Receiving the Laboratory

Three days later, on the fifteenth floor of the Wizard Tower.

Lohr and Kateya followed Agular onward. On either side stood square buildings of simple, uniform design.

Each building covered roughly three hundred square meters.

Signs hung above their doors, bearing names such as Rolbu Potion Research Institute and Yana Spell Optimization Laboratory.

From time to time, one or two First-Circle or Second-Circle Wizards in wizard robes of various colors passed by the three of them. Whenever they saw Lohr and Kateya following behind Agular, their gazes lingered for a moment.

There were undoubtedly very few apprentices who could reach this floor. Aside from a handful of lucky ones, nearly all of them were geniuses.

"Agular, is this the genius apprentice from your Earth-Fire School who invented the Microscope Spell?"

At that moment, a tall Second-Circle Wizard in an ochre wizard robe approached from ahead. He sized Lohr up twice, then asked with interest.

"Yes." Agular smiled. "Oakley, what do you think? He's no worse than the top geniuses of your Earth Element School this year, is he?"

"He's decent. The question is whether you dare to gamble. If you win, perhaps Murphy Continent will gain another Flame-Earth Wizard Tower."

Oakley curled his lips. "If you don't dare to gamble and keep following your old path, it'll probably all be for nothing in the end."

"That needn't concern you." Agular's smile did not change. "If there's nothing else, I'll take him to the laboratory."

"Go on, then." Oakley waved a hand and turned to leave.

Once Oakley had gone far away, Agular's expression immediately became uncertain.

As he continued forward, he said quietly, "Lohr, do you know why he came to provoke me?"

"Why?" Lohr feigned confusion and hurriedly asked.

In truth, he understood perfectly well. Put simply, Oakley wanted to plant the seed of Fusion Spell in his mind.

With the talent he currently displayed, if he devoted himself to researching Fusion Spell, one misstep could ruin him.

But if he truly succeeded, the rewards would be absolutely astonishing.

Yet if he followed Agular's path, he would most likely only become an ordinary dual-element Third-Circle Wizard, nothing particularly useful.

The upper ranks of the Wizard Tower and the Wizard Alliance naturally preferred for Lohr to pursue Fusion Spell and gamble on the odds.

But this was ultimately an internal matter of the Earth-Fire School. They could not interfere too directly and could only hint at it indirectly.

"They want you to pursue Fusion Spell and gamble for an opportunity, yet they won't tell you that with your talent, your chance of success is only three in a thousand."

Agular said, "And there's a nine-hundred-and-ninety-seven-in-a-thousand chance that you'll become crippled."

"Only a three-in-a-thousand chance of success?" Lohr was startled. He truly had not expected the odds to be so low.

In the era of his previous life, with the talent he had displayed, he should have had at least a one-percent chance of successfully forging a path and becoming a dual-attribute Fourth-Ring Wizard.

The limitations of this age truly were no small matter.

"That's right." Agular nodded. "If you had to choose, would you choose to steadily become a Second-Circle Wizard with a high chance of breaking through to the Third Circle, or gamble on that three-in-a-thousand chance of becoming a Fourth-Ring Wizard?"

"I will follow my mentor's instructions." Lohr lowered his eyes obediently. "However you tell me to choose, that is how I will choose."

There was no way he could reveal his real plans. For now, he would just placate him.

If the Divine Kingdom Exploration Tournament did not begin within eight years, he would rather leave for another continent while still an apprentice.

"Haha, good!"

Agular's expression immediately brightened, and he felt far more at ease. He laughed and said,

"Even now, I'm not sure which path you should choose. There's no rush. We'll discuss it once you become a Third-Level Apprentice."

"Yes, Mentor." Lohr nodded repeatedly.

As they spoke, the three of them turned several more corners and arrived before a laboratory with no sign above its door.

"Lohr, give your laboratory a name."

Agular pointed at the empty space above the door and smiled. "Barring any surprises, this laboratory will accompany you for a long time."

Laboratories like Randolph's, which had been obtained through internal application channels, would be reclaimed once their owners became First-Circle Wizards.

If they wanted another one, they would have to produce sufficient achievements first.

But Lohr's laboratory was permanent. It would not be reclaimed even after he became a First-Circle Wizard.

Of course, if he wanted something better, he would need to achieve more.

"Let's call it Lohr's Spell Model Optimization and Creation Laboratory." Lohr casually made up a name based on the ones he had seen earlier.

It was only a temporary laboratory. There was no need to take it too seriously.

"Fine." Agular nodded and slightly raised his hand. A stone plaque two meters long and half a meter wide gradually condensed in his hand.

Fourteen words were inscribed upon it: "Lohr's Spell Model Optimization and Creation Laboratory."

Whoosh~

Once it had fully formed, he waved his hand. The stone plaque floated up by itself and slowly affixed itself above the laboratory entrance.

"Alright, go in and take a look. Here's the key."

Agular handed Lohr a key forged from black iron and reminded him,

"Keep it safe. There's only one key, and it bears a unique identification spell inscription. If you lose it, replacing it will be far more troublesome than replacing a wizard robe or contribution card."

"Yes, Mentor." Lohr nodded seriously, accepted the key, opened the laboratory door, and stepped inside.

Tap~

As though sensing someone entering, the magic lamps above automatically lit up, illuminating the previously pitch-black laboratory.

Lohr looked around. What met his eyes was a spotless... empty room?

The empty room was roughly fifty square meters. There were three more stone doors on the left, right, and rear walls.

"When Lord Nelson established the Wizard Tower, his plan for third-class laboratories was a total area of three hundred square meters, divided into four rooms: a reception room, a laboratory, a washroom, and a resting room."

Agular followed him inside and said, "Of course, you can renovate it however you like. The Wizard Tower does not interfere in that regard."

"There's nothing much to say about the other rooms, but the laboratory has undergone special modifications. It can withstand the power of top-tier Second-Circle Spells."

He pointed at the door in the back. "That room is the laboratory. There are also some instruments inside. You can open it and take a look."

"Alright, Mentor." Lohr nodded, walked to the laboratory door at the very back, and inserted the key in his hand once more.

Click~

The stone door opened in response.

Before him was a room of roughly one hundred and fifty square meters.

At the center of the room stood something resembling a furnace. Along the left side was a row of bookshelves filled with parchment volumes, while the right side held a patch of sand with various strange tools placed before it.

Among them were the two tools Lus had once taken out when Lohr tested spells in the spell model optimization verification area: a Temperature Crystal Tube and an Earth Element Orb.

At the innermost end of the laboratory, a magic array had been set up.