Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 819 Payment and Seeking Trajan's Advice

At this time, at the Melochy technical seminar, their original target was also Solas Lightfoot, and someone at the seminar suggested that they invite a famous Void Explorer or a wizarding tutor from the Wizarding University to endorse them and make an advertisement.

There's an advertisement for a wizard who saved up magic stones for a long time and sold all his Thoras Barefoot Wizard Shoes to finally buy a pair of Melochy Magic Steps second-circle wizard shoes.

At the technical seminar, the second-circle wizards of Melochy also planned to launch a large-scale wizarding sports competition specifically for Solas's barefoot.

But soon, at a technical seminar in Melochy, someone discovered the Augustus Wizard Shoes Shop Alliance, which had launched a pair of wizard shoes worth one million magic stones.

Melochy's lunar supervisor gave him a strange look.

"How exactly was this done? The cost is way too low!"

He thought for a moment.

"But the one who is in the most trouble right now is Solas Barefoot."

"Unexpectedly, the battle between our two shops' alliance was suddenly disrupted by a rat. This rat is growing stronger every day. From being completely indifferent at the beginning, it became something we had to pay attention to, and then it even managed to break into the Second Ring Market."

"Let's see how many people will buy these second-ring wizard shoes."

"Hopefully there aren't too many, otherwise it'll be troublesome. Jinmianshan, tsk, if it weren't for Jinmianshan backing him, dealing with him would be much simpler. Damn it, this guy isn't a nobody, he's from the Red Dragon Throne academy. Sigh."

……

Back on the magical carriage carrying them to Mount Golden Crown, Locke pondered: 'With the reputation I gained from the Silent Grail, initial sales should have a solid foundation.'

'Let's test the waters in the second-tier wizard shoe market first. If it's successful, we can release a second and a third wizard shoe product.'

Locke said, “I can gradually improve the quality of my pure magic plant wizard shoes during the product launch process. In this way, as funding is obtained, the quality of my products will gradually iterate to the level that ordinary second-ring wizard shoes from Cloud Marsh Wetland should have, and may even surpass them in the end. Then I can enter the Star Ring market.”

"Once I become a Star Ring Wizard, I will be able to enter the Star Ring Market."

The differences between second-ring wizards are enormous. The gap between a star-ring wizard and an ordinary second-ring wizard is only slightly smaller than the difference between a second-ring wizard and a first-ring wizard.

The entire second ring stage is essentially the ultimate height that most civilizations in the endless void can reach.

Many civilizations' so-called pioneering levels are merely pioneering within the second ring range.

It remains forever confined to the framework of the Second Ring Road.

After all, if it's just about increasing strength, then no matter how much it's increased, the second ring framework can accommodate it.

This also leads to extremely large differences between the four major grades within the Second Ring Road.

Inside the magic carriage, Locke took out a glass bottle containing the fragrance of roses, the flower of dreams; the pale pink fragrance inside was dreamlike and enchanting.

He opened the bottle, releasing a floral fragrance that, within the spell model of the ephemeral dream, combined with an ordinary sea holly fern before him.

Locke closed his eyes and, within this dreamlike space, grafted the sea ginseng onto the underworld iron tree.

The next moment, the wizard driver of the magic carriage looked curiously at the hellish warhorse pulling the carriage.

"Strange, why can't the carriage move?"

He frowned and used a demonic whip to lash the back of the hellish warhorse, but no matter how much the hellish warhorse neighed, it did not move forward an inch.

The wizard frowned and chanted a beast taming incantation. The hellhorse was controlled by the soul pact, but it still couldn't move forward.

"There's a second-ring Grand Wizard sitting inside the carriage, why aren't you moving forward?" The wizard was sweating profusely and changed the spell models of three different summoning schools in a row.

One spell after another struck the back of the Hellfire Warhorse, and three soul contracts enveloped its body, but no matter what they did, they could not make the Hellfire Warhorse move forward even an inch.

A moment later, Locke's voice came from inside the magic carriage.

"It's alright, let's move forward normally."

The next moment, the hellish warhorse actually took a step forward.

The wizard servant driving the magic carriage glanced at Locke, who was sitting inside the carriage, with astonishment in his eyes, before turning around and continuing to drive the hellish warhorse forward.

Inside the magic carriage, Locke looked at an ordinary first-ring sea holly fern in his hand.

"Failed."

"The shared imaginary root system of the Underworld Iron Tree - Dream Flower that I established can only provide virtual imaginary roots for Wizard Shoe Magic Plants."

"After all, I don't fully possess the power of the Netherworld Iron Tree. I only grafted a Time Shadow Fern and fished out a portion of its energy. And this portion of energy has an upper limit. Because of the grade of the Time Shadow Fern's imaginary root, the energy I fished out at any given moment was maintained at the level of an ordinary fourth-grade imaginary root."

"Therefore, the sharing of imaginary roots is actually only at the level of ordinary imaginary roots, and cannot be shared with Star Ring Magic Plants."

"That's fine. Because the energy that my Shadow Fern fished out has adapted to be transformed into the energy of the Great Blood Wave Pineapple Wizard Shoes, once I transfer the energy to other types of magical plants, it will cause the energy to become chaotic and the botanical root zone to become disordered. The infinite downward force of the Netherworld Iron Tree will cause the magical plants that use its energy to keep going downward."

"The reason why the magic carriage couldn't move forward just now, and the hellish warhorses were frightened and dared not move forward, is this."

Locke sighed.

"I thought I could use this shared imaginary root system when cultivating other magical plants, but it doesn't work. Oh well, this is good enough. I should be content."

"This system can be used on wizard shoes. There are still many secrets about the Netherworld Iron Tree. I will study it slowly in the future. Perhaps I can fish out more energy to provide for more magical plants."

Locke calculated his recent expenses and found that he had spent seven million magic stones on external expenses, and the smaller expenses added up to just enough to wipe out his income for the past few months.

However, of the 22 million magic stones he obtained from selling two batches of super items, the first-ring wizard shoes, he still had 15 million left.

"This 15 million will be used as payment for my second-ring wizard shoes."

Locke had previously calculated that the cost of a pair of second-ring wizard shoes was about 500,000 magic stones. Therefore, the 15 million magic stones he had were only enough to produce 30 pairs of wizard shoes.

That is, sixty two-ringed blood wave pineapple wizard shoes.

"Let's try pre-selling thirty pairs first," Locke thought. "I don't have enough funds for the goods right now."

"Well, if it sells really well, we can try to get a loan of 15 million magic stones first, and then pre-sell 30 pairs."

The cost for a pair of first-ring wizards is about 6,000 magic stones, so 200 pairs would cost more than 1 million magic stones.

Therefore, a large portion of the previous payments was an advance that Scarlett the Witch had made to Arthas for herself.

But when it comes to the Second Ring Road, it's a different story!

Even with Locke's compression, the cost of a pair of wizard shoes is still 500,000 magic stones. Such a large sum of money is hard to come by unless you take out a loan.

Locke finally understood why so many second-circle wizards went bankrupt. The bigger the business, the easier it was to go bankrupt.

The cost of a second-circle wizard is simply too high. Although the price is also high and the profit is large, the turnover is just too high.

This leads to a second-circle wizard being heavily reliant on bank loans and market financing. However, if a second-circle wizard makes a mistake or is controlled by greed and takes a risk by making the wrong investment, then trouble ensues.

It's easy to lose everything.

Locke thought for a moment.

"That's my current situation. I still need to be as cautious as possible."

"Don't take out loans."

"Because I still have three places where I need money. The first is to finish the Golden Wheat Project that Teacher Sophia gave me, which granted me the great magical ability of [Ancestral Evolution]."

"The second area where we need money is to organize a group of people to explore different planes and, incidentally, conduct wedding ring tests. The third area where we need money is to find projects that can apply for top-tier funding."

Locke thought for a moment, "Perhaps I can contact my senior brother. As an ordinary second-circle wizard, my knowledge of these things is limited, but my senior brother Trajan and Sith might be able to give me better advice."

"Furthermore, I need to complete some second-ring level projects as soon as possible to obtain the Tourmaline King Peach, rapidly increase my magic pressure, and get me one step closer to the Star Ring. Everything is difficult at the beginning, but I think as long as I complete the first second-ring project, the subsequent second-ring projects will come to me one after another."

Locke first contacted Trajan, and Trajan quickly accepted his request for a video call.

Locke was taken aback, because Trajan's side was completely dark and silent, as if it were eternal darkness.

Locke asked, "Brother Trajan, is your place the Dark World? Perhaps it was inappropriate for me to contact you at this time?"

Trajan the Wizard said, "Yes, this is the Dark World. This is my fourth time entering. It's alright, I'm currently in a safe zone of the Dark World."

Locke frowned, because from the video call, he could only see complete darkness on Trajan's side.

Trajan explained, “The Dark World contains over ten thousand different dark blocks, some of which are dangerous, and some are safe. I am currently in a safe block.”

Locke was speechless.

"More than ten thousand different colors of darkness?"

"Ok."

Locke quickly explained the problem he had encountered.

Trajan the Wizard said thoughtfully, "I was quite surprised that you actually managed to reduce the cost of the imaginary root."

“Listen to me, you are in great danger right now. One wrong step and you will be smashed to pieces, but one right step and you will win everything.”

"First, let's talk about your wizard shoes. Your wizard shoes are indeed uniquely creative, opening up a new market—the second-ring pure magic plant wizard shoe market. But you can't apply for the second-ring fund project."

Locke's heart sank, and he asked, "Senior brother, why?"

Is the Second Ring Fund really that difficult?
Trajan the Wizard said, “I know what you’re thinking. However, when a second-circle wizard applies for their first second-circle grant, they receive a weighted bonus, so even if your project application is of slightly lower quality, there’s still a chance it will be approved.”

"But the problem is that what your wizard shoes have achieved so far is hard to call an innovation, or even a technological innovation, or a combinatorial innovation."

Locke immediately understood what the wizard Trajan meant.

The reason why I was able to achieve my shared imaginary root was entirely due to a chance encounter with a ghostly iron tree.

He told Trajan the wizard without reservation.

After all, there are too many secrets on the other side of the River Styx; who knows what else lies beneath its surface?

There was absolutely no need for me to keep this secret.

As long as you don't tell Trajan the exact location of the Iron Tree of the Underworld in the River Styx, that's all you need to know.

Locke said in a deep voice, "Indeed, this is more like a business development. It's possible to do it horizontally, but it's really difficult to get project approval if we want to do it vertically."

The wizard Trajan comforted her, saying, "Even so, the horizontal project you've done is something many second-ring wizards, and even some of the poorer star-ring wizards, would envy."

"Even if the Pure Magic Plant Wizard Shoes only captures a small portion of the original wizard shoe market, you can still make a fortune."

"But your teacher from your apprenticeship went to the Starry Sea, right? She's quite impressive. I never expected she could go to the Starry Sea."

Even Trajan, the wizard, had to admit he was impressed.

"The project she gave you is indeed eligible for top-tier funding."

"That's a very well-developed project. I think that just the preliminary experimental data from it would be very impressive."

Trajan the wizard coughed.

"I didn't expect you to maintain such a good relationship with your mentor from your apprenticeship. She had almost completed 80% of the project and then dumped it on you."

"This... I really can't imagine it."

Trajan confessed, "I had a falling out with my apprentice mentor a long time ago."

“It’s rare for a wizard to maintain such a good relationship with their mentor during their apprenticeship as you do.”

"However, I suggest you don't use this project to apply for top-tier funding."

Locke looked at the wizard Trajan with a puzzled expression.

Trajan the Wizard said, "Your project is already too complete; it would be a waste to use it for top-tier funding."

"Moreover, it will be difficult for you to grow. Even if that project is used to apply for the second-ring fund project, it will most likely pass because it's your first time applying. That's how powerful it is, after all, it involves using magic potion techniques to make the magic plant undergo a specific atavistic evolution."

"But I think that applying for special funds and second-level funds with a project that is almost completed and does not require much investment is a complete waste of money. It will also reduce your growth opportunities and make you miss out on a project that is relatively easy to obtain."

Locke nodded repeatedly.

Trajan, as expected of a Sun Ring Wizard, analyzed the situation and organized it in a very orderly manner.

Locke asked, "So, Brother Trajan, how should I make good use of this project?"

Trajan the Wizard laughed and said, “It’s very simple. Take it and enter it in the competition! As long as you complete the remaining 20% ​​or so, I think it will be enough to enter a high-quality competition and win an award.”

(End of this chapter)