Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 736: The Weighted Parliamentary System and the Cloud Marsh Focal Coordinate Axis

At this moment, Locke also possessed the right to vote within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands Council interface. He could choose to vote in support or in opposition.But when Locke selected the voting option on this interface, a prompt box immediately appeared:

"Every vote in your hands will determine the future of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands and the Eastern Border Region. Please treat the vote in your hands with care. The Supreme Truth Council of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands and the Eastern Border Region trusts that all wizards of Second Circle and above possess sufficient wisdom to judge how to make a reasonable choice."

"Notice: The Supreme Truth Council of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands reserves the right to initiate a revote and call into question the relevant voters if it determines that an agenda item has been voted on carelessly."

"This notice will not appear again."

Locke looked at the options for a moment and chose not to vote. He was primarily unsure of Golden Crown Mountain's position on the matter.

And it seemed that most of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' Second Circle wizards had not yet voted either.

Whether he chose to support or oppose the agenda item, these were all matters that felt quite distant from his immediate concerns.

At this point, Locke looked toward the Cloud Marsh Council interface with curiosity, where a line of text read, "Eastern Border Region Basic Wizard System, Weighted Parliamentary System."

Locke clicked on this interface and quickly familiarized himself with the concept. The so-called weighted parliamentary system was in fact related to the population representation baseline law that Hussein had told him about earlier.

That is, within the Eastern Border Region, every person was equal in principle. However, a first-class wizard apprentice was by default considered to represent ten thousand ordinary people, while formal wizards and Second Circle wizards represented even greater numbers.

So in principle, a Second Circle wizard would be considered to represent a large number of people. The reason their opinions and voting rights were important was not only because they were Second Circle wizards with power and knowledge.

At least within the discourse framework of the White Wizard Association in the Eastern Border Region, the reason Second Circle wizards held an exceptionally high status and possessed a vast number of privileges under wizard law was that a single Second Circle wizard could legally be regarded as the aggregate of a large number of ordinary people.

The so-called weighted parliamentary system was precisely this concept, in which a wizard's circle number plus their population count determined the voting rights and degree of importance they held.

The weighted parliamentary system achieved equity of outcome rather than equity of process.

It acknowledged that people's natural talents differed, and therefore wizards who, through their own talent and effort, along with a certain degree of learning, had become Second Circle wizards would hold more rights than ordinary people and wizard apprentices.

Locke looked at this Eastern Border Region Basic System, the Weighted Parliamentary System, and thought to himself:

"This ought to be a bill confirmed by the Eastern Border Region Council, meaning all fifty-three wizard lands in the Eastern Border Region would adopt the weighted parliamentary system as their basic governance structure."

Locke thought it over and found that whether it was the southeastern quadrant, the Land of Six Towers, the Jade Splendor Enclave, or the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, the traces of the weighted parliamentary system were indeed present in all of them.

Locke also noticed that the Cloud Marsh Council interface indicated that the Cloud Marsh Wetlands had adopted the standard weighted parliamentary system.

It occurred to Locke to directly summon his grey mist slate within the Golden Crown Mountain District Council space. The grey mist slate formed a magical resonance with the Second Circle wizard badge he was wearing on his chest, and a southeastern quadrant Council interface appeared on the grey mist slate as well.

However, he was apparently not a member of the southeastern quadrant's White Wizard Association at this moment, and so he could not enter the council interface, only view the outermost display screen.

It showed two status indicators for the southeastern quadrant Council:

First, a state of total war.

Second, adoption of the standard weighted parliamentary system.

Locke thought about it, which meant the southeastern quadrant also used the most standard form of the weighted parliamentary system, the assumption being that as a wizard's circle level increased, the number of ordinary people they represented would increase, granting them greater rights within the council.

At its core, this was a supplement to the rights of high-circle wizards who held teaching positions.

Locke thought to himself, "So what kind of system would the Land of Six Towers use?"

"It probably would not be the standard weighted parliamentary system. Under the standard weighted parliamentary system, one's circle level largely determined everything. But in the Land of Six Towers, that was not the only factor. If I am not mistaken, the Land of Six Towers would likely use a system of circle level plus bloodline family grade plus population, a wizard family weighted parliamentary system with a bias toward family bloodlines."

That would mean that all fifty-three wizard lands across the entire Eastern Border Region adopted the weighted parliamentary system, but each wizard land's version of it would vary.

Like a single template, but one that would take on different forms with different contents across different wizard lands.

And it was precisely for this reason that all fifty-three wizard lands possessed the population representation baseline wizard law.

All fifty-three wizard lands ought to also possess the academy system, the mentorship system, and the parliamentary system. These were likely the universal rules of the modern magic era, the three great pillars.

Therefore, Locke reasonably inferred that these three great pillars might have originated from the White Wizard Association headquarters' decrees, and would thus be present across all eight border regions of the wizard world.

But the weighted parliamentary system, on the other hand, was a feature specific to the Eastern Border Region alone. The remaining seven border regions very possibly used something entirely different.

Locke suddenly realized something.

"The wizard world seems to be deliberately avoiding the adoption of a single unified system, which is why the various border regions and wizard lands all have different variations."

"But why? In order to better explore truth? Or is there some special purpose?"

Standing higher allowed one to see farther.

But at this moment he had too little information, and so Locke himself was still quite in the dark.

Locke looked toward the Cloud Marsh Wetlands Council interface, where there was also a focal coordinate system composed of two number axes.

There were two axes in total.

One axis had at its two ends, Mercantilism and Free Market.

The other axis had at its two ends, Consumption-Driven and Production-First.

The two axes intersected with each other, forming a special coordinate system. Locke could see that, based on the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' past agenda items combined with the influence of the legislation from the higher-tier Eastern Border Region Council, the Cloud Marsh Wetlands currently sat fully at the free market end of the axis and essentially at the production-first end as well.

So the Cloud Marsh Wetlands had currently chosen free market combined with production-first.

But this was not the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' own choice. It was something decided by the entire Eastern Border Region Council.

In other words, the entire Eastern Border Region at present leaned toward developing production capacity through technological advancement and aspired to a free market allowing the freest possible trade.

Locke stood on a wooden boat adrift on shimmering water, and finally understood a great many things that had long eluded him.

There was a question that had lingered in his mind for a very long time.

As an organization, the White Wizard Association was responsible for a vast amount of public infrastructure and public safety.

All of these things cost money.

The basic universal currency of white wizard society was money. Any organization, whether a wizard academy or the White Wizard Association, that could not obtain money was nothing more than an empty shell. But for a very long time he had found it strange that the White Wizard Association imposed no tax whatsoever on any market or any commodity arising from trade.

If the White Wizard Association were merely an empty shell, that would not be right either.

Because the Association directly controlled the wizard airship routes in every region, held a large portion of assets within white wizard society, and the various departments under the Association, whether the Dispatch Department or the Demon Hunter corps, were all extremely powerful organizations.

At their core, the Demon Hunter corps were a group of wizard soldiers raised by the White Wizard Association specifically to deal with black wizards and public order issues, and that would certainly require a large sum of money to maintain.

But where did the money come from?

Why were there no commercial taxes at all, such that whether he was buying goods or selling his own magical plants, he had never paid any tax on any of it?

Whether in the southeastern quadrant, the Land of Six Towers, or the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, the White Wizard Association had fundamentally not taken any cut from any of his commercial transactions.

He had not thought carefully about it before, but now he realized it was because the entire Eastern Border Region leaned toward the free market.

Locke looked at the definition of free market on the interface. It roughly amounted to a complete faith that the flow of capital would generate wealth, and so the entire Eastern Border Region was currently a zero-tax zone.

At the same time, the entire Eastern Border Region had determined that production was the key focus of economic activity, and so required the wizard lands of the Eastern Border Region to strengthen their productive capacity, enhance all academic activities related to production energy, and had allocated certain dedicated funds with a bias toward those ends.

Locke thought to himself, "So this is why the Eastern Border Region's economy is so developed. The wizards here believe that as long as a massive market is maintained, everyone will gain from it."

By comparison, mercantilism used taxation as checkpoints or valves, tools for intercepting and retaining wealth.

Just as only the Eastern Border Region made comprehensive use of the weighted parliamentary system, the free market and emphasis on production were likely also specific characteristics of the Eastern Border Region under the Star Domain Sea's leadership.

In the other seven wizard border regions, the situation was probably entirely different.

So the distinguishing feature of the Eastern Border Region was a free market with absolutely no commercial or customs taxes. Within this free market, even the industries of the White Wizard Association and wizard universities could only enter the market as ordinary industries, fighting for survival alongside countless other wizards.

One could say that the entire Eastern Border Region was one enormous free market, likely possessing a production chain of extraordinary scale.

Locke only came to realize this after looking at the focal coordinate axis of the Cloud Marsh Council.

And this was only the general characteristic of the Eastern Border Region. Other border regions were surely different, and the fifty-three wizard lands of the Eastern Border Region each had their own distinctions as well.

For example, looking at the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, it appeared to have invested considerably in protecting logistics and transportation as well as light industrial production. Across more than a dozen past agenda items, they were almost all related either to protecting logistics and transportation or to certain aspects of magical light industrial production.

Locke noted all of this down, and felt a sense of wonder. Truly, standing in a different position meant seeing a different landscape.

He had only just become a Second Circle wizard, and already many things that had once been unclear to him were now fully understood.

Locke exited the Golden Crown Mountain District Council illusion space and returned to the real mountain terrain.

The moment he returned to the real space, a familiar voice sounded in his ear.

"Hello, Breeder, my name is Jesse Bailey. You can call me Witch Jesse. I am a platinum trader who just this year joined the Solas Light Foot shop alliance. Have you heard of the Solas Light Foot shop alliance?"

Locke turned in surprise, and what he saw made him pause. The already-dead Witch Jesse was standing right before him, a large gaping wound in her abdomen, as though she had not realized at all that she was already dead, speaking to him normally.

Her face was so young, and most strikingly, there was not the slightest trace of the despondence and despair that debt had carved into her eyes.

At this moment, the eyes of this young Witch Jesse, who had only just become a Second Circle wizard and a platinum trader, seemed to hold a light within them. She was so full of spirit and vitality, with no inkling at all that she would very soon become a debt slave of the Solas Light Foot shop alliance, and that Solas Light Foot would ultimately cast her aside on their own initiative.

Solas Light Foot had assessed her as an inferior asset, intending to exchange her for him, one-for-one, to eliminate a threat to the shop alliance.

Witch Jesse looked at Locke and smiled.

"Young Second Circle wizard, it is quite rare for someone your age to have become a Second Circle wizard. You have not yet turned twenty-four this year, have you? How enviable. Though I am not far behind myself. I am only a hundred and fifty years old this year, and I have already become a Second Circle wizard!"

Locke did a quick mental calculation and confirmed that Witch Jesse had indeed been unable to keep pace with the requirements of Golden Crown Mountain's Origin Academy.

Because she had only become a Second Circle wizard at the age of one hundred and fifty.

A researcher at Golden Crown Mountain's caliber, even just an ordinary researcher, would need to have reached the crystallization stage of the First Circle in practice before the age of fifty.

And even for those not taking the path of Golden Crown Mountain-level Institutes of Truth, the teaching positions at other ordinary Institutes of Truth, or at most of the mid-sized and above wizard academies in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, had strict age requirements for their wizards.

Take Wizard Rash, for example. He was not yet fifty and was already nearing sun ring wizard level. Team Leader Chad was also in his early forties and was already a moon ring wizard.

It was not that a hundred-and-fifty-year-old Second Circle wizard was not talented. It was that within the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, an environment overflowing with genius and populated by a large number of high-circle wizards, the sheer number of wizards and the sheer number of geniuses was simply too great.

And so, one slow step meant every step after it would be slower too.

And if the Cloud Marsh Wetlands were already like this, one could only imagine how much more daunting it would become within the Star Domain Sea.

Every choice one made would either lower or raise the ceiling of one's future.

Locke let out a quiet sigh, glancing at the wound in Witch Jesse's abdomen. Now that she was dead, he felt no particular hatred toward her.

Witch Jesse was already dead. The young version of her standing before him existed only because of an Echo.

The young version of Witch Jesse, who had only just become a Second Circle wizard, stood not far from her own dead body.

Centered on her body, magical tides surged outward, forming a vortex, while her shattered Grand Magic was straining desperately to maintain its own existence. But the Grand Magic had already crumbled and was gradually unable to sustain itself.

It was like a dying person grasping at anything that might keep them alive, and so had struggled for a while in its final moments.

But by now the Grand Magic had completely collapsed, cascading ever deeper into chaos, yet the fragments of the Grand Magic were still attempting to find order within the chaos.

And so a young version of Witch Jesse appeared before Locke.

But this Witch Jesse was only a remnant shadow born of an Echo, and had never been that witch. That witch was already dead.

Locke had no wish to become too entangled with a debt slave, for fear of being pursued by her creditors. He walked over to the first-class wizard apprentice coachman who had been scared senseless nearby and said, "All right. The matter has been resolved."

"You have had quite an ordeal. Here are five hundred magic stones as compensation for you."

The coachman was overwhelmed with gratitude and did not dare at first to accept a Second Circle wizard's gift.

Golden Crown Mountain had already paid him two thousand magic stones as his hiring fee, so this was a tip.

A first-class wizard apprentice's monthly income was approximately one thousand magic stones, and as a coachman working in the beast-taming magic sub-branch of the summoning school, his income was slightly higher, but still only around two thousand magic stones per month.

Locke had clearly done a quick mental calculation on the spot, and had given him an amount equal to a fifth of his monthly income, a sum that was quite meaningful for this first-class wizard apprentice.

And so the apprentice did not dare to accept it at first, and only took it after noticing a flash of impatience in Locke's eyes.

The first-class wizard apprentice inwardly marveled at how generous this Second Circle wizard was, so unlike many other tight-fisted Second Circle wizards.

Locke adjusted his wizard robes, checked that they had not been torn or soiled during the battle just now, and after confirming they were pristine, casually cast a cleaning spell on himself and stepped into the carriage, "All right. Let us rejoin the main convoy."

The coachman immediately drove the two flame spirit horses away from the mountain valley and back toward the main road.

At the same time, in a small preliminary academy nestled in the mountains nearby, the second-class wizard apprentice principal heaved a sigh of relief as though granted a reprieve.

Those figures radiating such terrifying magic pressure had finally left.

What circle were they?

They did not look like ordinary formal wizards. Surely they were not the legendary gasification-stage wizards, were they?

The elderly second-class wizard apprentice principal looked at the students before him, young apprentices of noble and commoner origin alike, and saw that they had apparently no idea what had just transpired and were instead gazing at him with reverence, waiting for him to address them, with expressions that showed complete incomprehension of why he had been so grave a moment ago. The old principal suddenly burst into a quiet, wry laugh.

Sometimes, ignorance truly was a blessing.

The old principal said quietly, "The great wizards have departed. You may all relax. Do not wander outside the academy for the next few days. All of you, be careful."

The young noble and commoner apprentices immediately looked at the principal with wide, reverent eyes, and only after he had left did they exchange glances with one another, wearing expressions that suggested they were busily speculating about what had just happened.

As though they could actually figure it out.

Meanwhile, within the magical carriage convoy, Wizard Chad stepped down from his carriage and asked Locke, "Locke, have you really become a Second Circle wizard?"

Locke saw that everyone had stopped where they were and was waiting for him, and so he also walked toward the carriages, saying plainly to the Golden Crown Mountain wizards around him, "Yes, Senior Chad. I am a Second Circle wizard now."

Inside one of the magical carriages, Antoine rolled down his window and looked at Locke with curiosity. He had not expected Locke to become a Second Circle wizard immediately after leaving the competition.

It seemed he would need to accelerate his own progress as well.

The corner of Antoine's mouth curved upward, and the look in his eyes as he watched Locke was filled with a kind of delight, so much so that he actually felt a sense of ease come over him.

"Good. It is precisely because people like this exist that I can truly let go of the airs of a reincarnated Third Circle wizard."

Antoine had also gained something from this competition. He had no memories of his Third Circle wizard past life, and so had to relearn everything from scratch. But once he became a sun ring wizard and awakened the memories of his past life, it would be like stacking the memories of multiple lifetimes upon one another, and he would have several lifetimes' worth of research experience more than an ordinary wizard, which would naturally make his chances of becoming a Third Circle wizard that much greater.

On the other side, Witch Preston furrowed her brow in disbelief.

Because from her perspective, Locke's advancement speed was simply too fast.

In the blink of an eye, Locke was already a Second Circle wizard, no longer in the same tier as her.

At the same time, Wizard Chad's eyes brightened slightly as he asked with great interest, "Now that you have become a Second Circle wizard, what is your magic pressure? You were too far away earlier, and the magical energy was too chaotic. I could not get a reliable estimate."

Wizard Chad offered this explanation.

Locke said, "Sixteen thousand magic pressure."

That meant he now had five Grand Magic Runes.

A look of delight spread across Wizard Chad's face. Locke's wizard level had no real bearing on his personal interests, but as Locke's team leader for the Silent Chalice, he naturally felt a sense of pride by association.

He said, "Well done. Worthy of the Silent Chalice champion. You are far more accomplished than I ever was."

On the other side, Wizard Fischer also rolled down his carriage window, looked at Locke for a moment, and gave a slight nod.

As Witch Yekaterina's last and most treasured disciple, Locke had indeed proven himself in every respect, not only winning the Silent Chalice for Golden Crown Mountain but also turning the tables in front of everyone to defeat a Crimson Deep Court black wizard.

He had greatly elevated Golden Crown Mountain's reputation.

Wizard Fischer spoke, "I have already contacted the White Wizard Association and informed them of everything. Someone will be dispatched automatically to handle the matter shortly. Let us return to Golden Crown Mountain first."

"The White Wizard Association will send the Demon Hunter corps. Any case involving black wizards will draw a thorough investigation from the Demon Hunter corps."

"Locke, the wizard you killed just now... was the Crimson Deep Court's Second Circle bishop, known by the alias, War Butcher."

Wizard Fischer said this calmly.

Locke paused for a moment, nearly blurting out that someone like that was given a name like War Butcher?

But then Locke caught himself, remembering that any Second Circle wizard was genuinely formidable on a battlefield.

Wizard Fischer had apparently guessed what Locke was thinking and added, "War Butcher was known throughout the Five Great Wars for actively hunting and killing low-circle wizards. He had a dark reputation throughout the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, with many low-circle white wizards dying at his hands, and dying in horrific fashion. But because he rarely provoked the seven premier academies, no sufficiently powerful wizard had previously bothered to deal with him, and he had lived freely for quite some time."

"Now he has run into you. So he is dead."