Locke left Lijin Secret Language with nine hundred magic stones.
Synthesizing one Level 4 Mandrake Vine required 27 Mandrake Vines and took a total of 18 hours to synthesize one Super Mandrake Vine.
If he rushed, he could synthesize about 40 Super Mandrake Vines per month, earning 1,200 magic stones.
This was a relatively good inco, since the mandatory new student contract loan that wizard prospects had to take when entering Lilith's Cottage was only 1,000 magic stones.
Walking down the street with his two gray dwarves, Locke suddenly realized that he didn't actually need to use this laborious thod of synthesizing Level 4 Mandrake Vines and then selling them to Lijin Secret Language.
This would squeeze out his ti for synthesizing various gems, and also squeeze out his original ti for synthesizing various miscellaneous items to explore new synthesis formulas.
As a breeder's assistant, he could completely use a more cost-effective thod: cultivation.
"Buy so useful slaves and rent a few acres of farmland, then I can establish a plant garden of my own," Locke thought. "As a breeder's assistant, I indeed have this qualification."
"I happen to have the relevant information."
"Each Mandrake Vine can produce at least seven branches per year and can undergo cutting propagation."
"Moreover, a single parent Mandrake Vine can reproduce offspring vines at most seven tis in its lifeti. By the sixth generation, it only has 80% of the parent's magical energy, and by the seventh generation, only 30% of the parent's magical energy."
Various teachings from Witch Sophia erged in Locke's mind.
Locke thought, "So one Mandrake Vine can only propagate through cuttings for five generations, totaling thirty-five branches."
"Ordinary wizard apprentices can hardly achieve survival in cutting propagation, but I'm a breeder's assistant. I can make all these relatively basic magical vine cuttings survive."
"That ans one Super Mandrake Vine can produce seven Mandrake Vines per year."
Locke also considered that Mandrake Vines bore fruit once per year, producing 2-3 seeds each ti.
They could also stably produce for about five generations, with the sixth generation showing degradation due to insufficient magical energy.
In other words, one Super Mandrake Vine could also produce so seeds per year, and these seeds had a relatively high survival rate.
With his current cultivation techniques, as long as he had one Super Mandrake Vine, he could obtain about ten of its offspring per year.
And after planting, he could harvest for a total of five years.
Locke calculated briefly and found that if he wanted to maintain selling 40 Super Mandrake Vines per month to Lijin Secret Language through cultivation, he would need to plant at least 50 Super Mandrake Vines.
Considering seed preservation and other issues, he'd better plant around 60.
That would require 5 acres of land.
And this happened to be within the limit of his capabilities as a breeder's assistant.
"Cultivating Mandrake Vines can improve my actual level in breeding studies, and it also counts as conducting an experint in the life magic plant studies sub-direction," Locke thought. "It wouldn't greatly affect my studies, and might even promote them through practice."
"Moreover, only this way can I avoid arousing others' suspicion when I introduce new synthesized plants in the future."
"Only then can I safely earn magic stones."
Locke calculated the costs of such cultivation. The average cost per Super Mandrake Vine would be about 5 magic stones each.
After all, he needed to purchase farmland rich in earth elental particles, buy special nutrient soil, high-quality Growth Gel, and so primary dicinal products that increased plant survival rates.
Locke was secretly alard that this didn't even include his own cost as a breeder's assistant.
If he hired a breeder's assistant, he'd have to pay additional magic stones monthly.
The cost of Mandrake Vines would rise even more.
But regular Mandrake Vines couldn't sell at all now. Even at 5 magic stones per vine, there might not be buyers.
No wonder these vines had been completely replaced by Tiflo Root Vines.
Now only breeders who cultivated Tiflo Root Vines could make money.
But his Super Mandrake Vines could fetch 30 magic stones each, and if he could keep costs down to 5 magic stones, he could net 25 magic stones profit per vine.
He could earn exactly 1,000 magic stones per month.
This was a magical plant with very large profit margins.
Locke thought, "Since I'm already a breeder's assistant, I don't need to spend extra money hiring people. Conducting breeding experints myself has practical and improvent value for , so I'm essentially making pure profit. I only need to spend 200 magic stones in costs monthly."
"Completely doable."
"I can indeed try establishing a small-scale plantation."
As a breeder's assistant, Locke's status at Lilith's Cottage was equivalent to a first-class wizard apprentice, so he indeed had the right to establish his own plantation.
The higher-ups at Lilith's Cottage would most likely agree to let him establish a small botanical garden around his wizard ntor's laboratory (those wooden huts).
With this in mind, Locke headed toward the Slave Depot in Chira Trading Market. To establish a plantation, he needed quite a few slaves who could work.
Gray dwarves had damaged intelligence and couldn't handle overly complex tasks, so they really weren't suitable.
He needed slaves like the flower fairies in Witch Sophia's botanical garden. Of course, flower fairy slaves were too high-level and expensive for his current status.
Even if one flower fairy slave died, it would be a loss of thousands to tens of thousands of magic stones, quite costly. They possessed racial talents in cultivation and were naturally highly attuned to nature, making them the favorite slaves of high-level breeders.
Only First Circle breeders like Witch Sophia could afford to use a tribe of flower fairy slaves.
Locke entered the street where the Slave Depot was located with his two gray dwarf servants. He saw that the Slave Depot had storefronts on both sides of the street, large in scale and substantial in area.
The street where the Slave Depot was located had hundreds of iron cages containing different slaves.
Wizards from various places would stop here to purchase the slaves they wanted.
Locke took a brief look around. At first glance, there were at least dozens of different slave races in the iron cages on the street. Those displayed outside were probably just for species demonstration.
Among them were dwarf slaves skilled in forging and suitable as alchemy workshop assistants, forest deer demon slaves suitable as potion studies assistants, and human slaves suitable as experintal subjects since most wizards were human.
There were even specially trained female human slaves with revealing clothing, graceful figures, and certain enchantnt spell modifications that made them full of charm.
Such slaves had generally undergone charm sub-direction spell modifications from the enchantnt school, belonging to disposable items for wizards who got bored with their research and wanted a change of pace.
Of course, there were also such special slaves of other races and genders.
The mont Locke arrived, he attracted the attention of many shop assistants in the Slave Depot.
These assistants seed mostly to be ordinary people or at most third-class wizard apprentices, just traders put forward by the masters behind the slave trade.
A short goblin assistant wearing black and white service shop attire was about to co serve Locke.
But before he could take a few steps, he was intercepted by a tall, thin male dark elf with a mohawk hairstyle, also wearing black and white shop service attire.
This dark elf was a third-class wizard apprentice.
The male dark elf assistant pushed aside the goblin assistant, stood before Locke, and bowed politely, performing a gentleman's bow. "Good evening, young and outstanding wizard lord."
"I am the dark elf Benny. Please allow to serve a distinguished person like you."
He cunningly glanced at the four badges on Locke's chest: the breeder's assistant badge and Lijin Secret Language's Platinum Star badge, which symbolized that the other party might be a big custor.
"What kind of slaves are you looking for?"
Locke didn't want to waste words with him and said indifferently, "Well, I need slaves who can work, farm, and use moderately difficult farming tools."
"Moreover, their intelligence must at least be in the dium range, able to understand my instructions." Locke added, "I'm going to cultivate magical plants, which requires certain operations."
Dark elf assistant Benny bowed to Locke again, "Understood. An outstanding breeder like you needs capable assistants."
"Respected custor, low-level slaves like gray dwarves indeed cannot match your status."
The two gray dwarves beside Locke blinked stupidly. They felt they should probably be angry now, but with so many wizards around, they only dared to tremble on the side.
Dark elf assistant Benny said, "I recomnd three types of slave assistants to you: wood elf slaves, dwarf giant slaves, and shark-people slaves."
"Wood elves are the most common elf race. They inhabit forests, are naturally attuned to nature, skilled in cultivation, and they're physically strong with long lifespans. They can be used as skilled high-level slaves with generally high learning abilities."
"Dwarf giants are a special breed of giants, the dwarves among giants. Shark-people slaves have high affinity with water elental particles..."
Locke frowned slightly. These three types of slaves were all typically expensive slaves with special talents.
They weren't suitable for him at the mont.
If he had extra magic stones, he could completely use them to purchase more courses and better magical resources.
There was no need to spend additional magic stones on buying slaves.
Locke interrupted the assistant's endless chatter and said indifferently, "I only want plantation slaves and need to consider cost-effectiveness."
"None of the three you recomnded are suitable."
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