Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 143 Pierre's Advice
Locke offered a few words of comfort to Pierre and Lauen, warning them not to take on such missions in the future, before hurriedly leaving with the sealed vampire Howard.

Pierre and Lauen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Before leaving, Locke specifically asked Gabby, a second-class wizard apprentice, to go back with the two of them.

Watching Locke's departing figure, Laun sighed, "Luckily we have Locke as a friend, otherwise we would be doomed this time. I should have known better than to take that mission; this money is hard to come by."

Pierre was also shaken; the thought of the curse still sent chills down his spine. "Yes. We won't go out again."

"I'll just stick with Locke's medicine lab. One hundred magic stones a month is enough to cover the magical resources I need."

Pierre looked ashamed. "I was too greedy. I almost lost my life for more magical resources."

Laun looked at him with envy. "You're lucky. You have a special constitution that allows you to earn so much money so easily."

"That doesn't sound like me..."

Pierre reminded him, "It's not that I'm lucky. It's because we're friends with Locke that I was able to find a relatively safe place to be a test subject, and I can even receive a free supply of memory ointment every month. Believe me, when Locke's memory ointment becomes available, it will be an expensive magical resource that we won't be able to buy!"

Pierre's eyes flickered; he was now perfectly lucid. "Memory ointment is something only wizards of the second rank or higher can use."

"This stuff has absolutely no side effects."

“If Locke hadn’t happened to be living with us during his third-class wizard apprenticeship, I would never have gotten such good stuff.”

“These kinds of good things must have been reserved by those with connections long ago,” Pierre said. “I heard from Senior Sister Terri that Locke has even been tutoring the son of a formal wizard recently.”

"The Locke of today is not the same as before. His social relationships are much more complicated than they used to be, and we can never go back to the way things were."

Pierre advised Laun, "Laun, I'm a local from the southeast corner region, so I know a little more about this than you do."

"It's our good fortune that Locke was able to live with us during his early wizarding years. So I suggest you make the most of this opportunity; you can also be his test subject."

Lauen looked stunned.

Pierre, however, seemed unfazed, saying, "I've heard that the pharmaceutical lab has a particularly high demand for test subjects. Locke will continue to recruit third-class wizard apprentices to collect experimental data."

“I think since we have this relationship, it would be better to use it to become Locke’s test subject. You saw it this time, it’s much safer than us going out to do missions.”

"It's also quick to make money."

Laun found it a bit strange, and he looked puzzled. "Hmm... what you said seems to make sense. It's just that I never imagined my path as a wizard would take such a bizarre turn."

Pierre spread his hands and laughed, "Look, I'm almost a second-class wizard apprentice. If you don't hurry up, you'll be the only third-class wizard apprentice among the three of us."

"We enrolled together and took our first general education class together."

Pierre said, "Senior Terri said that after the three months of experimental data are collected on me, their personal pharmaceutical lab will conduct a long-term follow-up experiment on the use of the memory ointment."

"Approximately one year."

"I suggest you seize the opportunity to sign up."

Laun pondered for a moment, his face showing struggle, hesitation, and deep thought, before he nodded solemnly. "Pierre, I think you're right."

Gabby, who had overheard the entire conversation between the two, glanced at them and saw the two eagerly trying to pull strings to become test subjects, and felt slightly speechless.

Gabby wondered, 'Senior Locke, you already have your own personal pharmaceutical lab? Are you going to develop new drug formulas?'

'That's incredibly fast.' 'Memory ointment… judging from what these two third-tier wizard apprentices said, it seems to be very effective and will be of great help to me, with only minor side effects.'

I'm tempted.

'I wonder when Senior Locke will start selling it to the public, listing it for sale at the potions shop in Chimera Market. I wonder how long I'll have to wait.'

Shapeshifters need a strong memory and a high degree of compatibility with etheric elements (shape elements).

The reason such a high level of memory is required is that shapeshifters need to understand and analyze a magical creature before they can transform themselves into that magical creature.

Therefore, shapeshifters require far more memory than wizard apprentices in other magical categories.

There was once a shapeshifter who misremembered the anatomy of a magical creature, resulting in a loss of magical control and a permanent deformity in his body.

This is just one of many magical backlashes that have occurred to shapeshifters.

So, when Gaby heard Laun and Pierre discussing how Locke had developed a rare potion that could enhance memory, he was intrigued.

Gabby glanced at the two of them, a slight unease creeping into his heart. 'Actually, there's another way to use the memory ointment they mentioned beforehand: I'll also sign up to be the test subject.'

"But generally, the apothecary only hires third-class wizard apprentices to be the test subject, and I'm a second-class wizard apprentice. I reckon even if I wanted to apply, I'd be rejected."

'Especially this kind of drug, which is already very well-established.'

……

Inside the laboratory of Locke's three houses, in the alchemy hut, there is a simple laboratory with some basic experimental equipment, including a [binding cage] made by the enchanting school.

These are the cages used to imprison magical creatures and slaves. There are many of these cages in Sophia Witch's magical creature breeding room and in the slave inn.

The magical power of the creatures imprisoned within will be suppressed to the greatest extent possible.

Howard, who was severely injured and had been purified by a minor Green Elixir, was imprisoned there and had no chance of escaping.

This kind of restraint cage can even imprison powerful, high-level magical creatures like tree spirits.

Locke used simple alchemical experimental equipment in the laboratory, such as lamps enchanted with the Light spell, to begin testing Howard.

At this point, Howard, thanks to his immortality, had recovered from some of his injuries, especially his throat injury, which had healed considerably.

Howard, restrained in the cage, began to scream in agony. The dark wizard gripped the iron cage with both hands and began to curse Locke incessantly.

He started cursing Locke himself, then went on to insult his parents and ancestors.

But not long after, he began to beg for mercy, weeping and pleading, saying that he had also been forced to become a dark wizard, that he had killed many people, but that he should be given a second chance to start anew.

But not long after, Howard saw that Locke was ignoring him, he revealed his true nature and said that after he escaped, he would personally snap Locke's neck.

Locke ignored him throughout, instead using various simple alchemical experimental devices to conduct different tests on him.

These devices are the basic equipment in the laboratory, which were given to us by the college when it allocated this laboratory to us.

This is considered a perk for first-class wizard apprentices. The items themselves aren't very expensive, but they are numerous and scattered, and are all common laboratory equipment.

After a series of tests, Locke issued a test report.

(End of this chapter)