Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 146: Income from the Treatment Center

Locke said to dwarven scholar Orr, "By the way, I'd like to investigate materials on ancient creature bloodlines. Can you recommend some?"
Dwarven scholar Orr nodded. "Oh, that's a rather niche field. Ancient bloodlines are very difficult to obtain now, making research extremely challenging. Conversely, black wizards have many archaeological scholars with abundant materials in this area."
"However, Potion Master Augustine, what you've described is still too broad for me to help you. Could you narrow the scope further?"
Locke agreed with a nod. "Specifically ancient creature bloodlines with gold elemental attributes, or resonance caused by two different ancient creature bloodlines. Are there articles on these topics?"
Dwarven scholar Orr's right eye rapidly flickered with different runes. "There aren't many valuable articles in this area, Lilith's Cottage doesn't specialize in this."
"There are several inconsequential D-grade articles, one C-grade article, and two somewhat related B-grade articles."
Locke became interested.
Dwarven scholar Orr continued, "One is a compilation of ancient creature bloodlines. Because the data was quite comprehensive, it was rated B-grade by the general studies scholars at the time, 71 points."
"He probably obtained some black wizard research content through private channels, so he compiled a fairly comprehensive list of ancient creature bloodlines, including three mentioned as having strong gold elemental particle compatibility."
"The second article was also published by the same person, mainly his speculation that in super-ancient times, there existed a type of mysterious factor that made magical creatures universally more powerful than now."
"It's an interesting hypothesis, but because the theoretical portion wasn't rigorous, it only scored 70 points, nearly classified as C-grade."
"Breeder Augustine, would you like to exchange using contribution points?"
Locke would be foolish to spend 10 contribution points purchasing viewing rights for these two articles. "No, I'll use 100 magic stones to purchase them. I'll buy them now. Can you convert these two articles to paper documents for me?"
Dwarven scholar Orr replied courteously, "Certainly. However, our third-class wizard apprentice staff need some time to copy materials. We'll send them to your designated location shortly."
"About two hours."
"Rest assured, our copyists' materials are carefully reviewed by general studies-oriented wizards."
Locke nodded. "That's good."
"Just send them directly to my office at the Healing Hand Treatment Center."
Locke paid 100 magic stones and left the public library. He had to go to the Healing Hand Treatment Center that afternoon.
Last month at the Healing Hand Treatment Center, he earned 1,200 magic stones total.
Not much but this was already quite good.
Completely curing a cursed first-class wizard apprentice required enormous time and energy.
Generally, complete treatment took over ten days, sometimes even a month.
Usually, treating one first-class wizard apprentice earned a potion master assistant less than one hundred magic stones.
For lower-level wizard apprentices, treating them was almost like free service. Their meager treatment fees all went to the wizard academy and wizard mentors for equipment and facility costs.
A potion master assistant could treat five or six first-class wizard apprentices per month if doing well, around ten if skilled.
His current income matched that of a skilled potion master assistant because Witch Sophia didn't exploit him, instead splitting profits fifty-fifty.
This allowed him to earn approximately 300 magic stones from each first-class wizard apprentice patient.
However, because this was his first month working at the Treatment Center, his efficiency was relatively low. This month, with Axi and Andrew's help, he had only successfully treated four first-class wizard apprentices.
Even then, luck was involved.
Once, he misjudged the type of curse magic affecting a first-class wizard apprentice, causing that apprentice's condition to worsen for several days.
Fortunately, Andrew and Axi covered for him, otherwise just dealing with complaints would have been troublesome enough.
While this was a common mistake for novice potion master assistants, it showed that Treatment Center work was indeed complex but now that he could brew Minor Viridian Potions, the number of patients he could treat monthly would increase.
His income at the Healing Hand could surge somewhat.
Overall, due to wizard mentors' exploitation, academy exploitation, and patients' objective payment capabilities, potion master assistants' income at Healing Hand Treatment Center was calculated precisely.
Not too high, not too low.
So the Healing Hand Treatment Center even offered monthly salaries of 800 magic stones, not much, but stable, preventing some potion master assistants from losing money or earning much less in certain months.
Some potion master assistants who didn't control their potion costs well might actually operate at a loss.
After all, Treatment Centers couldn't provide potion master assistants excessive magic stone returns, or no one could afford treatment there.
Locke entered the Treatment Center, coldly nodding slightly to everyone who greeted him, then walked up the spiral staircase.
'Overall, any job selling one's time won't be very lucrative. Working at the Treatment Center earns far less than profitable botanical gardens and personal pharmacies.'
'It's like the difference between employment and entrepreneurship.'
'However, working here provides at least stability. Those first-class wizard apprentices who take loans to open their own pharmacies and botanical gardens, debt bankruptcy and constant borrowing are everywhere.'
Locke reached the second floor and found the entire floor decorated with simple red ornaments, apparently celebrating something.
Locke quickly found his friends Axi and Andrew in the crowd, walked over and asked them, "What happened? What are we celebrating?"
Andrew turned and said to Locke, "Locke, the patient in Room 1 with the Mother-Child Giant Corpse Blood Curse has been cured."
"We're throwing him a celebration feast. Academy leadership considers this a historic moment of our Lilith's Cottage younger generation defeating Blood Curse Court's wizard seeds. They even invited enchantment school sketch artists to record this moment and want everyone from our Treatment Center to participate."
Locke frowned slightly and nodded indifferently. "Who broke the blood curse?"
Axi answered, "Anglon."
"But that guy... his victory this time was really dishonorable."
Axi glared at Anglon, who was accepting applause from the crowd, quite displeased.
Andrew quietly reminded her, "Axi, keep your voice down."
Andrew explained to Locke, "Anglon's ability to break the blood curse this time didn't rely on his own skill. To compete for the [Rising Star of Potion Studies] title and gain resource allocation from the school's potion studies department, he used the achievements of another first-class wizard apprentice student under Halen Vera."
"Supposedly that student was researching curse-targeting potions, and his results happened to be adaptable by Anglon to solve the Mother-Child Giant Corpse Blood Curse."
"That's why Axi says Anglon's victory wasn't honorable enough."
Locke raised an eyebrow. "That first-class wizard apprentice was willing?"
Andrew shook his head. "That's unclear. But I think he was willing."
"They're all in the same network. Today he helps Anglon, tomorrow when he competes for resources, Halen Vera will have Anglon help him."
"It's also a type of transaction."
"I heard that to compete with Astrid, Miranda, and Albert for the Rising Star of Potion Studies title, Anglon mobilized Mentor Halen Vera's entire network, asking many senior students to brainstorm together."
"Locke, as you know, the academy's Rising Star of Potion Studies title changes annually, only one per year, and they're re-evaluated each year based on potion studies performance scores."
Andrew shrugged with a mocking expression. "Last year and the year before, the Rising Star was Astrid, so this year he's desperate to improve his potion studies performance score."
"Even using methods like this."