Chapter 94: Chapter 94

One month passed quickly.

In the public botanical garden, Locke handed over his duties to Hughes Coffman, a first-class wizard apprentice who had come to take over. Normally they wouldn't need to meet in person, but Hughes Coffman had arrived half a day early at the 500-acre public magical field area that Locke was responsible for.

Hughes took a few glances around the 500-acre public magical field, his eyes flashing with brilliance. He hadn't expected that a newly promoted first-class wizard apprentice would take such good care of the magical fields.

A second-class wizard apprentice in the public botanical garden looked toward Hughes Coffman with surprise, "Lord Coffman, why have you come? The handover time should be tomorrow..."

Hughes Coffman waved his hand, dismissing the assistant, then walked toward Locke with a smile. "Hello, I'm Hughes Coffman. My wizard mentor is Harlen Vera."

"I specialize in transformation magic and plant magic, and I'm a formal breeder." Hughes Coffman was an elegant middle-aged man who appeared to be in his thirties. He looked very shrewd, with smiling eyes, yet not entirely unapproachable.

He appeared to be a rather traditional white wizard, wearing a light white wizard robe with blue stripes as decoration on the shoulders, and a white wizard hat. His mana seemed unfathomably deep to Locke at present, making it impossible to determine his actual level.

Unlike the third-class wizard apprentice stage and the second-class wizard apprentice stage, the gap between wizards at the first-class wizard apprentice stage was extremely vast.

Wizards who had just become first-class wizard apprentices had at most just over 200 mana, but those who had been first-class wizard apprentices for more than ten years might have 500 to 600 mana.

This was also why Locke had been relatively undisturbed in the public botanical garden.

His foundation was insufficient. In others' eyes, he lacked several years of accumulation and experience, and hadn't yet reached a level where he could truly engage in transactions.

After all, cases like Witch Sophia's rapid advancement as a wood element [Child of Elements] were extremely rare situations.

It could only be said that Children of Elements were naturally heaven's favored ones.

Locke couldn't gauge Hughes Coffman's depth, so he simply nodded slightly and briefly introduced his own situation.

Hughes Coffman's eyes lit up slightly. "Augustine, you've taken very good care of these magical fields. How about we become partners in the future?"

Locke was puzzled. "Partners?"

He immediately understood, "You mean we work together to jointly maintain this 500-acre public magical field, and try to choose the same magical field in the future to fulfill our academy obligations?"

Hughes Coffman smiled, "Worthy of someone who became a first-class wizard apprentice within two years. You're indeed clever."

"There are indeed some deeper currents within this public magical field."

"As you've seen, first-class wizard apprentices can't spend long periods doing free volunteer work for the academy. They have their own matters to attend to. So helping the academy care for public magical fields basically only takes up a few months of the year, which means the same section of magical fields is often tended by several first-class wizard apprentices."

"Some first-class wizard apprentices care for public magical fields as free volunteer work, while others are hired by the academy with magic stones specifically to tend the magical fields. Of course, there are also those minority cases where they owe money to the academy and can only repay through labor."

Hughes Coffman continued, "This creates some problems."

"For instance, the first-class wizard apprentice who was responsible for this section of magical fields before you didn't take the work seriously, allowing the soil to undergo mana degradation, barely keeping these magical plants alive."

"But the magical plants' survival state was poor, and they could easily all die in the next month."

"When someone is only responsible for short-term matters, they easily ignore the long-term benefits of something."

"But this increases the difficulty of our work for the next month." Hughes Coffman smiled, "So we generally form teams as partners, inviting reliable first-class wizard apprentices to care for specific magical fields together."

"The area you're currently caring for is a magical field that our group regularly tends."

Hughes Coffman praised, "Augustine, you've cared for it extremely well."

"It seems you're very dedicated. I was actually a bit worried before."

"How about we partner up together? My group has two other first-class wizard apprentices, and they're all formal breeders too."

Locke nodded. No wonder this senior first-class wizard apprentice had come to find him, it was because of this matter.

This way, he would indeed form beneficial connections with them. Read full story at Nove1Fire.net

Wizards were all very practical. As long as such beneficial connections were formed, they would definitely try to make contact.

Locke thought for a moment, "I can join temporarily."

"But I need to consider it."

Hughes Coffman immediately understood Locke's concerns and smiled, "No problem. Everyone in our club are mature breeders and won't increase your workload."

Hughes looked at Locke with surprise. Generally, newly promoted first-class wizard apprentices rarely expressed distrust toward senior first-class wizard apprentices.

It seemed this newcomer should have some unique exceptional qualities.

Hughes Coffman said, "Augustine, you haven't joined any clubs yet, have you? The first-class wizard apprentices within Lilith's Cottage academy form various clubs among themselves, joining each other's groups to exchange intelligence, or like our situation, working together for some common benefit to form a new club."

"Senior first-class wizard apprentices generally join more than ten clubs."

"Clubs are places for first-class wizard apprentices at Lilith's Cottage to communicate and interact, and are the main way first-class wizard apprentices maintain interpersonal relationships."

Hughes Coffman smiled, "Once everyone becomes familiar with you, you'll quickly join more clubs. Now, my club, the Coffman Public Magical Field Breeding Club, invites you."

Hughes handed Locke a letter. "Above is our club's address, though there's really nothing much to go there for. We generally don't go there."

"First-class wizard apprentices are all very busy."

"However, we leave our execution times for obligatory labor this year in that club room, and you can leave yours there too."

"This way we can better arrange which month of the year each of us will fulfill our public botanical garden obligations for the academy."

Hughes Coffman raised his index finger, "The reason I formed this club is because when I first became a first-class wizard apprentice, I encountered a very despicable situation..."

"He poured... Grass Spirit Gel into the magical fields."

Locke had studied magical pharmacology for over two years now and immediately said, "Grass Spirit? That stuff should have been banned long ago. Although it can eliminate weeds and diseases in magical fields and strengthen the vitality of magical plants, it pollutes the soil and causes [Wood Element Compaction], creating semi-permanent pollution of the magical fields..."

Locke was different from ordinary breeders in that he also had some understanding of magical pharmacology. Grass Spirit Gel was one of magical pharmacology's achievements, but this substance with enormous side effects was still being used by some breeders today.

Hughes Coffman looked at Locke with surprise. "You understand this field well, so I don't need to explain it. That's right, the first-class wizard apprentice before me actually poured Grass Spirit directly into the magical fields just to save himself trouble. The magical fields deteriorated, and it happened during the month I was responsible, causing magical plants to die in masses..."

Hughes Coffman's expression didn't look good, as if he was remembering something unpleasant. "As a result, I became the scapegoat because his wizard mentor was more powerful, and his strength was greater than mine."

"Just compensating for the losses severely injured my resources. Fortunately, the academy didn't make me pay full compensation at the time, and I also managed to save two-thirds of the magical plants."

"This is why I established the club. I don't want this kind of thing to happen again. Joining my club benefits both you and me."

"Augustine, you are a trustworthy breeder... assistant."

Locke pursed his lips. Breeder is breeder, why specifically add "assistant."

Locke had no intention of arguing with Hughes Coffman about this title. These first-class wizard apprentices had stayed at this stage for far too long, so they had become petty and meticulous, wanting to distinguish every little hierarchical thing clearly and explicitly.

If it were Witch Sophia, she probably wouldn't care at all whether this person was a breeder assistant or a breeder, and would uniformly address others as breeders.

After all, she felt that ultimately, all of this was just a transition toward becoming a senior breeder.