Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 255 Champion, Champion!
Locke returned to his residence and sat on the sofa. The first thing he did was to open the rankings of the academy's custom magical plant competition. "Third place is the Gear Iron Thorn from the Green Seed Studio. This Gear Iron Thorn has increased the automatic response speed by 0.3 seconds, which greatly enhances its value in battle."

"Indeed, the Gear Iron Thorn is the most mature apprentice-level defensive magical plant in Lilith's Hut. In terms of non-defensive curse magic, even the Eye of Perseus Lichen cannot compare with the Gear Iron Thorn."

"But this kind of magical plant can only rank third."

"Unexpectedly."

Locke looked at the list of second-ranked individuals. "Second place goes to Gina Heck, a breeder from Vine Whisper Studio, who led a team of six first-class wizard apprentices to develop the [Cursed Serpent Willow]."

Locke paused for a moment, then remembered that Gina, this wizard, should be a student of the wizard Harun Vera.

This project also received cooperation from a large wizarding organization outside Lilith's Cottage. In other words, some of the original experimental data for this project was provided to Gina by that large wizarding organization, the Garden of Seasons.

The introduction to the award winners briefly describes the background of this off-campus collaborative project.

Harlan Vera, leveraging her influence, applied to the White Wizarding Association under the premise of the Wizarding War to allow Four Seasons Garden to provide some advantageous projects for joint research and discussion with the students of Lilith House, in order to demonstrate the White Wizarding Association's support for Lilith House.

Such a great opportunity was naturally offered to Harlan Vera's students.

Therefore, this time, the witch named Gina was able to stand out and actually surpass Qingmiao Studio, which had been the champion of similar competitions for many years, in the custom magic plant competition.

Locke read through the specific effects of the Cursed Serpent Willow and its general cultivation method: "The Cursed Serpent Willow can transfer the curse on itself to the Serpent Willow, and that part of the Serpent Willow will quickly wither. After it withers, the curse effect will disappear."

"Or rather, it forcibly transformed all the effects of the curses, causing part of the Cursed Serpent Willow to wither," Locke said. "Yes, this is one of the traditional strengths of the Four Seasons Garden."

"They are indeed skilled at cultivating defensive magical plants that can act as substitutes for the deceased."

"Was it cultivated using grafting and magic resonance cultivation methods with the Man-Beating Willow and Black Shield Thorn? No wonder it surpassed the Gear Iron Thorn and ranked second this time."

Locke saw that the judges on the competition committee thought that the actual combat effect of the Cursed Serpent Willow and the past performance of the original Magic Plant Black Shield Thorn were both good.

It is comparable to gears and iron thorns.

But the inverted curse snake willow won because of its innovation.

This is precisely what Qingmiao Studio and Gear Iron Thorns lack.

Locke smiled. Clearly, some of the judges on the competition committee were dissatisfied with Qingmiao Studio for repeatedly using the same magical plant to water the competition prize money. Therefore, they deliberately mocked Qingmiao Studio in their evaluation, hoping that Qingmiao Studio would change its practices as a result.

But I'm afraid this won't have any effect.

Locke looked at the number one spot on the leaderboard, his pupils shrinking slightly. "Number one, Perseus's Eye Lichen Shield."

"Developer - Individual, Locke Augustine Breeder."

Although Locke had already anticipated this, he was still slightly excited to see his creation beat all the breeders in the academy and win the championship.

After Locke regained his composure, he looked at the comments. These comments often revealed the judges' attitudes and the key reasons why he had won the championship.

Locke looked at the comments on his creation, which read: 'In fact, all of us judges find it hard to believe that this creation was made by an individual breeder, rather than from any of the traditional workshops at Lilith's Hut.'

'This defensive magical plant performed very well in practical testing. Its ability to defend against curse magic isn't just excellent, it's practically perfect; it even possesses some of the ability to defend against a first-level blood curse.'

"This defensive magical plant is perfect in both its innovation and functionality. While its original form wasn't a traditional defensive plant, its creator personally tested it in combat three months ago, using it to break through enemy lines in the heart of a dark wizard's territory and even manage to kill dozens of dark wizards – a remarkable achievement. Furthermore, subsequent investigations revealed that wizards who used the plant at the time gave it high praise, praising its astonishing effectiveness in actual combat."

'The combat team that previously endorsed this magical plant also proved its superior performance in actual combat during another small-scale conflict. Therefore, the committee determined that this is a defensive magical plant that completely overwhelms the Blood Curse Court's current apprentice-level curse magic system, demonstrating Lilith's Hut's absolute superiority in the field of breeding.'

This work even qualifies for a separate award and certification badge from the association after the cultivation method is published.

In conclusion, the committee has determined that this defensive magical plant is the champion of this competition and will award it a large-scale college procurement contract.

'In addition, a bonus of 500 contribution points and a top-level academy fund grant of 3,000 magic stones will be awarded.'

Locke raised an eyebrow. He had recently fallen into an economic crisis, but unexpectedly, winning a competition directly gave him three thousand magic stones and a large-scale procurement contract.

In this way, he would immediately get rid of the economic crisis and even become rich.

Locke put down the letter in his hand and opened another letter sent by the association.

"I won the championship in the competition here at the academy. I don't know what the ranking results are in the breeder competition. As long as I can rank in the top ten, that would be great."

Locke opened the second letter.

He opened the ranking list in the letter and started looking from 30th place, scanning his own name and the names of his works from bottom to top.

After searching around, Locke found the name of Emerald Iris Lichen, which was participating in the competition, at the top of the rankings.

I actually got first place!
This was somewhat beyond his expectations. Winning first place in the academy's competition was understandable, but winning first place in the breeder competition of the entire southeastern region was something Locke had never imagined.

After all, there are a lot of seasoned veterans in those kinds of competitions.

what happened?
It's incredible that the association's competition committee ranked their magical plant as number one.

Those breeders who remain at the first-class wizard apprentice stage have been participating in competitions for over a hundred years, accumulating a wealth of unorthodox experience through dozens of competitions.

Given my situation, it would be very difficult for me to get first place.

In fact, the consensus is that the most outstanding contestants in these competitions are often not the first-place winners, but rather the breeders who have only participated a few times but have achieved relatively high rankings.

Locke glanced quickly at the comments. "The reason this work was rated first place..."

(End of this chapter)