Chapter 410

Chapter 408 Recruiting Manpower

Chapter 408: Recruiting Manpower

“So, the Yunze Cup is a serious competition prepared for a special war. It has its own assessment standards.”

Locke read the information and thought, “The Yunze Cup competition process is that first, within each major wizarding land, a team of breeders qualified to represent that wizarding land will be selected to participate. Therefore, the competition must first be held within the major wizarding academies. The winning team will then participate in the competition in that wizarding land.”

“To determine the team that can represent that wizarding land.”

“After two rounds of preliminaries, the real cross-wizarding competition begins, the Yunze Cup main competition.”

“Because it’s an inter-wizarding competition, there are four rounds in total. Two are preliminaries, and two are the actual inter-wizarding competition.”

“After entering the main competition, in the first round, the team will submit their concept drawings and materials to the committee responsible for the competition. The committee will then judge them. The top ten breeder teams will receive financial subsidies from the committee to cultivate their designed magical plant weapons and advance to the final round.”

“The final round will see ten teams of breeders participating in the defense. Each of the ten teams will hand over the magical plants they’ve cultivated to wizards from the subordinate races of the Yunze Wetland’s subordinate planes. They’ll use them in actual combat against the Mekanians.”

“Academic defense is the real battlefield. What a grand occasion!”

“The battle record of the demon plant can explain everything.”

Locke couldn’t help but sigh that the grand scale of this cross-wizarding-land competition was incomparable to the internal competitions of the wizarding land that he had participated in before.

Locke pondered, “But speaking of which, it seems I can skip the first two qualifying rounds. I’m the breeder chosen by the Six Towers to represent their Wizarding Land, but I still need to form my own team.”

“If I hadn’t participated in this competition, the Six Towers would probably have refused to participate in the Yunze Cup this year.”

Locke looked at the competition rewards and thought, “This competition means a lot to me. The top ten breeders, the finalists, will receive special Yunhu magic plants from the Yunhu Wetland—the first-ring magic plants Yunhu Lotus, Waterside Acorus, and Gallery Willow.”

“One of them. These are commemorative prizes. As long as you can make it to the finals, you will get one. It won’t hurt everyone’s reputation.”

“The top five will receive Magic Plant orders as rewards, as well as Yunze Cup certificates of honor.”

“Besides that, the top three…” Locke’s eyes shifted slightly; this was the key point. “Third and second place will receive a contract with the Institute of True Knowledge, and first place will receive an admission contract to the Advanced Institute of True Knowledge.”

“Also, the Yunze Wetland White Wizard Association, in order to thank the breeders from various major wizarding lands for their active participation, will proactively negotiate with the Advanced Institute of True Knowledge on behalf of the first-place winner of the competition, granting them the qualifications to negotiate the specific details of the contract with that Advanced Institute of True Knowledge.”

“We can negotiate many, relatively loose treaties. It’s like having the right to negotiate independently.”

Locke pondered, “This competition is indeed useful to me.”

“Although I would prefer to enter the Starry Sea directly, no one can guarantee that I will be able to receive a teaching position invitation from a wizard academy in the Starry Sea in a short period of time. Therefore, participating in this competition is like having another option.”

“The Academy of True Knowledge can raise the level of the wizarding academy you can enter to a higher level out of thin air.”

“The top three in this competition don’t specify which House of Phenomenon the top three will go to… I guess there are a lot of Houses of Phenomenon observing the results of this competition, so the committee only guarantees that the second and third place winners will definitely go to the regular House of Phenomenon, and the first place winner will definitely go to a high-level House of Phenomenon. But which one they will go to hasn’t been determined yet. This is consistent with the fact that the House of Phenomenon is semi-independent from the wizarding academy and has certain rights.”

Locke pondered, “But as long as I can get a place in this competition, even if I’m not in the top three, it will be of great benefit to me in the future.”

“My problem now is… I need to assemble a reliable team, but the problem is that this is very difficult in the Land of Six Towers.”

Locke realized a problem – the participating teams from other wizarding lands had all fought two rounds in their own wizarding land with the organizations from the major wizarding academies, and then the remaining strong ones.

And what about me?

Those scumbag family wizards from the Six Towers?

“…” Locke closed the book, somewhat speechless. “If I let those family wizards form a team with me to participate in the Yunze Cup Battle Magic Plant Competition, I would probably become a laughing stock, right? Other teams are full of smart and capable talented students, or capable wizard mentors, but mine is just a bunch of… people with connections. The difficulty level will be like hell.”

Locke had a strange expression. “No matter how strong my personal abilities are, preparing for a large-scale war like this requires a tremendous amount of work. I can’t do it alone.”

“I need a lot of help.”

“There are two main points to consider. First, the final battlefield will be in Yunhu, also known as Yunyuan. Therefore, the magic plants I designed need to take the Yunhu environment into consideration.”

“Secondly, this magic plant is for the wizards of the subordinate planes of the Yunze Wetlands. I also need to consider what kind of magic these wizards of the subordinate planes are proficient in, their fighting styles and strategies, whether they have any racial talents, etc…. All of these must be taken into consideration when designing the magic plant for them.”

Locke flipped through the documents, frowning slightly. He then called the library director and instructed him, “Go get me all the historical data on the magical plants in Yunhu Lake, as well as the ecological data of Yunhu Lake and the historical data on the main subsidiary planes of Yunze Wetland.”

The librarian seemed to have a bit of a brain problem. He couldn’t remember anything Locke had said.

Under Locke’s frown, he barely managed to write down Locke’s request, then quickly turned around and looked for the first-class wizard apprentice who had just found the Yunze Cup information, and ordered him to quickly find the information for Locke.

The first-class wizard apprentice said to the director with some fear, “Director, this isn’t the Yunze Wetland. How could we possibly have so much detailed information?”

“Perhaps, there might be something in the library of the White Wizard Association branch in the Six Towers. That library is also in the White Dragon Tower…”

The library director almost shouted at him at the top of his voice, “Even if you can’t find it, you have to find it for me. I don’t want to hear any excuses, unless you don’t want to work here anymore, you know!”

The first-class wizard apprentice said guiltily, “But Director, why do you only ask me to go find it? Others… others can also do it.”

The librarian sneered and said, “Who gave you the ability?”

…

Locke simply ignored this scene and became more certain in his heart that he must not bring his family wizards with him to participate in the Yunze Cup this time.

There was some commotion in the library as Alicia walked in.

Alicia sat down in front of Locke. She was wearing a simple white wizard robe and said to Locke, “Locke, I have persuaded the elders of the family and asked the Six Towers to sign up for this Yunze Cup.”

For a competition like the Yunze Cup, it is extremely difficult to obtain the registration qualification.

It is impossible for individuals or ordinary wizard academies to register. Only the White Wizard Association in the Eastern Territory is eligible to register.

However, this is the easiest competition for me to participate in at the moment.

Because other competitions of the same type and scale basically require either registration through the local wizard association or a special title, such as being a student of a second-ring wizard, or even a third-ring wizard, and registering with their recommendation letters.

Or only wizards who have won certain awards and published many advanced articles can sign up.

Now that the Plutarch family is willing to fully support me in participating in a competition of this scale, I am already very lucky.

Alicia looked at Locke strangely. “What’s wrong? Locke, you don’t look very happy.”

Locke shook his head. “It’s not that I’m unhappy, I’m just thinking about what to do with the participating teams.”

Alicia was puzzled. “Recruit wizards from all over the Six Towers. We have a wealth of talented wizards from prestigious families here. With my help, your team can be assembled within a week, and its members will include members from all the major families in the Six Towers.”

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

Locke: “…”

No, that’s what I’m worried about.

If this is done, my project team will be filled with second-generation rich people who I cannot command at all. If things go wrong, I may have to act as a collective nanny for them and help them brush up their resumes.

This is different from Locke’s original intention.

Locke hesitated for a moment and said, “Alicia, I mean, can we broaden our thinking and use… those civilian wizards?”

“For this competition, I want to use those civilian wizards.”

Alicia in front of him showed a puzzled look. “Why? Dear Locke, aren’t those family wizards more capable?”

Alicia suddenly remembered what happened on the airship, and a look of hesitation crossed her face. “Perhaps, that’s not the case.”

“Then it’s up to you. I’ve already persuaded the clan elders to invest one million magic stones in the project team you’re participating in.”

“This money will first be sent to the finance office, and then your participating teams will report it and exchange it for resources.”

Locke nodded slightly. Separation of finance and accounts is a basic management concept.

This is definitely necessary. Although it will cause some trouble for me, it can reduce corruption among the participating teams on my side.

This is also beneficial to myself.

Locke said to Alicia, “Then I’ll take the unlucky, sweaty, first-class wizard apprentice from a commoner background over in the library. I think he’s pretty capable.”

“Forget about the others.”

Alicia agreed without hesitation.

After all, for her, he was just a small library worker and there was no need to pay special attention to him.

“Of course, it’s up to you.”

“Locke, what else do you want?”

Locke thought for a moment and said, “I will hold an open interview for all six towers and select the person I need from them.”

Alicia nodded. “Okay, that’s not a difficult task. As your financial backer, I can easily do this. By the way, Locke, tell me about yourself. Don’t you have the Primordial Fire in your hand?” Alicia said in a voice that the two of them could barely hear.

“I also want to see how the Primordial Fire is used.”

“I have a great place where you can get rare magic materials and buy precious magic formulas. It’s called the [Quetzalcoatl Ancient Pavilion].”

“Quetzalcoatl Ancient Pavilion is a place dedicated to hosting us potion masters. It has branches in many wizarding lands and also provides potion room services. We can prepare potions in the potion rooms there without having to worry about being disturbed. We can also purchase many related potion making equipment there, which is very convenient.”

“Come on, I’ll take you there. Let’s go experience the power of the primordial fire.”

Locke thought about it and did not refuse. First of all, Alicia was currently his major financial backer, and the resources allocated to him were incredible, which even a wizard from the Plutarch family could not compare to.

Secondly, he did plan to purchase the precious formula and use the primordial fire.

Locke casually instructed the director to put the documents on his desk back to their original place and keep them well, as he might need them later, and then left with Alicia.

The librarian was so frightened when he saw Locke and Alicia being so i*imate that he dared not breathe. He kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at their backs as they left, not knowing what he was thinking.

(End of this chapter)