Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 384 The Plutarch family has no need for you!

After a struggle, Locke also acquired three healing potion ingredients: Jade Lotus Root and Eight-Star Leaf, both special products of the Six Towers Land, and a Gustav Pebble, a specialty of the Tver Plane, a small-to-medium-sized colony of the Six Towers Land.

These three materials can barely be considered as ingredients for healing potions.

Locke frowned as he looked at the three materials in his hand and the pile of materials on the table. "Is this how you test a potion master's skill? It's a bit biased. A potion master who can use uncommon materials to concoct healing potions is certainly skilled, but that doesn't necessarily indicate the upper limit of their potion-concoction skill."

Locke glanced casually at the potion-making materials on the table. "With the materials we have, what kind of healing potions can we make?"

"Perhaps I haven't accumulated enough knowledge? These materials don't match the classic potion recipes I'm familiar with at all. Even if I manage to identify the medicinal properties and forcefully use a few materials to concoct a healing potion, it won't demonstrate my potion-making skills at all."

"But that will make you look down on by others."

Santos, the potion master standing to the side, was extremely annoyed and kept muttering to himself that this kind of test was completely meaningless.

If it weren't for the abundant resources of the Six Towers region, he probably would have turned around and left immediately.

The other potion makers also looked troubled. These materials were very different from the potion recipes they remembered, and it was impossible to even temporarily replace some of the materials.

However, arbitrarily preparing potions might make people underestimate one's true potion-making skills.

Then the gain outweighs the loss.

After a moment's thought, Locke made a decision: to give up the three healing materials he had seized and not force himself to concoct a healing potion. Instead, he chose to concoct the Abyss Potion type of potion, which he was most skilled at.

He quickly picked up a severed finger of a demon from the materials table.

This is the most common demon in the endless abyss: the severed finger of the Tanarnli demon, who is making the Tanarnli Hand potion.

The main function of this potion is to transform the user's arm into the arm of a Tanaris demon, which is a bloodline modification potion. However, it also has another function: to allow the user's wounds to heal rapidly and to suppress existing toxins and other damage in the body.

During his previous practice, he had replaced one of the secondary ingredients in this potion, which in turn enhanced its special effect of suppressing wounds.

Locke quickly gathered the materials and headed towards the potion room.

Meanwhile, the other potion masters were also forced to make their final decisions from these limited options.

Inside the potion room, Locke raised three cauldrons.

At the same time, different magical flames ignited beneath the three crucibles: wood elemental magical flames, dark elemental magical flames, and fire elemental magical flames.

Locke calmly tossed the different materials into different crucibles. The wood element magic flames were mainly used to extract the main ingredients of the potion, while the dark element magic flames were specifically used to extract the effective components from the biological materials of the abyss demons.

The fire element magic flames are extracted from the marble jellyfish that was added to the improved recipe.

Six hours later, Locke mixed the liquids from the three treated crucibles and poured them all into a glass gourd-shaped vial.

Immediately afterwards, the three different colored liquids in the potion bottle mixed together, turning into a pure black liquid. Moreover, this liquid quickly froze in the ice-attribute magical flames in Locke's hand, turning into a slushy state.

Locke held the bottle under his nose, smelled it, then used a straw to draw a drop of the medicine and dripped it onto the table, whereupon a black spot appeared on the wooden table.

Upon closer inspection, the black spots turned out to be charred wood on the surface of a wooden table, which even smelled of sulfur and had sparks flickering in it.

"Success." Locke looked at the Tanaris Hand potion in his hand. To take this potion, one needs a strong physique; otherwise, just drinking it would turn one into a pile of charcoal due to the potion's potent effects.

Locke rubbed his temples; after all, he had just concocted a first-level potion, which had taken a lot of effort.

He took out a bottle of apprentice-level energy potion from his astral ring and drank it, slightly replenishing his energy.

Locke observed the other potion makers, and about a third of them had already prepared their potions.

However, many potion masters racked their brains, striving for perfection, trying to find ingenious ways to concoct a complete healing potion and win the first place in this test.

Locke had no choice but to wait in the potion room for a while. Then, after thinking for a moment, he went outside, got some materials, and continued to prepare the potion.

The Plutarch family didn't seem to care about such a small amount of resources. Since they had to wait for the rest of the day anyway, they might as well use the abundant potion-making materials outside to practice and also make a few potions for themselves.

A day later, Locke concocted two bottles of Flame Fury potion. Combined with the 15 Flame Fury potions stored in his Astral Ring, he now had 17 bottles of Flame Fury potion on hand.

The raw materials for these potions, ironically, all came from the Plutarch family.

One day later, all thirty-seven potion masters had submitted their works.

At this moment, the old butler of the Plutarch family walked into the potion room where Locke was, bowed respectfully to Locke, and said, "Wizard Augustine, my master, the great wizard Sura, would like to see the Flame Fury potion you have prepared."

Locke said in surprise, "I just made the Flame Fury potion casually when I was bored. I didn't expect that the great wizard Sura would notice it."

"Alright then, I'll hand over both bottles."

The butler wizard quickly shook his head. "You misunderstand. All the potions concocted here belong to you. Consider it a gift from our Plutarch family to all potion makers."

“However, Archmage Sura thinks that since you’ve already prepared the potion, and even prepared it during the testing process, why not send over a bottle of Flame Fury potion? Archmage Sura is also very curious about your potion-making skills.” Locke nodded. “I see. I was overthinking it. Alright.”

Locke placed a bottle of Flame Fury potion on the tray held by the butler wizard. The tray was already filled with potion bottles, all the work of thirty-seven potion makers.

Soon, all thirty-seven potion masters reassembled in the living room.

The butler wizard, on the other hand, went up the stairs, through the illusion magic of the Illusion School, to the second floor, where he spoke with the wizard there.

Soon, he came down from the second floor, followed by a witch.

The butler wizard introduced the witch to everyone: "Distinguished guests, this witch is the little princess of our Plutarch family. She is also a potion-making genius and won first place in the apprentice-level potion-making competition in the southeastern region."

"She will serve as a judge for this test."

"Whether the wizards who stay or those who leave with regret, they are all guests of the Plutarch family. They may take away the potions they concoct here, and the Plutarch family will also pay for their return tickets."

Alicia, dressed in amaranth-red wide-sleeved wizard robes, descended the stairs with a serious expression. Within the family, she wore a silver crown of bloodline, and her appearance appeared much more mature, adding an air of majesty.

When Alicia saw Locke in the crowd, she paused for a moment, made eye contact with him, and then walked to the tray held by the butler wizard, opened a bottle of potion and began to sniff it carefully.

Alicia frowned slightly, clearly dissatisfied with the quality of the potion. In fact, it was hardly a magic potion at all; it was just a mixture of ingredients, with the intention of extracting as much of the natural healing magic as possible.

Drinking this stuff is less convenient than just chewing the herbs directly.

Alicia shook her head slightly. In her opinion, although her grandfather's test was somewhat abnormal, and for some reason, the criteria he used to judge her were also a bit strange.

Even so, it is not difficult to formulate a suitable treatment from this pile of materials.

Alicia glanced at the pile of potion ingredients here, and several potion recipes that could be combined immediately came to mind.

She sniffed several bottles of potions, frowning and shaking her head at each one. Then she picked up the bottle of potion that Santos had concocted, sniffed it, thought for a moment, and still shook her head slightly.

Santos's expression changed, and he immediately looked grim.

Alicia picked up the gourd-shaped potion bottle, glanced at Locke, and then sniffed it. "This is... you changed the recipe for the Hand of Tanaris potion? And it's a secondary ingredient. Changing this ingredient is already a major change to the recipe."

"The difference between creating a new medicine and creating a new one is very small."

The core and secondary ingredients form the main body of this recipe, while peripheral and auxiliary ingredients are usually replaced by wizards.

While both involve modifying a recipe, the degree of change required for modifying core and secondary materials is much greater than that required for modifying peripheral and auxiliary materials.

Alicia opened the Flame Fury potion that Locke had prepared. "It's really amazing. You added wood elemental magic fire to it, making this potion a conflict between light and darkness, water and fire, and death and life."

"In this way, its power can be increased by more than half out of thin air."

Alicia nodded; she had always highly regarded Locke's expertise in potions.

Especially these two works.

The recipes for these two potions were probably given to Locke by her a month ago, but who knew that he would improve two high-level first-ring potion recipes in just one month.

Over the next half hour, Alicia sampled all the potions and then made her judgment.

She chose three potion masters to stay.

That is, out of the thirty-seven potion masters, only three can be selected.

One of them was Locke, another was the centaur-like young potion master, and the third was a human witch.

Santos, in the Spiral Basin, watched this scene with a grim expression, nearly bursting with rage. "Are you kidding me, you foolish Plutarch family?"

"With the potion-making skills of these three, they think they can surpass me in creating healing potions? And that stupid centaur, does he even deserve the title? Does he even know where he puts his hooves when he sleeps at night?!"

The centaur youth wizard was also surprised to be selected. When he saw how difficult the test was, he gave up and chose to make an elemental incense that he was best at.

That elemental incense can imbue the body of those who smell it with elemental power, enhancing the magic of the four elements: wind, water, fire, and earth.

Surprisingly, this actually worked.

The wizard Santos, his face dark with anger, turned and left. "There's something fishy going on! There's definitely something fishy going on! I'm the wizard with the most profound knowledge of healing potions here, yet they chose those three wizards instead of me."

"Which of them has concocted a healing potion? Of all the potions, only mine can barely be considered a healing potion."

Alicia said coldly to him, "Master Santos, please wait a moment, but just now, the great wizard Sura used the illusion school's telepathic magic to inform me that you are indeed not the potion master he has chosen."

"No matter how outstanding your talent may be, unfortunately, the Plutarch family has no need for you. If you continue to insult the Plutarch family, you will violate the laws established by the White Wizard Association of the Six Towers."

(End of this chapter)