Panno gave a general tour explaining the usage methods of some equipment and most of the divisions within the public laboratory, then said to Locke, "Brother, you need some magical fields."

"At least one acre of magical field to use for experimental data when applying for projects. The magical fields in the public laboratory don't have any extras now. These magical fields that can be provided for our free use have long been targeted by everyone. As soon as there's the slightest opportunity for one to become available, it gets taken."

"So we have to spend our own money to rent some magical fields outside."

Panno said, "Alright, that's it. Now I need to continue reviewing documents and materials to find my research topic."

Locke said, "Thank you."

He moved to the table and first looked at the materials Wizard Kelt had given him, then also looked at other document materials.

There were really too many materials here related to magical plants connected to magical creature reproductive capacity, all kinds of varieties, with extremely complete information.

Some magical plants could release special natural magic structural components to specifically enhance the reproductive capacity of a certain magical creature. Some magical plants could nurture special fruits that possessed tremendous energy, allowing certain magical creatures to gain the ability to reproduce offspring after eating the fruits.

Locke read a document by a wizard apprentice named Hoddel Anderson who had investigated forests near Golden Crown Mountain. He observed that a griffin population had an abnormally increased species numbers within that forest. After preliminary observation of the griffin population's behavioral habits and diet, he locked onto eight types of magical plants that might possibly be related to the sudden rise in the griffin population's reproductive capacity.

What Locke needed to do was lock onto from these eight types of magical plants the one or multiple magical plants that truly played a role.

Of course, it was very likely that there would be situations where there was no key magical plant at all.

Locke had to distinguish all these.

Locke also realized that the best way to improve this kind of discernment ability was first to read more materials, and second to use these materials to do some simple experiments.

After a whole day passed, Locke organized these materials and put them back in their original places. He stretched lazily.

At this time, it was already midnight. He had spent an entire day here reading materials and had greatly increased his knowledge.

At the same time, he left the laboratory. At that moment, Panno was still staying in the laboratory, continuing to read materials, trying to find the next topic he could work on.

Locke, however, had to go to class.

The teacher-guided course in the early morning today would end at two in the morning after completion.

Locke walked through Golden Crown Mountain in the dark night. He could see that above Golden Crown Mountain there were still many wizards riding their various modes of transportation, moving rapidly.

Cloud Marsh Wetland's wizards all liked to work 24 hours day and night. Therefore, whether day or night, Golden Crown Mountain always appeared to have such a fast pace.

Locke headed to Golden Crown Mountain's marketplace, Dragon Blood Market.

That market was a large wizard commercial city, a large castle located at the mountainside with numerous shops inside, and many open-air shop areas outside the castle as well.

There, Locke found a goblin bank and withdrew his thirty thousand magic stones as an external researcher, the sixty thousand magic stones Lady Irina had distributed to him, and the fifty thousand magic stones sent over from the Land of Six Towers.

This way, he immediately had one hundred forty thousand magic stones on hand.

Moreover, adding the two hundred thousand in research startup funds from Golden Crown Mountain's Origin Academy, plus twenty thousand magic stones in salary, he now had three hundred sixty thousand magic stones on hand.

With savings back in hand, Locke walked through Dragon Blood Market feeling confident.

Locke walked along the street, thinking about his next direction. "I should complete the Origin Academy project fund as quickly as possible, and I need to do it excellently."

"For other wizards, the Origin Academy project fund might be the main career course at the Origin Academy, something they can slowly work on over the next five years. But for me, if I want to obtain special funding, I can't do it that way."

"Wizard Yekaterina won't allow it either."

Locke thought, "To quickly find a breakthrough method, I still need to rent magical fields and start doing experiments as soon as possible, producing excellent preliminary experimental data. That way, making a project application will be very easy for me, and it will also be easy to get approved."

"Moreover, without doing experiments, I also don't know which content in those preliminary magical plant investigations is credible and which content is questionable."

Locke walked into a shop called [Fertile Field Contract] on the second floor of the Dragon Blood Market Castle. The shop owner was a First Circle liquefaction stage Life School earth wizard, with soil on both his face and clothes.

He held in his hand a wand that looked like it was made from a dead old tree stump. Cloud Marsh Wetland had a developed wand system with large amounts of excellent wands.

Wands could assist wizards in casting spells, enhance magic power, increase casting speed, and reduce casting consumption.

Therefore, they were very popular in the Cloud Marsh lands.

The only problem was that wands required relatively high magic tide environments for preservation and maintenance, otherwise they easily developed problems. Therefore, in many wizard lands where the magic tide concentration gradient wasn't sufficient, they weren't as prevalent.

This earth wizard was a dwarf. A sparrow emerged from his raised long hair. The sparrow's eyeballs stared at Locke for a while, then flew away on its own.

Earth wizards and botany wizards were both Life School wizards, but the two had different focuses. Botany wizards focused more on researching magical plants' relationship with nature, while earth wizards focused more on the earth, that is, geology, or geological ecological restoration and such.

At this moment, when this dwarf earth wizard saw a customer walk in, his eyes immediately brightened slightly. He walked out on his two short legs. "Customer, I'm O'Connor."

"Are you looking to purchase magical fields, rent magical fields, or trade magical fields?"

Locke said concisely, "I want to rent magical fields to use for some magical plant experiments."

O'Connor nodded. "Very well, I'll arrange the best land for you."

O'Connor smiled.

As an earth wizard, he specialized in researching the earth in nature, understood the classifications of those magic ores that were extremely tedious in other wizards' eyes, and knew which area's land was most suitable for what.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be his turn to be a shop owner in such a large shop as Fertile Field Contract.

As an earth wizard, he could even adjust underground magic tide flow to enhance certain pieces of land.

Wizard O'Connor said, "What price range of magical field do you want? Or what function of magical field? If you're pursuing cost-effectiveness, I recommend you choose dispersed-type magical fields."

"If your funds are relatively tight, I suggest you purchase linear-type magical fields or vertical-type magical fields."

"If your funds are relatively abundant, you can purchase a matrix-type magical field."

"Oh, let me see..." Wizard O'Connor said, "A few days ago, a magical field developed on top of a Great Red Mountain Banyan tree was returned from lease. That one acre magical field is still at a special price period. Do you want it? Right now it only costs four thousand magic stones to rent for a year."

"The normal price is eight thousand magic stones!" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Locke frowned. "How much for a normal, on the ground, square-shaped one acre magical field?"

He just wanted an ordinary magical field.

Wizard O'Connor said quickly, "That's the matrix-type magical field I mentioned to you. That's ten thousand magic stones per acre."

"If you have special needs, like needing to plant in lava, flowing water, or on clouds, I also have special types of magical fields to recommend to you."

Locke frowned. He hadn't expected that normal magical fields here would be so expensive.

However, the magical fields here received magic tide infusion from Golden Crown Mountain and could even directly plant First Circle magical plants without using large amounts of resources.

For magical plants, it was almost an ideal environment that couldn't appear in other regions, so the high price was natural.

As for the space inside the Druid's Ring, it wasn't a normal space. If he wanted to do experiments, he couldn't do them inside.

The data obtained would have some deviation.

Locke thought for a moment, then said, "Then I'll rent that magical field on top of the Great Red Mountain Banyan tree."

Anyway, he only needed one acre, and on a treetop versus on land, there really wasn't much difference.

Therefore, saving a bit wouldn't be a bad thing for him.