[aldin]

The fastest, most efficient way to ramp up early gem income is to use a rainbow pretender. For pure speed, Acashic Record wins, though at the price one could argue it is one of the least efficient methods, and it takes a bit of research before it's available anyway. If you only need one gem type, it's associated spell (Auspex, Haruspex, etc.) is arguably both the quickest and most efficient manner to uncover it since your researchers can search your entire realm in a few turns for a few tens of gems.

I'm also a big fan of looking at Sunray_be's site to quickly determine what I need to find certain types of sites. That can make a rainbow even MORE efficient. And don't forget to run your poor little holy searchers around either...

~Aldin