Chapter 80

Chapter 80 Advanced Meditation

Locke chose to place his standard first-class wizard apprentice three-piece set next to the wooden house where Sophia was, together with his own plantation.

This will be much safer.

After being attacked by a group of wizard apprentices from the Blood Curse Court last time, Locke felt that Upside Down Alley was not so safe anymore, as there were many people and wizard apprentices there.

Might as well live with Sophia the Witch.

Although there are few people here, only the two of them, it would be safer to live around official wizards.

In the small laboratory within the standard three-piece set, there is a tool bench in this room. On the bench are some distillation equipment, dissection and extraction equipment, as well as a complete set of the most basic tools for refining potions and extracting magic plant seeds, probably considering his own identity.

Or perhaps, this is the standard equipment for first-class wizard apprentices in Lilith’s Hut.

There are still a lot of blank areas in the laboratory with only simple decorations. It seems that you have to add and purchase the equipment you need yourself.

Locke carefully placed a bunch of shadow leeches into a glass tube, and then used a dropper to drip the extract of the anesthetic Veratrum plant into it.

The pile of shadow leeches that were still struggling and trying to crawl out of the glass tube began to twitch their muscles one by one, and their bodies stopped wriggling uncontrollably.

Shadow Leeches are extremely dangerous magical worms.

Locke thought of the precautions. The eggs of this kind of insect would enter his body through skin contact and reproduce in his body. After reaching adulthood, they would drill out of the skin and enter the host’s shadow, parasitizing within the range of the host’s shadow and carrying out activities.

Therefore, the blood essence of this worm is often used to resolve the curse of the shadow.

After the shadow leeches in the glass tubes stopped moving, Locke pierced their bodies with a steel needle, and then used capillaries to insert them into their wounds one by one, leading their blood into a glass bottle.

This is extracting the blood of the shadow leech.

Then, Locke injected the blood separation potion he had designed long ago into it, and used the magic centrifugal extraction method to begin separating the specific blood essence.

Ten minutes later, Locke looked at the pure blood essence of the shadow leech in the glass bottle and let out a sigh. “Success.”

“The bloodline separation potion I designed has achieved my intended goal. The creation and design of the bloodline separation potion is a major part of the Alchemist’s Assistant Certificate Assessment. My ability to complete it means I’m very close to the level of an Alchemist’s Assistant.”

After one night, Locke separated ten bottles of shadow leech blood essence and went to Sophia’s office next door.

Shadow leeches are already considered relatively high-level magical materials. Being able to handle them means that my level has reached a new level.

Unlike the cheap and simple potion materials he had dealt with before, these shadow leech blood essences were valuable enough in themselves to be sold as first-class wizard apprentice-level potions.

After all, it is one of the main ingredients that can be used to make potions.

In Sophia’s office, Witch Sophia took the Shadow Leech Blood Essence from Locke, briefly examined it, and nodded in affirmation: “The blood separation potion you made was very successful, with very few impurities. This is probably because your mana fluctuations are relatively small.”

“That’s great, you can save me a lot of work in the future.”

Being able to process medium to high difficulty potion materials such as shadow leeches means that Locke can already handle most potion materials independently.

Witch Sophia looked up and said to Locke, “You have already mastered the magic flame technology and the blood separation potion design technology. As long as you can refine another assistant-level standard potion, you can take the Potion Master Assistant Certificate exam.”

“I recommend you learn – Concentration Ointment.”

Witch Sophia said frankly, “You can buy the formula for the Concentration Ointment from me for a thousand magic stones, and then go back and learn how to make it yourself.”

Witch Sophia said, “With your current level, as long as you know the formula, it’s enough for you to spend time and learn it yourself.”

“Otherwise, according to the regulations, I will have to charge you for both the recipe and the instruction. I feel that instruction is… somewhat useless. A Potions Master’s Assistant should at least be able to learn on their own.”

Locke saluted Witch Sophia and said, “Okay, teacher.”

Over the past two years, Witch Sophia has carefully taught me the basics of potions.

This is the foundation taught by a first-ring alchemist, so it is extremely solid.

The corners of Witch Sophia’s mouth curled slightly. She crossed her arms, leaned back in her chair, and looked at Locke. “Locke, you should have understood in the past few days how difficult it is to advance after becoming a wizard apprentice.”

Locke nodded. “Yes, teacher, both the potion and the meditation method have had little effect.”

“But the academy will start distributing Star Tears Potion and Blood-Weeping Nightshade Potion to me next month. Perhaps they will have different effects.”

Witch Sophia shook her head and said, “Those are like drinking poison to quench thirst. They will only make you spend more magic stones.”

“The path to truth requires a price to be paid, and magic stones are only the most common price.”

“The Blood-Weeping Nightshade Potion can purify the bloodline and slightly improve the physical talents of wizard apprentices. Those below level 4 can be improved by one level, and those above level 4 can be improved by half a level. However, this improvement requires lifelong consumption of the potion, otherwise the improved talents will gradually regress to their original state.”

“And you have to take ten bottles every month.” Witch Sophia curled her lips, “And the academy only gives you one bottle of Blood-Weeping Nightshade every month.”

“Weeping Blood Nightshade can not only enhance the talents of wizard apprentices and make them addicted, but also make every wizard apprentice who has experienced it reluctant to give up and suffer immensely. That’s why it’s called Weeping Blood Nightshade.”

“Blood-Bleeding Nightshade itself is very expensive, costing at least 100 magic stones per bottle.” Witch Sophia shook her head and said, “And to fully utilize the Blood-Bleeding Nightshade, you need to spend 900 magic stones every month to purchase Blood-Bleeding Nightshade from the academy’s higher-ups.”

“The Star Tears potion is mainly used to improve the efficiency of meditation. Using the Star Tears potion in conjunction with meditation can indeed slightly increase the speed at which your mental power increases.” Witch Sophia curled her lips, “But that’s all.”

“The Star Tears potion can only be used in conjunction with meditation to be effective. The key lies in the level of your meditation method.”

“Also, two bottles per month is clearly not enough. A maximum of twelve bottles of this potion can be used per month, and an average of eight bottles per month would be just right, achieving a good balance between the drug and the poison. However, the academy only distributes two bottles of Star Tears potion to first-class wizard apprentices each month. Each bottle of Star Tears potion is worth approximately 150 magic stones.”

“According to this calculation, the magic stones you spend every month will reach 2100!”

Witch Sophia said, “So, for those wandering wizards and wild wizards outside the school, becoming a first-class wizard apprentice is almost the limit.”

“The chances of them becoming official wizards are almost zero.”

Witch Sophia said coldly with a cold expression, “The standard for a formal wizard’s spiritual power is 1000.”

Locke’s brows jumped.

There is a difference of 800 points of mental power between a first-class wizard apprentice and a formal wizard, and the value of each point of mental power is far greater than the mental power of all apprentice-level stages.

Based on his current snail-like improvement speed, even if he meditates for two hundred years, he will never be able to become a formal wizard!

In the future, he would need to purchase potions such as the Weeping Nightshade and Star, which would cost him more than two thousand magic stones every month. This was obviously not an expense that all first-class wizard apprentices could afford, especially since this was probably only a small part of the expense.

Although being a first-class wizard apprentice is of high status, it also has a more difficult life.

Locke asked doubtfully, “Then, teacher, how do wizards in the Southeast Corner become official wizards?”

Witch Sophia smiled. “You’ve got the point.”

“Some people haven’t found the right path, so they can only use a huge amount of magical resources to forcibly increase their mental strength to 1000. But that will consume an unknown amount of magical resources for a wizard.”

“It’s really too difficult, too difficult.”

Witch Sophia said, “So, special advanced potions and advanced meditation methods are needed here.”

“Let’s not talk about the special advanced potion for now. When you reach the stage where you should know about it, someone in the academy will naturally tell you. I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can’t tell you now.”

“Advanced Meditation is the foundation of a school in the Southeastern Region and is absolutely forbidden to be passed on to outsiders. You are a student of Lilith’s Hut, so you have the right to purchase the right to learn Advanced Meditation by spending 50,000 magic stones.”

Locke’s brows jumped.

He had finally become wealthy during the second-class wizard apprenticeship stage, but now that he had entered the first-class wizard apprentice class, he realized that he was in dire poverty.

Witch Sophia said, “Of course, if you don’t have 50,000 magic stones right now, you can sign a meditation loan contract first.”

Witch Sophia sighed helplessly. “Locke.”

“I would also like to teach you directly, but I am also restricted by the White Wizard Society’s Southeast Corner Region Advanced Meditation Method Non-Proliferation Agreement.”

“If I teach you privately and at a low price, I will be subject to a strict investigation by the association’s ethical review mechanism.”

(End of this chapter)