Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 823

Chapter 820 The Rest Cup, the Golden Cup, and the Trap

. Wizard Trajan considered for a moment and said, “We need to consider the prestige of these competitions and their timing. If the dates are too far in the future, participating won’t be very meaningful for you.”

“Because what you need now is to acquire resources as quickly as possible.”

“To propel you onto the path of becoming a second-circle wizard and onto the right track of the second-circle world. What you need now is resources; only in this way can you obtain special funding faster, complete the sub-projects of key projects, and successfully exit the competition.”

“Time is life. You are working hard, and your competitors are working hard too, perhaps even harder than you. Because you can only work for 48 hours a day, but your competitors may already be able to work for 72 hours a day through special treasures.”

“Moreover, they have been working harder than you for many more years.”

Wizard Trajan said, “Your competitors are all the second-circle wizards in the Academy of True Knowledge within the last five years, a total of seven.”

Locke was astonished; there were so many.

That makes sense; there should be two senior researchers at Mount Golden Crown every year.

However, every year dozens of ordinary researchers join the Golden Crown Mountain Institute of Knowledge, and they all have the potential to become second-circle wizards during their future careers at the Institute.

“I’ve sent you the information,” said Wizard Trajan.

“Considering everything, I think you should submit this project to the Breeding category of the Little Rest Cup, hosted by Little Rest Mountain.” “

Although Little Rest Mountain is only second in the Quinjol region, their actual level is likely already at, or even slightly above, Storm Tower. Little Rest Mountain is very close to Quinjol and has put significant pressure on them. The Little Rest Cup is a major competition trophy promoted by Little Rest Mountain, and they desperately need excellent projects to participate.”

Wizard Trajan continued, “The Little Rest Cup is a comprehensive competition with various events, but the most prestigious is the Breeding category. Given the quality of this project your apprentice’s teacher gave you, winning the Little Rest Cup should be a piece of cake.” “

Furthermore, if you submit this project to the Little Rest Cup, I can help you get some subsidies. The chairman of the Little Rest Cup’s competition committee is a friend of mine; I can have the staff in the Little Rest Cup’s competition committee office give you some magic stones to help with the follow-up work on your project.”

“Besides that, among the recent second-ring Wizarding competitions, the most worthwhile one to participate in is probably the Golden Cup at the Boundary Between Darkness and Light.”

“Oh, and there’s also the Creeper Cup currently being held in the Rain Swamp. That Creeper Cup mainly involves using second-ring magical plants to manipulate magical creatures, not magical plant development projects in this direction. Even if you participate, it’s considered a default failure.”

Locke nodded and asked, “I have a question, Senior Brother Trajan. If I win an award in these second-ring competitions, will I receive a Tourmaline King Peach as a reward?”

Wizard Trajan said, “Of course. Moreover, the Academy has special additional rewards for the Advanced True Knowledge Academy. In addition to the fixed reward of the Tourmaline King Peach, you can also choose one from six of the twelve peaches of Golden Crown Mountain, including the Golden Cloud Peach.”

“Essentially, the Academy certainly hopes you can participate in more competitions and win championships, which would be very beneficial for the Academy. It’s just extremely difficult,”

Wizard Trajan sighed. “When I was a regular second-circle wizard, I also dreamed of quickly winning a large number of competition championships. But every competition had many second-circle wizards participating. Every second-circle wizard was once a genius at the first-circle stage.”

“So, at your stage, I had no choice but to give up that idea.”

“Later, I found a better path. Becoming a plant hunter, entering the void, exploring valuable magical plants… this way, I could also indirectly complete second-circle level projects.”

On the magic carriage, Locke’s tiger eyes automatically opened, looking behind Trajan. “Senior brother, there seems to be something behind you.”

Wizard Trajan’s eyes were calm. “I know.”

Something seemed to be wailing in the darkness, then stumbled and staggered backward, finally disappearing into the darkness.

Trajan the Wizard said, “The Dark World is extremely dangerous.”

“Being a plant hunter isn’t easy either. Which competition do you want to participate in?”

Locke thought for a moment and said, “Senior brother, I want to complete more second-ring level projects to earn academy rewards. Applying for grants is indeed highly competitive, but in these kinds of competitions, my advantage is significant. I want to participate in more second-ring level competitions.”

Locke’s thinking was very clear because second-ring grant projects are essentially basic research.

This kind of basic research has high value, high development difficulty, but its commercial value may not be very high.

However, various competitions are different. There are many of these competitions, and what they actually want is not to deepen or explore the content of a certain basic research,

but to develop a powerful magical plant.

Therefore, his shared imaginary root system and the related wizard shoes he developed could participate in such competitions.

It’s just that the wizard shoe competition in Cloud Swamp is currently organized by Solas’s Barefoot and Melochy’s Magic Step, and he doesn’t need to go looking for trouble, so he didn’t plan to use the wizard shoes and shared imaginary root system to participate.

But if he participated in the competitions himself, he could use the Rubik’s Cube and his own vast magical system to quickly develop all sorts of powerful magical plants.

Not just magical plant competitions, but also potion-making competitions—he could participate in those as well.

Locke said to the wizard Trajan, “Besides the Creeper Cup, senior brother, I’d like to participate in all the competitions.”

The wizard Trajan was clearly taken aback.

“Participating in all of them?”

“It seems you have grand ambitions.”

“Alright, as long as you have enough energy, you can participate in as many competitions as you want. However, each competition requires a registration fee and qualification review. Some competitions require a Second-Ring Breeder certificate. The three competitions I recommended earlier don’t. About half of the ordinary Second-Ring competitions require a certificate, while the more advanced Second-Ring competitions almost always require a Second-Ring Breeder certificate.”

Wizard Trajan said, “I just contacted the Xiaoxi Cup competition committee for you, and they’ve sent you a friend request on the Water Hyacinth System.”

“The Xiaoxi Cup competition committee office is very optimistic about your project. Therefore, they are willing to provide five million magic stones to support you in completing the subsequent content.”

“The condition is that you must participate in the Xiaoxi Cup with this project.”

Locke, sitting in the magic carriage, was stunned for a moment, because he hadn’t expected his senior brother to make a simple contact and immediately secure a sponsorship of five million magic stones for him.

Indeed, he desperately needed money right now.

Because all his money was tied up in payments for goods, he was indeed short of funds to develop other projects.

“My senior brother is really amazing; with just a little effort, he managed to secure sponsorships for me.”

Locke opened the Water Hyacinth System and saw a Star Ring Wizard requesting to add him as a friend. He also saw the specific requirements for participating in the Golden Cup sent to him by Wizard Trajan.

The Golden Cup has first-ring and second-ring competition zones, each with different events. For example, the second-ring zone has three events: the Golden Cup Flying Breeding Magic Plant Competition, the Golden Cup Golden Magic Plant Breeding Competition, and the Golden Cup Golden Magic Spell Model Competition.

In principle, a wizard can only participate in one Golden Cup event at a time, and multiple entries for the same project are not allowed.

Locke’s target was the Golden Cup Flying Breeding Magic Plant Competition.

This was mainly because he possessed a raw material that could be developed into a second-ring flying magic plant: the Magic Dragon Rose!

Currently, the Magic Dragon Rose was essentially a wild second-ring magic plant, uncultivated and undeveloped.

The plant that had been with him the longest was the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow. Locke had always planned to combine the Magic Dragon Rose with the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow to develop a more suitable

and powerful second-ring flying magical plant.

Therefore, his attention immediately turned to the flying magical plant competition under the Golden Cup.

Wizard Trajan said, “Winning the championship will get you the Tourmaline King Peach, and the academy will also give you corresponding rewards for placing in the top three.”

Locke asked, “Senior brother, if I participate in the Golden Cup, could you ask the Golden Cup competition committee for some participation subsidies?”

Wizard Trajan smiled wryly. “Junior brother, you’re being a bit unrealistic. I can help you get subsidies from the Lesser Rest Cup because of the quality of your project and my deep friendship with the wizards in that office.”

“But I don’t have any connections with the Golden Cup competition committee office.”

Locke had no choice but to give up.

Trajan suddenly spoke up, “Locke, besides that, there’s something else I really need your help with.”

Locke said, “Senior brother, please tell me.”

“If I can help, I certainly will,”

Trajan said. “It won’t be much trouble. It’s just that I need to go to the Dark King’s chambers again to confirm one thing: whether this Dark King is the sole ruler of this great world. But for some reason, I can’t let the Dark King know my name. Once the Dark King knows my name, I will be unable to leave the Dark World for eternity; my name will fall into his hands.” “

Therefore, I need you as my keeper. I will now place my name in your hands and use the power of the [Black Hole Peach] to perform a secret ceremony.”

“You will be the keeper of my name; I am entrusting my name to you for safekeeping. My name will be stored in the Black Hole Peach, but if I directly put my name into the Black Hole Peach, I will never be able to retrieve it. My name will be sealed away by the Black Hole Peach like magical junk. Therefore, I need a keeper to retrieve my name when I need it.”

“I wonder if this is possible?”

Locke pondered for a moment in the magic carriage.

“If so, will the Dark Lord come and ask me for my name?”

Wizard Trajan said, “I will try my best to avoid contact with him.”

“He shouldn’t find you. But even if he does, because of the distance across the void, as a Sun Ring level being, he can’t do anything to you, a Second Ring wizard.”

“I originally wanted to find someone else, but you happened to find me at this time, so I thought I’d ask you for help.”

Locke smiled, “Of course. I’m not afraid of any Dark Lord, I’m just afraid of delaying my senior brother’s affairs.”

“Senior brother, you can give me your name for safekeeping.”

Wizard Trajan said, “Raise your right hand.”

“And recite this incantation.”

Locke recited the incantation truthfully, and then a black peach-like rune pattern appeared on his right wrist.

Trajan and Locke’s incantations rang out at the same time, and the power of their incantations overlapped, summoning the Black Hole Peach. Then, the magic peach rune pattern on Locke’s wrist seemed to dissolve as if it had been soaked in water.

Black ink dripped from Locke’s wrist, and then a small black hole appeared beneath Locke and the wizard Trajan.

Trajan chanted a spell, plucked his name from his soul, and placed it into the small black hole.

He said to Locke, “From now on, I will close the Black Hole Peach. You are the only one who can retrieve my name from it. Note that once I close the Black Hole Peach, you must never utter my name. If you do, my name will emerge from the black hole and return to my hand.”

Locke nodded.

‘Brother Trajan is already so powerful, yet he still fears that Dark King so much.’

At that moment, Trajan chanted the spell again, and Locke and the black hole beneath his feet slowly closed.

In the instant the black hole completely closed, Locke forgot Trajan’s name.

But quickly, Locke remembered Trajan’s name.

Trajan the Wizard smiled and said, “I trust you to do things. Locke, you must protect my name.”

The next moment, he ended the video call.

Locke looked at the magic peach pattern on his right wrist.

“So, I’m now my senior brother’s confidant. I have to be careful not to mention his name. I didn’t ask earlier if, besides not being able to say his name, I also couldn’t write it down. Oh well, I’ll just assume I can’t mention his name.”

Locke could sense Trajan’s trust in him.

As the confidant, he could say he had complete control over his name at this moment. If he died, his name would be lost forever in the black hole magic peach.

Although he didn’t know what would happen if someone lost their name.

And if he revealed his name at a crucial moment, the Dark Lord could seize it.

So, this confidant’s job couldn’t be obtained without absolute trust.

Locke checked Arthas’s pre-sale and found that the pre-sale volume was rising rapidly; twenty-five pairs had already been sold.

“Huh? What’s going on? So popular?”

Locke was somewhat taken aback. This was the first pair of second-circle wizard shoes from the Augustus Wizard Shoe Shop Alliance, so he hadn’t expected sales to be very high. He hadn’t anticipated reaching his pre-sale limit so quickly.

If this continued, he would have to take out a bank loan and find a way to increase the sales of the first batch of wizard shoes to one hundred pairs.

Actually, one hundred was already a high number for the second-circle wizard supplies market.

Because it was the first pair of second-circle wizard shoes, his skill level was still limited, so he hadn’t priced it too high. Each pair of shoes would only earn him 500,000 magic stones, and after sharing the profits with the platform, he would only earn 250,000 magic stones per pair.

Locke priced it this way for two reasons: first, his only advantage was currently his low price;

second, there was no need to price the basic model too high.

He could price the upgraded models higher.

Moreover, if he used Arthas’s production line, he only needed to provide the seeds to Arthas.

“Although I don’t control the production line, there might be some problems later, but those are problems that will arise when the business grows bigger,”

Locke pondered. “I can stick to the asset-light approach and build my Wizard Shoes Alliance into a brand.”

“For now, I can use Arthas’s production line.”

At least until he becomes a third-circle wizard, Arthas will always be his friend.

Locke started searching for wizards on the Water Hyacinth System and scheduled loan appointments with the five major banks.

At the same time, he noticed that the Cloud Ze Council’s vote had ended.

The Cloud Ze Council’s White Wizard Association still maintained the tax exemption right for first-circle wizards.

“Hmm? The Cloud Ze Council is starting to urge me to pay taxes.”

Locke realized that he had been putting off paying taxes for a long time.

But in essence, he still owed the White Wizard Association three million magic stones in taxes.

On the Water Hyacinth System, the official account of the White Wizard Association sent him a message.

‘Wizard Locke Augustine, the following are Void Exploration quests suitable for you. If you don’t want to pay taxes this year, you can accept any of the following Void Exploration quests.’ Locke

glanced at the exploration missions and found that most were for exploring medium-sized or medium-to-large-sized worlds, with a few being planar conquest missions.

For example, in the Saxon Purgatory world, a demon lord who had recently defected to the wizarding world had suddenly declared his rebellion against the White Wizarding Association and refused to accept its rule.

They were recruiting second-ring wizards to participate in the war, offering exemption from this year’s taxes.

Locke frowned.

“Exempting three million in taxes through these missions is certainly good. But for a second-ring wizard, it’s too much of a waste of time. One mission and a year is wasted.”

“For me now, the time and opportunity costs outweigh the monetary costs. Naturally, I can’t do void exploration missions to avoid the White Wizarding Association’s taxes.”

Locke closed the Water Hyacinth System and noticed that the thirty pairs of Bloodwave Pineapple Wizard Shoes he had opened for pre-sale had already been completely sold out.

There were even comments requesting him to sell more.

Locke frowned as he looked at the comments, surprised that his second-ring wizard shoes were so popular.

What had happened?

…

At Quinnjoll University, wizard Edgar addressed his fellow second-ring wizards in the same laboratory: “We’re going to the Great World of Gardner, a world where fire element makes up 30% of the entire world. Even ordinary people in Gardner possess a very strong affinity for fire.”

“If we walk on the land of Gardner for too long, our shoes will spontaneously combust. Therefore, we need a good pair of wizard shoes.”

A star-ring wizard standing before him nodded, “That’s right.”

“Without wizard shoes, entering the land of Gardner would be impossible. Forget about doing research; the time we spend changing shoes and treating our feet every day would be enough to prevent us from doing anything else.” “

However, wizard shoes in Cloudswamp are very expensive. The cheapest pair of second-ring wizard shoes costs between two and three million.”

“The Wizarding Weavers’ Guild monitors the secondhand market for wizard shoes very closely, so prices hardly drop, while quality suffers significantly,”

said Wizard Edgar. “Then let’s buy these pure magical plant wizard shoes.”

A flicker of doubt crossed the eyes of the Star Ring Wizard.

“Pure magical plant wizard shoes? Augustus? This is a brand we’ve never heard of.”

“Will this work?”

“The Great World of Gardner is extremely dangerous; even Sun Ring Wizards have a high mortality rate there. We can’t risk our lives to save money!”

An alarm sounded from inside the laboratory, and cries for help from Quinjol wizards echoed through the telepathic magic array.

“A group of natives in Gardner is attacking our Research Institute No. 1 in Gardner. We need support. Please send reinforcements from Quinjol University as soon as possible.”

The Star Ring Wizard’s face was grim.

Wizard Edgar said, “It seems the situation is very urgent, and our laboratory has a limited budget. Instead of spending a lot of money to buy Solas Barefoot and Melochy Wizard Shoes, or even more expensive wizard armor, we should buy these shoes from the Augustus Wizard Shoes Alliance.”

“The designer of this Alliance is a good friend of mine.”

Ignoring the skeptical look in the eyes of his group leader, Wizard Edgar stated frankly, “This is a powerful friend. I have absolute confidence in his abilities. If you won’t wear them, I will.”

Wizard Starring’s expression softened. He knew Edgar’s character; anyone Edgar could endorse must be of a certain skill level.

“No, I trust your judgment. Edgar, let’s buy his wizard shoes then. We expect to need thirty pairs.”

Wizard Edgar paused, taken aback.

“Thirty pairs? That’s thirty million magic stones?”

“Do we need that many people?”

Wizard Starring nodded.

“Gardner is a massive world. If it weren’t for the invention of wizard shoes and wizard armor, we wouldn’t even be able to operate within it. It’s not that Gardner is particularly powerful, but rather that its environment is extremely unique, requiring wizard shoes or wizard armor for protection to move freely.”

“Back then, it was Quinnjoll, the Rose Council, Mount Golden Crown, and the Storm Tower that jointly attacked Gardner, allowing us to enter. Gardner contains a large number of indigenous populations still living in primitive societies, possessing immense potential for development.”

Wizard Edgar expressed some surprise.

“Is primitive society really that powerful?”

the Star Ring Wizard asked. “It’s mainly a matter of distance. The world of Gardner is very far from the wizarding world, so the power we can deploy is limited. Moreover, primitive society is just a stage of civilization development, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t strong individuals at this stage.” “

The world of Gardner is a world with a large number of false gods. Almost every indigenous tribe has its own tribal deity. The first reason I

‘m taking you there is to broaden your horizons. The second reason is that there’s a tree god in Gardner, and my teacher wants me to take you to see it. Perhaps it will help with your ‘Returning All Things to the Tree’ skill.” “By the way, Edgar, did you register for the Golden Cup? Are you participating in the Flying Magic Plant Competition or the Golden Magic Plant Competition?”

Wizard Edgar asked. “I’m participating in the Golden Magic Plant Competition under the Golden Cup. I’m not good at the Flying Magic Plant Competition. And right now, I need a lot of resources, and I predicted that someone would participate in the Golden Cup’s Flying Magic Plant Competition. So, I deliberately avoided him.”

Inside the laboratory, the Star Ring Wizard looked at him strangely.

“How strange. You actually went out of your way to avoid someone. Who is that person?”

…

In the Golden Crown Mountain region of Yunze Wetland, Locke’s magic carriage suddenly stopped.

The wizard driving the carriage, a cultivator at the Qi Transformation stage, hesitated for a moment, then spoke to the people inside: “Lord Locke, several patients have suddenly blocked our path.”

“They seem to have contracted some kind of plague and are pleading for our help. They want to invite us to a place.”

“Should we stop?”

Inside the carriage, Locke frowned, lifted the carriage curtain, and looked outside.

Outside was a desolate wilderness; this seemed to be the territory of a mortal empire.

There were practically no wizards here.

The wizards blocking the way were all first-class wizard apprentices.

Locke sneered; this was clearly a trap, but he didn’t know who had set it up.

Locke said, “Ignore them. Just keep going.”

(End of Chapter)