Chapter 832: The Simplified Beast Panel: The Path of the Sworn Enemy

Locke scanned Jack over. He was wearing a linen shirt covered in sweat and mud, stepping in soft leather boots, with a leather belt cinched around his sheepskin trousers and a gleaming cold-iron dagger in his hand.

"I will give you the kind of Ranger force I used just now, the ability to manipulate vines and control grass and wood. Just now, and for now."

The holly treeman's hand passed over the dagger in his hand. Instantly, the dagger in Jack's hand was suddenly covered in a layer of rust.

Jack looked in shock at the dagger in his hand. This dagger, passed down from his grandfather to his father and then to him, had been stroked once by the master treeman and had rusted.

What kind of power was this?

This had been a treasure capable of cutting through iron.

A scene flashed through Jack's mind. If someone raised a knight's sword to cut him down, and he simply touched that sword with his palm, would that knight's supposedly indestructible blade not also rust and corrode just like this dagger?

Was this why the master treeman said those monsters were trying to resist him?

Was this the power the master treeman spoke of?

That seemed to be a power far beyond that of a knight.

He yearned for it.

Having been raised from childhood with a proper knight's education, he wanted to possess the power to protect those who should be protected.

Jack immediately knelt on one knee before the holly treeman and performed the vassal's salute to Locke.

"Master Treeman, I am ready to receive the power you will grant me. What must I do? Swing a sword a thousand times a day, or run ten kilometers daily?"

"Master Treeman."

Susan looked at Locke and said, "I... can I also receive your power?"

Jack turned to look at Susan in surprise.

"Miss Susan, bleeding is the work of men. You are an elegant lady. You need only wait quietly at the rear for the horns of victory. Combat is not something that suits you..."

Susan defiantly tossed her thick black curls, with a measured look in her eyes.

"Jack, I had originally thought you were different from those other knight's squires."

"You know, I have always liked playing with weapons since I was small and disliked the summer pastimes of ladies. Jack, that is precisely why we became friends. Because you respect my preferences, and I respect yours, specifically your preference for kneading clay figurines."

"If your friends saw that preference, they could mock you for a lifetime."

"But I thought it showed you were skilled with your hands, possessed an artist's talent. And eyes that could find beauty and a kind heart."

Jack's face flushed.

"I am sorry, Susan."

"But you saw what happened. That monster just now was simply too powerful. I was worried about you..."

Locke scanned the two of them. Without elemental emerald potion, he could already sense through his spiritual perception that both of them possessed a certain degree of wizard talent, roughly level one or two.

It was difficult to be precise.

His Ranger power system was itself a system subordinate to the broader wizard framework.

This meant that every star ring wizard was equivalent to creating a subsystem under the broad wizard framework. This was an astonishing achievement.

The diversity of civilization had reached an unsurpassed degree.

It was easy to see how wizard civilization could not help but flourish.

Locke turned to look at Susan. There was a trace of his student Witch Williams's qualities in Susan, that aura unique to witches.

"There is no need for you two to argue."

Locke said, "I can share my power with both of you. These are Power Leaves."

The holly treeman plucked two Power Leaves from its own crown. It placed the Power Leaf carrying Grass and Wood Tricks into Susan's hands, and placed the Power Leaf carrying Grass and Wood Hand on Jack's body.

"Collect more Power Leaves and your strength will grow."

"But initially each person can only bear one Power Leaf. After receiving a Power Leaf, you must adapt and train. Only after fully adapting to the power of the first leaf may you seek a second."

"As for how to accelerate your adaptation to the Power Leaf's power, it is simple. You must earn the recognition of the Power Leaf."

A jade-green luminescence appeared across Jack's and Susan's bodies. Each of them flashed the jade-green light once, then each received the power of Grass and Wood Hand and Grass and Wood Tricks respectively.

And this meant that the holly treeman, having given away these two Power Leaves, also lost the power of those two spell models.

Of course, from Jack's and Susan's perspective, they were touching something mysterious and accessing the power of a forest with limitless depth.

So when the two of them heard Locke's words, they assumed there would be many more Power Leaves to be had, and had no idea whatsoever that Locke had currently only created three Power Leaves in total.

No more.

Jack extended his right hand and a small patch of grass in front of him rapidly grew tall, moving in accordance with his palm's movement. Jack's mouth fell open.

"This is extraordinary."

But very soon his forehead was covered in sweat.

And Susan clasped both hands together as though cupping water, a small breeze spinning within her palms, and she too breathed slightly harder.

Because neither of them had magical power in their bodies at this point, all their spell costs were paid by the Power Leaves.

But since they were the ones actively releasing the spells, a small amount of physical strength was drawn from their bodies and converted into magical power as the cost of casting.

After the two became Rangers, Locke immediately sensed that his Grand Magic, the Moon of Evolution, seemed to have received a small degree of forging.

Like a very gentle hammer tapping against his Moon of Evolution, producing the slightest trace of power.

The process of creating a power system was the process of highly abstracting all that one had learned.

Establishing a symbolic system was the process of tempering one's Grand Magic, causing it to enter the virtual forging state. Once virtual forging was complete, the Grand Magic would be a star-forged Grand Magic.

Locke said, "Two Rangers, remember that the Power Leaves in your hands are living beings. You choose the Power Leaf, and the Power Leaf also chooses you. To fully bring out the power contained within the Power Leaf, you need to increase your attunement with it."

"The best way is to defeat monsters like the one just now, that is, vampires."

"Also, protect the forest. A Ranger's duty is to protect the forest that will respond to the Power Leaf in your hands. Every battle you fight will increase your attunement with the Power Leaf, and your power will rise accordingly."

Jack caught the key point.

"Master Treeman, so combat is the key?"

Locke gradually retreated.

"You could understand it that way."

"Remember, having become Rangers, you will become thorns in the side of those monsters. Jack, Susan, you will need to keep fighting and hone yourselves through battle. But never forget that you are not fighting alone. The Power Leaves in your hands are living beings. They are your companions."

"Likewise, the forest walks with you. And the forest is what those monsters fear most. If you encounter an enemy you cannot resist, come back to this forest."

Locke gradually withdrew. The trees behind him, which had been taken into the Moon of Evolution's ecological community by moonlight, became treemen one by one under the Lunar Blessing Curse.

These treemen rose from the earth one by one. The great tree guardians left Jack and Susan completely stunned.

At this moment, Jack and Susan firmly believed that in the course of being hunted by monsters, they had encountered a miraculous opportunity and received some ancient power from the master treeman within the forest.

Even though this power had only been casually created by Locke just now.

Locke operated his treeman avatar walking through the forest.

"From here, I only need to let things develop on their own. All I need to do is two things. First, use moonlight to envelop more of this world's trees and bring the entire world's plants into my ecological community. At the moment only one-thirtieth of the progress has been completed."

"I need to have this world's nature support me further."

"This requires me to formally go and eliminate the vampires under this world's World-Stealing Celestial Ritual."

"Second, produce more Power Leaves. Let me start with these three templates as the basis for creating Power Leaves."

Locke thought it over and made this judgment. After all, the more types of Power Leaves, the harder they would be to control.

Since this was the first attempt at constructing a power system, there was no need to make too many varieties.

"Just two Rangers is not enough. I can create more Power Leaves and let those who seek power obtain them."

"Fortunately, this world's natural force naturally counters the vampires of all levels produced by this world's rituals. So even a 0.1 circle spell is an irresistible force to them."

"Power Leaves are my simulation of the World Tree Leaf."

Locke operated his treeman slowly and powerfully walking between the trees.

"But honestly speaking, I have created a somewhat shortcut method of cultivation."

Because Power Leaves were living beings, Locke was essentially making Rangers fight together with their Power Leaves. In the process of combat, Rangers would naturally learn from their Power Leaves, and through using them passively improve their own spiritual power, while the Power Leaves would also absorb the Rangers' growth and grow themselves.

In essence, the relationship between Rangers and Power Leaves was Locke simulating the relationship between botanical wizards and magical plants.

But with a difference.

Because the Power Leaves had been set by him to be capable of growth.

The foundation of the Lunar Cultivation Method was built on human spirituality passing through the transformation of stone spirits and entering the spirituality of plants, causing rapid plant evolution.

So this was one of Locke's experiments.

To see whether the combination of human spirituality and Power Leaves could similarly accelerate plant evolution.

He was using the Forest Sanctuary as the spiritual energy transfer hub.

This too could serve as an experiment.

Locke thought, "If this direction fails, then it fails. I simply change the direction of the power system's development. If it succeeds, that would be an unexpected bonus."

"Wait, I had better also create two more Power Leaves. Because Rangers who can only use 0.1 circle spell models are fine against low-grade vampires, since this world's natural force counters those vampires."

"This is a case of one thing countering another."

"From an ecological perspective, this should be considered an ecological niche that naturally emerged to counter the vampire undead race that was created by stealing undying force."

"So it led to the natural force of this world actually being able to completely kill vampires born from within it."

Locke fell into thought.

"If I think from this angle, I can absolutely use this ecological niche to give things a boost."

"First, I will create another 0.1 circle blood studies spell, simplifying the Frenzy into the 0.1 circle Light as a Swallow."

"Next is..."

Locke thought, "The beast panel can in essence also be simulated through a spell model, but my current level is insufficient to fully simulate it. I can only approximate."

"But combined with this world's natural force naturally countering those vampires, I can craft a simplified version of the spell model."

At this point, Locke, using the state of Following One's Heart Without Transgressing, along with this world's spontaneously generated vampire-countering natural force that had been stimulated by the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual, which bore certain similarities to the beast panel, and given that the spell model he needed to create was still at a very low level, it took him only one day to create a super stripped-down version of the beast panel: the Path of the Sworn Enemy.

Locke looked at the five types of Power Leaves before him. The Path of the Sworn Enemy was the core Power Leaf he had produced for the Rangers, because the beast panel was inherently one of his core powers as a Nature Guardian.

And by producing the super stripped-down version of the beast panel within the Moon of Evolution's power system, this had an organizing and enhancing effect on his own power.

It pushed him to think about the nature of his own power, the nature of the beast.

"With the Power Leaf of the Path of the Sworn Enemy, all of the Rangers' spell damage against this world's vampires is doubled."

"In this way, even when Rangers encounter some higher-grade vampires, they can defeat their opponents through spell combinations with the Power Leaves."

At this moment, Locke sensed that in the space of just one day, over a hundred people in this world had received his Power Leaves.

And within this one day, he had also produced over a thousand Power Leaves.

His Grand Magic grew ever stronger and his ecological community ever broader. The vampires behind the Heidelberg Plane were clearly growing restless, anxious and frightened.

Seeing that he had not immediately launched an attack, they finally could not hold back. On the second night, they organized a vampire servant army and, using the cover of darkness, launched a surprise attack on the forest.

But this time, Locke did not even use the Lunar Blessing Curse to summon treemen. He simply let the hundred or so Rangers fight for their own power advancement, and these Rangers were able to kill the low-grade vampire servants who invaded the jungle.

Even when someone faced a life-or-death crisis, he could use the treemen in the forest to help them resolve it.

Overall, the results satisfied Locke greatly.

The three hundred or so low-grade vampire servants who had launched the surprise attack on the forest were repelled by his hundred or so Rangers.

Locke scanned those vampire servants and said with satisfaction, "My Rangers were already well-trained in proper knight education in this world. Their combat ability was already quite good to begin with, and with the Power Leaves added, defeating those low-grade vampire blood servants was naturally easy."

Those low-grade vampire blood servants would have been hard-pressed to even reach 0.1 circle level in the wizard world.

Locke also realized that those three black wizards only had magic pressures of around fifteen thousand, and had each gotten there by grinding seniority.

Naturally, they were still quite far from star ring.

Unlike Wizard Morgan from before, who had a corps of winter death knights as the core force beneath his Grand Magic, these three had never even touched the edge of star ring.

The vampires beneath their Grand Magic were barely distinguishable from ordinary people.

One week later, Locke watched his Rangers Jack and Susan, who had each mastered three Power Leaves, join forces to surround and kill a vampire ancient elder, and was promptly at a loss for words.

That vampire ancient elder was truly pathetic.

An ancient and withered body, pallid skin. As an ancient elder, Locke had assumed it would at least have the capability of a third-class wizard apprentice, and had even prepared to secretly intervene and had braced himself for a frontal confrontation with the three black wizards in this plane.

But who would have thought that his two Rangers would just continuously rain relentless ferocious attacks down upon the vampire elder, step on its head, and chop it right off?

This supposed ancient elder was basically just slightly stronger than this world's ordinary vampires.

The ancient elder's head rolled across the plaza, and the surrounding hundreds of ordinary vampires all lost their composure in shock.

How had the ancient elder they considered so powerful just had his head chopped off like that?

Jack and Susan, panting, each mounted a warhorse and swiftly retreated from the plaza, leaving behind a crowd of vampires who had fallen into fear.

At this moment, the three Second Circle wizards looked over this world.

From deep within the church, they watched this scene from a distance, and all three looked at one another with fear and unease.

"It is a power system. Locke Augustine, the Eye Demon Wizard. He has already produced the embryonic form of a power system. With only our laughably poor vampires in this world, how could they possibly be a match for them?"

"So I say we should unite and cooperate. Forget the grudges from the outside. Our magic pressures are already clashing against each other and our Grand Magics are slamming into one another, inseparably entangled. But we have three people, three Grand Magics, and our combined total magic pressure is greater than his. As long as we can unite..."

"How do we unite?"

"We have three Grand Magics in total. As long as one Grand Magic's vampires are sacrificed to the other two, we can rapidly increase the strength of the vampires under the banner, and that way we can suppress his Grand Magic in return."

"Can you stop spouting nonsense? Is that even possible?"

The three black wizards looked at one another with mutual suspicion.

Their eyes gradually grew more vicious.

Because all three of them had sensed the problem.

They were all descendants of the Progenitor Wizard, all using the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual, and they had all used the same world's World Stone.

That meant their Grand Magics could fully absorb the other's Grand Magic and use it to strengthen their own.

When they had been at their peak, all three could cooperate seamlessly, seeming like good friends. But now, in the face of an external invasion, the same thought had simultaneously leapt into all three minds: eliminate these two first, then strengthen myself, and then I can win.

And most terrifyingly, this chain of suspicion could not be broken.

Because if anyone went to fight Locke and suffered losses, the next moment the others would stab them in the back and absorb their Grand Magic to strengthen themselves.

So none of them dared to suggest going to fight Locke first, and instead kept mutual vigilance, guarding against being absorbed by the others.

The shared interest entanglements between their Grand Magics, due to being in the same world, were numerous. This was precisely why all three had needed to place their rituals in one location.

Because only this way could they monitor each other and prevent the others from doing something out of their sight in the Heidelberg Plane.

This was also one of the disadvantages of multiple people using a single plane's World Stone to construct Grand Magics.

That was why truly gifted wizards, whenever they had the ability, would keep an entire plane exclusively to themselves.

...

At this point, Locke was watching Jack and Susan. In just one week, the two had completed transformation after transformation in battle, from the initial excitement of receiving power, to doubt, then to the terror and fear of being injured in combat, then retreat, and finally a settled resolve.

Their abilities improved and their capacity grew.

They gradually became able to accommodate more Power Leaves. One week later, these two children of fortune received two new Power Leaves from the forest.

The complex and intense emotions they experienced struck at the Power Leaves again and again.

Locke could sense that the Power Leaves were indeed undergoing some kind of change.

But this change was different from the Lunar Cultivation Method.

Locke fell into observation, while simultaneously beginning to prepare to summon the now thousand-strong Rangers for a final assault on the Heidelberg Plane's Mountain of Light and the church, destroying the ritual base there that converted vampires. Once completed, he could win this World War.

...

Golden Crown Mountain, the library. Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit avatar received Alaric's reply.

Alaric's reply said, "My dear Great Wizard Locke, ever since we parted at the Cloud Marsh Cup, I have deeply missed your former bearing. Regarding the matter you entrusted me with, I have handled it very well."

"My teacher has given you a reply, saying there is something you need within it."

Locke took out the second letter, opened it, and out came a Golden Foxtail Grass specimen.

Locke looked at the specimen and first showed a strange expression, because apart from this specimen, Wizard Russell had not sent him any letter whatsoever.

The next moment, he looked at the specimen and suddenly showed an expression of sudden understanding.

"I see now. The reason why Blue Foxtail would in the process of natural evolution partially revert to Golden Foxtail Grass is actually this simple."

Locke had noticed that the Golden Foxtail Grass specimen had a small specimen of a cuscuta-type magical plant attached to it.

Clearly, this Golden Foxtail Grass had been parasitized by some magical plant.

Locke quickly searched through the library for an illustrated catalogue of cuscuta-type magical plants and began looking for this magical plant's corresponding scientific name.

He also found a magical book introducing the habits of Golden Foxtail Grass.

"Confirmed. This is the First Circle magical plant Golden Flame Vine, whose common hosts are certain tree species, and which has the habit of actively cultivating its host magical plant. In order to cultivate its host magical plant, the Golden Flame Vine actively absorbs a portion of the host's plant essence core to better disguise itself, preventing the host magical plant from detecting it."

"However, as a First Circle parasitic magical plant, the Golden Flame Vine must parasitize trees. Otherwise, small magical plants would easily be drained to death by it."

Locke closed the magical book.

"I see now. The final piece of the puzzle has come to me. In this way, as long as I conduct one more experiment to confirm my hypothesis, the atavistic evolution can be fully completed. And it will be completed even better than I had expected."

"Of course, the prerequisite is that the experimental results match my hypothesized expectations."