In the afternoon, according to the agreed time, Locke waited in his three-piece house for Elagabalus and another sketch artist.

Locke looked at Elagabalus and another first-class wizard apprentice sketch artist with surprise. "This is?"

Elagabalus raised his eyebrows and laughed heartily, "Customer Locke, please rest assured, this is Toke Kalile, my junior."

"His gallery went bankrupt before, so he's now heavily in debt. The daily interest on his high-interest loans is almost equal to his principal."

"So currently he's completely bankrupt, you understand..." Elagabalus sighed melancholically. "Any property he has on him now would be immediately taken to pay debts."

"So he can only work with me. He's basically my assistant, and with his help, I can definitely serve you better."

Toke Kalile looked silent and reserved, just following behind Elagabalus, looking worriedly at Locke, afraid that Locke would have objections to this.

Elagabalus said to Locke, "Customer Locke, it's not that I like bringing family along. It's that we artists go bankrupt even faster than you potion masters and breeders. Even if you hire other sketch artists, it would be the same."

"We often have one senior carrying a whole bunch of people behind us. Sometimes when you hire one sketch artist, you're likely hiring a whole group of his junior classmates behind him... I only brought one junior..."

"Don't worry, my junior is really just my assistant and won't cost much extra money."

Locke was somewhat speechless. No wonder his teacher Witch Sophia used the word "them" this morning.

Witch Sophia probably already understood that he would encounter such a situation.

However, the magical painting map project was extensive, so hiring an additional sketch artist wasn't really a problem, and besides, Witch Sophia had already paid for this in advance.

Locke opened the door and invited them in. "Come in. I also found an assistant to help us draw the magical paintings together. First, we'll create a magical painting for one of my magical plants called Crystal Palm Fire Lotus."

Locke invited them to the bedroom he had prepared. According to the contract he signed with them, they would create a series of magical paintings for him, so they would eat and stay in rooms he arranged, while he would place the materials they needed to draw in their temporary studio.

On the first day, Locke had them draw a magical painting of the Crystal Palm Fire Lotus.

By the morning of the second day, they had already completed the drawing work. Locke looked at the two-dimensional Crystal Palm Fire Lotus hanging on his living room wall and nodded slightly.

Although Elagabalus's behavior of bringing family along was somewhat odd, his skills were indeed good.

Locke pressed his finger on the magical painting on the wall. As his finger moved, the Crystal Palm Fire Lotus in the painting rotated and moved within the magical painting, and every detail could be enlarged or reduced.

This magical painting could completely be used as a specimen in plant identification courses.

"No wonder magical paintings have a good market. They indeed have some auxiliary teaching and storage functions for breeding studies," Locke said, satisfied with this magical painting that cost him thirty magic stones.

Then Locke looked at Toke Kalile and Elagabalus, "Howard, come out. You two, this is the assistant I mentioned."

"Now please help me draw a magical painting map."

Elagabalus originally had a faint smile on his face, very happy that Locke praised his magical painting but when he saw a vampire apprentice walk out of the small room, his expression immediately changed, showing some fear on his face.

"Black... black wizard?"

Elagabalus looked at Locke, and only after discovering that Howard was very respectful to Locke did he relax slightly, but he still looked somewhat afraid when seeing Howard's inhuman appearance.

"Locke... we have to cooperate with black wizards too?"

"You never mentioned this before."

Locke looked at Elagabalus and joked, "Are you afraid of wizards wearing black robes? Should I have him change into white robes and come back?"

Elagabalus waved his hand. "It's not that kind of problem."

He paused, then nodded approvingly, "Locke, I think you're right. Colors indeed greatly affect people's moods. This is exactly one of the core components of our Atlas Palette Academy's visual illusion techniques."

"I think you really do need to have this 'black-robed' wizard friend change clothes before coming over, otherwise my hands will shake from fear and I won't even be able to hold my paintbrush."

Locke snapped his fingers and glanced at Howard indifferently. "Go upstairs and change into white wizard robes."

Howard respectfully said to Locke, "Yes, master."

Elagabalus looked with surprise at this black wizard who was completely obedient and docile to Locke. 'My employer has some harsh methods. Even ferociously cruel black wizards are like gentle sheep in front of him.'

'This employer is no ordinary person.'

Locke looked at Elagabalus, "Great artist, can we work now?"

Hearing Locke call him a great artist, Elagabalus immediately blushed slightly, feeling very happy inside. "Of course, of course."

"Toke, quickly spread out the canvas. Being able to serve such a wizard who respects art is also my honor as an artist."

Elagabalus seemed skilled at using lifelike oil paintings to create magical paintings, so he used linen as a base and used large amounts of pigments based on various magical plants.

Therefore, the colors he used were even richer than those used by ordinary human painters.

Many colors that ordinary painters couldn't obtain, like pure purple, he could get from the juice of purple perilla vines.

Of course, the pigment aspect was indeed an edge discipline in the breeder field, a rather specialized type.

After all, sketch artists themselves didn't make much money, and researching the niche field of pigment colors and magical plants would make even less money.

As Locke and Howard, who had changed into white robes, told Elagabalus and his assistant various details about that Curse Techniques Research Institute, Elagabalus's expression in front of the easel became increasingly serious.

He seemed to have guessed something, occasionally turning to look at the fierce-eyed Howard and Locke, whose eyes were always calm and unfathomable, impossible to read.

Locke looked at Elagabalus with confusion, "What's wrong? Did you encounter some problem?"

Elagabalus immediately shook his head and said somewhat nervously, "Mr. Augustine, there's no problem. It's just that I don't really understand some curse magic techniques, so there might be drawing errors."

Locke said, "Don't worry. If you don't understand, Howard will interpret for you. What you need to do is draw all the information I tell you into a magical painting map, word for word."

"You don't need to care about anything else, don't ask anything, don't say anything."

"Do you understand?"

Both Elagabalus and his junior Toke Kalile were startled by Locke's words.

Toke Kalile even felt like crying. He felt so unlucky, having just gone bankrupt, barely managing to rely on his senior, and now seemingly being dragged into very complex black wizard problems.

That wasn't just any magical painting map. The information Locke told them in one afternoon contained so much information that curse masters dreamed of obtaining.

This information had already made Toke Kalile and Elagabalus afraid.

They were terrified that Locke might suddenly want to silence them.