Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 759

Chapter 756 The Second Ring Potion Challenge and Completing the Ancient Tree Fruit Clone Technique

Three days later, in the makeshift laboratory in Locke’s dormitory, Locke signed a visiting researcher contract with the New Textile Institute of Bonifacius University, obtaining a visiting researcher badge and the right to use specific breeding equipment and wizard apprenticeships within the institute.

That afternoon, after promising Antoine a bottle of the [Clone Potion] if he succeeded in refining it, Locke received a bottle of Antoine’s blood.

Now, in the makeshift potion room in his dormitory, Locke placed Antoine’s blood into a crucible. Following the reaction rate formula and corresponding process he had designed in his notes, he added the materials to the crucible in sequence.

Soon, after the primordial fire changed elemental flames forty-nine times, rapidly altering between large, medium, and small flames, the dozens of raw materials in the crucible finally transformed into a pot of dark paste after an afternoon.

Locke hesitated for a moment, not daring to touch the cauldron directly. After all, many dangerous items were unintentionally created by potion makers.

He casually conjured a first-level spell, [Arcane Hand], a potion-making spell he had learned from reading articles in the Golden Crown Mountain free zone.

The translucent arcane energy hand grasped the unknown paste within the cauldron, and in an instant, it turned a purplish-black color.

This purplish-black color didn’t last long before turning a dark reddish-black.

Locke sighed. The Arcane Hand was a special potion-making spell that utilized the sensitivity of arcane energy to spiritual reactions.

When the Arcane Hand touched a substance, it would change color to initially reveal the substance’s properties.

Purple, black, and red all represented toxins of different directions: purple was a hallucinogenic toxin, black a polluting toxin, and red a deadly poison that would cause instant death.

The intensity of the color indicated the severity of the toxin.

Locke glanced at his Arcane Hand, thinking that it could probably poison an enemy the moment it touched them.

Arcane Hand did indeed have a variant spell model, an offensive spell model within potion-making called [Poisonous Hand].

“Where’s wrong?”

A look of confusion crossed Locke’s face. He picked up his notebook, carefully reviewed the recipe again, and recalculated the reaction time of each ingredient. After confirming there were no problems, he looked at his process design again, reconfirming the order and quality of material delivery.

“No problem.”

Locke looked at the black paste in the crucible, pondered for a moment, drank a bottle of Holy Spring Dew potion, and after regaining some energy, ran his hand over the paste.

Primal Fire coiled around it, and he immediately used the reverse refining technique to extract the blood Antoine had given him from the dark paste.

A phantom ‘human’ spirit appeared above the crucible.

The illusory ‘human’ spirit was a small male figure, its large mouth opening and closing, causing the black paste to disintegrate and gradually separate. Most of the material was wasted, but some black droplets floated into the air, gradually turning bright red with each breath.

Locke flipped his right palm, and the droplets of blood entered the glass bottle in his left hand.

“Using some techniques from the Reverse Refining Method, I can restore the core ingredients from potion waste.”

“The Reverse Refining Method that Wizard Otto taught me seems to have many other uses.”

He had only explored it slightly and already discovered many benefits.

Of course, Locke had tried it over the past three days, and he couldn’t extract the core ingredients from higher-grade potions using the Reverse Refining Method.

The reason was that the potion waste’s medicinal properties hadn’t fully fused or been completely transformed, while a high-quality finished potion had its internal energy balanced and had already undergone complete transformation, making it impossible to extract the raw materials again using the Reverse Refining Method.

Locke placed the blood droplets into the cauldron, wiped the sweat from his brow, and added a second batch of dozens of raw materials, totaling 500,000 magic stones.

The next morning, as the sun rose, Locke looked at the still-dark ointment before him, his face slightly pale.

He used his Arcane Hand again to touch the potion in the cauldron, but the result was little different from before.

Locke fell into deep thought.

“Is there something wrong with my refining technique? Indeed, the formula, heat control, and chain reactions of a second-ring potion are incomparable to those of a first-ring potion.”

“But I’ve tried many times before attempting to refine it. Even if my technique is somewhat rusty, I believe I can basically meet the refining requirements.”

Locke pondered.

“No wonder some can become second-ring wizards, but not necessarily second-ring potion makers.”

Locke exhaled a breath of stale air, preparing to rest for a while,

as his magic pressure had reached its limit.

A day later, Locke recovered his magic pressure through the backflow of primal force from the natural force plane, and then continued refining potions.

This time, he suspected his technique was too unskilled, so he didn’t start refining immediately, having already wasted a million magic stones.

Locke first practiced with some incredibly cheap materials, and half a day later, he continued refining the clone potion.

This time, it took him even longer.

A day later, Locke looked at the dark paste in the crucible and sighed.

“No change. Either my technique is still flawed, and the margin for error in refining second-level potions is much lower than I imagined; or my calculations of the reaction rates of each stage of the reactants are wrong… I miscalculated.”

“Perhaps both of these guesses are wrong.”

Locke began channeling his natural elemental energy back to restore his magic pressure and abandoned his plan to refine the clone potion in a short time.

“A second-circle potion master… I need to reach that level as soon as possible.”

“To become a second-circle potion master, one needs the ability to concoct three different second-circle potions using normal methods. The clone potion isn’t particularly difficult among second-circle potions; it’s considered relatively easy. But I don’t know why, I’ve failed three times in a row.”

Locke plans to practice repeatedly every day using inexpensive materials to improve his skills before attempting to concoct the clone potion.

Furthermore, he should re-evaluate his chosen concoction process.

The Ganoderma lucidum plant on the table vibrated; Antoine had sent a message.

“Locke, how’s the potion-making going? Did it succeed?”

Locke thought for a moment and sent a message: “Hmm, I’m still researching this potion.”

Meanwhile, Antoine was lecturing in a public classroom. He held up the Ganoderma lucidum plant and grinned mischievously, causing the second-tier wizard apprentices below to stare in horror. They couldn’t understand why their teacher was suddenly laughing, and why his laughter was so chilling.

Antoine thought to himself: “It seems Locke has encountered that hurdle. That hurdle that makes many wizards give up on continuing their studies in potions.”

“There’s a qualitative difference between a first-ring potion master and a second-ring potion master.”

“Without crossing that hurdle, one cannot be considered a true potion master. Just a concocter. In my previous life, I seemed to have always remained at the first-ring potion master stage, never becoming a second-ring potion master… Of course, in this life, I directly abandoned potions studies.” Antoine

, amused, wondered how long it would take Locke, a genius breeder, to overcome this hurdle. “

Or will he focus all his attention back on breeding?”

Many wizards in the lower levels can learn across disciplines, but in the higher levels, faced with increasingly complex sub-disciplines and a vast amount of advanced content, many abandon learning in certain areas, leaving some of their spells permanently stuck at a certain level.

Antoine, with a sense of suspense, prepared to see if Locke could concoct the clone potion.

Meanwhile, the wizarding apprentices listening to the lecture watched him with trepidation. Although they didn’t know Antoine personally, they had all heard that this instructor was not easy to deal with.

…

In the simple potion room, Locke pondered, “I’ll hold off on potion making for now. Each failure costs 500,000 magic stones in materials. Luckily, I can use the reverse potion-making method to repeatedly obtain Antoine’s blood.” “

That Antoine guy, he asked me right on time if I’d successfully made the clone potion. When he lent me his own blood, he seemed to have a basic understanding of the difficulty of the clone potion.”

“Could it be that he studied potion-making in his past life?”

Locke planned to practice daily and also consult materials at the Golden Crown Mountain library to see where the problem lay.

Actually, the most troublesome thing wasn’t the failure itself, but not knowing where the problem was.

He checked every step of the previous potion-making process but couldn’t find anything wrong.

Locke opened the Water Gourd System and saw another tax reminder from the Cloud Swamp Council.

He frowned slightly; it seemed he should pay the tax as soon as possible.

Moreover, after paying the tax, he could enter the Wizarding Secret Realm, the Forbidden Library, where he could try to find things that would allow a second-circle wizard to progress rapidly at the second-circle stage.

Or at least find a way to greatly accelerate the forging process with his magic.

Locke took the waste from the crucible into the demiplane within his eye, and poured it onto the obelisk golem in front of the forest.

The obelisk golem, nourished by the potion waste, grew even larger, with small stones rolling off its surface. After these stones fell off, its eyes glowed red, and it resembled a colossal giant, radiating terrifying magical pressure.

Locke glanced at the obelisk golem; this was a potion-making treasure he had obtained during the Heavenly Ladder test at the Feathered Serpent Pavilion—the obelisk golem, born from potion residue. Under his nourishment with waste, it now possessed the magical pressure of the first stage of vaporization.

Truly remarkable.

Previously, it was just a regular first-ring magic potion, but after he used the waste from three second-ring potion-making sessions to cultivate clone potions, the stone golem’s level instantly increased.

It would be fortunate for a long time to come.

At this moment, the stone golem rolled on the ground, causing a small earthquake that startled the Dune tribe on the other side of the Forest Sanctuary. The obelisk stone golem then exposed its belly to Locke.

Stone golems are potion-making pets, feeding on waste, hence their extreme affection for Locke.

Locke reassured it slightly, explaining that there wouldn’t be any waste to eat for the next few days; after all, constantly producing waste was bankrupting him!

The resources required for the second-ring stage were simply too much.

One practice session cost 500,000 magic stones!

It was outrageous!

And even now, he didn’t understand where he went wrong during the preparation process.

Locke looked towards the Forest Sanctuary, where his Tree of Life was now a second-ring magic plant.

The Tree of Life shares its level with its master, possessing the potential to reach the third ring. Before reaching the third ring, it encounters no obstacles.

The moment it became a second-ring wizard, the Tree of Life began frantically absorbing the resources of this demiplane to become a second-ring magical plant.

Originally, the Tree of Life had absorbed enough energy during the previous meteor shower to almost evolve into a second-ring magical plant, but its own ‘hindrance’ prevented it from doing so.

At this moment, the Tree of Life in the center of the forest was lush and verdant, its veins shimmering with a pale green magical light.

It seemed as if each leaf was a living being.

Powerful magical energy was released unrestrainedly.

Locke looked at the Tree of Life and nodded in satisfaction.

“Since I can’t refine the Clone Potion in a short time, being a second-ring potion, I’ll use the Ancient Tree Fruit Clone Magic to create a clone to return to the Southeast Corner Region in my place.”

“These past few days, I’ve managed to finish reading the spellbook on the Divine Tree Clone Magic. Combined with the Ancient Tree of Life, which shares the same level as me, I should be able to successfully create a clone.”

Locke approached the Ancient Tree of Life and discovered that the soil within a 10-meter radius around the tree was cracked and parched, turning into sand.

Locke frowned slightly at this sight, as it meant that this demiplane couldn’t withstand a second-ring magical plant and couldn’t provide such powerful energy.

The Ancient Tree of Life’s imaginary roots stretched downwards and outwards, drawing a small amount of imaginary energy from the imaginary sea of this demiplane to sustain the second-ring magical plant.

Locke produced a second-circle botany spellbook borrowed from the Golden Crown Mountain Free Library. “According to what I’ve read in the free area of the Golden Crown Mountain Library since becoming a second-circle wizard,” he explained, “the imaginary roots of second-circle magical plants penetrate into an imaginary space that combines three-dimensional spatial coordinates with one-dimensional spirituality.”

“That imaginary space is the spiritual sea of a world.”

“The spiritual sea is an inherent attribute of every world. If the present world is a leaf on a branch of a tree, then the spiritual sea is not another leaf, but a vein on that leaf.”

“Therefore, just as every leaf possesses veins, every world hides a spiritual sea.”

“The reason why the imaginary roots of plants have become a common evolutionary direction is because the spiritual sea is prevalent in all worlds… Therefore, the imaginary root is a very advantageous nutrient root that magical plants have evolved to obtain nutrients.”

Locke looked at the imaginary roots of the ancient tree of life extending infinitely downwards and into the distance. His spirituality seemed to merge with that ancient tree of life, and for a moment, his eyes also saw a boundless spiritual sea with seemingly infinite depth. The

imaginary roots of the ancient tree of life were still sparse fibrous roots without a main root, so they could only float on the surface of this spiritual sea like the aquatic roots of a water hyacinth.

“The spiritual sea, scientifically known as the imaginary sea. This is the primordial spiritual land.”

Locke caught a fleeting glimpse and was forced to withdraw from that view.

“No wonder the surface of the imaginary root is smooth, without root hairs, and doesn’t need root hairs to expand its surface area; that’s a typical characteristic of aquatic roots.”

“So the imaginary space is an ocean.”

“According to the general definition, the imaginary ocean is a possibility—the possibility of the past, present, and future; the possibility along countless developmental lines in the present world; the possibility excluded beyond those already confirmed by the past; the possibility outside the present; the possibility that may still occur in the future.”

“Plants rooted in this imaginary ocean can draw enough energy from it to nourish themselves and achieve further evolution. Imaginary energy is energy that life in the normal world cannot utilize; it’s an energy built on possibility and primal spirituality… I only vaguely understand this part.” It’s

normal for a botanical magic book to not clearly explain the imaginary space, after all, it’s not a field of spiritual science that specializes in this area.

Anything explained vaguely in a book can generally be considered as the author not necessarily understanding it themselves.

At the second-circle wizard stage, no one is confident they can clearly write everything down in a book.

I’ve read about a relatively mainstream hypothesis in botany—the Imaginary Root-Soul Origin Theory—in a botanical book. It states

that after a plant’s imaginary root enters the imaginary space, it absorbs imaginary energy and unintentionally draws primordial spiritual energy from the spiritual sea. After the plant dies, this becomes a plant spirit.

Over time, this plant spirit accumulates abnormally in certain areas, eventually forming a soul.

Of course, this hypothesis is riddled with flaws, and Locke noticed its absurdity after reading the book.

First, plant spirits should logically predate plants.

Second, imaginary roots are a characteristic of second-ring magical plants; if a world had the capacity to support the development of a second-ring magical plant, it would have already given rise to higher life forms.

However, working backward from the result, it’s possible that the imaginary root entering the spiritual sea and extracting primordial spiritual energy could indeed bring some spiritual energy into the mortal world.

But whether this spiritual energy is the origin of the world’s spirituality, or even the origin of souls and spirits, is uncertain.

Locke frowned slightly as he looked at the cracks in the ground. The spiritual sea of the demiplane was relatively weak; this demiplane itself lacked the capacity to support a second-circle magical plant.

Locke bent down and placed the Four Elemental Rings on the ground. As he chanted the incantation for the first-circle spell, “Elemental Offering,” the four rings automatically embedded themselves into the earth, transforming into four ornaments.

Elemental Offering allows one to bestow elemental power upon a specific area to enhance it.

This wasn’t actually botanical magic, but rather earth magic from the life sciences.

The core incantation of the Lim Cycle Ecological Charm, which he had previously learned to prepare for a major spell, was [Elemental Offering].

He hadn’t mastered it initially, but now, thanks to his superior knowledge as a second-circle botanical wizard, and considering that both botany and earth magic belong to the life sciences, and Elemental Offering

leans more towards botany, he could now cast this low-circle earth magic. Using Elemental Offering would slightly strengthen this demiplane to support it; otherwise, it would likely be drained dry, or even destroyed, within about a year by his Tree of Life!

Locke smiled wryly.

“For a second-circle wizard and his second-circle magical plants, this demiplane is so fragile. Just strengthening this demiplane would require an unimaginable amount of resources.”

“The world of second-circle wizards certainly costs money.”

The key was that his equipment had to match his magical pressure.

Otherwise, just holding these items would require controlling his power to prevent crushing them.

A large portion of a second-circle wizard’s money is spent finding something that can withstand their power. For example, the demiplane before them needed a better way to strengthen it and stabilize its existence.

Locke used an ordinary grafting knife to cut his finger; the enchanted runes on the knife shattered after one use.

Then, Locke placed a drop of blood on a branch of the Tree of Life.

Immediately, two flower buds appeared among the leaves of that branch.

Locke stood before the tree, chanting incantations for about two weeks.

During this time, the Tree of Life continuously absorbed energy from the imaginary sea of the demiplane. The entire demiplane, as if its groundwater had been excessively drained, began to experience a continuous decrease in its relative height.

Locke glanced at the declining ‘realm’ level of the demiplane with surprise; he hadn’t expected the imaginary sea to be able to support the ‘realm’ of a plane.

That’s right. The present world represents the solidified possibilities of this world, while the Imaginary Sea represents those possibilities that haven’t yet been solidified. Solidified possibilities need to be supported by those that haven’t been solidified.

On the first day of the third week, as Locke channeled all his magical pressure into the two flower buds, the buds gradually bloomed. After Locke artificially pollinated the two flowers, one flower withered.

The other blossomed and bore fruit.

Then, the fruit fell to the ground.

The instant it hit the ground, the hard shell of the life-sized fruit suddenly cracked open, and a person emerged from it. His skin was smooth, and he looked exactly like Locke,

except for a green leaf pattern between his eyebrows.

Locke tossed him a white wizard’s robe.

Complete.

Ancient Tree Fruit clone!

(End of Chapter)