Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 252: Purchasing the Beholder Potion Formula

Witch Uma Gardner thought seriously for a moment, then said, "I know the kind of magic you're talking about. I can indeed try it, but it will take several months."
"I can summon shadow plane energy to create a shadow crow with low-level self-consciousness, set you as its master, then store it in a rune stone. When you need it, you can crush the rune stone and let this shadow crow consciousness drill into the magical plant you've selected, combining the two."
A flash of interest crossed Uma Gardner's eyes. She nodded at Locke. "Locke, you really are talented. I'm not talking about your talent in breeding studies and potion studies, but that intangible talent based on certain ideas."
"In other words, you have many ideas."
"And ideas, in the early stages of the wizard phase, especially before becoming a formal wizard, may not be the most important thing. The most important thing is being able to become a formal wizard before age forty. But after becoming a formal wizard, ideas become very important."
Witch Uma Gardner said softly, "People with ideas can gain more from exploring magic."
"Originally I was still thinking about what kind of shop our brigade could open in Chimera Trading Market to survive. But Locke, your idea just now reminded me that Lilith's Cottage has gathered so many breeders and life school wizards. There's no lack of people among them who need to combine life magic with conjuration magic and possess automatically battling magical plants that can create self-consciousness."
Witch Uma Gardner sighed, "Then I'll help you spend some time creating more rune stones."
"This is also to thank you for helping me a second time."
Locke and Witch Uma Gardner exchanged words for a while longer in the Witch Kitchen and ate a meal. Then Locke bid her farewell and headed to the Potion Auction House.
Inside VIP room number 14 of the Potion Auction House.
A customer who had chosen quick trading was hidden behind a black curtain in the VIP room, unwilling to show their true face.
Locke sensed the scanning gaze from behind the black curtain.
The second-class wizard apprentice trading agent bowed to Locke. "Senior Augustine, this customer who chose direct trading wants to negotiate with you face to face."
"Their asking price for the Beholder potion formula is... five thousand five hundred magic stones."
Locke's expression was strange. Not to mention that his pockets were currently empty without a penny, if it weren't for someone rarely wanting to sell a Beholder potion formula, and he had come over regardless of whether he had money or not, he wouldn't have wanted to come.
Secondly, the Beholder potion formula shouldn't be this expensive.
Although this potion formula indeed hadn't been made public yet, it had appeared many years ago. It was said that the inventor had long since become a formal wizard and had already liquified their mental power. It wouldn't be strange if one day they announced it and applied for a patent to compete for the association's special medal.
At least the potion's inventor no longer cared much about whether this potion formula would leak everywhere.
Moreover, this potion's scope of use was very narrow.
If it weren't for his amazing drug tolerance and having a large amount of Deep Purple Jade to use, he wouldn't dare to forcibly use it while enduring so many side effects.
Therefore, this potion formula's market price in magic stones was around one thousand to one thousand five hundred magic stones. Any more expensive would be excessive.
Five thousand five hundred magic stones...
This was too ridiculous.
Locke glanced at the trading agent. "Then you should remind him that this is direct trading, not an auction. Moreover, this thing can't pass the association's ethics review mechanism, right... so it can't be auctioned."
"Five thousand five hundred... that's absolutely impossible."
Locke already had the intention to turn and leave. Trading with customers who asked for such exorbitant prices would usually be a waste of time.
His time was precious, no need to waste it here.
Seeing that Locke had the tendency to turn and leave, the customer behind the black curtain suddenly spoke, "Cough, cough, cough... wait, Potion Master Augustine. I have other options for non-magic stone transactions."
"I need Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion, fifteen bottles total. If you can agree to the trade, I'll give you the Beholder potion formula."
Locke raised his eyebrows, immediately detecting from the other's words that they had specifically come for him.
"Pustule Curse?"
The weak wizard behind the black curtain's voice became very surprised. "How did you know? I tried my best to hide it, and I applied special spices on my body. There shouldn't be any unusual smell."
Locke stated frankly, "At the Healing Hand Treatment Center, there are some patients afflicted with the Pustule Curse. Their coughing has some patterns, mixed with a special sound from damaged respiratory tracts."
"Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion indeed has rich experience treating the Pustule Curse. You can see this in the third-phase experimental ."
Locke said, "The Pustule Curse is a combination of multiple compound curses that place a compound curse on your blood. Ordinary potions cannot treat it. Before Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion, there wasn't a single apprentice-level potion that could treat this kind of curse."
"I understand... fifteen bottles, we can trade."
Currently, his selling price at the Owl Cauldron was one hundred magic stones per bottle of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion.
Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion had already passed the third-phase experiments and obtained abundant clinical data. Therefore, experimental subjects were no longer needed, only some insignificant long-term outcome experiments had to be done, so naturally the selling price would increase.
Many patients at the treatment center had originally been enjoying Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion at nearly cost price. Now they had to start purchasing Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion with real money.
Fifteen bottles of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion meant one thousand five hundred magic stones, which was about the market price for the Beholder potion formula.
But this transaction was more advantageous for him, because actually the cost of each bottle of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion was very low. Even the Jade Iris Lichen was planted by himself.
Not counting labor costs, the cost of one bottle of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion was only about 10 magic stones.
Of course, this had to account for himself as the potion master assistant, plus the large group of second-class wizard apprentices and even first-class wizard apprentices that the pharmaceutical master hired, their time and wages. But even so, the cost per bottle was probably only around 30 magic stones.
Locke said, "We can trade immediately. I have stock of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion on hand. I hope we can complete the transaction quickly."
The wizard behind the black curtain paused. "Aren't you going to ask me why I didn't go to the Healing Hand Treatment Center but came to the Potion Auction House to find you for a private transaction?"
Locke said coldly, "I'm not interested."
"It has nothing to do with me."
The other party had their own reasons for not going to the Healing Hand Treatment Center, but he had no time or energy to think about the other's specific reasons.
After all, it was just a one-time trading relationship anyway.
As for whether the potion formula was genuine, the auction house could guarantee this. If there were problems with the potion formula later and it couldn't be replicated, he could trouble the auction house, and the auction house could go trouble this person themselves.
This was the benefit of having a third-party platform for transactions.
The wizard behind the black curtain let out a laugh. "This is really interesting. Potion Master Augustine, you truly are an interesting person."
"This is the formula, take a look."
Locke took the formula and glanced at it briefly, frowning. "This formula isn't the original formula, but a cracked formula?"
The wizard behind the black curtain said, "Yes. But the Beholder potion produced by the cracked formula has the same effect as the original version. The main materials have been completely reverse-engineered. Only a small amount of auxiliary materials might be different, but I think it's enough for you to learn from."
"The one who cracked it was a potion master from the Sand Sea Delta wizard region, absolutely reliable."
"I'm making you as a friend. Perhaps we'll have a chance to meet again in the future."
Locke frowned. After preliminarily confirming there were no problems with the potion formula, he gave the 15 bottles of Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion to the trading agent, who passed them to the other party.
With the Beholder potion formula, the last piece of the puzzle for his mental power to reach 800 had already been obtained.
What remained was to quickly learn to produce Beholder Lord Potion, then he could use it together with the remaining Tartarus Cave Worm Spinal Fluid to raise his mana to 800 and apply to the academy for advancement potion!
After completing the transaction, Locke finished signing the contract with that mysterious wizard, then left the auction house and returned to his simple laboratory to begin further study of configuring Beholder Lord Potion.
At the same time, that evening, Locke received two letters delivered by owl messenger at his residence.
One was the competition results from the White Wizard Association breeder competition, and one was the competition results from Lilith's Cottage's custom magical plant competition.
Locke frowned and opened the letters. "The academy's custom magical plant competition results came out three months late. I wonder what the reason is."
"I was still counting on the prize money to help me quickly recover financially."
"As for loans, the risk is really too great. If I can avoid taking a loan, I won't take a loan."