Chapter 2206: Ideal Proportion

Of course, there is another possibility, and that is an increase in survival efficiency.

Beyond bringing about an increase in demand, technological progress also greatly promotes the development of productivity, and the increase in production efficiency is also predictable.

However, when the source of Mithril does not undergo a fundamental change, the impact of production efficiency on price is actually not particularly large, so finding a way to open up new sources is the correct path.

……

Having settled the price and payment method with Kelifu, Xia Duo's trip to Cliff Territory could be considered successfully completed; he did not visit any other territories afterward, but instead returned to the Floating City to prepare for delivery.

The agreement he made with Kelifu was for thirty thousand pounds of Standard Mithril to be paid in three installments, ten thousand at a time, at one-year intervals, with the first one due in one week.

It is also on that day that Xia Duo will deliver the Mythallar and its related supporting facilities to the other party, along with the manufacturing blueprints for the Mythallar main body.

One week is relatively ample time for delivery, though this is only because it is Xia Duo; if it were anyone else, they would not have a ready-made Mythallar to dismantle.

Making one from scratch would certainly be too late; even with many people helping, it is unlikely to succeed. It involves nearly a million elements, and the nature of the work is more akin to pure manual crafting; having more people would instead increase the risk of errors.

Currently, the Floating City has two complete Mythallar devices: one in the Central Control Zone, providing energy for the Flight Control System, and the other in the Research Zone, originally used for the internal facility functions of the Floating City.

But now, he has no choice but to give it to Kelifu first. Even after deducting the portion for Yinaole, he can still earn at least half of the twenty million price tag, which is about ten million.

That is almost the cost of a Floating City (an incomplete version) earned back; what reason would he have not to sell it!

If there were more finished Mythallars, he would also be very happy to sell more.

In fact, Xia Duo is already feeling a bit regretful now. It is not that he does not have a third Mythallar, but rather that he only went to the "construction site" to work for a while during his leisure time or when he wanted to change his mood.

If he had known that the Seven Towers would obtain a Mythallar so quickly, he would definitely have worked overtime to rush out a few Mythallar devices, if for no other reason than the fact that this money-making speed is simply too fast.

Ten million in net profit would have taken at least a hundred years to save up at the former Tower of Time (including Savile Territory); even for the current Tower of Time, it would take at least seven or eight years to save that much.

And what about making Mythallars for sale?

If one were to work like a factory worker tightening screws, one could barely produce one a month, and the profit from one is ten million—this is much faster than mining Mithril!

It is just a pity that the market for Mythallars is far too limited, because only a Great Arcanist is qualified to guarantee that the relevant secrets will not be leaked.

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And the number of Great Arcanists in Netheril is very limited; even adding those hidden by the Seven Towers, as well as those in the private sector who have never been exposed (though this possibility is extremely small), it definitely does not exceed one hundred.

In fact, Xia Duo has roughly estimated that there are currently nineteen on the surface in Netheril; each of the Seven Towers might hide at least three, which makes 21, and those hidden in the private sector should not exceed three.

That makes a total of only 43.

If one calculates based on one Great Arcanist guaranteeing an average of two Mythallar devices, the entire Mythallar market in Netheril is less than one hundred units!

Of course, this is from Xia Duo's perspective; in reality, one hundred Mythallar devices is already a market so large it is hard to imagine for a normal Netherese Mage.

But not every Great Arcanist can independently produce twenty million Gold Coins; they still need to find their vassals and wings to borrow and raise the funds, and this naturally includes Xia Duo himself.

It is just that he can build it himself, which saves the vast majority of labor costs, but even so, the hundreds of thousands in material costs for the Suspension Base—the supporting facility for the Mythallar—still make his heart ache for a long time.

Therefore, Xia Duo's true estimated data for the Mythallar market should be—

For a considerable period in the future, Netheril will not have more than twenty Mythallar devices; "ten" might be a more appropriate number, and this is also his prediction for the number of Floating Cities in Netheril for the foreseeable future.

Actually, if one follows the proportion of Spellcasters in a magic civilization as Xia Duo expects, the proportion of Great Arcanists should be between 0.1% and 5%.

Calculating with Netheril's current population of nearly ten million, that is roughly between 10,000 and 500,000, and the proportion of Arcanists should account for at least one-third, which is about three million.

Although this is Xia Duo's expectation for a mature magic civilization, if one cannot even reach such a proportion, what right does one have to call oneself a "magic civilization"?

It is precisely because he looks forward to such a true magic civilization that Xia Duo cares so much about order, and the long-term attributes of order itself.

If the current Netheril had about ten thousand Great Arcanists, then there would inevitably be more Arcanists below them, and Xia Duo would not have to worry at all about the Mythallar devices having no market.

With such a massive group of Spellcasters, what could they not digest!

……

After the avatar returned to the Floating City, Xia Duo did not dispel it, but instead put his main body to sleep, transferring most of his consciousness into the avatar to operate in the form of the avatar.

It is not that he does not want his main body, but that the Saint Form Avatar is simply too useful; the Saint Form Avatar, which additionally creates Arcane Fire, is almost a combination of a Great Arcanist and a High Mage, possessing the advantages of both.

Added to the fact that creating this avatar is not easy, Xia Duo will of course use it to the death whenever he can!

……

The process of dismantling the Mythallar in the Research Zone is not complicated. As early as the design stage of the Floating City, Xia Duo had considered the overall replacement of the Mythallar, and with the help of his Personal Space, the dismantling process can be said to be effortless.

After all, the troublesome part is the various aftermath work; the energy interfaces of the original internal facilities of the Floating City were all connected to the Mythallar in the Research Zone. Now that the Energy Center here has no energy, it can only be temporarily connected to the Mythallar in the Central Control Zone.

Xia Duo had also considered this problem during the design phase, but at that time he was thinking about all four Auxiliary Energy Centers being paralyzed by the enemy, leaving only the Main Energy Center in the Central Control Zone to be used temporarily.

Or conversely, if the one in the Central Control Zone went on strike temporarily, he would have to use the Auxiliary Energy Centers to fill in. These all had contingency plans, but the problem was that the contingency plans were pushed to the back because they required consuming large amounts of Mithril and gold, and he hadn't had time to build them yet!

Thus, Xia Duo could only temporarily change the construction direction of the Magic Technician Office to first complete the Central Energy Conduction Network in the contingency plan. This project itself did not have much construction difficulty; the only difficulty was that it required consuming a large amount of resources.

Currently, all projects and manufacturing in the Tower of Time have plans and budgets based primarily on the resource acquisition speed of the Tower of Time. Now that the plan is temporarily changed, it affects every aspect; if handled poorly, the cash flow could be interrupted, which would be troublesome.

If not for the ten thousand pounds of Mithril from Kelifu in a week as a foundation, Xia Duo certainly would not have been able to act so recklessly; as for now, it is just a drop in the bucket.

Only at the moment of making the decision did he feel a bit of heartache; afterward, he felt nothing at all, and even thought about whether to advance some of the subsequent plans.