Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 84 Tuition Fees and Leo
Locke quickly read through their background information.

According to the information in the assignment letter, the two witch prodigies, Nikki Crawford and Sybil Lake, are both from native mortal families in the Southeast Corner and both have Level 2 wizarding potential.

Their backgrounds are relatively simple.

The male wizard prospect's background was rather interesting. He came from the mortal world overseas, just like himself, except that he was born on an island called Achaia.

The locals called it the continent of Achaia.

The main political system on the continent of Achaia was a slave democracy, in which each country was centered on its citizens, who enjoyed the greatest freedom, while others were either slaves or second-class citizens.

This wizard prodigy, Leo Sith, is the descendant of a gladiator slave from a local city-state.

As a boy, he underwent a certain degree of gladiator slave training. If he hadn't been suddenly discovered to have wizarding talent and taken away by local second-class wizard apprentices disguised as divine messengers, he would have been like his father, using his body as a expendable resource to fight in the arena and would have died there sooner or later.

Locke looked up at Leo Sith when he saw this.

At that moment, Leo Sith quickly lowered his head, avoiding eye contact with Locke. He could sense the danger emanating from the senior in white robes in front of him. He felt unsafe in front of this senior, as if he could be killed at any moment.

That suffocating feeling constantly pressed against his throat, urging him to escape quickly and get out of Locke's sight.

The next moment, he felt Locke's hand press on his shoulder. In that instant, his muscles tensed, and his hair stood on end in fright.

Locke glanced at him. "Not bad physical condition."

"But you are no longer a gladiator slave, so you don't need to be so wary of strangers."

"You are the teacher's student, I will not hurt you. And if I wanted to hurt you, you would be powerless to do anything about it."

Locke looked at the three of them and said, “You can call me Senior Locke. Starting today, I will give you a group class every day.”

"At the same time, you also need to take the three major general courses in the public classroom. Those are the basics. You must be promoted to second-class wizard apprentice within five years, or you will be expelled."

"The academy is full of expelled wizarding apprentices. So you'd better not become like that."

Nikki and Sybil immediately bowed to Locke, "Yes, senior Locke, thank you for teaching us."

"We will listen carefully to your teachings and be grateful to you at all times."

The two of them seemed to already have a certain understanding of the rules of Lilith's Hut.

They quickly realized that, in a sense, Locke was their true teacher.

Over the next five years, their chances of seeing the Witch Sophia will be extremely limited.

Unless you become a second-class wizard apprentice, you might not have a chance to meet them more often.

Moreover, in the eyes of these two people from ordinary local families, a first-class wizard apprentice was already a big shot.

Leo Sith gritted his teeth. Locke had seen through his thoughts, and in his heart, he felt that Locke was unfathomable and so reliable.

He bowed to Locke and said, "Thank you... senior..."

He said in a low voice, "I really can't shake off that life in that world. I'm sorry, senior, I shouldn't have been so wary of you."

Leo seemed to realize that if Locke wanted to kill him, he would have no chance of resisting, so he relaxed. "Senior Locke, I've heard that the apprentices of the black wizards in the southeastern corner are basically slaves of the black wizards."

Locke nodded, recalling the Blood Curse Tribunal's previous practices. "That's certainly true."

“Those black wizards are different from white wizards. White wizards at least have some rules, but in the world of black wizards, the powerful can do whatever they want.”

Locke said, "Alright, all three of you should know about student loans, right?"

The three immediately said that their new student mentor had already explained the student loan to them on the wizard ship.

The interest rate is usually five percent. Locke thought to himself that the first-class wizard apprentice who was serving as the new student mentor this time was much more reliable than Shopkeeper Yuri Burns.

At the time, Yuri Burns hadn't explained these things to her at all. If she hadn't been lucky, she probably would have been easily deceived and signed a private student loan contract with a very high interest rate.

Locke nodded and said, "Very good, come with me to my house. Student loans are a bit complicated, so the sooner we get through the process, the sooner it will be over."

“I also have my own things to do; a wizard’s time is very precious.”

Today is the first day of the Mayfly Fireworks class.

The Mayfly Flower Firework is a high-level spell model with a level of 0.8. Using this spell model can maximize the effect of the Rotten Earth Arum.

Although I applied for special protection and have been staying in Lilith's Hut, making it impossible for me to go out, it's still good to learn more protective spells.

For breeders, learning more botanical spells can undoubtedly increase their ideas and inspiration for cultivating new varieties of magical plants.

Moreover, to become a formal wizard, one not only needs to reach a mental strength of 1000, but also needs to learn how to construct a first-level spell. This requires learning more botanical magic models to broaden one's knowledge.

Of course, the focus will still be on advanced meditation techniques, potion makers, and breeders.

The former relates to the fundamental improvement of one's magical power, while the latter relates to whether one has enough magic stones to purchase a large amount of magical resources and maintain meditation efficiency.

Nikki and Sybil exchanged a glance, and then cautiously approached Locke, each taking out about 10 magic stones.

Locke raised an eyebrow. "What do you two mean by this?"

Nikki and Sybil were startled.

Sybil whispered, "Senior Locke, is it...not enough? How much 'tuition and fees' do you need? I'm sorry, Nikki and I are both ignorant. We've only heard that we have to pay tuition and fees to the seniors who teach us each semester, but we don't know exactly how much it is."

"These magic stones were painstakingly collected by my family."

"If it's not enough, can I pay for it on credit first? Can we skip the loan agreement for now, senior..."

Nikki also looked terrified.

Leo became anxious. "So there are also miscellaneous tuition fees... but I don't have any magic stones on me, and I even owe the academy 30 magic stones."

Locke suddenly realized that the first-class wizard apprentices and second-class wizard apprentices who taught classes would privately charge extra 'tuition fees' to newly enrolled wizard talents.

I remember that Lauen and Pierre had mentioned to me a few times that I would have to pay a lot of extra tuition fees, but I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time.

It seems that in the entire Lilith Hut, under normal circumstances, it's the formal wizard instructors who exploit the first-class wizard apprentices, and the first-class wizard apprentices, in turn, find ways to exploit the students below them...

However, the witch he encountered back then was Sophia, who never seemed to charge him extra tuition fees and even subsidized him quite a bit.

Locke was somewhat speechless. What was the point of taking these few scattered magic stones from the wizard seedlings? It would be better to launch more new varieties of magic plants, which would yield magic stones much faster.

Locke waved his hand. "No need, I don't charge tuition or fees here, you just need to focus on your studies."

"Come with me, don't waste my time."

Anyway, the witch Sophia never took anything from her.

It's likely that the reason those first-class wizard apprentices have the habit of charging tuition and miscellaneous fees is simply because they were charged the same way when they were wizarding aspiring students, so it became a habit.

Nikki and Sybil were both incredulous when they heard Locke refuse to accept the money.

Leo, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief because he had no money at all.

(End of this chapter)