576: The queens chessboard and the Possibilities of source essence!
Locke looked at the opened stone door and glanced back at the Green Dragon Half-Dragon, who seemed terrified of the stone room. After observing for a moment and confirming there were no issues, he stepped inside.
The very first moment he entered behind the stone door, countless rays of brilliance suddenly bloomed in the air, flowing like a stream of water.
Inside the entire stone room, from every brick to every grain of dust, this azure brilliance flowed like water. Even on the surface of Locke's skin as he walked in, this substance—which seemed like water yet also like light, and did not exist in the natural world—began to flow.
Before closing the stone door, the Green Dragon Half-Dragon Shopkeeper bowed to Locke and said, "The usage time is 24 hours."
"During this period, you may use the queens chessboard as much as you like."
Locke nodded. As the stone door closed, he knew that this stone room was the most famous historical layer source essence of the queens chessboard.
Within the queens chessboard, the past, present, and future of any object could be summoned, existing in the form of primal force.
In this special area where primal force was summoned, the source essence within all matter would be forced to manifest.
Locke didn't actually know exactly what source essence was, only that books mentioned everything has source essence; it was just a matter of quantity and quality.
Within the queens chessboard, all things would be forced into a manifested source essence state.
source essence seemed to be something at the level of primal force, the fundamental substance of life and matter, and the foundation upon which all things exist. It was extremely important.
One of the great dangers of the queens chessboard was precisely this: the source essence of life being forced to manifest. For a wizard manipulating this Magic item, it was very dangerous, equivalent to an egg without a shell. If one's own source essence suffered any contamination, the consequences would be severe.
Locke activated his Eternal Defense Field Life Force Field. Immediately, an emerald-green crystalline barrier enveloped him, preventing his own source essence from being forced to manifest.
A wizard's Eternal Defense Field can resist the torrent of primal force within the Magic item that forces source essence to manifest, but the strength of a One-Ring Wizard's Eternal Defense Field is insufficient, which is why it is considered dangerous.
However, Locke was currently using Abyss Energy, Mister Power, and Life Reload simultaneously. Sure enough, under the protection of the two special Eternal Defense Fields, his own life source essence completely stopped manifesting.
Locke walked through the stone room and saw many objects suspended from the ceiling by special magical threads. These threads combined to resemble the squares of a chessboard.
"Is this the domain that only High-Ring Wizards can study—source essence?"
Locke's finger touched a wand hanging from a thread. A special source essence appeared on the wand's surface, but after Locke's finger touched it, the quantity, quality, and state did not change; only its nature was slightly altered.
This source essence was pushed back into the wand by Locke's finger. Despite being slightly altered by the contact, the wand's magic pressure remained unchanged. It was still a wand at the limit of the First Ring, naturally possessing 9,999 magic pressure.
"Just as the books say, for a One-Ring Wizard or even a Second Ring Wizard, source essence is completely mysterious. Even if the source essence of an object is changed, it's as if nothing happened."
"The magic pressure level, spirituality level, and three-dimensional microscopic level remain unchanged. No characteristics have changed. This change can only be observed with equipment capable of viewing the primal force level. Even though there is no change now, the future will be altered by me."
Locke walked cautiously within the queens chessboard. "No wonder that half-dragon was so wary of this place. Who would enjoy walking around in such a fragile state!"
"Fortunately, my two types of Mister Power can effectively counter the power of the Magic item."
Locke walked to the very center of the stone room, where a giant chessboard sat, covered in empty squares.
Locke walked over and took out the liquid mixture of natural magic structural components he had extracted from the Overlord Pineapple. He placed it on the ground in a glass bottle after opening the cap.
Immediately, the source essence of the natural magic structural compound inside the glass bottle manifested automatically, flowing out in a state that was like water yet not water, like light yet not light, and like mist yet not mist.
Locke put on a pair of special gloves nearby before touching the source essence with his finger.
The moment his finger touched the substance, the ground vibrated, and one source essence chess piece after another fell from the surroundings.
These chess pieces were all composed of source essence.
They were all the source essence of tyrant element no. 2.
The queens chessboard could magnify the quantity of a single substance's source essence by orders of magnitude, allowing a wizard to observe and record its three-dimensional structure, spiritual characteristics, and magic pressure properties.
At the same time, the queens chessboard could evolve various changes in the past, present, and future of this source essence, uncovering the historical transitions related to it.
Locke took out paper and began frantically recording the various historical transitions of the tyrant element no. 2 source essence. Combined, these records could indirectly reveal the true characteristics of the actual source essence of tyrant element no. 2 at the primal force level.
Through the characteristics of the source essence, he could accelerate the commercialization of tyrant element no. 2 and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the Overlord Element's various magical properties.
In other words, wizards used primal force to force the source essence of tyrant element no. 2 to manifest, and then used that source essence to understand its magical characteristics in the past, present, and even future. By pursuing the source essence, one could understand all information about a substance.
This was currently the most powerful way Locke knew to investigate information about a substance.
Of course, even the queens chessboard was not omnipotent. Because the results were deductions generated by magnifying and simulating source essence, basic research was still required. The Three Great Magic Mirrors or other equipment had to be used for verification.
First, to prevent errors, multiple verification methods were needed.
Second, the queens chessboard only shows most possibilities and can be influenced by the wizard's skill level.
Therefore, Low-Ring Wizards were still needed to conduct research using the Three Great Magic Mirrors to fill in the gaps.
Furthermore, what is seen with the queens chessboard are only the material characteristics of the three major levels of the source essence layer.
There is a certain difference from the actual characteristics at the macroscopic level.
There is a deviation between every substance and its source essence, much like the difference between oneself and a reflection in a mirror.
The third issue was cost-effectiveness.
The queens chessboard was extremely expensive. For general natural magic structural components or ordinary research, there was no need to use such a high-level Magic item.
Despite these many limitations, the queens chessboard remained the most powerful Magic item equipment Locke knew for analyzing natural magic structural components.
A single queens chessboard cost at least a hundred million magic stones.
Unless it was truly important research, no one would be foolish enough to use a queens chessboard, especially since its operating costs and funding were also extremely high.
Locke walked to the opposite side of the chessboard and placed the extracted mixture of Tyrant Element No. 1 into a square on the other side.
Immediately, various source essence possibilities for Tyrant Element No. 1 appeared in the squares on that side.
Through the level of primal force, the queens chessboard could see many possibilities for a substance's past and future.
By manipulating Spell Models, Locke caused the source essence chess pieces from both sides to collide. At the moment of impact, their source essence structures, magic pressure, and spirituality also collided. Identical parts would vanish, while differing parts would remain.
This was one of the powerful uses of the queens chessboard.
Relying on this method, Locke could easily analyze experiments that would normally take over a dozen One-Ring Wizards more than ten years to complete using the Three Great Magic Mirrors bit by bit.
Locke continuously manipulated the collisions of the different source essence chess pieces from both sides, recording the differences between the two substances at the source essence level.
Twelve hours later.
With a wave of his hand, Locke stowed the Time Crystal container holding Tyrant Element No. 1 into his astral ring, and all the source essence chess pieces vanished.
Locke then placed a sprig of ordinary sea gold sand in the opposite square. Immediately, the source essence between the leaves and branches of that ordinary sea gold sand drifted out.
source essence pieces fell like chess pieces, evolving the future of the sea gold sand.
However, the queens chessboard could only analyze the past and future possibilities of a single substance. As an object, the source essence within sea gold sand was simply too complex.
He estimated there were at least several thousand types.
At this point, Locke manipulated one of the source essence chess pieces of tyrant element no. 2 to collide with one from the sea gold sand. After the collision, the two pieces fused into one, but after a few seconds, the piece exploded.
Locke continued to try dozens of times, observing the changes between the source essences. Through the mutual influence of the two source essences, he could see the results of combining sea gold sand with the Overlord Element.
Locke chose sea gold sand, the One-Ring Magic Plant he was most familiar with, as the starting point for his Overlord Transformation breeding technology.
He only needed one type of magic plant to study tyrant element no. 2, and since this was a rare opportunity, he used sea gold sand as his research subject. This would be the most convenient way for him to subject the sea gold sand to Tyrant Transformation.
Otherwise, the sea gold sand would increasingly fail to keep up with his current level.
In the future, he would enter other Planes to do battle, so he would definitely need magic plants he could rely on. Further strengthening the sea gold sand was already an urgent matter.
In a sense, he had already become a sea gold sand expert.
Twenty hours after entering the queens chessboard, Locke was panting with exhaustion. He had already recorded all the relevant characteristics of tyrant element no. 2 and discovered that, like Tyrant Element No. 1, it was highly toxic to other plants.
This was why, when he had previously injected tyrant element no. 2 into various magic plants, those apprentice-level magic plants had all self-destructed before they could complete a true Tyrant Transformation.
Locke gritted his teeth, and a model formed of source essence appeared in his hand. "Using the queens chessboard, I have finally designed a special cell that can perfectly accept tyrant element no. 2."
From his astral ring, Locke took out a bottle of specially treated basic cells from a birch tree. Birch trees can stabilize various powers, and their plant cells possess a special ability to be easily influenced by source essence to produce corresponding changes.
Locke placed the source essence in his hand into the bottle. In just one day, these birch tree cells would undergo a transformation.
He would then go and purchase a First Ring level Clear Sky Birch.
By injecting these cells into that tree, he could use the special properties of the Clear Sky Birch to modify its cells into a combination that could bind with the Overlord Element, neutralizing the toxicity of tyrant element no. 2.
When this combination was mixed with the Overlord Element and injected together, it would allow other plants to undergo full Tyrant Transformation upon injection!
Locke looked at the birch tree cells inside the Time Crystal container in his hand. He wasn't actually sure if the source essence had influenced the birch cells, nor did he know if his design was successful.
In any case, after he put the source essence in, there wasn't even a single change, as if he had just put in a puff of air.
He had no idea what had happened.
The most terrifying thing was that one use of the queens chessboard cost one million magic stones. He had essentially spent a million magic stones to design a special binding cell that could compensate for the flaws of tyrant element no. 2.
According to the instruction manual for the queens chessboard, the cell receptor he designed should be successful.
However, there were too many steps where a single operational error would render it invalid. Thus, as Locke looked at the Time Crystal container, he didn't know what the result would be. He could only wait 24 hours, then buy a Clear Sky Birch and wait another week.
Then, he would know if the cell combination he designed for tyrant element no. 2 was a success.
"Although there are four hours left and it's a pity not to use them, my current energy is no longer enough to support me in continuing," Locke said with a bitter smile.
Manipulating the queens chessboard was simply too exhausting for his current self.
He could clearly manipulate a magic mirror for days and nights without issue (if permitted), but with this Magic item, even after secretly activating his fierce beast panel later on, he could only operate it for 20 consecutive hours.
The magic pressure required to use this Magic item was truly immeasurable.
Locke packed everything away, and all the source essence chess pieces on the board vanished in an instant.
Looking at the chessboard, Locke had a sudden inspiration and summoned his sovereign book. "Logically, the historical materials of the negative energy particle field contained within the sovereign book also possess source essence. The queens chessboard can use source essence to deduce the past, present, and future possibilities of a source essence."
"Could it help me deduce the historical materials within my sovereign book?"
"The queens chessboard is something unique to the White Wizard Society. I imagine that generally, it would be very difficult for an Archaeologist to come into contact with something so deep within the White Wizard Society. They might not have even considered that the functions of the queens chessboard could be useful for the historical materials within a sovereign book. I might very well be the Archaeologist closest to a queens chessboard..."
Locke thought for a moment. The more he calculated, the more he felt that by using the characteristics of the queens chessboard, he could conversely deduce the possibilities of historical materials and obtain them on a much larger scale.
That is to say, by putting his sovereign book into the queens chessboard to 'refine' it, he might be able to increase his historical materials by two or three times.
If that were the case, he wouldn't need to rely on Warwick's sovereign book; he would have a second way to rapidly increase his own historical materials.
Locke drank five bottles of Holy Spring Nectar Potion, exhausting the stock in his astral ring to forcibly restore some of his condition. "In that case, let's give it a try. Put the sovereign book in and see what happens."
"Before I do, I'll back up my historical materials first. If they all get destroyed, my loss would be too great."