Locke cleaned up the battlefield.
He gathered the corpses of the five Blood Curse Court apprentices together, put all the fragments in a sack, and placed it in his astral ring, planning to take them back as fertilizer for his plants.
The White Wizard Association has a strict ethical review mechanism to prevent breeders from using wizard apprentices as fertilizer for magical fields, but if these people were black wizards, then it didn't matter.
Black wizards had no rights protection whatsoever in white wizard society.
Locke looked toward Gabby. Gabby felt somewhat ashamed, and at this time her coachman had already recovered his normal sanity, though he couldn't remember anything.
Gabby glared at the bewildered coachman. Orıginal content can be found at novel·fire.net
Then, Gabby apologetically said to Locke, "Sorry, senior. The situation was too sudden just now, and I didn't react in time."
"Fortunately, I had you by my side, senior."
Gabby suddenly felt frightened in retrospect. "If I had encountered them alone, I would already be dead."
Locke nodded. "This isn't your fault. They should have all come to kill me. You were just dragged into this because of me."
"But recently, it's indeed very dangerous outside the academy. You should reduce your outings."
Compared to black wizards, white wizard apprentices who spent most of their time in research definitely had much weaker combat abilities.
But white wizards also had their own advantages.
Compared to Lilith's Cottage's method of binding apprentices' personal relationships through contracts, those black wizards' method of directly controlling their own apprentices with curse magic was inefficient and caused serious internal friction.
After all, one was "voluntary" formed through complex contractual relationships, while the other was forced.
The subjective initiative was different.
Locke and Gabby boarded the carriage and continued toward the academy headquarters, though Gabby had already become very impatient with her coachman.
If she didn't still need the coachman to drive the carriage for the return trip, Gabby probably couldn't have tolerated the mortal coachman she had hired any longer.
After returning to the port city where Lilith Academy headquarters was located, Locke separated from Gabby and immediately went to Witch Sophia's place.
In Witch Sophia's office.
Locke placed the amethyst matrix back on her desk. "Teacher, I'm back. This is a report I wrote on the road."
"The plague in the Ashgra Mountains has been resolved. The source was a Corrupt Soil Taro."
"Also, teacher, I have an even more important matter to report."
Witch Sophia stopped writing her notes. "Corrupt Soil Taro? It seems you had quite a good harvest this time."
"This feeling is... magical pressure."
The flower on Witch Sophia's wizard hat turned bright red, seeming to show that its owner's mood was somewhat fluctuating. "Locke, have you already become a first-class wizard apprentice?"
Locke nodded, saying, "Yes, teacher. Thanks to your usual teachings and that bottle of Crimson Echo Potion, I was able to become a first-class wizard apprentice so quickly."
Witch Sophia was stunned. "You enrolled about two years ago, right? Time passes so quickly. We master and student have been together for two years now."
"My original plan was that before I leave Lilith's Cottage, you would at most become a second-class wizard apprentice, but your growth speed has indeed far exceeded my imagination."
Witch Sophia said, "So fast, almost advancing once a year. This speed is no less than those 'Children of Elements.'"
"This advancement speed is almost the same as mine when I was still a wizard apprentice. My affinity with wood element particles is Level 7."
Good heavens, Locke hadn't expected that Witch Sophia's advancement speed during her apprentice stage was actually this fast.
He had only barely achieved this advancement speed by relying on various resources.
Locke said, "Teacher, so you are a 'Wood' Child of Elements."
Sophia smiled, "Currently, the methods for aptitude testing are still very crude, so the evaluation of wizard aptitude is far from being able to assess a person's true potential."
"This has always been my viewpoint, and this viewpoint has been verified to the greatest extent in you."
Sophia said, "Locke, for wizards, results are more important than process. If you can become a first-class wizard apprentice in just one year, your talent won't be lower than those so-called Children of Elements."
"It's just that their talent is more obvious, while your talent needs someone to carefully discover it."
Sophia said, "I once personally witnessed an apprentice whose talent in potion-making was terrible. Later he switched to studying alchemy and became a First Circle alchemist. Sometimes this world is just so helpless. Talented people, because they didn't discover their own talent or mistakenly thought they had poor talent, end up wasting their entire lives."
Sophia stopped talking. "Besides yourself, the happiest person about you becoming a first-class wizard apprentice is me, your teacher."
"Since you've become a first-class wizard apprentice, you can now take the formal breeder certificate exam and the potion master assistant certificate exam."
Sophia's interest in Locke greatly increased. Originally, she had only taught him seriously because Locke was her first student.
But now it wasn't just because of that.
It was also because of Locke's talent.
For formal wizards, an excellent student always received their attention more easily.
Also, in the teaching assessment from the Star Domain Sea, there were mainly three parts: first, one's own title; second, achievements made by oneself; third, excellent students taught.
She had just become a formal wizard, so she was definitely at a disadvantage in the second area, and the third area was completely blank.
But now, if Locke became a first-class wizard apprentice within two years and had obtained a breeder's assistant certificate, and if he could obtain a potion master assistant certificate and breeder certificate within the next few years, then he could serve as an example of her excellent student.
This would be of enormous help for the evaluation by the wizard organizations in the Star Domain Sea.
Therefore, Sophia looked at Locke with even more attention. "Dear Locke, I underestimated your aptitude too much before."
"I don't care how you actually advanced."
"I'm giving you two tasks: within the next year and a half, obtain a formal breeder certificate and a potion studies assistant certificate. Any problems?"
Locke was somewhat surprised. "Teacher, this time you're giving me such a tight schedule."
Witch Sophia pulled down the brim of her wizard hat, saying, "Geniuses and mediocre people require two different teaching methods. I used the wrong teaching method for you from the beginning."
She crossed her hands and leaned against the chair back. "Maintaining some pressure is good for you. The requirements of Lilith's Cottage Academy are too lenient for you. Over time, you'll become complacent, Locke."
"Don't worry, I'm not that unreasonable."
"Locke, as long as you obtain either a formal breeder certificate or a potion master assistant certificate within a year and a half, I'll consider you passing."
Locke thought for a moment, simply following Sophia's line of thinking to continue reasoning. "Potion studies would be somewhat more complex than breeding studies, but a potion master assistant certificate would be easier to obtain than a formal breeder certificate."
"After all, formal breeders already have a considerable status within the academy."
"So, I should aim to get the potion master certificate within a year and a half?"
Witch Sophia was somewhat amused by Locke. "You actually seriously thought it through."
"Whatever you choose. As long as you obtain one of those certificates, I'll consider you qualified. From now on, I'll give you two and a half hours of lessons every day."
Locke looked at Sophia strangely. "Teacher, do you have that much time?"
Witch Sophia tapped the desk with her finger, saying, "This is exactly what I originally wanted to tell you next. During this period, many of the tasks the academy has assigned me are teaching tasks."
"That is to say, this year I'll have quite a few new wizard prospect students."
"They probably want me to establish deeper ties with the academy. I was originally troubled by this, but now that you've become a first-class wizard apprentice, there's no problem."
"You can help me substitute teach their classes."
Witch Sophia said with some regret, "What a pity, I don't have other students. When I advanced to first-class wizard apprentice, my teacher gathered all of his first-class wizard apprentice students, even those students outside the academy, all assembled at the academy and held a celebration."
"This is also a means of strengthening master-student relationships."
"But you are my first student, so... there's no way to hold such a celebration. We only have two people in total..."
Witch Sophia thought for a moment and said seriously, "You should be of age this year too, right? I'll give you a birthday gift tomorrow as a celebration."
"By the way, what did you want to report to me?"