In Louis Mine, Locke arrived at this underground mine. This area had no natural light, and the only light sources were magic lamps.

Moreover, in the mine, there was a powerful radiation energy field. Locke saw that many of the mortals working in this mine wore protective suits made of apprentice-level magic alloys, but those protective suits were too crude and might not provide much protection.

Furthermore, the manufacturers of these protective suits, those family wizards, had siphoned off quite a bit of funding from them, so the quality of these protective suits was also an issue.

The research institute was located deep within Louis Mine.

Louis Mine mainly extracted a type of ore called opal. This opal was a secondary material for preparing Invisibility Potion, and Invisibility Potion was one of the commonly used potions, so this Louis Mine was also a major industry of the Plutarch family.

This industry was currently in Erik Plutarch's hands.

Strangely, after this guy seemed to have conducted some investigation into him, he not only didn't make a move against him, but also didn't create any obstacles to him taking over his two research institutes. He hadn't even done anything underhanded at Louis Mine, like cutting off the institute's energy supply or anything like that.

After Locke arrived at the research institute, he announced his identity to everyone in the institute and produced the appointment letter from the Plutarch family's upper echelon, which gave him the position of director of this research institute.

Inside the research institute, Locke gathered everyone in the institute.

This research institute had a total of one formal wizard, three first-rate wizard apprentices, five second-rate wizard apprentices, and a number of third-rate wizard apprentices.

The formal wizard was a middle-aged wizard named Takla.

"Director Augustine, hello. I'm Wizard Takla. You can give me any instructions you have." Wizard Takla looked at Locke with surprise and uncertainty, his eyes sizing up Locke, seemingly wondering why Locke could suddenly take over this project, and guessing in his heart who Locke was.

Moreover, Louis Mine had originally been gradually transferring resources out of the research institute.

But after this person arrived, all these sneaky mistreatment behaviors completely stopped, as if they had never happened.

Locke looked at Wizard Takla and said, "You're the person in charge of this project?"

Wizard Takla bowed to Locke and said, "Director Augustine, I'm not the person in charge of this project. The person in charge of the project is Master Erik's son, Master George Plutarch."

Locke's expression was strange. He already knew this and had seen it in the materials. "A first-rate wizard apprentice can actually lead a special research project and can override you, a First Circle wizard, to oversee this research institute?"

Wizard Takla showed a bitter smile. "Sir, you jest. Master George Plutarch is a direct bloodline wizard of the Plutarch family, a genius of exceptional talent. He could publish academy A-grade articles at age 12, so naturally he's qualified."

Since he didn't know Locke's relationship with Erik's branch, he spoke cautiously.

Locke was somewhat speechless hearing this. Publishing academy A-grade articles at age 12, could he have written them himself?

When Witch Sophia first entered Lilith's Cottage at age 16, she only published some D-grade articles.

The other could publish A-grade articles at age 12. This was a bit too outrageous.

Locke shook his head slightly. Well, this was the magical Land of Six Towers. Best not to scrutinize such matters too closely.

Here, aside from association S-grade articles having some value, everything else was too watered down.

The Land of Six Towers' unique journal "Six Towers" was also full of water.

By rights, the journals published by each wizard land's White Wizard Association all represented the highest magical research level of that region. Even if there was some water, the amount of water wasn't very large.

Articles that could get in were all those that represented the most breakthrough theoretical research of the local wizard land.

But the Land of Six Towers' "Six Towers" was different. It was simply watered down to the point of no boundaries.

The only condition for getting in was that you were a middle-grade or above prestigious family wizard of the Land of Six Towers, and moreover, you had to be direct bloodline.

These family wizards took turns publishing articles in "Six Towers," and later gradually discovered that whatever they wrote could be published, so from the beginning when they would still find excellent commoner wizards to ghostwrite, to later on, they just wrote randomly. As long as it wasn't doodles, it was fine.

This caused the Land of Six Towers' "Six Towers" to become notorious.

Later, for a period, Grand Wizard Sulla, in order to change this situation, ordered "Six Towers" to be renamed "White Tower," wanting to carry out reforms. But halfway through the reforms, he discovered nothing had changed, so he renamed "White Tower" back to "Six Towers."

Locke asked Wizard Takla, "So, you wrote this gem succulent project application form?"

Wizard Takla hesitated. He opened his mouth and immediately said, "No, Sir Augustine. That application form was written by Master George Plutarch. Master George Plutarch is a genius of exceptional talent, so..."

Locke grew impatient. "No need to give me boilerplate responses. I'm at odds with them. A week ago, I almost beat up Erik. Even if he stood in front of me now, he probably wouldn't dare say anything randomly in front of me."

"It's you or it's not you. One sentence."

Wizard Takla was dumbfounded hearing this. He looked Locke up and down again, somewhat shocked in his heart. What kind of background would someone need to speak such domineering words?

For a moment, Wizard Takla had many thoughts in his mind. Finally, he spoke the truth, "Yes, Sir Augustine. That application form was written by me. What frustrates me is that I offered the project application form to Master Erik, wanting to obtain his funding, but he told me that giving me funding was impossible."

"Unless I was willing to gift this project application form to Master Erik's son, that first-rate wizard apprentice George!"

Wizard Takla clenched his fists unwillingly and said through gritted teeth, "I really was very unwilling, but what could I do?"

"After all, there are still many commoner wizards who don't even have such an opportunity. But later, because George messed around in the research institute, my research has been going on for ten years but hasn't made any progress at all."

"Sigh."

Locke nodded slightly. Wizard Erik's son George was currently indeed in his forties, but wizards possessed too many means of maintaining youth, so he looked like just a youth.

However, for First Circle wizards whose lifespans were calculated in five hundred years, indeed, a fifty-year-old wizard was just like a child, no different.

Locke nodded slightly. "I've looked at your budget expenditures. It's about what I expected. This is the new research plan I've formulated. Take a look."

Wizard Takla took the plan Locke handed over, and his body immediately shook. Just from Locke's arrangements, he could confirm that the other party was definitely an expert who had considerable experience leading projects.

The other party knew what equipment the research needed, what to do each day, and approximately how much work a wizard at different levels could do each day.

The plan formulated was very reliable.

Locke said to Wizard Takla, "Currently, there are mainly two points that need to change. First, fine-tune the research direction."

"Change the concept of storing light particles to produce self-detonation to instead having the gem succulent perform light element backflow into its own vacuoles, utilizing the elemental backflow principle of First Circle magical plants to produce gem succulent self-detonation."

"That is, cultivate a diamond succulent."

"Second, at our Louis Underground Mine Research Institute, we'll hold group meetings twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, with me presiding. At that time, you'll be responsible for reporting progress to me."

"Cancel the multi-level management system. All project plans in the hands of wizards will be followed up on and designed by me personally, and executed specifically by you."

Locke's breeding studies level had now risen to a certain height.

Previously at the Philade family, when Locke oversaw this type of project, he didn't dare directly manage it and needed to rely on the project's own person in charge to conduct research. But now Locke was simply making bold changes, fine-tuning the research direction and changing the research methods.

This was both a result of his progress in breeding studies and also a process, a process of him gaining more research experience.

Wizard Takla immediately understood. Locke wasn't one of those prestigious family wizards who occupied resources while having no output whatsoever. He showed some genuine respect toward Locke on his face, and suddenly had some hope in his heart for this research institute's future.

Wizard Takla said to Locke, "Yes, Director Augustine."

"We'll follow your arrangements. Your restarting the research institute is exactly what everyone in our institute hopes will happen."

"Thank you for favoring our Louis Underground Research Institute once again."

Some excitement appeared on Wizard Takla's face. As a commoner wizard, he had originally been worried every day that the research institute had essentially stopped operating and lost its function.

But because in the Land of Six Towers he had no methods or channels to obtain funding, he could only let things drift. But unexpectedly, after waiting idly each day, he actually waited for a turning point.

Wizard Takla thought to himself, 'Could this be my chance to turn things around?'

'Locke Augustine, he doesn't have the Plutarch surname either. Why does he have such great power in the Plutarch family?'

'Forget it, this kind of matter has nothing to do with me.' Wizard Takla turned around and invited Locke, "Director Augustine, please."

"Layton Frederick, hurry and tidy up our conference room." Wizard Takla suppressed the excitement in his heart and said to Locke, "Director, I want to report to you our recent research results. Those are all parts that weren't reported upward before, because previously, no one cared either."

"Please..."