strictlysupreme Chapter 414: Interviews and Team Building
Chapter 414: Interviews and Team Building
One month later, in Locke's office.Locke borrowed the Plutarch family's name to recruit breeders throughout the entire Land of Six Towers who wanted to participate in the Cloud Marsh Cup, and held interviews.
The interviews were divided into two rounds. The first round was a preliminary selection conducted by Old Wizard Collins and Claudia together. The second round was personally conducted by Locke himself.
Because unqualified wizards could be eliminated during the preliminary selection, the quality of wizards being interviewed in Locke's office was quite high, including both family wizards and civilian wizards.
Locke let a family wizard leave his office while ordering the next wizard to enter, "Next person, please come in."
'The number of civilian wizards submitting resumes is still quite small.' Locke thought, 'I estimate there are still many civilian wizards watching and waiting, or believe this is another show, so the number of applicants isn't very large.'
'In the Land of Six Towers, the only useful people are those civilian wizards. The remaining family wizards are those relatively marginalized small clan wizards. Otherwise, even if others have ability, I can't command them.'
'I need to establish a model case to make excellent civilian breeders in the Land of Six Towers actively come for interviews. Only then will I have a chance of winning the Cloud Marsh Cup. Otherwise, relying on just one person fighting alone in such a large competition, the manpower is seriously insufficient.'
Locke scanned through the lists and materials of major projects in the Land of Six Towers that Alicia had ordered to be sent over, searching for useful semi-finished magical plant projects.
At the same time, a young ordinary First Circle wizard walked into his room. Locke looked up at him, "Have we met before? Oh, right, we met in the library before."
Locke remembered. The other party was that ordinary wizard who only had level 4 access and could only sit dejectedly in a corner of the library, unable to consult materials.
However, in fact, for ordinary students in the Land of Six Towers, this person was still a lofty figure, a big shot.
Everything was relative.
This was also why some civilian First Circle wizards were willing to stay in the Land of Six Towers and live stable, retired lives.
Montgomery Paul saw that Locke still remembered him, and a gleam of joy flashed in his eyes, "Lord Augustine, I really didn't expect that after seeing me just once in the library, you would actually remember me. I'm Montgomery Paul, a plant magic First Circle wizard and also a senior breeder."
For Paul, it was rare for a liquefaction wizard in the Land of Six Towers to remember his name, which was something worth feeling happy about.
After all, he had long been outside the mainstream wizard community at the Magic Gem University. Because he knew he was of civilian origin, he had already actively given up and had no interest in advancing his teaching position here.
He didn't even have a single first-class wizard apprentice or second-class wizard apprentice student. He only taught some public courses at the White Dragon Tower, truly an inconspicuous marginal figure.
Locke nodded, "Yes, my memory is quite good. I saw you before, so I remembered you."
Locke knew that remembering someone would undoubtedly make them feel happy.
Montgomery said, "I had originally saved up money for several years, wanting to purchase a ticket to another wizard land. My goal was to go to the Spiral Basin."
"Many civilian wizards from our Land of Six Towers who became First Circle wizards have gone there and have some mutual aid organization-like groups there. I had originally wanted to resign from my teaching position here and try my luck there, even if I couldn't get any teaching position temporarily."
"However, Lord Augustine, at this time, you suddenly want to form a breeder team to participate in the Cloud Marsh Cup, so I also wanted to give it a try."
"I feel this might be an opportunity for me."
Montgomery's eyes revealed a trace of hope.
Locke looked at the resume Montgomery provided and was slightly surprised, "You haven't published any Association A-rank articles, nor done any larger projects related to breeding studies?"
Montgomery hesitated, then handed over a new resume, "No, that's not the case. Actually, I'm Eric Plutarch's ghostwriter. I was born in a poor family in the Land of Six Towers. My background is insignificant. Do you know how I got here?"
Locke glanced at him.
Montgomery continued, "Eric Plutarch discovered my talent in the mortal realm of the Land of Six Towers, provided me with food and shelter, let me receive wizard education, and became friends with me. Up to this point, I was very grateful to him and wanted to repay him. But later I suddenly understood that in the Land of Six Towers, we civilian wizards will never have the qualification to become friends with their family wizards."
Montgomery showed a pained expression, "In fact, all of Eric Plutarch's articles about breeding studies were written by me!"
Locke raised an eyebrow, because Eric had at least two Association S-rank breeding studies articles, plus a large pile of articles in other fields, especially in the bloodline studies field.
Locke had long suspected these couldn't possibly have been done by that guy himself.
He hadn't expected that when recruiting personnel to participate in the Cloud Marsh Cup, he would actually encounter one of Eric's ghostwriters.
Montgomery painfully confessed to Locke, "Eric became friends with me with ill intentions from the very beginning. It was like he was cultivating a fruit tree, just waiting for the tree to mature before picking the fruit."
"Starting from first-class wizard apprentice, I've been writing articles for him. With great difficulty, after becoming a First Circle wizard, I'm still writing articles for him." Montgomery said somewhat excitedly, "Moreover, he forbids me from leaving the Land of Six Towers. He wants to continue exploiting me until everything about me has been squeezed dry, until he can't squeeze out anything more, only then will he let me go."
Locke asked curiously, "Then you?"
Montgomery realized he had let something slip and could only take a deep breath. Then thinking of something, he candidly said to Locke, "I haven't purchased a ticket yet. Well, actually I'm preparing to smuggle myself to the Spiral Basin. The Spiral Basin has a land connection with the Land of Six Towers, and it's the easiest natural barrier to cross among all the natural barriers. Many of my predecessors are in the same situation as me. We have barely opened up a relatively safe route through the natural barrier, although it's still very dangerous."
"But through that route, perhaps there's a way for us to escape the personal coercion of the wizard family people in the Land of Six Towers."
Locke suddenly asked, "Then, that so-called mutual aid organization in the Spiral Basin should be established by black wizards, right? You were originally planning to become a black wizard?"
Montgomery was stunned for a moment, then said to Locke, "Lord Augustine, you're truly perceptive."
"Yes, only the black wizard alliance in the Spiral Basin dares to receive us and provide us protection. The White Wizard Association in the Spiral Basin and the White Wizard Association in the Land of Six Towers might very likely collude with each other. For some economic benefits, they would make some deals and betray all of us First Circle wizards who smuggled ourselves over."
Montgomery said to Locke, "Lord Augustine, I can see that you really want to win the Cloud Marsh Cup. This is very beneficial for a genius like you. Even though you're an honored guest of the Plutarch family in the Land of Six Towers and the most valued right-hand person of Family Head Alicia, the Land of Six Towers is still not a place for you to stay long."
"If you choose me, I'm willing to help you. Moreover, you don't fear Eric at all."
"I've personally witnessed twice when Eric mentioned your name, his eyes revealed fear. You are Eric's nemesis. No matter how tyrannical Eric is, he cannot do anything to you."
Locke quickly recalled the content of Eric's two S-rank breeding studies articles. He remembered one was about the First Circle magical plant Desert Fox Grass, and one was about the First Circle magical plant Climbing Hand Milkweed.
Both cultivated two entirely new auxiliary magical plants. The quality couldn't be said to be low. Although in Locke's eyes the magical plant properties were mediocre, considering that Montgomery's research conditions were probably very limited, it showed he himself should be very talented.
He just lacked sufficient resources.
Eric was only treating him as an ordinary ghostwriter and exploiting him completely.
Locke didn't hesitate much. He definitely needed this kind of talent. It was truly his good fortune that his competition team could obtain this kind of talent.
With Montgomery, his chances of achieving a good ranking in the Cloud Marsh Cup would greatly increase.
Locke asked Montgomery a few questions and discovered this guy's talent in breeding studies was even vaguely higher than his own true level by a bit.
Some of his questions about breeding studies, Montgomery could answer very quickly.
For some questions he had never even heard of and didn't understand that knowledge, his reaction was very fast. He could draw inferences from one case, and his conclusions were often almost identical to the materials in Locke's hands.
Locke thought to himself, 'A real talent. However, if it weren't so, in the Land of Six Towers, without talent surpassing ordinary wizards, how could these civilian wizards possibly become First Circle wizards?'
'Essentially, they've already been filtered once. Which of the First Circle civilian wizards who can appear before me wasn't a small genius when they were young? If I hadn't appeared in the Land of Six Towers, Montgomery probably would have also found a way to smuggle himself out and escape, avoiding Eric's pursuit. If successful, he would win a new life in the Spiral Basin and become a black wizard.'
'If he failed, he would die in the natural barrier between the two wizard lands, unknown to anyone.'
Locke suddenly realized something. That black wizard competing with Grand Wizard Sulla for plane resources in the Mage Plane, according to what Grand Wizard Sulla said, also seemed to be from the Spiral Basin.
Could it be that person was once Grand Wizard Sulla's ghostwriter too?