Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 803

Chapter 800: The First Second-Order Potion Created: Spirit Stabilizer

Three weeks later, in the southeastern corner of the Forbidden Forest, Locke’s clone was shrouded in the magical forest. A dragon rose appeared on his body, its leaves resembling dragon wings, allowing him to fly swiftly through the forest.

“The core ingredients are Tomato Sauce and Stonefir Heart, both first-ring magical plants found deep within the Forbidden Forest.”

“There are a hundred kinds of materials in total: peripheral materials, secondary materials, and auxiliary materials, all of which can be harvested within the Forbidden Forest…” “

Seven-Star Grass, Valerian Leaves, Taras Dates…”

Locke flew through the central area of the Forbidden Forest. Since he was currently a guest of the Forbidden Forest, neither the dangerous magical creatures nor the magical plants chose to attack him.

Within certain limits, the Forbidden Forest seemed to allow him to harvest.

Of course, this was limited to casually picking a few fruits to taste, similar to passing by.

But if he went too far, the Silent Bee Fairy would intervene.

Previously, he had attempted to gather a large quantity of potion-making materials from within the Forbidden Forest at once, but the Silent Bee Fairy came to stop him.

If he persisted, the King of the Forbidden Forest might come looking for him.

Therefore, he only gathered what he needed in the Forbidden Forest; private property was

n’t allowed there—everyone picked what they needed. Storage was simply prohibited,

as storing unused resources was the first step towards creating private property.

Locke brought the materials back to his 500-year-old research institute in the Forbidden Forest. Inside, there was a makeshift potion room.

A crucible sat in the room, where Locke had spent three weeks refining the [Stable Spirit Potion] using the raw materials from the Forbidden Forest.

The [Stable Spirit Potion] had two versions: without using a spirit macro, it was a common potion for entering the void; with a spirit macro, it became a second-ring potion.

It could be said to be the easiest potion to refine at the second-ring stage.

Now, after three weeks of practice, Locke felt he had almost mastered this potion.

“Using wild potion ingredients is more convenient, even though it’s a bit more troublesome to find them.”

Locke lit his Primal Flame and, following the steps, added potion ingredients to the crucible little by little. On the workbench, he used the Spirit Vein Stitcher to crush the Taras dates.

Because Taras dates are a first-ring enchanted plant, crushing such a plant is equivalent to destroying its pressure-furnace-like plant cells.

In an instant, a magical light burst forth from the grafting knife.

Locke’s expression remained unchanged; this was normal. Wizards have a permanent defensive field, and his grafting knife was a second-ring enchanted artifact, so he wasn’t afraid of explosions.

Small explosions often occur when processing first-ring enchanted plant materials.

There was nothing to worry about.

Locke poured the squeezed juice into the crucible, and then a flame rose inside. At the peak of the flame, Locke poured the pre-extracted tomato juice, which had been stabilized using a special potion magic model called [Stabilizing Energy], into the crucible.

Then, as the flames within the cauldron shot out like tongues of firewood, Locke tossed the spruce heartwood, resembling kindling, into the cauldron.

At that moment, the cauldron crackled and popped like a fireplace crammed with matches, and due to the reaction of the complex natural magical components within, multicolored sparks appeared among the pile of firewood.

These sparks flew about like fireflies.

Locke’s expression remained unchanged; this meant the Potion of the Stable Spirit had been successfully crafted, but the most crucial step was the final one.

Like adding the eyes to a painting,

success in this final step meant a standard second-circle potion. It

would be the first potion he had successfully crafted using normal potion-making methods.

And this final step was the one he had struggled with for three weeks without success.

But today, Locke had a premonition that he was about to succeed.

‘Second-circle potion-making requires very strong intuition. Meticulous control alone is no longer sufficient for this stage of potion-making.’

‘And intuition is something I excel at.’

Locke exhaled.

“I hope I have good luck today.”

Locke placed the grafting knife on his little finger, the knife rubbing intensely against his permanent defensive field, sparks of magic appearing.

The instant he dispelled the field, his little finger was cut, and a drop of blood fell into the cauldron, which burned like a pile of firewood in a fireplace.

The next moment, purplish-green cracks appeared on the cedarwood heartwood inside the cauldron.

Then, all the cedarwood heartwood ignited, transforming into a beam of fire that shot into the sky, like swirling snowflakes in the wind, dancing and spinning in the air.

There was no liquid left in the cauldron.

Locke frowned. “I still didn’t master the last step; it’s still a bit short of the simplified steps transformed by a level 10 spirit macro.”

“But I succeeded.”

The flames fell like liquid in mid-air, like a torrential downpour, yet some purplish-green liquid had already appeared inside the cauldron.

Locke lifted the crucible and quickly poured the contents into the Time Crystal Potion Bottle, a standard-shaped bottle, then sealed it with a birch wood stopper.

Locke looked at the potion before him, gently shaking it. The potion showed no change, not even a fluctuation of magical energy within.

‘Success! This is a finished Stable Spirit Potion!’

Locke felt a surge of excitement; this was his first successful attempt at crafting a second-ring potion.

This meant he was one step closer to becoming a true expert-level potion master.

Although his basic spiritual knowledge was insufficient, his decision to “take the plunge” meant that once he mastered all three second-ring potions, he could take the certification exam, receive the Golden Crown Mountain reward, and elevate his qualifications to become an expert-level potion master.

Unlike the plethora of first-ring potion masters, expert-level potion masters could instantly elevate one’s status anywhere.

In Golden Crown Mountain, an expert-level potion master could elevate an ordinary second-ring wizard to the level of a Moon Ring wizard!

Locke held up the potion bottle.

“The Spirit Stabilizing Potion, after being taken by a wizard, will completely stabilize the spirituality within his body. It is used to treat the Void Aphasia that occurs when a wizard is in the Void for a long time.”

Normal life forms exist within planes, fundamentally different from void creatures—the void beings.

The difference between void beings and plane beings is greater than the difference between plane beings and rocks.

When plane beings enter the void, their souls cannot adapt to the void environment for long, causing their spirituality to scatter and spread into the void. Ultimately, the weaker individuals’ spirituality completely dissipates, turning into fragments.

Stronger individuals also experience severe physical mutations.

Of course, that’s the final stage of void aberration.

However, early symptoms of aberration can also manifest in wizards or other life forms, causing dizziness and a drop in magical pressure during void travel.

Wizards may also experience an inability to control their magic.

This is mainly because within a void spacecraft, it’s easy to use magical arrays and the world principles of the wizarding world to maintain magical ebb and flow.

But spirituality is different.

Within a void spacecraft, the spacecraft entering the void is equivalent to the wizard entering a spiritual vacuum.

The void is void precisely because the distribution of spirituality and matter in the Great Void is extremely limited.

Spirituality has the characteristic of spreading from highly spiritual areas to those without; therefore, if a living being remains in a spiritual vacuum for an extended period, their spirituality will dissipate.

While the process of spiritual degeneration takes hundreds of years to reach its final stage, certain symptoms will appear in its early stages.

Even if only a small amount of spirituality evaporates from a living being, and while initially insignificant, the loss of vital spirituality can severely impact its existence.

Therefore, stabilizing spirit potions are strategic resources, a form of hard currency.

Locke looked at the Spirit Stabilizing Potion before him. “The effect of a second-circle Spirit Stabilizing Potion, I remember, is semi-permanent.”

“While a regular Spirit Stabilizing Potion usually only lasts for one flight. Perfect timing, my main body went with Senior Brother Trajan to the White Wizarding Guild’s Demon Hunter Division a week ago to accept a mission, and we’ll be on a small void-based flying vehicle for the next few days.”

“This way, I can try out my Spirit Stabilizing Potion.”

Locke thought for a moment, then decided to take advantage of his remaining energy to brew another bottle, since Senior Brother Trajan would also be going on the flying vehicle.

Since he was specifically brought along this time,

he might as well brew a bottle of Spirit Stabilizing Potion.

Anyway, he needed to brew potions to improve his proficiency and enhance his perception of spirits.

Besides, brewing potions in the Forbidden Forest allowed him to collect materials.

“I wasn’t satisfied with the last bottle, so I need to optimize it a bit this time,”

Locke pondered. “With my current mana and energy, I can probably only refine it one more time. Then I’ll need a long rest.”

“With the influx of primal force from the natural primal plane, my recovery speed far surpasses that of a typical second-circle wizard. So my clone only needs a day or two of rest to basically recover its peak magical pressure.”

Locke raised the cauldron and spent another half a day working hard to refine the second bottle of Spirit Stabilizing Potion.

Just as Locke put away the Spirit Stabilizing Potion, he heard the roar of some kind of wild beast, the sound of chains dragging on the ground, and the roar of the King of the Forbidden Forest from

within the Forbidden Forest. Locke was used to this in the research institute.

He had heard many such sounds in the past three weeks.

At first, he asked the Silent Bee what had happened to the King of the Forbidden Forest.

Later, he got used to it.

“The high-magic project in the Starfield Sea seems to have caused quite a bit of unrest,”

Locke pondered. “For example, the Forbidden Forest in the southeastern corner. Silent Bee told me that it’s because the concentration of magical tides has been increasing too rapidly recently, causing some things that were originally sealed away to start stirring.”

“If it’s like this in the Forbidden Forest, what about other places?”

“Will there be even more unrest in other places?”

Locke recalled that during the Silent Grail War, Mystic Heaven didn’t send any wizards to observe the competition.

This was already very unusual.

It seemed the chain reaction triggered by the High Magic Project was beyond his current comprehension.

Locke walked out of the research institute, looking at the two vials of potions in his hands. He saw a powerful Potions Mastery Realm appearing in the Forbidden Forest, supporting the two vials.

“There’s a Mastery Realm within the Forbidden Forest,”

Locke thought, looking towards the source of the dragging chains—the location of the King of the Forbidden Forest.

“There must be a High Magic Mastery Realm within the Forbidden Forest, either the King of the Forbidden Forest or someone else. His presence caused a Mastery Realm to appear in the Forbidden Forest.”

“However, the King of the Forbidden Forest is shrouded in mystery. He doesn’t like others prying into his secrets. So, let’s leave it at that for now.”

During this time, Locke had tried to contact the King of the Forbidden Forest.

In any case, befriending someone suspected to be a third-ring level being was definitely not a bad idea, especially since he planned to use the Forbidden Forest to build his research base.

But the King of the Forbidden Forest had never shown himself.

He had only met him once.

After that, it was the Silent Bee Fairy who communicated with him.

The King of the Forbidden Forest seemed to resist meeting outsiders, and showed no interest in anything outside except his own secrets.

Though unwilling to admit it, Locke found it difficult to pique the King’s interest, even as a ferocious beast.

He wondered if this was due to the King’s personality or because he was only a second-ring wizard.

Locke sensed a disturbance of second-ring magical pressure emanating from nearby.

“Hmm? Jugglus has finally arrived. So fast, he just got off the wizard’s airship and came straight here.”

“He seems quite anxious.”

Locke donned the Dragon Rose, which seamlessly clung to his body, strengthening his dragon bloodline, and then quickly flew towards the location.

“Silent Bee Fairy, please show mercy, this person is my…student.”

In the distance, three ancient second-ring tree-men, seemingly speaking trees, stood.

They possessed a strange energy.

When Wizard Jugglus fought them, that strange energy, like some kind of vibrant wild energy, continuously surged into his spellcasting.

The wizard Jugglus’s face was grim. His spellcasting model couldn’t withstand that energy for long; it would shatter.

It was as if this place was resisting civilization.

The orderly spellcasting model would quickly descend into chaos under the impact of that energy.

This made him fight cautiously, even afraid to unleash his most powerful spells, lest that energy flood his spells—that wouldn’t be a joke.

It would truly be fatal.

Who knew if that strange energy, once it entered his most powerful spells, would be difficult to remove, or even amplify them?

The wizard Jugglus’s face was incredibly pale. He feared Locke had tricked him, sending him to this infamous, forbidden forest to his death.

The mysterious forbidden forest had claimed countless wizards from afar.

One more or less wouldn’t make a difference.

But hearing Locke’s voice now filled the wizard Jugglus with joy, because at least it confirmed that Locke wasn’t deceiving him.

The wizard Jugglus looked at Locke and said, “Researcher Locke, these tree-people are really strange. They have a special energy surge, and my spell models simply can’t stabilize in this environment. Because they’re so special, I dare not use powerful magic.”

“Even my permanent defensive field is affected by them.”

Locke glanced at him, his tiger eyes appearing on his forehead, looking down at him as if he were looking at prey.

Hmm?

Symptoms similar to psychic disorder, except that psychic disorder is the spread of one’s own spirituality to the outside world, while this situation seems to be that one’s own spirituality is affected by some very powerful natural force.

‘The Forbidden Forest has been able to exist independently for so long, resisting the invasion of high-ring wizards, it really does have its own trump cards.’

Locke thought: ‘However, judging from this situation, it seems that giving him a bottle of second-ring stabilizing spirit potion might solve his problem. But forget it, potions are too expensive.’

‘I just wanted to use him to help me solve the problem of death energy pollution in the Forbidden Forest, to get him to help me get a blessing from the Tree of Words from the fairy. Let him overcome it on his own.’

Locke glanced at the three-headed tree spirit and thought, “I’ve hit the jackpot. “

If Jugglus really helped him and solved the problem, according to the agreement, the fairy would bless his tree spirit once, and he would gain a tree spirit with this special energy.

It was incredibly powerful.

Even just one blessing would be a huge gain.

At this moment, Jugglus looked at Locke, who was draped in the Demon Dragon Rose and resembled a four-headed black dragon, and he shuddered slightly. For some reason, looking up at Locke, who stood high above him with tiger-like eyes on his forehead, he felt a little afraid,

like prey being watched .

“It

‘s just an illusion,” Jugglus thought. “I’m being too sensitive. I suspected Locke was trying to trick me as soon as I entered the Forbidden Forest. Now I suspect he sees me as prey.”

Locke said to the three tree spirits, “These are my students. Please step back.”

The three tree spirits immediately exchanged glances, then looked at Locke with awe, sensing the World Tree leaf aura emanating from him.

The three tree-people immediately said, “Respected Lord Locke, we are very sorry for mistaking your student for an intruder. We are truly sorry for saying so many threatening things to him earlier.”

“We will leave now.”

The three tree-people slowly departed.

Wizard Jugglus Juggler was stunned.

What was going on?

Tree-people could talk?

What the hell was happening?

Although second-ring wizards possessed a multitude of spells to enlighten tree-people, those spells only granted them animalistic instincts, not the most important ‘humanity’—the soul.

‘Language is the mark of civilization, do tree-people have civilization? Are they an intelligent race?’

Wizard Jugglus Juggler was bewildered.

“Impossible, this…it’s highly unlikely.”

“Unless you use Master’s Dragon-Viewing Peach King, who can grant a beast humanity!”

The apologetic voice of the Silent Bee Fairy appeared beside Locke.

“Ah, I am truly sorry. Because of the large-scale incursions of dark wizards into the Forbidden Forest, I reinforced the tree-people there, and almost accidentally killed your student.”

“Those are the [Surging Wildness], energy stored deep within the Forbidden Forest from ancient times of barbarism. The Surging Wildness can increase the number of wild beasts, but it suppresses the power of humanity. Alas, if I hadn’t suspected that the little wizard was related to you, Lord Beast, and thus slightly hindered these talking trees, I fear the little wizard would have died.”

Locke nodded slightly, not telling Jugglus Juggler what the Silent Bee Fairy had said.

After all, it wouldn’t be good to tell Jugglus Juggler that he had almost died.

‘I didn’t expect the Forbidden Forest to be this dangerous.’

‘In other words, the very core of the Forbidden Forest is likely filled with the Surging Wildness energy, the primal state of civilization. I fear that even an ordinary wizard would face death simply by entering the core of the Forbidden Forest.’

Locke looked at Jugglus Juggler, “Jugglus Juggler, you’ve arrived. I’ve reached an agreement with the Forbidden Forest, it took some effort.”

“And there was a considerable price to pay.”

Locke waved his sleeve, and Jugglus Juggler’s eyes immediately filled with self-reproach and guilt.

“Yes, it’s such a dangerous place, yet Locke allowed him to move around and conduct research safely here. How much effort did Locke put in behind the scenes?”

Wizard Jugglus even felt that Locke was incredibly loyal.

Locke said to him, “You can move freely in the central area of the Forbidden Forest, but you absolutely must not damage a single tree or blade of grass, and you cannot do anything unnecessary. Otherwise, the Forbidden Forest will rage, and we will both lose our lives.”

Wizard Jugglus immediately assured him, “Okay.”

He was still shaken by the three-headed tree-man from earlier.

“Wizard Locke, don’t worry, I know what’s important. The first rule in the wilderness is to follow the rules.”

“Don’t worry. I know. Locke, you’re truly loyal. I didn’t expect you to actually provide me with such a research environment. From now on, you are my friend, Jugglus. Whatever articles I write because of this, you must share them with me.”

Wizard Jugglus followed behind Locke, and the two freely traversed the Forbidden Forest.

Looking at the forest around him, which had returned to calm and seemed completely safe, Jugglus was filled with admiration.

At this moment, some second-circle spell models in his mind’s eye actually malfunctioned.

That mysterious energy was truly bizarre.

When it filled the air, certain functions of his soul seemed to be suppressed.

This terrified him.

It felt like a fish landing on land, a bird settling on the ground.

He desperately wanted to escape that environment.

Locke smiled at Wizard Jugglus Juggler, “We’re all researchers from Golden Crown Mountain, students of the same teacher, from the same lineage. Your well-being is my well-being. Classmates don’t lie to each other.”

“Jugglus Juggler, this is the site of the death energy pollution. You can study it.”

Wizard Jugglus Juggler looked at the land with longing, while putting on a small, portable breeding device—an electromagnetic magic mirror monocular.

Locke glanced at the equipment.

Wizard Jugglus Juggler explained, “I borrowed this device from the group leader of Group 1. This way I can observe better. There’s no other way; I can’t bring the electromagnetic magic mirror over during field research.

“This function is a bit weak, but it’ll do. After all, it’s the wilderness; conditions are tough.” However, only second-ring wizards are eligible to borrow it, and there’s a long waiting list. The usage fee for one use is 500,000 magic stones. “

The advantage is that you can borrow it for a long time; since I’m not going back, I don’t have to return it.”

“True death energy pollution falls under the category of elemental soil evolution. Excellent! Excellent!”

(End of Chapter)