Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 148 Revenue from the Treatment Center

Locke said to the dwarf scholar Or, "By the way, I'd like to investigate information on the bloodlines of ancient creatures. Could you recommend someone?"

The dwarf scholar Or nodded. "Oh, that's a rather niche field. Ancient bloodlines are very difficult to obtain now, making research extremely challenging. On the contrary, the dark wizards have a large number of archaeologists, and they actually have a lot of information in this area."

"However, Augustine, the potion master, what you said is too broad. It's difficult for me to give you that. Could you narrow down the scope a bit more?"

Locke nodded in agreement. "Is it specifically an ancient creature bloodline with gold elemental properties, or a resonance caused by two different ancient creature bloodlines? Are there any articles on this?"

The dwarf scholar Orl's right eyeball flashed rapidly with different runes. "There aren't many valuable articles here; Lilith's Hut isn't good at this."

"There are a few unimportant D-level articles, one C-level article, and two related B-level articles."

Locke became interested.

The dwarf scholar Orl said, "One of them is a summary of the bloodlines of ancient creatures. Because the data is relatively comprehensive, it was rated as a B grade, 71 points, by the general scholars at the time."

"He may have obtained some of the black wizard's research through some private means, so he compiled a relatively comprehensive list of ancient biological bloodlines, including three ancient creatures mentioned that have a strong affinity with gold element particles."

"The second article was also published by the same person. The content mainly consisted of his speculation that in the ancient times, there was a kind of mysterious factor that caused magical creatures at that time to be much stronger than they are now."

"This is an interesting hypothesis, but because the theoretical part is not rigorous, it can only be given 70 points, and it almost got classified as a C grade."

"Augustine, breeder, would you like to exchange it using contribution points?"

Locke would be an idiot to use 10 contribution points to buy the viewing rights to these two articles. "No, I choose to buy them for 100 magic stones. Buy them now. Could you convert these two articles into paper documents for me?"

The dwarf scholar, Orbin, replied politely, "Of course. However, our third-class wizard apprentice staff will need some time to copy the information. We will send it to your designated location at a later time."

"It will only take about two hours."

"Rest assured, the materials copied by our scribes will be carefully reviewed by wizards specializing in general studies."

Locke nodded. "That's good."

"Just take it directly to my office at the Healing Hand Clinic, that's fine."

Locke paid 100 magic stones and left the public library; he was going to the Healing Hand Clinic that afternoon.

He earned a total of 1200 magic stones at the Healing Hand Clinic last month.

Not much.

But this is already good.

Completely curing a cursed first-class wizard apprentice requires a great deal of time and effort.

It usually takes more than ten days to fully cure a disease, and sometimes even a month.

Normally, a potion master's assistant can only earn less than one hundred magic stones by healing a first-class wizard apprentice.

As for the lower-ranking wizard apprentices, treating them is almost free; the meager treatment fees they receive go to the wizarding academy and wizarding instructors to purchase equipment and facilities.

A potion-making assistant can only heal about five or six first-class wizard apprentices a month at most, and skilled ones can only heal about ten.

My current income is about the same as that of a skilled potion-making assistant, because the witch Sophia doesn't exploit me, but splits it 50/50 with me.

This allows him to earn around three hundred magic stones from a first-class wizard apprentice patient.

However, because I worked at the clinic for the first month, my efficiency was relatively low. This month, with the help of Aisie and Angru, I was able to heal four first-class wizard apprentices.

Even so, there's still an element of luck involved.

On one occasion, he misjudged the type of curse magic on a first-class wizard apprentice, causing the apprentice's condition to worsen for several days.

Thanks to Anglu and Aishi for covering for him, otherwise just having trouble with others would have been troublesome enough.

While this is a common mistake even novice potion-making assistants make, it also shows that working in the healing clinic is indeed not easy. However, I can now brew lesser Emerald Potions, so the number of patients I can cure each month will increase in the future.

With the help of healing hands, one's income can increase dramatically.

In general, due to the exploitation by wizarding instructors and the academy, as well as the objective reasons of patients' ability to pay, the income of potion-making assistants at the Healing Hand Clinic is all pre-calculated.

It won't be too high, nor too low.

Therefore, the Healing Hands Clinic even offers a monthly salary of 800 magic stones. Although it's not much, it's stable, preventing some potion-making assistants from losing money or earning significantly less in a particular month.

If some potion-making assistants don't manage their potions well, the cost of the potions they use may result in losses.

After all, the healing center couldn't possibly offer too many magic stones as a reward to the potion master's assistant, otherwise no one would be able to afford medical treatment there.

Locke entered the treatment room, gave a curt nod to everyone who greeted him, and then walked up the spiral staircase.

Generally speaking, jobs that require selling your time don't pay very well. The money you can earn working in a therapy center is far less than what you could earn working in a profitable botanical garden or a private pharmacy.

It's like the difference between working for someone and starting your own business.

"At least working here offers stability. Meanwhile, countless first-class wizarding apprentices who borrowed money to open their own pharmacy and botanical gardens are now bankrupt and forced to borrow from one source to another."

Locke went up to the second floor and found that the entire second floor was decorated with some simple red ornaments, as if to celebrate something.

Locke quickly spotted his friends, Aisie and Anglu, in the crowd and went over to them, asking, "What's going on? What are you celebrating?"

Anglu turned to Locke and said, "Locke, the patient in Ward 1 who was afflicted with the Blood Curse of the Giants has been cured."

"We're throwing him a victory celebration. The academy's higher-ups consider this a historic moment—the younger generation of Lilith Hut defeating the wizarding seed of their Blood Curse Court. They even invited a quick sketch artist from the Enchanting School to come and record this event, and they want everyone in our healing center to participate."

Locke frowned slightly, nodded indifferently, and said, "Who broke the blood curse?"

Aisie replied, "It's Angron."

"But that guy... he really didn't win honorably this time."

Aisie glared at Angron, who was receiving applause from the crowd, and was quite unconvinced.

Anglu whispered a reminder to her, "Aishie, keep your voice down."

Anglu explained to Locke, "Anglu was able to break the blood curse this time not because of his own ability. In order to compete for the title of 'Potion Master' and gain preferential treatment in the school's potion science resources, he took advantage of the achievements of another first-class wizard apprentice of Lord Harun Vera."

"It is said that the student was researching a potion to counter the curse, and his work could be modified by Angron to break the Blood Curse of the Giants."

"That's why Aisie said that Angron's victory this time was not honorable."

Locke raised an eyebrow. "That first-class wizard apprentice is also willing?"

Anglu shook his head. "I don't know. But I think he'd be willing."

“They’re all in the same network. If he helps Anglon today, and tomorrow he needs to get some resources, Harun Vera will get Anglon to help him.”

"This can also be considered a transaction."

"I heard that in order to compete with Astrid, Miranda, and Albert for the title of Potions Rising Star, Angron even used his mentor Harlan Vera's network of connections and asked many senior students to help him brainstorm."

“Locke, as you know, the title of Potions Prodigy in the academy is changed every year, with only one person selected each year, and the evaluation is re-evaluated every year based on their performance in Potions.”

Anglu shrugged, a mocking expression on his face. "Last year and the year before, Astrid was the rising star in Potions, which is why he's desperately trying to improve his Potions score this year."

Even if it's done this way.

"But what can you do when his wizard mentor is so protective of his own? He actually managed to get the resources he was supposed to fight for. He's really lucky."

(End of this chapter)