Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 143: Unbalanced Income and Expenses

Six days later, in his bedroom.
Locke used the advanced meditation method and entered a meditative state. After a night had passed, he placed his palm on the amethyst matrix and frowned slightly.
450.
Locke showed a bitter smile. Since leaving the beginner's benefit period, his meditation efficiency using the advanced meditation method was approximately one point of mental power increase every five nights.
At this rate, he could only gain 75 points of mana in a year.
But this was still the result after maxing out resources, using large amounts of potions, Weeping Blood Nightshade Potion, Stardust Tears Potion, Energy Potions, plus Four Seasons Fruit Core Incense to increase conversion efficiency.
If he didn't max out resources and spend over four hundred magic stones daily on cultivation resources, his efficiency would probably be only one-fourth of what it currently was.
Locke fell into contemplation. "After all, my original talent was only Level 3. Slow cultivation speed is normal. According to Level 3 talent cultivation speed, it would probably take around 20 nights to gain 1 point of mana originally."
"Annual mana growth wouldn't exceed 19. Even if growth speed doesn't slow with increasing mana, wanting to grow one hundred points of mana would require five to six years."
Locke's expression changed slightly. "Moreover, it will definitely become increasingly difficult later on, with difficulty increasing geometrically. For people with Level 3 talent, relying entirely on self-cultivation without using resources, reaching 600 mental power would require twenty to thirty years."
Locke thought, "But now I'm maxing out resources, and my cultivation speed is four times the original, so reaching 600 mental power should only take 5 to 6 years."
"This speed is far behind the improvement rate of Children of Elements."
"But it should be similar to the mana improvement speed of those without money to use many resources, with talent levels between 5th and 6th grade."
Locke sighed. His current cultivation speed was achieved by spending 400 magic stones daily on resources, plus using gems synthesized with his Synthesis Cube to purify the toxicity from extensive potion use.
Otherwise, using so many potions would cause major problems.
Over time, it would leave various aftereffects on his body and slow his progress.
"If it's this difficult for me, how much harder must it be for those with Level 1 and Level 2 talent?" Locke thought. "Though people with such talent probably have very low chances of becoming first-class wizard apprentices."
"Five to six years before my mental power reaches 600, when I'll be around 24 years old." Locke frowned. Though still young and considered very promising by others, with plenty of time before the 40-year threshold, this timeframe was still somewhat long.
If it could be shortened, Locke would want to shorten it.
Because the 600 to 800 mental power range would only be more difficult.
Moreover, Witch Sophia had told him multiple times that the younger one was when reaching 800 mental power, the better, the higher the probability of advancing to formal wizard.
This was why White Wizard Association had such high demand for geniuses, because geniuses advanced quickly, reaching the threshold for becoming formal wizards at a younger age, giving them much higher probabilities of becoming formal wizards than others.
Locke felt grateful. "Fortunately, I seized the beginner's benefit period and didn't let it go to waste."
"Otherwise, my current mana would probably only be in the two hundreds. At the current progress rate, I estimate it would take over ten years to reach 600 mana."
Looking back, his luck along the way had been decent. Two formal wizards had helped accelerate his acquisition of the advanced meditation method, and he'd perfectly obtained the academy's procurement contract to utilize the beginner's benefit period.
Locke considered, "Regardless, five to six years is still too long. I need to find ways to shorten this time."
"Strive to catch up to the speed of Children of Elements."
"The best method would be to go to Chimera Trading Market and purchase large amounts of magical resources, using them to further advance my meditation speed. Even if I can't reach the exaggerated rate of gaining over 200 mental power points per month during the beginner's benefit period, I should at least get close to that speed."
"Wanting resources requires more money." Locke tapped the bedside table with his fingers. "But I'm already experiencing income-expense imbalance. My botanical garden currently only generates 3,500 magic stones monthly, but my basic monthly cultivation expenses are 8,000 magic stones."
"The difference is quite large."
"If not for having a procurement contract order, this difference would be enough to put me in a vicious cycle of borrowing and repaying loans until I became a debt slave."
Locke thought, "I still must find new profit sources."
"My actual monthly expenses definitely can't be just 8,000 magic stones, because besides meditation, I have many additional expenses, like the recent vampire research experiments requiring purchases of many inexpensive but numerous small equipment pieces, collectively another expense."
"The botanical garden, laboratory, and pharmacy all require money."
"No wonder those first-class wizard apprentices always like exploiting second and third-class wizard apprentices. If I didn't have the Synthesis Cube to become a genius breeder and potion master with other income sources, I'd have to 'fall' too."
Locke rubbed his temples. To progress rapidly, he still needed to find more income sources, he was still poor.
However, regarding the pharmacy, there was no immediate way to quickly increase income, since potions were meant for human consumption.
The approval process was extraordinarily lengthy but Locke had heard that Anglon had developed many potions that hadn't completed all approval processes and entered Chimera Trading Market.
He seemed to leverage his mentor Halen Vera's powerful network to solve many troublesome procedures, greatly accelerating his personal pharmacy's research-to-validation phases for each potion.
The validation phase was every pharmacy's greatest cost. Anglon had managed costs well in this area through his mentor's network connections.
His character just wasn't very good.
"Let's sleep first." Locke snapped his fingers, and the bedroom candles immediately extinguished. "Many first-class wizard apprentices stay at this stage for decades anyway."
"Except for geniuses among geniuses like my teacher, Witch Sophia, no one can avoid this."
"I've already fully utilized the advanced meditation method's beginner benefit period, gaining far more advantages than others."
"Tomorrow I'll visit the library to see what rating my from a few days ago received, hopefully exchanging for some magical resources." Locke thought, "In the future, after passing the breeder examination and achieving good results in the breeder competition finals, I can gain another batch of resources."
"Also, I need to quickly decide my potion studies development direction and determine my personal pharmacy's specific research focus to better earn money."
"Moreover, I still have one wizard secret realm resource that I haven't chosen to exchange yet."