523: The Four Element Rings and the Elimination System
The One-Ring Wizard responsible for receiving them was a wizard named Matthew Fleming. He wore a blue-gray wizard robe. He greeted Locke and Daniel, then said to the two with a respectful but distant tone: "You two must be Researcher Augustine and Researcher Brook, right?"
"I am Matthew Fleming. You can just call me Wizard Matthew. I am also a researcher at the True Knowledge Institute. Likewise, I am the wizard responsible for receiving you at the Dragon Fern Garden. These First-Class Wizard Apprentices are all students jointly trained within the Dragon Fern Garden."
"They are students who will help us with chores. Well, some of them might become your students in the future."
Wizard Matthew said concisely: "Please follow me. I will specifically explain the Golden Crown Mountain Academy and our Hall of Advanced True Knowledge to you both, and then take you to report to the True Knowledge Institute."
"These students will move your belongings. For large, valuable items, please be sure to inform these students clearly, as these apprentices are prone to breaking expensive items."
Locke shrugged, "I don't have anything to move."
Wizard Daniel said: "I do. I have a Hurricane Speedometer and a Polarized Variance Instrument still on the airship, and I was just about to find someone to help me move them."
"Those two large instruments are extremely precise. I cannot roughly put them into my astral ring for fear that the magic energy will affect the instruments' precision. I need people to carry them."
Wizard Daniel looked at the eight First-Class Wizard Apprentices responsible for receiving them and said: "Also, you cannot use any magic to lift them. As long as you don't use magic to move them, there is no need to worry about any damage to these two instruments."
Wizard Daniel explained to Locke and Wizard Matthew: "The protective devices of those two instruments themselves are quite sturdy; physical means are unlikely to affect them."
The eight First-Class Wizard Apprentices immediately bowed respectfully to him, indicating that they would comply and carry them carefully.
After all, both Locke and Wizard Daniel might become their future mentors, and since they were both Formal Wizards, no student dared to offend them.
Wizard Matthew nodded. "That's good. It's indeed inconvenient for Weather Masters to travel."
"Weather Masters have too much large equipment."
Wizard Matthew looked at the druids ring worn on Locke's left hand. "A druids ring? Good stuff."
Wizard Matthew also raised his right hand, revealing the druids ring he was wearing. "Look, I have one too. Having a druids ring with us makes many things much more convenient for us Breeders."
The eight First-Class Wizard Apprentices went to help Wizard Daniel move the instruments. The instruments would be sent directly to Wizard Daniel's dormitory, so Wizard Daniel didn't need to worry about them at all.
The two followed Wizard Matthew toward the True Knowledge Institute.
On the way up the mountain, Wizard Matthew raised his right hand to show Locke the remaining four rings worn on his right hand. "However, I feel that wearing just one druids ring is not enough, so look..."
"These are the Four Element Rings."
Locke raised an eyebrow. "What are these?"
Wizard Matthew laughed. "I entered the Yunze Wetland three years earlier than you two, so I've been able to come into contact with more advanced Breeder equipment here. The druids ring is indeed very good, but it's an old thing. The Four Element Rings have been popular recently. Each of these four magic rings is a treasure."
"A single Elemental Plane ring is refined from a semi-Plane with a specific attribute. For example, this Fire Ring of mine is refined from an Elemental Plane: Fire semi-Plane."
"The four rings correspond to the four basic elemental particles: Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind."
"Using these four major rings to continuously infuse energy into the druids ring can help the druids ring obtain an energy cycle almost identical to the Main Material Plane. This point is especially important."
As a Weather Master, Wizard Daniel only half-understood, but as a Breeder, Locke naturally understood how important it was for the energy cycle to be exactly the same as the Main Material Plane for breeding.
The druids ring he currently carried simulated the real world with its internal cycles, but it was not the real world.
But if he also had the Four Element Rings, using the energy of the four elemental semi-Planes, he could make the space inside the druids ring indistinguishable from reality.
In this way, many experiments that could only be done in reality, and many magic plants that could be cultivated, could be done inside the druids ring.
Moreover, there were even more wonderful uses.
Locke felt it was good just thinking about it.
Locke said to Wizard Matthew: "Listening to Researcher Matthew, the role of these Four Element Rings is indeed great."
"The development of Breeding Science in the Yunze Wetland is truly changing with each passing day. It's just that these four rings must be very expensive."
Wizard Matthew nodded, a flash of pain in his eyes. "The four rings cost a total of 800,000 magic stones. If I didn't have special needs, I wouldn't buy such expensive rings."
"Actually, I... I'll be honest with you two researchers." Wizard Matthew said: "I bought these four rings on credit. The loan industry and financial industry in our Yunze Wetland are more developed; you will both see it in the future."
"Loan consumption is also relatively common here." Wizard Matthew said: "After all, money you can borrow can actually be considered your own money."
"It's just that the money I have to pay back every month is really painful."
"And once you can't pay it back, it will be very troublesome. Those wizards with stalls you encountered after getting off the airship are basically wizards who owe a lot of loans. However, most of them are certainly not wizards from our Golden Crown Mountain, but Formal Wizards from small wizard organizations outside."
"Advance consumption is a huge temptation. There will always be people who miscalculate their future income, resulting in an inability to pay off their loans."
The three of them soon walked to the foot of the mountain, where hundreds of treants bowed to them.
A huge banyan treant walked over. This treant possessed magic pressure at the First Ring crystallization level, but it seemed to be just a treant guarding the gate at the foot of Golden Crown Mountain Academy.
A rain cloud followed above the banyan treant's head. After it approached, the temperature dropped out of thin air.
The banyan treant swept a glance at Wizard Matthew and made a slow and powerful sound. "Little Matthew, you're back. Are these two the new members of our Golden Crown Mountain?"
"Ah hahaha..."
Every time the banyan treant laughed, because it spoke slowly, it would stutter, so it sounded very strange.
Wizard Matthew introduced Locke and Daniel to this banyan treant. Wizard Matthew said to Locke and the others: "This is Elder Gru, the banyan treant responsible for guarding the entrance to Golden Crown Mountain."
"He has been guarding the gate at Golden Crown Mountain for many years. Although he has no teaching position, his status is not low; he is an old-timer of Golden Crown Mountain."
"Many Second Ring Wizards are his friends."
"After all, when everyone comes back, they all have to ask [Gru] to open the door."
"Those treants are all children adopted by Gru. In fact, there are more. The treant race has signed a contract with our Golden Crown Mountain. We are allies. In peacetime, it is Gru who guards Golden Crown Mountain, and in wartime..." Wizard Matthew said: "I don't know either."
"Because no one has dared to launch a wizard war against Golden Crown Mountain yet."
Gru judged that all three were wizards of Golden Crown Mountain, so he took the initiative to clear the way, revealing the deep path hidden by Life Magic leading up the mountain behind him.
"Three, please. If you need a vehicle to go up the mountain, I can let some of my children who walk fast and have great strength, those ash treants and baobab treants, carry you up the mountain."
Wizard Matthew said: "That won't be necessary."
Wizard Matthew explained in a low voice: "Even the fastest treants are actually very slow, and... they want money."
"In the Yunze Land, you need money to do anything."
"Without money, you can't take a step!"
Daniel curiously asked Matthew. "Researcher Matthew, you are about to finish your station at the Advanced Research Institute, right? After all, it's been three years."
Wizard Matthew turned his head and blinked. After thinking, he said: "Oh, you don't quite understand the situation of the Golden Crown Mountain True Knowledge Institute."
"You misunderstood. I am not from the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge; I am from the ordinary True Knowledge Institute. There are only thirteen people in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge at Golden Crown Mountain, including you two. Each one is almost either the most outstanding One-Ring Wizard in the school or the undisputed champion of some cross-Wizard Land-level competition. They are truly the darlings of heaven."
"But there are 180 researchers in the ordinary True Knowledge Institute of Golden Crown Mountain. I am one of them."
"However, although that is said, I will not feel inferior."
Wizard Matthew explained: "Whether it is a researcher in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge or a researcher in the ordinary True Knowledge Institute, we are all within the same evaluation system. We all have a point-based elimination system."
"After all, there are a bunch of wizards waiting eagerly for our True Knowledge Institute, so the bottom thirty in points are eliminated every year to encourage us to make reasonable use of the resources within the True Knowledge Institute."
"Those who are eliminated due to low points are replaced by those wizards who failed the selection outside and have been waiting for a year. They take over the remaining four years of the True Knowledge Institute quota, continue to work, and enter the next round of the point-based elimination system."
Wizard Matthew said: "Those who failed the selection for the ordinary True Knowledge Institute also have a ranking order. Those with higher rankings have a great chance of waiting for a replacement opportunity in the second year. Therefore, many wizards would rather wait outside for a year and observe the situation than go to other places to hold teaching positions."
"There are only so many vacancies, but there are far too many people eyeing them."
"Although you two are the darlings of heaven in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge, the problem is that you in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge almost all have to independently work on relevant topics in the hands of cooperative mentors. It's not like us researchers in the ordinary True Knowledge Institute, who can join forces to do the topics assigned to us by cooperative mentors, so the difficulty we have to challenge is completely different."
"We can work together as a group, and we have the experience of our previous seniors. But you are isolated and helpless."
"Last year, a wizard from the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge was eliminated because he was not used to working on topics completely independently."
"The project requirements and work style of the Yunze Wetland are completely different from the outside world. The requirements are higher, even harsh. Under these circumstances, wizards who can still work on topics independently... I really can't imagine. Every one of us who comes here has to experience a huge ideological advancement and come into contact with frontier fields we have never touched before. And at the same time, you guys in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge... actually have to be completely independent."
"You two must have received some help from teachers in the past."
"I wish you both good luck."
Wizard Matthew looked at Locke and Daniel and said: "Of course, it is a tragedy that no one wants to see for the darlings of heaven in the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge to be eliminated."
"With your abilities, you will certainly not let this tragedy happen again."
"I don't want to see this happen either."
Wizard Matthew turned his head to look at the two. "Congratulations on coming to a brand new world."