Locke sped up his use of Verdant Spiritual Breath Ore to forge Verdant Cornerstones. He also had Elk invite First-Ring Wizards from the investigation team who had spare time and were willing to help cultivate magic plants. The opportunity appealed to quite a few of them, and the First-Ring Wizards of Golden Crown Mountain represented a high standard of scholarship and magical power.
They really could help him.
For a First-Ring Wizard, the chance to work with imbuing magic plants with Occult Significance so far ahead of time was already an enormous gain.
In the square inside Serenity Garden, a group of First-Ring Wizards sat on chairs, nervously guiding the emerald-green Spiritual Breath floating before them with Mana. At times it turned to mist, at times to candle flame, and at times to a whirlwind. Even with Focus Spell Monocles and their full concentration, they could barely make out its changes.
Otherwise, the Spiritual Breath appeared to them either as a current flowing naturally across a vast continent or as air they could neither see nor touch.
Beneath their feet lay a wizard formation built into Serenity Garden. It captured the Spiritual Breath scattered through the air, preventing the breath Locke had extracted from the ore from escaping as gas if no one shaped it into tetrahedral cornerstones for too long.
A Formal Wizard followed the Spell Model Locke had taught him, compressing a portion of Verdant Spiritual Breath into a tetrahedron. But the instant his attention strayed, the nearly formed emerald cornerstone in his hands shattered.
The Crystallization Wizard glanced up at Locke in alarm. Sweat covered his forehead, and a mask hid his face.
When Locke saw him reach to remove the mask, he immediately stopped him. "Don't take it off. There's a reason Golden Crown Mountain's Academic