Chapter 124: Chapter 124

At Lilith's Cottage, in Halen Vera's office.

Halen Vera looked like a shrewd and capable middle-aged man from his appearance. He asked the three breeder students in his office, "Your competition results this time were acceptable, you all made it to the finals. But I'm somewhat dissatisfied with your rankings. Although it was the preliminaries, you still can't relax."

"Competition is about momentum. If you lack momentum from the start, it might affect your later performance."

"In the next three months, I will find time to arrange a seven-day intensive training session for you three, temporarily adding extra breeding experience and familiarity with competition rules, maximizing your ranking performance in the finals."

Halen Vera's eyes behind his flat glasses flashed with shrewd light. "I hope you won't disappoint me."

The three first-class wizard apprentices all gratefully bowed to Halen Vera.

"Thank you, teacher."

"With the teacher's help, our ranking in the finals should improve significantly."

Halen Vera tapped the desk with his finger and said, "The results of the breeder competition can still greatly influence how the academy's higher-ups evaluate you, and affect your later magical resource allocation."

Halen Vera said, "Of course I hope your results can be higher. Although the breeding field is not where I mainly invest my energy, I still hope your results can be the best in the entire academy."

Halen Vera instructed these three students, "I'll give you a goal: catch up to Mary on the ranking list. She is a wizard seed of our academy, but perhaps you can catch up to her ranking in the breeding field. Even if you just follow behind her, that would provide some additional help for your image in the minds of the academy's higher-ups."

The three first-class wizard apprentices all looked at Halen Vera with immense gratitude.

A single piece of guidance from Halen Vera could often save them from taking many detours.

Take this competition for example, if they could receive Halen Vera's special pre-competition training, they might be able to generally improve their ranking achievements by one level.

This would be very beneficial for their future development. The source of thɪs content is noᴠelfire.net

Of course, the price was that Halen Vera's requirements for them were extremely high.

Such high demands often drove some students who couldn't keep up with the pace and goals to madness. It was said that there was once a first-class wizard apprentice named Yuri Burns who, in order to keep up with Halen Vera's progress requirements, conducted very dangerous human experiments on herself, resulting in terrible consequences.

Halen Vera casually asked, "By the way, do any of you know who this wizard apprentice named Locke Augustine is?"

"Does anyone have good personal relations with him?"

The three first-class wizard apprentices looked at each other, but none of them spoke.

Halen Vera frowned with dissatisfaction, his words becoming slightly stern. "As breeders, do you not pay attention to your competitors at all?"

One first-class wizard apprentice hesitated, then still said, "Teacher, I think I've heard of him. He's a first-class wizard apprentice who was only promoted this year."

"I once saw him at the public botanical garden."

"Hughes Coffman even invited him to join his society. He should be a student of Witch Sophia."

"Teacher, do you want to meet him? Should I help notify him?"

Halen Vera's eyes showed amusement upon hearing Sophia's name. "Ah, Sophia. That child advanced so quickly, now she even has her own students."

"Sophia's relationship with her wizard mentor is quite poor, isn't it? If only she had entered under my tutelage back then. I don't really like her wizard mentor either."

Halen Vera waved his hand, "I was just asking casually. Preliminary results don't have much significance."

Halen Vera looked at the fifth place name on the ranking list. "However, if he's a newly promoted first-class wizard apprentice this year, that's indeed quite good."

"This should be his first time participating in the competition. Such good results on his first try. Let's see what his performance will be in the finals." Halen Vera glanced over the three students before him and said, "Alright, that's all for now. You may go rest."

"The day after tomorrow afternoon, we need to attend the exchange meeting at Virdantia University. Darryl, you go notify Danny to prepare a potionology lecture script for me."

On the third day after the preliminary results came out.

Locke was in his own botanical garden, directing over a hundred minotaur slaves to cultivate fields and irrigate with nutrient soil and nutrient solution.

He needed to complete the botanical garden's expansion as soon as possible and deliver the academy's bulk procurement orders. But at this moment, Locke also received a letter from the academy's higher-ups.

"Hmm? After dragging on for several months, the small to medium-scale botanical garden approval was actually granted at this time, and the personal pharmaceutical laboratory application came through as well."

Locke's expression was peculiar. "When did the academy become so decisive and straightforward? Well, this only benefits me."

"It should be because I passed the preliminaries."

"Since the personal pharmaceutical laboratory was approved, I can intensify the Memory Ointment experiments. It would be best to produce a report within three months, then find potion shops to establish cooperation." Locke thought, "I also need to decide early what to do for the fourth magical plant."

The fourth magical plant needed to be for the breeder association competition finals, and after completing the delivery of this batch of Crystal Palm Fire Lotus orders, he needed to find new magical plants that could generate quick profits.

Although he had temporarily solved the funding problem for the one-month novice benefit period, he certainly wanted to maximize his meditation method cultivation resources every month going forward.

Then he would need much more income.

There was still a pile of things at Chimera Trading Market that he needed but temporarily couldn't afford.

Previously, he had only bought a batch of magical resources that he urgently needed.

Inside the botanical garden.

Ten minotaur noble slaves were carrying the weather control device into the botanical garden, placing it in the center position of the magical fields.

Under Locke's direction, a massive machine was situated in the central position of the botanical garden. Magical radiance surrounded the weather control device, beginning to establish magical power connections with the botanical garden's sky and starting to influence the weather in this area.

Through controlling the weather control device, Locke gradually began maintaining the temperature of this enclosed space at forty degrees. After confirming there were no problems for now, he immediately went to the current site selection for his personal pharmaceutical laboratory to supervise the construction progress there.

Although the personal pharmaceutical laboratory wasn't finished yet, since it had already passed academy approval, this meant his personal pharmaceutical laboratory had entered the academy's records and was an established pharmacy, so he could directly proceed with human experimentation procedures.