Second floor, in the shared office of Locke, Angulo, and Essie.
Essie said with concern, "Locke, no matter what, you seemed overly confident out there. These patients were already pushed onto us by them, and now they'll have even more reason to dump cases on us..."
Angulo shook her head, stopping Essie from continuing. "Essie, Locke is a more skilled Potionology Assistant and Breeder than both of us. Let's trust his judgment."
Ever since Locke sold a Memory Ointment at the shop where Angulo worked, she had realized that his talent in Potionology surpassed hers as well.
Essie nodded. "I was just reminding Locke. After all, these Cursed Ones are quite troublesome. If mishandled, it could easily backfire on us."
"It would lower our evaluation scores. Then we can forget about being named Outstanding Healers at year's end. Our team's ratings have been improving recently."
"That's why everyone's avoiding these cases. If not for the academy's mandatory requirement, who would take in victims of this new, complicated Curse that spans multiple disciplines?"
"It's very easy to end up either losing money trying to cure them or failing to treat them properly and getting our scores reduced."
Essie raised her eyebrows. "I think Carrie Ackerman must be thrilled right now. This morning I saw her gloating. Their workshop wants to monopolize all three Outstanding Healer slots and one Distinguished Healer position this year."
"So they see all the normal teams in the clinic as their main competition. She probably thinks our team no longer poses any threat to them now."
Locke, who had been reading a B-grade article borrowed from the public library at his workstation, looked up in confusion. "Essie, their workshop only has two First Class Wizard Apprentices. How can they monopolize four slots?"
Essie explained, "Besides Carrie Ackerman who's permanently stationed at the clinic, they have many other First Class Wizard Apprentices who also work as Potionology Assistants. They occasionally visit Angron's workshop at irregular intervals."
"Through this arrangement, those Potionology Assistants don't need to come in for several hours nearly every day like we do. They just need to show up occasionally."
"Yet they can accumulate extensive patient treatment records and numerous excellent evaluations. So of course they could potentially monopolize all four award slots in the clinic."
Angulo added, "They're probably all students within Harlan Vera Mentor's network - their seniors and juniors."
"Their network is extremely extensive. As Harlan Vera's outstanding student, Angron naturally needs to create benefits for his juniors. In return, those juniors can also assist him."
"So, he can form a studio in this manner to reduce the workload of his juniors while leveraging his network to create impressive treatment records, ensuring most slots fall to their studio."
Angulo let out a sigh. "The evaluation criteria for the four slots mainly focus on treatment volume and resolved difficult cases—both areas where Angron's studio holds significant advantages."
"I suspect that by the end, they might even stack numerous patient treatments onto a few individuals for rewards, completing internal favor exchanges within their network."
In a way, this was the benefit of being a student under an academic faction leader.
Angulo continued, "These four slots were originally established by the clinic to reward us, the resident Potionology Assistants. Who would have thought Angron and his group would exploit a loophole?"
Angulo sighed again. "Well, wherever there's profit to be exploited within the academy, such people always emerge."
At his workstation, Locke nodded. "Let's focus on our own tasks first—that's the only thing we can control."
Angulo agreed. "True."
Locke lowered his gaze to the documents, his eyes flickering. Indeed, Angron's studio, with its abundant manpower and Angron's formidable strength, was highly likely to monopolize the four special reward slots established this year.
But their team wasn't entirely without advantages.
If his predictions were correct, many unusual patients would arrive over the next month.
'I'm no longer a Breeder Assistant—I'm now a full-fledged Breeder and also a Potionology Assistant,' Locke pondered. 'So if Magic Plant Curses surge, the academy should prioritize assigning me to handle them.'
'Even if they send Breeders to assist Potionology Assistants, they shouldn't bypass me. This year, we might still compete with Angron's studio for the reward slots—perhaps even the sole Outstanding Healer title!'
...
At the edge of Lilith's Cottage territory lay a mortal village.
Every mortal in this village had already perished, yet their bodies were puppeteered by Dark Magic, unaware of their deaths, continuing their lives as usual.
They served as cover for the Black Wizards hiding here.
Seflin was inside a temporary underground laboratory in this village. A First Class Wizard Apprentice specializing in Dark Magic hurried in to report news relayed by their contact within the Healing Hand Clinic.
Cloaked in black robes with her hood concealing her features, Seflin turned—revealing a visage so horrifying it startled even her fellow apprentice from the same Wizard organization.
Her appearance retained the bestial traits of a Vampire, but her face resembled a patchwork quilt—square by square, each segment mismatched in hue, indicating her body parts were sourced from different origins.
Seflin furrowed her brows in fury. "That Breeder named Locke dares to publicly scorn the Curse I designed?"
"Damn it. Locke Augustine... a nobody who just became a First-Class Wizard Apprentice, yet dares to publicly mock my work. Ridiculous."
"Ridiculous."
The ordinary First-Class Wizard Apprentice looked somewhat fearful as he glanced at Seflin. "Lord Sagamore, I believe he might simply lack the competence to recognize the level of your Blood Curse."
"He's merely a newly promoted First-Class Wizard Apprentice, and I heard his talent evaluation wasn't particularly high."
"As you know, newly promoted First-Class Wizard Apprentices are woefully lacking in magical knowledge... In your eyes, they aren't much different from Second-Class Wizard Apprentices."
Seflin turned around, his tone growing fiercer. "So what! I'll make that White Wizard Augustine understand the price of belittling me—a great Cursemaster of the Blood Curse Court."
"I'll teach him a lesson he'll never forget!"
"Field, relay my orders. Increase the intensity of all previous operations threefold. I plan to design more Blood Curses targeting their Lilith's Cottage and their allied First-Class Wizard Apprentices."
"When my cursed victims fill every bed in their Healing Hand Clinic, let's see if they still think my Magic Plant Curse is just some trivial spell."
"Hahahahaha..."
"I hope that little Breeder can remain so confident this time."
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