Chapter 783: The Conditions for Advancing to Star Ring Wizard

The human youth saw the undead's words of final rest, and immediately seized his younger brother's hand.

He was not intelligent, and so he did not have many thoughts about it. He was neither courageous nor capable.

At his birth he had received no blessing of planar force, nor had the world ever poured more of its resources into him than into any other. And so he was in no way exceptional.

He was an ordinary youth of the tribe.

But at this moment it was time for him to make a choice. The youth looked at the ice fragments on the ground and tightened his grip on the sword in his right hand.

"I am going to the Burial Ground."

"Father died at the hands of the undead. Our chieftain, who was the best among us, died at the hands of the undead. Mother died at the hands of the undead too. Uncle the hunting captain once said that the greatest hunters are always full of courage."

"If I drive this sword into the Burial Ground, the undead will be killed. So I am going."

His younger brother seized his older brother's hand.

"Then I am coming with you."

The two of them made this decision neither through rational calculation of their own circumstances, nor through an impulsive act of emotion. It was the anxious resistance of small and powerless individuals in this eternal winter age, and the only possible action available to them.

This was an entirely headstrong decision, utterly heedless of what lay ahead, and it caused vast amounts of planar force to converge upon the two of them.

Locke watched the two of them intently.

"Artificially creating a chosen one requires complex precognition magic and a precise grasp of the situation. It requires decades of control. I once witnessed such methods in the Mage Plane."

"But in truth, simply following the inherent logic of the world itself allows one to quickly select a chosen one. This requires only going along with this world's natural laws of development."

"When this world's native beings voluntarily take on the responsibility that a chosen one must bear, planar force converges upon them. An ordinary person making a choice can also become a hero."

"Mr. Akman, thank you for translating and selecting documents for me."

Locke commanded his tree-man army and the life tree-man to actively press the attack against the undead catastrophe, drawing the army's attention away from the two brothers.

At the same time, he understood that even so, for these two to cross the glaciers and walk all the way to the undead stronghold in this land would be an enormous challenge.

And so along the road the two brothers walked, he left behind some simple botanical magic inheritances, along with certain life tree leaves imbued with his own magical force.

At Golden Crown Mountain's library, Wizard Akman handed Locke a magical text.

"Because I have mastered hundreds of magical languages in my mind, reading documents across disciplines for you is quite simple. But at the end of the day, you are the expert in this field."

"And so the one who must make the judgments is still you."

Wizard Akman said, "According to this article written by Witch Yekaterina in her younger years, you can channel your magical force into a life tree leaf, and then allow a wizard to hold that leaf and temporarily draw upon the magical force stored within it to deploy some simple spells. The method is what I described earlier..."

Locke said to him, "Thank you, Wizard Akman."

"With your help, I have been able to win this world war."

"The tactics of this world war have been almost entirely based on your suggestions."

Wizard Akman laughed and said, "Not at all. You are the botanical studies expert. I only provided some inspiration. But we white wizards operate on the principle that anything that can be used should be used, and anything that can be taken should be taken."

"Following our approach, you can also incidentally obtain a winter magical plant."

Locke gave a slight nod. Wizard Akman did not know about the Forest Sanctuary or the synthesis magic cube. In truth, a branch forest of his Forest Sanctuary had already appeared in that world, and he was also planning to use the synthesis magic cube to synthesize three winter plum plants.

In other words, once he won this world war, he would obtain a Forest Sanctuary branch forest and a stronger Second Circle winter plum.

And possibly more.

Because using Flowers Bloom and Fall in combination allowed for the rapid production of large quantities of magical plant seeds, and with improved incubation success rates to boot.

For other botanical wizards, producing adult magical plants required careful consideration of cost and resources, and this magic would naturally not be of great use to them, its value ratio being relatively low.

But for him with his magic cube, this was not the case.

With enough Second Circle winter plum plants, he could combine the breeding method with the synthesis magic cube to produce a single powerful Second Circle magical plant on par with Pinellia.

'This trip to the southeastern quadrant, I never expected to encounter black wizards and engage one of them in a world war. This is indeed the first Second Circle black wizard I have encountered. The previous black wizard from the Crimson Deep Court never had a true Grand Magic in any meaningful sense.'

Locke reflected, 'This has actually revealed to me a path by which at the Second Circle stage one can rapidly accumulate resources, add Forest Sanctuary branch forests, and make optimal use of the Lunar Cultivation Method.'

'It seems that in the future I should be pressing black wizards into world wars with me on a more regular basis.'

'I wonder whether a cultivation method using world wars could be published as a standalone Second Circle journal article. I should try.'

At this moment, Locke was about to leave the library. He had already learned what he needed to learn.

There was also work to return to at Group Two's laboratory, continuing his research with Witch Mason and the others on virtual root-related matters, finding ways to reduce virtual root costs for producing Second Circle wizard shoes.

But at this moment, Locke heard two sets of footsteps.

Looking back, he saw two Second Circle wizards walking in together. One had a crew cut and a water-blue pattern on his forehead, resembling a special magical plant, something like a tattoo.

The other had long hair.

Locke overheard the long-haired wizard address the short-haired one as Alex.

Locke had heard the name Alex mentioned before.

He was the champion of the First Circle competition in the Three Kings Tournament, a descendant of an ancient wizard bloodline family along the Heavenly River. He was a student from the Heavenly River wizard territory whom his teacher Witch Yekaterina had taken under her wing.

The Three Kings Tournament appeared to be the largest scale competition in the Heavenly River region, with participants strictly limited to wizards native to the Heavenly River.

And Wizard Alex's entire family was loyal to Witch Yekaterina, being one of the forces of the Red Dragon Throne.

And so in a certain sense, Alex was also one of the Red Dragon Throne's trusted people.

After the Silent Chalice, Locke had also come to understand that behind his own participation in the Silent Chalice lay various dealings made by high-circle wizards.

Golden Crown Mountain's primary arena of competition was the Three Kings Tournament hosted in the Heavenly River wizard territory.

The Academic Committee faction of Golden Crown Mountain was more interested in obtaining the Heavenly River's interests and related projects, as well as water conservancy and agricultural projects from the Star Domain Sea.

By comparison, the benefits of the Silent Chalice were more prized by the Council of Elders.

And so the Academic Committee had a deal of interests with Quinn Jol University.

Through Alex, Locke deduced that the young Second Circle wizard at his side should be a senior Origin Academy researcher, and most likely at least two generations before his own.

Because the senior Origin Academy slot belonging to Yekaterina in the generation immediately before his own had gone to Wizard Griffin.

The long-haired wizard before him Locke did not recognize, but he was a Second Circle wizard with formidable magic pressure, which meant he should be at least two generations before him as a senior Origin Academy researcher.

It was unclear which generation exactly.

Of course, all of this analysis was built on the assumption that this person was one of Witch Yekaterina's senior researchers.

The main reason was that Alex and this person appeared to have a very good relationship, and under ordinary circumstances the only possibility was that this person and Alex both shared the same cooperative wizard.

If that were the case, the other party's time to leave the station should not be far off.

If he had not yet obtained the special grant at this point, he must be quite anxious.

Between him and Locke there was in fact a very significant conflict of interest.

And this kind of person was a completely different situation from Wizard Zalan Bailey.

Wizard Alex and the long-haired wizard had also clearly noticed Locke. For reasons Locke could not fathom, Wizard Alex's gaze as he looked at him carried a faint note of competition and hostility.

Since Locke could not work out the source of that emotion, it could only be coming from the attitude of the long-haired wizard at his side toward him.

After all, he and the newly become Second Circle wizard Alex had no real conflict of interests.

Alex was not taking the Origin Academy path, but rather the Golden Crown Mountain faculty track. At present Alex should be a lecturer wizard at Golden Crown Mountain.

Wizard Alex gave Locke a nod and smiled, saying, "Hello, Breeder Augustine. I did not expect to run into you here. We should now be among the two most talked-about young people at this wizard university for the time being."

"Gakula and I came to consult some documents."

"Wizard Gakula's special grant fund application was rejected again this year."

"And the reason for the rejection..."

Alex coughed once.

"Has something to do with Wizard Augustine."

Locke said calmly, "I did not submit a special grant fund application this year."

Wizard Alex seemed to also be making an effort to suppress any aversion toward Locke, and through conversing with him swiftly dissolved the hostility and competitive feeling.

After all, before this exchange he had only ever glimpsed Locke from a distance, and so had only seen him from afar.

Now that they had spoken, the two of them were acquaintances.

The prejudiced view he had carried toward Locke before, influenced by his friend's attitude, dissipated rapidly.

"The situation is somewhat complex, and Wizard Gakula's luck has not been good."

"His research happened to overlap with one of your earlier studies."

"This led certain review wizards to feel that he had lost his originality."

Locke furrowed his brow.

...

At the same time, in the Louis Plane, Locke had his tree-man army apply heavy pressure, forcing the undead catastrophe and the lich-king to redirect their attention onto the tree-man army.

At the same time, he deployed the Firetree Silver Blossom Curse on the Louis Plane, giving the tree-men fire attributes and thus substantially strengthening their counter against the undead forces.

There was one thing that Locke had been paying close attention to.

He had once encountered the lich-king, and while any other wizard would have seen only an ordinary undead mage, Locke had discovered that the construction techniques the lich-king used were something he had seen before.

In the Age of Stars, within the Historical Boundary Marker Curse.

It was a technique used by King Otto's father, though it appeared somewhat different, more refined.

The Pale Pilgrimage seemed to have a deep connection with the lich-kings of the Age of Stars.

At this moment, the Burial Ground was blocked by the tree-man army, those tree-men transformed into blazing torches one after another.

Locke dropped a Pinellia into the area. Pinellia took root on the ground, its virtual roots entering this world's virtual sea.

At the same time, half the sky was drawn into blazing fire clouds.

The lich-king urgently mobilized the majority of the undead catastrophe to return to the Burial Ground.

The lich-king stood at the highest point of the Burial Ground, upon the altar there, looking toward where the Pinellia stood.

"Do you want to face each other head-on?"

"In this place, even if your magic pressure is three thousand higher than mine, which of us would outlast the other in consumption is not yet determined."

"Locke Augustine, young one, you underestimate the stored quantity of death energy in this world. I have stored the majority of the death energy within the ice layers, holding vast quantities of death energy there in temporary reserve."

"In this world, every one of these ice layers is my power."

The lich-king looked toward the life tree-man outside the Burial Ground.

"From my experience, even if I destroy that tree-man, it will not solve the problem."

"The moon must be destroyed."

"We must take the battle to the moon."

At this moment, the lich-king stood atop the frost bone dragon's back, with a company of death winter knights mounted on flying undead creatures behind him.

He was organizing the death winter knight brigade to mount a conquest of the moon above.

Locke immediately understood that the other party had finally identified the key point.

Behind that moon was concealed the kingdom domain and the entrance to his Forest Sanctuary. The other party had clearly recognized that to end this war, they would need to fight their way up to the moon.

He left three bone dragons to delay the life tree-man and his tree-man army, then set out with the most elite death winter knight brigade toward the moon in the sky.

'That death winter knight brigade...'

Locke observed for a moment and judged, "That should be the product of Wizard Berbel Morgan's failed attempt to become a star ring wizard."

"The death winter knight brigade clearly possesses a portion of wizard apprentice-level capabilities. That is an attempt to grant individuals within the Grand Magic system a power system."

"A power system is the currency within the Grand Magic."

"Only by establishing a successful currency can the Grand Magic complete its star forging."

In truth, the method of granting two ordinary people magical force through life tree leaves was itself also a form of forging.

But designing a power system required reading a large volume of articles in the same field, developing a more in-depth and systematic understanding of botanical studies, before one could tailor-make an entire usable power system for oneself.

Putting it simply, it all still came down to having read too few papers.

At this moment, at the back of Locke's Grand Magic, a Golden Peach Tree appeared. A Peach Bow Thorn Arrow spell that had concentrated a large quantity of moonlight descended toward the ground below.

In an instant, over a hundred of the death winter knight brigade's riders fell from the sky.

Because of the Burial Ground, there was no true death here, and so the death winter knight brigade could only be shattered apart, unable to find rest.

At this moment, the lich-king looked up, the soul flames in his eye sockets flickering.

"As expected, it was never going to be that simple. Then this is your weakness."

"Your accumulation is simply not yet sufficient. Tree-men are not suited to flight in the open sky, yet your Grand Magic is a moon in the sky. You have not yet harmonized your main ecological community with your Grand Magic."

"Things must be done step by step, and rice must be eaten one mouthful at a time."

On the other side, Locke let out a contemptuous laugh.

Eating rice?

Can you do that yourself?

Do not say things you yourself are incapable of, Wizard Berbel Morgan.

Locke directed his gaze downward. Over the one week of battle with Wizard Berbel, the two human brothers had already encountered danger many times, and along the way, by finding the life tree leaves left on the ground and using the spells imbued in those leaves along with the sword, had overcome each danger and slain undead.

During this process, Locke noticed that the energy dissipation rate of his Grand Magic was declining.

'So that is it. By putting forward a power system, one can unify the Grand Magic. This should be precisely the method by which a Grand Magic is forged, allowing it to progress from unforged to void-forged, the method by which a Second Circle wizard becomes a star ring wizard.'

'On this matter, I should consult my teacher. Of course, since my teacher has not mentioned it, she likely also feels my accumulation is insufficient and that there is no need to tell me yet.'

'There is no need for me to take the rough path like that black wizard. Golden Crown Mountain should have a great deal of materials on this subject, including free materials.'

After all, this method only reduced the dissipation rate. It did not seem sufficient on its own to rapidly raise one's magic pressure.

Raising magic pressure and reducing energy dissipation rate were evidently of equal importance.

One week later, the death winter knight brigade continued closing in on the full moon above, while Locke used the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow to rain shots downward.

A considerable number of the knight brigade members were unable to dodge in time and were shot down.

The lich-king and his frost bone dragon drew ever closer to the Moon of Evolution.

Finally at a certain moment, he suddenly rode the bone dragon and charged into the kingdom domain behind the Moon of Evolution.

A surge of joy rose within him.

"I have won."

"This is..."

In the next instant, the soul flames in the lich-king's eye sockets flickered, because before him stretched a dense and ancient forest.

"Even among Second Circle wizards, seeing a magical plant forest of this scale is not easy."

"Such formidable natural energy. But as long as I enter here, he will be at a disadvantage. As long as I unleash an undead catastrophe within this place..."

"This..."

In the next instant, the lich-king's form was retreating continuously. His magic pressure was plummeting.

"What is happening?"

"No!"

He sensed that the winter and death of the Burial Ground were gradually separating.

The very foundation upon which he had attested his Second Circle was crumbling.

This was where a world war was at its most devastating.

In ordinary wizard combat, even killing an opponent made it extremely difficult to destroy the Grand Magic.

But in a world war, the moment victory and defeat are decided is the moment one of the two Grand Magics is destroyed.

Once a world war begins, it is nearly impossible to stop.

The lich-king let out an anguished cry. His body developed countless cracks, as though the next moment his entire form would explode.

The Burial Ground.

At this moment, all the undead within it had gone out to meet the enemy. The Burial Ground had almost no defenders whatsoever.

Just moments earlier, the two brothers had finally arrived at this place and plunged that sword into the ground.

In the instant before driving it in, the sword-wielding youth bowed to the shadow of the death winter knight that appeared before him and said, "Teacher, may I see your true face?"

Locke looked at him in surprise.

"You finally sensed my presence?"

The human youth gave a wry smile.

"I should have realized a week ago. Over this week I encountered danger again and again and, guided by the phantom you transformed yourself into, found the life tree leaves."

"Anyone helping me could not possibly be an undead."

"In our tribe, hunters who openly share their hunting techniques are called teachers. Father said that our tribe lives in great poverty, but we must never be ungrateful. Father told me that if someone freely teaches you something..."

"Then they are your teacher."

"We must repay kindness."

Locke was surprised this time.

For if this human youth had not been so overly dim-witted in the week prior, he would have realized all of this much earlier.

He had learned some simple botanical magic and had thus come into contact with magic in some measure.

As someone with an interest in magic, sensing Locke's presence was not strange.

But what this youth had told him, the etiquette of his tribe, struck Locke.

People generally believed that good manners came with a full granary, and conversely, that people living in material scarcity would be less inclined to uphold etiquette.

Because Locke had always regarded these two youths as nothing more than native inhabitants.

Yet at this moment, this native was addressing him as teacher, and knew the proper courtesy.

The youth made another request to Locke, "Please, teacher, let me see your true face. Father said that the people of our tribe may be poor, less well-off than the wealthier tribes, but we must not let poverty of means become poverty of spirit. You are my teacher, and I want to thank you."

Locke hesitated for a moment, for he had never intended to form any connection with a mere native youth.

Very well, he would give the other party a reward for knowing proper etiquette.

Locke's phantom dissipated, revealing his true young face.

The youth smiled.

"Teacher, you look nothing at all like the kind of formidable hunter I had imagined. I thought you would look something like my father."

He raised the sword and drove it down into the ice surface.

In an instant the ice layer cracked open. The crack grew wider and wider, and the death energy frozen within the ice layer erupted outward.

The three seeds fell into the earth, and in that moment the law of winter arrived here.

Winter is the season of sealing and purging.

Winter is the season when energy rests close to the earth.

Winter is a brief rest before pressing forward, the days of gathering strength.

The Moon of Evolution in the sky cast a beam of moonlight downward.

It shone upon those three young magical plant seedlings, and Locke once more deployed the Lunar Cultivation Method, forcibly channeling the plane information of the Burial Ground's Grand Magic back into his three magical plants, and through this process dismantling the Burial Ground.

The world was in that instant as though jolted awake.

The Burial Ground had been built upon deception, and now Locke demonstrated for the world what true winter was. The winter magical power of the winter magical plants awakened an even greater world power.

The world recognized in an instant that it had been deceived.

Deceived for over nine hundred years.

The Burial Ground began to collapse.

Locke looked at the human youth, his gaze complex.

"He calls me teacher. Does this mean I have taken my first native student in this native world?"

"But to maintain the Forest Sanctuary branch forest here, it requires the protection of a wizard. What am I thinking? Getting these natives to become first-class wizard apprentices alone is an unknown number of years away, never mind becoming formal wizards."

"But the prerequisite for becoming a star ring wizard is establishing a currency system within the Grand Magic."

"And so it seems I can seriously consider conducting some experiments in this world related to the currency system."

Locke also sensed during this battle that his permanent defensive force field was beginning to transform into a permanent defensive force field shell.