Chapter 1720: Slack Military Preparedness, Harvesting Leeks

According to Xia Duo's understanding, the military preparedness of the Northern Elf Kingdoms has been continuously slackening since the Crown War. One shouldn't even think about mage corps; not even Cormanthor has a formed mage corps, let alone Evereska.

True combat power is basically just High Mages.

The remaining spellcasting units, such as Mages and Sword Singers, can basically be considered second-line, and those patrols wearing 【Defender's Armor】 are nominally regular troops, but in reality, they might not even be as good as second-line.

Unless they possess innate spellcasting ability, they rely entirely on equipment; how much combat power can they have against a true spellcaster?

The elves' standard magic equipment is still far from developed to the point of bridging the gap in individual spellcasting ability!

For a major power, the standard equipment of a third-line combatant might be worth putting great effort into researching, manufacturing, equipping, and stockpiling, but for a small city-state nation like Evereska—

Research and development is likely out of the question; they can only rely on past achievements, and it is unlikely they can manufacture too many of the items themselves.

After all, it is only standard equipment for third-line personnel; having a little bit to keep up appearances is enough. If they really wanted to spend a large sum of money to manufacture them, it would be better to spend that money on cultivating new Mages.

That might even increase national strength more!

Xia Duo guessed that Laruian being able to bring one hundred 【Defender's Armor】 this time probably meant he had to strip them off the current patrol members!

The reality might not be much different from Xia Duo's guess; when he mentioned at least one hundred sets, a look of hesitation clearly appeared on Laruian's face.

According to the other party's previous quote, 100,000 per set, one hundred sets would be 10 million; this is not a small amount. With such a large order, why would there be hesitation?

Only one reason—

The goods on that side might be insufficient!

Xia Duo reporting at least one hundred sets implied that he had Arcane Crystals worth at least one hundred sets of 【Defender】 equipment, while also assuming Laruian could bring one hundred 【Defender's Armor】 and that the remaining parts of the set could also be delivered immediately, or at least in a short time.

Where was the hesitation? It was undoubtedly the delivery issue.

Laruian had already mentioned earlier that this transaction had been approved by the Council of Elders, so it couldn't be a problem with the transaction itself, and the other party did not object when he proposed the new settlement plan using Arcane Crystals, but instead asked about the order quantity.

That meant tacit agreement to settle with Arcane Crystals; at least in Xia Duo's view, that was the case, and both sides had such a tacit understanding.

The only thing Laruian probably didn't anticipate was the quantity of Arcane Crystals Xia Duo possessed. As a newly promoted Great Arcanist, Xia Duo certainly couldn't save up many Arcane Crystals himself. If he wanted to buy them outside, an ordinary Mage might be able to, but who would sell them to a Great Arcanist?

As soon as Xia Duo let word out that he was acquiring Arcane Crystals, the Arcane Crystals on the market would likely disappear instantly.

The only use for a Great Arcanist to collect Arcane Crystals would be if he were preparing to go to war with someone, and a protracted war that would require Arcane Crystals at that!

Under normal circumstances, Great Arcanists would have a surplus of Arcane Crystals and would have no need to purchase them externally.

In Laruian's eyes, Xia Duo saying he would settle with Arcane Crystals might just be to offset a portion of the payment, with the remaining bulk still being settled in Gold Coins; in that case, the order quantity would be relatively controllable.

Daxia Territory is still just a New Expansion Land without a mature economic system; Xia Duo's only stable source of funds is the Tower of Time.

And the earnings of the Tower of Time, if one has the mind to, can basically be estimated.

However—

The existence of the 【Mythallar】 device is not something everyone knows, and this introduces a huge variable.

And at this moment, Xia Duo also realized that his previous words might have certain hidden risks, so he hurriedly added:

"Elder Laruian, the 'at least one hundred sets' I mentioned is not needed immediately. After all, I cannot produce that many Gold Coins or Arcane Crystals all at once. I hope to have these one hundred sets delivered in installments."

Upon hearing this, Laruian breathed a sigh of relief. He did not want Xia Duo to know that the current Evereska could not even produce one hundred complete 【Defender】 sets. He calmed his mood as much as possible before continuing:

"Then, I wonder how many sets Lord Xia Duo intends to purchase in the first installment?"

"The sets are good, but for Daxia Territory, which has limited financial resources, I think purchasing them separately might be more realistic."

Involving the specific order situation, Xia Duo could not go by sets as before: 【Defender's Armor】 20,000, 【Defender's Shield】 10,000, 【Defender's Spear】 30,000.

But in reality, the Territory does not currently need such high-end attack weapons; his initial goal was merely the Flying Armor to improve the mobility of the Territory Guard.

It was just unexpected that the Evereska side was also willing to sell 【Defender's Shield】 and 【Defender's Spear】. This was, of course, a good thing for Xia Duo, but having no money was a major issue.

"Lord Xia Duo's choice is wise. A flexible order is certainly possible, but I wonder how Lord Xia Duo would like to arrange it?"

Laruian did not reject Xia Duo's flexible order. In fact, Evereska did the same; all patrol members had 【Defender's Armor】, but only the Captain had a 【Defender's Shield】, or members purchased them themselves.

As for the 【Defender's Spear】, only a small amount was stored in the armory. Patrols could only use them after their application was approved, and they were retrieved by the Captain using a storage device directly connected to the armory. They were not equipped daily, nor were they allowed to be purchased privately.

And Xia Duo's choice, to a certain extent, coincided with the current situation in Evereska: "For the first installment, I need one hundred 【Defender's Armor】; as for the shields and spears, I want 10 of each!"

This basically meant taking all one hundred Flying Armor sets Laruian brought this time, plus an additional batch of shields and spears, totaling 2.4 million Gold Coins. This was not a small amount for Xia Duo.

The annual net income of the Tower of Time was only slightly more than this.

If he didn't use Arcane Crystals to settle, Xia Duo would really have to play the installment payment game.

2.4 million Gold Coins, converted into Arcane Crystals at the current market price, would only be 480 Standard Arcane Crystals. Based on the production efficiency of the 【Mythallar】 device in the Blue Crystal Plane—one every 3 seconds—that was only 24 minutes of production.

This reminded Xia Duo of a spoof image he saw before he transmigrated, saying that the richest man wanted to save up to buy a luxury car, counted, and there, he had saved up.

He now had a similar feeling.

It's just a pity that this kind of thing cannot be done forever. Once the 【Mythallar】 device is made public, even if the export of Arcane Crystals to the elves is restricted, it will be impossible to have such high prices when settling in the future!

Taking advantage of the opportunity to harvest, one should naturally harvest as much as possible, but Xia Duo did not intend to do so in the Main Plane; after all, being too excessive would easily provoke public anger.

Not just the aggrieved elves, but also those Netherese Mages who failed to harvest the elven leeks.