Chapter 768: Spiritual Resonance’s Hundred Interpretations, Insufficient Contribution Points, and Arrival at the Southeastern Quadrant

Three and a half weeks later, Locke looked toward the Blue-Skin Troll wizard Akman and asked, "Mr. Akman, are there no more rubbings of the Spiritual Resonance?"

Akman the wizard lifted his enormous feet and walked between the library's peachwood floors and bookshelves, then spread his hands open toward Locke and said, "There are none left, Wizard Locke."

"Golden Crown Mountain's alchemy is, to begin with, rather ordinary... ahem, ahem, what I mean to say is that there is still considerable room for improvement. And Spiritual Resonance is extraordinarily precious. Never mind the originals, even printed rubbings of them are extremely valuable. That I was able to find two printed rubbings for you before was already quite remarkable."

Akman suggested, "Wizard Locke, if you have Second Circle-level contribution points to spare, you could exchange them for Spiritual Resonance rubbings. Golden Crown Mountain's library does have a sufficient number of Second Circle Spiritual Resonance rubbings available for exchange."

After obtaining the Spiritual Resonance the last time, Locke had finally come to understand why his every attempt at brewing the Avatar Potion had ended in failure.

Having read through a great deal of the free section's Spiritual Resonance-related materials and having consulted Witch Yekaterina on the subject once, he had at last grasped that a Spiritual Resonance was a kind of intrinsic property belonging to a thing.

Just as a thing's mass, density, and specific heat capacity were its intrinsic physical properties, a Spiritual Resonance described the intrinsic properties of that same thing on the level of its spirituality.

Second Circle wizards could observe the flow of planar force with the naked eye, and so on that foundation, a Second Circle alchemist could delve deeply into researching the trajectory formed by a thing's past spiritual flow.

A Spiritual Resonance was precisely this kind of thing.

The reason Second Circle potions were powerful enough to take effect upon life-forms of a Second Circle wizard's caliber was precisely because the process of refining such potions had already reached the level of utilizing the Spiritual Resonance.

When he had come to realize this, Locke also discovered that when he had previously been reading the Avatar Potion's formula, he had overlooked several places he had assumed to be of no consequence.

Specifically, when refining the Avatar Potion, one was required to cut a gold coin in half with a magical blade, then cast the two halves into magical flames, smelt them into a gold sphere, and finally drop that sphere into the crucible.

At the time he had followed these steps rigorously, but had not thought much of them, and had in truth overlooked the dimension of the Spiritual Resonance entirely.

Locke reflected, 'Once the dimension of the Spiritual Resonance is taken into account, the act of drawing an alchemical material along the rim of the crucible, or lightly tapping the crucible once with a gold coin, gestures that appear utterly simple and meaningless, have already become a form of important alchemical material in their own right.'

'Because these gestures represent a Spiritual Resonance being introduced into the potion. A Spiritual Resonance is the secret form of a thing, the hidden spiritual shape of an alchemical material. It is the product of a Second Circle alchemist having perceived the true nature of the world.'

The gap between a potion refined without a Spiritual Resonance and one refined with one was as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.

It was a shame that even rubbings of Spiritual Resonances were scarcely available in the free section.

A Spiritual Resonance was a kind of hidden true form of an alchemical material, a secret formal attribute.

Yet even though he now felt he understood what a Spiritual Resonance was and grasped the meaning of the term, to speak honestly, it was not of much practical use.

He had spent three and a half weeks repeatedly examining the single Scarlet Bloodstone Spiritual Resonance in his hand, yet he found the spiritual changes within it so extraordinarily complex that it seemed entirely beyond human capability to reproduce the Spiritual Resonance that the Bloodstone had accumulated across however many ages of the past.

This meant he was wholly unable to make use of the Bloodstone's Spiritual Resonance as an alchemical material.

For an alchemist, to be unable to command a Spiritual Resonance was like being deprived of an eye.

His perceptive ability was insufficient.

And so it followed that he was naturally unable to successfully refine a Second Circle potion.

Locke had also worked out that the patterns on the surface of the Bronze Cauldron left to him by King Otto were in fact a form of extremely advanced Spiritual Resonance, which was precisely why he had been able to use another person's Spiritual Resonance to brew the Blank Potion.

But in truth, that could not be called and successfully refining a Second Circle potion.

Locke let out a long sigh.

"Then please find me some reading accounts and research reports relating to Spiritual Resonance rubbings."

Wizard Akman smiled and said, "That is certainly possible. The free section contains many such books. However many you want, I can find them for you. What is more, I do not believe it would be in your interest to spend precious contribution points on Spiritual Resonance rubbings just yet."

"I am not an alchemist myself, but as an expert-level generalist scholar, I can still offer you a word or two of guidance. Spiritual Resonance sounds profoundly mysterious, yet for a Second Circle alchemist it is simply a different way of perceiving the world. It is therefore a skill not unlike arithmetic, one that requires repeated practice and gradual progression from shallow to deep before one can truly enter it."

"Read through the Spiritual Resonance research documents in the free section first, and only then exchange for Spiritual Resonance rubbings one by one. That order of approach would better serve your interests."

Locke thanked Akman and said, "Thank you, Mr. Akman. Over this past month you have given me no small amount of guidance."

The two of them, having been in contact for a month, now had quite a good rapport.

Locke carried none of the faint aloofness typical of native wizards of the wizard world, and was himself extremely studious as well as a wizard of archaeology, all of which made Akman greatly enjoy conversing and exchanging ideas with him.

Akman said, "I think it would be best for you to also seek out a Second Circle alchemist to study under or consult. Spiritual Resonance studies are extraordinarily complex and form the very core of Second Circle alchemy."

"This kind of knowledge is difficult to acquire through books alone. It is a practical skill. It is also among the few things I have read yet been unable to truly understand, and so I can only record it in my mind with absolute precision."

"To prevent any error in recollection, I can only reproduce it exactly as I remember it."

"Of course, due to my contract with the academy, even though I have stored a considerable number of Spiritual Resonance rubbings in my mind, I cannot pass them on to you."

Locke found himself somewhat troubled by this.

He had not expected that continuing down the path of alchemy after becoming a Second Circle wizard would prove this complicated.

Old Akman was right. Looking at it now, trying to become an expert-level alchemist through books alone was going to prove extremely difficult.

The trouble was that alchemy at Golden Crown Mountain was truly rather mediocre to begin with, and the alchemists here all belonged to the Steward's Division. Apart from having some acquaintance with Wizard Daniel, he had no relationship whatsoever with the other wizards of the Steward's Division.

Simply turning up at their door out of nowhere to ask for instruction felt rather abrupt.

Locke thought it over. Perhaps he could try his luck at the Feathered Serpent Pavilion. But of course, in the end everything still depended on himself, which meant he would certainly have to spend this period reading as much Spiritual Resonance-related material as possible.

Wizard Akman then recommended, "Beyond all of that, I suggest that when you have the opportunity in the future, you subscribe to the magical text Spiritual Resonance's Hundred Interpretations. It requires 3,000 Second Circle contribution points."

"In my view, it offers the best value as an introductory work on Spiritual Resonance."

Locke nodded.

"Thank you, Mr. Akman."

The contribution point system of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands was divided by circle level, with each tier entirely non-interchangeable with the others.

A Tier 1 publication at the Second Circle level could yield roughly 1,500 contribution points, while a Tier 2 publication could yield around 800. However, unlike at the First Circle, Tier 3 and Tier 4 publications at the Second Circle offered almost no contribution points whatsoever.

Even having an article accepted in a Tier 3 journal earned only 20 contribution points, while a Tier 4 journal yielded a mere 10.

In Locke's estimation, the entirety of the Tier 3 and Tier 4 journals at the Second Circle level functioned more like a deliberately designed channel for Second Circle wizards to grind contribution points in a superficial sense.

This made it easy to see just how low the true value of those Tier 3 and Tier 4 publications was.

The standing of Tier 3 and Tier 4 publications bore a strong resemblance to the article-for-contribution-points exchanges at the First Circle's library stage. Essentially, the primary publishers in Tier 3 and Tier 4 journals were the libraries of the various academies.

In substance, it was no different from simply posting one's articles into the various academies' library collections.

'3,000 contribution points means I would need to publish two Tier 1 articles, or four Tier 2 articles, to accumulate that total,' Locke thought. 'On the surface it does not seem like much, but in practice it is a great deal. Because Second Circle journals are not easy to get published in, especially at Tier 1 and Tier 2.'

'Even Tier 3 and Tier 4 carry certain review requirements. One cannot simply submit and expect acceptance, and so even grinding for contribution points comes with its own costs.'

Locke furrowed his brow. "And I need to maintain a strong academic record. Publishing too many Tier 3 and Tier 4 articles would affect how the wizards of top institutions view me in the future."

"So the best approach is not to follow the example of those Second Circle wizards who pad their records with Tier 3 and Tier 4 articles. Tier 2 at most."

"Beyond that, to quickly accumulate more contribution points and exchange them for the Spiritual Resonance's Hundred Interpretations I need, there are also competitions, awards, and the earning of professional certificates to consider."

A wizard who passed the Second Circle-level alchemist examination would immediately receive 10,000 contribution points.

That was equivalent to publishing seven top-tier Tier 1 articles.

Which made it easy to see just how formidable the difficulty of earning a Second Circle alchemist certificate truly was.

In the distant past, Second Circle alchemists had been extraordinarily rare, so rare as to be counted on one hand, and Locke had even begun to suspect that during the Age of Stars, Second Circle alchemists might have represented the very pinnacle of the alchemical community.

After all, it was plainly evident that for a very long period, an alchemist's circle level had tended to fall somewhat below that of ordinary wizards.

Locke looked toward Akman and said, "Mr. Akman, aside from all of this, do you recall whether the library holds any archaeology magical texts available for exchange?"

His own Wizard King Magical Text could only assist him in becoming a Second Circle archaeologist, creating a legendary history, and nothing beyond that.

The most powerful magic recorded within it was the spell Summon Demon God.

The only portions of that magical text still useful to him now were the chapters recording the bloodlines of ancient creatures, along with a handful of other interesting minor spells.

Wizard Akman paused. "No. I recall that the name of the Second Circle-level archaeology magical text is the Black and White Magical Text."

"It records the path to the Third Circle. It is extraordinarily precious."

Locke immediately understood. As a magical text, it might not have been especially sensitive below the Second Circle stage, but if it already contained a clearly delineated path toward becoming a Third Circle wizard, then such a text could only be described as an extraordinarily precious resource.

And since the lineage of archaeology was sparse to begin with, it stood to reason that the number of Black and White Magical Texts still in existence in this world should be very small indeed.

Wizard Akman thought for a moment, then spoke. "Ah, right. The origins of magical texts trace back to the autocratic monarchs' era, specifically to an exceptional wizard known as the Peacock Maharaja. That wizard-monarch commanded the archaeologist wizards of his time to pool the entirety of their collective wisdom and create the very first magical text in history."

"Rubbings were then made from that original text, producing copy after copy of subordinate magical texts. I recall that the number of Black and White Magical Texts derived from that original source was only... one thousand."

Locke furrowed his brow.

One thousand?

If there were truly only one thousand, then this Black and White Magical Text was sufficiently rare that, accounting for those lost, damaged, or seized by major organizations and locked away in their vaults, the number of Black and White Magical Texts still in normal circulation throughout the world was anyone's guess.

This meant that if he could not obtain a copy of the Black and White Magical Text, his path in archaeology would simply come to an end.

Locke felt it keenly. At the Second Circle stage, resources of every kind were scarce, whether those directly enhancing one's spiritual force, or the inheritances of alchemy, or the inheritances of archaeology. All of them were far more difficult to come by than at the First Circle or apprentice stage.

Fortunately, this was Golden Crown Mountain, at least leaving no shortage of botanical inheritance.

The study of evolutionary theory here was well-developed. Over this past month, he had read a considerable amount of ecology and evolutionary theory-related material in the free section and had even found occasion to consult Witch Yekaterina twice.

He had made no small amount of progress.

Of course, over this same month his magic pressure had risen by only a single point.

He had done the arithmetic. At this rate, using the advanced meditation method for a year would yield a gain of only 12 points in magic pressure. Ten years would yield 120 points. One hundred years, 1,200 points.

For reasons as yet unknown, the lifespan of present-day Second Circle wizards had been reduced by four-fifths compared to Second Circle wizards during the Age of Stars, a drastic shortening of their upper limit.

And so even a Second Circle wizard who poured every last effort into cultivation could not be sure of raising their magic pressure by more than 10,000 points within a single lifetime.

This was because the later stages of spiritual force development had to be taken into account, and those stages grew progressively more difficult.

Moreover, from what Locke had gathered through various inquiries, he had confirmed one additional thing: his current rate of advancement was, astonishingly, somewhere between average and above average.

This was likely due to the constant influx of natural primal force from the plane, as well as the physical constitution reforms he had undergone using the Solar Potion during the First Circle stage, which meant his innate aptitude was not considered poor.

And so there remained a great many Second Circle wizards who were advancing even more slowly than he was.

Some gained a single point of magic pressure in half a year. Some gained a single point in a full year.

This explained why so many wizards spent their entire lives stagnating at the ordinary Second Circle stage.

Under such circumstances, without some form of external aid, extricating oneself from that stagnation and accelerating one's progress was no easy thing.

Locke looked toward Akman and said, "Aside from the reading reports on Spiritual Resonance rubbings, Mr. Akman, could you help me with one more thing?"

Akman smiled and said, "Locke, go ahead."

Locke said, "I recall the library holds certain documents relating to wizard shoes. Could you provide some of those for me as well?"

Over this past month he had also been setting aside time to think over how to resolve the issue of virtual root costs being too high, with the goal of designing his first wizard shoe made entirely from magical plants.

Akman glanced at Locke.

"Of course. There is a great deal of material here on that subject. The only thing is that Golden Crown Mountain does not have high-quality articles relating to wizard shoes. Bonifacius University and the Rose Council's library would have considerably more in that area."

"You could apply for a borrowing certificate and go to the Rose Council to read their materials."

"If you have friends within the Rose Council, you might even be able to borrow documents that require a certain level of clearance to access. Those articles contain the finest research methods on wizard shoes in the entire Cloud Marsh Wetlands."

Locke immediately thought of Witch Lana, his acquaintance within the Rose Council.

Come to think of it, it was through his own initiative in writing to her that they had ever had the chance to meet at all.

Locke nodded. "When the opportunity presents itself, I will visit the Rose Council's library and borrow some of their articles."

Akman stretched out his right hand, and a magical tome flew into his grip of its own accord.

"But our Golden Crown Mountain library is not without its strengths. I know you have recently been attempting to develop a Second Circle wizard shoe."

"Wizard Locke, there is one point you have not considered, a distinct advantage that only you, as a wizard of Golden Crown Mountain, would possess."

Locke paused.

"What?"

This was where the greatest benefit of being a generalist scholar lay. They read widely and truly merited the title of doctor in the broadest sense, rather than narrow specialists. Their understanding of any given field was never more than a surface impression, yet their overall grasp of a vast number of disciplines was impressive.

They could offer ideas that one had simply never thought of on one's own.

Akman smiled and said, "Under the discipline of force mechanics there is a third-level subdiscipline called wave dynamics, and Golden Crown Mountain's Council of Elders is the ancestral home of wave dynamics."

"Golden Crown Mountain's force mechanics is extremely well-developed. Our force mechanics wizards have researched the biomechanics of human and various magical creature locomotion to a degree of detail that would astonish you."

"Look at this one. This is an article written by Wizard Nosho Fischer a hundred years ago, titled 'The Relationship Between the Angle of Spinal Oscillation and Plantar Deformation in Human Walking.'"

"And this one, 'The Load-Bearing Structure and Pressure Distribution of the Forefoot in High-Speed Movement of Human Wizards.'"

"And this one, 'The Pressure Distribution of the Foot upon Landing from a Jump by a Human Wizard'..."

Akman looked at Locke and said, "You see, all of this is your advantage. It is an advantage that the wizards of the Rose Council would never think to make use of."

"The Rose Council's primary research in mechanics focuses on materials mechanics and dynamics. Their study of human body mechanics is nowhere near as in-depth as ours here at Golden Crown Mountain. In my estimation, as long as you can work through the thousand articles on human body mechanics available in the free section, the wizard shoes you design will see a very significant improvement in comfort alone."

Locke asked with some curiosity, "Cannot they borrow Golden Crown Mountain's articles as well?"

Akman shook his head.

"That is not really the issue. The deeper problem is that the magical weavers are stuck in their own little world, every one of them confined to their own alchemy workshop, that small patch of land they call their own."

"They have not paid attention to other disciplines for a very long time."

"Truthfully, a great many wizards of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands have found them disagreeable for quite some time now."

Akman lifted one of his enormous feet.

"Look at me. I simply wanted to purchase a pair of everyday Second Circle magical artifacts for daily use, and somehow, inexplicably, I ended up being forced to spend five million magic stones in total."

"And all because I started by buying the cheapest available model."

Akman appeared to feel this point very keenly. He was relatively poor by nature, and had been swindled out of five million magic stones by the magical weavers on top of that, with additional annual maintenance fees to boot.

The moment he thought of it, Akman grew all the more indignant.

"Someone should have sorted out that lot of magical weavers long ago. They gouge even the generalist scholars. Ever since they monopolized the wizard shoe market of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, what wizard shoes are has meant something entirely different from before."

"The magical weavers have been adding more and more definitions to their wizard shoes. Sigh. Were it not absolutely necessary, there are times I would not want to purchase wizard shoes at all."

Akman said, "The problem is that when venturing into certain dangerous places, especially into foreign domains, going without a decent pair of wizard shoes makes it difficult to walk normally in certain worlds, or to flee quickly when danger arises."

Locke gave a slight nod.

A pair of shoes, seemingly ordinary on the surface, was in truth a reflection of the level of magical light industry.

Akman said, "And so, Wizard Locke, I support you."

After exchanging a few more words with him, Locke took his leave of the library and made his way back to his dormitory, while also tending to the arrangements for Witch Mason's group of three at the spirit fungus magical plant station.

Over this period, the three of them had been helping him with a considerable amount of First Circle bromeliad magical plant data survey work.

After all, when developing the bromeliad wizard shoe earlier, he had drawn heavily on the existing materials within Group Six as well as his own prior research into bromeliad magical plants.

Now that those materials and accumulated research had been exhausted, it was necessary to seek out more bromeliad-type magical plants with potential for further wizard shoe development.

Of course, in the future it was quite likely that he would not remain confined to bromeliad magical plants alone, but for now he was still temporarily keeping his focus on the air bromeliad varieties, which had already achieved considerable success in the wizard shoe domain.

This screening work was somewhat tedious, and Locke was himself eager to quickly familiarize himself with the various common knowledge of the Second Circle, so the three of them, Witch Mason included, had voluntarily taken on this work on his behalf.

In exchange, of course, he would in turn help the three of them locate research topics eligible for Tier 1 Fund projects and assist them in completing that work.

This was actually quite straightforward.

When he developed his Second Circle wizard shoes, he would inevitably be working with a greater variety of energy-locking structures. Selecting three of them and handing them to the three of them to research would most likely be sufficient to help them conclude their Tier 1 Fund projects.

In the end, the relationship between Second Circle wizards and First Circle wizards was precisely this kind of mutually beneficial arrangement.

At this moment, Locke saw that Witch Mason had sent him, through the water hyacinth system, a photograph of a First Circle magical plant called the Iron Nail Bromeliad.

Locke examined the bromeliad, considered whether it would be of use, and ultimately, with a degree of caution, added it to a list he maintained of backup grafting magical plant candidates.

At the same moment, Locke sensed something, and raised his head to look in the direction of the southeastern quadrant.

For it seemed that the wizard floating vessel carrying his Ancient Tree Fruit had arrived at the southeastern quadrant.

This was good.

Locke maintained two bodies simultaneously. He reached out with one body and picked up the cup of hot water that his attendants had prepared for him on the parlour table, dropping in a wizard tea bag. It was the Green Fish Tea.

Every single tea leaf was shaped like a small green fish.

Locke drank a mouthful of the Green Fish Tea, and the spiritual fatigue of simultaneously operating two bodies was at once cleared away. He was beginning to understand why wizard tea was, if anything, even more popular among Second Circle wizards.