: The Beasts and Horses of the Wizarding World?

Tom swallowed the words that were already on the tip of his tongue, and smiled as he took the magic stone fragment.

"A wise choice!"

He walked to his desk, picked up a quill pen, wrote something on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, licked the opening of the envelope with his tongue, and then closed it and stamped it.

Tom returned to the counter and handed the envelope to Matthew. "Go to Laboratory 8 on the 55th floor of the experimental building and give this letter to Lucian."

Matthew took the envelope and looked at it. The pale gold paper had ornate patterns printed on the edges, and there was an iris emblem at the opening on the back, which looked like the Smith family's coat of arms.

[Note: Refining is not possible outside the specified range. Please move closer to the item before refining!]

Although Matthew held the envelope in his hand, it was protected by a barrier, preventing him from actually touching it. Unless the barrier was broken, the system would be unable to extract the essence.

"Can this letter really escape the school's mission?"

Tom patted his chest and said with great seriousness, "Don't underestimate the power of the Smith family."

Not to boast, but in the entire wizarding world, our Smith family…”

Seeing Tom's expression, Matthew knew he was about to start boasting about the Smith family's glorious history again, so he quickly waved his hand to stop him.

"By the way, do you have any news from the Winter Realm?"

Tom wasn't annoyed by Matthew's interruption; he explained.

"All I know is that the sect's purge in the Winter Realm didn't go smoothly in the first two months."

"As for recent news, I don't have any either. After all, it's cross-industry communication. I usually contact Uncle John once every three months."

Matthew remained silent, which was similar to the information Milo had revealed last time.

I wonder how the battle is going over there, and when Mold will return.

Thinking about it was useless. He shook his head, handed over the magic stone fragments to Tom, and walked straight out of the general store.

……

The experimental building is located to the east of the teaching area.

Matthew walked steadily along the winding road.

Although it was his first time in this area, he quickly found the experimental building.

Because it was so conspicuous, he looked up and saw that the experimental building was towering into the clouds and could not be seen at all.

The experimental building had over a hundred floors, and each floor was ten meters high, making it taller than any building he had ever seen in his previous life.

Matthew entered and went up the spiral staircase.

With his current physical condition, climbing stairs was like walking on flat ground, and he had reached the fifty-fifth floor in no time.

Matthew arrived at Lab 8 and knocked on the door.

"Click—"

The door opened a crack, then slowly began to open.

Matthew discovered that the person who opened the door was a young man, tall and slender, with long silver-white hair.

"What is it?"

"Is this Senior Lucian?" Matthew asked, taking out a pale gold envelope and explaining his purpose.

The young man was stunned when he heard Matthew's words, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

Matthew was a little confused. He looked up and glanced at the lab's door number, and found that it was indeed the number eight.

At this moment, the surprise on the young man's face disappeared, replaced by joy.

"Yes, I am Lucien. Thank goodness someone has finally come."

Lucian put one hand on Matthew's shoulder and pulled him directly into the laboratory.

As for the letter, he didn't even open it, casually tossing it into his spatial ring.

"I didn't expect that Tom would actually help me find someone to deal with those annoying poison vines."

"How to treat poison vine?"

"Yeah, didn't Tom tell you?"

I posted a potion disposal request in the academy hall for Instructor Silas, but no one has accepted it yet.

Tom said he could help me sort it out, so I tried my luck, and to my surprise, someone actually came.

Matthew was aware of the kind of commission Lucian was referring to.

The commissioned tasks are different from the mandatory tasks that the school assigns every three months. The mandatory tasks are uniformly distributed by the school and all apprentices must complete them.

Commissioned tasks can be posted by formal wizards or apprentices themselves in the Apprentice Hall.

The publisher recruits others to help with certain tasks by paying them with magic stones.

only……

"Why hasn't anyone accepted the tasks you posted, Senior Lucien?"

Upon hearing this, Lucien blushed slightly and coughed.

"Because... the toxins in poison ivy are too time-consuming to treat, and..."

He scratched his head, his expression a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

"Moreover, Instructor Silas only gave me one magic stone fragment as payment, and I have to figure out the rest myself, but this little bit of magic stone is really difficult to obtain..."

"Luckily you arrived in time, otherwise I would have gotten scolded again."

"..." Matthew fell silent. "Goodness, I never thought the wizarding world would encounter outsourcing..."

Moreover, he did not receive the payment Lucian had mentioned.

A moment later...

"What! He actually accepted ten magic stone fragments from you?" Lucian's eyes widened, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence, "That deadbeat is even more heartless than Instructor Ras."

"I paid out of my own pocket to add an extra magic stone fragment, making it two enough to ask him to help me find someone, but I didn't expect this guy to try and double-cross me." Matthew was speechless. "I never thought I'd have to pay to work here..."

"No wonder Tom hesitated to speak back then. If I had waited any longer, he probably wouldn't have asked me for magic stones, and might even have had to pay me instead."

After a moment of silence, Matthew suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked at Lucian nervously and asked, "What about the mandatory task the sect gave me?"

"You don't need to worry about that at all. After all, it took almost a month for an apprentice like you to arrive. Your mentor, Silas, will handle the mandatory mission for you."

Hearing this, Matthew finally felt relieved and couldn't help but sigh.

In the Tide School, status is linked to strength, and even the most terrifying death missions can be resolved with just a word from a formal wizard.

"Strength, it all comes down to strength..."

Matthew took a deep breath. "As long as I escape this forced mission from the school."

Before the next mission arrives, I can be promoted to intermediate apprentice, at which point I will have the freedom to choose my own missions.

Although it cost him ten extra magic stone fragments, he could obtain magic stones through potions and scrolls, and use those magic stones to exchange for a chance to escape the death mission, so it was still a huge profit for him.

Although dealing with the poison of poison ivy takes time, that's for the other apprentices.

Matthew has a system; extracting the toxins is just a matter of a thought.

"Alright, let's leave Tom for now. Come in with me; there are a lot of poisonous vines here that you need to deal with."

Watching Lucian's retreating figure disappear into the depths of the laboratory, Matthew snapped out of his thoughts and followed him.

Soon, led by Lucien, he entered the hall inside the laboratory.

Looking around, one sees a large oak desk in the very center of the hall.

In the shadows at the opposite corner, a lab bench was set up with various experimental equipment, and poisonous vines were piled up haphazardly next to it.