Blue-purple spores, large as basketballs, fired out like cannonballs and landed in an iron cage in the corner of the workbench. The large white rat inside was immediately parasitized by countless spell fungi.
It first let out a miserable scream, then suddenly stopped abruptly, and then, as if seeing something, began spinning continuously in place and running around without stopping.
Locke nodded. "The Level 7 Corrupt Soil Taro King combined with Mayfly Flower Cannon has excellent effects indeed, capable of interfering with enemies' cognition."
"The original Mayfly Flower Cannon spell merely modified Corrupt Soil Taro to make its spores attack enemies and damage their nerves."
"But now this effect is much better." With a gesture from Locke, the Mayfly Flower Cannon behind him automatically floated to his palm. Now this Corrupt Soil Taro King, like his Level 7 Mandrake Vines, had become an existence like his own appendage.
Locke placed it into his Astral Ring. This way, he wouldn't need to carry such a heavy magical plant when going out, and could also conceal his spells.
Locke said, "Mayfly Flower Cannon is completed, but this month my mana has barely increased."
Over this past month, Locke's mana had barely grown, only increasing by 2 points. After all, the advanced meditation method still hadn't arrived and seemed to still be going through procedures.
Locke had inquired before and it seemed the process on Lilith's Cottage's side had just been completed, and it was now going through the White Wizard Association's procedures.
Teacher Sophia was already doing her best to help him expedite things.
Locke drank a bottle of crimson Weeping Blood Nightshade potion. This was the tenth bottle he had consumed this month. Because his talent was only Level 3, his talent was now forcibly elevated to Level 4.
But only while taking Weeping Blood Nightshade.
However, this came at the cost of paying an additional nine hundred magic stones each month.
After taking the Weeping Blood Nightshade, Locke felt his whole body heat up, his warm body feeling particularly comfortable. That was the energy of Weeping Blood Nightshade transforming his body.
Locke complained, "Not only has the advanced meditation method not completed its procedures, even the medium-scale botanical garden application is still going through procedures."
"Fortunately, Teacher Sophia gave me ten acres of land in her botanical garden to plant Wiregrass Bull Sinew, otherwise I would have lost money just purchasing five more minotaurs."
"If I were a black wizard, I could probably plant however I wanted, and no one would care about how large my botanical garden was, whether there were experimental control issues, or whether it would cause huge disasters." Locke quickly dismissed this naive thought. "That's not right either. If I were a black wizard, if I set up a botanical garden, someone would probably come to steal and rob me the next day."
"Moreover, black wizard mentors basically only use their apprentices as slaves. If I were a black wizard, I would probably be a formal wizard's serf by now."
"Regulations have their benefits, and lack of regulations has its benefits too. Overall, as a breeder, staying in white wizard society would be better for my development."
Locke heard someone knocking outside the laboratory. His expression immediately turned slightly cold, because it wasn't Witch Sophia, nor was it the three wizard prospects he was teaching.
The visitor had unfamiliar mana.
And it wasn't just one person.
The knocker spoke in an aged voice, saying softly, "Is Breeder Locke Augustine in? I am Domenico Reeves from the Reeves family."
The person outside paused, speaking in an affected tone as if he were some important figure that Locke should have heard of.
Domenico Reeves said from outside, "I've brought my little granddaughter, the female wizard apprentice that Breeder Augustine has met before, to apologize to you and explain some misunderstandings between us."
"During this time, our family has had too many misunderstandings with you."
Domenico Reeves said coldly, "Chrisselle, you must quickly admit your mistake to Lord Augustine. Your previous unauthorized actions that slandered Lord Augustine were a grave error, and you need Lord Augustine's forgiveness."
Locke finally remembered who these two people outside were.
They were from the Reeves family, one of the seventy-two local wizard families of Lilith's Cottage.
Previously, Locke hadn't remembered them simply because they weren't important.
The seventy-two local wizard families had generally declined long ago. And probably suppressing them secretly was also an unspoken rule among Lilith's Cottage's upper echelons that couldn't be stated openly.
Otherwise, if you were all practicing inbreeding, how would Lilith's Cottage develop?
For Lilith's Cottage to advance further, it had to recruit talent broadly rather than remain closed and conservative.
Locke walked over and opened the laboratory door, his expression not very pleasant.
He saw an old wizard wearing wizard robes as ornate as noble attire, and beside the old wizard stood a slender witch in violet wizard robes, none other than Chrisselle.
Only unlike last time, this time Chrisselle's face was pale, as if she had received severe scolding from her elders. Upon seeing Locke, her eyes lit up slightly, and she lowered her head to Locke with fear and panic, saying, "Breeder Augustine, everything that happened before was entirely my fault."
"It was my short-sightedness that caused some misunderstandings to spread. Now I have clarified the facts publicly..."
"And let them know that it was all due to my superficiality that caused others to misunderstand you. I am truly very sorry."
Locke's expression showed impatience. "Oh."
He really wasn't interested in this kind of closing the barn door after the horse had bolted.
Chrisselle felt somewhat panicked. She thought of the warnings from her family elders about someone who had become a first-class wizard apprentice within two years, had also obtained a breeder assistant certificate, and was said to have continuously developed two new varieties of magical plants.
Such a person was absolutely someone their family couldn't afford to provoke.
Even if Locke becoming a formal wizard would likely be decades away, even in the near term of the next ten-plus years, as long as Locke became a breeder, his influence would be quite significant.
So, having offended him during the second-class wizard apprentice stage, it was best to resolve this matter while time was still early, before Locke had built up a breeder's network of influence.
Otherwise, resolving it later would require a much greater price, and very likely it would no longer be something that could be resolved just by paying a price.
Domenico smiled at Locke. "Breeder Augustine, I indeed was not very clear about what happened before. If I had known beforehand, I absolutely would not have allowed her to do such foolish things."
"As an apology, the Reeves family would like to present you with some gifts to resolve this misunderstanding." Get full chapters from NovelHub(.)net
Only then did Locke look up with interest at Domenico. "Mr. Reeves, then what are you prepared to offer to resolve your previous behavior of defaming me?"
Embarrassment appeared on Chrisselle's face.
She never would have thought that her momentary willful behavior back then would cause such great trouble.
Even her grandfather had rarely scolded her and immediately brought her over to apologize.
If she had known this would happen, back then...
Deep regret arose in Chrisselle's heart.