Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 428: Comrades-in-arms and friends!
Noon, on Bailong Street.

Alicia said to Locke, "I saw that you won the Moss Shield Medal Competition and the Thousand-Eyed Vine Competition. Your two kinds of eye grass shone brightly in the southeast corner region, winning the two competitions well-deserved championships. The wizards on the Philaid family's side have been talking about this these days."

Only the Shadow Eye Grass is a project under the Philaid family, so both the Philaid family and the old wizard Collins have the cultivation method for Eye Grass. However, the problem is that Locke's Shadow Eye Grass and Golden Eye Grass were developed by himself, and therefore have nothing to do with the Philaid family.

But little did anyone know that Locke was the junior apprentice of Anthony the wizard, the acting head of the Philaid family, and the breeder he had specially invited to support him.

Meanwhile, both Eyegrass projects originated from Shadowgrass, so Wizard Anthony often had a smile on his face during this period. Locke's success further enhanced his prestige.

Moreover, Locke's current success within the Plutarch family has indirectly boosted the influence of the wizard Anthony within the Philaid family.

Therefore, much of the information Locke needed to participate in the Cloud Cup was provided by Wizard Anthony on the Gray Mist Slab.

Locke, standing on the street of White Dragon Street, said, "It was just two small matches, so it was easy to win. Both kinds of Eye Grass are considered pretty good among the first-level magic plants."

"Winning was within my expectations."

Alicia is not currently wearing a white wizard's robe, but a bright red one. She seems to really like red, but she doesn't dress as childishly as she used to.

The current style is very mature.

This also aligns with her current social status.

Alicia laughed and said, "Only you could say something like that. Your two small competition victories have made some members of the Plutarch family realize that you are really working on the project, and the rumors have decreased a lot."

"Although there are still many people with ulterior motives who talk about us, rumors stop with the wise, Locke. Soon those people will realize that they are all wrong. You are not making money, but seriously working on the project."

Alicia explained to Locke, "It's just that you have very few family wizards in your research group. Are you sure you don't need some excellent family wizards? I have quite a few relatives who have told me they can help you."

Locke nodded. "I'm definitely short-staffed, but I need them to provide resumes and take aptitude tests. What I need are capable people."

Alicia smiled and said, "Okay, in a few days, I'll have someone send you the materials. Among them is my cousin, Julian's son. Julian and Eric have always been very close, and lately I don't understand why he keeps trying to get his son into your research group through me."

"In any case, you decide these things yourself, Locke." Alicia sighed and said, "I've been reflecting a lot lately, especially after seeing the social structure of the Mage Plane. Perhaps my grandfather always wanted to change the current state of the Six Towers. But after becoming the acting head of the family, I can feel how impossible it is to achieve that desire."

“The Plutarch family is the leader of the family wizards. If we want to reform, we must first reform ourselves.”

Locke listened silently without interrupting.

Sophia the Witch reminded herself that she should just focus on her project here; if she got too involved, she might get entangled in the complex feuds of the Plutarch family.

Besides, as a novice first-ring wizard, I don't have the knowledge to instruct all the wizards in the Six Towers on how to live.

That's not something I should be doing right now.

Alicia confided in Locke, "I think that if your team, which is composed entirely of commoner wizards, can achieve a ranking in the Cloud Ze Cup, it will be a huge change for me and for the Six Towers."

"This will shatter the self-deceiving illusions of the family wizards of the Six Towers. It will force them to confront the fact that the native commoner wizards of the Six Towers are just as excellent."

Alicia said, "Although systemic changes are either radical or slow and cannot be accomplished overnight, I feel that my thinking has changed after the airship incident."

“The psychic wizards often say that death will inevitably take away something from the dead. Even if they are resurrected by psychic magic, the resurrected person will never be the same person as before. They will suffer from memory loss, illogical thinking, incoherent speech, or loss of humanity, turning into a beast.”

“But I think that a wizard who is so close to death will also undergo tremendous changes.” Alicia looked at White Dragon Street and frowned. “I changed a lot after that incident.”

"I want to make the Land of Six Towers a better place, and to be worthy of the resources I've gained here."

“I want to make the Plutarch family better.”

Alicia frowned seriously. At this moment, her magical pressure fluctuated in a special way. Locke keenly noticed this and found that this change disappeared quickly after appearing for a moment.

Because it was so subtle and so brief, Locke would not have been able to detect it at all had he not taken eye-magic potions for a long time, which enhanced his mental sensitivity and made him extremely familiar with Alicia's magical fluctuations.

'Alicia's magical pressure fluctuations underwent a peculiar change; she seemed to have changed entirely,' Locke pondered. 'She must have undergone some kind of unseen transformation just now.'

Alicia looked at Locke and said, "After this period of time, I have come to a realization, and the conclusion is extremely cruel—becoming excellent is killing the family itself."

"Now I can understand my grandfather's thinking. As long as the Six Towers becomes excellent, the family and the system here will be forced to change. As long as I can connect the evaluation system of the Six Towers with the wizarding lands outside, those who are deceiving themselves will have to face reality."

Alicia said to Locke, "Locke, you are my first step in trying to do this. I hope you can achieve a good result in the Yunze Cup."

"You and I are not only comrades-in-arms, but also friends."

Locke hesitated for a moment before speaking to Alicia, then, remembering their friendship, he said in a low voice, "Alicia, you have a good idea. But this will offend far too many wizards."

"I suggest you take things slowly. Don't rush things."

Alicia said, "Of course."

“My grandfather said the same thing to me. He was very supportive of my ideas.”

Alicia looked at Locke, her face slightly flushed. "Having a reliable comrade like you by my side makes me feel so at ease. Getting back to the point, Locke, how's your research group doing?"

Locke felt a little worried when he thought about the research group. "The initial personnel have been selected, and we are currently choosing research topics. But now, the witch Barbara and the wizard Tacitus in my research group are having increasingly deep conflicts; their personalities are seriously incompatible."

"This is the first thing I'm worried about."

"The second concern is the group meetings over the past month. Each of the three of them is individually quite capable, but when they meet together, they always argue and question each other, thus steer the discussion away from the topic."

"The project proposals they submitted in the past month were not as good as I had imagined, and they were of limited help to me and were only so-so."

Locke said, "This is the first time I've led such a large research group. I'm worried that there's something wrong with my management methods, which makes it impossible for me to manage the talents of these people."

Alicia shook her head, looking at Locke with complete trust. "No, Locke is the most reliable wizard, how could there be a problem?"

"Perhaps their conflict is just a minor hiccup within the research group. Let things take their course, and maybe we'll achieve good results." "Give them some time; they might just produce something great for you."

Locke and Alicia exchanged a glance and smiled at each other. One was the acting head of the family, and the other was a junior tutor without a formal teaching position.

In some ways, the two were indeed kindred spirits and comrades-in-arms.

Two intern comrades.

The two walked along White Dragon Street for a while, and Alicia led Yolock to another shop on White Dragon Street that she thought was very valuable.

Alicia said to Locke, "I heard that the practical test of the Cloud Ze Cup is conducted using those Mekanis, right? Although we don't have such an advanced artificial race as the Mekanis in White Dragon Street, we do have a shop called [Joseph's Puppet Shop]."

"There are many magical puppets inside, which are used specifically for wizards to perform spells or to test the performance of magical plants, magical artifacts and other items."

"Perhaps going to that shop would be helpful to you."

"That shop is run by alchemists. Their headquarters is in Yunze Wetlands, and this is one of their branches. They have a variety of golems to choose from: flesh golems, steel golems, diamond golems, clay golems, ice golems, rock golems, and so on..."

"Especially the Iron Golem. The Mekanis' manufacturing techniques were partly inspired by the Iron Golem. I think going to that shop to practice will definitely benefit you in the competition."

Seeing Locke's surprised look, Alicia blushed slightly and explained, "I've been looking up information about the Yunze Cup lately. That's how I learned what the Mekanis are."

Locke said to Alicia, "Thank you, Alicia. This must have taken a lot of your time."

Alicia shook her head and said, "I'm your sugar daddy, so of course I have to help you. It's also helping myself."

Alicia said, "By the way, how's your mastery potion learning going? We can exchange ideas and discuss things often, which should help you make your first mastery potion as soon as possible."

“I had my butler deliver a batch of lower-level materials for practicing the Mastermind Control to you.”

Locke nodded and said, "That batch of materials is very useful to me. After all, I can only fail a limited number of times. The core material of the Mind Control Potion is the brain of a first-level Mind Flayer. That material can only be obtained by venturing into the Abyss and hunting Mind Flayers."

Alicia nodded. "That's good, I'm glad I could help you."

Locke glanced at Alicia's magical pressure and said, "Your magical pressure is still increasing too slowly. You mentioned before that you wanted to work with me to improve the formula of the One-Horned Rhinoceros Potion. We can give it a try. If we can successfully improve it and increase the positioning accuracy of the One-Horned Rhinoceros bloodline, we can continue to improve your physical strength and increase your absorption of the Mammon Powder Potion."

“By the way, can’t the spell bloodline be strengthened with spells?” Locke said, “Then we can try to strengthen the unicorn rhinoceros bloodline from two directions: the spell school and potion school.”

Locke has really had no time for anything else lately. So he's been working on projects the whole time, and even his efforts to make money on the side have been delayed as a result.

He had previously considered whether he could synthesize some gems and sell them here.

He later abandoned the idea because the synthesis would take a long time, and he would need to use the synthesis opportunity every day to test the formula and conduct research on those projects.

There are no extra opportunities to synthesize gems. Besides, there's a problem with synthesizing gems: I'm not an alchemist, so I can't reasonably explain the source of a large number of high-level gems.

Therefore, regarding gems, Locke only plans to synthesize some high-level gems for his own use, and not for sale.

However, he had the idea of ​​selling some potions and magical plants, but he was too busy right now and could only make a choice between the project and making money for the time being.

Therefore, it hasn't been implemented yet.

Alicia's eyes lit up. "If we can combine the rhinoceros bloodline enhancement potion, the Mammon powder potion, and the toxicity neutralizing potion, we can definitely open a shop here."

"This combination of medications can help a wizard quickly advance from a regular first-level wizard to a liquefaction wizard."

“If we could open such a shop, we could make a lot of money. However, all three potions are very difficult to make, and the native potion makers of the Six Towers do not have the ability to make them, even if they know the recipes.”

"Similarly, there are still requirements regarding the physical condition of the user, and it is not suitable for everyone."

Alicia's physique is quite good, after all, she has the physical enhancement of the Scorpion Woman bloodline. This method is not suitable for an ordinary wizard to take, otherwise he will die from his body exploding.

However, since there are many bloodline wizards in the Six Towers Land who are in good physical condition, this combination of potions could make a lot of money if a shop were opened there.

Alicia said, "Locke, perhaps we could open a shop together in the Land of Six Towers."

“You can continue using the name of your potion products in the southeast corner region, like ‘Augustus Potions Specialty Store,’” Alicia said. “What do you think?”

“Great.” Locke felt the burning heat emanating from the letter in his pocket, took it out, and paused, stunned. “Things have taken such a turn for the better.”

"In that case, that project from the Starry Sea... is indeed worth considering, and I can let my research group continue it."

Alicia looked at the letter in his hand. "Locke? What's wrong?"

Locke put away the letter. "Actually, it's nothing much. It's just that my research group's progress was stuck for a month, but suddenly we had a breakthrough today. Montgomery in my research group, together with Barbara the witch and Tacitus the wizard, came up with a new and excellent project proposal. Moreover, this project has a very good synergy with a topic that I originally had in mind."

"I had only hinted at this direction to them before, but I never expected that the three of them would give me such a big surprise."

"That way, I can make up my mind to continue working on the project I wanted to do before."

Alicia smiled upon hearing this. "I also guessed that things would develop this way. My biggest takeaway since becoming the head of the family is that if you let things take their natural course, someone who can solve the problem will naturally appear."

"Sometimes, there's no need to rush. There's no need to try to mend the conflicts within the team. The more you try to mend them, the more arguments will arise. Just let things take their course; they'll resolve it themselves. They're all first-ring wizards now."

Locke was suddenly speechless.

Could the person Alicia was talking about, the one who appeared on her own to solve the problem, be herself?
Locke discovered that Alicia seemed to be the type of manager who did nothing.

This is completely different from the management style of the great wizard Sura, who wanted to be involved in everything, manipulated everything behind the scenes, and hated people getting out of his control.

Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

(End of this chapter)