Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 377 'Zombie' Project

Gore's expression changed several times, but facing the gazes of the family wizards, he could only lower his head and say, "It is indeed a bloodline enhancement potion from a unicorn rhinoceros. However, recently, in order to improve my physical strength, I have been searching for a potion maker from the Six Towers Land to prepare a bottle of unicorn rhinoceros bloodline enhancement potion."

"The other party is the renowned potion master Eros Evans, famous throughout the Six Towers. Mr. Augustine, to say that the other party's work lacks accuracy in pinpointing bloodlines is truly... audacious."

Because Locke immediately pointed out that Goyle had deliberately made things difficult for him, Goyle was forced to acknowledge Locke's expertise in potions.

At this moment, Wizard Anthony and many other wizards from various families clapped lightly. Wizard Anthony clapped and said, "My junior brother's potion-making skills are among the best in the Southeast Corner Region."

"As everyone knows, the potion-making level in the Southeast Corner Region is such that being called a genius there and receiving an honorary badge is enough to prove my junior brother's level."

"I invited my junior brother here specifically for the future of our Philaid family, but I didn't expect that some people would misunderstand something."

Because of the Forbidden Forest, the potion-making field in the southeastern corner region has always been strong.

At the round table, some family wizards nodded in agreement. Locke quickly recognized the effects of the potion in Goyle's hand, which undoubtedly confirmed Locke's potion-making skills to the wizards of the Philaid family.

In fact, some of them are overestimated.

Amidst the crowd's praise, Gore could only sit down dejectedly. His humiliation caused the patriarchs of the main branch's third son, as well as the related affiliated families of mid-grade and low-grade wizard families, to also shut their mouths.

Wizard Anthony said softly to Locke, "Thank you, junior brother. The third branch has always been somewhat disrespectful to us. He has decent talent and is one of the few young wizards in the Philaid family who has reached the vaporization stage, so he always tries to challenge my authority."

"Your performance just now really helped me a lot. By the way, junior brother, I didn't expect your potion-making skills to be so profound. I remember you haven't obtained your official potion master certification badge yet, have you?"

Locke nodded slightly.

Wizard Anthony said in a low voice, "After you become successful here, you will certainly not forget your fellow disciples. Don't worry, you have helped me a lot this time, and I will not let you suffer any losses."

The wizard Anthony smiled mysteriously and said in a low voice, "Do you know why I'm hosting this banquet?"

By this time, the little incident at the banquet had passed, and the wizards at the round table began to clink glasses, exchange information, strengthen their bonds, or secretly tell each other the jokes about Gore from earlier.

Wizard Anthony said in a low voice, "The first purpose of my banquet is to welcome you and establish the treatment we will receive as fellow disciples upon arriving in the Land of the Six Towers, the territory of the Philaid family, which is this White Elephant Tower."

"The second objective was to establish authority."

"The third purpose is for your benefit."

Locke's eyes showed a hint of doubt. "My interests?"

Anthony picked up ten pieces of mossy wood marrow from the porcelain plate and handed them to Locke. "Hmm, what did you see at this banquet? Did you see many family wizards and the power center of the Six Towers? But besides that, I also saw many frustrated and marginalized people."

Locke looked up and saw that, indeed, at the edge of the banquet, many first-ring wizards were secretly glancing at him, and in the golden cups in front of those first-ring wizards was a wizard's drink, not wizard's wine.

Wizard Anthony took a sip of wizard's wine and said, "In the Land of the Six Towers, there are many frustrated commoner wizards. Even if they are lucky enough to become first-ring wizards by virtue of their talent, luck, and the scraps left over from the noble families, they will never be able to access resources for the next level and will not be able to obtain any teaching positions."

"They usually remain ordinary wizards their entire lives because they lack resources. Talented and ambitious people will try to leave, but there are always commoner wizards who have some talent but not enough ability to leave. They have been suppressed by these prestigious wizarding families for too long. They have many interesting projects in their hands, and you can definitely take a look at them. Those projects cannot obtain any association funding because their project applications are intercepted before they even reach the door of the White Wizarding Association's funding committee in the Six Towers Land."

"Therefore, these people will linger around these banquets, scrambling to get in, trying to find a benefactor to support their research."

"Junior brother, you should choose carefully. Pick a few project applications that interest you. These commoner wizards all have some talent, and their projects are actually quite good. They just lack resources."

Locke asked him in a low voice, "Is this the reason why Senior Brother Anthony was able to achieve so much in such a short time in the Land of Six Towers?"

Wizard Anthony nodded. “Yes. But that’s only one way. I can also look for projects that family wizards started halfway through but were unable to finish. From those, I can select projects that already have the foundation, the equipment, and the talent, and then complete those projects. That way, I can get results quickly.”

“I call this situation a zombie project. I’m going to use the excellent projects that ordinary wizards can’t get off the ground, as well as the high-quality zombie projects that family wizards have only half-finished, to create my own results.”

"It was through these two tricks that I was able to quickly gain the approval of the wizards of the Philaid family."

Locke's expression was strange. "But senior brother, discovering the trick shouldn't be difficult for the wizards of the Philaid family, right? Didn't they think of it?"

Wizard Anthony said, “Discovering these two tricks isn’t difficult, and I think you’ll discover them soon enough, so I’m telling you directly. It won’t be a secret for us, but it is indeed quite difficult for wizards of the Philaid family.”

Seeing the strange look on Locke's face, Wizard Anthony smiled and said, "The stupidity of the wizards here is far beyond your imagination. After all, the biggest problem with family wizards is not the instability of their bloodline talent, but also various other drawbacks, such as a lack of competition, no sense of involution from childhood, and... hostility towards the excellent."

“You know what? My biggest takeaway from these years here is that I’ve discovered that these family wizards are actually hostile to progress. Why is that? I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then I understood.”

"Because they know that progress is indeed good, but it's digging up their family's roots. If they really want to pursue progress, shouldn't they open up resources and improve the selection system? Organizations based on blood ties can never match the performance of master-apprentice systems or wizarding organizations that focus on teaching."

"Therefore, excessive excellence destroys the family system, causing the family wizards of the Six Towers to willingly sink into depravity and decay. Yet, they also harbor the desire to expand their families. This gives us wizards from other regions an opportunity," said Wizard Anthony. "In the Southeastern Region, I considered myself just an ordinary wizard, but here, I can completely crush those native wizards." "However, the wizarding tower technology and bloodline modification technology of the Six Towers are indeed remarkable. They have developed some extremely valuable bloodline modification techniques that can help wizards break through to the level of a formal wizard, at the cost of sacrificing future potential; after the breakthrough, they will forever remain at the ordinary formal wizard stage."

Locke asked in confusion, "What kind of bloodline modification technology is this?"

Wizard Anthony hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Junior brother, I can tell you, but you'd better not tell anyone. This is a very high secret even in the Land of the Six Towers."

"It involves in-depth research into the essence of elemental life, and the deliberate semi-elementalization of the wizard's body. In this way, the difficulty of inscribing a permanent defensive force field is reduced, and the chance of advancing to a formal wizard is increased by strengthening magic power through semi-elementalization."

"There are many mediocre family wizards here who have become official wizards using this method. Although there are still high qualification requirements, it has indeed reduced the difficulty a lot. The price is that they have lost the opportunity to go further forever."

Wizard Anthony said, "However, this method requires a treasure called the Tide Orb. That magical gem is extremely rare in the Six Towers Land and is a strategic resource. Therefore, the Tide Orbs in the Six Towers Land are only used by family wizards, and common wizards rarely have the opportunity to use this method to ascend."

Anthony clinked his glass against Locke's, then stood up and said to Locke, "The second half of the banquet is for personal exchanges. Soon, some commoner wizards will try to come to you."

“If you do more successful projects, it will benefit you, and it will also benefit me. You will gain fame, funding resources, and experience, while I will gain prestige.”

"Good junior brother, it's a pleasure working with you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Locke did indeed see several down-on-their-luck first-ring wizards, holding golden cups, pacing around him, seemingly hesitating.

Just a few steps away from Anthony, a plain-looking wizard in a dirty robe, a first-ring wizard, approached Locke and was extremely enthusiastic, handing him a project application form.

"Potion Master Augustine, I have a very promising project proposal. If you choose it, it will definitely bring you huge benefits. In the Land of Six Towers, the article can be attributed to multiple authors."

"I can give you the first authorship and the corresponding authorship, or even the second authorship. I don't even have to be the third author; you just need to give me the fourth authorship."

"Look, you're a breeder, and this is my project proposal for the systematic breeding of wild purple licorice. This is my budget, and these are my data..."

Locke looked up at the wizard, who seemed extremely eager. Clearly, the wizard had done his research beforehand and was probably using all his power.

The other party even knew that he was a breeder.

Locke shook his head slightly after reading the project application. It was normal that the application would not be approved by the regional fund, mainly because the magical plant purple licorice did not have much cultivation value and was only related to the food of a few non-essential herbivorous magical creatures.

Anyway, I'm not very interested in purple licorice.

Unless someone happens to have a magical creature that needs licorice feed and there is no substitute, virtually no one will be interested in licorice.

Locke declined, saying, "I'm sorry, wizard, I think your project is indeed very feasible, but I'm not researching fodder-type magical plants recently."

"I have neither the background nor the need to research this area."

The first-ring wizard looked somewhat disappointed and gave an awkward smile. "Oh, I see. I apologize for bothering you."

He left dejectedly.

Then, several first-ring wizards took advantage of Locke's presence at the banquet, seized the opportunity, and ran directly to them with project proposals.

Locke was overwhelmed by the sheer number of project proposals. While most of them were indeed of poor quality, some could be transformed into decent projects with minor modifications.

Locke initially read them casually, but when he saw the seventh project application, he looked in surprise at an old man with white hair, whose eyes clearly held a hint of pleading and agonizing waiting.

Locke looked at the project and asked doubtfully, "The project is almost finished, is it about to produce results? Do we still need to apply for funding?"

The elderly wizard, with his white hair, seemed to see a glimmer of hope, his expression filled with longing. "Lord Augustine, this project was completed bit by bit by me and a few of my students over thirty-five years. But I'm about to be expelled from the Magic Gem University."

"And I lack funds. You may be my last hope. Without new funding, this project will be completely impossible to continue."

Locke glanced at him in surprise. He had just read the other party's data and experimental procedures and found that the other party had already made several prototypes of the product, but still needed to make the product practical.

I thought the other party was only one step away from completing it, but it turns out that the other party relied on time to get to this point, and without resources, this last step could not be carried out at all.

Locke looked at the project application, which was for the development of a plant called "Wandering Eye Grass." Several prototypes of this special grass were discovered by the old wizard in an underground mine.

He encountered these grasses by chance when he was a miner in his youth. The prototypes of these grasses naturally possessed a magical ability to monitor the surroundings.

The old wizard was trying to use these herbs to develop a scouting-type magical plant called "Wandering Eye Grass".

(End of this chapter)