Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 198: Germplasm Repository

Locke said to Witch Sophia, "Teacher, I'll go to the germplasm repository then."
Witch Sophia was slightly surprised. "The germplasm repository? Oh, you're going there to purchase seeds. Lilith's Cottage's public germplasm repository is indeed excellent, quite impressive."
"It preserves large quantities of experimental seeds." Witch Sophia said, "I still have several exchange permits for the germplasm repository. I'll give you one second-level seed exchange permit and one third-level seed exchange permit."
"These permits are useless in my hands anyway. You can use these permits to exchange for some magical plant seeds for free and use those seeds for experiments."
Witch Sophia took out two application forms from her office drawer, both already stamped with Lilith's Cottage Academy's seal.
Locke was somewhat surprised and delighted.
He had heard that the germplasm repository, as the shared germplasm preservation facility for all breeders at Lilith's Cottage, required contribution points to exchange for permits.
Just the third-level seed exchange permit alone was expensive.
Not to mention the second-level seed exchange permit.
It seemed that besides exchanging with contribution points, one could only complete some special academy tasks or receive special academy title rewards to obtain some free exchange permits for germplasm resources.
Therefore, Lilith's Cottage's free exchange permits for the germplasm repository were definitely worth taking.
Generally, wizard mentors had many students under them, so even when providing benefits to students, each student couldn't receive too many of these exchange permits but because Witch Sophia currently only had him as her first-class wizard apprentice student, plus she was leaving soon, she was actually more generous than before.
After thanking Witch Sophia, Locke took the two stamped application forms, mounted his Engel Swift Snail, and headed to the location of the germplasm repository in the port city.
Lilith's Cottage's germplasm repository was located five hundred meters underground.
They had hired Constructors from the Earth Magic subdivision of the Evocation School, who used earth elemental magic to build an underground palace structure below ground to preserve large quantities of seeds for breeders.
Inside the underground palace building, there were also many alchemy workshops.
The entrance was guarded by dedicated second-class wizard apprentices and even first-class wizard apprentices.
After all, the germplasm repository was extremely important.
Many magical plants' standard models needed to be preserved in the germplasm repository.
If Lilith's Cottage's numerous magical fields were destroyed and large quantities of magical plants were destroyed, they might still need the germplasm repository to restore these destroyed magical plants.
Locke walked to the entrance, and after passing the review, he stepped onto a steel-wood composite mine elevator.
With a 'clang' sound, the steel cables on the mine elevator began to gradually rotate, lowering the elevator platform.
Accompanying Locke was a female wood elf second-class wizard apprentice with green hair. Under her banged hairstyle were a pair of bright, sparkling eyes.
This wood elf apprentice named Ruby was looking at Locke with admiring eyes, as well as the Outstanding Apprentice badge and official breeder badge on his chest.
For wood elves who revered nature, becoming a breeder was simply their lifelong dream.
Ruby said to Locke in a reverent tone, "Senior Augustine, welcome to our germplasm repository."
"The germplasm repository preserves seeds of many magical plants. Some magical plants no longer exist outside due to environmental changes."
"The temperature and air humidity inside the seed vault are maintained at certain values. The most important thing for preserving magical plant seeds is air temperature and humidity."
"Different magical plant seeds must maintain specific temperatures and humidity levels, so there's a large weather control device down here to maintain constant temperature in this germplasm repository and special temperatures in each room."
Ruby obviously wanted to show off her professional knowledge to Locke, so she spoke at length.
Ruby continued with reverence, "So later you'll need to go to the drying room to dry the clothes on your body, to prevent the moisture you carry from causing changes in air humidity."
"Sigh, I failed the breeder assistant exam again this year. This year's theoretical exam was really too difficult. I really want to become a breeder like you. I've failed the breeder assistant exam three times now, and my performance on the theoretical exam is poor every time."
At this time, the mine elevator had descended to about four hundred meters underground. Looking up, the mine elevator shaft above was pitch black, with only some magical mining lamps still lit.
Locke frowned slightly as he listened. He originally didn't want to talk much or intervene in others' lives, but hearing that she had failed the exam three times, he finally couldn't help but speak, "You have far too many gaps in your basic theory."
"It's very normal that you can't pass the theoretical exam for breeder assistant. I need to correct you on two points. First, constant temperature and humidity in the germplasm room are indeed very important, but more important is the constant magical tide gradient."
"Second, the reason I need to go to the drying room isn't just because of the moisture on my body, that's only one reason. The air humidity in magical plant seed storage areas indeed needs to be within a certain range. If humidity is too high, seeds will germinate. If humidity is too low, moisture inside the seeds will continuously dehydrate, destroying the structural water inside the seeds and killing them."
"But the main reason I need to go to the drying room is to make my body temperature consistent with the internal temperature of the germplasm room, because temperature changes exceeding 2 degrees Celsius will reduce seed lifespan by at least 50%."
"So, everyone entering the germplasm room needs to go through the drying room once, for the purpose of balancing temperature and moisture."
Ruby's face flushed red. She hadn't expected that she just wanted to show off her professionalism in front of an official breeder, but after just saying a few simple sentences, she had made so many errors.
Locke's high-level guidance, just a few sentences, swept away all the errors in the knowledge system she had mentioned, making her work at the germplasm repository much clearer and more understood.
Ruby gratefully said to Locke, "Thank you, Breeder Augustine. You're right. It seems I indeed have too many gaps in my theoretical system."
"Rather than the theoretical part of the breeder assistant exam being very difficult, I will work harder in this area."
"Thank you for your guidance. What you said today is very helpful to me."
At this moment, the mine elevator made a loud 'clang' as it hit the ground, obviously they had reached the five-hundred-meter underground location.
Underground here, all the rocks seemed to have been reinforced with earth magic, extremely hard, and special magical materials researched by alchemists should have been used to further reinforce this underground structure.
Probably even general-level wizard wars would find it difficult to threaten this fortress-like germplasm repository.
Locke walked out of the mine elevator and saw that this underground space had many rooms and tunnels, with each room sealed by magical alloy doors and protective school magical locks.
Inside the passages, magical mining lamps provided illumination.
Looking down, Locke could see that about one hundred meters below the perforated iron platform under his feet, there was a massive, activated super-large weather control device.
This weather control device was controlling the temperature and humidity inside the germplasm repository, and even the concentration gradient of magical energy tides.
This showed how troublesome and costly it was to store agricultural products.
Locke immediately thought of how Zack had previously wanted him to maintain one hundred acres of Crystal Palm Fire Lotus magical fields without orders.
That was simply ridiculous.
Locke walked out of the mine elevator and saw that in some rooms without doors in this underground building, some second-class wizard apprentices were sorting and processing seeds.
Some more common seeds were placed on iron shelves in public rooms.
Those shelves were filled with boxes of semi-transparent petri dishes, containing seeds of various sizes and colors, all with excellent appearance, like colorful gemstone magical seeds.
Locke asked, "Where are the second-level and third-level permit seed exchange areas? Take me there."
"I need to make exchanges."