Chapter 53: Chapter 53

At the edge of the port city, a herd of black-skinned rhinoceroses was charging wildly in the wilderness beyond, with more than twenty second-class wizard apprentices from the patrol team in front of them.

Captain Bruno called to Locke, "Locke!"

In the next moment, seven Berserk Rhinos crashed into the hidden Mandrake Vines. At this instant, Locke's Mandrake Vines transformed into vine hands, simultaneously trapping this herd of Berserk Rhinos in magical vines.

Moreover, the pale purple poison berries on the branches of Locke's Mandrake Vines swelled one by one, then exploded, splashing their juices.

The Berserk Rhinos contaminated by the poison berries' special toxins let out wails of pain. Purple web-like scars appeared on their body surfaces, which was Locke's [Poison Berry Shot] toxin launching devastating attacks on all their organs.

The synthesized and enhanced toxin of [Poison Berry Shot], combined with Level 6 Mandrake Vines, actually managed to hold back the Berserk Rhino herd for a moment.

Captain Bruno exclaimed with delight, "Well done, Locke." ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net

"Prepare coordinated spells!"

Many second-class wizard apprentices from the patrol team looked at Locke with surprise and admiration.

In the next moment, the ground beneath the Berserk Rhino herd turned into a muddy swamp, created by the cantrip [Soil to Swamp]. This could further prevent this herd of Berserk Rhinos from escaping, rendering their strength useless and making it impossible for them to break free.

Then, the patrol team's wizard apprentices each cast offensive spell models, dealing massive damage to this herd of Berserk Rhinos.

In the end, three Berserk Rhinos died at the hands of the patrol team, while four other Berserk Rhinos activated their berserk spell abilities and, relying on their magic-resistant tough skin, forcibly withstood the spells and fled in panic toward the direction away from the city.

Before escaping, the oldest among the Berserk Rhinos, the grandmother-level Berserk Rhino who was the matriarchal leader of the herd, even looked back at the patrol team's wizard apprentices.

Captain Bruno led everyone in dissecting the corpses of the three Berserk Rhinos. "The greatest contributors this time were me, Locke, and Haylia's evocation school 0.5-circle cantrip [Soil to Swamp]."

"So the three of us get priority in resource allocation, and the rest will be divided equally among everyone else."

"Is that acceptable?"

None of the wizard apprentices present objected. This was fair.

Locke also felt this way. After all, if he were alone, although he could use the combination spells of the Vine Hand series to hold back the herd for a moment, he lacked subsequent offensive spell methods and couldn't even kill a single Berserk Rhino.

He could only let them escape.

The special enhanced toxin of Poison Berry Shot couldn't cause fatal effects to mid-tier magical creatures.

The tough magic-resistant skin of Berserk Rhinos could even reduce magical effects. Their enhanced magical organs were excellent raw materials for crafting magical items.

Captain Bruno said, "The most important parts of Berserk Rhinos are the heart, blood, and hide. The three of us will each first get a share of hide that can make a set of magical armor, then three portions of Berserk Rhino blood each, and one Berserk Rhino heart each."

"The other patrol team members will each get one portion of Berserk Rhino blood and can respectively get other parts like tails, hooves, etc."

Locke and the others nodded. This distribution was very reasonable.

It also matched everyone's contributions just now.

The ability to successfully kill three Berserk Rhinos beyond expectations was primarily due to Locke's invisible Mandrake Vines.

They even caused the herd to fall into the trap completely unprepared, followed by Haylia and Captain Bruno's spells.

Of course, this was a team victory.

Twenty minutes later, the spoils were distributed. A second-class wizard apprentice sighed quietly, "If only every day could be this easy with such good rewards."

"Yesterday, we lost another person."

Locke glanced at that second-class wizard apprentice. He had heard that yesterday a second-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court disguised as a commoner had appeared in the city. That black wizard apprentice had been lurking in the port city for a long time.

He had even created great chaos in the city by using [Vampire's First Embrace] on commoners, spreading vampire curses.

Yesterday's riot even drew a formal wizard from Lilith's Cottage's upper echelons.

That formal wizard intervened, using collective antidote potions on that area, creating medicinal rain clouds that strangled the vampire plague before it could outbreak.

This showed that patrol team missions were becoming increasingly dangerous recently.

Recently, more and more wizard apprentices from local wizard families were finding ways through connections to leave the patrol team.

Of course, Lilith's Cottage was also tightening the threshold for patrol team wizard apprentices to leave.

In the future, it would become increasingly difficult for them to break away from the patrol team.

After completing the mission, Locke greeted several wizard apprentices with whom he had good relationships in the patrol team, then left to return to Diagon Alley for meditation and studying breeding courses.

Three months later, this was Locke's third month taking Witch Sophia's breeding course.

Locke had basically mastered grafting cultivation and had cultivated more than ten pots of Mandrake Vines and Tiflo Root Vines in his Diagon Alley residence.

Of course, those were just a cover.

Locke's speed in learning breeding courses wasn't fast nor slow, belonging to the upper-middle level.

He only had Level 3 wizard aptitude, but due to the Deep Blue Jades, Indigo Jades, and Rose Red Jades, his mana fluctuations were particularly low and his mana precision was very high.

So his learning speed wasn't slow either.

In Sophia's office, Locke brought the Super Mandrake Vine he had synthesized to Witch Sophia's office, and he had already thought of an excuse.

He would say this was a special Mandrake Vine he had cultivated using grafting methods with some good varieties of Tiflo Root Vines and Mandrake Vines.

He believed Witch Sophia wouldn't scrutinize such low-level magical plants too carefully.

And once he got her certification, no one would suspect that he wasn't a talented breeder assistant.

In the future, the super magical plants he synthesized would be attributed to him being an excellent breeder assistant.

Witch Sophia looked down at the Super Mandrake Vine, her expression changed slightly, seeming quite surprised, and she put away her casual expression. "Locke, the quality of your coursework today... is very good."

"Did you cultivate this using grafting methods?"

Witch Sophia looked seriously into Locke's eyes.

Locke nodded. "Yes, teacher."

Witch Sophia's face showed some emotion. "You have more talent in breeding than I thought."

"It could even be called outstanding."

"You will become an excellent breeder."

"It seems I underestimated you before."

Witch Sophia thought of something and showed an amused expression. "It seems certain people really must feel regret."

"By the way, Locke, I'm in charge of this year's breeder assistant certificate examination at Lilith's Cottage, but I believe you no longer need to waste time taking any examination."

"I can issue you the certificate right now."

"With this work of yours, you deserve the certificate."

Witch Sophia handed a certificate to Locke. "This could be considered a small privilege of a First Circle wizard."