Chapter 1240: First Batch of One Hundred Thousand, Mass Production Advantage

Xia Duo's tone was sincere, and as a Senior Arcanist, even if Charles Halan still had doubts in his heart, he would not reveal them to his face, but instead followed Xia Duo's words to inquire about the details of the contract manufacturing:

"I wonder how many Demon-Slaying Amulets the Tower of Time can provide before the end of June? What is the yield rate? And how much will the manufacturing fee be?"

Regarding this question, Xia Duo did not answer directly, but instead said: "Lord Halan need not doubt the strength of the Tower of Time; the Tower of Time can manufacture as many as you need!"

These words certainly had an element of puffing oneself up to look bigger, but Xia Duo also had his own considerations.

Based on his past understanding of the Halan Territory, even if the other party sold off assets to raise funds, Demon-Slaying Amulets required High-Grade Mithril of at least Second-Grade Mithril, and this was not something the other party could buy easily.

After all, the Seventon Council had only opened up the refining technology for Standard Mithril, not High-Grade Mithril.

Of course, as a war order, Danzo or the Elf would certainly provide a portion of High-Grade Mithril for Netheril to use, but with so many Netheril people, why would they prioritize supplying Lord Halan?

If Lord Halan truly had some heaven-defying backer, there would be no need to be reduced to selling off assets and going all-in!

Furthermore, although Lord Halan had already chosen to go all-in, it was unlikely that he would place all his bets on the Tower of Time.

In other words, the manufacturing order the other party could provide was actually relatively limited, and Xia Duo had anticipated this.

……

On the other side, when Charles Halan heard Xia Duo say he could manufacture as many as needed, he felt a surge of joy, but immediately afterwards, more doubts arose.

It was simply too exaggerated; looking across all of Netheril, there were only about twenty organizations with such strength.

Aside from the Mage Tower organizations where Great Arcanists resided, it was basically impossible for other small organizations.

And the Tower of Time? Charles remembered very clearly that it had only suddenly risen to fame in these past few years, and the key element in it was Lord Xia Duo himself!

"His wife is a student of the Princess; could it be that he is taking the path of Giles Tower, or perhaps utilizing certain channels of the Arcane Union through his teacher?"

Charles pondered the various possibilities seriously; if it were ordinary times, he would be very willing to hand over the entire manufacturing order to Lord Xia Duo if he said so.

After all, with a contract guarantee, as long as the breach of contract compensation amount was agreed upon in advance, he would not lose out.

But now, if the delivery date were delayed, the trouble would be huge, and no amount of money paid in compensation would be meaningful to him.

Based on the risk considerations, after thinking it over seriously, Charles Halan gave a relatively conservative number: "100 Demon-Slaying Amulets, is Lord Xia Duo willing to take such a manufacturing order?"

Hearing such a number, Xia Duo couldn't help but laugh; he had thought there would be how many! He didn't expect it to be so few!

Just 100 pieces; even if he did them all by himself, he could finish them all within a month. If the Tower of Time's Magic Technicians were included, then even doubling this number would not be much of a problem.

Of course, if it were other Senior Arcanists or Archmages, unless they were specialized in Magic Item manufacturing, it would be unlikely they could complete it on time.

Xia Duo had not dealt with Lord Charles before, and now both sides were still in the stage of building trust; the fact that the other party could provide this quantity of orders was actually quite good.

"100 pieces, of course I'll take it. As for the manufacturing fee and the yield rate—"

Speaking up to this point, Xia Duo paused deliberately, then reported two numbers he had considered for a long time: "Let the manufacturing fee be calculated at 1,000 Gold Coins per piece, and the yield rate will be 70%!"

This price was slightly lower than the labor cost of general Advanced Amulets on the market; a magic amulet started at at least 2,000 on the market, and the premium within it was quite high.

And Advanced Amulets, which were micro-magic items containing protective spells of the 5th circle or higher, had a starting price of at least 5,000 Gold Coins.

Of course, the costs also varied; low-level amulets, or Simple Amulets, sometimes had pitifully low cost prices, perhaps just the Spellcaster's labor cost, just like the Simple Mind Amulet Xia Duo gave to Evans before.

The material was one Gold Coin, but only because he, a Senior Arcanist, cast the spell could there be an extra premium. In fact, if a High Mage were swapped in, they could also make such a Simple Amulet, but the prices of the two were obviously different.

As for Advanced Amulets, if they were of the Magic Permanence type, then they could only be made by an Archmage or a Senior Arcanist personally. The material cost could basically be ignored, but the permanence spell itself was a high-threshold task that was extremely energy-consuming.

How many Archmages or Senior Arcanists were willing to work so desperately? The price was self-evident; generally, they would only make a few to tide themselves over when they were out of money.

And if it were the Mithril Component type, the production threshold was low enough that a general High Mage could produce it, but the material cost of one Advanced Amulet was at least 1,000 Gold Coins, and one had to consider the yield rate. In the past, when Mithril could not be refined, the material cost basically had to be doubled.

As for the Spellcaster's labor cost, that was calculated individually; the asking price might be extremely high or extremely low, but it was generally not lower than 1,000 Gold Coins; this was already considered the most basic tacit understanding among Spellcasters.

Xia Duo charging a manufacturing fee of 1,000 Gold Coins per piece was completely within the normal range in the eyes of ordinary people, and it was also relatively sincere.

However, for Xia Duo and the Tower of Time, this 1,000 Gold Coin manufacturing fee would be broken down into the wages of Magic Technicians of different levels; in reality, it was using the labor costs of low-level Mages to replace the labor costs of High Mages.

High Mages did less work and were paid less, which fit general intuition.

Of these 1,000 Gold Coins, Xia Duo actually only had to pay the Tower of Time Mages at most 500 or 600. Even if he did it all himself, he would still break down the process and do the final step himself, rather than doing everything from start to finish alone.

As for the 70% yield rate, that had even more tricks to it.

When the Tower of Time's Magic Technician Department was mass-producing Communication Magic Tools, the initial production could achieve a 60% pass rate. Now, even if producing Advanced Amulets, with the experience of mass production, the pass rate would not be much worse.

On the contrary, the High Mages doing the final step, because they lacked mass production experience, might be a bit unaccustomed at first, but as long as they made a few more, standardization would allow them to become skilled workers at the fastest speed!

Not to mention that Xia Duo was there to provide a safety net; the scrapped Mithril materials could be completely re-refined. Calling it a 70% yield rate could actually be seen as 100%.

Those 30% of materials with a market value of over 40,000 could be considered an extra manufacturing fee.

After this order of 100 Demon-Slaying Amulets was completed, the Tower of Time could earn nearly 100,000; perhaps Lord Halan wouldn't even earn 100,000 if he sold these to Danzo.

Not to mention that the final payment would be withheld, waiting until the war stabilized before it could be issued.

Contract manufacturing was indeed a good business that was sure to make a profit without losing money!

Even, if Xia Duo repeatedly refined the Mithril from that 30% of materials into First-Grade Mithril and then made them into exquisite Magic Items to sell, the profit would be even higher.