Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 952 The Defeat of the Dragon Wizard!
In the embers of time, the Dragon Wizard held his opium pipe. Before him, Locke's Spring Thunder Arrow transformed into a thunder dragon and attacked him, while behind him was Edgar's Life Piercing Slash. Both spells were empowered by King Otto's magic.

The smoke from the opium pipe formed a protective shield, protecting him within it. As the two spells attacked from both sides, he was forced into the sky, where a special flame formed from potion magic descended upon him, instantly transforming the countless magical powers within him into a potion.

The dragon wizard shook his pipe, squinted, and seemed to be considering something.

"Things are getting a bit complicated..."

King Otto looked at Locke and said, "Locke Augustine, and this young wizard, I have a good idea. During the battle just now, I took a look at the spell model of your comradeship war ritual. It was very interesting. I'll make a few modifications, and I can show you a fun one."

"Help me hold off the dragon wizard for at least 3 seconds, I need to concoct a potion."

Locke said to King Otto, "Okay."

Edgar looked at King Otto with surprise.

'Can something be altered simply by having just encountered the War School of magic? Where did Locke find this Ancient Witch King? He seems different from the other Embers.'

The seven cauldrons behind King Otto came together, and then a flame appeared in each of the cauldrons.

At the same time, King Otto directly extracted the three spirit essences from his own name, Locke's name, and Edgar's name. He then kneaded the three spirit essences a few times and threw them into the seven special crucibles behind him.

At the same time, the Dragon Wizard, with his pipe in his mouth, lunged at Locke and Edgar.

Without Otto's help, the two faced this terrifying dragon head-on.

For a moment, Edgar felt a shiver run through his soul, a warning from reason, telling him that no rational person would challenge the opponent before him.

Each scale of that terrifying dragon seemed to contain the power of an entire plane.

That is a miracle of life. For an individual to reach this level is, in the endless void, a miracle of the void itself.

Edgar looked at Locke in surprise. 'Has he been fighting this kind of thing all this time?'

'Isn't he afraid?'

"Right now, a third-ring wizard stands behind us, and he faced this being alone for so long. Locke... I understand."

Edgar's eyes hardened as he forcefully suppressed his inner fear and the soul radiation damage he suffered from facing the terrifying dragon.

Edgar's war spear on the ancient war tree and Locke's second-ring sea gold sand collided with one of the dragon's claws.

At this moment, the two were empowered by the almost endless magical pressure of the third-ring wizard, which was practically equivalent to having endless magical pressure. Therefore, the two were able to slightly block the dragon's claws this time.

The dragon wizard, a long pipe dangling from his lips, scoffed. "Tch, this kind of magic can't change anything."

Both of them were sent flying.

Locke and Edgar were sent flying backwards.

The two were almost blasted away to a place thousands of miles away, but before this could happen, the two large cauldrons on King Otto's back caught them and successfully stopped their movements.

King Otto said, "It's done."

"This is a potion recipe I just put together during the battle. I'll call it the 'Comrade Potion'."

Locke, who was inside the cauldron, saw a slip of paper appear in front of him, which contained the specific method for making the potion for his comrade.

"This is... King Otto actually analyzed the Comrades War Ritual during a break in the battle and used the immature potion theory system of this era to create a variant of the Name Potion for this ritual."

Why was Locke able to tell at a glance that it was immature?

Locke saw in this potion recipe the spiritual science of this era, which lacked an overall framework and was filled with King Otto's highly personalized descriptions.

This description even jumps through many logical leaps, which is fine for others because King Otto thinks too fast. His potion recipes do not divide the ingredients into four parts in a neat and orderly manner like modern potion recipes. Instead, he writes them down casually, as if he just wrote them down whenever he thought of something.

But such a potion recipe can actually be made.

"The core of the 'Comrade' potion is crafted using the spiritual principle of 'different objects sharing the same name,' requiring at least a third-ring level potion-making skill to create. This is the recipe for a third-ring potion..."

Locke exclaimed in astonishment, "If King Otto were born in this world, how extraordinary his talent would be? He would never be unknown; he would be famous throughout the land."

Locke even sensed a kind of sadness: imagine a person standing at the forefront of an entire era, only to find no one behind him when he looks back.

No one in the world understands him; everyone in the world misunderstands him.

This is Otto's predicament.

Therefore, when he refused to become a rite in front of the dragon wizard of the Black Sun Tower and insisted on fighting to the end, King Otto must have felt a sense of joy at having met a kindred spirit.

Locke found it incomprehensible what Linghong's "same name as another object" meant, because logically speaking, Linghong is the hidden true form of an object, and the name is just the outermost expression of the hidden true form. In other words, the true name should be unique to each living organism.

However, since this is knowledge at the third-level, forcing oneself to understand it might lead to cognitive dissonance.

At this moment, the potion containing the comrade within the bronze cauldron was absorbed by Locke and Edgar.

King Otto also drank a bottle of the Companion Potion, and at this moment, three identical third-ring level magic pressure garments appeared on the three of them.

The majestic dragon wizard, standing tall between heaven and earth, sensed a hint of danger. He remained where he was, not daring to move forward. At the same time, he held his pipe in his mouth and pondered, "Otto, no matter how much you deny it, you and your era are still under the order of my Black Sun Tower."

"You're with us. Don't do anything foolish. What was the effect of the potion you just gave them?"

King Otto looked at him and said calmly, "You don't need to be too afraid of me. I am just an ember, not the real Otto. There are limitations to what I can do. However, I can make a deal. You tell me how the Age of the Stars ended, and I will tell you the effects of this potion."

The Dragon Wizard said, "That's impossible."

King Otto looked at Locke and Edgar.

Edgar touched his head.

"The Age of Stars? What's that?"

King Otto was speechless and turned to look at Locke.

Locke shook his head slightly.

"Even for the Wizarding World today, things before the Age of Exploration of the Great Void are not very clear. We can't even determine which eras the Age of Stars falls between, but we can confirm that it was the early era of the Wizarding World."

King Otto whispered, "Impossible. With that brat in archaeology, your world's history can't be incomplete. Someone must be up to something."

King Otto said to Locke, “This is dangerous. If even you don’t understand how you ended the Age of Stars, it means you might very well return to the Age of Stars. Locke Augustine, you are also an archaeological wizard, right? Then you should understand how the Age of Stars ended, and as a breeder, you also need to understand why the Tower of the Black Sun is hostile to the World Tree.”

Locke bowed to King Otto.

"I understand, King Otto."

King Otto gave a wry smile.

"Even though I don't have time to pass on the entire Potions legacy to you, you still call me Your Majesty?"

Locke paused for a moment, then bowed to King Otto again, this time using a different gesture—the gesture a disciple would use to greet his teacher.

King Otto nodded in satisfaction.

The dragon wizard impatiently peeked into his pipe and filled it with more tobacco.

"Don't try to be mysterious, Otto."

King Otto said, "I am a person whose time has stopped. I am the final me now, so you are the hope."

Edgar nodded and said, "That's right, I am the hope of the new generation. I am the strongest of the younger generation in the wizarding world, and I will become the greatest wizard of this era, walking at the forefront of the path of truth."

Locke glanced at Edgar and said to Otto, "Teacher, we must keep moving forward."

King Otto smiled sadly, "To have companions to travel with is probably the happiest thing in the world. Today I'll treat you two to some fun."

King Otto became serious and looked at the dragon wizard who was on high alert, saying, "The effect of the comrade potion is simple: it gives them the true power of a second-circle wizard."

The dragon wizard suddenly remembered what had happened during the Dark Ages.

Could it be...?

Otto's voice appeared in their ears.

"Keep moving forward, don't stop, don't hesitate, don't waver. Fear will only make you miss the way forward, and being afraid will only make you miss the opportunity to see the truth. Go, move forward!"

"The reason why our wizard civilization has been able to thrive for so long is because of you wizards who are always exploring the future."

"Use your full power of your ultimate magic."

"At least for now, I can support both of you to move forward."

An immense magical pressure erupted from King Otto's body, and the embers of the entire era even began to sink, for the magical pressure was simply too overwhelming.

Locke and Edgar simultaneously unleashed their ultimate magic, Locke's Moon of Evolution and Edgar's Tree of Perfection. These two ultimate spells formed an ecosystem for each other, so the Moon of Evolution strengthened the Tree of Perfection, and the Tree of Perfection strengthened the Moon of Evolution.

This round of strengthening, which should have stopped, not only did not stop, but even entered a cycle.

Locke said, "This is..." Edgar's eyes flashed with fear and admiration for King Otto's terrifying talent.

"This potion's effects are practically tailor-made for the two of us. But this is the first time he's met us, and he probably hasn't even encountered powerful magic before!"

The star rings behind the two, Locke's gold-blue star ring and Edgar's silver star ring with leaves at the top, rose up behind them respectively, and then the two merged into one.

Two star rings joined together, transforming into infinity!

A flicker of fear and unease flashed in the dragon wizard's eyes; this power had actually reappeared.

During the Dark Ages, the Tower of the Black Sun analyzed the reasons for their previous failure and concluded that keeping the wizards at the second ring level would allow civilization to advance as long as the number of second-ring wizards increased. After all, as long as the scale of the sacrificial magic network was maintained, high-ring wizards would continue to appear in the Tower of the Black Sun itself.

Therefore, for the Tower of the Black Sun, even if the wizards on the ground remain at the second level, it will not affect the wizard civilization.

In that era, authority ruled the wizarding world, and the highest-ranking wizards were only at the second ring. However, a group of genius wizards, with the Holy Dragon as an example, eventually discovered that the second ring could be used to expand into infinite realms, and could develop the power of "infinity," and even developed a variety of "infinity."

They used this "infinity" to fight the Tower of the Black Sun.

The dragon wizard gritted his teeth.

"Damn Otto, you and the princess are indeed our greatest enemies. Destroying the Tower of the Black Sun is not a good thing. How many times do I have to tell you, we are not unreasonable, but we are driven by a practical necessity! We are not good people, but we are definitely not bad people!"

Edgar felt a continuous stream of power converging towards him.

Even if he and Locke had completed this infinite loop, they would not have the material energy to support it and would have burned themselves out. But the problem was that they had a source of this energy behind them—the embers of King Otto.

Edgar shouted to Locke, "Locke, use the Peach Awl Thorn Arrow! Your Peach Awl Thorn Arrow can unleash the full power of our combined magic. My Life Piercing Strike has a portion of the magical power that transforms into a War Treant, so it's not pure enough!"

Locke nodded. The Moon of Evolution manifested as a bow in the form of a blue moon, while Edgar's Great Magic Perfect Tree plucked the thickest branch from its crown and combined it into an arrow.

Draw your bow and nock your arrow!

That symbol was also superimposed on the arrow formed from the branches of Edgar's Tree of Perfection.

This is power that can be described as limitless!
The arrow flew out and collided with the dragon claw of the enraged dragon wizard. In an instant, the two powerful forces collided.

The Dragon Wizard roared in fury: "Otto! You've ruined my life!"

A dazzling white light burst forth before everyone's eyes.

Otto's voice came into Locke's ears.

"Locke, this is probably the last time I'll see you. Promise me you'll keep moving forward. I'm betting my future on you."

"Don't let the Tower of the Black Sun be an obstacle that stops you, and don't let anyone stop you."

Ten minutes later, Locke and Edgar emerged from the thick layer of dust and ash covering them amidst the embers of time. Locke coughed, exhaling a considerable amount of embers. "The smell of this ember smoke is really unpleasant."

Edgar also got up, and he immediately started gagging, spewing out countless embers of time from his mouth.

Edgar said, "That's despicable... Do you have some kind of resistance to these remnants of time? Why am I in such a much worse state than you?"

Edgar coughed repeatedly, releasing embers of an era.

Locke looked at him in surprise. "You want to compete with me even in this?"

At that moment, a footstep sounded. Locke and Edgar looked up and saw that the Dragon Wizard had returned to human form. He was tattered and disheveled, but his clone was still alive!

The dragon wizard staggered toward Locke, suddenly coughing up blood. His clone was on the verge of collapse; its core was a powerful spell, but he had never fully understood the model of this powerful spell, which he had stolen from another school of thought.

At this moment, under the combined heavy blows of King Otto, Locke, and Edgar, it is on the verge of collapse.

The Dragon Wizard said, "Even with infinite power, it can only threaten wizards who have just entered the third ring. For me, it is still child's play."

"Ahem... It's a pity, Otto, you're already dead, you really can't do much more."

The dragon wizard looked at Locke with unwavering eyes.

"Now I can finally kill you. The Demon Dragon bloodline must never be evolved again. All of this is for the greater good."

"Although you don't understand now, this is truly for the sake of truth..."

A streak of bright red lightning flashed across the sky, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

The Red Dragon Witch's clone stood before him.

The dragon wizard looked at the red dragon witch. "How could you be here? How did you get here?"

"You deliberately set a trap to invite me here at this time. You invited a fourth-circle wizard to oversee things for you. You felt secure and thought there wouldn't be any problems. But in reality, your fate is already riddled with holes. Your enemies are already quietly approaching. The Dark World is secretly targeting your lineage. The Rose Throne is directly attacking you. You will go mad as a dragon in your madness. This is your destiny."

The dragon wizard looked at the tortoise shell in his left hand, which was now covered in cracks and on the verge of breaking.

Suddenly, the dragon wizard realized something. His pupils shrank abruptly. Then he chanted a spell, and a crack appeared on the tortoise shell. Upon seeing the crack, he immediately showed a look of sudden realization.

"So that's how it is."

"You persuaded the Rose Witch, and the fate of the world has been changed."

The Red Dragon Witch said to him, "Perhaps I don't understand prophecy as well as you, but I understand human nature better than you. How long has it been since you used your own wisdom to judge how things would develop? This should be a basic skill for a wizard."

The Red Dragon Witch showed him a wedding ring on her palm, a combination of her mother's ring and the Rose Witch's mother's ring.

"The Rose Witch left a hidden trap within her Mother Ring that could truly threaten me. The moment I snatched that ring, her scheme against me was completely complete, isn't that what you think?"

The tortoise shell in the dragon wizard's left hand cracked again, and Locke saw that the tortoise shell was about to shatter completely.

"It seems I was right," said the witch Catherine.

The dragon wizard appeared before him. He performed a ritual at the Tower of the Black Sun to divine the fate of the Red Dragon Witch. It was a red dragon enraged, which had left Mount Golden Crown and vanished into the world.

After receiving this divination result, he confidently launched an attack on Mount Jinmian.

But when he divined again, he saw the illusion disappear from his mind and be replaced by a scene of the Red Dragon Witch negotiating with the Rose Throne, in which the Rose Throne ultimately agreed to the deal with the Red Dragon Throne.

The two signed a contract—trading half of the ancient dragon soul in exchange for removing the hidden hand from the wedding ring on the witch Catherine's hand.

The Rose Witch, however, agreed.

The Red Dragon Witch looked down at him and said, "I have never believed in prophecies. I believe more in human nature. My predictions are based on human judgment, while yours are based on your ability to capture spirituality and the illusions you see on the surface of this world. Wizard, you have underestimated me, and you have also underestimated my opponent—the Rose Witch."

Anna is only slightly less intelligent than me.

The Dragon Wizard still didn't understand. He shook his head and said strangely, "But the prophecies of the Tower of the Black Sun rarely go wrong..."

"Your prediction was accurate before you observed it, but it became wrong after you observed it."

The Red Dragon Witch said, “Anna and I are both cautious people. We both wear magical artifacts to prevent prophecies, and your prophecy is correct. The events in your prophecy are consistent with our ways, but we only realized it after you observed that prophecy.”

How can a prophecy that we have all become aware of maintain its objectivity?

The witch Catherine said, “I only told Anna one thing. I told her that in your prophecy, you would most likely escape unscathed, while Anna and I would gain nothing. Anna has a strong personality; she won’t allow you to win and me to lose while she neither wins nor loses. Her personality is such that either we both lose, or neither of us wins. So, she cannot accept this outcome.”

"So when I suggested that we work together to design you, she agreed. She could always make another mother ring if she had the time, but once you missed your Ancient Dragon Soul, there would be no chance. Although we are competing, our primary goal is to get things done."

The dragon wizard's pupils suddenly contracted; he finally knew where the problem lay.

A prediction with an incredibly accurate outcome, but it was essentially guessed by the two parties involved.

How then does this prophecy remain accurate?
The result of his divination using ritual magic was the timeline he hadn't predicted using divination magic—the timeline where he went directly to Mount Golden Crown. However, because the witches Catherine and Anna guessed his prophecy directly through his actions, an error occurred.

This is a paradox.

However, it is very difficult for this paradox to occur; it requires both Catherine the Witch and Anna the Witch to simultaneously guess his prophecy for this paradox to arise.

But the two of them actually figured it out.

The Dragon Wizard took a half step back, feeling fear. Why did the heroes and valiant men of this era give him the feeling that there were as many as carp crossing a river?
He only encountered a few second-circle wizards and they caused him trouble; he only targeted one throne wizard and he fell into the trap of two throne wizards.

The wizards of this era...

The witch Catherine said, “You probably think you’re just one step away from success. But that’s not the case. I’ve seen through every step you take. I don’t need prophecies; I only need to understand human nature. Prophecies may fail for various reasons, but human nature is eternal.”

"You know what? The most interesting thing about magic is that it can always transform from one form to another in incredible ways. Ah, you're not a modern third-circle wizard, so you don't know this, do you... [The Law of Magical Transformation]. If you were my student, I would suggest you start learning it again from the apprenticeship level. That way, your foundation would be much more solid than it is now."

"If your foundation is weak, you'll be full of holes. That's exactly what you're like now."

Countless fragments of broken peach petals suddenly appeared on the surface of the dragon wizard's body. Only then did he realize that the power of the broken peach heart spell, which he had thought had been lifted, still lingered on his body.

This power...

On Locke's forehead, a heart-shaped curse mark appeared, and an arrow gradually emerged from the curse mark.

(End of this chapter)