Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 153, Fourth Magical Plant: Emerald Iris Lichen
Seeing that Zack had made a statement and presented a college order for 10,000 magic stones as compensation, the coldness in Locke's eyes finally dissipated.

After all, he has no reason to turn down money.

Moreover, he probably guessed that it was the administrative leaders behind Zack who were testing his bottom line. If he could agree, it would naturally save the academy money and allow Lilith Hut to retain the large-scale production capacity of Crystal Palm Fire Lotus.

It's just that you have to pay the cost yourself.

Although he could still make money even if he did that, it would undoubtedly reduce his profit margin and affect his ability to develop subsequent magical plants, and even slow down his progress in increasing his magical power. Therefore, Locke decisively refused.

Locke softened his tone, saying, "If the academy has any needs, just give me an order, and restoring a hundred acres of magic fields will only take a little over a month."

Zack laughed and said, "That's true."

"Come, let's toast to Locke."

Next, in the private room of the Witch's Kitchen, Locke and Zack completed the second college procurement contract.

After handing over 10,000 magic stones to Locke, Zack smiled and said, "This batch of goods only needs to be delivered within three months."

"The Academy and the Blood Curse Tribunal have not yet entered the stage of large-scale war, so the purchase of this batch of magical plants is only for storage."

“By the way, junior.” Zack straightened up and handed a document to Locke. “This is the academy’s combat department’s latest announcement about the custom magic plant competition.”

"It's a competition held for war. Based on the competition's requirements, develop a magical plant that meets the needs of wizards in the war department and participate in the competition."

"The first place winner of the competition will immediately receive a procurement contract from the academy. The top three winners will all receive a large amount of magic stones as a reward and will also have the opportunity to receive a procurement contract from the academy."

"This is a breeder competition inside Lilith's Hut," Zach said.

"If you're interested, you can participate. I have high hopes for you."

Locke picked up the document and saw that it read "[Lilith's Hut Custom Magic Plant Competition (Apprentice Level)]". The competition only had one round, which involved creating a product according to the requirements of the wizards in Lilith's Hut's combat department and then sending it over for testing.

As long as the wizards in the combat department are satisfied, it can be adopted immediately.

This is essentially a military weapons design competition, which is fundamentally different from the breeder competition hosted by the White Wizards Association.

Both the evaluation criteria and the competition format are different.

This kind of competition requires a specific magical plant that can better meet Lilith House's war requirements, and there's no need to disclose the technical details; all that's needed is to present the product.

"Besides individual breeders, there must be studios composed of multiple breeders participating in this kind of competition, right?" Locke noticed that, apart from formal wizards not being allowed to participate, there were basically no other restrictions on the registration requirements, and there was no requirement to participate in an individual capacity.

This means that this is different from the breeder competition held by the White Wizards Association, which is used to select outstanding individual breeders.

This competition is open to anyone, as long as they can create a piece of work.

Inside Lilith's cottage, in addition to her personal plantation, there is also a large-scale breeder who has established a breeder's studio by hiring breeder assistants or partnering with other breeders.

Breeder studios have greater negotiating power with shops in the Chimera Market and in competitions like those held by the Academy, possessing larger production volumes and research capabilities than individual plantations. Therefore, if one were to participate in such competitions, their opponents wouldn't be individuals, but rather established breeder studios.

"The requirement for the magical plant is that it be used in combat, increasing defense in battle and protecting plant-type wizards from being caught in close combat by vampires with high speed, agility, and attack power, and enabling them to kill them quickly. In other words, we need to develop a magical plant for close-range defense, capable of withstanding sudden close-range attacks from enemies." After thinking it over, Locke smiled at Zack and said, "Senior, I'll consider it."

"However, my fourth magical plant is not a combat-type magical plant, so I will not focus on it for the time being."

A hint of disappointment flashed in Zack's eyes, then he said to Locke, "It's alright, I was just informing Junior Locke."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

After parting ways with Zack in the Witch's Kitchen, Locke immediately returned to his two small to medium-sized botanical gardens.

He first inspected the plantation where the Crystal Palm Fire Lotus was planted, and after confirming that there were no problems, he also inspected the True Vision Crystal there as usual.

He gave some instructions and made some adjustments for the minotaur slaves to do farm work, and then went to another plantation.

In the second small-to-medium-sized plantation, ten acres of magical fields have been cultivated and planted with goosegrass.

Locke looked at the remaining ninety acres of barren land and took out a level 7 crafting item made from Emerald Lichen, which he had been testing recently, from the Crafting Cube.

For the past month and a half, Locke has been using different plants to synthesize Emerald Lichen, hoping to find a special synthesis recipe.

Today, I finally found the special crafting recipe for Emerald Lichen: two level 6 Emerald Lichens and one level 6 Iris Licorice can be combined to create a level 7 Emerald Lichen plant.

A level 7 crafted item, Emerald Iris Lichen. It uses the Magic Co-frequency Cultivation Method at frequency 600 to directionally mutate licorice, and then uses the Magic Co-frequency Cultivation Method at frequency 721 to directionally mutate Emerald Lichen. Finally, it uses the Grafting Cultivation Method to graft licorice and Emerald Lichen together, combining the characteristics of Iris Lichen with those of Emerald Lichen.

Next, the cutting propagation method was used to propagate the plant by cuttings, resulting in a magical plant.

Emerald Iris Lichen possesses the property of Emerald Lichen increasing magic resistance on the human body surface, while also possessing the ability of Iris Licorice to enhance human vitality. When combined, they form the phenomenon of [Adaptive Magic Resistance].

After elemental magic or curse magic damages Emerald Iris Lichen, the Emerald Iris Lichen will undergo a corresponding adjustment in its magical composition to better resist the same type of attack.

Locke's eyelids twitched. This meant that the complex magical plants cultivated using the three cultivation methods possessed immunity in the sense of magic resistance.

"What would happen if we used this stuff to replace the jade lichen, the main ingredient in the Bear Spirit Bile Potion, when making the potion?"

Locke couldn't help but ponder.

"Moreover, with this magical plant, I can practice the magical resonance cultivation method again."

"Before the breeder exam, we can improve our proficiency in the Magic Co-frequency Breeding Method once again."

"Furthermore, we can try to cultivate this magical plant on a large scale. Although it is not for combat, we will definitely not have to worry about sales."

"Especially among potion makers."

(End of this chapter)