Chapter 232

Chapter 232

Two days ago, he received a message from Jacqueline, saying that she wanted to discuss something with him and asked him to come over when he had time.

Although Jacqueline rarely sought him out specifically, her tone didn’t seem to indicate any urgency.

Lorant had been completely tied up the previous two days. The sudden change in weather prevented the Diner Pine in the greenhouse from receiving the essential sunlight it needed to nurture the monster eggs.

After just a few days without sunlight, the Diner Pine visibly began to wilt.

Panicked, Lorant quickly enlisted someone to cast the powerful attack spell 'Flame Burst' to save his precious monster eggs, which were wilting without sunlight.

The violent explosion erupted above the beast storage, leaving behind a small, sun-like light that lasted for several hours, providing the necessary sunlight.

He originally didn’t want to go through all this trouble, but among all the people in the Congress of Magic, no one had thought to invent a spell like the Sun Fruit.

Of course, Lorant had tried those ordinary light spells, but they were of no help in alleviating the Diner Pine’s symptoms.

So, he went to great lengths to get two mages to use the additional ability of a spell to provide the right kind of light for his monster eggs.

After two days of continuous explosions, the Diner Pine finally recovered, and just in time, the sun returned, allowing the two mages who had been casting Flame Burst to question their life choices to rest for two days.

Using a powerful attack spell to provide sunlight for a strange plant felt like overkill, especially when they knew it was for breeding those incredibly valuable beast pets. The mages couldn’t help but feel a bit ridiculous, despite understanding the importance of the task.

To make matters worse, as members of the Evocation school—a branch of magic focused on creating powerful offensive spells—they were directly assigned by their elder without any room to refuse.

That was what oppression looked like!

Fortunately, Lorant wasn’t some sort of demon. Since arriving at the Animal Pet Shop, the mages had been treated to delicious meals and fine accommodations. They stayed in a luxurious hotel with stunning views of the surrounding beast pets, and during their downtime, they could unwind among the creatures, making for a surprisingly pleasant stay.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the job that made them feel undervalued, even if they had to fight in the Black Forest every day, as long as they could stay here, it would still be a decent job.

Of course, if they could get one more meal a day, doing this job wouldn’t be a problem at all!

The food at the shop was delicious, but they only provided one meal a day, which was a shame.

In the rest area of the Beast Tower, Lorant pulled out a large bag of freshly baked sweet bread from his spatial pocket. This wasn’t a product from Candy Rabbit House; it was made by Martha herself.

While mass-produced bread might lack flavor for most people, Lorant found Martha’s homemade bread far superior, its rich aroma and perfect texture a reminder of her care and skill.

Food was mysterious like that. Even with the same recipe, different people would produce slightly different flavors, and no one could quite explain why.

So, this morning, after deciding to come here, Lorant searched his house and, sure enough, found Martha’s freshly baked bread lying quietly in the kitchen. He immediately packed a large bag to bring over as a small gift for the people in the Beast Tower.

After leaving some with Robert, Lorant took the remaining bread to the rest area.

Hungry mages on break would automatically go to the rest area to find food. Tang En always prepared ready-to-eat food here every day.

Lorant placed the bread alongside Tang En’s food in a 'Time Stasis' magic array, ensuring it would stay fresh for the next two days.

If you're looking to find a wild Jacqueline, this would be your best choice.

Jacqueline might not need to sleep or eat, but she would always be doing experiments. For an experiment fanatic, nothing was more important than that.

Jacqueline didn’t disappoint Lorant. She was indeed in her laboratory, fiddling with something.

Jacqueline, petite and delicate like a young girl, wore a large, circular disc on her back, nearly as wide as her waist. It was the prototype of the wings sold to knights, functional but lacking the refined design of the final product.

With the disc strapped to her back, Jacqueline could now soar through the air with even greater ease, her movements fluid and graceful.

Even though she could already fly effortlessly, using tools would make it even easier for her.

Mages aren’t like mindless animals that act on instinct alone, Jacqueline had once said to Lorant with pride.

"Auntie Jacqueline." Lorant greeted her politely from a short distance away, "I'm here."

He curiously examined the layout of Jacqueline’s lab. Lorant’s lab was on the same floor as Jacqueline's, so he was quite familiar with her laboratory.

Since the last time he was here breeding the Holy Light Peacocks, Jacqueline’s lab had acquired many strange new instruments.

What makes mages’ experimental equipment so fascinating is that, in most cases, it’s hard to tell their actual purpose just by their appearance.

For instance, Lorant found it hard to believe that a massive, intricate machine with multiple blades was actually used just to heat potions.

"Oh! Lorant!" Jacqueline excitedly flew up and over a huge machine that took up at least ten square meters, landing to give Lorant a big hug, "Wonderful! You're finally here!"

"Come and see my research discovery!" Jacqueline’s slender fingers grabbed Lorant’s wrist and effortlessly lifted him into the air. Jacqueline had surprising strength, and by some means, she managed to keep Lorant flying very steadily.

Ever since Baby realized no one could sense it while in its ghostly form, it had become increasingly unrestrained. In the past, Baby would stay quiet in Lorant’s pocket around high-level practitioners, but now the little one dared to quietly complain in Lorant’s mind.

‘Baby! It’s not safe to fly! My spider web isn’t finished yet!’

‘She’s such a meanie! Always scaring people!’

Baby had always been wary of Jacqueline, something Lorant was aware of.

It’s no wonder Baby felt this way. After all, the first time Jacqueline and Baby met was not a pleasant experience. At that time, Baby was still a newly born cub and had encountered its first crisis, so the impression had been deep. It was no surprise that Baby had such thoughts.

Lorant gently reassured Baby in his mind, trying to soothe its worries, ‘Alright, isn't it great that we have you? With you here, I’ll be fine, right?’

"Um! I'm here for you, baby! Don't worry! When I become stronger than her one day, I'll show her what I'm made of!" The little ghost spider cheered itself on while quickly weaving its web on the ceiling above Lorant.

Ever since confirming that the webs set up in the Beast Tower would disappear at regular intervals, Baby never left a single strand of its web here again.

Each thread of its silk was extremely precious, and Baby was unwilling to waste even a bit!

Jacqueline, completely unaware that a little creature was secretly holding a grudge against her and considering her as an imaginary enemy, excitedly led Lorant to a massive table.

The reason it was called a table was mainly because its height seemed more suitable for people to sit in front of chairs to write and do other work, and upon closer inspection, the items on it were all things that should be on a table.

There were no chairs or other inappropriate items present.

However, logically speaking, no one's table should be so wide.

This 'table' was about the size of a small house.

On top of it, roughly ten single beds could be placed side by side.

The vast tabletop was cluttered with various leaves and strange bottles and jars, randomly piled together.

There were also numerous animal skins, feathers, and processed claws, among other magical materials.

Jacqueline didn't care at all that her workbench looked like a pigsty. With a stretch of her arm, all the messy items on the workbench began to fly around and automatically sort themselves.

Lorant then understood why, with such convenient magic, Jacqueline could still make her workbench so messy.

She grabbed a large stack of leaf papers, roughly flipped through them, and found the one she wanted, then casually threw the rest aside.

Before the leaf papers had even landed, Jacqueline flicked her finger, and a small round egg flew over from not far away with a 'whoosh.' The airflow from the egg's flight caused the leaf papers to rise again, then slowly settle back onto the table, scattered haphazardly.

Lorant's lips curled slightly. It was the first time he had seen Jacqueline so overexcited while working.

Really, well, she was a bit too overexcited!

Jacqueline, however, was completely unaware of this, or perhaps she simply didn’t care about being overly excited. Instead, she was enjoying this rare emotional state.

With a flick of her hand, she spread her research findings right in front of Lorant.

"Little Lorant, look! These are my achievements from this period!" Jacqueline excitedly flipped onto the table and sat cross-legged opposite Lorant, who was standing on the ground, so they were at eye level.

"This is the experimental product I created, inspired by the ‘Bamboo Lantern’ you gave me," Jacqueline said, pointing to the front of the huge leaf paper, which was about two to three meters long.

"You mentioned that to change the Bamboo Lantern's properties, we could try making them brighter, right?"

"So, I conducted experiments in that direction, but I found that the properties of already hatched beast pets are very stable, and it’s almost impossible to change them easily."

"Therefore, I decided to start with the beast pet eggs, which have a simpler life form."

"But when I was modifying the beast pet eggs of the Bamboo Lantern, I realized that instead of doing extra work on already formed eggs, it would be better to focus on the secondary beasts that gave birth to them."

Jacqueline's excited finger slid down the leaf paper, and Lorant carefully followed the direction she was pointing. Only then did he realize that the leaf paper contained a complete record of her experimental thoughts.

It detailed her thoughts and the reasons behind each step of her experiments, making it quite comprehensive.

The more Lorant read, the more surprised he became. Although Jacqueline's initial direction was a bit off, her thinking was truly creative, and her hands-on skills were exceptional.

As a powerful time mage and great mage, her cost of trial and error during experiments was quite low.

With her ideas, she could directly put them to the test and wouldn’t have to wait long. With enough magical power, experiments that would normally take three weeks could be completed in just a few hours.

Therefore, during the time she had been secluded in the Beast Tower conducting experiments, Jacqueline had been depleting her magic power every day.

For a legendary mage, this was almost impossible. The more Lorant read those records, the more astonished he became. A simple line in her records, which would take an average person several months to confirm and understand, was completed by Jacqueline in just one day.

Lorant dared to say that during this period, the number of failed experiments Jacqueline had conducted might exceed the total number of experiments other mages could conduct in their entire lifetimes!

After such a frantic period of failures, Jacqueline had finally made a discovery not long ago, which was why she had called for Lorant.

"Finally!" Jacqueline explained everything to Lorant in great detail. It wasn’t that she wanted to be verbose, but to get help with her experiments, she needed to clearly explain all her ideas.

This way, the other party could identify areas that needed improvement.

"I bred a third-level beast ‘Grass Green Stone’ with a secondary beast ‘Metal Bone Exposed Return Fish,’ which is bred from two fourth-level beasts, and finally obtained this beast pet egg," Jacqueline said, holding the egg in her hands. "I have already catalyzed it once, but although its composition is very close to that of a beast pet, there are still some subtle differences."

"At least, the creature that hatched isn't a beast pet, but it seems less aggressive than a typical secondary beast."

"That’s why I wanted to ask you to take a look. Is this already close to being a beast pet?"

Listening to Jacqueline's series of experiments, Lorant couldn’t help but click his tongue. Jacqueline's efficiency was almost on par with his simulator. In such a situation, even using a brute force approach, this legendary great mage might be able to find a path for breeding beast pets after enough experiments.

Of course, this could only be achieved if the breeding path of beast pets didn’t require external assistance.

The truth was that most beast pet breeding required quite complex external assistance. Simply applying potions made from countless materials to the beast eggs was considered one of the simpler forms of external assistance.

More complex examples included the shaping of the Furious Ragdoll Bear and the burning of the Holy Light Peacock. Without making a sharp turn in one’s thought process, people would never be able to figure out how to create beast pets.

Who would want to take their hard-earned beast pet egg and stick it in a pile of ordinary wood to roast it?!

As Jacqueline explained, Lorant was already calculating in his mind.

After running through the process for the first time, Lorant realized it was the right path.

That familiar feeling of discovering a path in the wilderness returned to him.

But there were still some missing pieces along this path.

However, as long as the overall framework was set, Lorant would only need a few more thousand simulations to find the correct path.

How long this process took depended on luck; sometimes it could be completed in a day or two, while other times it might take several months without results.

"Aunt Jacqueline, I believe the overall direction of your experiment is reasonable. You may have discovered a new breeding method for beast pets," Lorant said, feeling the egg in his hands, but he didn't sense the familiar pulsation of a monster egg.

This was an egg that hadn't become a monster egg yet.

"However, I think something might be missing somewhere. You know, the two breeding routes I provided to you both involve more than just beasts and secondary beasts during the breeding process," Lorant explained slowly. "The assistance of magical materials is an essential step."

"Different potions bring completely different effects. I can tell that although this egg is not a monster egg yet, it's very close," Lorant affirmed. "With the right potions or some unexpected methods, this beast pet could finally hatch."

Lorant had expected Jacqueline to be happy, but to his surprise, she sighed deeply upon hearing his words.

"Alas, I knew it," Jacqueline seemed to have anticipated what Lorant was saying. She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.

"But I have no clue what kind of potion is needed, when, and on whom to use it," she said, in frustration. "My perception in this area isn't strong. I have a rough hypothesis for selecting beasts, but when it comes to potions, I can only rely on clueless trials."

She sighed, knowing that potions were never her strong suit. Even though she had made impressive strides in research and was seen as a genius by others, Jacqueline knew that her talent was actually quite weak compared to true geniuses.

She had to put in countless times more effort than those geniuses to keep up with their pace.

For instance, some exceptionally talented mages could smell a prepared potion once and roughly replicate most of its components, while most people wouldn't have a clue even if they drank two bottles a day.

Although such geniuses were always rare, as a true battle mage, Jacqueline had seen the world of geniuses, which was why she set such high standards for herself.

This was also the main reason she often felt discouraged.

In the field of beast pet research, Jacqueline always looked to Lorant, and Lorant couldn't be simply explained by just the word 'genius.'

The fact that she hadn't truly collapsed because of beast pet issues until now was a testament to Jacqueline's astonishing mental resilience.

Lorant bit his lip and hesitated as he looked at the somewhat dejected mage. He could help Jacqueline refine this breeding path, but since this was her discovery, it wouldn't be right to take the initiative if she didn't ask.

Most mages would rather fail to achieve results in their entire life than let someone else help them, as it would reveal their own foolishness.

Of course, such behavior often made them appear even more foolish.

And Jacqueline, clearly, was not such a narrow-minded foolish mage.

"Little Lorant, since that's the case, how about you help me refine my experiment?" Jacqueline looked up at Lorant with anticipation, carefully saying, "If it succeeds, I’ll give you equal credit in the research."

After saying that, she felt something was off. Research status was generally the term for cooperative partnerships in spell-type research, while beast pet research was more of a physical research category. Thinking for a moment, she corrected herself, "No, it's not about research status. How about this: if the research ultimately succeeds, we'll share the breeding route for this beast pet."

"And I can keep the breeding method without selling it. You can handle all the sales and keep all the profits."

Jacqueline looked at Lorant with shining eyes. She genuinely wanted to see a beast pet of her own research come to life. As for the research achievements' profits and fame that others valued, Jacqueline didn't care about those.

She was a pure researcher, and as a legendary wizard who had already achieved both fame and fortune, she didn’t need this achievement to prove herself!