Chapter 794: The Academic Lineage Fund and the Rhizosphere Replicating Wood Table

In the Dune Plane research institute on the tenth underground level, an image call request came in from Wizard Trajan.

Locke had not expected his senior fellow to contact him so quickly.

Wizard Trajan's bronze magical eye in his left socket was just as unsettling as ever. The contamination wound on his right side, left by the great dark world, had healed.

It seemed he had spent some time resolving that problem.

Wizard Trajan said, "Junior, I just finished a close-range void exploration task, and then I received a message from our teacher. Right, the teacher asked me to forward you thirty magic crystal cards."

Locke paused, then immediately understood. This was money Witch Yekaterina was sending him for the wedding ring testing task.

It seemed that seeing he had not taken any action for a long time, she had sent him a portion of the subsidy.

Locke asked with some puzzlement, "Teacher, why did she not give me this money directly?"

Wizard Trajan said, "That is not unusual. She has quite a large number of research groups under her, and the connections within the academic lineage are also very complex, involving an extremely intricate equity structure."

"Generally speaking, there are three levels of capital flow. The first level consists of the normal lateral and vertical project funding within the Origin Academy's internal teams, along with the academy's institutional subsidies."

"This portion of public funds is stored across the various groups, divided between the group's internal public funds and the public funds for the entire team that the teacher oversees. The sources are the resources our teacher brings in, the resources the various team leaders bring in, and the project funds applied for by outstanding researchers like you. When you use the group's equipment, you are required to pay a portion of that money, which is used for equipment maintenance, and if there is a surplus, it becomes the group's circulating capital."

"The second level is the general treasury within the academic lineage she has built."

"The third level is the funds she personally secures, in other words her private funds. These thirty magic crystal cards go through the academic lineage fund's accounts, and several of us senior fellows manage the accounting for the lineage fund."

Wizard Trajan said, "The academic lineage fund was established at her personal insistence, incorporating many regulatory bodies. After centuries of development it has become quite well-established."

"Because she personally believes that without an academic lineage fund, an academic lineage is nothing more than a loose collection of personal relationships."

"As for why she sent you thirty magic crystal cards, it should be because she has something she wants you to handle. She did not tell me the details. I only need to send you the money."

"The academic lineage fund's primary disbursement recipients are the sun ring wizards and Third Circle wizards. Ha, ahem, you should be in the receiving phase now."

Wizard Trajan smiled and said, "Of course, this academic lineage fund can generally reimburse a portion of your costs when you are doing odd tasks for the teacher, though it cannot cover all your expenses."

"At certain moments it can also serve to coordinate resources within our academic lineage, functioning as a sort of public fund pool that we voluntarily contribute to."

"Because of this, the relationships within our academic lineage are a bit closer than they might otherwise be. Worth mentioning is that while the Rose Throne's academic lineage does not have a public fund pool, they have magical weaver workshops and flower language specialist flower shops, with fixed internal faction tax payments submitted annually."

"And the portions of annual funds that the magical weaver industry association and the flower language specialist association submit to the Rose Witch are also used by her as the lineage's public fund. So the Rose Throne's academic lineage is also quite formidable in this respect."

Locke gave a slight nod.

Indeed. An organization built purely on personal relationships was necessarily loose and difficult to sustain over a long period.

After a long time, it would become entirely unclear who was connected to whom.

A good organization absolutely had to have a healthy financial structure.

No matter what, there had to be an independently deployable fund pool within the organization.

In essence, after Locke joined Golden Crown Mountain through the Cloud Marsh Cup, he was immediately recruited into a large research team.

What was most fortunate was that within this team, he did not appear to be a peripheral figure. Having won the Silent Chalice championship, he had in fact been given increasing access to resources.

The fact that he was receiving subsidies from the academic lineage fund and direct task assignments from Witch Yekaterina herself was proof of this.

Wizard Trajan said to Locke, "Locke, you should not have done any void exploration tasks yet, right?"

"I see that before you assemble your expedition and begin the exploration of the plane you have, it might be better to come with me on one relatively simple close-range void task first."

"That way you can also familiarize yourself with the environment of the boundless void."

Locke paused, but did not decline. He understood this was his senior fellow's goodwill, that he was taking him under his wing.

If he were not his junior fellow, Trajan would probably not be willing to take him along and let him familiarize himself with void exploration.

Wizard Trajan said, "I need to return to the great dark world before long to continue exploring the areas I did not finish last time, so my time is limited. In order to let you get familiar with void tasks, I am going to take on a task the White Wizard Association's Demon Hunter Corps has posted for near-void work, which involves eliminating a black wizard pirate vessel."

"Although we will only be operating in the near-void, this way you will get familiar with void flyers and the techniques of fighting in the void. That should be sufficient for your needs. Whatever remains you can read up on yourself."

Locke said gratefully, "Thank you, senior."

"That will indeed be sufficient."

"Senior Trajan, are these black wizards from the Chaos Mothership's pirate operation?"

Wizard Trajan's mouth curved.

"That is correct. The most shameless, the most troublesome, and the most persistently tenacious black wizards among the five great wars. Are you scared, junior?"

Locke smiled, a look of anticipation appearing in his eyes.

"Senior, among the five great wars, I have already tangled with the Twin Demon Realm and the Pale Pilgrimage. Having the chance to fight against the Chaos Mothership's black wizards this time, I am very much looking forward to it."

"Senior Trajan, in the southeastern quadrant I made a name for myself killing black wizards. They call me the Eye Demon Wizard."

Wizard Trajan appeared to greatly appreciate this attitude of Locke's.

"Good. Worthy of being my junior. Then meet me at Little Peach Mountain in a week. The Ghost Gate area of Little Peach Mountain is very close to the near-void orbital track. Wizards from Golden Crown Mountain who want to enter the void generally take a flyer and depart from the Ghost Gate."

"To be honest with you, junior, I also made my name killing black wizards. They call me the Executioner."

"Looking at you all bristling with fighting spirit, it reminds me of my days as team leader in the Demon Hunter Corps during my moon ring wizard period. Such memories. Ha ha ha ha..."

In the next instant, Wizard Trajan ended the call.

Locke then prepared to go to the wizard bank to collect the thirty magic crystal cards that Trajan had transferred over. Trajan had already moved them directly into his account, and he only needed to go and collect them.

At the same time, he was planning to make a trip to the Dragon Blood Market to purchase experimental materials and consumables, and to use the magical fields in Group Two's research institute to run experiments.

Locke first paid a visit to Wizard Cis's office.

At this moment, Wizard Cis was busy working on restoring the Dune Plane's ecology. He looked over the consumable usage list that Locke had submitted, along with the usage application for the three Grand Magic mirrors and the Queen's Chessboard.

Wizard Cis blinked, considered for a moment, and said, "Locke, these usage records, why are they all related to either bromeliad-type magical plants or Climbing Fern?"

Locke coughed once, knowing that he had been somewhat excessive lately. He had been running too many experiments unrelated to Group Two's work.

Although Wizard Cis turned a blind eye to him, and he could not exactly say he was completely using the group's resources for his own purposes.

First, he had already established himself within Witch Yekaterina's team and made his own contributions.

Second, the wizard shoe-related field had itself received his teacher's support.

But from the perspective of Wizard Cis as Group Two's team leader, although what Locke was doing was still within the scope of what the academic lineage needed to do, it was not what Group Two was supposed to be doing.

In terms of Wizard Cis's personal interests, it could not be said to harm them, but it was also irrelevant to them.

Locke knew that even the best of relationships required maintenance.

"Team Leader Cis, air bromeliad-type magical plants are themselves excellent drought-tolerant magical plants. I also have plans for a subsequent series of deeper research in this direction."

Wizard Cis smiled with an ambiguous expression.

"And incidentally, a better wizard shoe might be designed?"

Locke's expression did not change.

"A magical plant's excellent drought-resistance mechanism itself implies the existence of efficient energy-locking structures that make good use of energy. Studying drought resistance naturally leads to the discovery of efficient energy-locking structures, and placing those energy-locking structures into air bromeliad magical plants easily leads to outstanding wizard shoes."

"Strictly speaking, my wizard shoe products are simply a byproduct of our Group Two research."

Locke's tone was entirely righteous.

"Team Leader, I am using the revenue earned from byproducts to feed back into and accelerate Group Two's research progress."

Wizard Cis signed his name on the five lists Locke had given him, and also signed the usage application list for the large-scale equipment.

"Enough of your smooth talk."

Wizard Cis smiled and said, "Even within Golden Crown Mountain, very few people would so naturally connect a product they personally want to produce with Group Two's fundamental research. But your point is interesting. A more drought-resistant plant trait implies a better energy-locking structure, which means a higher-performance wizard shoe."

"Locke, you have a sharp instinct for connecting fundamental research to practical applications."

"And this instinct, I have seen it in Teacher Red Dragon Throne. You and she are truly remarkably similar in many respects."

Wizard Cis said, "Go and do what you want to do."

"In any case, the Tier 1 Fund project for the three of Witch Mason's group still needs to be our Group Two's project. With your help, they should produce results fairly quickly. It would be best if they could discover a few more new energy-locking structures within the air bromeliad magical plants."

Locke managed a wry smile. This was a transaction invitation.

In other words, Wizard Cis was indulging him in using Group Two's shared equipment and would approve his various equipment usage applications, but in return he needed to ensure that his small group produced more research results related to energy-locking structures.

But this did not conflict with his own interests.

Locke said, "Of course."

Team Leader Cis smiled. "By the way, I recently bought at a bottom price a laboratory from the asset liquidation of a bankrupted Second Circle wizard."

"I acquired the most expensive and finest piece of experimental equipment from that laboratory, a Rhizosphere Replicating Wood Table, commonly called the Replicating Table."

"It is a large-scale Second Circle magical artifact in botanical studies, priced at approximately the ten million level, but with very expensive related consumables and maintenance costs. Only a relatively large team can afford to purchase it and keep it running."

"Now that their laboratory can no longer afford the Replicating Table, they sold it to me. The rhizosphere system of plant roots is a black-box structure. Because the rhizosphere is the micro-environment of plant roots in the soil, the slightest interference or disruption renders it without research value."

"But using the Replicating Table, one can record the changes in various natural magical force structural components within the root's rhizosphere environment."

"For our Group Two's research, I believe this is quite meaningful, so I purchased it. For your research it should also be useful. Our Group Two is currently short of outstanding researchers, so after I brought it back, you take it and use it first. Be careful with it. After all, it has had three previous owners. Do not break it."

"Breaking it would mean finding someone to repair it, which is another expense."

Locke was moved. He had not expected Wizard Cis to support him this way.

It was clear that Zalan Bailey had truly broken his heart.

Locke thanked him. "Thank you, Team Leader Cis."

Cis nodded. "No need to thank me. The Zalan Bailey affair taught me that nothing can be rushed. The more rushed one is, the greater the losses, and the more slowly things actually progress. I have reflected deeply on that affair..."

...

At this moment, Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit avatar had already returned to the southeastern quadrant, to Lilith’s Cottage.

In Lilith’s Cottage, Locke saw the familiar port city, saw the familiar assortment of alchemy huts standing in the port city.

A wave of familiar yet distant memory washed over him.

At this moment, the anti-undead barrier, the Life Force Field, was still deployed across Lilith’s Cottage's various areas.

In the center of Lilith’s Cottage's port city, beside the public classroom alchemy hut, tables set for a banquet had been arranged, laden with an abundance of food.

When Locke walked into the center of the banquet, he saw many familiar faces. First was Lady Irina.

Lady Irina still wore that elaborate wizard's robe of hers, dressed like a noblewoman with an ornate coiffure. She was holding a glass of wizard wine and walked toward Locke, saying, "Lord Augustine, it has been a long time."

"My business partner. The magical plants you invented during your apprentice days are still selling very well. Would you have any interest in bringing the new magical plants you have developed in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands to our southeastern quadrant?"

Lady Irina was smiling broadly. The finest decision she had ever made in her life was probably partnering with Locke to establish the Augustine Magical Plant Specialty.

Locke gave Lady Irina a slight nod.

Lady Irina then straightforwardly drained her glass of wizard wine in a single gulp.

"A toast to our Second Circle wizard."

Locke said to her, "Lady Irina, in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands I have been primarily developing a number of pure magical plant wizard shoes. If you need them, I can license you to sell them."

Lady Irina's eyes immediately lit up and she grew visibly excited.

"Wizard shoes have never sold well in the southeastern quadrant."

"So the wizards of the southeastern quadrant have never had a very clear understanding of what wizard shoes are."

"If I were to manage your products here, then from the very beginning, the southeastern quadrant's concept of wizard shoes might be defined by pure magical plant wizard shoes."