Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 123: Francis's Regret

In the semi-basement, vampire Howard spoke to the other vampires, "The Vampire Transformation Curse is itself the most powerful blood curse system of our Blood Curse Court."
"From the lowest level vampire servants to vampire barons, and the vampire grand dukes who stand at the very pinnacle, the hierarchy is strict with orderly advancement."
"This is a high-level blood curse personally cast by the formal wizards of the Blood Curse Court."
"Most of us were transformed into vampires not just for combat power, but to compensate for our insufficient wizard talent through vampire transformation."
"But previously, the blood curse systems on us had some core parts sealed by the Blood Curse Court's higher-ups. Now they have unlocked some of the blood curse functions on us."
Howard twisted his neck and laughed loudly, "We have been granted the new ability of blood devouring. We can capture excellent white wizard apprentices, dig out their hearts, drink their heart's blood, and obtain part of their magical power."
"As long as we eat enough, the more likely we are to become first-class wizard apprentices. Of course, the white wizards we eat must have somewhat higher qualifications than ourselves for this to be effective."
"The higher the qualifications of the white wizard apprentices we eat, the more magical power we obtain."
"So we must especially target those geniuses among the white wizards."
The vampire apprentices all had their expressions change at once, becoming extremely fanatical, excited, and thrilled.
Originally, with their qualifications, they certainly had no connection to becoming first-class wizard apprentices, but now, because of this war, they actually had a chance to change their fate.
This wizard war had already changed too many people's destinies, and would change even more people's destinies in the future.
The blood devouring ability would allow them to challenge the threshold of first-class wizard apprentices with their inferior qualifications.
Although the side effects would certainly be enormous, just like other shortcut black magic, the side effects were usually equivalent to the effects, or even greater!
But this group of Blood Curse Court wizard apprentices couldn't care about all that.
Howard took out a blood-colored pendant shaped like a dagger, "Come over one by one, I need to pierce your hearts with the blood key to unlock this ability permission for you."
"Let us begin our hunt for the white wizard apprentice geniuses!"
Immediately, nine Blood Curse Court vampire apprentices all walked toward Howard.
...
At Lilith's Cottage.
The White Wizard Association Breeder Competition was a competition spanning the entire southeastern quadrant, so after the preliminary ranking results came out, they attracted many people's attention.
Many breeders, and even some formal wizards, were all curious about who this Locke Augustine who suddenly appeared on the ranking list was, and even began inquiring about who his formal wizard mentor was.
Locke's fifth place ranking in the preliminaries undoubtedly brought him into the sight of the first-class wizard apprentices' core circle for the first time.
In the wooden house.
First-class wizard apprentice and breeder Mary, in her own laboratory, glanced over the list placed on her work table.
She saw her name positioned after eleventh place in the preliminaries and immediately curved her lips into a smile. "Passed. This is my third time participating in the preliminaries, and the results aren't bad."
"Under the premise that I held back some of my strength, I could still achieve such a high score."
Then, Mary placed her gaze on the fifth place in the rankings. "Locke Augustine, breeder's assistant? His work's ranking in the preliminaries is actually this high!"
"I remember now, when I was at the public botanical garden, I seemed to have seen him several times." Mary carefully pondered all the memories related to Locke in her mind.
Unfortunately, at that time, Locke still looked so unremarkable that she seemed to have never spoken to Locke even once, so the related memories were also very few.
"That should be a newly promoted first-class wizard apprentice."
Mary's eyes flashed with a trace of surprise. "He participated in this kind of competition for the first time and could actually have this kind of performance. Did his wizard mentor guide him?"
"Forget it." Mary stopped delving deeper. "Whether he's truly a genius or not, we'll know from the finals results. During the preliminaries, everyone didn't use their full strength, so the results don't have too much reference value."
"However, for him to achieve such a high ranking in the preliminaries, I suppose he has already mastered the Mana Co-frequency Cultivation Method and should soon be able to pass the breeder certificate assessment."
Mary put away the ranking materials and continued to start her experiments.
...
At the same time, in the First Circle wizard area of Lilith's Cottage, in Francis's office, Francis looked at the ranking in his hands.
As a Senior Advisor and Dean who devoted himself wholeheartedly to Lilith's Cottage, he would pay attention to the White Wizard Association breeder competition ranking results every time.
After all, these competitions related to Lilith's Cottage's external reputation.
Powerful wizard academies would easily have more wizard apprentices on the ranking lists, even ranking highly, while those weaker wizard academies often had very few wizard apprentices who could make the lists.
This itself was a manifestation of the wizard academies' strength, and also a way to display their power externally.
For Francis, Lilith's Cottage students participating in competitions was not just their own personal matter.
From his perspective, this was also the academy's matter.
At this time, Francis was scanning through the rankings from bottom to top, missing not a single one.
He nodded with satisfaction. "This time Lilith's Cottage students' performance was all quite good. Among the top fifty, seven are actually our own students."
"In the future, perhaps our Lilith's Cottage's breeder magic category can also rank among the top, becoming one of the most elite subjects."
"However..."
Francis placed his gaze on the front of the list, seeing Locke Augustine ranked fifth, and flashed with contemplation and surprise. "This child's potential is even greater than I thought."
"He's not just an ordinary, rapidly advancing first-class wizard apprentice."
"I really regret now that I actually allocated this kind of student to Sophia." Senior Advisor Francis's eyes flashed with regret.
"Although preliminary results can't be taken too seriously, this can also prove his potential in breeding studies from the side."
"Regardless of the finals results, being able to rank this high in the preliminaries already explains the problem."
Francis thought for a moment, "Although a medium-scale plant garden can't be approved for him, other benefits should still be expedited."
"For example, quickly approve a small to medium-scale plant garden for him."
"Following this development trend, this student clearly has the hope of becoming the successor to people like Mary and Anglon, becoming one of our next generation wizard seeds."
"So it's best to have Sophia sign a contract. As long as she stays at the academy, we won't need to worry about other issues."