Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 174 Perseus's Eye Lichen
In the evening, at Locke's second plantation, next to the ten acres of emerald iris lichen magic field that shimmered like a jewel forest.

Locke crouched in front of a shield-shaped Emerald Iris lichen rootstock, carefully guiding the contaminated Super Mandragora vine under the reflection of the Differential Mirror, grafting it onto the Emerald Iris lichen.

The wounds of both men clashed violently.

But Locke carefully used the magic resonance cultivation method, just as he had envisioned a thousand times on the blueprints, to switch between different frequencies and use magical energy to change the conflicting magical structures.

The wounds between the two gradually healed, only occasionally bursting out with a stream of viscous fluid filled with tiny white foam. Locke remained calm, methodically changing the frequency of his magic within the reflection of the Differential Mirror.

Under Locke's meticulous operation, the two magical plants were quickly grafted together. The wounds of the two magical plants healed together, and the Super Mandragora vine underwent a positive change. Then, the Emerald Iris Lichen variant also changed.

The emerald iris lichen, which had originally transformed into a round shield shape, now had concentric circular stripes on its surface. These stripes formed a pattern resembling an eye, with the whites of the eye and the pupil appearing remarkably lifelike.

“It’s done.” Locke said with a faint smile as he saw this.

He bent down, used a utility knife to cut open the surface of the Emerald Iris lichen, and dripped the fungal mucus secreted from its surface into it, along with the mixed blood of twenty-one common cursed individuals that he had collected in the Healing Hand treatment room.

As soon as the viscous fluid was dripped into the mixed blood, it was as if fire had met ice and snow. The mixed curse within the blood rapidly dissipated, and in almost no time, the originally filthy black blood turned into a healthy bright red.

"It's a success." Locke's eyes lit up with encouragement. "Through grafting and cultivation, I have indeed utilized the Emerald Iris Lichen's own mechanisms to complete a magical plant mutation."

"This Emerald Iris Lichen has completely mutated into another kind of magical lichen, with its own characteristics and properties."

"Moreover, the mucus secreted on the surface of its fungus possesses broad-spectrum resistance to ordinary curses. Many kinds of curses are mixed in the blood, but they all subside after contact with the mucus," Locke pondered.

He took out a cursed stone from his astral ring, a stone he had previously purchased at the Chimera Market. The cursed stone resembled a pebble.

By crushing it, the curse previously stored within can be released.

Cursed stones cannot store very powerful curses, so they are generally only used by white wizards for experiments and research.

At that moment, Locke crushed the cursed stone, and the 0.3 ring of bleeding curse hidden within it struck the Emerald Iris Lichen variant in the magic field before him.

Instantly, the eye-shaped pattern on the surface of the emerald iris lichen shimmered with an eerie light, and then it reflected the curse back, turning it into a beam of emerald light that landed in the curse stone fragments in his hand, completely purifying the remaining curse within.

A flicker of excitement crossed Locke's eyes.

Previous tests only proved that this Emerald Iris lichen exhibited broad-spectrum magic resistance.

But the current practical tests have proven that this Emerald Iris Lichen does indeed possess a certain curse reflection function, just as I had previously predicted.

"I saw it in the B-level article I bought before. It said that grafting Tiffany root vines onto a defensive combat magic plant unexpectedly produced a slight ability to reflect attack magic."

"At that time, I guessed that the automatic counterattack property of magic vines could be inherited by some defensive magic plants." "The author of that article conducted several more experiments afterward, all of which failed. In the article, he made several assumptions about these failures and the previous accidental successes. One of the assumptions was that his magic accuracy was insufficient."

"That's why all subsequent experiments failed, and as a result, his paper only scored 71 points, which is only a B grade. If he could have found a way to improve the success rate, his paper could probably have been rated as an A grade."

Locke said, "So, on his advice, I repeated the ideal scenario he assumed in the article: the grafting and cultivation of magical vines and defensive magical plants, and rented the Differential Magic Mirror and the Focus Magic Monocular Mirror."

"Then, by using the Deep Blue Diamond to enhance the precision of my magic and reduce the conflict of magical components between the Super Mandela Vines and the Emerald Iris Lichen, it actually worked."

A look of satisfaction flashed in Locke's eyes. He had only wanted to give it a try, after all, the last type of magical plant curse had actually cursed his creation, the Super Mandragora Vine.

Then I can use the Super Mandela Vine to complete the experiment hypothesized in the article I bought.

Who knew that it would allow him to take another step forward and cultivate a defensive type of magical plant that was slightly beyond his expectations.

"Lilith's Hut, or rather the writing system within the White Wizard Society, is indeed very meaningful."

Locke pondered, "If I hadn't purchased those six B-grade articles, even if I were to eventually create a defensive magic plant, it would probably have taken much longer, and the result would certainly not have been as good as it is now."

"That article gave me a lot of inspiration."

“We need to rethink the name for this new variety of lichen,” Locke pondered. “Unfortunately, this magical plant has already been classified as level 7 in the Synthetic Cube community.”

"It's probably because its original Emerald Iris Lichen is a level 7 synthetic plant."

Locke recalled the story from ancient Greek mythology he had read in his previous life, in which Perseus used his shield to deflect Medusa's petrification curse, and said, "Let's call it the Perseus Eye Lichen."

"This mutated lichen is shaped like a shield and also has a certain magical counterattack capability."

"It does fit the myth quite well. Anyway, I'm the creator, so I can call it whatever I want. I don't need to care about others. I don't quite understand the meaning of the name Eye of Perseus."

"Next, we will use this combat magic plant to conduct further real-world data testing, then write a report, and then put it into the customized magic plant competition held by the combat department within half a month."

Locke pondered, "If I can get into the top three, I can earn another college procurement order."

"Moreover, since I can replicate the experiment in the hypothesis of that B-level article, I can continue to delve deeper into this field, and I should be able to write my first A-level article in Lilith's Hut."

An A-level article can earn you more contribution points and greater honor, and contribution points can be exchanged for opportunities to enter the Wizard's Secret Realm.

Honors will bring you more convenience, as well as many Lilith Hut titles and extra rewards.

(End of this chapter)