Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 382 Heading to the White Dragon Tower
Claudia's right leg transformed into a bird claw, and the instant she took flight with her wings, she kicked the Golden Eye Grass in Locke's hand, causing sparks of magic to fly out from the surface of the golden magic mirror.

A burst of bright red bloodline magic energy erupted from the surface of the Golden Eye Grass, causing it to tremble and move backward. A small, but not serious, mark appeared on its surface.

Claudia landed on the ground with a surprised expression, then her wings and claws returned to normal. She then bowed to Locke and said, "Lord Augustine, I did not expect this magical plant to have such amazing defensive capabilities. A kick that can bend a ring of magic alloy can not even leave a mark on your magical plant."

"It's because your subordinates are incompetent."

“Claudia, you did a good job.” Locke glanced at her, nodded slightly, and then looked at his Golden Eye Grass. The slight damage to the surface of the Golden Eye Grass was insignificant.

After all, it's just a blade of grass.

Grass, after absorbing some nutrients, will grow and heal itself.

Locke reached out and summoned a drop of liquid-like magical energy from the arcane energy pool beside him, which was emanating a deep blue arcane energy gas. He then used the first-circle botanical spell, [Rapid Growth].

A very complex spell model appeared in his palm.

At the same time, Locke brushed the surface of the Golden Eye Grass, and the surface of the Golden Eye Grass returned to its original state. The Golden Eye Grass, which looked perfectly round, had tiny golden aerial roots at the bottom, and its roots were frantically absorbing the energy.

The overall shape of the eye grass consists of a miniaturized root and stem, while the leaves are specialized into exaggeratedly enlarged round leaves.

"The arcane energy pools inside the Wizard Tower are truly invaluable. These pools are essentially highly condensed magical energy from the nearby ley lines," Locke said. "It would be incredibly difficult to find such an energy-rich liquid elsewhere. The Six Towers are indeed exceptionally blessed. The concentration of magical tides within the Six Towers' environment is probably two orders of magnitude higher than that of the Southeast Region, making it relatively good even in a mid-magic environment."

The water in the Arcane Energy Pool is even better than fast-acting vitamin gel and one-cycle nutrient solution.

Moreover, the six white towers of the Six Towers Land are constantly drawing energy from the earth's veins, transforming it into magical tides that nourish this land.

As long as the magical mineral veins beneath this land do not run dry, this place will forever be prosperous.

Such a superior environment naturally supports the emergence of a less competitive organizational structure in the Land of Six Towers. If this were in a resource-poor place, the Land of Six Towers would probably have already declined beyond recognition.

Locke took out paper and pen from his astral ring and began to write down his experimental record of the Golden Eye Grass. "The magical properties of the Golden Eye Grass are even better than I expected. I am very satisfied with its resistance to physical defense and magical energy of the Conjuration School."

"Without a wizard's manipulation, the Golden Eye Grass can withstand a full-force attack from a bloodline master of the Conjuration School, which shows that this defensive magical plant has a very balanced performance."

In fact, the Golden Eye Grass's defensive capabilities exceeded Locke's expectations, because Locke originally thought it was just a magical plant that could only defend against specific attacks, but who would have thought that its basic defensive capabilities were so outstanding.

It just can't be deflected; it was just Claudia's physical attack.

Locke put on the Focusing Spell Monocular, took out a device provided to him within the six towers of the Wizard's Tower—the Differential Mirror—and dripped developing fluid onto it. Instantly, the internal details of the Golden Eye Grass that Locke saw on the Differential Mirror became even clearer.

The developing solution, combined with the differential magic mirror and the focusing single-lens mirror, allows for a deeper examination of the minute internal structure of an object.

"Hmm? The gold element formed fibers and wood element fibers, mixed with the wood element crystal clusters of the Golden Eye Grass, and reinforced each other, even giving birth to gold element crystal clusters."

Clusters of the two elements are distributed throughout the cells of the Golden Eye Grass, intertwining and mixing with each other to strengthen the plant.

"The appearance of wood element crystal clusters is a typical characteristic of a first-ring magical plant, but the Golden Eye Grass has gold element crystal clusters, which obviously further enhances the original strength of a first-ring magical plant. Is that why it was able to withstand Claudia's full-force attack?"

“However, further testing of the Golden Eye Grass is still needed,” Locke pondered. “Moreover, since there are many frustrated commoner wizards here, perhaps I can directly ask them to work with me to develop botanical spells based on the three types of eye grass.”

"This is something that is exceptionally easy to do in the Land of the Six Towers. Although the wizards in the Land of the Six Towers may be a little less skilled, it is easy to recruit first-level wizards here."

Locke handed Claudia the Golden Eye Grass and the Shadow Eye Grass, saying, "Use the enchanted device [Seedless Shield] to seal the seed-producing ability of these two grasses. Then take them to the old wizard Collins and his students. Have them conduct phenomenological tests on these two grasses while testing the Shadow Eye Grass, and submit their test reports to me."

"By the way, tell them to keep all test reports confidential. If they ask where these two subspecies of eyewort came from, just tell them they were developed by me within the past month."

“Remember to tell them not to leak the test data.” Claudia looked up, opened her mouth, hesitated, and looked at Locke with even more respect, understanding why Locke held such an outstanding position in the Philaid family.

Within a month, Claudia was quite puzzled by the fact that she could develop two such powerful subspecies from a single Eye Grass plant, and ultimately could only turn her admiration and trust in Locke himself into her belief in him.

Claudia bowed to Locke and said, "Yes, Lord Augustine."

Locke handed over the testing work to Wizard Collins, firstly to save himself trouble, so he wouldn't have to do everything himself anymore.

Now that I have control over the funds, the equipment related to the project, and the network of contacts, I should take advantage of these advantages to delegate some tasks and let others do things for me.

Secondly, Collins Wizarding also has all the data for the project in their hands, and both parties have an understanding and contract that the data will not be disclosed to the outside world. Therefore, it is the best thing to entrust this testing work to them.

They also need to test the Shadow Eye Grass, and they have been developing the Eye Grass project for over thirty years, so they are extremely familiar with it. Therefore, it is even better to hand it over to them for testing than to do it ourselves.

Besides, the test data isn't some core secret, so it's fine to hand it over to them.

During this time, Locke also synthesized the eight new potions he had mastered, but none of them had any special synthesis recipes. He only slightly improved the recipes and enhanced their effects.

But this also means that Locke currently possesses improved formulas for eleven first-level potions, which is already at the level of a powerful and formal potion master.

Locke arrived at Anthony's mansion inside the White Elephant Tower and followed Peggy in a carriage driven by their family wizards, heading towards the No. 2 White Tower—the Dragon Tower.

Locke sat in the carriage and saw the fiery horse pulling the carriage and leaping through the air.

This type of horse was created by bloodline refiners of the Spellcasting school in the Land of Six Towers, using the bloodlines of a Nightmare Demon from the Nightmare Plane and a Flame Horse from the Prime Material Plane. It can run through the air on fiery clouds with astonishing speed and endurance. Originally, it was a magical horse used to pull ore cargo. Later, with gradual bloodline improvements, it transformed from a practical tool into a product of family wizards' pursuit of magnificence and prestige. As a result, it has become increasingly tall and its coat has become more and more beautiful, but it seems that... its endurance has actually decreased.

Locke pondered, "Did the Great Wizard Sura wait for the potion masters from the outside world to stay in the Six Towers for several months before summoning them all at once?"

"Is it to help potion makers from the outside world adapt to the Six Towers?"

Probably.

After all, the ingredients for magic potions vary from region to region, and each wizarding land is different due to the barriers of remote areas and natural defenses.

For example, although both are medium-magic regions, the magic tide concentration gradients in the southeast corner region and the Six Towers region are different. The concentration gradient here is two orders of magnitude higher than that in the southeast corner region. Therefore, during Locke's first month here, his mana was always disordered and his magic pressure fluctuated constantly.

It wasn't until the second month after I arrived here that my magic was tamed and I adapted to the concentration of magical tides here.

Locke pondered, "But it's also possible that during this process, Grand Wizard Sura secretly sent people to observe and eliminate some obviously problematic potions makers. Both are possible."

Peggy and Locke were in separate carriages, so Peggy lifted the exquisite curtain of her carriage, stuck her head out, and said to Locke, "Locke, in a few hours we will be at White Dragon Tower No. 2. The power of the family wizards inside the White Dragon Tower is even more complicated, so you must be careful in everything you do."

"The rules of the White Dragon Tower are even greater than those of our Elephant Tower; it is the territory of the Plutarch and Ptolemaic families."

Inside the carriage, Locke said, "Yes, Peggy, I understand."

The Ptolemaic family's territory was originally over the White Dragon Tower, so does that mean the Ptolemaic family was a direct descendant of the Plutarch family?

Locke hadn't considered that.

His expression immediately turned strange. The black wizards that the Ptolemaic family had hired last time had killed a large number of Plutarch wizards and had even almost threatened Alicia's life.

I wonder how the Plutarch family viewed the Ptolemaic family's behavior.

(End of this chapter)