Chapter 860: Rangers 2.0 Online!

Golden Crown Mountain district, inside the dormitory. Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit clone opened his eyes and rose from the sofa in the study.

Through consuming the Tourmaline King Peaches, Locke had consecutively received the Creation Mystery twice.

At the same time, he recalled the creation material dust star chart recorded in his mind and marveled inwardly at the miracle contained within the Tourmaline King Peaches.

This was practically a fruit of enlightenment.

As he had eaten the two Tourmaline King Peaches, that creation dust star chart had become clearer and clearer in his mind. This made Locke realize that while consuming the Tourmaline King Peaches could only give him the portion of the Creation Mystery set up by the breeder who cultivated them, the creation star chart he had personally memorized was and real.

"If more Tourmaline King Peaches can be consumed, I could even directly research this star chart."

Locke thought: "This star chart gives me the sense that it can improve my botanical spell models. I did optimize the spell models in my consciousness sea through these two Tourmaline King Peaches, strengthening my spellcasting power."

"In the future, more Tourmaline King Peaches should be obtained..."

Locke thought: "Clearing out Golden Crown Mountain's Tourmaline King Peach inventory, obtaining enough Tourmaline King Peaches, would let me see that creation tree-plant star chart more clearly."

Locke summarized the gains from observing the creation star chart, and even made some adjustments to the Power Leaves of the Rangers he had established earlier.

The higher the upper limit of the Power Leaves and the more complete the Power Leaf system, the higher the degree of his Grand Magic forging and the closer he was to the star ring.

Locke took out a Power Leaf: Path of the Sworn Enemy in his hand, then used a grafting knife to carve and inscribe on it, making micro-adjustments, and raised the Path of the Sworn Enemy from 0.3 circle to 0.5 circle.

Locke then revised the other four types of Power Leaves as well, raising all of them to 0.5 circle.

As long as the Power Leaf: Path of the Sworn Enemy could be raised to 0.5 circle, that proved all other Power Leaves could be raised as well.

At that moment, Locke was making adjustments to the five types of Power Leaves.

"The time to invest the Forest Sanctuary into the Three-Hole World and make a third attempt at forging the Grand Magic is almost here."

"This time, restrictions on spell slots will be added. Each Power Leaf's base number of uses is 5... no, since restrictions are to be added, a tier system naturally needs to be introduced..."

Locke gave a slight jolt.

At that moment, he recalled what Witch Yekaterina had said: a Grand Magic's power system is a tiered structure.

"Adding a linear tier system can bring my Rangers system even closer to a true power system. It is not that I cannot share my power directly with those Rangers, but doing so would not constitute a true power system. Just like Sula, whose mage system was nothing but a hollow facade."

"Only a true power system can forge a star ring Grand Magic."

Locke thought: "Since tier restrictions are to be added, a tier system should be introduced properly, dividing Rangers into levels. Level 1 Rangers can only use 0.1-circle Power Leaves, and Level 5 Rangers can use 0.5-circle Power Leaves. Aside from the Rangers' passive spells, Path of the Sworn Enemy and Light as a Swallow, all other active spells can only be used 5 times per day."

This was simply a number Locke had set casually, entirely for testing and experimental purposes.

Locke continued to think: "Beyond Path of the Sworn Enemy, Light as a Swallow, Nature's Trickery, Nature's Hand, and Nature's Entanglement, I want to add three more specially improved spell models this time."

"The first is a 0.5-circle spell model called Nature's Arrow, which I modified and simplified from the First Circle spell model Flowing Gold Fern Spear that I commonly used before."

"The second is a 0.5-circle spell model called Treant Companion, which I extracted from the Forest Sanctuary's related spell models and simplified and reworked."

"The third is a 0.5-circle spell I summarized and designed myself, called Forest Dialogue."

"These Power Leaves should not only have 0.5-circle versions but also versions ranging from 0.1-circle to 0.5-circle."

One hour later, the number of types of Locke's Power Leaves had been designed up to eight.

"One must not overlook the essence and focus only on the phenomenon. No matter how high the Rangers' power level rises, it is of limited significance to me. What truly matters is this power system of mine, and the foundation of this power system right now is these Power Leaves."

Locke thought: "I have now raised the types of Power Leaves to eight, but this is still not enough. A Second Circle wizard needs to organize their own set of virtual symbols from the disciplines they have learned to describe their power system, to describe their understanding."

"For a Second Circle wizard, producing even thousands of virtual symbols to describe their power system is perfectly normal."

Locke said, "But that would be overly cumbersome. And it would require a long period of time to accumulate."

"Many wizards seem to waste decades, even over a hundred years, getting stuck at this step. This is certainly not the path of a genius."

Locke thought: "I will consult Teacher on this later. Right now, this Power Leaf system of mine, which mimics the World Tree Leaf, is deeply bound to the Rangers."

"Rangers obtain Power Leaves by fulfilling the covenant of protecting nature and carrying out their duties. They grow together with the Power Leaves."

"The core is the Power Leaf: Path of the Sworn Enemy."

This was in fact the greatest foundation of his Power Leaf system at present.

And among the three new Power Leaves he had added this time, the important one was actually only the Treant Companion Power Leaf.

At its core, he was using the Power Leaf system to describe all the journeys he had taken in his own language.

This was also the key to moving from Second Circle to star ring.

Re-describing one's own power in one's own language, although this language could not compare to the fundamental magical characters used by wizards, it could deepen one's understanding of oneself and begin the forging of one's Grand Magic.

Going forward, he would still use the wizard system to continue growing and learning. His own language was more akin to a personal memo, or looking at problems from a different angle.

So Locke realized that since he had become a registered wizard using the Forest Sanctuary as his permanent defensive field, if his Rangers system were to advance to the First Circle tier, the Forest Sanctuary's power had to be incorporated into the Power Leaves.

Hence, he designed the Treant Companion Power Leaf, attempting to incorporate his Forest Sanctuary's power into the Power Leaf foundation.

Locke distributed the newly designed eight Power Leaves to the treeman avatars in his two subordinate forests, devoting a portion of his attention to remote inscription and runic work, creating a new Power Leaf system with these eight Power Leaves as templates.

At that moment, the entire Rangers system was in transformation.

Rangers 2.0 came online.

In the Louis Plane, Shawn, and in the Heidelberg Plane, Jack and others, all sensed that their power had undergone some kind of change. The restrictions had grown larger, but the power system had integrated more tightly with nature. The upper limit had been raised, and those with talent could continue to advance further.

Heidelberg Plane. Jack and Susan, dressed in ranger gear, simultaneously looked in the direction of the forest. From the canopy of the oak tree above their heads, some Power Leaves drifted down.

In Golden Crown Mountain's dormitory, Locke saw that Witch Rose had sent a voice call request. He paused briefly, then his main body remotely controlled the treant avatar in the Three-Hole Plane, taking advantage of the giants' mistaken belief that all the treants had been cleared, to quickly move into the forest and hide himself, disguising himself as an ordinary tree.

At the same time, he guided the treant to search for the Sealing Stone, since a Sealing Stone represented a gasification wizard, and if it could be recovered, he could choose to lift the seal at any time and have one more source of assistance.

As for Locke's clone in Golden Crown Mountain's dormitory, he accepted Witch Rose's call.

Witch Rose's voice still maintained that casual, scattered tone, as if her attention was never on him.

"Locke Augustine, I have some unfortunate news to tell you. Both Solas Light Foot and Melechi's Magic Steps intend to launch a round of Second Circle wizard shoe promotions at the beginning of the month, two months from now. You know what that means, right?"

Locke paused, then realized this was not aimed specifically at him.

Rather, when two behemoths clashed, even a small onlooker standing nearby could be caught in the crossfire and crushed.

After his second pair of Second Circle wizard shoes had performed poorly, both shop alliances had clearly reduced their attention to him. And now their big promotions were clearly a price-reduction campaign that both sides had launched for their themed events, and as a result of entering direct competition, intended to strike at each other.

But this had a significant impact on him.

His wizard shoes were already selling poorly. If they were also hit by both alliances' promotions, it was easy to imagine that his second pair of wizard shoes might get off to a very bad start, and it might even affect his third pair of Second Circle wizard shoes.

Witch Rose's reminder at this moment was clearly her fulfilling her duties as an ally.

Locke said to Witch Rose, "Understood. But you need not worry too much. I will fulfill my duties as an ally and complete the pre-sale of my second wizard shoe within this month."

"So their plan will have no effect on me whatsoever."

A note of surprise came through Witch Rose's voice.

"Oh? Such confidence? No wonder the great-grandmother told me to treat you as an enemy."

"Locke Augustine, do you need to know the specific progress of Solas Light Foot's support for Wizard Brandy? If you do..."

Locke said, "I do not need it."

Witch Rose's voice let out a small laugh from the other end of the Ganoderma magical plant.

"Good. Then I am at ease."

Locke ended the call and shook his head slightly.

Witch Rose seemed to be the type who would constantly probe her partners' capabilities. In that case, this cooperation with her was fundamentally unstable. If he showed even a hint of weakness, this person who had been an ally just a moment ago might very well turn around and exploit that weakness.

Well, he was only forming a temporary alliance with her anyway.

A person like her presumably had no need for long-term allies. She likely had very few stable long-term allies around her.

Locke thought about it and concluded that had she had any, she would not have needed to come to him.

Locke said to Douglas, "Lately, you need to continue helping me write the paper on the atavistic evolution of the climbing fern. I will give you the experimental data and the core outline, and you help me refine it."

Douglas was naturally happy to take on this task. After all, Wizard Brandy had been watching him every day lately, and the moment Douglas was not working, Wizard Brandy might have him in his sights.

He simply submerged himself in the work, and with the Wizard King Laghemaon's help, although even just writing a paper based on materials Locke provided was very difficult for him, slowly it could still be done.

Locke's clone, meanwhile, was preparing to go to Group Two's research institute to fully complete the second pair of wizard shoes and then put them into real-world testing.

Using the Forest Sanctuary, aided by the Forest Alliance Curse, along with the support of the Moon of Evolution, some magical plants could be transferred from his clone's side to his main body's side. This was achievable.

...

Three-Hole World. Locke guided the treant avatar through the forest, while tracking the flow of planar force and trying to locate the missing Sealing Stone.

One day later, Locke finally located, on a riverbank, the Sealing Stone that had gone missing three days ago when it was struck by the God-King's light principles.

And that Sealing Stone was now in the hands of a young man and a middle-aged man.

At that moment, both the young man and the middle-aged man were covered in bloodstains, their clothes tattered. They appeared to be fleeing for their lives and carried no supplies other than the stone in the young man's hand.

That stone was the Sealing Stone.

The middle-aged man looked strangely at the stone in the young man's hand.

"My young master, I have been charged by my late lord to protect you. I hope only to escort you safely to the hands of a friendly city-state."

"May the late lord's spirit protect us. May the War God once again show us compassion and favor."

The young man bit his lip and asked, "Why did the War God abandon me and my father, and instead support that despicable coward? He has never even fought a single battle."

The middle-aged man's eyes flashed with fear. "Do not... do not speak ill of the War God. Speaking ill of divine beings is a serious crime."

"This is the War God's choice. We had best choose to accept it. And pray that he has a change of heart."

"We need only pray day after day. The War God will hear. He will change his heart."

"Young master, your safety is the most important thing right now. Why won't you let go of that stone?"

The young man said quietly, "It is strange when you mention it. The reason we were able to escape with our lives yesterday was thanks to this stone. When I simply hold this stone, I feel a constant flow of warmth entering my body. My strength spontaneously grows a little. Not by much, but at least enough to let me beat two or three more people my own age."

The middle-aged man's eyes lit up with delight. "Could it be that this is a treasure sent to us by the War God?"

"The suffering we face now is actually a trial sent to me by the War God of Terrila!"

"Then as long as we can endure it, we will certainly regain the War God's favor."

The young man looked at the stone in his hand.

"If we are being realistic, if we hand this treasure to the head priest of Terrila and have him offer it to the War God, perhaps that could help me regain divine favor more quickly."

The middle-aged man took the stone from his hand and said with puzzlement, "Then why do I feel nothing at all? Can it be that this is an honor the War God granted to you alone?"

At that moment, Locke was controlling the treant avatar. Since no saintly avatar had descended and no support from this world had been obtained, he was in fact still being suppressed by this world at a fundamental level.

Therefore, he could not enter the Following One's Heart Without Transgressing state.

As a result, he could not directly see the identities of the young man and the middle-aged man before him, or whether they were children of fate of this plane.

"No way to see it directly. Then I can only guess."

Locke controlled the treant avatar and thought: "This is a moment that tests my judgment. Still, that child should have wizard talent. This somewhat increases the likelihood that he is a child of fate."

"A treant moving outside the forest draws far too much attention. I need human beings to help me gather information, quickly understand this plane, and find the location of my half-body. My half-body gave the rings to the female giant, which must have been done for me, the main body who was about to arrive at this plane, to see."

"After all, when landing, both sides would certainly clash, and I could see them during the clash."

"Then the question is."

"What message does my half-body want to convey to me?"