Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 145 Income and Expenditure Imbalance

Six days later, in the bedroom.

Locke used advanced meditation techniques to enter a meditative state. After a night had passed, he placed his palm on the amethyst matrix and frowned slightly.

450.

Locke gave a wry smile. Since leaving the newbie bonus period, the efficiency of his advanced meditation method had increased his mental strength by about one point every five nights.

At this rate, he can only increase his mana by 75 points a year.

But this was after he had used all his resources, including a large number of potions such as Blood-Soaked Dragon Sunflower Potion, Star Tears Potion, Energy Potion, and Four Seasons Fruit Fragrance to increase conversion efficiency.

If he doesn't maximize his resources and spends over 400 magic stones on cultivation resources every day, his efficiency would only be a quarter of what it is now.

Locke fell into deep thought. "After all, my original aptitude was only level 3, so it's normal for my cultivation speed to be slow. Based on the cultivation speed of a level 3 aptitude, it would probably take about 20 nights to increase one point of mana."

"The increase in mana in a year will not exceed 19. Even if the growth rate does not slow down as mana increases, it will take five to six years to increase mana by 100 points."

Locke's expression changed slightly. "Moreover, it will definitely become more and more difficult later on, and the difficulty will increase exponentially. Even a person with a level three aptitude, without using any resources, would need twenty or thirty years to get their mental strength close to 600 through their own cultivation."

Locke thought, "But now that I've maxed out my resources, my cultivation speed is four times faster than before, so it should only take me five to six years to reach 600 in mental strength."

"This speed is far behind the improvement speed of the Children of the Elements."

"But it should be about the same as the mana increase rate of those who have no money, use too many resources, and whose talent level is between level 5 and 6."

Locke sighed. His current cultivation speed was not only based on the resources he obtained by spending 400 magic stones every day, but also on the void gem he synthesized using the synthesis cube, which purified the toxicity of the potions he had used in large quantities.

Otherwise, his excessive use of the drug would cause serious problems.

Over time, it will leave various physical aftereffects and slow down his progress.

"If it's this difficult for me, how difficult must it be for those with first-level or second-level aptitude?" Locke pondered. "However, the probability of those with such aptitude becoming a first-class wizard apprentice is probably also extremely low."

“It will take me five to six years to reach 600 in mental strength. At that time, I will be around 24 years old.” Locke frowned. Although he was still young and still had great potential in the eyes of others, he was still a long way from the age of 40. But it was still a long time.

If it could be shortened, Locke would still like to shorten it.

Because the mental strength range of 600 to 800 is only going to be more difficult.

Moreover, the witch Sophia told herself several times that the younger one was when their mental strength reached 800, the greater the chance of becoming a formal wizard.

That's why the white wizarding society has such a high demand for geniuses, because geniuses advance quickly, they reach the threshold of becoming a formal wizard at a relatively young age, and their probability of becoming a formal wizard is much higher than others.

Locke felt relieved. "Fortunately, I took advantage of the newbie bonus period and didn't let it go to waste."

"Otherwise, my current mana is probably only around 200. At the current rate of progress, I estimate it will take more than ten years to reach 600 mana."

Looking back, he realized he'd had pretty good luck along the way. Two certified wizards had helped him accelerate his acquisition of the Advanced Meditation Technique, and he'd also secured a procurement contract from the academy, allowing him to perfectly take advantage of the newbie bonus period. Locke pondered. "No matter what, five to six years is still too long. I need to find a way to shorten that time."

"Strive to catch up with the speed of the Child of Elements."

"The best way is to go to the Chimera Market and buy a lot of magical resources. With these resources, I can further increase my meditation speed. Even if I can't reach the level of the one-month newbie bonus period, which is as exaggerated as increasing mental strength by more than 200 points per month, I should at least be able to get close to that speed."

“If you want resources, you need more money.” Locke tapped his fingers on the bedside table. “But I’m already running an unbalanced income and expenditure. My plantation only brings in 3500 magic stones a month, but I spend 8000 magic stones a month on basic training expenses.”

"The difference between these two is quite significant."

“If I hadn’t happened to have a bulk purchase contract, the difference would have been enough to put me into a vicious cycle of taking out loans and repaying them, until I became a debt slave burdened with debt.”

Locke pondered. "We still need to find new ways to generate profit."

"My actual monthly expenses are definitely not 8000 magic stones, because in addition to meditation, I have a lot of extra expenses to pay. For example, the experiments I've been doing on vampires these past few days have required me to buy a lot of cheap but numerous small pieces of equipment, which adds up to a considerable expense."

"Plantations, laboratories, and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities all require money."

"No wonder those first-class wizard apprentices always like to exploit second-class and third-class wizard apprentices. If I didn't have the synthesis cube, which could make me a genius breeder and a genius potion maker, and other ways to make money, I would have 'fallen' too."

Locke rubbed his temples. If he wanted to make rapid progress, he needed to find more ways to earn money; he was still poor.

However, there was no way to quickly increase revenue in the medicine-making workshop, since potions were meant to be consumed by people.

The review process was unusually long.

However, Locke did hear that Angron had developed many potions that hadn't even completed the full review process, and that these potions had entered the Chimera Market.

He seemed to have bypassed many cumbersome processes thanks to the powerful network of connections of his wizarding mentor, Harlan Vera, which greatly accelerated the development—and validation—of each potion in his personal pharmacy.

The validation phase is the biggest cost for any pharmaceutical lab, but Angron has done a good job of cost management in this regard thanks to his wizard mentor's network of connections.

His character is really not good.

"Let's go to sleep." Locke snapped his fingers, and the candlelight in the bedroom went out immediately. "Many first-class wizard apprentices are stuck at this stage for decades."

"Apart from geniuses like my teacher, the witch Sophia, no one can escape the common fate."

"I have made full use of the beginner's bonus period of advanced meditation, and gained too many advantages over others."

"I'll go to the library tomorrow to check the report I submitted a few days ago. I'll see what level it was rated and hopefully I can exchange it for some magical resources," Locke thought. "In the future, after I pass the breeder exam and achieve good results in the breeder competition finals, I can also get some resources."

"Furthermore, I need to decide on the direction of my potion studies as soon as possible, and the specific research direction of my personal pharmaceutical lab, so that I can make more money."

"Furthermore, I still have resources from the Wizard's Secret Realm that I haven't chosen to exchange yet."

(End of this chapter)