Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 379 One month
A month passed quickly. During this month, Locke lived in the White Elephant Tower, spending his days either meditating or traveling between the four projects.

He was already familiar with the land of the Six Towers, at least the area of ​​the White Elephant Tower.

The four projects could not be located inside the White Elephant Tower, but rather in some small wizard towers outside the White Elephant Tower.

Locke hired a caravan to travel between the four cities of the Six Towers over a month, entering the wizard towers to observe the projects he was interested in and helping all four projects secure funding from the association's branches.

At this moment, in a small wizard tower in the center of a city called Velas.

Locke stood with the wizard Collins, his assistant, and Claudia Mendes, a witch assistant assigned to him by the Philaid family, in the core building area of ​​the wizard tower, which was also the core energy pool of the wizard tower.

Within the azure arcane energy pool, thirty Shadoweye Grasses sprouted and quickly grew, rapidly transforming into adults under the irrigation of the pool water.

The Wizard Tower can gather magical energy from the surrounding ley lines and air to create an arcane energy pool. In other words, the arcane energy pool is the most core component and the most valuable part of the Wizard Tower.

Ordinary magical plants can grow faster under the energy irrigation of this arcane energy pool, which is why it has always been a very important research resource in the Six Towers.

Unfortunately, most wizard towers, even the smaller ones, belong to family wizards, or at least to a lower-ranking noble family, to serve as the tower's master.

Collins had been a teaching assistant at the Magic Gem University for over fifty years, but he had never independently managed a wizard tower or had access to such precious resources. Locke, on the other hand, obtained access to these resources in less than a day.

In the eyes of the old wizard Collins, Locke was a figure with abundant resources and connections in this land of six towers.

Wizard Collins ordered his assistants to conduct certain tests on the magical plant characteristics of the Eye Grass. After the tests were completed, Wizard Collins excitedly said to Locke, "Lord Locke, thank you for securing the resources for me, as well as the right to use this wizard tower, allowing me to use the arcane energy pool of this wizard tower for research."

"By the way, many of your views and ideas have played a crucial role in the completion of this project. Now that the characteristics of the eyewort are basically complete, all that's needed next is to make some minor modifications before we can publish the article."

Wizard Collins bowed to Locke and said, “Lord Locke, your contributions to this project are evident to all. You have provided many ideas, funding and equipment, so I would like to list you as the first author.”

Locke waved his hand. "No need, you don't need to give me any of the five works."

“Participating in your project is my greatest reward.”

The wizard Collins looked puzzled, but wasn't the family wizard taking over their project precisely to obtain a copy or communication?
Locke was telling the truth; he absolutely did not want to have any projects or articles of mediocre quality under his name, even if he was just a corresponding author helping others submit their work.

Locke said to the old wizard Collins, "Give me twenty of the finished Eye Grass plants you've cultivated. Also, I need to use the arcane energy pool in this wizard tower. I have some new ideas about Eye Grass and want to try them out on my own."

The old wizard Collins bowed to Locke. "A new idea?"

"Try it?"

“Alright, Lord Locke, please feel free. I don’t need much equipment and resources anymore. I’ll be staying in my office at the academy and working with my students to finish writing the article.”

Old Wizard Collins seemed to have been terrified by the wizards in his family. Now that Locke wanted nothing, it frightened him. Therefore, he was very eager to write an article and publish it immediately, or even apply for a patent.

Locke nodded casually to him, and the old wizard Collins bowed to Locke before saying, "Thank you again. If it weren't for your funding, this project would never have been completed, and the magical plant, the Shadow Eye Grass, would never have been created."

"Unfortunately, I was recently expelled from Magic Gem University."

Locke nodded slightly. If the other party was expelled from university, then it was beyond his control.

After all, the collaboration between the two parties only involved this Eye Grass magical plant project, and the wizarding members at the Magic Gem University were a complex group. Who knew why old wizard Collins was kicked out by them? However, helping him complete this project would at least make his life easier afterward. The patent rights and sales revenue from this Eye Grass magical plant should be enough to support his normal life.

After all, he's quite old and doesn't need any magical resources.

After the old wizard Collins and his students left with ten Eye Grasses, Locke looked at Claudia Mendes, who had been standing silently behind him, and asked, "Claudia, do you have something to say? Just say what you want to say."

Claudia is a first-circle blood elf wizard who studies the Protection school of magic.

Of course, she was just an ordinary wizard of the Protection School. After all, she was only a wizard from the Land of Six Towers, and was certainly not as powerful as the barrier master from the Plains of High Heaven.

Claudia was a formal wizard bodyguard assigned to Locke by the wizard Anthony, a high-status position that Anthony gave to his fellow disciples.

In this way, when his other female and male classmates come here in the future, they can also be assigned a formal wizard guard.

After all, it was practically customary for Wizard Anthony to receive this treatment, as Locke had also enjoyed it before.

Claudia bowed to Locke. Ever since she was assigned to Locke's bodyguard by the wizard Anthony, she had regarded herself as Locke's subordinate. "Lord Augustine, these lowly commoner wizards are already very lucky to have won your favor."

"They actually dared not offer you their first authorship and correspondence voluntarily. You are being far too lenient with them."

“You are a core member of the Philaid family.”

"He is being far too disrespectful to you."

Locke shook his head slightly. "No, being the corresponding author or first author of an article of that caliber would be troublesome for me."

Claudia was somewhat puzzled and looked confused, but said nothing.

Locke put the remaining twenty Eyegrass plants from the Arcane Energy Pool into his ring, and then sent Claudia to handle other matters outside the Wizard Tower.

After she left, Locke immediately put the three Eye Grasses into his Crafting Cube and began testing the special crafting recipe for Eye Grasses.

"Twenty plants might not be enough. We need to use the seeds of Eye Grass to grow some more. Fortunately, Wizard Collins and his team are very frugal with their fund expenditures, and they still have 50,000 magic stones left."

"You only spent less than half?" Locke shook his head slightly. "With these magic stones, plus this arcane energy pool, it should be enough for me to cultivate some mature Eye Grass and synthesize them."

"I must say, the arcane energy pool technology is indeed very good, with many functions." Locke looked at the azure pool in front of him, where magical energy had almost condensed into liquid, and pondered, "But in return, the wizard tower will continuously draw magic from the surrounding environment."

“If it weren’t for the special location of the Six Towers, any ordinary wizarding land would quickly run out of resources if it were drained like this. This should be the biggest reason limiting the widespread circulation of wizarding tower technology.” Locke frowned. “That’s not right.”

"Inside the wizard tower, a wizard can receive an energy inversion, which increases his magic power several times over, giving him a powerful boost to his combat strength and ensuring that he is invincible among wizards of the same level."

"And the Forest Sanctuary also has the effect of infusing magical energy into me. The Wizard Tower and the Forest Sanctuary have similar effects, and Wizard Levi said that the Forest Sanctuary is a kind of permanent defensive force field magic that he researched in order to advance to the second-circle wizard level." Locke had a thought. "Could it be that there is some kind of connection between the Wizard Tower and the second-circle wizard?"

"That's not right either."

"Since wizard towers are no longer popular in the mainstream of the wizarding world, it means that there is not much connection between the second circle and wizard towers."

(End of this chapter)