Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 64 Nine months, mental strength 195
Nine months later, in a small cabin next to the Sofia Witch's cabin complex, which is Locke's small botanical garden.

With Lilith's permission, Locke established a small botanical garden in a cabin similar to the one in which the Witch Sophia had her garden.

The land is five mu in total, plus the public area, making it about six mu in size.

These wooden huts in the academy are essentially alchemical products. Building a plantation here can effectively prevent experiments from going out of control. If a problem occurs, all the staff can do is run out and close the door, and everything will be fine.

Inside the plantation.

Locke watched as six minotaurs watered sixty pots of Super Mandragora Vines. The five acres of basic magic field were filled with earth and water elemental particles, and each Super Mandragora Vin was lush and verdant.

The botanical garden has been completed and now earns Locke a steady income of over a thousand magic stones every month.

Locke was able to use the mixture of dragon blood leaf powder and almond wood chips to meditate all day long, maintaining a high-efficiency mental enhancement speed, thanks to these magic stones.

There were also patches of weeds among the five acres of land.

A minotaur is using professional weeding tools to pull out all the weeds.

Because of the nutrient soil, nutrient solution, and growth-promoting gel, these weeds always thrive and need to be cleaned up regularly, about once a month.

The mystery of life lies in this: in order to survive, these weeds will actually entangle their roots with those of the super mandrake vine, seeking every nutrient-rich area of ​​soil to struggle to survive.

Locke commanded a minotaur to bring the weed to him and examine its roots closely. "It's just a wild magical plant, goosegrass, nothing more than a weed."

"However, because I did not clean up the weeds and seeds hidden in the soil in the early stages, it became a considerable amount of work in my plantation. Every month, a batch of goosegrass would grow out of my plantation."

However, this couldn't really be considered a mistake, since it was his first time establishing a botanical garden. Besides, unless he completely burned the soil, he wouldn't be able to eliminate the weed seeds hidden within.

Goosegrass was once the result of an experiment by a breeder in the southeastern region that went out of control. Such examples can be found in the wild.

But goosegrass is definitely a troublesome plant.

This wild, degenerated, semi-magical plant is not much different from ordinary plants, except for its astonishing reproductive capacity, which is commendable. It is one of the challenges that novice breeders in the southeastern corner of the region will encounter.

Locke thought to himself, "I'll have to go to the potion shop another day and buy some simple potions specifically for getting rid of these weeds."

Locke carefully observed the roots and stems of the goosegrass and discovered that the roots of the goosegrass underwent many changes in order to compete for nutrients, and that each month, a new batch of goosegrass would show some new changes.

During those eight months, in his battle of wits and courage against these weeds, Locke gained a deeper understanding of botany.

He happened to learn some new spell models within eight months.

First is the last spell in the Vine Hands series, Thorn Whip, which is the spell that Captain Bruno used against the wizard apprentices of the Blood Curse Court.

Secondly, there's the first trick model of Vine Frenzy, 0.5 ring multi-manipulation, a spell that allows Locke to simultaneously manipulate three level 6 invisible mandrakes.

This greatly increased Locke's combat power.

The remaining spell was a 0.5-ring botanical magic trick called "Wild Grass Entanglement," which Locke had purchased himself at the Chimera Market.

He bought this for seventy magic stones. He bought it when he was troubled by the goosegrass weeds, so he bought it on a whim to study it.

Locke stretched out his palm, whispered a spell, and sprinkled some nutrient solution into the air.

The minotaur kneeling before him saw the tendrils in his hands grow rapidly, and the seeds hidden within quickly took root and sprouted. In a short while, the numerous tendrils completely bound the minotaur slave.

Under Locke's command, the minotaur attempted to break free from the weeds using its knight-level physique.

But these weeds grow too fast; even if he breaks a few, more will soon grow back.

The minotaur seemed to be having some difficulty breathing, emitting heavy breaths. Locke snapped his fingers, and the tendrils and weeds entangled on the minotaur slave withered instantly.

Locke, seeing this, seemed to be deep in thought. "The accompanying spell for the Wild Grass Entanglement spell can originally use any wild grass in the natural environment, which can be magically enhanced into more flexible wild grass to entangle the enemy's legs and feet, but usually only a few blades are used, and the binding effect is very weak."

"In battle, it is generally only used for auxiliary purposes, because its advantage is that it can be launched almost instantly, so quite a few wizard apprentices still learn it."

“But what if I use goosegrass to cast this spell? The spell’s properties will change. Goosegrass is fragile, but it reproduces incredibly fast. With just a little nutrition, it can grow wildly. It can completely trap or even kill the opponent by sheer numbers.” “This will give the spell a qualitative change.”

Locke pondered, "Of course, this is not good enough for now; the effect is still rather mediocre."

"It would take years of research to succeed, but... I have a synthesis cube. I was just using ordinary goosegrass to perform the trick. If I synthesize the goosegrass to level 6 and enhance it, then it will be different."

Locke placed three goosegrass weeds into the Cube, and at the same time ordered the minotaurs to harvest the goosegrass weeds in their plantation with the roots intact.

Perhaps, these goosegrass weeds will no longer be weeds in the future, and can be sold as magical plants in Lijin Secret Language!
Locke said, "It's been nine months. It's normal for me to release another synthetic plant. This will help me maintain my image as a genius in the field of breeding."

"Moreover, the idea of ​​using a special magical plant—Super Eleusine—to entwine with wild grass seems quite reasonable."

Locke began to think. In fact, this time, synthesizing the Rubik's Cube had only accelerated the time it took him to achieve his goal.

I never imagined that I could discover a way to improve a commonly used magic trick model while fighting off the weeds in the plantation.

Essentially, given five or six years, I am confident that I can complete this idea single-handedly.

But if I really spend so much time on this, I won't be able to do anything else.

Therefore, we still need to use a synthetic cube to speed up the process.

During this period, Locke's mental strength had increased to 195, which was very close to the standard of a first-class wizard apprentice.

This is thanks to the large amount of magic stones provided by my plantation. I spend about 350 magic stones every month to lavishly buy almond wood chips and dragon blood leaf powder. I also spend an extra 200 magic stones every month to buy potions that increase meditation efficiency and mental strength improvement speed, such as the [White Leaf Tree Potion], etc.

With the support of these resources, Locke's learning speed is almost comparable to that of a wizard prodigy with level 7 aptitude.

Within those eight months, Locke had even saved up 3,600 magic stones. It's safe to say that this plantation cultivating Super Mandrake Vines was indeed profitable for a second-tier wizard apprentice.

Locke opened the Crimson Echo Potion that the witch Sophia had prepared for him and drank the red, misty liquid in one gulp.

My current mental strength is already very close to that of a first-class wizard apprentice, making it the perfect time to drink this bottle of scarlet potion.

The moment he drank it, Locke found that his vision turned crimson, as if he were wearing tinted sunglasses.

Locke licked his lips. His sense of taste and smell would gradually change, and he would experience the side effects of vampire syndrome within a month. Meanwhile, he would digest the potion over the next few days.

Although it is much more difficult to increase from 195 to 200 than to increase mental strength by 30 points at the 100 level.

But with the powerful effects of the Crimson Echo, he was almost certain to take that final step and become a first-class wizard apprentice in the near future.

Using the Deep Purple Jade can completely eliminate the side effects of the Scarlet Echo Potion, which pollute one's mental energy.

There's no need to worry; doing so will only make it more difficult for you to advance from a first-class wizard apprentice to a full wizard.

Locke gave a few instructions to his minotaur slaves and decided to go for a walk. "The academy has given me a second-class wizard apprentice position as a magical plant investigator. It's a very easy job, but I do have a mission coming up soon."

"I am to travel within seven days to a mortal city located in the territory behind Lilith Academy."

"It is said that a plague has appeared in that city. The academy strongly suspects that it is caused by a magical plant in nature and wants us, the breeding assistants, to go and investigate."

"During the medication period, I was basically unable to meditate, nor could I serve as Professor Sophia's potion-making and breeding assistant, because my mental energy fluctuated violently and I was unable to do anything too delicate."

"I'll ask the teacher for leave and go out for a walk," Locke said. "It'll be good to use this time to digest the Crimson Echo Potion."

Locke thought for a moment and began preparing for his first 'long trip' in this wizarding world.

Meanwhile, besides preparing to inform the witch Sophia, he will keep a low profile and try not to tell others about his whereabouts.

This was also what the witch Sophia asked of him.

The Blood Curse Tribunal's infiltration of Lilith's Hut has never ceased; maintaining a low profile is also a way to better protect itself.

(End of this chapter)