Chapter 393: Changing the Way of Thinking

Xia Duo had read the contract of the Tower of Time; it was similar to a way of placing orders, where the Tower of Time issued orders for the current period, and the merchant guilds provided the goods in the next. If there was a loophole, it was likely that the Tower of Time had no so-called "priority."

In reality, it was not that those merchant guilds were unwilling to sell to Savile Territory or the Tower of Time, because doing so would be a breach of contract; they were likely "out of stock"!

He sought confirmation of his guess from Aiboke, and Aiboke nodded, "Someone bought out the entire output of these merchant guilds at a price higher than the market rate. The price was high, and they didn't need to be shipped so far away, so you would naturally choose to dispose of them nearby. After all, merchant guilds exist to make money."

Xia Duo remained silent. He actually preferred the procurement method of fixed quotas; multiple suppliers might even allow for price suppression. The current way of placing orders was too unstable.

From the emergence of this procurement method, Xia Duo speculated that perhaps some Mage Towers were already undergoing reforms. Thinking of this, he asked Aiboke, "In recent years, has the price of Magic Items, especially Magic Scrolls, been falling continuously?"

"Falling prices?" Aiboke was not clear about Xia Duo's speculation, but not long ago he was the Material Supervisor of the Tower of Time, and he was very sensitive to the prices of Magic Items.

He hadn't felt it before, but now that someone had specifically brought it up, he reacted immediately, "That is indeed the case. How did you know?"

It really was so! For a moment, Xia Duo's thoughts wandered. It seemed that the current Netheril was not only in a period of great territorial expansion but also in a critical period of transformation in production relations.

Associating this with the 【Mythallar】 that had never been heard of, perhaps this era was the beginning of the "Dragon Overlord" counterattack of Netheril.

Then what would be the reaction of the Elves?

"Thinking too much!"

Xia Duo shook his head. Those things were not for him to consider right now; he should focus on the present.

The current Tower of Time was like a factory about to stop production due to the loss of raw material supply, but at the same time, the Tower of Time also functioned as a place of consumption.

Once those Mages who acted as "workers" lost their income, even if they had some savings, how could they afford the various services provided by the Tower of Time in the long run! Mages needed Knowledge to improve themselves, and the Tower of Time needed Mages to maintain a certain level of influence; both sides were interdependent.

To some extent, their interests were aligned.

Once the Tower of Time could not provide job opportunities, or the job opportunities provided were not enough for the Mages to stably obtain Knowledge, but instead became a one-sided output, then this relationship would no longer be stable.

Perhaps by then, the Mages would leave.

Without Mages, how much influence could a single Mage Tower have! Not to mention anything else, the Arcane Union alone would reduce the Mithril quota for the Tower of Time because of this, and by then, the Tower of Time might not even be able to perform basic maintenance.

So, is the most important thing now to obtain raw materials?

Xia Duo looked at Saixili, the Material Supervisor who was only a low-level Mage, "Saixili, how much raw material inventory does the Tower of Time have left? How long can it last?"

"Because of the restoration project of the Tower of Time, although it slowed down later, what was consumed could not be restored. There were some supplements later, but it was still insufficient, so—the current materials can only last less than a month!"

"Can we go directly to Seventon to purchase and sell? Bring more Dimensional Bags!"

"Of course you can, but you must be prepared for the harvest of a trip not even covering the consumption of the Teleportation Array maintenance!"

"It even incurs losses just for that?!"

Fine, Xia Duo actually knew, but he just wanted to complain. How could this so-called permanent Magic Array still need maintenance! Shouldn't it be built once and used forever!

"Reality" most likes to do things that are "unsatisfactory"! Because the purchased raw materials cannot be fully converted into sellable Magic Items, the funds of the Tower of Time are not abundant, and it cannot afford the boldness of purchasing once and not needing to go out for a whole year or even several years.

If they really went to Seventon to sell through the Teleportation Array, perhaps in the end they wouldn't even earn back the maintenance fee for the Teleportation Array.

Of course, there was another option, which was "human transport" by Aiboke, an Arcanist. This was obviously unrealistic. It might be feasible once or twice, but every time? Who has the nerve to let an Arcanist be a "human transport machine"? In fact, it ultimately came down to the Tower of Time not having enough influence; otherwise, even organizing ordinary merchant guilds to go to Seventon for procurement would not be a problem.

But then again, if the influence were sufficient, there wouldn't be these troubles.

Xia Duo sighed softly, "By the way, has Niya sent back any news? Also, did those merchant guilds say who bought the raw materials this time?"

He had reason to suspect Rodney Territory. Priest Ke'er had just left, and then the Tower of Time's raw materials were intercepted; how could it be such a coincidence? As for Priest Ke'er's ship only leaving three days ago and being far from Rodney Territory, one had to know that this world had Magic communication! "No. Niya did not send back any news, and those merchant guilds did not mention the identity of the buyer."

Aiboke's answer made Xia Duo a little disappointed, but he didn't say anything.

After thinking for a while, Xia Duo felt it was necessary to do something, "Contact those merchant guilds and see if we can renegotiate the contract, changing it to a fixed-quota contract. I think the persons in charge of these merchant guilds in Savile Town would still lean towards this. If they are intercepted at the source, how will their performance be met? I think they should be very anxious now too!"

Xia Duo still had some understanding of the merchant guilds in this world. Unlike the well-developed company organizations on Earth, the merchant guilds here were somewhat similar to franchises.

The wealth of a branch manager was largely linked to the performance of the branch. The contract of the Tower of Time was of course signed with the headquarters, but the orders and performance were still counted towards the branch.

After all, the relevant handovers were all done by the branch.

Once these orders were lost, a sharp drop in income was inevitable. Who would go against their own money! And the reason these branch managers could become branch managers in one place was that they certainly had connections at the headquarters. If they could influence the headquarters through these branch managers, perhaps this trouble would no longer be a trouble.

Instead, it would become an opportunity for the transformation of the Tower of Time.

Aiboke also agreed with these judgments of Xia Duo, "Saier Town Mayor mentioned that the merchant guild leaders spoke quite intensely. Now that I think about it, it shouldn't have been aimed at Savile Territory."

"Since you think so too, notify Dailike later and have a good talk with them. Even for the headquarters of those merchant guilds, how can a one-time high-price purchase compare to a long-term stable fixed income!"

"Hmm, it's just that the funds of the Tower of Time—" Aiboke hesitated when mentioning changing the contract.

But Xia Duo made the final decision, "I think it is necessary for the Tower of Time to change its way of thinking now!"

(End of chapter)