Locke spent ten thousand magic stones at Joseph's Golem Shop to conduct a more comprehensive test of the Nature Force Field.

With this, he had almost no money left.

Fortunately, he still had two major industries. The first was the Augustus Specialty Shop he co-opened with Lady Irina in the southeastern quadrant, and the second was the potion shop he co-opened with Alicia and the Plutarch family.

Therefore, as long as he waited a few more months, he would have money again.

After Locke walked out of Joseph's Golem Shop, he returned to his office and began writing a test report, "The test results are in. The Nature Force Field's performance is very good. It's absolutely not merely a simple stacking of three force fields."

"The defensive capability of the Nature Force Field is approximately ten times that of an ordinary Life Force Field, and it also has the special ability to neutralize enemy attack magic, absorb power from enemy attack magic, and feed it back to the user."

"Simply put, a wizard using the Nature Force Field as their permanent defensive force field can absorb the opponent's attack magic while battling to restore their own mana." Locke wrote on the document with a magical quill. He extended his left hand, and an iridescent green Nature Force Field enveloped Locke's palm, "At the same time, the compressibility of the Nature Force Field far exceeds that of ordinary force fields."

"I can even highly compress the Nature Force Field into a weapon."

At this moment, the Nature Force Field in Locke's hand, under high compression, gradually constrained its form and transformed into a large scythe.

This large scythe was iridescent green. Every detail was the result of highly compressing the permanent defensive force field.

Locke merely moved this scythe slightly toward his right hand covered with Oak Armor, and as a result, the Oak Armor on the surface of his right hand completely shattered in an instant, transforming into a pile of wood chips.

Locke's expression changed slightly as he continued writing, "Myst's Power is more complex than I thought."

"Myst's Power is absolutely not merely a tool for the founding dean to protect herself, but also a terrifying weapon. The highly compressed Nature Force Field itself contains powerful destructive power. Releasing the highly compressed Nature Force Field in an instant can transform it into an attack that cuts through any defense."

"The high compressibility and high manipulability of the Nature Force Field should be related to the power of the four seasons cycle."

A trace of doubt flashed in Locke's eyes. "Myst's Power has demonstrated a special kind of power that First Circle stage magic cannot possess. I've seen this kind of energy circulation in several Grand Magics I've encountered."

"But Myst's Power is not Second Circle magic and has no Second Circle characteristics. After all, the power of the four seasons cycle doesn't seem like an energy source, but more like a natural law."

Locke said, "Perhaps the mysteries of magic are truly profound, and my knowledge is relatively limited. So I boldly speculate that I believe Myst's Power is a type of magic that takes a different path from Grand Magic, an upgraded version of permanent defensive force fields."

"Considering the age and identity of ancient Lady Myst, perhaps..." Locke hesitated for a moment, but still wrote at the end of the article, "Perhaps in the time period when Lady Myst lived, the wizard world at that time had no mature method for advancing to Second Circle wizards, no systematic categorization and organization."

"Therefore, the path Lady Myst took was actually an alternative method for breaking through to Second Circle wizard."

"This is also why the characteristics of her permanent defensive force field are severely different from the current mainstream system."

Locke thought, "Actually, the quality of this article is very high. Adding this last paragraph of speculation actually causes some problems."

"But if I don't add it, I feel awkward, since I've already speculated to this point."

"Forget it, just the earlier parts alone should be enough to get published in 'Southeast'. If I get rejected because of this ending, I can revise it once and submit again."

Publishing an article in a journal and publishing an article in a library followed different logic. Journal publication required peer review.

Even if both were S-rank articles, only the article whose quality was more favored by the reviewers could be published in the journal.

Therefore, publishing articles in journals was more difficult than publishing articles in libraries. Article recording in libraries had no quantity restrictions, so there was no competition, as long as the quality met the standard.

But publishing articles in journals, especially top-tier journals, required competing with numerous other excellent articles.

Hence, only publishing articles in the top-tier journals of various wizard lands could add obvious advantages to one's resume.

Locke indeed speculated that Lady Myst's Nature Force Field was fundamentally a method attempting to break through to Second Circle wizard.

At least it was an attempt.

Ever since his Nature Force Field had condensed, his mental power growth rate accelerated again, and the Nature Force Field had a wonderful coordination with the compression method Witch Sophia had given him.

This caused his magical pressure, which had originally been just over seven thousand, to suddenly increase to 7200 magical pressure within these few days.

Moreover, this speed was still accelerating.

He estimated that within a few months, his magical pressure could reach 9000!

Then he could begin attempting to advance to the First Circle crystallization stage, completing the final stage of mental power becoming substantial.

And all of this was built upon the Nature Force Field being extremely easy to compress.

Locke thought for a moment and decided to write two articles based on Myst's Power.

One of these articles, out of courtesy, could be published in the top-tier journal of the southeastern quadrant, "Southeast", using his identity as someone from Lilith's Cottage in the southeastern quadrant. The other article could attempt submission to Cloud Marsh Wetland's "Cloud Marsh".

Locke planned to write one article about the origins and compositional principles of Myst's Power. This one would go to "Southeast".

The other would be about using Myst's Power in coordination with the compression method to accelerate the improvement of magical pressure compression, further accelerating one's own rapid mana advancement.

This one would go to "Cloud Marsh".

If both could be successfully published in the top-tier journals of their respective regions, it would be another huge boost to his resume.

Locke said, "Even if I write out my method for rapidly improving mana, there's no problem whatsoever."

"To replicate my method, one must first learn Forest Sanctuary magic as their permanent defensive force field, then obtain my Hydra, use Forest Sanctuary and the Hydra to simultaneously deploy permanent defensive force fields, obtain information on the three force fields, and read my article about Myst's Power."

"Only then can one use this method."

"Moreover, the reason my current progress speed is so fast is also because the Natural Plane is constantly pouring natural energy into me. As much as I raise my upper limit, that's how much magical pressure I can obtain."

"Otherwise, the progress speed would just be fast, but wouldn't be as abnormal as mine. And to be as fast as me, one would need to first study archaeology and find an ancient creature bloodline that could become a Nature Guardian..."

Locke said, "Essentially, this method is highly bound to me and difficult for others to learn."

"Without using Forest Sanctuary and only using the Hydra, even if one could obtain Myst's Power, it couldn't be used to improve oneself. Before, I tested it. Myst's Power must form when a wizard simultaneously possesses the ability to use Withering Force Field, Life Force Field, and Harvest Force Field. Otherwise, if three wizards stack the three powers together, due to subtle differences in spiritual conflicts, the three force fields would be unable to form Myst's Power, causing the three force fields to merely cancel each other out."

Locke thought, "However, speaking of which, as long as this article on Myst's Power is successfully published in 'Southeast', many wizards in Lilith's Cottage should have motivation to purchase Hydra magical plants from me for research or combat use, right?"

"To quickly complete mass production of Hydra magical plants, the Land of Six Towers is far from having the resource conditions for this. If I want to succeed in this, I need to go to wizard lands with better conditions."

Locke thought with clear logic while rapidly writing on the document with his magical quill.

At the same time, there was a knock on Locke's office door.

Locke said, "Please come in."

Then Locke saw Wizard Montgomery and Witch Barbara dressed in traveling attire, "You two are...?"

Montgomery and Witch Barbara bowed to Locke one after another, expressing their gratitude.

Montgomery said to Locke, "We've come to bid farewell. Boss Locke, thanks to you leading us to win the Cloud Marsh Cup, these past few days a large number of wizard organizations have come to invite Barbara and me to take up teaching positions."

Witch Barbara had a smile on her face. "I never thought in my life that so many wizard academies would simultaneously send me invitation letters."

Montgomery said, "Barbara and I have both agreed to go to a wizard academy in Rain Marsh Swampland called [Crawler's Garden]. It's a rare wizard academy that develops both bloodline studies and breeding studies, and even has ideas of combining the two. That academy offered us both very, very good conditions."

"We're different from you, Boss, so we feel we should seize this opportunity while we're riding high. If we miss this village, we might not have this shop, we might not have this chance again."