Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Club and One Month

In the public botanical garden, Locke conducted a handover with the first-class wizard apprentice Hughes Coffman. Originally, there was no need for them to meet, but Hughes Coffman arrived at the 500-acre public magic field area that Locke was in charge of half a day in advance.

Hughes took a few glances at the 500-acre public magic field, his eyes flashing. He didn’t expect that a newly promoted first-class wizard apprentice could take such good care of the magic field.

The second-class wizard apprentice in the public botanical garden looked at Hughes Coffman in surprise, “Master Coffman, why are you here? The handover should be tomorrow…”

Hughes Coffman waved his hand, dismissing the assistant, and then walked towards Locke with a smile. “Hello, I’m Hughes Coffman, and my wizard mentor is Harlan Vera.”

“He is good at Transfiguration and Botanical Magic, and is a formal breeder.” Hughes Coffman is an elegant middle-aged man who looks to be in his thirties. He looks very smart, with a smile in the corners of his eyes, but he is not that unkind.

He is a traditional-looking white wizard, wearing a light white wizard robe with blue stripes on the shoulders and a white wizard hat. From Locke’s current point of view, his magic power is indeed unfathomable, and he has no idea what level it is.

Unlike the third-class wizard apprentice stage and the second-class wizard apprentice stage, the gap between wizards in the first-class wizard apprentice stage is extremely large.

The magic power of a wizard who has just become a first-class wizard apprentice is at most a little over 200, but those wizards who have been first-class wizard apprentices for more than ten years may have magic power of 500 or 600.

And this is just talking about magic power. The gap between the two sides in knowledge, magic experience, and the number of certificates will be very large.

This is also the reason why Locke feels relatively quiet in the public botanical garden.

He lacks the foundation. From the perspective of outsiders, he lacks several years of accumulation and maturity, and has not yet reached the level where he can truly conduct transactions.

After all, it is an extremely rare case for a wood element [Son of the Element] to be promoted so quickly like Witch Sophia.

All we can say is that the Sons of Elements are born to be favored by heaven.

Locke couldn’t tell the depth of Hughes Coffman, so he just nodded slightly to him and briefly introduced himself.

Hughes Coffman’s eyes lit up. “Augustine, you take great care of these magic fields. How about we become partners in the future?”

Locke was puzzled. “Partner?”

He reacted instantly, “You mean, we should all work together to maintain these 500 acres of public magic fields, and try to choose the same magic fields in the future to fulfill our compulsory labor for the academy?”

Hughes Coffman smiled and said, “As expected of someone who became a first-class wizard apprentice in two years, you are indeed smart.”

“There is indeed some deep water inside this public magic field.”

“As you can see, first-class wizard apprentices can’t do free voluntary labor for the academy for a long time. They have their own things to do. So, helping the academy take care of the public magic fields basically only allows them to spare a few months a year. Therefore, the same part of the magic fields is often cared for by several first-class wizard apprentices.”

“Some first-class wizard apprentices are doing free, voluntary labor to take care of the public magic fields. Some first-class wizard apprentices are hired by the academy to take care of the magic fields by spending magic stones. Of course, there are also a few who owe the academy money and can only repay it through labor.”

“That creates some problems,” Hughes Coffman said.

“For example, your previous first-class wizard apprentice who was in charge of this part of the magic field didn’t take the job seriously and allowed the magic in the soil to degrade, only able to keep the magic plants barely alive.”

“But the demonic plants are in poor condition and could easily all die within the next month.”

“When a person is only responsible for short-term things, it is easy for him to ignore the long-term benefits of a thing.”

“But this will increase the difficulty of our work next month.” Hughes Coffman smiled, “So, we usually form a team and invite those reliable first-class wizard apprentices to take care of a specific magic field together.”

“The area you are taking care of now is the magic field that our group regularly looks after.”

Hughes Coffman praised: “Augustine, you took very good care of him.”

“It seems like you’re really attentive. I was a little worried.”

“How about we work together as a team? There are two first-class wizard apprentices in my group, and they are also official breeders.”

Locke nodded. No wonder this senior first-class wizard apprentice came to find him. It turned out to be because of this kind of thing.

In this way, you will indeed have a vested interest in them.

Wizards are very realistic. As long as there is such a connection of interest, they will definitely try to make contact.

Locke thought for a moment and said, “I can join temporarily.”

“But I need to think about it.”

Hughes Coffman immediately understood Locke’s concerns and said with a smile, “No problem. We are all experienced breeders in our society and will not increase your workload.”

Hughes looked at Locke in surprise. Generally, newly promoted first-class wizard apprentices rarely express distrust towards old first-class wizard apprentices.

It seems that this newcomer must have some unique strengths.

Hughes Coffman said, “Augustine, you haven’t joined a club yet, have you? The first-class wizard apprentices within Lilith’s Hut Academy often form their own clubs. They join each other to exchange information, or, like us, form a new club together for some common interest.”

“First-class wizard apprentices usually join more than a dozen societies.”

“The club is a place for first-class wizard apprentices in Lilith’s hut to exchange and communicate. It is considered the main form of interpersonal relationships for first-class wizard apprentices.”

Hughes Coffman smiled and said, “Once you become familiar to everyone, you’ll soon join more clubs. Right now, the club I founded, the Coffman Public Magic Field Breeding Club, invites you.”

Hughes handed Locke a piece of letter paper. “It’s the address of our club. Actually, there’s nothing special to go there. We don’t usually go there.”

“First-class wizard apprentices are very busy.”

“But we will stay in that club room. It’s the time for us to perform voluntary labor this year. You can stay there too.”

“This way we can better plan which month of the year we will perform compulsory labor on the public plantations for the college.”

Hughes Coffman raised his index finger and said, “The reason I formed this society is because when I first became a first-class wizard apprentice, I encountered a very abominable situation…”

“He poured…herbicide gel into the magic field.”

Locke had studied potion science for over two years and immediately said, “Herb Spiritual Essence? That stuff should have been banned long ago. While it can eliminate weeds and diseases in the magic field and enhance the vitality of the magic plants, it will pollute the soil and cause [wood element hardening], resulting in semi-permanent pollution of the magic field…”

Locke is different from ordinary breeders. He also has some knowledge of alchemy, and Herbaspirin Gel is one of the masterpieces of alchemy, but this thing has great side effects, but some breeders are still using it.

Hughes Coffman looked at Locke in surprise. “You’re quite knowledgeable about this, so I don’t need to explain it. That’s right, the first-class wizard apprentice before me, to save himself some trouble, actually poured herbal spirits directly into the magic fields. The magic fields deteriorated within the month I was in charge, and whole fields of magical plants died…”

Hughes Coffman’s face looked grim, as if he had just thought of something sinister. “In the end, I ended up taking the blame because his wizard mentor was even more powerful. He was far more capable than me.”

“Just paying for the damages was enough to break my bones. Luckily, the academy didn’t ask me to pay for everything, and I was able to salvage two-thirds of the demonic plants.”

“This is why I founded the club. I don’t want this kind of thing to happen again. Joining my club will benefit both you and me.”

“Augustine, you are a trustworthy breeder…assistant.”

Locke curled his lips. A breeder is a breeder, and he even specially added an assistant.

never mind.

Locke had no intention of arguing with Hughes Coffman about this title. These first-class wizard apprentices had been stuck at this stage for too long, so they had become fussy and wanted to make every bit of rank clear and distinct.

If it was Witch Sophia, she probably wouldn’t care whether this person was a breeder’s assistant or a breeder, and would just call everyone a breeder.

After all, she felt that in the end, all of this was just a transition to becoming a senior breeder.

(End of this chapter)