A week after discussing the commercial contract with Lady Irina, in Locke's simple laboratory.

Locke had now completed the mana grafting with Sea Gold Sand and Fire Pearl Tomato Flower, and had constructed three magic spells from the Scorching Gold Sand Flow series in his consciousness sea—[Gold Sand Torrent], [Gold Sand Bullets], and [Flowing Gold Fern Spear].

Three First Circle level plant-based magic spells transformed into planets in Locke's consciousness sea, revolving around his consciousness core that symbolized the sun.

The three golden magical plant spells each had suitable ranges of application.

Locke looked at this scene with satisfaction. After becoming a formal wizard, his memory and comprehension had been greatly enhanced, so learning these First Circle magic spells had become extremely fast.

Of course, this was just learning by rote.

After learning these three Scorching Gold Sand Flow series spells, he still needed to continuously fine-tune the spell models according to his own situation in the future to suit his mana nature, magical pressure fluctuations, and soul characteristics.

This step was the moment that truly tested a wizard's foundation.

Because learning wasn't the hardest part—creating was.

Learning was just mechanically replicating things that already existed in this world, while creating was building new things on the foundation of existing things.

And this step was the most difficult moment.

The wizard apprentice stage was mainly about learning, while First Circle wizards needed to begin their own research and creation.

A formal wizard continuously fine-tuning the spell models in their hands could increase the power of these spell models. So spell model optimization could give wizards the possibility of turning defeat into victory even when their magical pressure was lower than other wizards.

And this step required continuous accumulation.

Locke put away the Sea Gold Sand in the laboratory. "After learning these three First Circle spells, it's best to find someone to test them out with."

"That way I can better master these spells. But in Chimera Trading Market, those wizard apprentices who have become debt slaves and serve as punching bags are at most first-class wizard apprentices, and still relatively weak."

"Who should I look for?"

He should master all the Scorching Gold Sand Flow series magic spells, as well as the First Circle plant magic Flame Bright Spirit Qi and the two supporting spells for Executioner’s Hammer Mushroom.

Locke thought about it. "Forget it. Suitable people are either inappropriate in status or completely unable to serve as my opponent."

"Resources in the southeastern quadrant are too scarce at the First Circle stage. In the southeastern quadrant, First Circle wizards are no longer in the cultivation range. The academy needs First Circle wizards to give back to the wizard academy more."

After thinking about it, Locke decided to first go to the White Wizard Association to submit his resume.

Teacher Halen Vera had told him the principles of submitting resumes.

That was to be numerous and broad.

Because the Star Domain Sea had a vast area with many wizard academies and academy cities inside, who knew which team might suddenly need a wizard whose conditions matched his own quite well?

So don't doubt yourself. Even if your conditions looked inadequate, you had to bravely go submit them.

What if someone wanted you?

Whether it was a trap or not, that could be discussed then. After all, this was mutual selection. He could also choose not to go.

So he had to constantly submit resumes. Anyway, he couldn't leave gaps. Whether it was Star Domain Sea academies, Academies of True Knowledge, or at least finding a decent job, he had to first send some of his resumes there.

The White Wizard Association had a specialized agency responsible for submitting resumes to various wizard lands. He needed to go to the White Wizard Association's [Wizard Dispatch Department] to submit resumes.

And this required recommendation from at least one wizard who held a local wizard mentor teaching position. So Locke contacted Halen Vera on the gray mist stone tablet.

'Teacher Halen, I want to go to the Wizard Dispatch Department today to submit my resume. Can you give me a letter of recommendation?'

Locke didn't wait long. Halen Vera always replied to his messages very quickly.

Three messages quickly appeared on Locke's gray mist stone tablet—

'Yes, very happy to. The director of the Wizard Dispatch Department is my old classmate, old friend, and also a wizard from our Lilith's Cottage.'

'However, I need to trouble you, Locke, to wait for someone. He also needs to go to the Wizard Dispatch Department to submit his resume recently. You two can go together.'

'Wait at your residence. I'll have him come over right away.'

Locke frowned. He hadn't recently heard of anyone in Halen Vera's network becoming a formal wizard.

Moreover, even after becoming a formal wizard, many people could find work through private channels.

For example, through some private channels within Wizard Halen Vera's network, they could obtain information in advance about certain research groups at certain wizard academies recruiting, then could send their resumes in advance.

This was the normal choice for students who graduated from Halen Vera's side.

The reason he couldn't find a teaching position through Halen Vera's network was only because he wanted to go to the Star Domain Sea.

It was basically impossible to use connections at the Star Domain Sea.

To use connections, the price to pay wasn't something a First Circle wizard could afford.

"Who could it be?" Locke waited at his residence for half an hour.

After half an hour, his servants told him a visitor had arrived outside.

When Locke pushed open the magic door of his residence, his facial expression immediately became strange.

He saw someone he hadn't expected standing in front of his door.

The person was Hussein, the former first in the wizard candidate sequence of the Blood Curse Court.

At this time, Hussein wore a white wizard robe. Combined with his appearance, it seemed quite out of place, always giving the illusion that he would take off the white robe and change into a black robe the next moment.

Locke noticed that Hussein actually had formal wizard level magical pressure now. He didn't know the exact amount, but it wasn't the just over one thousand of ordinary wizards when they advanced to formal wizard. It was estimated to be over fifteen hundred.

Locke frowned. "Did Lilith's Cottage give you the Sacrifice Potion? Are you Teacher Halen Vera's informant?"

"So you're saying you betrayed information that the Blood Curse Court was going to attack Lilith's Cottage, causing the Black Wizard Alliance to fall into a disadvantage."

Hussein remained elegant and refined, like a nobleman in the dark night. He smiled bitterly. "Worthy of being Locke Augustine. You've guessed almost everything. Actually, I've always been a white wizard with a sense of justice."

Locke pressed his lips together and frowned slightly. "Your joke is very interesting."

This guy had more than one death on his hands, right? According to the White Wizard Association's laws, he should have been imprisoned in wizard prison long ago. But he had made great contributions this time, so the White Wizard Association probably granted him special amnesty.

Hussein became serious. "I really am an undercover agent developed by Teacher Halen Vera. My mentor at the Blood Curse Court, in order to make me work for her, withheld advancement potions from me and wouldn't let me become a formal wizard."

"I clearly could have advanced long ago. My mental power even reached 900, but I couldn't advance because I lacked advancement potions."

"I waited bitterly for years, thinking she probably didn't want to let me become a formal wizard at all. At that point, I only had one path to choose—kill her."

"Once she died, the blood curse she planted on me would disappear."

"Freedom at last."

"So we should now be considered on the same side. According to my agreement with the White Wizard Association, I'm now Teacher Halen Vera's student."

Locke looked deeply at Hussein. "When did you choose to side with Lilith's Cottage?"

Hussein hesitated, then said, "After meeting you for the first time, that is, during the period before our second meeting at the treatment center. At that time, my Mother-Child Giant Corpse Blood Curse didn't kill one of your Lilith's Cottage apprentices because by then, I already had an agreement with your academy that I couldn't kill any more white wizards. And those I had killed before, if I could make great contributions, wouldn't count."

Hussein said, "At that time, when I used the Mother-Child Giant Corpse Blood Curse on your academy's wizard apprentices, it was just to convey information to Teacher Halen Vera and your Dean Thompson."

"My blood curse court wizard mentor left several curses on me for comprehensive surveillance. Under normal circumstances, I fundamentally couldn't convey information. I could only succeed by hiding information in the blood curse method."

"I hid the information in the higher geometric patterns of the redundant curse formulas in the blood curse. This way, others would find it extremely difficult to see. But even so, I still took enormous risks. If discovered, I would end up like Sephilin."

"At the same time, if I didn't successfully transmit it, I might be misunderstood by your academy's upper management. But fortunately, Teacher Halen Vera had other undercover black wizard apprentices. Through him, the information I transmitted was successfully decoded."

Locke immediately guessed a secret hidden in those years. "So at that time, Anglon didn't remove your Mother-Child Giant Corpse Blood Curse. After you confirmed the information was successfully transmitted, you voluntarily removed the curse yourself."

"Is that right?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"That's right. You guessed correctly." Hussein looked at Locke with surprise. He hadn't expected Locke to react so quickly, immediately guessing the truth of those years through limited information.

Hussein said, "Locke, what's with that expression?"

Locke shook his head. "I just didn't expect Anglon to be even weaker than I thought. I thought he at least had some real ability."