One month later.
In his second medium-sized plantation, Locke had cleared ten acres of magical fields dedicated to cultivating Emerald Iris Lichen.
The ten acres before Locke were lush and vibrant. Emerald Lichen was already an exceptionally beautiful magic plant, with each tiny leaf-like filament resembling a precious gem.
The Iris Lichen Locke had cultivated took this beauty further, coating the surface of these leaf-like structures with a rainbow-hued film.
As a result, these fields of Emerald Iris Lichen looked as though they were growing fields of gemstones, with rainbow light reflecting off the emerald-like surfaces.
Beside the ten-acre field, five Minotaur Noble Slaves were diligently irrigating the Emerald Iris Lichen with nutrient solution under Locke's direction.
Observing the scene, Locke mused, "The first batch of Emerald Iris Lichen is about to be harvested. Surprisingly, its cultivation cost is even lower than that of Crystal Palmfire Lotus."
Aside from the fixed 200 Magic Stones required for the advanced Breeder's three-piece set, the Emerald Iris Lichen only needed 100 Magic Stones' worth of Shadow Agent (five tons) and 50 Magic Stones' worth of beast bones (per pound).
Since Emerald Iris Lichen was a fungal-type magic plant, it required decomposed beast bones to produce special nutrients.
Within Lilith's Cottage Academy, there was the Bloodhowl Arena—a hub for wizards specializing in Beast Taming Magic. The arena produced a large number of magical creature corpses daily, making beast bones cheap and easy to procure.
As for the Shadow Agent, it was an extremely simple Potionology product—so simple that even a third-class wizard apprentice could mass-produce it with minimal training.
Aside from pharmaceutical rooms specifically catering to such low-end production, most—including Locke's—couldn't be bothered to make it themselves.
The price was too low, with no technical or cost barriers—the only real obstacle was that no one wanted to waste effort producing it.
During cultivation, small amounts of Shadow Agent had to be mixed into the soil to ensure the magic plant thrived.
Unlike Crystal Palmfire Lotus, which required a Weather Control Device and had strict temperature requirements, the supporting materials for Emerald Iris Lichen—beast bones and Shadow Agent—were both cheap, low-tier products. Thus, the overall cultivation cost was indeed much lower.
Setting up these ten acres had only cost Locke a total of 400 Magic Stones.
Meanwhile, over the past month, thanks to income from his clinic, the plantation, and the previous bulk procurement contract, his Magic Stone reserves—combined with the second bulk procurement order—had reached an astonishing 28,300!
However, after spending 16,800 on Meditation Method expenses over the past two months, along with the costs of establishing the magical fields and miscellaneous expenditures, Locke's current savings stood at 10,700.
Even so, this was still a fortune compared to the average First Class Wizard Apprentice's earnings.
Locke planned to use this sum to purchase a large quantity of magical resources at the Chimera Market in one go—enough to forcibly boost his spiritual power in a single surge.
After all, compared to this huge sum of money, his Mana had only increased by 5 points over the past month—a snail's pace.
Yet, compared to the period when he wasn't using the Advanced Meditation Technique, this was already many times faster. Back then, when his Mana was just over 200 points, it had taken him two months to gain a single point (and the quality of his Mana was inferior to now).
His current actual mental growth rate was about 24 times what it had been without the Advanced Meditation Technique and additional resources, and four times faster than when he used only the Advanced Meditation Technique without extra resources.
Locke looked at the Emerald Iris Lichen before him. Over the past month, he hadn't just cultivated ten acres of it—he had also been using it to refine his Magic Resonance Breeding Method in preparation for the upcoming Breeder exam.
At the same time, Locke had attempted something bold.
He approached five Emerald Iris Lichen plants in a specially designated one-acre Magical Field. With a small knife, he carefully removed the upper portion of one lichen, then grafted onto it a segment of the malignant, degraded Tiff Loron Vine he had obtained while treating Ruixing.
Using bamboo skewers to secure the two together, he chanted an incantation and cast a [Minor Grafting Healing Spell], then sprinkled Advanced Growth Serum Gel over the graft with his left hand.
Under the combined effects of his magic and the Advanced Growth Serum Gel, the two different types of Magic Plants rapidly fused together.
There were slight conflicts in their magical energies, causing the grafted wound to repeatedly heal, fester, heal again, and fester once more.
In truth, over the past month, he had continuously fine-tuned the spell model of [Lesser Graft Healing] while attempting to breed a strain of Emerald Iris Lichen capable of adapting to the negative energy of the degraded vine.
This grafting experiment had been repeated for over half a month, ruining more than a dozen Emerald Iris Lichen plants in the process.
Locke's gaze fixed on the wound of the lichen. His pupils constricted sharply—under the influence of his Minor Grafting Healing Spell, this particular Emerald Iris Lichen had finally fused with the degraded vine.
"Success." A flicker of excitement stirred within him. "My theory is viable. This is a variant of Emerald Iris Lichen I conceived based on existing materials, after synthesizing high-level Magic Plants with the Magic Cube!"
He observed that, under the effects of the Advanced Growth Serum Gel, this Emerald Iris Lichen had undergone a transformation to adapt to the degraded vine. Meanwhile, the vine itself was rapidly optimizing—its dull red surface shifted to green, and its thorns receded one by one. The Tiff Loron Vine was slowly reverting to its original state.
Though it couldn't fully restore itself, the vine, which had previously suffered malignant degradation, was indeed undergoing genetic improvement.
At the same time, his Emerald Iris Lichen had changed in form—its color and luster remained the same, but its small, leaf-like fungal structures had fused together, forming a hard shell. It had transformed into a crustose lichen.
The shell was roughly the size of a small buckler.
It resembled a massive emerald round shield, capable of refracting rainbow-colored light.
Locke dipped a bamboo skewer into the fungal mucus on the surface of this newly cultivated special variety of Emerald Iris Lichen. He then applied it to a section of degraded Magic Plant vine obtained from Ruixing. The vine's surface immediately appeared scorched, rapidly dehydrating as certain sections began undergoing beneficial transformations.
"It worked," Locke pondered. "My initial hypothesis was correct—lichens are inherently prone to mutation among Magic Plants."
"My Emerald Iris Lichen possesses highly adaptable Magic Resistance modification capabilities. By using the Grafting Breeding Method to graft Ruixing's mutated magic vine onto the Emerald Iris Lichen, I can make the lichen continuously adapt to this plant-based Curse."
"Thus developing corresponding Magic Resistance."
"This way, we can create a Magic Plant capable of resisting specific Curses." Locke quickly regained his composure. "Originally, Emerald Lichen was merely a consumable Magic Plant used for preparing Magic Potions—not a combat variety."
"Its foundation was inadequate."
"Now, this special Emerald Iris Lichen I've developed only adapts to a single Curse and remains unstable. This is merely the beginning—I can't consider this project complete yet."
"I need to use this mutated Emerald Iris Lichen as the parent plant. Through the Cutting Breeding Method, I'll continuously propagate clones. Then using the Grafting Breeding Method, I'll transplant more Magic Plant Curses onto its offspring. This way, it can adapt to different Curses."
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