Chapter 1102: Internal and External Dual-Cycle, Taking on a Student

Very quickly, Iolum gave his own opinion—

"I think it is feasible. I will bring it up at the next Council of Great Arcanists meeting, and I believe the Seven Towers will agree as well. If you have any other suggestions, you can bring them up together; if they are feasible, I will also provide my support."

Xia Duo glanced at the stack of Level 2 Apprentice textbooks for the Tower of Time still resting on the tea table and did not offer any further suggestions.

If nothing unexpected happens, the next Arcane Union Council of Great Arcanists meeting will be the day Kangjienio officially steps down. By then, Iolum will surely have his own "three fires" to light upon taking office, and Xia Duo did not want to steal the spotlight too much.

Moreover, he did not have many suggestions to offer. For the time being, before he could truly participate in and lead the process of change, he did not want to interfere too much in matters outside his own Territory.

No longer keeping a low profile was mostly just a necessary display of his status as a Senior Arcanist, lest people misjudge him. At other times, he still needed to Pide his time and accumulate strength.

……

Next, Xia Duo and the two Great Arcanists engaged in an in-depth discussion regarding the training of apprentices. He could see that both Kangjienio and Iolum were very interested in the current academy-style training at the Tower of Time, but limited by their respective statuses, they were unable to put it into practice.

Consequently, they were particularly attentive to what Xia Duo said.

"Lord Xia Duo, I roughly understand what you have said, but I have a question: after the three-year apprentice contract expires, if everything goes smoothly, the Tower of Time will have hundreds more Official Mages. How do you intend to arrange for these people?"

Mages are not rigid, inanimate objects; they are living people. And being living people, they must have various activities based on this profession, and these activities are all built upon the foundation of various Mage Tower infrastructures.

In other words, merely maintaining the existence of these mages would generate massive consumption, including the material consumption for daily practice and experiments, as well as maintenance costs for the infrastructure.

Iolum himself had no research into the commercial field, so as the discussion reached this point, the more he looked forward to the scene of academy-style training, the more he worried about the potential drawbacks that might exist under such circumstances.

Xia Duo had previously mentioned that the Tower of Time could currently only barely maintain the training costs for these apprentices. Even if they could participate in production after becoming Official Mages, the consumption generated by their existence would be absolutely greater than that of apprentices, and by many times over.

And could the surplus products generated by the Tower of Time because of those Official Mages really be sold?

If they couldn't be sold, wouldn't the Tower of Time go bankrupt very soon? And even if they were sold, if the price was pushed too low, it still wouldn't be sustainable.

Such questions actually touched upon the core of Xia Duo's reforms and governance in Nan Jing. To be honest, he himself had been worrying about this issue all along. Although he had various plans, no one could absolutely guarantee what the future would hold.

At this moment, this question was raised again by Iolum, and Kangjienio also showed a curious, attentive posture. Xia Duo thought for a moment and then said:

"Master, Lord Iolum, regarding this issue, I mainly have plans in two aspects—"

"One is to create a new consumption mechanism and establish an internal economic cycle, letting those new mages work in the Tower of Time and consume in the Tower of Time. Of course, this internal cycle also has a major loophole, which is the limitation of the Tower of Time's own resources. If the Tower of Time does not have sufficient resources to circulate, it will be hard to sustain, but at least it is a form of mitigation."

"Therefore, the second aspect is to dig deep into internal resources and introduce external resources. The undeveloped areas of Nan Jing are so vast that one can always find some useful mineral veins, and then use spells to mine them; the efficiency might far exceed that of ordinary humans or even Gnomes and Dwarves. As for external resources, we still need to utilize these large numbers of Official Mages. They will produce more low-cost goods to sell externally, used to supplement the deficiencies of the internal cycle."

Speaking of this, Xia Duo revealed another piece of news that was not much of a secret to Iolum and Kangjienio:

"Currently, the Tower of Time has reached a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement with the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce. In the future, the Tower of Time will sell more Magic Items through the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce and introduce more raw materials."

As for the point of promoting New Coin in Nan Jing, Xia Duo did not mention it here.

After hearing Xia Duo's explanation, Iolum and Kangjienio both fell into deep thought again, and the Study became incomparably quiet once more.

There was only the "tick-tock" sound made by a small Mithril pendulum-like ornament on the desk not far away.

Before long, an excited, eager-to-try expression appeared in Iolum's eyes, but seeming to think of something, he quickly calmed down and exchanged a look with Kangjienio.

In that gaze, both sides confirmed certain information, and only then did Iolum speak slowly to Xia Duo:

"Lord Xia Duo, the 'academy-style training, internal and external dual-cycle' development model you proposed indeed has a very attractive development prospect and is indeed very suitable for Netheril, but now I must tell you a very realistic problem, which is—"

"In current Netheril, even the Morien Tower lineage, which has the strongest academic atmosphere and is the most open-minded toward Knowledge, would find it very difficult to proactively carry out such a reform."

Xia Duo listened carefully, not letting a single word slip by, even pondering them repeatedly. What Iolum said should be considered a certain Reality of Netheril.

If even the Morien Tower lineage found it difficult to promote academy-style training, then it went without saying for other places, but Iolum's words seemed to go beyond that.

Just then, Iolum suddenly asked: "Lord Xia Duo, are you willing to become my student?"

"Ah?"

Xia Duo was stunned on the spot.

Weren't they just discussing the future development model? How did it suddenly veer into taking on a student? This turn was truly a bit too large; he couldn't quite accept it for a moment.

Just as Xia Duo was pondering in his heart what Iolum meant by saying this, Iolum himself had already begun to take the initiative to explain:

"Lord Xia Duo, I am very optimistic about you and the future development of Nan Jing, but such development is destined not to proceed in peace. Before you become a Great Arcanist, I can temporarily become your teacher to block some unnecessary malice for you."

Hearing this, Xia Duo immediately understood Iolum's intention.

The wheels of the era roll forward, but the people who lead the era may not necessarily receive fair treatment in their own time. This is just like the "Qin" of his hometown.

Later generations all use the laws of Qin, while at the same time smearing the laws of Qin in every possible way.

And in Netheril, it is the same. If academy-style training appears first in Nan Jing and thereby breaks a certain current balance, even if academy-style training could become the mainstream in the future, it would inevitably encounter a backlash from the conservatives now.

This backlash, of course, does not necessarily mean "real-person PK," but one can never be sure.