Locke and Wizard Daniel, along with other passengers, disembarked from the wizard ship while secretly contemplating what to do if he accidentally fell victim to Doctrine School magic.

"From a certain perspective, dragon's awe naturally conflicts with Doctrine School spell models. Dragon's awe is too crude—it can directly impact the mind, while Doctrine School spell models work through the influence of text and language on a person's inner self, making them very delicate."

"Dragon's awe and doctrine arts are like a loudspeaker versus soft whispers. I can directly use dragon's awe to override relatively basic or even mid-to-high-level doctrine arts."

Locke recalled reading in a popular science magazine in the free library that language-based Mentalism School magic had a major weakness—any mental state maintained through verbal suggestion was an extremely subtle and precious state that demanded much from a person's mental condition.

Under the impact of dragon's awe, no subtle state could be maintained.

If a person fell into fear of death, their mind would go completely blank.

Locke glanced at Wizard Daniel. Although Wizard Daniel had just used only an introductory Doctrine School spell, the fundamentals remained the same. If he encountered similar methods in the future, or other doctrine masters, he would know how to deal with them.

However, Doctrine School magic should be vast and profound. What Wizard Daniel showed him just now should only be the tip of the iceberg.

Still, since they would likely become neighbors and colleagues in the future, there was no rush to witness more advanced doctrine master techniques right now.

After Locke disembarked from the wizard floating vessel, he saw a cluster of vendor stalls and markets around the wizard floating vessel, extremely prosperous. There were stalls with practical magic artifacts, divination stalls with purple tablecloths covering tables, crystal balls, and two wooden stools for fortune-telling, various potion stalls.

Besides these, there were vendors selling magical plant seeds, golems, magic rings, magic scrolls, and some things unique to Cloud Marsh Wetland, such as Cloud Marsh Wetland's specialty magic clothing, staffs that only higher-level wizard lands had, and so on...

A dazzling variety that made one's eyes spin.

As soon as Locke and others left the wizard docking area and entered these stalls, hawking cries were everywhere.

The stall owners were basically all official wizards, just generally ordinary First Circle, at most First Circle vaporization stage.

This was normal. After all, about half of those disembarking from wizard floating vessels were also First Circle wizards.

Among these stalls, the most noteworthy were that while other stalls could generally be seen in marketplaces in other wizard lands, here there were many... unique stalls not seen in other wizard lands.

Namely, some stalls with entertainment or gambling nature.

For example, there was a First Circle vaporization stage wizard from the Force School who set up a stall indicating he would compete in handshake contests. Winners could get two thousand magic stones, losers got nothing, and participating once required one thousand magic stones.

This was purely a mathematical problem. As long as this Force School wizard ensured he won more often, he would definitely earn quite a bit of money.

There were also other wizard game stalls, such as stalls where specific magic attacked magical creatures flying at high speed in the air—hitting them won money, participating required payment.

There were wizard chess game stalls and so on...

This showed that magic popularization in Cloud Marsh Wetland had reached a certain level, producing such entertainment-natured stalls.

Of course, this also showed just how desperately these stall-setting wizards needed money to think of using such methods to earn some magic stones.

This further indicated that in Cloud Marsh Wetland, this larger wizard land, things were extremely competitive—so competitive that even First Circle wizards came out thinking of ways to make money because they were so short on funds.

Locke and Daniel lingered a bit longer in front of a stall covered with stones.

Since they shared the same destination, they simply decided to travel together.

Daniel looked at the stall with its table covered in stones. At the same time, his eyes saw a sign standing on the stall. "Stone gambling mini-game, one thousand magic stones per attempt. Correctly guess the name of the magic ore inside the stone material and take away the precious stone material for free. Guess wrong and receive one complimentary Cloud Marsh Wetland welcome gift."

Daniel blinked and looked at a line of small text below the sign. "The following three types of magic category wizards are prohibited from participating in this game—Evocation School constructors, Life School earth wizards, Conjuration School earth element manipulators."

"Any wizards possessing ore identification-related magic are prohibited from participating in this game."

"Finally... Cloud Marsh Wetland welcomes you."

Daniel's eyes flickered as he smiled. "Quite interesting. Stone guessing? Let me try guessing then. Locke, want to join? After all, one thousand magic stones isn't expensive."

"It's rare to come to Cloud Marsh Wetland once. New environment—let's play once."

Locke frowned. He suspected the other party was exploiting Daniel's psychology, so he said, "I don't have a single coin on me. You play yourself."

"Daniel, didn't you say you were in a hurry to report to the Origin Academy?"

Wizard Daniel smiled. "First time seeing such a novel game. Playing once before leaving is fine. Although I can't use stone identification magic, I'm still confident in my eyesight. I did very well in general studies courses at the Painted Green Mountain Cult."

The stall owner subconsciously said, "Being happy is good too. Well, paying one thousand magic stones, one thousand magic stones at a time is too scattered. Just give me a magic crystal card."

"This way, when you're done playing, I'll return the remaining money to you."

Daniel was stunned for a moment, but then said, "Hmm, alright."

After all, the person was right in front of him. He wasn't afraid of this person defaulting, since the other party was just an ordinary First Circle wizard while he was a First Circle crystallization wizard.

Daniel took out a magic crystal card. Locke said, "Then I'll head to the Advanced Origin Academy to report first."

Hearing Locke mention the Origin Academy, the stall owner's ears twitched. "You... are researchers from the Advanced Origin Academy?"

The stall owner wizard swallowed and returned the magic crystal card to Daniel. "I don't do business with Origin Academy researchers. You should leave."

Daniel looked at the stall owner with confusion. "Strange? Why is that?"

The stall owner frowned, about to speak, when he suddenly heard someone nearby say, 'Golden Crown Mountain's law enforcement wizards are coming.'

Immediately, this stall owner nimbly grabbed his stall with one hand, using a Force School spell. His right hand immediately emitted Force School gravitational force, sucking all the tables, chairs, and stones from the stall into his astral ring. Then he summoned a First Circle level magical creature, a Radiant Unicorn, rode that unicorn, and flew away without looking back.

Wizard Daniel was stunned. He stood frozen in place for a moment. Smart as he was, watching the stall that had vanished in the blink of an eye, he immediately reacted and frowned. "So these stalls aren't legal in Golden Crown Mountain?"

With the view-blocking stall gone, Locke and Wizard Daniel immediately saw the wizards sent by the Origin Academy to welcome them, holding up signs.

It was a group of first-class wizard apprentices and one First Circle crystallization stage wizard.

The sign they held read—'Welcome Researcher Locke Augustine and Researcher Daniel Brook.'