with necromancy users.

Logically speaking, the World-Destroying Dragon should not be associated with the Pale Pilgrimage.

Or perhaps, for some reason, the border area between the Ming and Hui regions back then had many enemies.

Locke looked calmly at the wizard Salonirus, "Lord Salonirus, do you think my project could be sponsored by the Golden Cup?"

The wizard Salonirus raised his head, hesitated briefly, then smiled and shook his head, saying, "Yes."

"I'll try to contact the Gold Cup tournament committee office for you now."

He has to work hard for his prize money.

After all, Locke could no longer bring the results of the Golden Wheat's atavistic evolution project to the Golden Cup competition.

He already won the Xiaoxi Cup championship with that project.

Although the results have not yet been announced, it is reasonable to assume that Locke will not give up.

So, this project in front of him is clearly also a Golden Magic project. If he can bring it to the Golden Cup, it will be a great achievement for him.

By this time, the wizard Salonerus had also realized why Locke had invited him to this meal.

'The project was of decent quality; even the first half was a respectable magical plant. Add to that the ingenious idea that followed, the magical plant with its strangely mutated golden magical power, and the endorsement of the Rose Council and the Rose Throne.'

'It's definitely a good project; it's a strong contender for the championship.'

"Applying for subsidies for him isn't a bad deal for me; I could even say I'm doing Golden Cup a favor."

This kind of recommendation behavior only becomes a waste of personal connections if you recommend works that are not in good condition but are still acceptable.

However, recommending such high-quality projects would mean gaining favors from both sides.

Of course, the wizard Salonirus knew in his heart that he could not recommend such a completely unacceptable work to the wizards of the competition committee.

That would be purely offensive.

Half an hour later, the wizard Salonirus reached an agreement with the staff of the Golden Cup tournament committee, and he also showed them Locke's report.

The Golden Cup competition committee is different from the Little Rest Cup. It is a competition that has been maintained for thousands of years. It is very old and its status is stable, so there is no shortage of good entries, nor is there much motivation to improve.

Therefore, the Golden Cup tournament committee is relatively complacent.

Locke had previously guessed that even if he directly negotiated a partnership with the competition's organizing committee, he probably wouldn't be able to secure sponsorships.

But at this moment, after being intimidated by the name of the Rose Throne, the wizard Salonerus used his own name to vouch for the Golden Cup tournament committee. After some back and forth, the Golden Cup tournament committee actually agreed to sponsor him with five million magic stones to help him complete the work in his hands.

Locke smiled and added a Star Ring Wizard staff member from the Golden Cup as a friend on the Water Hyacinth System, learning that the other party had already transferred money to the Fairy Family Bank.

This can be considered as applying credit leverage.

Of course, there are three prerequisites for me to do all this.

First, they need to have actually produced something, at least completing the first half of their planned project. Only with this tangible proof will people believe that the ideas they wrote in the plan for the second half are serious and potentially achievable.

Otherwise, without evidence, the wizards at the border between the obscure and the bright would probably not think their ideas are feasible.

Secondly, the Rose Throne did indeed create this Demon Dragon Rose in collaboration with him. Even if they brought in a third-circle prophet to make a prophecy and conduct a hundred lie detections on him, he could guarantee that he would pass all one hundred times.

Because that's the truth.

However, the Rose Witch contributed a spell, while I directly contributed the life I gained from using the World Wonder: the Dragon Eater.

Thirdly, I had indeed entertained this Moon Ring Wizard from the border between the Dark and Bright realms to a good mood. Otherwise, if he had been angry or uninterested in my proposal, he could have simply turned around and left without bothering to continue the conversation.

After completing the task of helping him with the sponsorship, the wizard Salonerus seemed to have grown closer to Locke. His guarantee in his own name meant that, to some extent, his interests were tied to Locke's.

If Locke makes a big mistake, then he will also lose face.

If Locke's work achieves something, or even wins the championship, in the Golden Cup Flying Magic Plant Competition, then he will be proud, and the staff of the Golden Cup will owe him a favor.

The wizard Salonerus smiled at Locke and said, "It's been a long time since I've vouched for a junior. This is the first time in the last ten years. Wizard Locke, you'd better do your best."

Locke said to the wizard Salonirus, "Of course. Thank you, Director Salonirus."

The wizard Salonirus paused for a moment, then his smile widened.

"No need to thank me. The notebook you showed me was champion-level."

"So I didn't have to put in much effort to convince my friend to sponsor you in advance."

"The boundary between light and darkness has lost many symbols, so we are making great efforts to revive our wizarding lands."

He sighed.

"But unfortunately, the wizards in our border region between darkness and light are quite polarized. Some people know the vastness of the outside world, the strength of the Starry Sea, the rise of the Three Swamps, and the increasing power of the Dragonfall Land in recent years, while the Siming Waters have a thousand-year heritage and a continuous stream of talented people."

"Even the Southern Wizards, after embracing some dark wizarding forces and possessing certain controversial advantages in the gray area, have actually come from behind to surpass them."

“These wizards work tirelessly every day, hoping to revive the glory of the Golden School.”

"Another group of wizards, on the other hand, are obsessed with the glory of the Golden Dynasty. When they read history books, they only read the history of the ancient border between light and darkness, and not the history of the border between light and darkness in modern times. This way, they can avoid seeing things that will break their hearts."

"This group of wizards remains completely indifferent to the outside world. They refuse to accept anything new."

"Very conservative."

The wizard Salonerus sighed.

"You should be able to understand what I mean to some extent by communicating with a wizard like you who has excellent golden dragon blood."

“In the past, the border between darkness and light was the place that produced the best wizard’s wine, not the Rain Swamp. Back then, the border between darkness and light had the best wine—Jade Gold Wizard’s Wine.”

"It's a pity that the Jade Gold Wine recipe has been lost."

The wizard Salonerus sighed deeply.

“We, the Golden People, have a glorious past, we have noble blood, and our wizards are naturally more likely to become third-ring wizards because of the magic of the Golden School.”

Locke's pupils suddenly contracted as he glanced at the wizard Salonirus.

The wizard Salonerus continued to sigh, "I never imagined we'd end up like this."

Locke nodded and said, “Lord Salonirus, please do not worry. Just as the sun will set and rise every day, there will be a trough and a peak. The boundary between light and darkness is currently only in a trough, but it is already so powerful in the trough, it will surely be even more powerful when it returns to its peak.”

The wizard Salonirus's eyes lit up slightly.

"Where there are troughs, there are peaks? Yes. As long as we emerge from the trough, it means we can become stronger."

The wizard Salonerus smiled at Locke and said, "Locke, I really like you, my junior. If I had known you were such a magnanimous person, I really shouldn't have rejected your paper so quickly..."

He realized something, smiled, and suddenly changed his mind, saying, "Since we've reached an agreement, I'll be leaving now. If you need to ask me anything in the future, you can ask me directly on the Water Hyacinth system."

"We welcome your continued contributions to our 'World Crossroads' publication."

"I hope to see your excellent articles in 'The Crossroads' again in the future."

Locke nodded and said, "I will."

The wizard Salonerus nodded; according to his estimation, it was unlikely to happen in the next few years.

Because it takes a lot of effort for an ordinary second-ring wizard to publish a second-ring, first-zone article.

Even a breeder as brilliant as Locke needs a lot of experience to accumulate.

Locke pondered, "Because of my dragon bloodline, and my long-standing research on the golden magical plant, Sea Gold Sand, I have a certain foundation in the study of golden magic."

"The wizard Salonerus just said that members of the Golden School are more likely to become Third Ring members? As for Third Ring knowledge, even if you asked Salonerus himself, he probably couldn't give me a clear answer. It's still quite far from my reach for now. But in any case, if I focus a little more on it in the future, my research into Golden Magic will surely be correct."

'Secondly, what Salonirus means is that he rejected my submission to *The Crossroads* immediately.'

In fact, Locke had already guessed about this.

After all, for an avatar of such a Moon Ring Archmage to travel across Wizarding Lands in a wizarding airship to find him, it must mean either that he has some major project to collaborate on, or that he himself has come to find him for some special reason.

This is not hard to guess.

Locke thought to himself, 'Perhaps the wizard Salonerus is being punished for easily rejecting my manuscript. That's why he's so insistent on dragging me into the Golden Cup competition.'

Locke spoke with her for a few more minutes, and the two had a pleasant conversation before leaving the witch's kitchen one after the other.

At this moment, Locke continued to monitor the situation of his main body, which was currently manipulating the [Explorer Vanguard] to try to approach the Three Holes World and to bring the [Explorer Vanguard] close to the void near-Earth orbit of the Three Holes World. Then, he would have the [Explorer Vanguard] use dimensional gravity to capture the Three Holes World and stop directly on the crystal wall system on the surface of the Three Holes World.

'This is my first time doing this, and I'm still a bit clumsy, so it'll probably take some time. Once I've finished my stay, my main body probably won't be able to enter that world immediately. But I can try sending some first-ring wizards, or my magic, into that world, and then try to create conditions for a saint's descent, or create environmental conditions that allow my main body to enter directly.'

Locke concluded.

Now that the sponsorship has been secured, I should be quite confident in developing the second-ring flying magical plant for the competition.
'Now I'm going to start pre-orders for the second pair of wizard shoes, and at the same time, I can try to develop a second pair of wizard shoes.'

Currently, he is steadily making progress on the three tasks assigned to him by the witch Catherine.

Recently, Locke has even been considering whether to apply for his first second-ring grant while preparing to apply for the first-class grant.

After all, when applying for the first second-ring fund, one will receive special consideration, giving them a certain weight when competing for projects with moon-ring and sun-ring wizards.

However, he still hesitated.

After all, time, energy, and resources must also be taken into account.

The Second Ring Fund is even harder to obtain than articles from the First Ring Road. After all, publishing articles is not a completely zero-sum game, while obtaining a fund is essentially a zero-sum game.

In this white wizarding society, getting money is never easy. But when it comes to spending your own money, no matter how high your standards are, it's usually not too difficult.

Locke and Scarlett the Witch chatted on the Water Hyacinth System, and Locke asked her to have Arthas's mage create a promotional poster for his second pair of second-circle wizard shoes for free, and then put them up for pre-sale online.

Although the product hasn't been made yet, I can pre-sell the concept first.

After all, he was certain he could make those second-ring wizard shoes himself, since he possessed the Moon of Evolution.

The only question is what level of magical plant trait the pure magical plant second-ring wizard shoes I made are.

Meanwhile, Locke was conducting research in the second research institute. He used a bloodline proliferation pool as an irrigation canal, mixed it with name potion, and irrigated the large green-leaf dragon sparrows grafted onto the magic dragon roses.

A month later, Locke checked on the Four-Winged Great Blue Leaf Dragon Sparrow to ensure that it was still undergoing a spiritual fusion with the Demon Dragon Rose.

"The difficulty of this grafting is much greater than I expected, seemingly due to the unique characteristics of the Demon Dragon Rose. As a result, the grafting site of the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow has collapsed several times in the past month."

"Fortunately, thanks to the careful care of me and the witch Mason, this Great Green Leaf Dragonfly has finally survived. Moreover, it has merged with the spirituality of the Dragon Rose rootstock and is undergoing a benign mutation."

Locke stared at the magical plant before him. If it suddenly withered and died, he would be in trouble.

Then we'll need to go through the process all over again.

That would cost a lot of money and time.

Of course, the greatest contributor to preventing it from withering and dying was not the careful care of myself and my colleagues, but the fact that I used the Evolution Moon Cultivation Method to inject a Zero Magic Potion into it before it was about to die, thus enhancing its vitality with blank spirituality.

They forced the grafting, which was on the verge of failure, to be completed.

Locke methodically completed the experiment on the flying magical plant. As the plant's progressed, his spiritual cultivation method also improved rapidly. In accordance with the teaching plan of the witch Catherine, he practiced spiritual discernment exercises every day.

Douglas, Mason Witch, and others suddenly appeared from the other side of the magic field, walking towards him with surprise and smiles on their faces.

Locke glanced at them in surprise. During this period, Douglas had gotten along quite well with Mason Witch and others.

Because this made it easier for him to supervise him, Locke didn't interfere at all.

Mason Witch then said, "Congratulations, group leader. The Little Rest Cup has ended ahead of schedule, and the champion has been announced. You are the champion of the Little Rest Cup!"

Douglas said to Locke with great admiration, "Team leader, you published an article on the Second Ring Road in three months and won the Xiaoxi Cup."

Mason Witch exclaimed in delight, "That's not all! Team leader, you can get at least two Tourmaline King Peaches. I heard it from someone else. It's said that Tourmaline King Peaches are a very important magical resource of Golden Crown Mountain, and they are only given to true geniuses."

(End of this chapter)