Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 970 Golden Dragon: You are a breeder with the talent of subtraction.

When Locke found the Golden Dragon Wizard with the Super Two-Grain Wheat, there was a dead wizard lying next to him. When Locke walked up to him, he paused for a moment and glanced at the wizard.

The wizard didn't look very old, but he was so hungry that he was skin and bones, and his magical pressure had dropped to its lowest point.

When he died, his magical pressure did not completely dissipate, because the construction and maintenance of ultimate magic itself requires a large amount of magical pressure. Therefore, when a wizard's magical pressure declines to its limit, he must dismantle his permanent defensive field and ultimate magic to survive.

However, many wizards often maintain the basic framework of their ultimate magic until death. This is because when ultimate magic is deconstructed to a certain extent, the chaos of the released magical pressure will cause a situation similar to Locke drinking bitter tea, making him unable to use the magical pressure even though he has it.

Of course, this is a characteristic of a great magic that has not been fully forged, and it is something that can only happen in such an extreme and special situation as the end of the Dharma era.

The Golden Dragon Wizard looked at the corpse on the ground, placed a stalk of silver wheat on its body, and then adjusted the wizard's clothes to make it look as dignified as possible. He then made the wizard hold the stalk of silver wheat.

"Five years and seven months later, you appeared, Locke Augustine."

"In the original timeline, it took me eleven years to find the super wheat. That is to say, after my fellow apprentices and my teacher had been traveling for a full seven years and three months, I discovered a super wheat plant that could grow on frozen soil. I named it Silver Wheat."

Locke's expression shifted slightly, because the Silver Wheat series was a common magical staple food in the modern magical age, known for its cold resistance. It turned out that this was the work of the founding wizard of Golden Crown Mountain.

The Golden Dragon Wizard said, “This happened in the original timeline, but I found this super wheat one year and three months after you appeared. That is, it only took me five years and seven months, and you saved me half the time. Locke Augustine, today I can truly say that you are an excellent breeder. I have enjoyed working with you for the past year and three months, and I can’t help but have the illusion that it would have been better if it had been you working with me back then, instead of my real junior brother.”

"This is good for everyone."

Locke turned his gaze to the young second-ring wizard who had starved to death beside the farmland.

The Golden Dragon Wizard said, “He was very kind-hearted. He secretly saved his rations and, without telling me, gave them to the other mortal children in the settlement and the wizard apprentices who were learning from us. We were suffering a lot back then, but we still needed to think about the future, so I continued to teach. We had some wizard apprentices. In that magical age, becoming a wizard apprentice required unimaginable effort and hardship, as well as a great deal of talent.”

The Golden Dragon Wizard's eyes were filled with pain.

"My junior brother was too kind. He was born in our golden age, which is what later generations called the Great Void Exploration Era. He grew up in a prosperous age, so he possessed the unique reflection, benevolence, and kindness of people in a prosperous age. These are qualities that only people of powerful civilizations can have. Under these qualities, he secretly gave away his food and miscalculated his consumption. As a result, his consumption exceeded his intake, his great magic collapsed, and he starved to death in front of me."

"In the original timeline, he starved to death not long after my senior brothers and teachers left. After that, I spent my winter alone in the biting cold of the snowy fields cultivating these magical plants, which I saw as our only hope. Fortunately, many years later, before I and the mortals in my settlement were all about to starve to death, I finally found that lifeline."

"The 'lifeline' was originally just a metaphor, but at that time, the hexaploid wheat I bred, called 'Silver Wheat,' was our real lifeline."

The Golden Dragon Wizard said, "However, with your help, I didn't need the original thirteen years. The cold-resistant, low-consumption variety of two-grain wheat that you gave me helped me a lot. Therefore, I only used half the original time to develop the Silver Wheat by continuously cultivating hybrid wheat and then grafting it with a magical plant called Silver Grass."

"Silver Wheat is a first-level magical plant that can perfectly adapt to the climate of this era. One grain of it has the effect of a grain of wheat from a second-level magical plant. Therefore, as long as these magical plants are planted on the land of the [West Central Continent] in the central region, the population and the number of levels that our civilization can support in this part of the region can be restored."

"In the original history, I saved the people and wizards of the West Central Continent."

"But I wasn't the only one who made such outstanding contributions. There are many other excellent wizards in this world. Our civilization finally survived this chilling and painful winter."

"But my junior brother was left behind in this winter forever. He was a human abandoned baby I picked up. Actually, I hoped he would leave with the masters of Donghuang Mountain, so that he could have a chance to survive. Of course, I never knew whether Donghuang Mountain successfully left the wizarding world and went to a new world to start over."

Locke's expression shifted slightly. "Grandmaster, are you still alive?"

The Golden Dragon Wizard shook his head slightly. "I am already dead. The real me has long since disappeared. This is just a wisp of my spirit left in this key laboratory. One day, if your breeding science reaches a certain level, you too will be able to leave a wisp of my spirit somewhere. But the real me is still dead. This is just my spirit."

"I stored my spiritual energy into the Sky Tree, so that although I cannot survive on the linear timeline, I can certainly survive on the horizontal timeline."

“Locke, you don’t need to be too sad. I see a quality in you that I had with my junior brother back then. You were born and raised in a prosperous era. This quality is also reflected in you, which is why you, as a wizard, would sympathize with… the mortals in this parallel world created by the Sky-Full Tree.”

"As a wizard who possesses extraordinary power, it is already difficult for you to sympathize with mortals, but you actually sympathize with mortals in a parallel world created by a high-ringed magical plant."

"However, you are much more talented than my junior brother back then."

Locke raised an eyebrow, wondering why his ancestor might have misjudged him. But whatever, let it be.

This might be a good thing.

I'm not exactly a nice guy.

The Golden Dragon Wizard looked at the wheat plant in Locke's hand.

"It seems our ideas have converged. You've also discovered that the wheat magic plant has the characteristic of being an annual plant that delivers all its nutrients to the fruit, causing the mother plant to wither and die."

Locke nodded and said, "But these magical plant characteristics only exist in apprentice-level wheat. Once they enter the first stage, especially all the two-grain wheat, they lose these plant factors. And I found that the two-grain wheat not only loses these plant factors, but other plant factors are also covered up. This may be the necessary evolutionary price to pay in order to evolve into a first-level magical plant and obtain the wood element crystal cluster structure."

"But in this way, the two grains of wheat cannot be restored to an annual magical plant. It has gone too far on the path of evolution and cannot turn back."

"So I used the atavism method combined with grafting to forcibly restore the two grains of wheat to a certain degree of the annual magical plant characteristics. However, because the positioning accuracy of my atavism is still relatively low, I have been unable to overcome how to restore the two grains of wheat to the level of a first-level magical plant after it has acquired the annual characteristics."

"First-ring magic plants are rarely annuals."

Locke looked at the silver wheat plant.

"As the king of magical plants, the first-ring magical plant is a miracle produced by the natural evolution of magical plants. Therefore, there are very few first-ring magical plants with a lifespan of only one year, as the wood element crystal cluster structure is inherently in conflict with the one-year lifespan."

Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. Its entire body is covered with wood element crystal clusters, like a house built with reinforced concrete. It's unlikely that it could be blown up in just one year.

Locke's goal of making the two wheat grains, which are part of the first-order magical plant, regenerate the traits of an annual magical plant is equivalent to making a magical plant, after painstakingly building a house of steel and concrete, immediately blow it up, leaving nothing behind.

The related plant factors associated with the crystallization of wood elements and the traits of annual magical plants are simply in conflict.

So, by piecing things together, although he didn't solve the final problem, he still managed to grow a single wheat plant that could be grown in frozen soil.

Locke placed his Super Two Grains of Wheat together with his ancestor's Silver Wheat, and then Locke laughed.

"Our ancestor is truly amazing. Both of them are wheat magical plants that can grow in frozen soil, but our ancestor cultivated a first-level magical plant variety, while I only cultivated an apprentice-level magical plant variety. The difference is obvious."

"This just goes to show how vast and profound the field of breeding science is. I still have a lot to learn."

The Golden Dragon Wizard took a grain of wheat from Locke's palm, and without even peeling off the bran, put it directly into his mouth, chewing it repeatedly with his teeth, crunching and crunching.

His eyes brightened slightly.

"Don't underestimate yourself."

“You inherited my breeding experiment progress and shared the same experimental conditions, but what I cultivated was a first-ring magical plant, Silver Wheat, while what you cultivated was an apprentice-level magical plant, Super Two-Grain Wheat. On the surface, I have won, but often the outcome is hard to discern. I had no intention of competing with you. Locke, the moment I ate this grain of wheat, I finally understood your true talent.”

"It's just that you haven't realized it yourself."

The Golden Dragon Wizard picked up his grain of wheat and saw that silver magic was hidden within the grain of silver wheat, and silver was changeable.

Locke thought for a moment before saying, "Grandmaster, was it by using the silver magic of the silver grass to forcibly make the magical energy within the two grains of wheat flow into the fruit?"

The Golden Dragon Wizard nodded.

Locke gasped.

Because it sounds simple, but just to realize this idea, it would involve countless breeding attempts and countless steps.

He felt a chill run down his spine just thinking about this direction. He never imagined that the changeable nature of silver magic could be used in such a way; it was a stroke of genius, like a gazelle hanging its horns on a tree. However, even if most people could think of this, they would probably just consider it a fantasy and would never put it into practice. The Golden Dragon Wizard shook his head slightly, picked up Locke's super two-grain wheat, and said, "Don't underestimate yourself. I have completed the breeding of silver wheat by grafting two-grain wheat and silver grass, but in doing so, I have further enhanced the evolutionary level of this two-grain wheat."

"It looks like Silver Wheat is an annual magical plant, but it's not. That's just an application of Silver Magic. For this application of Silver Magic, Silver Wheat needs to be constantly replenished with Silver Magic."

"Because the two rivers breached their banks, many magical mineral resources hidden underground have come to the surface due to the great flood. Therefore, I think this is actually suitable for the cultivation of silver wheat. Just put some magical minerals such as mithril in the fields where silver wheat is planted."

"But in any case, the Silver Wheat is just a further increase in its level of evolution, becoming more and more specialized. In other words, it is a special variety cultivated due to the circumstances and environment of that time. It would immediately perish without human intervention and would never continue to exist. But the magical plant you cultivated is different."

The Golden Dragon Wizard said, "Generally, when breeders cultivate magical plants, they increase the evolution level of a magical plant to give it a certain characteristic. So it can be called addition in breeding science. The further you go, the more you add. But your breeding method has created subtraction within addition."

"Your atavism restored a certain degree of evolutionary potential to this magical plant, but instead of increasing its evolutionary level, it even caused its evolutionary level to begin to decline."

"If this magical plant falls into the wild, I believe it may still be able to readjust to its environment without the care of a wizard and grow in the natural world."

"I think you are one of those rare breeders who have a subtractive breeding approach. This kind of talent is indeed rare."

The Golden Dragon Wizard said, "Let's give this two-grain wheat magical plant a name."

“That is your strength. I believe that a breeder’s talent and aesthetic sense will determine his breeding direction and influence the characteristics of the magical plants he cultivates. If each of us breeders can successfully go all the way, the seeds we cultivate will enter the magical plants of the wizarding civilization, generation after generation, and our talent and aesthetic sense will remain in this discipline.”

"In other words, an excellent breeder can contribute his talent and aesthetic sense to this discipline."

"The discipline can also develop from this, and his successors and apprentices will then develop new disciplines based on this foundation, which is the High Ring Wizard..."

The Golden Dragon Wizard stopped talking.

“These things are far too early for you. Even if I told you, you would misunderstand, misinterpret, or even misunderstand. Therefore, you should discover these things for yourself later. Locke Augustine, you can develop this annual two-grain wheat plant well. I believe its potential is no less than that of my silver wheat.”

Locke nodded. "Grandmaster, I will."

However, despite saying that, he has no plans to enter the food-related magical plant market for the time being, because as far as he knows, this market is extremely polarized.

In other words, when the works of second-ring wizards are sold, whether it's seeds or the harvested grains, the money they make is barely enough to cover their costs. They need subsidies from the White Wizarding Association and the various colleges in the local wizarding lands to barely break even.

Third-ring and high-ring wizards, on the other hand, can earn enormous amounts of money.

This is probably because the market is strictly regulated by the White Wizarding Association. The prices of food-type magical plants are controlled, not only within the wizarding world but also externally. There are price restrictions, and a large number of food-type magical plants are considered strategic resources, so the sale of seeds to other worlds is prohibited.

Moreover, the best seeds are all the works of high-ring wizards.

There is nowhere for the seeds cultivated by low-level wizards to go.

After all, the better the seeds, the more popular they are.

The winner takes all the credit.

The logic is completely different from that of weapon-type magical plants.

Moreover, if the market for magical plant weapons didn't have regional sales restrictions and wizarding land divisions, it would also see a huge winner-takes-all scenario, leaving lower and middle-level wizards with little money. In turn, the lack of lower and middle-level wizards would negatively impact the number and skill level of top-tier breeders.

Therefore, I have no intention of developing in this market for the time being. At this moment, I am only trying to complete the development of this annual two-grain wheat in order to pass the test of the memory of the founder of this key laboratory, the Golden Dragon Wizard, and to finish what I started.

In the process, I actually improved my hybridization breeding skills quite a bit.

At this moment, the entire memory began to blur, and the Golden Dragon Wizard looked at Locke and said, "Although under normal circumstances, I would not admit in my own memories that the memories of each of my memories are shared. To those wizards, I am more like a memory within an echo."

"But I acknowledge you. Next time we meet, let's meet in my second memory. You no longer need this memory. After all, you've already cultivated your own Super Wheat."

“Locke Augustine, my excellent junior breeder from Golden Crown Mountain, I look forward to the stories that may unfold when we meet again. Here are 100 parallel coins for you.”

The entire memory began to crumble, and then this parallel world began to be dismantled. After all, the Sky-Piercing Tree needs energy to generate and maintain parallel worlds, so now that Locke was about to leave this world, the Sky-Piercing Tree would naturally begin to dismantle this world directly.

The next moment, Locke broke free of the triangular stone pillar and returned to the city center of Starry Sky City, under a sky full of stars.

Locke looked at his Golden Crown Mountain badge and saw that it displayed an image of Golden Crown Mountain on the front, an image of a cardamom farm on the back, and a mithril coin with the number 100.

This is clearly the parallel currency that can be used within the Cardamom Farm.

At the same time, a magical artifact resembling a glass marble floated in front of Locke. Within this artifact was a complete set of plant essences from an annual two-grain wheat that he had cultivated in a parallel world.

Locke understood. With this magical artifact, he could use the finite element cultivation method to infuse the plant essence into the two grains of wheat and cultivate it anew. Alternatively, he could use an even more convenient method: create a holographic magical plant from the plant essence and then take it out, which would make it easier to preserve the plant essence combination of this magical plant.

Of course, this method clearly indicates that they did not intend to produce it themselves, so they transformed it into a holographic magical plant.

"At first, I thought holographic magical plants were some kind of virtual equipment. But after walking around this lab, I now realize that holographic magical plants utilize the characteristics of parallel worlds, constructing a magical plant using a spiritual macroscopic method. Only the purest spiritual macroscopic essence of the magical plant is preserved, without any other energy or matter. This isn't a virtual magical plant, but rather an application of spiritual macroscopic science."

'The greatest value of holographic magical plants probably lies in their ability to completely preserve the essence of a magical plant.'

"Otherwise, it's actually very difficult to preserve the essence of a magical plant. Even if it becomes a seed in a safe area, if that area is affected by some magical force, the plant essence in that seed might undergo some minor changes. Therefore, holographic magical plants are for preserving the original version of the plant's essence... This is probably something only such key laboratories would have, but I suspect other key laboratories of the same level also have holographic magical plants, because this method of preserving plant essence is simply too convenient."

Locke looked at the hundred parallel coins in his hand. He immediately knew how to drive the magic bed, find a star track, run to the end of the star track, and then use these parallel coins to start constructing a world and begin his first formal breeding work in this key laboratory.

Locke glanced at an alchemical clock beside him and realized that only three days had passed.

He rubbed his temples, took out a potion from his astral ring, and drank it to restore his magical pressure.

Within the instance, I was completely forbidden from taking anything from the Forest Sanctuary and the Astral Ring. Otherwise, given my magical resource reserves, I could have easily taken out a large amount of food and magical resources, instantly resolving the resource shortage predicament of the settlement in the Golden Dragon Wizard's memories.

"The experience within this memory is very important to me."

"He reminded me of my original aspirations once again."

Having gone through this ordeal, Locke could no longer regard those apprentice-level and first-ring magical plants as cheap magical plants as he had before.

He still remembered the heartache he felt for each Apprentice-level Two Grains of Wheat that died in the dungeon.

Locke was about to head to the end of a star trail to begin using the equipment in the key laboratory for the first time. He was going to complete the abyss process of the Golden Dragon Claw Wizard Shoes and the Black Hummingbird Wizard Shoes. However, just as he set off, he suddenly encountered a witch with white hair and a somewhat timid expression who was in the vaporization stage.

The young witch held a photograph and a letter of introduction in her hand, and then asked Locke, "Are you the wizard Locke Augustine? I am a native of this key laboratory... Lady Catherine recommended that I become your apprentice."

“Lord Augustine, look.”

Locke looked at her in surprise. "Huh? You haven't left this key laboratory?"

The young witch immediately blushed and seemed somewhat frightened; she appeared to be very socially anxious.

"That's right. The academy has a rule that we can't leave this laboratory until we become second-circle wizards. This is because of information confidentiality, and even if we do leave, we'll need to sign a contract with Golden Crown Mountain."

“We are different from the wizards outside. Our fathers were wizards of Golden Crown Mountain, and we also enjoy the resources of the key laboratory, so we cannot leave Golden Crown Mountain. To go out, we can only sign a contract with Golden Crown Mountain, but there are different levels of contracts... and most people don't really want to go out... after all, once you go out, you basically can't come back..."

(End of this chapter)