Chapter 1655: A Trip to Leisen Territory: A Ten-Billion Cost

Having confirmed the visit time, Xia Duo put away the invitation letter; he would need to rely on this invitation to head to Jilan Tower in two days!

Afterward, Xia Duo chatted with Mage Aoerdelin for a while longer. Naturally, the main point was to hint that introducing new customers would have its benefits; unlike what he had previously thought, he did not directly mention returning Gold Coins.

He had figured it out: a Bloodline User like Aoerdelin, who could easily produce 100,000 Gold Coins, likely wouldn't care for those few Gold Coins of his.

Could he really give the other party 100,000 Gold Coins back for every new customer introduced? Then what money would he make?

For now, he could only comfort the other party with intangible benefits. Come to think of it, Xia Duo was actually not resistant to owing others favors. After all, it was just social reciprocity; they were both adults, so what was there to be unable to accept about that?

It was just that it shouldn't be a favor too large to repay.

In a sense, this could also be considered a manifestation of Xia Duo's "innate kindness." If it were someone without a bottom line, they wouldn't care whether certain favors were ones they couldn't repay.

……

After Mage Aoerdelin left, these two recent orders were considered completely settled, and Xia Duo had also put a matter to rest.

In the two days before visiting Jilan Tower, taking advantage of the fact that no new orders had arrived, he prepared to make a trip to Leisen Territory.

Since he had already decided to make a big profit from the Bloodline Users of Jilan Tower, the previously considered matter of selling High-Grade Mithril could be abandoned for the time being.

However, most of what he earned from the custom boutique Magic Item orders was in Gold Coins, and he still needed to convert them into specific resources.

Otherwise, was he expected to take a pile of gold back to build a Floating City?

Gold was, of course, one of the building materials for a Floating City, but gold was easy to obtain and didn't require much consideration; what needed to be stockpiled here was primarily Mithril.

If it were before the 【Mythallar】 device was successfully running, then Xia Duo would still need to prepare a large amount of Five-Colored Gems or Arcane Crystals.

But now, none of these needed to be considered.

He only lacked Mithril, a large amount of Mithril!

……

Leisen Territory.

Xia Duo's arrival did not alert anyone. Aside from the previously contacted Lord of Leisen Territory, Telemen, the two did not linger after meeting in the Mage Tower's Teleportation Room, but went directly to the Leisen Territory's Mithril refining workshop.

After more than a year, the place had changed its appearance. Previously, there was only one smelting furnace here, but now there were three. And further away, Xia Duo could also see four or five pillars of gas with faint blue flames at the bottom shooting straight into the sky.

This meant that there was at least one more workshop in the distance used for refining Mithril.

Seeing Xia Duo looking into the distance, the Lord of Leisen Territory explained at the right moment: "The workshop here is mainly for smelting the ore within the territory, while that one in the distance is used for ore from outside."

"Leisen Territory has its own Mithril Mine, so does it really need to purchase from elsewhere?" Xia Duo asked curiously.

Seemingly unconcerned, he was actually very concerned; buying ore from elsewhere meant that Leisen Territory had already become a distribution hub for Mithril resources.

And what Xia Duo lacked most right now was Mithril, so how could he not care about this!

To this, the Lord of Leisen Territory's answer was—"Not every territory has the ability to build its own Mithril refining workshop. There are technical reasons for this, as well as cost control factors, or perhaps it is just historical inertia."

"Those territories have always sold Mithril ore to Dwarves or Elves in the past. Now, my offer is higher, and I can even settle in Standard Mithril. Such a good thing didn't exist in the past, so they are happy to accept these conditions."

Although the Lord of Leisen Territory did not directly answer Xia Duo's question, Xia Duo was no fool; this was the development model of a mining tycoon!

He hadn't expected that after only a year or so, Leisen Territory would develop so quickly!

For a Spellcaster, Mithril could be said to be a hard currency, and Netheril had only opened up Mithril Refining Technology for a little over a year. Leisen Territory had seized the opportunity early; the future was promising!

"Then I wonder what the current monthly production of Standard Mithril in Leisen Territory is?"

"If someone else were to ask this question, I certainly wouldn't be able to answer, but if Lord Xia Duo asks, I would say it is about 500 pounds or so."

"There is actually that much!"

Although Xia Duo believed that the Lord of Leisen Territory would likely hold something back, this number still shocked him. One had to know that in the past, the purchasing quota the Tower of Time could obtain from the Arcane Union in a year was only 100 pounds.

And now, the monthly production of Leisen Territory alone was 500 pounds, and all this Mithril could directly enter the market for circulation, which meant the total amount of Mithril within Netheril had suddenly become abundant.

"Then what is the current price of Standard Mithril?" Xia Duo asked again.

"The average market price is about 600 Gold Coins."

Nearly one-fifth more expensive than before!

Although there was more Mithril on the market, the price had risen quite a bit. Xia Duo had already been mentally prepared for this situation.

For a hard currency like Mithril, it was certainly difficult to drive the price down. The current price hike might just be caused by the retaliatory consumption of Netherese Mages; after all, Mithril in the past was not as abundant as it was now.

Of course, with the rise of mass-produced Magic Items, the demand for Mithril would also continue to climb, which could likewise drive up the price of Mithril.

In addition, once there was more Mithril, Mages would no longer be as constrained as they were in the past, which would also bring about a huge demand.

Unless several giant, easily-mined, rich Mithril deposits were suddenly discovered somewhere, it would be possible for the price of Mithril to drop slightly in the short term, but it would continue to rise afterward.

As long as no substitute was found, it would likely be difficult for the price of Mithril to fall back down.

Xia Duo suddenly realized that this current node was simply the best moment to bottom-fish for Mithril.

On one hand, Netheril had already opened up Mithril Refining Technology, and the Three-Nation Mithral Agreement no longer required Netheril to export Mithril, which made large-scale procurement of Mithril possible.

On the other hand, the massive demand for Mithril from Netherese Mages had not yet fully manifested. Although there might be a price hike caused by a bout of retaliatory consumption for the time being, there would certainly be a small dip afterward.

Once demand skyrocketed, the current price of Mithril might be gone forever. To want to buy Mithril at the current price again, one might have to wait for the day when production capacity exceeded demand.

As for when that day would be, Xia Duo found it hard to speculate.

After all, the development of Netheril Magic was changing with each passing day, and it could almost be predicted that once big Mithril-consuming entities like Floating Cities appeared, it would be difficult for Mithril production capacity to exceed demand.

Currently, the Floating City designed by Xia Duo required at least 100,000 pounds of Standard Mithril; of course, this included all internal facilities.

Converting that to Gold Coins at the current market price of Mithril, it would be about 60 million Gold Coins.

Calculating based on the Tower of Time's current earning speed of 300,000 Gold Coins per month, it would take about 17 years to save up this portion of Gold Coins. If other materials were included, it might take even longer.

Of course, the construction of a Floating City could be carried out in stages, and Xia Duo was indeed doing just that. If he really had to wait to save up all the resources before starting construction, who knows how long that would take!