Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 376 Utilization and Feedback

Soon, the Philaid family members stepped onto the floating steps and arrived at a banquet hall located at the top of the 20km mark.

This magnificent banquet hall, located 20km above the ground, features countless magical lamps suspended on the ceiling. There are even natural phenomena that a weatherman has magically confined, rolling across the ceiling, including dark clouds, lightning, rain clouds, sunny skies, and hail, all flowing naturally on the ceiling – it's truly magical.

Meanwhile, one after another, golden wizard swords with chains hanging from them fell from the sky, dangling naturally like swords hanging from the heavens, which looked quite magical.

The banquet hall is fully furnished.

Exquisite dishes, crafted by seasoners from the Enchanting School, were piled up and arranged on the golden tables of the banquet.

Beautiful, third-class wizard apprentice elven maids, dressed in elegant long gowns, moved around the banquet tables, preparing dishes for the wizards of the Philaid family.

There were also dancers from the Metamorphosis school performing a beautiful dance in the center of the banquet. Their dance steps often reached angles that were unimaginable for ordinary dancers, and their dance moves were even more exquisite.

During the banquet, there was even an entire musical instrument ensemble specializing in illusion magic. This was a family of musicians affiliated with the Philaid family in the Land of Six Towers. A musical instrument ensemble was essentially a wizarding organization.

They are playing dozens of instruments, incorporating magic from the Illusion School, with a professional wizard conducting the entire orchestra.

The sheer scale of the scene left even Locke somewhat astonished.

Such a scene is simply impossible to see in the southeastern corner region.

In the southeastern corner region, every formal wizard is extremely precious, either a wizarding instructor at a wizarding academy or a self-employed wizard who runs a small wizarding organization.

Only in the Land of Six Towers, a wizarding land where family wizards and commoner wizards are distinguished, can one see so many first-ring wizards celebrating together for a banquet of the Philaid family.

The Philaid family controls the White Elephant Tower beneath their feet, holds half of the wizarding instructor positions at the Magic Gem University, and controls many key positions in the White Wizarding Association branch. Here, all resources must come from these prestigious families and the two ruling families.

At the invitation of the wizard Anthony, Locke quickly took a seat to his left. An elven wizard apprentice maid immediately took a golden bottle and poured wizard's wine into the golden cup in front of him.

Locke noticed that there were actually two kinds of drinks at the banquet: one was wizard's wine, and the other was a drink that resembled witch's watermelon juice.

"So that's how it is. Those people in the golden goblets filled with wizard's wine are the true masters of this banquet, the wizards at the center of power. And those wizards with witch's watermelon juice are mostly junior members of various families, or marginalized figures."

Although they were at the banquet, they were already marginalized.

Locke noticed this detail.

In other words, most of the people at this banquet were just there to add to the atmosphere; in front of them were some kind of wizard's drink.

Only the liquid in the golden cups in front of one's own table, and a few other formal wizards at neighboring tables, or certain senior or high-ranking family wizard apprentices, is considered wizard's wine.

'Did I enter the core of power in the Six Towers from the very beginning?' Locke pondered. 'It's mainly because Senior Anthony did so well.'

He glanced at Anthony, who was currently exchanging pleasantries, introducing himself to the guests as the nominal host of the banquet.

But Anthony's real purpose was simply to find a reason to demonstrate his authority to everyone in the Philaid family.

After all, just three days ago, he had already become the main person in charge of the Philaid family.

Locke, along with his senior Anthony, greeted some wizards. Some of them were trying to curry favor with him, some were sizing him up, and some were testing him.

Locke remained seated, not engaging in much interaction with the wizards of the Philaid family and its affiliated families.

Firstly, I won't be staying here for long, so there's no need to build complicated interpersonal relationships.

Secondly, since your senior brother has already introduced himself as a potion-making genius to others, a genius is bound to be a bit arrogant. If you are too enthusiastic towards others, they will definitely doubt your abilities.

Soon, the elven wizard apprentices presented the gems one by one, holding them in their hands, and placed them on porcelain white plates. As the table spun, the magical gems were displayed to everyone seated at the table.

Wizard Anthony turned the table and introduced the gems to Locke: “Junior brother, I remember Teacher Harlan Vera told me that you also like magic gems. Look at these gems here. This is gray-spotted stone. If someone touches it, it will leave a mark that is difficult to wash off. Some wizards like to use this kind of stone to track enemies.”

"These arsenic-like crystals are alkaline frost crystals, which can enhance some spells in the ice magic subfield of the Evocation School, and even first-circle spells."

"This is a river sand core; carrying it with you allows you to breathe underwater for half an hour."

Wizard Anthony said, "And this, this is an extremely precious rose-red gem in the land of the Six Towers. It is the king of minerals and is very rare."

"Currently, we do not have a stable source of mining. This kind of mineral is so precious that we collect it piece by piece as soon as we find it."

Wizard Anthony turned the round table towards Locke, where a porcelain-white dish held a peculiar mineral that looked like a dried-up tree branch, but upon closer inspection resembled a stone. Wizard Anthony said, "And this is Moss Marrow. It's a magical mineral formed naturally over time from a magical plant called the Moss Tree, which was buried underground for over ten thousand years."

"Moss pith can promote the rapid growth of first-ring magic plants. If you place a piece of moss pith under the soil of a first-ring magic plant, the plant will fully recover overnight, even if it is damaged."

Wizard Anthony said, "Furthermore, this stone can lower the breeding requirements for first-level wizards. In other words, mossy pith can help breeders reduce the breeding requirements for some difficult first-level magical plants."

“Every piece of mossy pith, once taken outside, will be sought after by many top breeders.”

“A single piece of mossy wood marrow is worth at least three thousand magic stones. There are ten pieces here in total. As a gift from the Philaid family to you for our first meeting, I've decided to give you ten. Does anyone have any objections?”

The wizard Anthony suddenly turned expressionless and looked defiantly at the wizards of the Philaid family sitting at the table.

Locke glanced at the mossy wood marrow and remembered that the mossy tree was an ancient magical plant that had long been extinct. The extinct mossy tree had been buried underground for tens of thousands of years before it formed a piece of mossy wood marrow.

And Anthony, my senior brother, gave me a gift worth 30,000 magic stones as soon as we met. It was something that I, as a breeder, really needed. And in the wizarding world, there is a principle of equivalent exchange.

Clearly, this is the other party giving a gift in return.

After all, the other party had just used his junior brother as an excuse to hold such a grand banquet here, using family funds to demonstrate his authority and suppress those in the family who did not obey him. Naturally, Wizard Anthony would give him some reward.

Otherwise, things wouldn't make sense.

There was a moment of silence at the table when suddenly a handsome young wizard, Gore Philaid, said in a joking tone, "Brother-in-law, isn't this a bit inappropriate?"

"Isn't this banquet a gem appraisal event? How can you give away such a precious and unique magical gem from the family's warehouse to... an outsider?"

When Gore spoke of outsiders, his tone was deliberately slightly sarcastic. Then, before Anthony could attack him, he suddenly said, "How about this?"

"Consider these ten pieces of mossy pith as a prize. Isn't Mr. Locke Augustine, your junior brother, a genius in potions?"

"I have a bottle of potion here, but I won't name it. Could you please, Mr. Augustine, smell it and identify what kind of potion it is? If Mr. Augustine can name this potion, then I would say that Mr. Augustine is truly a super genius in potion-making and a nobleman of our family. What harm is there in giving ten pieces of mossy pith to such a distinguished guest?"

"I won't even mention whether you can guess the exact name of this potion in my hand. As long as Mr. Augustine can guess the general category of this potion, I will be completely convinced."

Goyle looked at Wizard Anthony defiantly. "Brother-in-law, do you dare?"

Wizard Anthony took a sip of his wizard's wine and sneered. Gore Philaid was his wife's half-brother. However, the younger generation of the Philaid family were indeed all useless, resorting to such low-level tactics at such a banquet.

When the atmosphere became a little awkward, Wizard Anthony cleverly spoke up, "Goyle, this is a serious occasion. Put away your childish temper and don't joke around here."

“I, Philaid, am a distinguished family from the Land of Six Towers. How dare I question such a distinguished guest at a banquet? Do you consider this your classroom?”

His words were spoken in a grand and natural manner, and many of the elderly people in Philaid couldn't help but nod in agreement with the words of Wizard Anthony.

There was definitely a reason why the wizard Anthony was able to take control of the Philaid family despite being a son-in-law.

Gore Filaid, on the other hand, blushed with embarrassment. He hadn't expected that his provocation, under the wizard Anthony's few words, would turn into a clownish act, making him appear very immature.

Just as Goyle slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and was about to confront the wizard Anthony, who was seated in the main seat, Locke suddenly glanced at the vial. "Is this a bloodline enhancement potion, a potion from the one-horned rhinoceros?"

"It just looks like the positioning accuracy is very low, so I'm afraid the effect will be limited even if it's taken."

Coincidentally, Locke and Alicia had been discussing the One-Horned Rhinoceros Bloodline Modification Potion for a long time on the airship because they were trying to design a way for Alicia to also take the Mammon Powder potion.

Therefore, Locke was extremely familiar with this potion, perhaps even more so than many of the wizards present, regarding this special bloodline modification potion from the Six Towers that could enhance physical attributes.

Therefore, Locke only observed the color and natural magical structure of the potion, as well as the state and shimmering magical light within the bottle, and guessed that the potion was a bloodline modification potion for the unicorn rhinoceros.

However, Locke also noticed that the color of the potion was too mixed, and it seemed that the accuracy of bloodline positioning was very low, so it could not be considered a successful potion.

Of course, you can force it to be used if you want to.

Gore looked at Locke in disbelief, his expression suddenly changing. He hadn't expected that Locke would be able to name the potion in his hand so easily when he deliberately brought out the bloodline-modifying potion unique to the Six Towers Land to test Locke.

This made Gore turn pale, and for a moment, he couldn't utter a single word.

Wizard Anthony glanced at him with surprise, then looked at Locke, a smile playing on his lips. He took a sip of wizard's wine and, with even greater composure, asked Goyle, "Brother Goyle, is my junior brother's guess correct?"

(End of this chapter)