Chapter 394: Liberating Productive Forces

Of course, maturity does not equate to a low price.

In fact, because the price of Magic Items has been rising steadily since last year, or even longer, Xia Duo simply views this as a small surge in the long course of history.

The main reason, naturally, is the wave of expansion guided by the Princess; from this, Xia Duo can even conclude that the expansion movement was planned very early on, and certainly did not begin with the granting of the title of "Pioneer."

But looking at the overall trend, the gradual decline in the price of Magic Items is almost inevitable; this can actually be compared to the industrial age on Earth, as Magic is always constantly developing, and so-called cheap Magic Items are actually not far off.

Therefore, for the time being, Xia Duo feels that those Mage Towers currently undergoing transformation are using low-rank items to occupy more market share, thereby gaining more profit.

At the same time, it is also to attract more Mages to join, so as to form a positive cycle.

And the transformation strategy Xia Duo mentioned can actually be summarized in one sentence—

"Division of labor and cooperation, even introducing ordinary people to participate, to liberate Mages from all-encompassing labor!"

Although this is only an improvement in the relations of production and does not substantially improve the abilities of Mages, this improvement liberates Mages from tedious labor.

This is, in fact, the liberation of productive forces.

And the next step after liberating productive forces is to develop productive forces; this is a gradual process.

On Earth, science and technology are the primary productive force. But in Netheril, Magic and Spells are the primary productive force.

In Xia Duo's understanding, science and Magic are conceptually consistent; they are an orderly system of Knowledge based on verifiable explanations and the prediction of the forms, organization, etc., of objective things, and they are Knowledge that has been systematized and formulated.

Conceptually consistent, whether the names and specific forms of expression are the same is actually not important.

Today's Netheril has not formed a complete scientific methodology, or rather, a complete Magic methodology. However, Xia Duo has already seen the basic prototype.

That is "Arcane Geometry"; he actually doesn't care about what the specific content is, what he truly values is the consensus that Netherese Mages have formed within it—

A relatively standardized method for describing the essence of Magic.

Of course, there are other explanatory methods, such as "Arcane Runology" and the like, but in the end, "Arcane Geometry" gained the upper hand and almost received the approval of all Mages.

As for what the specific situation was, Xia Duo has no way of knowing; after all, the relevant books only briefly mentioned it—it received the approval of all Mages.

It is hard for Xia Duo to believe that the process was smooth sailing; referring to the various technical standard competitions on Earth, the Magic technical standards of Netheril directly affect the improvement of one's own strength.

It relates to power, status, and even life.

And once there is "Arcane Geometry," many theories can be connected accordingly, similar to the role of mathematics in natural science, and a series of books on the essence of the Magic Net, such as "Deep Weave," can actually be seen as physics books of the Magic world.

As for specific Spells, they are of course a certain technology created through Arcane Geometry based on the essence of the Magic Net, and even the essence of the Plane and the Universe.

This is also the reason why Xia Duo believes that Magic and science are conceptually consistent.

So-called developing productive forces, in layman's terms, is technological progress.

Of course, the progress of theory is also included within it.

Specifically for Netheril at present, it is actually the birth of some specific Spells; what Xia Duo can currently confirm is the Permanent Magic that Tilake, a Mage of the Tower of Time, is researching.

Once the threshold for producing Magic Items is lowered, combined with the adjustment of corresponding relations of production, the impact produced will be almost no less than the popularization of industrial products.

And to want technological progress, besides the frontier exploration of High Mages, it also requires the constant application of a large number of grassroots Mages; the former determines the depth of the technology, while the latter determines the breadth of the technology.

Thinking carefully, Xia Duo feels that the saying "many hands make light work" is truly useful everywhere; if everyone in Netheril were a Mage now, then a technological explosion might just be a matter of minutes.

Specifically for the present, he only did two things: one was to let Dailike go and negotiate with those complex people from the chambers of commerce, hoping to re-sign fixed-quota contracts.

Two, is to encourage childbirth; he cannot manage how the outside world is for now, but in the Savile Territory and Daxia Territory that he can currently influence, he must do so.

As for the transformation of the Tower of Time, Xia Duo still feels it is necessary to have an in-depth exchange with Niya in person; rash reform is not a good idea.

However, he has already revealed his related thoughts to Aiboke and Saixili, and even re-negotiating the supply contracts is paving the way for this, and they did not strongly oppose it.

After leaving Aiboke's Reception Room, Xia Duo came to Tilake's Research Lab.

The moment the door opened, he almost felt that he had gone to the wrong place, that he had not come to Tilake's Research Lab, but to the meeting place of his little organization—

Behind the door were faces he was extremely familiar with: Dien, Sami, Aideliqi, Dewan, and Donald, all members of the organization, were gathered here at this moment.

"Xia Duo!"

"Mage Xia Duo!"

"Lord Xia Duo!"

A succession of greetings pulled Xia Duo's thoughts back to reality; this was indeed Tilake's Research Lab, but how did Dien and the others get here? They had no interaction with Tilake before; thinking of this, after exchanging greetings, Xia Duo asked directly: "Dien, Sami, why are you here?"

The two looked at each other, not knowing how to answer. At this time, Tilake took the initiative to stand out and replied: "Lord Xia Duo, because my current Spellcasting Level is relatively low, the number of experiments I can conduct each day is extremely limited, so I applied to the Tower of Time for two assistants, Sami and Aideliqi; Dien and Donald were recommended by them."

Only then did Xia Duo understand; he hurriedly searched the records of the Tower Spirit, and sure enough, he saw the earlier records of Sami and Aideliqi increasing their Permission Level, as well as the recent record of their relationship being transferred to Tilake's Research Lab.

Of course, several Apprentices were transferred in together, but the only Apprentices present today were Dien and Donald.

From Tilake's words, Xia Duo could hear that Tilake regarded Dien and Donald as assistants as well, rather than mere "Spell Batteries."

It seems the organization's results are quite good; not to mention Dien, Xia Duo had long known that he was already standing at the threshold of being an Official Mage, and if it weren't for wanting to create a new Spell on his own, he probably could have increased his Permission Level long ago.

It was Donald who surprised Xia Duo quite a bit; initially, he was just a living signboard Xia Duo used to demonstrate the organization's training strength, considered a model for Mage Apprentices, but he did not expect that he could already gain Tilake's approval.

Growing very fast! Xia Duo looked at the flower he had watered with his own hands with great satisfaction, feeling very fulfilled, but he did not forget the purpose of his visit this time.

"Tilake, how has the research progress been recently? Are the relevant materials in place? Do you need any other support?"

(End of chapter)