571: venture capital and the Group's Approval of the Second-Class Foundation Project Application
In the living room of Locke's dormitory, Wizard Daniel and Locke sat by the long oak table. Daniel took a sip of Cui Luo green tea and said to Locke, "My Divination Spirit Mist sold quite well during the Weather Festival on August 22nd. It earned me two million magic stones; it almost made it onto the bestseller list for that day."
"I originally wanted to find you to share this good news, but who knew that when I came over to visit today, you'd tell me your Hydra series magic plants earned you a total of 6.5 million magic stones."
Wizard Daniel clicked his tongue in wonder. "6.5 million magic stones... I've never seen so much money in my life. If this income were in our Fission Mausoleum Plain, many Second Ring Wizards wouldn't be able to earn this much."
"In our Fission Mausoleum Plain, if any First Ring Wizard could earn this much money, they would probably be noticed by many Second Ring Wizards."
Wizard Daniel smiled and said, "However, thinking about it the other way, only a place like Yunze Wetland could allow a First Ring stage wizard to earn so much money. If it were in our Fission Mausoleum Plain, let alone 6.5 million magic stones, even the two million magic stones I got from selling Divination Spirit Mist would be impossible."
"In the Fission Mausoleum Plain, most profitable ventures require connections."
Wizard Daniel said, "A wizard might be able to earn a few hundred thousand magic stones based on their talent, but to go further, you need to see if your connections are strong. Who is your teacher, are your students successful, is there someone in your family, are you fighting alone, or are there many people behind you?"
Wizard Daniel continued, "Small places have low foot traffic; once you reach a certain level, everyone can see what you're doing."
"Unlike Yunze Wetland, the scale here is too large. For example, if you hadn't told me that September 1st is your Breeder's True Love Festival, I wouldn't have known at all."
Locke smiled. "If you hadn't told me that a few days ago was your Weather Master's Weather Festival, I wouldn't have known that festival existed either."
Wizard Daniel said, "These are all festivals hyped up by the Shop Alliance. If you don't usually pay attention, it's impossible to know. After all, these festivals are trivial and numerous."
Wizard Daniel spread his right hand, and a mass of silver mist appeared in his palm. "But congratulations to you. Earning so much money at once. Look, this is my Divination Spirit Mist."
The silver mist appeared in Wizard Daniel's hand like a gel.
"I created the Divination Spirit Mist by combining meteorology with prophecy magic materials I read at Golden Crown Mountain. It can amplify the prophecy magic of Diviners. For me, it can also be used to deduce things from the past."
With a wave of Wizard Daniel's hand, the Divination Spirit Mist covered the floor. Immediately, the mist formed one footprint after another. Most of these footprints belonged to Locke, and some belonged to the Wood Elf maids in Locke's room.
"Wizards of the Prophecy School quite like this stuff; it sells well over there."
Locke nodded slightly. "Indeed. Daniel, you seemed very busy a while ago; it was hard to see you normally."
Wizard Daniel coughed. "A while ago, I wasn't in the Wizard World."
"I went to a medium-sized Colonial Plane of Golden Crown Mountain. My research group had some research content that required going to that Colonial Plane. It's a special Plane filled with magma and fire. Even though it's a material Plane and a life Plane, according to the research of Earth Wizards, that Plane was struck by another Plane at its inception, causing the core energy to leak. Therefore, the entire Plane is like a purgatory year-round; we call it the Purgatory Plane."
"The indigenous life of the Purgatory Plane is a type of devil race, and their Plane faces the 'Nine Suns in the Sky' problem."
"The primordial power leaking from the core turned into Nine Suns in the Sky, making the entire land of that world like a toaster oven, repeatedly ravaged. Normal life cannot survive there. That devil race was forced to pilot their warships and invade everywhere, wanting to move out of that Plane, but they recently encountered the Wizard Civilization."
"They found a more realistic solution—joining the Wizard World and letting the wizards help them."
"Solving the 'Nine Suns Problem' of that world is precisely the key single project of the Third Ring Wizard, Throne Fyodor, whom I am following."
Wizard Daniel smiled and said, "Now, Throne Fyodor has asked me to go to the Purgatory Plane to study the 'Nine Suns Problem' together. Maybe in the end, he'll give me his sub-project."
Locke looked up at Wizard Daniel. "Congratulations."
Wizard Daniel waved his hands repeatedly. "However, this matter is far from certain; right now, he's just having me lend a hand in Purgatory. I expect he's still observing my abilities, after all, my second-class True Knowledge Institute foundation project hasn't been completed yet."
"I don't have a clue yet. Well, mainly it's a lack of money. I have a whole bunch of equipment I couldn't afford to buy before, which caused my progress to be very slow, but now it's different."
Wizard Daniel smiled. "With the two million I earned during the Weather Festival, I can use my own money to speed up the research process."
Wizard Daniel said, "By the way, now that you have money on hand, have you thought about how to save it?"
Locke looked at Wizard Daniel in confusion.
Wizard Daniel handed a document to Locke. "Look, this is the speed at which the prices of materials in Yunze Wetland are rising. If money is kept in your own hands, it might shrink into thin air because of the increase in the number of magic stones issued and the speed of price increases."
"So, we need to find some financial management institutions to manage our wealth for us."
"The most wasteful practice is to put a large amount of funds in our astral ring to gather dust. A more mediocre approach is to deposit it in the Big Five banks or small and medium-sized wizard banks to earn a rigid interest rate."
"But actually, there are some better ways. Recently, a senior brother in my lab recommended a young witch lady to me who speaks nicely, looks beautiful, is meticulous, cares about me, and even praises me!"
Wizard Daniel took out his Wish Lingzhi, opened his communication interface, and pulled up a witch's contact directory. "Look, it's this witch. She explained many financial products of Yunze Wetland to me, such as purchasing Wizard Gold Bonds issued by the White Wizard Association, or venture capital and the like."
Wizard Daniel seemed to become very excited. "Recently, I followed this young witch lady's advice and tried my hand at the stock market in the Dragon Blood Market castle, earning a lot of money. She's going to teach me about venture capital soon, saying it can make me earn even more!"
Wizard Daniel's eyes sparkled. "There are so many good people in Yunze Wetland. This witch said she wants to grow together with me and said we felt like old friends at first sight. Oh, right, her name is Witch Reina, she's a wizard of the Enchantment School, an Enchanter."
As Locke listened, he felt things were getting a bit strange. "So, she admires you?"
Wizard Daniel nodded. "She said I am a genius Weather Master."
Locke asked, "What is venture capital?"
He knew about Wizard Gold Bonds; those were gold coins cast with Golden Magic issued by the White Wizard Association, essentially similar to a national bond. The gold coins themselves weren't worth much; they just had the characteristic of being indestructible.
To buy Wizard Gold, one needed to pay a huge fortune to exchange for an ordinary, indestructible gold coin cast with Golden Magic. Then there was a certain term; when the term was up, one could take the Wizard Gold to exchange for the face value on the coin.
For example, a Wizard Gold coin with the number 10 represented that you could exchange it for 100,000 magic stones, while purchasing a number 10 Wizard Gold coin usually only required paying 98,000 magic stones.
This was a method used by the White Wizard Association of the Three Ze Lands to obtain a large amount of funds in a short period of time.
It was a form of social resource allocation.
Buying Wizard Gold was a relatively safe financial product, but as soon as Locke heard 'venture capital' from Daniel's mouth, for some reason, an ill premonition abruptly rose in his heart.
He glanced at his left hand, the Angels Tears Bracelet. He wasn't wearing it currently, but during this recent period, his Super Intuition ability had actually made some progress.
Wizard Daniel smiled and said, "venture capital is a type of market investment with high returns and high risks. But don't worry, that insightful and kind witch has inside information. She will lead me to invest in those wizard shops that look like they're failing but are actually high-quality."
"Recently, with her help, I've earned a lot of money. Yunze Wetland is so interesting; it turns out that as long as you have the ability to invest money reasonably, money can make money. You don't need to do any research or develop any engineering products at all."
"This feeling is just too good." Wizard Daniel narrowed his eyes with a smile. "The speed at which money comes in this way is truly fast."
"It's caused me to relax my work progress on my second-class True Knowledge Institute foundation project recently."
Locke hesitated for a moment and said, "Daniel, I think as researchers, we should still do our own jobs well."
"Also, from what you've said, it seems your luck has indeed been good lately. But you still need to be cautious."
Wizard Daniel said, "Of course. If I lose money, I'll definitely stop. Locke, do you want to get rich together?"
"I can recommend this witch to you. You are my best friend at Golden Crown Mountain. I thought about it for a long time; with such a good thing, we can do it together."
"Don't worry, that witch really listens to me. She has information sources from Third Ring Wizards, so there's absolutely no problem."
Daniel said enthusiastically.
Locke thought for a moment and said, "I'll pass, Daniel. My money is enough for now. If I do venture capital, first, I don't understand it, and second, I'd have to wait."
"After you've made your fortune, then you can bring me along."
Locke adopted a more cautious attitude toward this unknown thing.
While one shouldn't give up without trying anything, there was no need to be so impatient. Nine times out of ten, the first person to do something ends up in a dismal state.
It was better to see how Daniel's situation turned out first.
As a good friend, Locke still spoke up to remind Daniel to remain cautious.
But Locke wouldn't overstep his bounds to tell Daniel to stop doing such a dangerous thing, because Wizard Daniel was a Formal Wizard, considered an adult in the Wizard World.
Adults have their own judgment and choices. No matter the outcome, one must respect a Formal Wizard's choice made of their own will.
At most, he could offer reminders and suggestions.
Locke saw that Daniel was currently obsessed with this, and he had indeed earned a lot of money, even showing Locke his savings of two hundred and fifty magic crystal cards. Therefore, Locke could only congratulate him.
After Daniel left, Locke headed to the public laboratory, where he received congratulations from Witch Mason and the others, as well as compliments from a group of researchers from the True Knowledge Institute.
These people had their own agendas, but at least on the surface, they gave Locke a certain amount of praise.
After they left, Locke received another water jade peach from Team Leader Kelt, and he now had four water jade peaches in his inventory.
At his workstation, Witch Mason and the others waited for the crowd to disperse and return to their own tasks before coming over to congratulate Locke once more.
Witch Mason said, "Six and a half million... that's a figure we poor researchers wouldn't even dare to dream of."
Witch Freya's eyes were practically sparkling with the shape of money. "It's more than just unbelievable—that's fifty-four years of our salary! Even if I did ten horizontal projects, I wouldn't be able to earn that much money."
"What's more, I might not even be able to get ten horizontal projects! You're truly worthy of being our sub-group leader!"
Wizard Barrett said in a low voice, "A few days ago, I still thought you were short on money, Sub-group Leader Locke, but I didn't expect you to earn so much in such a short period of time."
Locke looked up at Wizard Barrett.
Wizard Barrett explained, "Your previous behavior was very similar to how Team Leader Kelt looks when he has no money. All three of us noticed it, so for the past few days, we proactively covered the expenses and never once asked you for money, Sub-group Leader Locke."
Witch Mason and Witch Freya immediately shared a smile.
Witch Freya laughed and said, "Barrett told us not to say anything, fearing it would hurt your pride, Sub-group Leader Locke. Actually, I felt that our sub-group leader wouldn't be so narrow-minded."
Locke felt a wave of warmth in his heart. No wonder these three hadn't asked him to pay for anything lately; they only sent him bills so he could go to the finance office to reimburse them from the fund for the money they had advanced.
It turned out they had noticed his predicament from a few days ago.
Locke said softly, "Everyone, thank you."
Witch Mason replied, "Locke, it's we who should be thanking you. The second-class fund project applications for the three of us were all approved a few days ago."
Locke said in surprise, "So fast?"
Witch Freya said, "It's mainly because your last concluding report was so impressive, Sub-group Leader."
"Therefore, the difficulty of the natural audit for our three project applications at the White Wizard Association's Fund Management Department decreased significantly. Especially since, in the eyes of other wizards, the three of us are still working on projects under you."
"So, this greatly reduced the difficulty of getting our project applications approved as second-class fund projects."
Witch Freya continued, "But with this, every member of our sub-group has obtained a second-class fund project from the True Knowledge Institute."
The True Knowledge Institute funds are divided into four levels, and a second-class fund project is definitely not considered low among the projects within the True Knowledge Institute.
If they all obtained second-class fund projects and could all successfully complete them, it would be considered quite a significant event.
Locke said, "Everyone, there's no need to worry about second-class fund projects. As long as we work together, let alone second-class, all four of us can even finish first-class project funds!"
Witch Mason, Witch Freya, and Wizard Barrett gulped upon hearing Locke mention first-class project funds, suppressing the desire in their hearts.
Originally, they thought it would be good enough if just one of the three of them could complete a second-class fund project, but now all three of them might actually finish one.
Furthermore, Locke had even told them that they might be able to complete a first-class project fund.
The temptation of this was undeniably massive for them.
Moreover, this was said by Locke, not just some random person talking nonsense, so it had high credibility.
Witch Freya laughed and said, "It seems we're going to be carried to success by Locke."
Locke shook his head slightly. "You've also helped me a lot. Without you, it might have taken me about a year to finish the project I'm currently working on, but now it's nearly finished in just two months. We are helping each other."
Locke said, "Now that I have sufficient funds, I plan to find a Shop Alliance to rent a queens chessboard. Do you have any suggestions?"
Witch Mason and Wizard Barrett shook their heads.
Witch Freya said, "You could go to the Joseph Golem Shop alliance or the Feathered Serpent Ancient Pavilion. Although these two Shop Alliances aren't large in scale, their rules aren't that strict. They won't strictly adhere to the regulation of not allowing a First Ring Wizard to use a queens chessboard."
"I heard before that Adrian Iverson from the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge's first group once borrowed a queens chessboard from the Joseph Golem Shop alliance while at the One-Ring Crystallization stage for some reason. It cost him a million magic stones."
"Of course, he is now at the ordinary Second Ring stage."
"However, I've only heard this through the grapevine, so I don't know the specific details." Witch Freya was undoubtedly the one with the widest social circle among the four-person group, so she was quite well-informed about rumors.
Locke thought for a moment; indeed, a queens chessboard would be very useful for both Second Ring Wizards and Third Ring Wizards. It wasn't just useful in Breeding Science, but also in Potionology, alchemy, and even for the Enchantment School and Psychology.
Therefore, many Shop Alliances possessed this kind of equipment.
It was just that the equipment was so precise that they wouldn't let a First Ring Wizard use it.
But with his status, perhaps he could use the queens chessboard at the Feathered Serpent Ancient Pavilion; in any case, it was worth a try.
If he wanted to obtain a relatively refined and basic method for using tyrant element no. 2 in a short period of time, it would be impossible to do so without using a queens chessboard.
'Among the journals for the First Ring stage, the general journals of the Three Ze Lands have the highest rank and are the most difficult to get into. This is the opposite of the logic for high-ring stage journals, likely because wizards at the First Ring stage need to read a wide variety of literature.' Locke thought,'So, in most cases, specialized field journals for the First Ring stage are actually easier to get into than Green Grass Cloud Marsh.'
The reason his two previous articles were able to make it into tier 1 was that one of them was about a previously undiscovered natural magic structural component.
That is a favorite of Green Grass Cloud Marsh, and natural magic structural components have potential applications across many magical fields.
The other article was about the method and principles of using Mister Power to accelerate becoming a First Ring Crystallization Wizard. This kind of article related to breaking through levels is also a favorite of Green Grass Cloud Marsh; if it were any other topic, it might not have made it into Green Grass Cloud Marsh.
In the Yunze Wetland, there are eight tier 1 specialized Botany journals, while the second district, third district, and fourth district specialized Botany journals are countless.
Among First Ring journals, tier 1 regional-level journals undoubtedly carry the most weight.
Locke estimated that he could publish several tier 1 papers because of this tyrant element no. 2, and basically all of them could get into Green Grass Cloud Marsh.
But perhaps he could go a step further and submit to Qingming Leize, a general journal for the First Ring stage in the Leize Lowlands.
Among tier 1 journals, it is widely acknowledged that Qingming Leize is more difficult and has a higher barrier to entry.
At the same time, perhaps he could also submit to... First Ring Star Sea, a regional general journal for the First Ring stage in the Star Domain Sea!
That is recognized as the top-tier First Ring journal!
Of course, he could only give it a try; there was a high probability it wouldn't pass the submission process.
Similarly, he could also try submitting to some specialized First Ring journals that are recognized as difficult to get into, such as Pan and Farming, which was established by a Fourth Ring Truth Wizard of the Yunze Wetland's Botany department.
This journal is a rare case where its weight can exceed that of the tier 1 journal Green Grass Cloud Marsh.
At least, this was the case for wizards in the Agricultural Breeding sub-field of the Life School's Breeding Science.
Although the weight of general First Ring journals is generally higher than that of specialized journals,
there are also some special journals in various industries.
However, strictly speaking, the Overlord Element is not considered traditional Agricultural Breeding, so Locke estimated that if he submitted to this holy land in the hearts of Agricultural Breeding wizards, he would likely fail.
Perhaps he could try Plants and Analysis, a journal established by Bonifacius University that carries very high weight in the field of Plant Natural Product Analysis.
This journal is also very difficult, and its reputation is quite large within the Three Ze Lands, being well-recognized by various Wizard Lands.
Now that Locke had money in hand, he naturally felt confident that he could produce all the relevant experimental data for tyrant element no. 2 as quickly as possible.
After Locke exchanged further details on their work progress with Witch Mason and the others, he returned to his workstation. Just as he was about to organize his materials, he noticed his Wish Lingzhi vibrate inside his astral ring.
He took out the Wish Lingzhi only to find that an unfamiliar witch he didn't know had sent him a friend request.
Her name was Witch Reina!
Locke saw the message on the friend request: "Hello, Senior. I am Reina Guld. I am a market analyst from the Prophecy School, and I specialize in group prophecy."
"Does Senior want to see the wealth in your hands grow rapidly? I am a Diviner, and you have money; if the two of us cooperate, we can certainly earn a large amount of money in a short time. If Senior doesn't believe me, you can test my ability with a small amount of money first!"
Locke had a strange expression on his face. "Witch Reina? Could it be that she's the kind-hearted witch Daniel mentioned? But didn't Daniel say she was an Enchanter? Why is she saying now that she's a market analyst from the Prophecy School?"
"Is it the same person? If so, she probably doesn't know that Daniel and I are well-acquainted."
"Moreover, she likely has some issues."
Locke thought for a moment, sent a screenshot of this friend invitation to Daniel, and then rejected the request. After that, he paid no more attention to the matter.
Locke thought to himself, 'I should have expected this. This is the Yunze Wetland, where industry and commerce are developed, and all sorts of people exist.'
'I have a lot of money in my hands now, and many wizards have seen it directly, so naturally, people with ulterior motives will approach Daniel and me. I hope Daniel can wake up soon; there's not much else I can do to help.'
Daniel seemed to believe he was in some kind of special relationship with that witch, so if Locke interfered casually, it would only offend him.
Rather than that, it was better for him to say less.
Besides, he was a Formal Wizard and an adult.
Every adult should take responsibility for their own choices.