Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 909

Chapter 904: Winning the Gold Grail Championship!

Behind each pilot wizard carrying a flying magical plant stood a referee. Since everyone took off from the same line, and there were over fifty runways in total,

with 28 in use,

the referees behind each pilot wizard needed to calculate the time. Some runways had turns on the inside of the curves, while others had turns on the outside. Therefore, the referees needed to convert distance into time to ensure that each pilot’s flight distance was relatively equal.

At this moment, with the sound of whistles, one flying magical plant after another took to the air.

Some of these flying magical plants were giant lotuses, swirling in mid-air.

Some were rows of small roses, like pins, that could be hung on a person’s clothing, carrying the wizard forward.

Others were dandelions, like silver locks, that a wizard could hold in their hand, carrying them forward.

The most majestic and imposing was the Thunder Spruce, resembling a massive warship enveloped in lightning, surrounded by a storm of lightning that propelled the spruce tree forward.

However, among the 28 flying magical plants, the one leading the pack was the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow aboard Barrett.

Flames coiled around the three small and one large banana-shaped wings on the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow’s back, and then the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow dyed half the sky a fiery red, even turning the golden light reflected from the Golden City above crimson.

The Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow wasn’t the first to set off, but it accelerated rapidly, quickly reaching the lead and flying along the cableway, leaving the other 27 flying magical plants far behind.

The Thunder Spruce, as the first magical plant to set off, had the advantage of being first, but was now being completely left behind by the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.

The crystallized wizard standing atop the Thunderspruce tree looked grim. He tried to forcefully increase the tree’s speed, but the surrounding thunderstorms suddenly intensified and became more active, forming thick thunderclouds. The next moment, a flying dragon crashed into it. Because the Thunderspruce was at least a hundred meters long, although it possessed great power, its agility was lacking.

Unable to dodge, the Thunderspruce was directly struck in the middle by the crystallized-level magical dragon king. A deafening roar echoed through the sky as the Thunderspruce snapped in two, countless bolts of lightning shooting out from within.

The Thunderspruce spun in the sky before falling alongside the dragon king, its head bruised and bloodied from the crash.

In the stands, the wizard who created the Thunderspruce abruptly stood up, completely shocked by what he had witnessed.

“But the Thunder Spruce does have a higher total magical pressure, allowing it to accelerate the magical plant more quickly. It’s just that its agility is somewhat lacking.”

“Among all the participating flying magical plants, my Thunder Spruce ranks third in absolute speed.”

The second-ring breeder’s face was incredibly grim.

He lowered his head and quickly left the spectator area. He had been full of confidence, thinking he could at least compete for a top-three position, but who would have thought that he would be the first to be eliminated due to the flying magical plant’s lack of agility? It was truly humiliating.

At this moment, many flying magical creatures began to break free of their chains and enter the cableway, signifying that the competition had entered a new stage.

True Sight Crystal Balls waiting at various points on the cableway flew out one by one, recording all the competition footage and projecting it into the air, allowing the spectators to see the distant competition more clearly.

At this moment, a massive beehive flew out from the center of the cableway.

A wizard from the Golden Dynasty in the audience exclaimed in surprise, “That’s the Julian Hive! The Julian Queen is hiding inside, controlling the swarm, and it possesses formidable aggression. It’s a genuine second-circle magical creature!”

However, the entire swarm is only a second-circle magical creature.

At this moment, the Julian Hive has broken free of its chains. With the chains broken, the previously sealed hive has been released. This is a terrifying world-destroying monster capable of destroying a medium-sized world with just one hive.

On the aerial cableway, many flying magical plants immediately encountered attacks from countless Julian bees.

Some flying magical plants were quickly eliminated halfway.

At this moment, the first place was still the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, and the second place was the Flying Gourd created by a wizard from Ancient Vine Village.

Locke, sitting in the audience, looked at the wizard from Ancient Vine Village, [Leon Newman], with surprise. He hadn’t expected this guy to be so strong.

At this moment, Leon Newman was intently watching the arena. His newly developed flying gourd was carrying a wizard, who, along with the wizard Barrett, was approaching the Julian swarm’s main body.

The Julian swarm was an extremely aggressive horde of magical beasts. They were inherently neurotic, and their world-destroying tendencies stemmed from their instinctive annihilation of anything that might threaten them.

However, because the Julian swarm overreacted, they easily developed a annihilating hostility towards any object with high energy.

Currently, the Julian swarm was going berserk as two high-energy objects rapidly approached their hive. The terrifying swarm was flying through the air, attempting to stop the two flying magical plants from getting closer.

The wizard on the flying gourd, seeing the countless bees approaching, tensed down and patted the gourd’s opening. The opening automatically generated a suction force, sucking the swarm of bees in before they even got close.

Leon Newman, seeing this, breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Bruce, the wizard from the Windbound Sanctuary, who was watching the match, let out a soft exclamation. His eyes lit up slightly when he saw the flying gourd.

‘What’s going on? Did I really underestimate everyone? I thought it was an unimportant, old-fashioned match, but I didn’t expect to see two decent flying magical plants in this competition.’

‘That gourd looks pretty good too. It definitely has the potential for further development.’

After swallowing a large swarm of bees, the flying gourd suddenly emitted a surge of magical tidal energy from the hole at its tail, abruptly accelerating its speed.

The flying gourd, as big as a car, actually caught up with the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.

Wizard Leon Newman was extremely excited, even standing up from his seat. He turned and looked up at Locke, his eyes full of challenge.

Locke remained expressionless.

A gasp rippled through the audience as flames suddenly erupted at the center of the Julian’s Hive. The flames then spread like wildfire, followed by a deafening explosion from the heart of the fire. Thanks to Locke’s pre-planned strategy of using a lone tree to support the bird, the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow used its special imaginary horns to blast open the Julian’s Hive.

A large hole appeared in the hive, and it burst into flames.

The entire hive slowly descended from the sky, a roar erupting from the queen bee’s center.

Many wizards in the audience applauded, while others whispered amongst themselves, remarking that this was no ordinary flying magical plant; it was practically an offensive one.

Wizard Bruce, witnessing this, was filled with admiration.

Few breeders could combine the mobility and offensive power of a flying magical plant so perfectly. Its unique flames not only provided powerful attacks but also granted immense mobility through backward thrusts.

Even more intriguing was the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow’s incredible teleportation ability; it could abruptly stop mid-air or rapidly move in a certain direction by spewing flames. In other words, this flying magical plant possessed formidable combat capabilities.

Wizard Bruce turned to his secretary, the Moon Ring Witch, and said, “I remember someone from the Siming Waters region placed an order for us to equip their void warships with small flying vehicles that possess superior combat capabilities and can navigate through the void.”

The Moon Ring Witch secretary quickly flipped through the documents in her hand and accurately replied, “That’s right. The order came from the wizarding academy in the Siming Waters region. They have many wizards specializing in the mind-control school there, and their void warships are more geared towards mind control magic. However, the void mothership itself is quite fragile, hence the need for close-combat flying vehicles with strong combat capabilities.”

“But navigating through the void requires not only the performance of traditional flying vehicles but also environmental isolation, right?”

Wizard Bruce said. “What’s so difficult about that? The Siming Waters region is one of the wealthiest wizarding areas in the Eastern Boundary. The wizards there are incredibly rich; why not make money off them? After they purchase the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, we can also buy them a set of wizard robes that isolate them from the internal and external environments, and a wizard mask that can adapt to the principles of the void, right?”

“And this also has significant advantages. According to their requirements, this essentially means individual wizard movement will be the primary mode of operation. This effectively enhances mobility.”

The Moon Ring Witch’s secretary, flipping through documents, said, “The attack performance of those Great Green Leaf Dragonflies yesterday also shows the potential for developing these magical plants’ autopilot attack modes.”

“Developing them into loyal wingmen for automatic attacks might not be bad,”

Wizard Bruce considered seriously.

“Indeed. The most valuable plants in this competition were that Great Roaring Dragonfly and that unexpected surprise—the Flying Gourd.”

“The rest of the magical plants…”

This perfectly matched his previous understanding of flying magical plants.

Things like the Thunder Spruce were utter nonsense.

And then there were the Crystal Wind Chime Grass, or other flying magical plants like the Great Scythe Lotus—their performance was unremarkable, and in Wizard Bruce’s eyes, they had no value for development.

These magical plants were decent as personal wizard spells, but if they were turned into flying machines, they would inevitably fall short in various details.

Moreover, the Wind Harvesters’ Holy Land itself had high standards.

Ordinary things couldn’t catch his eye.

An hour passed, and the gap between the various flying magical plants on the field was widening. Once a flying magical plant fell behind, it was very difficult to catch up.

Except at the beginning of the competition, when the pilots of the various flying magical plants were relatively close together, the distance between them increased every ten minutes.

At this point, it was clear that most of the flying magical plants had no hope of winning.

The participating wizards, sitting in the stands, had accepted the result; some were happy, some were sad.

The flying magical plants of the wizards from Black Iron Mountain Wilderness had tried to catch up with the flying magical plants cultivated by Locke and [Leon Newman] in the early stages of the competition, but after failing to catch up, they had to give up.

On the field, the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow was in the lead, but the Flying Gourd was close behind.

Wizard Leon Newman clenched his fists, his palms sweating, intently watching the results on the field. The normal speed of the Flying Gourd was far inferior to that of the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.

However, the Flying Gourd contains an enchanted magic array, within which lies a second-ring magical artifact called the [Water and Fire Pearl]. This second-ring artifact can grind down anything swallowed by the Flying Gourd, transforming it into pure magical energy, which is then ejected to accelerate the gourd’s flight speed.

In other words, because there are dangerous magical creatures on this track that can be swallowed by the Flying Gourd, then pulverized by the enchanted magic array and the Water and Fire Pearl artifact, turning them into pure magical tidal energy to increase the gourd’s speed, it is able to keep up with the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.

Locke looked at him and said, “Wizard Newman, your design for the Flying Gourd is truly thoughtful.”

It was designed entirely for this race.

It’s a design adapted to this type of track.

But what surprised Locke slightly was how effective this design was. Despite having a significantly lower base stats than the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, it closely followed it, even showing signs of overtaking it in some sections of the track.

Leon Newman, the wizard, nervously wiped the sweat from his neck with a handkerchief. His face pale, he turned to Locke and smiled, saying, “But it’s only just enough to catch up with your work.”

“That’s not enough.”

Leon Newman clenched his fists, his palms sweating.

‘The Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow achieved this without any tricks, relying solely on its basic stats. That’s truly amazing. I never expected to encounter such a strong opponent in the Golden Cup; it’s beyond my expectations.’

‘I thought I was sure I could win the championship.’

“But I underestimated the geniuses of this world. My Flying Gourd’s only chance to beat the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow is if an incredibly powerful magical creature appears on that cableway. With the help of that creature’s energy, it might suddenly accelerate and instantly overtake the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.”

“In about ten more minutes, the two flying magical plants will reach the finish line. Time is running out for my Flying Gourd.”

A wizard from the Black Iron Mountain Wilderness sitting next to Leon Newman glanced at him and Locke, thinking strangely, “It seems my Green Dumpling Cloud Puzzle can only come in third place.”

At this moment, his work, the Green Dumpling Cloud Puzzle, resembled a green dumpling with cloud-like silver veins on its surface, a heart-shaped silver leaf, some fuzz on the back of the leaf, and a flower blooming in the center of the leaf.

However, what lifted it into the air was the silver, cloud-like veins on the surface of the Green Cloud Gourd, which condensed moisture and transformed into white clouds, like a few auspicious clouds adorning the green dumpling, allowing the Green Cloud Gourd to fly.

Unfortunately, the Green Cloud Gourd’s base stats were significantly inferior to the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow and the Flying Gourd, resulting in a considerable fall, and this gap was widening over time.

But the Green Cloud Gourd wasn’t without its advantages. This magical plant appeared incredibly light, almost weightless.

When attacked by other magical creatures, the disturbed airflow often allowed it to easily evade their physical attacks, and even some spells that violently disrupted airflow would cause it to automatically float away, avoiding the attacks.

The Black Iron Mountain Wizard, Patrick, looked at the first and second place winners, sighed, and relinquished his last shred of hope; it seemed he had little chance of winning.

The Qing Tuan Yun Pu Zucchini was a creation passed down through three generations of his academy. He had finally managed to win several competitions in the Black Iron Mountain Wild Wizard Lands this year, giving him the confidence to participate in the Golden Grail War. However, his confidence was immediately shattered upon entering the arena.

Suddenly, Leon Newman, the wizard, stood up excitedly.

“The opportunity has arrived! Simon, quickly swallow that mechanical dragon!”

At this moment, both Simon, Leon Newman’s pilot, and Barrett, Locke’s pilot, had seen the red flag representing the finish line atop a three-headed chimera in the sky ahead.

Then, a dragon composed entirely of mechanical components appeared on the cableway. Its body was like a perfect cube, with two mechanical cannons on its shoulders and missiles covering its tail.

The mechanical dragon’s core consisted of suspended hollow mechanical spheres containing a solar transmutation array—an alchemical transmutation array capable of powering small airships—providing energy to the mechanical dragon.

At this moment, the cannons on the mechanical dragon’s shoulders began to charge, generating high temperatures. Two energy cannons then fired towards Barrett and Simon.

Barrett and Simon’s flying magical plants reacted automatically, quickly dodging the energy cannon’s trajectory.

However, the flying gourd Simon was riding didn’t avoid the mechanical dragon; instead, it rapidly approached, generating a powerful suction force from its mouth. Even the energy cannon’s trajectory was distorted, and it began to be sucked into the vortex of wind at the gourd’s opening.

The mechanical dragon roared, raised its tail, and began bombarding the flying gourd and wizard Simon with missiles.

However, as soon as the missiles got close, they were all sucked into the flying gourd.

Wizard Leon Newman shouted to the sky, “Simon, suck that sun-transforming array into the flying gourd! The flying gourd will unleash its maximum speed in an instant. That way, we might win the championship!”

In the stands, whether it was the participating wizards, ordinary spectators, or the high-ranking officials of the Golden Dynasty, everyone was invigorated.

Could there be a dark horse in this competition? Could

this dark horse defeat the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow, who was considered the biggest hope to win before the competition, and thus take the championship?

At this moment, the wizard Barrett glanced back at the flying gourd that had suddenly changed direction.

In the stands, Locke remained calm, seemingly unconcerned about whether the flying gourd could obtain the solar transmutation array on the mechanical dragon’s chest.

“Barrett, there’s no need to worry about those behind us. Just head straight for the finish line.”

Locke possessed rich combat experience, so he knew that this was not just a competition of flying magical plants, nor was it a contest of flying magical plant traits.

The mechanical dragon itself was the work of an extremely skilled alchemist.

It possessed considerable combat power.

The design of the flying gourd, which increased its flight speed by swallowing people/objects, was indeed very interesting, and the flying gourd’s object-swallowing magic was indeed powerful, but based on his own combat experience, Leon Newman’s idea of having the flying gourd swallow the mechanical dragon in a short time was pure fantasy.

It was just a desperate gamble in the face of certain defeat.

There was no need to worry about such a desperate gamble.

The probability was too low.

Most importantly, that mechanical dragon was likely a large-scale, second-ring combat-grade bionic magical artifact from the Alchemy School. If it was controlled by a team of alchemists, even several ordinary second-ring wizards wouldn’t be able to break through its defenses.

At this moment, the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow continued its journey towards the finish line.

Wizard Leon Newman kept his eyes fixed on the Flying Gourd and the mechanical dragon.

“There’s only one way to defeat the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow. Flying Gourd… you are my masterpiece…”

In the audience, the Russell Throne looked up at the two magical plants vying for the final championship and nodded approvingly, saying, “Both are good children. They have added a lot of color to our Golden Cup Flying Magical Plant Competition, surpassing the level of previous competitions.”

At this moment, on the last 20,000 meters of the cableway track in the sky, the mechanical dragon, facing the air vortex of the Flying Gourd, suddenly unleashed two high-temperature rays from its eyes. The two high-temperature rays shot into the Flying Gourd, seemingly damaging something, and the entire interior of the Flying Gourd suddenly exploded.

Simon the Wizard, perched atop the flying gourd, was nearly thrown off by the explosion.

He clutched the narrow opening of the gourd, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“How could this happen? I was just one step away.”

In the stands, Leon Newman the Wizard pressed his right hand to his forehead, bowing in defeat with a sigh of resignation.

At the same time, applause and gasps erupted around him.

The Great Crying Dragon Sparrow had reached the final finish line!

The champion of this year’s Golden Grail had ultimately fallen into Locke’s hands.

No dark horse had snatched it.

Leon Newman the Wizard raised his head and gave Locke a half-bow.

“I lost.”

“The Flying Gourd embodies all my hard work. I thought I could win the championship, but I never imagined I was so far from it.”

“It’s such a pity I couldn’t win this competition for Ancient Vine Village.”

Wizard Leon Newman sighed.

However, he wasn’t dwelling on it. Although he lost, he quickly adjusted his mindset.

He thanked Locke, “Thank you, Mr. Augustine. You showed me a higher level of breeding science and gave me a challenge. Wizards from Ancient Vine Village are never afraid of challenges. We may lose, but we will never give up.”

“You won this time. You are the victor. But next time, I will continue to challenge you.”

Locke, sitting above him, nodded slightly.

“Leon Newman, I’ll remember your name. You are welcome to challenge me again in the future.”

Locke glanced at Leon Newman, who had sat down again.

This person wasn’t without a chance of winning, just a small one. If the pilot he hired had stronger combat skills, perhaps he could have used the Flying Gourd to suck the entire mechanical dragon in and suddenly unleash its speed to snatch the championship from his grasp.

However, his second-place finish in this Golden Grail competition wasn’t because his skill level was only slightly below his own.

The wizard Leon Newman probably didn’t expect that his skill level was actually much lower than he thought.

Because of this competition, and because of his own actions, several contestants naturally didn’t participate. There were

the flying magical plants produced by the Rose Council’s magical plant crystallization technology, and the magical plants from that genius breeder in the Mamluk Rift Valley.

If these two had participated, Leon Newman’s Flying Gourd would probably only have ranked fourth.

Because he himself would still have been first.

‘The wizard from Ancient Vine Village does seem quite reliable,’

Locke mused.

‘Judging by his defiant attitude, I’ll probably encounter Leon Newman in other competitions in the future.’

The host announced in a cheering tone, “The champion of this year’s Golden Grail has been crowned! Congratulations to Wizard Locke Augustine from Cloudze Wetlands and Golden Crown Mountain for his creation, the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow!” “

As per our pre-competition agreement, Wizard Bruce Sun Ring from the Holy Land of the Wind Chaser will be collaborating with this champion to establish a shop alliance, focusing on developing the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow as a flying machine.”

“Let us once again congratulate Locke Augustine on winning the championship!”

“Judges, please comment on the results…”

In the audience, Wizard Leon Newman could only dejectedly watch his half-broken flying gourd slowly approach the finish line, barely managing to cross it before third place, Qing Tuan Yun Pu Xi Hu.

At least he secured second place.

Wizard Leon Newman turned to look at Locke, who was wearing a golden flower crown held atop his head by a witch, and a competitive spirit gleamed in his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s always been like this. It was the same when I was in Ancient Vine Village.”

“There will always be someone more capable than me. I can only silently chase after them, but through that chase, I’ve finally arrived at where I am today.”

“Chasing, chasing, I will eventually surpass those people.”

“Having a goal is better.”

Wizard Leon Newman looked at Locke, a competitive glint in his eyes.

“With such a powerful breeder as my role model, I can improve even faster.”

“Locke Augustine…”

(End of Chapter)