Chapter 320: Mithril Quota

"Tower Spirit, teleport her here!" Xia Duo commanded casually. And at the very moment the order was issued, Saixili, who was in the elevator, received a prompt from the Tower Spirit: "Supervisor Saixili, Agent Xia Duo wishes to teleport you to the Tower Master's study. Do you consent?"

Saixili took a deep breath. Her destination was the Tower Master's study; she had come because she received notice from Uncle Aiboke that Xia Duo was in Niya's study.

"Consent!"

The next instant, a flash of white light flickered, and Saixili vanished from the elevator, while the empty elevator instantly disassembled and disappeared.

Niya's study.

After Xia Duo issued the command, the Tower Spirit did not respond, so he knew the Tower Spirit was capable of it. Sure enough, the next moment, a white light appeared out of thin air—

Saixili appeared before him! Xia Duo curiously sized up this girl, who was about the same age as Niya. Her appearance could only be considered ordinary, with a few naughty little freckles hanging on her face.

But her bearing was graceful and her expression calm; just standing there, she gave one a sense of steadiness and reliability.

As the only female Mage in the Tower of Time besides Niya, Saixili was quite famous in the Tower of Time.

It was just that, like Niya, before Niya's identity was officially made public, both had served as apprentices to the Lord of Epps and rarely appeared, remaining in a state of "hearing their names but never seeing their faces" for years.

It wasn't until not long ago, after Niya inherited the Tower of Time, that she immediately replaced Aiboke with her as the Material Supervisor, and only then did everyone truly get to know this supervisor whose Spellcasting Level was only Level 2.

And just as Xia Duo was observing Saixili, Saixili was also observing Xia Duo. As Niya's closest steward, she had long ago secretly observed Niya's two apprentices.

This was not her first time seeing Xia Duo; in fact, she had just seen him at the Midsummer Festival celebration not long ago. Seeing him again today, however, Saixili felt a bit more astonishment in her heart.

In the days between, Xia Duo's appearance hadn't changed much, but his temperament was more lofty, and he possessed an extra trace of majesty. Could a change in status really bring about such a great change? Saixili observed and pondered calmly, while not lacking in etiquette, "Greetings, Lord Xia Duo!"

"Supervisor Saixili, what is the matter? Is there a problem with the Material Department?" Xia Duo asked.

"Yes. Although the Material Department obtained some materials replenished by Lord Aiboke, in the long run, there is still a large gap in the relevant materials."

Xia Duo knew what she meant by "in the long run." Now that he was in charge of the Tower of Time, the problems had to be solved by him! "How much material is still missing?"

Saixili was well-prepared and immediately reported them item by item, "According to the restoration plan, excluding what can be solved by the follow-up plan, we are still missing 500 pounds of Mithril, 300 pounds of Topaz, 100 pounds of Peridot, 50 pounds each of white, blue, yellow, red, and purple pure-colored Crystal, and 20 pounds each of blue, yellow, red, and purple pure-colored Gemstone—"

"Wait, wait!"

Hearing that string of numbers, Xia Duo couldn't help but gasp, hurriedly interrupting Saixili. Not to mention the wide variety of Gemstones, the Mithril alone required 500 pounds.

The market price of Mithril was not particularly high—a pound was only a few hundred Gold Coins—but there were two other terms: one was "seller's market," and the other was "strategic reserve"! Xia Duo did not yet know if the Savile Territory had a Mithril Mine, but in all likelihood, it probably didn't. Even if it did, wanting to suddenly conjure up 500 pounds of Mithril was not an easy task.

By the same token, the market was relatively stable, and it was not easy to suddenly come up with 500 pounds of Mithril.

"How were these materials obtained in the past?"

"Gemstones were obtained by the Territory Merchant through trade with the output of the Tower of Time; for those with high yields, they could also be bought with Gold Coins. Only for Mithril, only Dwarves can refine it. Within the Empire, any place that has a Mithril Mine, even if it is mined, can only be sold to Dwarves. Anyone who attempted to refine it themselves never succeeded. And the Dwarves' Mithril output has a quota every year! Allocated to the Tower of Time, it is no more than a little over 100 pounds per year."

Speaking of this, Saixili's mood became a bit low. 500 pounds of Mithril seemed like it didn't cost much, but it was actually the most troublesome to obtain.

The Mithril quota was allocated by the Arcane Union according to each Mage Tower and the number of Mages in the Mage Tower. Moreover, just because it was allocated to you didn't mean it was free; it also required payment.

Whether it was Gold Coins, or equivalent Gemstones or Magic Items, all were acceptable.

Upon hearing that the Dwarves actually played the game of export quotas, Xia Duo couldn't help but widen his eyes. He thought of the Dwarf he knew, Buloutuo.

The image of the thick-browed, big-eyed, stubborn, and cheerful Dwarf in his mind suddenly became shrewd and cunning.

"What about the Elves? Why not buy Mithril from the Elves?" Xia Duo asked again.

He had spent more than a year in an Elf city on the Projection Plane, and he knew that Mithril was widely used in Elf society, but he had never heard that those Mithril were bought from Dwarves.

The Elves should have the technology to refine Mithril.

However, hearing Xia Duo's words, Saixili suddenly smiled, "My Lord, you shouldn't have been to Konnifila City, right?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"My Lord, the Elves won't sell Mithril directly to us. They only shape the Mithril into some random image, and then place it in shops as art pieces at prices several or even dozens of times higher, attracting human Merchants to go and buy them."

"..."

Xia Duo finally understood. It turned out that Netheril had already been reduced to a raw material producer and exporter. The Dwarf kingdom might be a bit better, but the Elves were just blatantly harvesting leeks.

However, knowing this didn't help his current situation much. Even if he knew more, he couldn't conjure Mithril out of thin air.

And there were those Gemstones, all of which required the Tower of Time to trade using food, Gold Coins, or even Magic Items.

First of all, the restoration work could not stop; this was the foundation of their existence.

Then, cutting expenses was no longer enough; they had to increase revenue! Otherwise, once the Tower of Time and the Savile Territory went bankrupt, let alone the restoration work, whether this Mage Tower could even be kept would be a problem.

Xia Duo currently did not know that the damage to the Tower of Time was only a problem with some Magic Arrays in the low-ring state of the downgrade program, which did not affect the normal use of the current high-ring state.

Even energy acquisition was very normal, just a bit less than usual due to being in a Magic Net chaotic area, while consumption was a bit higher.

Niya had left in a hurry and only explained some important matters. Although the restoration work was important, it was not urgent; if it could be done, it would be done, and if it couldn't, pausing for a period of time was fine.

On the contrary, maintaining lower energy consumption to increase energy reserves was more important.

If Niya were here, it wouldn't be hard to make a choice, but for Xia Duo, he had already begun to rack his brains trying to increase revenue and earn Gold Coins.

It must be said that because of the two people's different perceptions of the current state of the Tower of Time, a huge misunderstanding had occurred.

(End of chapter)