Half a month later, inside Locke's dormitory.

Locke's magic pressure was currently at 9,030. Using the compression method, combined with Golden Crown Mountain's uniquely advantageous environment and the influx from the natural force plane, he could still maintain a strong upward momentum of increasing his mana by 1 point per day even at the First Circle crystallization stage.

At this time, in the potion room within Locke's dormitory, he used magical flames that continuously changed eight times. The liquid in the crucible suddenly exploded. The liquid inside the crucible underwent a chain reaction. Dozens of natural magic structure components conflicted with each other and burst forth as energy.

Locke promptly deployed his permanent defensive field, using the Life Force Field, attempting to compress the explosion into basketball size.

The next moment, the crystal wall barrier formed by condensing the Life Force Field cracked open a gap and nearly lost control completely.

Locke immediately took out the Hydra magical plant from his astral ring that had magic pressure stored in advance, and immediately used Myst's Power to forcibly suppress this terrifying explosive power.

This prevented the explosion from sweeping through the entire potion room. However, the crucible wrapped under Myst's Power was completely twisted, thoroughly melted by the explosion's power.

Locke recited a spell, summoning the Black Hole Peach, and had this pile of dangerous potion waste absorbed into the black hole deep within Golden Crown Mountain.

"The consequences of failing midway through brewing Felix Felicis are truly too terrifying." Locke ordered the wood elf maid to come in and clean up, his expression somewhat unpleasant. "The brewing difficulty of Felix Felicis is extremely high. As expected of the third round ladder of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion."

"Felix Felicis essentially uses natural magic structures inside a pile of magical plants to concentrate luck together and has this wizard drink it. After drinking Felix Felicis, this wizard will possess the maximum luck produced in the configuration process for one hour. But conversely, during the brewing process, as long as I fail in brewing, I'll invite the maximum degree of misfortune."

"Therefore, just one ordinary potion failure will trigger a massive magical explosion."

"The magical explosion's power exceeds normal limits. Even an ordinary First Circle wizard's permanent defensive field actually cannot defend against it. That means when ordinary First Circle potion masters configure Felix Felicis, there's a probability they could die due to potion configuration failure."

Locke exhaled a breath of turbid air. "Not only that, configuring Felix Felicis for long periods, whether successful or not, is very dangerous for the potion master currently configuring it."

"Under normal circumstances, a wizard cannot continuously configure Felix Felicis. Otherwise, it will make them unlucky."

The third round ladder test was indeed not so easy to pass.

Now, because he had left the Land of Six Towers, and he and Alicia had no contact method, they had lost the ability to contact each other directly.

He no longer had an external brain cheat.

However, with his current strange relationship with Alicia, unless necessary, he wouldn't contact her either.

After all, in a sense, Alicia chose her family between him and her family, while he chose the Star Domain Sea between her and the Star Domain Sea.

"Cloud Marsh Wetland has massive amounts of books. I can make up for my inadequacies in Felix Felicis configuration techniques by consulting those materials."

Locke extended his hand and summoned the Primordial Fire. This flame manifested from primordial force remaining from the beginning of the world's creation lay quietly in his palm.

"First, with the help of Primordial Fire, let me successfully configure Felix Felicis once."

The materials at Dragon Blood Market were very complete, so he had already purchased one set of Felix Felicis materials at Dragon Blood Market, spending 70,000 magic stones.

His current savings were 300,000 magic stones.

The raw materials for Felix Felicis were extremely expensive. After all, this was the most difficult to brew and most powerful potion at the First Circle level.

If not for the ladder test, it would be very difficult for him to even touch the relevant potion formula.

Locke smoothly processed the Felix Felicis-related materials and added its two most important main materials: crushed powder of Granville Lucky Butterfly and the tail of an Eris Rat. These two rare magical creatures were the culprits that cost him 70,000 magic stones to gather one set of Felix Felicis raw materials.

At the same time, Locke added a four-leaf clover as an auxiliary material to remove the toxicity of the Eris Rat's tail.

The main purpose of adding auxiliary materials to potion formulas was to neutralize the toxicity of core materials and secondary materials.

Simultaneously, Locke skillfully manipulated the Primordial Fire, switching the magical flames back and forth between fire element and water element, while also switching between ice element and flame element.

Through multiple flames with different polarities, he could neutralize two core materials with opposite natures as much as possible and fuse out the natural magic structure components within them.

Previously, Locke had failed every time because he was stuck at this step, always unable to switch in time between two groups of magical flames with mutually opposite natures.

This step could likewise stump countless First Circle potion masters.

This step's requirements for mana accuracy were extremely abnormal. Being off even half a point would trigger a magical explosion and the entire Felix Felicis brewing would fail.

Three hours later, Locke's complexion was slightly pale. He drank a bottle of Spirit Spring Soul Surge Potion to restore his condition while picking up the Felix Felicis in his hand.

"Using Primordial Fire, I can brew it successfully... Having the experience of successfully brewing Felix Felicis, everything else will be much easier."

Locke carefully placed the Felix Felicis into his astral ring, planning to find a time to drink a bottle of Felix Felicis and experience this potion's effects.

Then Locke left his dormitory and headed to the Origin Academy's breeder public laboratory.

He walked toward his small workstation in the laboratory. The work of mapping the completely new natural magic structure component using the three great mirrors was already half complete. Using the three great mirrors two more times each would complete the mapping work for the new natural magic structure component.

As for the symbiotic relationships between the other four bromeliads and magical creatures, because the Synthesis Cube pointed out the direction, he had already thoroughly explored and written the closing reports. In another half month to a month, his first funding in the Origin Academy could be completed.

At the same time, within this half month, he had completed preliminary experimental data for three more bromeliads—Black Tearstone Bromeliad, Snow Wave Flower Bromeliad, and Yellow Amber Bromeliad—related to their connections with the reproductive abilities of three specific magical creatures.

Locke planned to continue writing closing report documents while simultaneously writing project applications for advancing to Tier 2 funding.

However, when Locke returned to his workstation, he frowned slightly, because a First Circle wizard apprentice wearing gray robes was standing beside his workstation, looking very nervous and uneasy.

Upon seeing him approach, the apprentice immediately looked toward him nervously.

Witch Mason, who was processing materials at her laboratory workstation, said to him in a low voice, "Your teacher is here."

At that moment, Locke looked at that First Circle wizard apprentice. He was about 1.7 meters tall, with relatively youthful features, approximately twenty years old.

Actually just two years younger than himself.

But his magic pressure had already reached 700, very close to 800.

Locke looked at Mason. "Is this the student the academy assigned to me? His magic pressure is so high, already close to 800. I see that the students the academy assigned to you all seem to have magic pressure between 400-600."

Witch Freya at the workstation beside Mason shrugged her shoulders while sitting in her position. "Locke, that's because the academy leadership also treats us differently. The standard for students arranged for us ordinary Origin Academy researchers is magic pressure 400-600, but for students arranged for you senior Origin Academy researchers, it's above 600."

Mason waved her hand and smiled, saying, "Being able to enter the Origin Academy for joint cultivation, the students themselves must all be relatively outstanding students."

"Even if they're not wizard candidate seeds of this generation of Golden Crown Mountain, they're very close."

"So, they're all about the same."

Freya muttered, "The difference is huge. If I had a student with 700 magic pressure, how much more work could I get done? I'd definitely be thrilled. Sometimes when I look at those students under me, I get very irritated."

Mason coughed once or twice to indicate she should watch the occasion.

Locke called this student out from the workstation area inside the laboratory.

The two walked to the ridge of a magical field.

Locke asked him, "What's your name? Introduce your situation. Are you a wizard candidate seed of Golden Crown Mountain?"

Gregor Robinson swallowed nervously. Locke's magic pressure appeared heavy as a mountain in his eyes, majestic beyond sight.

That terrifying magic pressure enveloped Locke, tempered through thousands of refinements, perfect and flawless.

This made Gregor very nervous.

At this moment, faced with Locke's question about whether he was a Golden Crown Mountain wizard candidate seed, Gregor's face flushed with shame. His mind raced frantically, afraid this would make Locke dissatisfied with him.

"Teacher, my name is Gregor Robinson. I'm a wizard apprentice currently studying botany." Gregor said in a low voice, "Teacher, I'm not yet a wizard candidate seed, but I can work hard to become a Golden Crown Mountain wizard candidate seed."

"Golden Crown Mountain wizard candidate seeds are only the top three in an academy. Their mana generally reaches 800. Teacher, I will work hard."

Locke nodded slightly.

He had anticipated this. Golden Crown Mountain would place its relatively outstanding batch of wizard apprentices into the Origin Academy for joint cultivation, and they could also serve as the lowest level labor force within the Origin Academy.

Therefore, they wouldn't place the most outstanding batch, those wizard apprentices about to become formal wizards, into the Origin Academy.

However, obtaining a student whose magic pressure had already reached 700 would be very beneficial to him.

This way, helping him become a formal wizard would be much simpler.

Next, Locke exchanged a few words with Gregor and learned that his learning experience was actually quite simple.

First, he was a native of Cloud Marsh Wetland. Then he was a Child of Wood Element. After entering Golden Crown Mountain at age 16, he had been studying step by step all along.

The apprentice-level plant spells he learned were the "Breaking Bamboo" series of spells unique to Cloud Marsh Wetland, using the coordinating magical plant of apprentice level: Iron Bamboo.

Locke glanced over at the very nervous-looking Gregor. This counted as his first official student.

A student within the teaching position system.

According to the contract, he needed to produce two formal wizard-level students in the Origin Academy to obtain his completion certificate.

Locke recalled when Witch Sophia first met him. Had he been this nervous back then?

Locke's lips curved in a smile as he asked Gregor for his Iron Bamboo. It was evident that this Iron Bamboo had received his meticulous care and therefore grew very well.

Locke said, "Starting today, you'll follow me and help me organize materials. Start learning by organizing my materials, then help me with some work."

This way, the miscellaneous tasks that had troubled Locke, like going to finance for reimbursement and purchasing various scattered items, would have someone to do them.

Moreover, in his project, aside from discovering those unknown natural magic structures and some relatively advanced experiments that this apprentice couldn't help him with, all other miscellaneous small experiments could be done by him.

This would save him a lot of trouble.

Gregor bowed to Locke. "Yes, Teacher."

Locke said to him, "By the way, for our first meeting, let me give you a better apprentice-level magical plant."

Locke gave him the Black Chain Sword Bamboo that Albert had given him. Although this rare magical plant had been damaged in battle before, he had long since repaired it. After all, he was a First Circle level breeder.

"Thank you, Teacher." Gregor received the Black Chain Sword Bamboo from his hands. The next moment, the magic pressure Locke had infused into the Black Chain Sword Bamboo burst forth.

"This..." Gregor swallowed. "Teacher, this is too valuable. It contains your magic pressure."

"I..."

Locke shook his head slightly. "You're my first student, so treating you well is only proper."

Locke rubbed his nose. When he said these words, the image of another witch always appeared in his mind.

He couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Was Gregor's current image in his eyes also his own image in Witch Sophia's eyes back then?

Gregor caressed the high-quality magic pressure transmitted to him from the Black Chain Sword Bamboo. Immediately, his magic pressure stirred restlessly and combined with it, even bringing him some benefits.

Gregor said to Locke, "Thank you, Teacher."

"My original wizard mentor was very strict with me. He has many, many students. Throughout the year, I actually can't see him even once. Even when we do meet, I can't speak with him, and even now he still can't remember my name. But you seem different from him."

Gregor seemed to have his conversation opened up by Locke's kindness. "I originally thought you would also be a stern person."

"No, no, I mean, in my eyes, you're still full of dignity, but I didn't expect you to be so good to us."

Locke smiled and said, "Your original mentor should be a wizard mentor of Golden Crown Mountain... He has many students, while you're my first student."

"Come. I'm going to the Cold Ice Mirror room today. Help me organize the materials at my workstation."

Gregor quickly followed Locke. "Yes, Teacher."