Chapter 894: Brainstorming Topics and Financial Problems

Xia Duo took a rough look and did not discover anything unusual; by and large, it still maintained the past share for Leonard, the former Tower Master's student.

But compared to the Leonard Research Lab, one of the three major private research labs officially supported by the Tower of Time today, this quantity appeared slightly insufficient.

Perhaps Leonard felt that since his teacher was gone and Niya was now in charge of the Tower of Time, he should keep a low profile, but Xia Duo was not a harsh person.

How could he make things difficult for him because of his status!

Furthermore, it was Leonard who had brought him into the Tower of Time in the first place and even gifted him ten Learning Scrolls that were quite important to Xia Duo in his early stages; even if Mu Yan was a factor, Xia Duo was still grateful.

Setting this document aside separately, Xia Duo continued to look at the documents below.

……

The applications below were interesting; topics such as "Design of 3rd Circle Spell-like Effects at the 1st Circle Level" and "Materialization of Magic Web Strings" were everywhere.

At first glance, even Xia Duo was bluffed by these topic names, but upon serious reflection, if even he could not understand these things, could these Intermediate Mages understand them?

For instance, the description of that "3rd Circle Spell-like effect" was quite inspired; the application report spoke of an effect similar to a 3rd Circle Spell, rather than the equivalence in terms of Magic Net String element conversion that Xia Duo had initially assumed.

The report also stated that as long as this was figured out, 1st Circle Spells could be used as 3rd Circle Spells in the future, and neither the difficulty of Spellcasting nor the difficulty of learning would increase; on the contrary, they would decrease.

Isn't this nonsense!

And what about the Materialization of Magic Web Strings? That was even more absurd; currently, none of the theories Xia Duo had come into contact with, nor his own personal research, supported the so-called Materialization of Magic Web Strings.

Materialization meant that Magic Web Strings could come into contact with matter in reality; if feasible, it would certainly be possible to convert the entire Magic Net into a physical form through some method, thereby destroying the world.

As one of the foundations of the world, how could the Magic Net be so easily changed in nature!

Even Arcane Fire, which tore the Magic Net, did not change the nature of the Magic Web Strings themselves, but rather re-wove a personalized Micro Magic Net; when it converged and curled up, it became Arcane Fire.

Looking at these wild and imaginative application reports, Xia Duo shook his head repeatedly, but he could not bring himself to completely reject them either.

On one hand, his own understanding might be incomplete, and if he misjudged, he might miss an opportunity.

On the other hand, the fact that these Intermediate Mages could submit such applications—whether they were genuine research or just to swindle funding—was in fact an active support for the new system after the Tower of Time's transformation.

Thus, as long as their stories were well-crafted and no obvious flaws could be seen, their applications could not be rejected.

However, this also served as a reminder to Xia Duo that it was time to establish a specialized topic approval department; he truly hadn't expected these Intermediate Mages to change their attitudes so quickly!

It really is true that one will do anything for a meal!

……

Aside from some wild and imaginative topics, there were also the usual consumables for a normal Intermediate Mage to conduct Spell experiments; Xia Duo just flipped through these roughly and skipped them.

After reading all the documents, Xia Duo looked up and saw Saixili waiting for his reply; Xia Duo thought for a moment and revealed some of his thoughts about establishing a topic approval department in advance.

"Once the topic approval group is established, there won't be so many people coming to swindle funding. As for the production of Communication Magic Tools, it cannot be stopped for the time being; I will think of other ways regarding resources."

After finishing, Xia Duo paused and continued: "Now it's my turn to ask you: based on the past month, how much longer can the Tower of Time's current material reserves last?"

This time, Saixili did not look for data and spoke directly, appearing to have been calculating it in her mind for a long time:

"Currently, the material consumption of the Tower of Time directly related to Magic mainly includes Five-Colored Gems, Mithril, gold, silver, iron, as well as various Scroll inks, Scroll paper, and ordinary Parchment; some special materials are not included, and food is also not counted."

"Among them, the reserves of Five-Colored Gems and ordinary Parchment are already low. Calculated based on the consumption of the past month, they will last at most until June of next year—and this is counting the various materials sent by various chambers of commerce in the first quarter of next year. If those are not counted, they might be exhausted by January or February."

Not short on Mithril?

Xia Duo was somewhat surprised, and subsequently, he voiced his question, to which Saixili's answer was—

"Mithril is indeed not abundant, but next month is the start of a new year, and we can purchase a certain amount of Mithril from the Arcane Union again. There is no crisis of Mithril shortage in the short term, but as long as Communication Magic Tools continue to be produced, a Mithril shortage is only a matter of time!"

So that's how the calculation works!

Xia Duo also remembered that he still had some Mithril Purchase Vouchers here!

When he transferred the patent for the Magic Net Background Communication Artifact, what he obtained from Giles Tower, besides a large sum of Gold Coins and subsequent continuous income, also included a portion of Five-Colored Gems, physical Mithril, and a certain quota of Mithril Purchase Vouchers.

As long as there is money, they can be purchased at any time.

Seen this way, Mithril is indeed not a problem in the short term, but in the long run, a more stable supply of Mithril must be found; it would be best to directly find one or more Mithril Mines—that would be a truly stable supply.

Next, he asked Saixili:

"Wasn't there an advance payment for the Communication Magic Tools before? Didn't you use those Gold Coins to purchase Five-Colored Gems? And what's going on with the Parchment? Is there not even enough paper?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Duo noticed that Saixili's expression was somewhat subtle, but he thought about it and it seemed there was nothing wrong.

Seeing that Xia Duo had not yet realized, Saixili had to explain clearly: "Those advance payments were used up long ago. Besides paying the wages of the Magic Technicians you mentioned, there were also the maintenance costs of the Tower of Time. With so many Apprentices suddenly added, and all kinds of facilities being used, how could there be no cost to pay!"

So that's how it is; indeed, when people are in different positions, their focus is also different.

Like Xia Duo, what he cares about most is certainly the transformation of the Tower of Time and the effectiveness of that transformation; as for the expenses and costs involved, in his Subconscious, the Tower of Time is able to bear them.

And standing from Saixili's perspective, her status is Niya's steward and the person in charge of the Material Department of the Tower of Time; the financial problems of the Tower of Time are so obvious that she cannot help but pay attention to them.

"As for the Parchment, with so many Apprentices suddenly added, the paper usage is almost ten times more than the Tower of Time's past usage. How could there be so many cattle and sheep to slaughter? Even if purchased through chambers of commerce, there is a transit time lag issue."

Saixili mentioned Parchment again; in fact, Xia Duo had already realized that the raw materials for Parchment require animal hide.

Whether it is cattle, sheep, or lizards, they all need time to grow, and the scale of breeding also has great limitations; it cannot be obtained infinitely.

Since they are already preparing to refine Mithril, then taking out the Paper-making Technique to use shouldn't be a big deal!

Thinking this way, Xia Duo immediately made a decision in his heart; it just so happened that a large amount of logs had piled up in his Territory, and he didn't know how to consume them at all. Piling them there just took up space, so it would be better to make them into paper!