Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 740

Chapter 737 The Third-Level Council, the Wizarding Council!

Locke recorded the scene he had previously captured with the True Sight Crystal, which he would later submit to the White Wizarding Association, the Ethics and Morality Review Committee, and a copy to Golden Crown Mountain.

Killing the dark wizard was straightforward, but the second-ring witch of Solas’s Lightfoot class needed evidence to prove she acted in self-defense.

He could also question Solas’s Lightfoot class and demand compensation.

Locke glanced at the rings of the dark wizard and the solas’s Lightfoot witch’s proxy; both their astral rings were now in his possession.

Locke opened the astral rings of the dozen or so dark wizards, finding some first-ring level resources, all from the Holy School, along with some disgusting sacrifices.

The second-ring dark wizard’s astral ring was protected by a powerful magical lock; if forcibly broken, the lock would activate a self-destruct mechanism, destroying the ring.

Locke opened the witch’s astral ring again. It was quite empty, containing only some very low-level resources. It was hard to believe that this was the astral ring of a second-ring witch.

Besides that, there was a pile of documents inside the astral ring. Locke pulled out some of them and found that they were a bunch of loan and debt collection notices.

After flipping through them briefly, he discovered that this witch was trapped in a tragic situation of snowballing interest, with debts piling up to pay off debts. Based on the extent of her accumulated debts, even if she suddenly had a stroke of luck and won tens of millions of magic stones in the wizard lottery, she still wouldn’t be able to pay off her debts!

Debt slaves, how terrifying!

Locke even noticed in some of the documents that her creditors were trying to cite various laws, seemingly attempting to shift the debt onto her students, family, and friends.

One document caught Locke’s attention: a potion shop called Dragon’s Breath had submitted evidence to the Holy Tribunal that the witch Jesse had purchased potions from their shop and given a low-grade potion to her student. Locke claimed that they should seek repayment from Jesse’s student for a debt she couldn’t pay.

This claim was partially accepted by the Holy Tribunal, which ordered Jesse’s student, currently a first-class wizarding apprentice, to repay Dragon’s Breath 10,000 magic stones!

Of course, even so, Dragon’s Breath was clearly dissatisfied, as their original demand was for Jesse’s student to repay approximately 150,000 magic stones, and they seemed to intend to pursue even more debts from others.

Locke suddenly understood why, when Daniel was in debt, no one except himself and the witch Julian dared to have much contact with him.

Good heavens, more contact made it easier for creditors to find evidence that you had accepted resources or favors from them, thus allowing them to demand repayment from others connected to you.

“No wonder bankruptcy leads to social death. This debt collection method is even more pervasive than the Blood Curse Magic of the Blood Curse Court. It’s terrifying.”

Locke searched around and found the astral ring filled with a pile of debt-related documents, including her corpse, which had already been mortgaged by more than one wizarding bank.

If it weren’t for wizarding laws prohibiting the use of people as slaves and the use of living wizard organs, Jesse the Witch would likely have been devoured alive by her creditors.

Locke frowned upon seeing this and decisively threw Jesse the Witch’s astral ring and her corpse on the ground.

He also left a note on it—

‘Anyone who dares to contact me will be charged a storage fee. Also, I was injured in this witch’s attack, and she hasn’t paid a penny for my medical expenses. If any creditors know the contact information of her relatives or friends, please let me know.’ Locke

left behind such delusional words not truly to ask for money, but to prevent her creditors from using her death as leverage to claim a portion of her debts from the Holy Wizard Court.

In that case, the body and the Astral Ring were even more untouchable.

These weren’t resources; they were debt memes a thousand times more terrifying than the Blood Curse Court’s curse!

Locke pondered, “The dark wizards of the Crimson Deep are at best a cesspool, but these debt slaves are absolutely untouchable.”

He’d heard that debt slaves couldn’t escape the debt repayment logic designed by their creditors. First, the debt would only accumulate, completely numbing them.

Second, everything related to debt, with its dense network of mutual guarantees, would plunge these debt slaves into an abyss.

Normally, there’s only one way to sever debt: death!

But normally, even becoming a debt slave wouldn’t lead to death or an extremely miserable life; it would just require constant work.

The witch Jesse’s attack on him, giving her the opportunity to become a dark wizard, was essentially a transaction.

At least her debts to Solas Barefoot could be wiped clean, provided she could escape to the dark wizarding realm and successfully evade the punishment of Golden Crown Mountain.

Meanwhile, among the wizards watching the spectacle in the mountains, many placed orders for Locke’s wizard shoes, and many others boarded their magic carriages again to begin their return journey.

Locke’s Water Hyacinth System received numerous messages.

He opened them and saw inquiries about purchasing the Great Bloodwave Pineapple Wizard Shoes, as well as communications from second-circle wizards, which caught his attention.

Some of these individuals seemed to be shareholders of Solas Barefoot and Melochy Magic Steps. They seemed to have completely forgotten the previous unpleasantness, and that just moments before, these people had wanted him dead. They were now enthusiastically messaging him, urging him to quickly establish a shop alliance, utilize his second-circle wizard rights, and open up shares in the wizard shop alliance so they could invest in him.

Locke even saw that among the second-circle wizards who contacted him was an ordinary second-circle wizard from the Rose Council.

This person was extremely enthusiastic towards him, seemingly recognizing the potential of the pure magic plant wizard shoes and realizing he didn’t need to cling to one particular approach.

The Rose Council wizard, Shiri Owen, sent him a message:

‘Locke, breeder, your wizard shoes have been certified by me as reaching top-tier levels in the industry. I believe you should establish a shop alliance as soon as possible and open up equity to quickly obtain start-up capital.’ ‘

I have high hopes for your wizard shoes and admire your pure magic plant wizard shoe concept. Because I admire your talent so much, I eagerly await the establishment of your shop alliance.’

‘I am Shiri Owen of the Rose Council, a well-known investor in the industry.’

Locke sneered upon seeing this message.

The only person who would send him such a message at this time could be someone who hired dark wizards to intercept his wizard shoe shop alliance’s wizard shareholders or related stakeholders.

As a result, seeing that he had broken through the impasse, they were able to disregard all the previous barriers and send him such a message.

It can only be said that capital truly disregards everything for money.

Locke didn’t reply, because he wasn’t necessarily short of money right now. His previous funds had been spent on purchasing World Stones, but money should be flowing in steadily over the next few days.

Moreover, opening up equity would cause a series of problems, and he didn’t currently have a need for a large amount of capital quickly, so there was no need to rush.

Locke saw a congratulatory message from Scarlett the Witch in the Water Hyacinth System.

Just as Locke was about to close the Water Hyacinth System, a streak of light suddenly flew across the sky. He paused, then realized it was a silver badge with the words ‘Second Ring’ written on it.

Locke took the Second Ring badge and was immediately stunned, because he had registered the official wizard badge with Lilith’s hut in the Southeast Corner Region, which also granted him the right to use the various communication systems that only official wizards could use.

Unexpectedly, the second-ring wizard’s badge suddenly flew over from somewhere, and it was unclear whether this was a unique feature of Cloud Marsh Wetlands or a common occurrence in all wizarding areas.

As Locke pinned the badge to his chest, the water gourd system in his hand changed again, displaying a new interface.

Locke clicked on the interface with a puzzled look. Instantly, a blue lotus base appeared before him, upon which rested seven perfectly round lotus seeds, resembling pills. Simultaneously, he heard the sound of a rushing stream.

Then, he suddenly found himself on a green lotus leaf, beneath which flowed a gentle stream with several carp swimming in it. Before him stood a massive lotus root, now empty.

At that moment, Locke saw a line of text appear on his retina: “[Currently, no council meetings are being held in the Golden Crown Mountain region.]”

An interface appeared before him, its upper left corner marked by a white lotus root with seven blue-green lotus seeds.

Locke raised an eyebrow. What was this?

This special space clearly utilized multi-school combination technology and was attached to the Water Hyacinth System and the second-circle wizard’s badge artifact.

No wonder they immediately issued him a badge in this way, and a second-circle artifact at that.

So that’s its special purpose.

It’s likely that every official wizard in the White Wizarding Association, upon becoming a second-circle wizard, will be issued a wizarding artifact representing their second-circle status and pulled into this special space.

At this moment, Locke can see that the interface is divided into two levels.

The top displays the Cloudze Council, while the lower section displays the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council.

The Cloudze Council itself seems inaccessible, only showing a preliminary interface with a recent agenda item.

The Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council shows no recent agenda items, no voting options, but some past agenda items; Locke checked and found eleven in total.

All of them are related to the construction of public facilities in the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council or to a specific public policy.

Locke also saw one agenda item: a proposal from Golden Crown Mountain to build a large-scale specialty market for magical plants in the Seven-Colored Nursery area.

This Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council seems to be the primary council he, as a second-circle wizard, can participate in, and his identity in this interface is Councilor Locke Augustine.

At the Yunze Council level, he could only see a portion of the pages, clearly under strict restrictions.

The space before him was obviously the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council space,

a magic space .

However, the Yunze Council interface displayed more important information. First, there was only one recent agenda item, and past agenda items were invisible to him.

He could only see the agenda items he had voted on since joining the council.

This was completely different from the Golden Crown Mountain Regional Council level, where he could view multiple past agenda items.

Currently, the Yunze Council’s agenda item was—the cancellation of tax exemption for first-ring wizards!

Locke quickly clicked on the page to understand what tax exemption for first-ring wizards meant.

Essentially, first-ring wizards, as members of the White Wizard Association, should theoretically pay an annual membership fee. However, the Eastern Boundary District Council’s policy prioritized exempting first-ring wizards from membership fees, with second-ring wizards paying the first-ring wizards’ fees as a benefit.

Therefore, during his time as a first-ring wizard, Locke, as a member of the White Wizard Association, had never paid any membership fees for a long period.

This was because he was always under the protection of newbie benefits!

Locke saw that there were two numbers next to this issue: the left for “oppose” and the right for “support.”

At this moment, the number of “oppose” and “support” was roughly equal,

approximately 261 to 237.

Of course, this should not be all the second-ring wizards in Cloudze Wetlands, but only a small portion.

‘The wizards voting now should all be second-ring wizards, so why are there more second-ring wizards opposing the cancellation of the tax exemption privilege for first-ring wizards than those supporting its cancellation?’

Locke pondered for a moment, then looked at the detailed introduction within the issue and immediately saw a crucial piece of information.

“Only wizards who pay membership fees can join the Wizarding Council.”

“I see. The Eastern Boundary Council has long been calling on the various White Wizarding Association branches to waive membership fees for first-ring wizards. Therefore, first-ring wizards have no voting rights in the various levels of councils in the Eastern Boundary, specifically the three-tiered council!”

“The reason many second-ring wizards don’t support abolishing the tax exemption for first-ring wizards is because once first-ring wizards have to pay membership fees, they will also have the right to vote in the Cloud Swamp Council.”

“If they also have voting rights on issues related to the White Wizarding Association of Cloud Swamp Wetlands, it will change many things.”

If only second-ring wizards have voting rights, then the wizarding organization with more second-ring wizards holds the advantage!

If first-ring wizards also have voting rights, then the wizarding organization with more first-ring wizards holds the advantage.

Therefore, behind this issue, there are clearly two powerful figures fighting behind the scenes.

Locke instantly realized that this powerful figure might not even be in Cloud Swamp Wetlands.

The tax exemption for first-ring wizards was ordered by the Eastern District Council. This means that currently, all first-ring wizards in the fifty-three wizarding territories of the entire Eastern District are exempt from taxation, a status that

has been maintained for a long time.

However, the fact that each wizarding territory’s council is now required to hold separate votes indicates that a powerful force at the Eastern District level wants to grant first-ring wizards voting rights.

Locke simply doesn’t know who’s behind this power struggle.

“Indeed, the world of second-ring wizards is completely different from that of first-ring wizards. It turns out that for second-ring wizards, the public affairs and changing situations of a wizarding territory can be so concretely observed.”

“The overall situation of the wizarding world isn’t fragmented. Within each council, one can see the overall flow of the wizarding world’s situation.”

(End of Chapter)