Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 200 Germplasm Bank

Locke said to the witch Sophia, "Teacher, I'm going to the germplasm bank now."

Sophia the Witch was slightly surprised. "A germplasm bank? Oh, you buy your seeds there. Lilith's Cottage's public germplasm bank is indeed quite good, very presentable."

“There are a large number of experimental seeds stored there,” said the witch Sophia. “I also have several access permissions to the germplasm bank. I’ll give you one level-two seed access permission and one level-three seed access permission.”

"These permissions are useless to me now. You can use them to exchange for some magical plant seeds for free and use them to conduct some experiments."

Sophia the witch took out two application forms from her office drawer, both of which were stamped with the seal of Lilith Hut Academy.

Locke was slightly surprised.

He had heard that the germplasm bank, as a germplasm preservation repository shared by all breeders in Lilith's Hut, required contribution points to redeem its exchange privileges.

The privilege to redeem level 3 seeds is already very expensive.

Not to mention the level 2 seed redemption privileges.

It seems that besides using contribution points to exchange for resources, the only way to gain access to free germplasm resources is by completing certain special academy tasks or obtaining special academy title rewards.

Therefore, the free redemption access to the germplasm bank at Lilith's Hut is definitely worth getting.

A typical wizard mentor has many students, and even if they provide some benefits to their students, it's impossible for a single student to receive too many of these exchange privileges.

However, since Sophia currently only has herself as her first-class wizarding apprentice, and she is about to leave, she is even more generous than before.

After thanking the witch Sophia, Locke took the two stamped application forms, mounted the Engel Spiral Snail, and headed to the location of the germplasm bank in the port city.

The germplasm bank at Lilith's Hut is located 500 meters underground.

Here, we hired a [Constructor] specializing in Earth Magic from the School of Shaping to construct an underground palace using earth elemental magic, which will preserve a large number of seeds from the breeders.

Inside the underground palace, there are also many alchemy huts.

Its entrance is guarded by specialized second-class wizard apprentices, or even first-class wizard apprentices.

After all, germplasm banks are very important.

Many standard models of magical plants still need to be preserved in germplasm banks.

Once a large number of magical fields at Lilith's Hut are destroyed and a large number of magical plants are wiped out, a germplasm bank may be needed to restore these destroyed magical plants.

Locke walked to the entrance, and after passing the inspection, he stepped onto a steel and wood mine ladder.

With a loud 'bang', the steel cable on the mine ladder began to rotate slowly, lowering the mine ladder platform down.

Accompanying Locke was a female Wood Elf second-class wizard apprentice. She had green hair, and beneath her bangs were a pair of bright, sparkling eyes.

At this moment, the wood elf apprentice named Ruby was looking at Locke with admiration, as well as at the excellent apprentice badge and the formal breeder badge that Locke wore on his chest.

For the wood elves who revere nature, becoming a breeder is simply their lifelong dream.

Ruby said to Locke with reverence, "Senior Augustine, welcome to our germplasm bank."

"The germplasm bank preserves the seeds of many magical plants. Some of these magical plants have even disappeared from the outside world due to environmental changes."

"The temperature and humidity inside the seed bank are maintained at certain levels. The most important factors for preserving the seeds of the Magic Plant are the temperature and humidity of the air."

"Different magical plant seeds require specific temperatures and humidity levels, so there is a large weather control device down here to maintain a constant temperature in this germplasm bank, as well as a special temperature in each room."

Ruby was clearly trying to show off her expertise to Locke, so she talked on and on. With a sense of admiration, Ruby said, "So later we'll ask you to go to the drying room to dry your clothes, to prevent the moisture you carry from affecting the humidity in the air."

"Sigh, I failed the Breeder Assistant exam again this year. The theory exam was just too difficult. I really want to become a breeder like you. I've failed the Breeder Assistant exam three times now, and I've done terribly on the theory exam every time."

At this point, the mine ladder had descended to a depth of about 400 meters underground. Looking up, all that could be seen above was the pitch-black mine ladder passage, with only a few magical mine lamps still lit.

Locke frowned slightly as he listened. He didn't want to say anything more or interfere in other people's lives, but after hearing that she had failed the exam three times, he finally couldn't help but say, "Your basic theoretical knowledge has too many flaws."

"It's perfectly normal that you failed the theoretical exam for the Breeder's Assistant. I need to correct you on two points. First, while constant temperature and humidity in the germplasm chamber are indeed very important, even more important is a constant magical tidal gradient."

"Secondly, the reason I went to the drying room was not just because of the moisture on my body; that was only one reason. The air humidity in the place where the magic plant seeds are stored must be within a certain range. If the humidity is too high, the seeds will germinate; if the humidity is too low, the water inside the seeds will continuously dehydrate, destroying the structural water inside the seeds and causing them to die."

"But the main reason I went to the drying room was to make my body temperature match the temperature inside the germplasm chamber, because a temperature change of more than 2 degrees Celsius will reduce the lifespan of the seeds by at least 50%."

"Therefore, everyone who enters the germplasm room needs to go through the drying room once, because it is to balance the temperature and moisture."

Ruby blushed. She hadn't expected that just by trying to show off her professionalism in front of the certified breeders, she would make so many mistakes in just a few words.

Locke's insightful guidance, in just a few words, swept away all the errors she had mentioned in her knowledge system, making her more clear and understanding of her work in the germplasm bank.

Ruby said gratefully to Locke, "Thank you, Augustine, the breeder. You're right, it seems that there are indeed too many loopholes in my theoretical system."

"The theoretical part of the breeder assistant exam is very difficult, and I will work harder in that area."

"Thank you for your guidance. Your words today have been very helpful to me."

At that moment, the mine elevator shaft emitted a loud 'bang' as it hit the ground, indicating that they were now 500 meters underground.

In this underground space, all the rocks seemed to be blessed by earth magic, making them extremely hard. Moreover, they must have been reinforced with a lot of special magical materials developed by alchemists.

It is likely that even a typical wizarding war would be unable to threaten this impregnable germplasm bank.

Locke stepped out of the mine shaft and saw that the underground space contained many rooms and tunnels, each sealed with magic alloy doors and magical locks from the Protective School.

Inside the passage, there were magical mining lamps for illumination.

Locke also looked down and saw that about a hundred meters below the perforated iron platform beneath his feet, there was a huge, super-large weather control device that had already been activated.

This weather controller is controlling the temperature and humidity within the germplasm bank, and even the concentration gradient of magical energy tides.

Therefore, storing agricultural products is extremely troublesome and costly.

Locke suddenly remembered that Zack had wanted him to maintain a hundred acres of magical fields of Crystal Palm Fire Lotus even without orders.

That's utter nonsense.

Locke stepped out of the mine shaft and saw that in some rooms without doors in this underground structure, some second-class wizard apprentices were sorting and processing seeds.

There were also some common seeds displayed on iron shelves in the public room.

The shelves were filled with boxes of translucent petri dishes, each containing a seed of varying sizes and colors, all of which were beautiful in appearance, like colorful gemstones.

Locke asked, "Where are the seed exchange areas for level 2 and level 3 permissions? Take me there."

"I need to redeem it."

(End of this chapter)