Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 408 Recruiting people
"Therefore, the Yunze Cup is a competition that is genuinely prepared for a special kind of war. It has its own evaluation criteria."

Locke read the information and pondered, "The process of the Yunze Cup is that first, within each of the major wizarding lands, a team of breeders qualified to represent that wizarding land in the competition must be selected. Therefore, the competition must first be held within each of the major wizarding academies, and the winning team from the academy competition will then participate in the competition of that wizarding land."

"The team that can represent that wizarding land will be chosen."

"After two rounds of qualifiers, the real cross-wizardland competition begins, marking the start of the Cloudze Cup main tournament."

"Because it is a cross-wizardland competition, there are a total of four rounds in the tournament: two rounds are the preliminary rounds, and two rounds are the actual cross-wizardland level competitions."

"After entering the main competition, the first round of the main competition is for the team to send the concept drawings and information to the committee in charge of the competition for evaluation. The top ten breeding teams will receive funding from the committee to cultivate the magical plant weapon they designed and enter the final round."

"The final round of the competition will be a joint defense by ten breeding teams. Each of the ten breeding teams will hand over the magical plants they have cultivated to the wizards of the subordinate races of the Cloud Marsh Wetland, who will then use them in actual combat to deal with the Mekanis."

"Academic defenses are the real battlefields, what a grand gesture!"

"The results of the magical plants speak for themselves."

Locke couldn't help but marvel at the scale of this inter-wizard-level competition, which was incomparable to any competition he had participated in within a wizarding realm before.

Locke pondered, "But speaking of which, it seems I can skip the first two rounds of the qualifiers. After all, I was chosen by the Six Towers to represent their Wizarding Lands as a breeder, but I still need to build my own team."

"If I hadn't been participating in this competition, the Six Towers would probably have refused to participate in the Yunze Cup again this year."

Looking at the competition rewards, Locke pondered, "This competition is of great significance to me. The top ten, that is, the breeders who enter the final round, will all receive special magical plants from the Cloud Lake Wetland—the first-ring magical plants Cloud Lake Lotus, Water Lily, and Gallery Willow."

"One of them. These are commemorative awards. As long as you make it to the finals, everyone gets one, so as not to embarrass anyone."

"The top five will receive a Magic Plant order reward, as well as a Yunze Cup award certificate."

“Besides that, the top three…” Locke’s eyes changed slightly; this was the key point. “The third and second place winners will receive a contract from the Academy of Truth, and the first place winner will receive an admission contract to the Advanced Academy of Truth.”

"Furthermore, in order to thank the breeders from various wizarding lands for their active participation, the Yunze Wetland White Wizard Association will take the initiative to negotiate with the Advanced True Knowledge Institute for the first place winner of the competition, giving them the qualification to negotiate the specific details of the contract with the Advanced True Knowledge Institute."

"We can negotiate many relatively lenient treaties. It's like having the right to negotiate independently."

Locke thought to himself, "This competition is indeed useful to me."

"While my best option would be to go directly into the Star Domain Sea, no one can guarantee that they will receive a teaching position offer from a wizarding academy in the Star Domain Sea in a short period of time. So participating in this competition is like having another path."

"The Academy of True Knowledge can elevate the level of any wizarding academy one can enter by a whole new level."

"The top three in this competition haven't been told which True Knowledge Academy they'll go to... It's estimated that a bunch of True Knowledge Academies are observing the results of this competition at the same time, so the committee only guarantees that the second and third place winners will definitely go to a regular True Knowledge Academy, and the first place winner will definitely go to a high-level True Knowledge Academy. But which one it will be is still undetermined, which is also in line with the fact that True Knowledge Academies are semi-independent of Wizarding Academy and have certain rights."

Locke pondered, "But as long as I can place in this competition, even if I'm not in the top three, it will be very beneficial for me in the future."

“My problem now is… I need to assemble a reliable team, but the problem is that this is very difficult in the Land of Six Towers.”

Locke realized a problem—the participating teams from other wizarding lands had all fought two rounds of battles against the organizations of various wizarding academies within their own wizarding lands, and then the remaining strong ones emerged.

And what about our side?
Those rotten fish and shrimp from the family wizards of the Six Towers Land?
"..." Locke closed the book, somewhat speechless. "If I were to form a team with those family wizards to participate in the Yunze Cup Combat Magic Plant Competition, I would probably become a laughing stock, right? Other people's teams are full of shrewd and capable genius students or capable wizard mentors, while my team is a bunch of... nepotism. The difficulty level would directly become hellish."

Locke's expression was strange. "Even if I am personally very capable, the workload required for preparing for a large-scale war like this is simply too great. I cannot handle it all by myself."

"I need a lot of assistants."

"In particular, there are two main points to consider. First, the final battleground is in Yunhu, which is Yunyuan, so the magical plants I designed need to take the Yunhu environment into account."

"Secondly, this magical plant is for use by the wizards of the subordinate planes of Yunze Wetland. I also need to consider what kind of magic those wizards are good at, their fighting style and tactics, whether they have racial talents, etc. When designing magical plants for them, all of these factors must be taken into account."

Locke flipped through the documents, frowned slightly, then summoned the librarian and instructed him, "Go and retrieve for me the historical data on magical plants in Cloud Lake, the ecological data of Cloud Lake, and the data on the main auxiliary planes of Cloud Marsh Wetland over the years."

The librarian seemed to be a little slow on the uptake; he couldn't quite remember what Locke had said.

With Locke frowning, he barely managed to jot down Locke's request, then quickly turned around to find the first-class wizard apprentice who had just found the Yunze Cup information, ordering him to quickly search for the information for Locke.

The first-class wizard apprentice said to the director with some fear, "Director, this isn't Yunze Wetland, how could we possibly have so much detailed information?"

"Perhaps the library of the White Wizarding Association branch in the Six Towers Lands might have it. That library is also in the White Dragon Tower..."

The library director practically yelled at him, "Find it for me even if you can't find it! I don't want to hear any excuses, unless you don't want to work here anymore, you know that!"

The first-class wizard apprentice said guiltily, "But Master, why do you only require me to go find it? Others... others can do it too."

The library director sneered, "Who told you you had the ability?"

……

Locke ignored the scene and became even more certain in his heart that he absolutely could not bring his family wizards to the Yunze Cup this time.

There was some commotion in the library when Alicia walked in.

Alicia sat down in front of Locke, dressed in a simple white wizard's robe. She said to Locke, "Locke, I have persuaded the elders of the family and have the Six Towers register for this year's Cloud Ze Cup." For a competition like the Cloud Ze Cup, even obtaining the registration qualification is extremely difficult.

Individuals and ordinary wizarding academies cannot apply; only the Wizarding Land White Wizarding Association in the Eastern Frontier is eligible to apply.

However, this is currently the competition that is easiest for me to participate in.

Because other competitions of the same type and scale generally require either registration through the local wizarding association or registration with a special title, such as being a student of a second-circle wizard or even a third-circle wizard, and registering with their recommendation letter.

Alternatively, only wizards who have won certain awards or published many high-level articles are eligible to apply.

The fact that the Plutarch family is now willing to fully support him in participating in a competition of this scale is already a testament to his good fortune.

Alicia looked at Locke strangely. "What's wrong? Locke, you don't seem very happy."

Locke shook his head. "It's not that I'm unhappy, I'm thinking about what to do about the participating teams."

Alicia was puzzled. "Recruit wizards from all over the Six Towers. The Six Towers are full of talented wizards from prestigious families. With my help, your team can be assembled within a week, and its members can include members from all the major prestigious families in the Six Towers."

"What's there to worry about?"

Locke: “…”

No, that's exactly what I'm worried about.

If I really did that, my project team would be full of spoiled brats that I couldn't control at all. I might even have to act as their collective babysitter and help them refresh their resumes.

This is different from Locke's original intention.

Locke hesitated for a moment, then said, "Alicia, I mean, could we broaden our thinking and use... those commoner wizards?"

"For this competition, I want to use those commoner wizards."

Alicia looked puzzled. "Why? Dear Locke, aren't those family wizards more capable?"

Alicia suddenly remembered what had happened on the airship, and a look of hesitation crossed her face. "Perhaps, that's not the case."

"Then it's up to you. I've already convinced the clan elders to invest one million magic stones in your competition project."

"This money will first be sent to the finance department, and then your participating teams will apply for reimbursement and exchange it for resources."

Locke nodded slightly; separating finances from accounting is a fundamental management principle.

This is definitely necessary. Although it will cause some trouble for our side, it can reduce corruption within our competition team.

This is also advantageous to oneself.

Locke said to Alicia, "Then I'll take this one over there in the library, that unfortunate commoner first-class wizard apprentice who's all sweaty. I think he's quite capable."

"As for the others, forget it."

Alicia agreed without hesitation.

After all, for her, being a mere library staff member was nothing to worry about.

"Of course, it's all up to you."

"Locke, is there anything else you want?"

Locke pondered for a moment and said, "I want to hold a public interview for all of the Six Towers and select the people I need from among them."

Alicia nodded. "Okay, that's not difficult. As your benefactor, I can easily do that. By the way, Locke, tell me something about yourself. Don't you have the Primal Flame?" Alicia said in a voice that the two of them could barely hear.

"I also want to see how the Primal Flame is used."

"I have a great place where I can obtain rare magical materials and purchase exquisite magical recipes. That place is called [Feathered Serpent Pavilion]."

"The Feathered Serpent Pavilion is a place specifically for us potion makers. It has branches in many wizarding lands and also provides potion room services. We can prepare potions in the potion room there without worrying about being disturbed. We can also purchase a lot of related potion-making equipment there, which is very convenient."

"Come on, I'll take you there. Let's go and see the power of the Primordial Flame."

Locke thought for a moment and did not refuse. First of all, Alicia was currently his biggest benefactor, and the resources she allocated to him were unbelievably abundant, even more than a wizard from the Plutarch family could not compare to.

Secondly, I do indeed intend to purchase rare recipes and use the Primal Flame.

Locke casually instructed the director to put the documents on his desk back in their original place and keep them safe, as he might need them later, before leaving with Alicia.

The librarian, seeing Locke and Alicia so intimate, was so frightened he barely dared to breathe, constantly wiping away cold sweat as he watched the two figures disappear, lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)