Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 552 The Concept of the Three-Headed Hydra and Helping Students Play Games
Locke tapped his fingers on the table and said, "Both of you should participate in the competition."

Gregor wanted to say something, but under Locke's gaze, he couldn't utter a word.

Locke softened his tone and said to Gregor, "Gregor, if you just play to your normal level, you'll find that those opponents aren't so scary after all. And if you don't even dare to participate in the competition, how dare you dream of becoming a full-fledged wizard?"

Locke's eyes were sharp. "Do you think that surpassing the limit for the first time is such a simple thing? Even though the wizarding civilization has a well-established path for the first breakthrough, it is still something that only people with courage and wisdom can do."

"If you can't overcome your psychological fragility, then you should drop out of school as soon as possible."

Gregor bowed to Locke. "Teacher, you're right. Being emotionally fragile has always been my weakness. What advice do you have for me?"

Locke glanced at Gregor and, based on his understanding of his character, said, "You're just afraid of failure. Lower your expectations, lower your expectations of your goals."

"Don't think about participating in breeder competitions where you're sure to be at the top. Just think about what you can learn from them, and you'll be satisfied. Transform your desire to defeat others into your desire to defeat yourself, and you can overcome this problem."

Locke said, "A person who can frequently defeat others is a victor, but a person who can frequently defeat himself is a strongman. On the endless road of exploring truth, only the truly strong can go all the way."

Gregor's body stiffened, and he muttered to himself, "Only those who can conquer themselves are truly strong..."

"Teacher, I understand. Thank you for your guidance."

"It's my good fortune to be your student."

Locke glanced at Gregor. Locke had noticed Gregor's personality during their usual interactions. He was extremely contradictory, arrogant and extraordinary, yet he felt inadequate because of his failures.

He wanted to excel, but he experienced situations where his wizard mentor didn't care about him and didn't think highly of him.

All of this made it even harder for him to dare to take on the challenge.

If he were to attempt to become a formal wizard with that mindset, the situation would be dire, and his fate would likely be no better than Albert's.

Therefore, Locke hoped that he could overcome this problem by participating in the competition.

An ordinary mentor might simply ignore the wizard apprentice's psychological state, or even be unable to understand him.

However, because Locke only has two students at the moment, and Gregor is still his first student, and the exit condition of the Advanced Academy of Truth requires him to teach two formal wizards, Locke is able to keenly perceive the unpolished brilliance beneath Gregor's seemingly ordinary appearance.

Williams, standing to the side, wore a thoughtful expression. 'Is a true champion someone who constantly overcomes their own weaknesses?'

'This mentor seems different from my previous wizard mentor. And he's quite young, only a year or two older than me.'

Locke then turned to Williams and exchanged a few words with him, trying to learn a little about Williams' situation.

Like Gregor, Williams is a breeder and botanical wizard, but he is also a potion master.

It is the child of the dual elements of wood and fire.

20 years old this year.

Locke glanced at Williams. His student's profession was similar to his and Sophia's—they were all potion master, breeder, and botanist wizards.

Unlike Gregor, who only holds a certificate as a breeder's assistant, Williams holds certificates as both a full-fledged breeder and potion-making assistant.

This shows that Jinmianshan has assigned himself a higher level of student this time.

Locke was actually only 22 years old.

Although he was their mentor, the three of them were about the same age, with little difference in age.

However, the three were of vastly different statuses, and Locke, in order to maintain his authority as a mentor, naturally had no intention of getting along with the other two.

Locke said to the two, "I have done a lot of research on banana-type flying magical plants. This time, you'll be using banana-type flying magical plants in the apprentice-level association breeder competition. What do you think?"

Gregor and Williams, naturally, had no objections.

Locke was their wizard mentor, and he chose the topics for them. They couldn't refuse; even if they didn't know how, they had to learn.

Moreover, given their skill level, they were simply not qualified to claim any expertise they possessed in front of Locke.

Locke nodded and tossed them a document.

This information comes from my research on the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow in the Southeast Corner Region. At that time, I spent more than half a year developing various apprentice-level Great Green Owl Banana variants, so I naturally had many variants of banana-type magical plants.

Gregor exclaimed in surprise, "Teacher, you have so much information!"

Williams also said, "Really, there are a lot. There are a lot of flying magical plants like bananas here, all of which are varieties I've never seen before."

"Did you cultivate all of these? Why did you cultivate so many?"

Locke knew he couldn't explain the finite element cultivation method to the two apprentices, so he simply said, "It's just making a 'Sword Tomb'."

Gregor was completely confused.

Williams then asked, "Teacher, is it finite element cultivation? I've heard of this very advanced cultivation method."

Locke glanced at her and nodded slightly. "You're smarter than I thought, Williams." "You're right." Locke tossed her a bottle of high-grade Bloodthirsty Dragon Sunflower Potion. "Drink it; consider it a reward for answering correctly."

Williams had just seen Gregor drink this potion, so he had no doubts and opened the bottle and drank it.

"My affinity with the wood and fire elements has actually increased by a whole level!" The little witch Williams' face flushed slightly, like a bright red apple. "Teacher, you are truly amazing."

“Gregor, you’ve been drinking this strong stuff all this time.”

Williams seemed to have known Gregor for a long time, which didn't surprise Locke. In fact, these two wizard apprentices had been at Golden Crown Mountain for several years before him.

In truth, I am a wizard who has just arrived at Golden Crown Mountain.

Locke said to the two of them, "I have all the banana-type magical plants recorded in the data. You can ask me for them if you need them. Just take those data and study them yourselves."

"If you don't understand anything, you can ask me. By participating in the competition, you can obtain magical resources and your character will also be honed. The so-called competition is a form of teaching through competition, allowing you to learn things from the competition."

Back when I built the Forest Sanctuary, I moved three apprentice-level banana groves into my Forest Sanctuary as green manure and wind-fixing elemental magical plants.

Therefore, his druid ring still contained a complete banana forest.

Furthermore, because they reproduce in their own forests, their numbers have actually increased compared to before.

Locke said, "However, you need to come with me now. I'm going to an industrial park in Alsace."

Williams, unaware of what had happened before, looked at Gregor with questioning eyes, wondering why they were going there.

……

In the industrial park of Arthas, Locke was led to a plantation by a wizard from the Arthas Shop Alliance.

The wizard, who was at the crystallization stage, was named Cassius. He told Locke, "You may use these ten acres of magical fields in this plantation as you see fit."

"The manager had already given me instructions beforehand."

"By the way," the wizard Cassius looked at Locke, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "What is life like inside the Temple of Truth on Mount Golden Crown?"

Locke knew that what the other party really wanted to ask was how choosing the path of the True Knowledge Institute was.

After all, the other party is not very old, but chose to take the career advancement route of the store alliance, and indirectly climbed the teaching position through the career advancement of the store alliance.

Locke pondered for a moment and said, "It's alright. I've only been in the Institute of True Knowledge for four months."

Wizard Cassius sighed, "Teaching positions are hard to find. We have a lot of qualified wizards in Yunze Wetlands, but they can't find teaching positions. So they have no choice but to come to the Shop Alliance."

“I came to Arthas when I was at the first stage of the Vaporization Realm. But sometimes I wonder if my life would have been different if I had stayed at the Wizarding Academy.”

Locke said, "Different paths lead to the same destination. They are all just in pursuit of the truth."

The wizard Cassius laughed and said, "Indeed."

"Then, please make yourself at home."

Locke nodded slightly. The plantation had about a thousand acres of soil, and each piece of land had a barrier.

In other words, the ten acres of magical fields he uses can be connected by a barrier, which will protect his magical fields.

Locke needs to hybridize the Hydra here, for several generations, to stabilize the traits of the Hydra plant's offspring and complete the final trait stabilization work.

Next came mass production.

The Hydra plant's original reproductive ability was not too weak, so there was no need to strengthen it to support mass production.

Locke looked up at the Dragon Crystal Ecological Dome at the top of the plantation and nodded slightly. With the Dragon Crystal Ecological Dome, plus the unique resources of Golden Crown Mountain, it was a sight to behold.

You don't need to spend any extra magical resources to accelerate the growth of the Hydra plant here. At most, you just need to sprinkle some insecticide or add nutrient solution with trace elements.

However, Locke did not only intend to use these ten acres of magical fields to return the Hydra, but also to use them to conduct simplified experiments on the Hydra—he had an idea to create a three-headed Hydra to reduce the difficulty of using the original tactical-level magical plant Hydra.

This would solve the problem of not being able to use the power of Myster for extended periods.

At the same time, Locke also wanted to plant the seed of the Tree of Life in his forest sanctuary after he was fully prepared!

If one obtains a seed from the Tree of Life in their own forest sanctuary, they can achieve the greatest possible improvement.

Of course, the growth of the Tree of Life requires an enormous amount of magical resources.

This can be seen from the fact that Nightmare of Life absorbed a lot of energy in the Emerald Dream, but has not yet advanced to the second ring.

Moreover, in this way, he would definitely need to obtain the rings of the four elements of wind, water, fire, and earth to bless the Druid's ring; otherwise, a single Druid's ring might not be able to provide the conditions for the seed of the Tree of Life to grow.

A ring containing the four elements of Feng Shui, water, fire, and earth must be used to create a true energy cycle.

(End of this chapter)