Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 642: The King-Making Instrument! And the Mysterious Iron Ball!

The Book of Dragons, transformed into a paper-folded fire-breathing dragon, came crashing down from the sky like a fireball.At the most critical moment, Warwick had used Summon Demon God, fully unleashing all the historical records within his own Suzerain's Book and summoning forth a paper-folded demon god.

At the same time, the paper-folded demon god cast a demon god's curse upon the ground, transforming the surface into soft black cotton, and it was only this that protected the four of them from sustaining any injury during the rapid descent.

As the paper-folded demon god faded away, the ground returned to its original state.

Warwick carefully examined the ground, making sure that Locke's sudden descent had not caused even the slightest damage to the city's surface.

Warwick said, "This city is so precious, full of potential great discoveries. We cannot allow any damage whatsoever."

"In fact, the four of us could very well continue developing this city once the time comes. It would not be unreasonable at all to establish a small society for that very purpose."

Warwick said, "We must do our best to protect this city from any impact. Of course, if we truly find ourselves in danger, there is only so much we can do."

Locke looked toward the spot where they had landed, and saw that it was before an enormous statue.

The statue was also fashioned from M-type magical granite, sculpted in the likeness of a woman with striking lifelikeness.

She was dressed in the ceremonial finery of the Era of Stars.

Before her stood three magical pet hounds, each held by a magical leash. These leashes were not part of the sculpture but rather some kind of real material preserved through magic.

Beside the princess statue stood a prototype loom and a prototype steam engine, and at the foot of the statue were various ingenious and intricate objects arranged as offerings.

However, as time had passed, the magic infused within those objects had faded with the years, and the objects themselves had rotted beyond recognition, crumbling into ruin.

Witch Shirley studied the three leashes and said, "These leashes... they appear to be some kind of rubber band. Did the Era of Stars already have synthetic polymers of this quality?"

Warwick said, "And there are prototypes of both a steam engine and a loom here, with an inscription that reads, 'Dedicated to the princess who developed these creations.'"

"If that is the case, this Loom Princess must be one of the historical origins of that period when steam-powered machinery flourished."

He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Now this is a great discovery."

"This journey was well worth it."

Locke looked at the statue of the Loom Princess. Her features were beautiful, though her gaze was distant and ethereal. The wizard who carved her had captured with striking fidelity that faint air of melancholy that had once belonged to the princess.

The princess seemed to be gazing into the distance, waiting for someone who would never return.

She waited and waited, but that person could no longer come back.

Her expression was sorrowful, her eyes a silent accusation against the cruelty of fate.

At the base of the princess statue, Locke noticed a line carved into the stone, "Those of future generations should express your respect toward the princess who opened a great era, for this is respect for those who walk the path of seeking truth."

"Please bow to the princess once, as a sign of your reverence."

Witch Shirley followed Locke's gaze to the inscription. "This mausoleum has tried to kill us multiple times, and now it has the nerve to ask us to show respect to the princess."

Locke let out a quiet sigh. "It is merely a measure to guard against grave robbers. Even so, bowing once is no great matter."

"It is only right to show respect to a fellow traveler on the path of exploring truth. The dead deserve reverence."

Locke bowed before the statue.

Witch Shirley thought for a moment and followed Locke's lead, bowing as well, and Wizard Warwick did the same.

Only Wizard McKinley let out a cold laugh and made no move at all.

When Locke raised his head, he noticed that on the inner hem of the princess statue's skirt, three lines of text had been carved.

Had he not bowed, he likely would not have spotted them at first glance. The angle was far too precise.

It was probably the kind of thing one would only discover upon a careful, thorough examination at a later date.

The first line read, "He is gone. He will never return. My heart died the moment he left."

The second line read, "He believed that everything in this era was too simple for him. He believed himself to be the protagonist of this world, and so he turned the heavens and earth upside down. I acted alongside him, and our prolonged success led us to truly believe we were gods. But we encountered a true crisis for the first time, something lurking behind the Era of Stars, the Black Sun Tower..."

Locke's pupils contracted sharply.

Because he had heard of the Black Sun Tower before.

Only once.

Back when he was still a mortal, on the Corfu Continent, he had heard Count Augustine tell him that his mother had been hunted by the Black Sun Tower, that she had fled in haste to the Corfu Continent and married the Count there.

Together they had three children, his older brother, himself, and his younger sister.

"The Black Sun Tower..." Locke murmured, "I never expected to encounter a name like that inside an ancient tomb from the Era of Stars."

"Could it be that the Black Sun Tower is not a force of the modern magical age at all?"

"But if that is so, then why did this body's mother say that she was being hunted by the Black Sun Tower?"

"What is it that they are truly after?"

Locke looked at the third line, which was a warning.

"You of future generations who have shown me respect, accept this as repayment for your reverence and as an act of mercy. Do not touch any of the offerings beneath this statue. They are a trap that summons death."

Locke was suddenly alarmed, but at that very moment Wizard McKinley had already walked up to the statue. With a gloved hand, he reached toward the mechanical offerings arranged before it.

Wizard McKinley's eyes gleamed with interest. "Just look at this bolt fashioned with a magical gemstone. It is made using a special kind of rubber band. I would wager that certain alchemy-school magic of later eras was absolutely influenced by this."

"This one... ah..."

The instant his palm touched the bolt, from the point of contact, his entire right arm was devoured by some kind of red insects. In a single moment, the whole arm was reduced to bare bone, and the insects began moving toward the rest of his body.

Wizard Warwick's heart lurched. "It is Insect Curse School magic!"

"The Insect Curse School has a life-homology magic that can bypass permanent defensive fields! The moment a wizard made physical contact, an insect curse triggered, one that operates through bodily contact. Because the curse is treated as an extension of the wizard's own body, it can ignore the permanent defensive field! To think there is a trap of this caliber inside this ancient tomb!"

In the next instant, Wizard McKinley drew a wizard's sword with his left hand and severed his own right arm, stopping the spread of the insect curse just in time.

His quick decision had saved him. Had he hesitated even a moment longer, his entire body would have been consumed.

But from the severed arm, countless insects with wing cases emerged, and they flew straight toward McKinley's face.

In an instant, the color drained from Wizard McKinley's face.

But in the next moment, countless insects slammed into a wall formed from an emerald-green life force field.

These insects shared a life-homology only with McKinley, which was why they had been recognized as extensions of his own body by his permanent defensive field and could therefore bypass it. But they had no such connection to Locke's permanent defensive field.

The insects crashed into the life force field like cars hitting a wall at full speed, and one by one they burst apart and died.

Wizard McKinley was still breathing hard. "Thank you... Wizard Augustine."

Warwick said, "Everyone stay alert. Damn it all, McKinley, you absolute fool."

"The trap has been triggered..."

The ground beneath their feet began to heave like a depression in soft clay, and granite bricks began to fall away in chunks.

Beneath them was an endless abyss.

Pitch black.

And to make matters worse, the flight prohibition formation of the Abjuration School was active here as well.

Every street radiating outward from the statue at the center collapsed downward all at once.

The four of them had no choice but to fall.

Warwick said, "McKinley, you wretched troublemaker."

Wizard McKinley's face had turned pale. "How was I supposed to know there would be insect curse magic of this level here?"

"How could there be traps with lethal intent at every single turn. I was already wearing specially treated magical gloves. The craftsmanship of this city far exceeds anything from the same era!"

Locke said, "The plant life below..."

Below them was nothing but a vast expanse of ancient First Circle man-eating flowers, and even a few at the Second Circle level. The varieties of these carnivorous plants were primitive and numerous, some of which had gone completely extinct in the modern age.

At a single glance, Locke could already make out the Venus Giant Pitcher Plant, the Explosive Seed Sandbox Tree, the Throat-Scorching Wide-Mouthed Man-Eater, and other ancient and formidable carnivorous magical plant species.

Moreover, at this moment, a massive surge of abyssal energy was rising behind these primordial carnivorous plants, and every one of them was being suffused and corrupted by it.

Or perhaps more precisely, the lower portion of this trap was already a naturally occurring carnivorous plant environment. The instant the trap was triggered, abyssal energy erupted, corrupting all the plants and dramatically strengthening these magical plants in a very short span of time.

The primordial carnivorous plant ecosystem had been transformed into an abyssal magical plant ecosystem.

Though this ecosystem would certainly be destroyed afterward, in this very moment it was terrifyingly powerful, and all four of them were enveloped in an overwhelming aura of malice.

Wizards Warwick and McKinley, along with Locke and Witch Shirley, all summoned their Suzerain's Books and used Summon Demon God.

Out came a paper-folded demon god, a paper-folded fire-breathing dragon, a paper-folded thunderbird, and a paper-folded phoenix.

Witch Shirley's Suzerain's Book was a Book of the Phoenix.

Even with four paper-folded demon gods, they were still being besieged by the carnivorous plants from all sides, and it seemed as though the four of them would be swallowed by the endless tide of man-eating flowers at any moment.

Warwick activated the innate magical eye of the Abyssal Werewolf, using his Eye of Wisdom to scan the entire trap, and his expression darkened. "It is no use. There are far too many of these carnivorous plants. Their combined magical pressure is overwhelming."

"We need to find a narrow path and fight our way through."

Witch Shirley shouted, "Fight our way through? Easy for you to say!"

Witch Shirley cut down a man-eating flower with a single sword stroke and moved quickly toward Locke. At a moment of crisis like this, she had set aside many other concerns and was focused above all on protecting herself and Locke.

Wizard McKinley, his complexion grim, said, "Everyone think of something fast."

"Damn it, flight is prohibited here, otherwise we could just fly straight up. Wait... this carnivorous plant jungle seems to have some kind of magic applied to it. The man-eating flowers have a self-regenerating property..."

Indeed, the carnivorous plants they had destroyed were rapidly regenerating under the effect of a magical force.

Warwick's Eye of Wisdom swept across the situation and quickly analyzed it. "The magical plants here are afraid of water. Only flooding can destroy them. But this land has been hexed with a drought curse, so if we summon water, the land will simply absorb it."

"We need a massive quantity of water to break the drought curse on this place!"

"And now that Second Circle carnivorous plant has turned its attention toward us."

Ahead of them, a carnivorous plant resembling an enormous abyssal worm turned in their direction. The structure at its center, like a massive maw, split open wide, with countless inner spines churning and rolling inward.

A tremendous suction force bore down on all four of them.

Warwick's expression changed drastically. "There is one more option. I use sealing magic simultaneously on all four of us, banish us dimensionally. But if we do that, we will end up in a half-plane and will have to find our way back in again."

"Everyone, give me ten minutes to apply the banishment magic to you all."

Locke glanced at him. "Warwick, I did not know you had such a sense of humor."

"We came this far at great cost."

"If it is magical plants, I have a way."

Locke chanted an incantation, and the Porcelain Moon from within his astral ring flew out on its own. A full moon, as though born from the very beginning of time, appeared floating behind Locke of its own accord.

Bathed in the moonlight of that full moon, the surrounding carnivorous magical plants instantly had their magical pressure pushed to the absolute limit, and under the corruption of the abyssal energy, their aggression was pushed to its extreme as well.

They launched a ferocious assault on all four of them.

The four endured it miserably.

But this relentless assault lasted only a brief moment.

In the next instant, every carnivorous magical plant began to wither at a rapid pace, and one by one the magical plants began self-destructing under the corruption of the abyssal energy.

Magical energy scattered in all directions.

Even that massive magical plant resembling a giant abyssal worm now had holes opening across its body one after another, with magical energy pouring outward.

Then the entire magical plant exploded.

The Porcelain Moon behind Locke cycled through eight successive lunar phase changes.

Under the shifting gravitational pull of the moon, the Second Circle carnivorous magical plant, already deeply corrupted by abyssal energy, was pushed into complete detonation.

Locke gritted his teeth as he strained to influence the Second Circle magical plant, feeling as though he were trying to haul a mountain with a handcart.

If not for the fact that his Porcelain Moon had already been refined to a sufficient degree, combined with the design flaw inherent in the trap itself, where the abyssal energy had proven far more ferocious than the designer had anticipated, his Porcelain Moon would not have been able to affect a Second Circle magical plant at all.

The carnivorous plant suddenly heaved its root system up from the soil. Among the roots were real physical plant roots, along with many imaginary-number roots.

An iron ball shot out the moment those roots were lifted from the earth, and Shirley lunged and caught it, keeping the iron ball from flying away into the depths below.

At the same time, the Second Circle carnivorous plant finally gave out, as the imaginary-number roots were also invaded and consumed by the abyssal energy under the growing moonlight of the Porcelain Moon.

Then all the roots exploded.

And Locke used that opportunity to observe the spectacle in full, witnessing the self-destruction of this Second Circle magical plant.

This phenomenon was extraordinarily rare for someone at his current level.

He could see clearly how each part of a Second Circle magical plant was progressively destroyed under the erosion of abyssal energy, and for a breeder, a scene like this was something of a rare luxury. Without such a specific and unlikely set of circumstances, it would be nearly impossible to witness under normal conditions.

Witch Shirley tossed the iron ball to Locke. "Here. You were the wizard who dealt with that Second Circle magical plant, so this should be yours."

By now, every carnivorous plant on the ground had withered away under the growth of the Porcelain Moon.

The four of them were covered in wounds.

They stood in the massive pit, surrounded by the remains of dead plants and saturated with abyssal energy, breathing quietly.

This trap... had been mercilessly lethal.

Every mechanism designed to kill.

Locke looked toward the spot where the Second Circle magical plant had fallen, and beneath the decaying plant matter he spotted a small hidden statue of the princess.

The princess in this statue still held the same posture of gazing into the distance, her hands cradling a crown.

Warwick and the others followed Locke's gaze to the crown.

Warwick stared at it, and his throat moved. "Surely not. This cannot be the Nameless King's crown, can it?"

Locke read the inscription on the base of the statue, "My king, your great expedition has come to an end. The Black Sun Tower descended and in an instant destroyed everything we had built together."

"This king-making instrument crumbled along with it."

"I have preserved it and placed it here for the next age to find. I have set trap after trap. Will it be enough to shield it from the gaze of the Black Sun Tower? Or has the Black Sun Tower already ceased to care about it?"

"This decayed royal instrument can no longer lead an era. Yet will it endure the ravages of time, be preserved, and one day be discovered by those of future generations?"

As Locke finished reading the inscription aloud, what was called the king-making instrument began to crumble and fall to pieces.

Locke and the other three immediately opened their Suzerain's Books and scanned the crown, recording the information of its negative-energy particle field just one step ahead of its complete dissolution.

Warwick was intensely excited. "No wonder these traps were so terrifying, each one designed to take our lives. And hidden behind them was a secret of this magnitude. A royal instrument... in all the archaeological discoveries from the Era of Stars, nothing of this kind has ever been mentioned before."

"What exactly is this thing?"

"Although it is a pity that the royal instrument has already decayed, all four of us have preserved the information of its negative-energy force field. Shortly we can compare our recordings with each other to check whether there are any preservation discrepancies."

"But these traps were meant to take the lives of future grave robbers, yet this princess seems to have actually wanted future generations to find it."

Locke was silent for a moment, then said, "I think I may be able to understand the princess's conflicted state of mind. She resented those who came to intrude upon the place of her eternal rest, and yet as someone who had achieved something in that era, she also wanted future generations to witness everything she and her husband had created."

"Or perhaps the princess was also forced to put on a performance, pretending that all of these were mechanisms to prevent future intruders, while in truth she wanted to pass certain things on to those who came after. Things she was not permitted to tell the world."