Chapter 151: I Like Your Method of Thanking Me
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the face of such inquiries, Baiyi became speechless. Why do you even need to ask me about the things that you're gonna sell? Then does this mean that you're gonna come ask me for my opinions too if you have some marriage troubles? Seriously? Do you really think that I'm Doraemon now? He snapped in his thoughts but in order to maintain a good relationship with his source of gold, he patiently suggested, "Why don't you send some people over to the North to do some market survey first?"
In truth, the Northland and the Southland had already set up a Transmission Formation a long time ago but the price was so hefty that one would probably have to sell a kidney to use that, but still, it would still be within the Dole family's capability to send a few people over.
"Eh?" Undine's eyes turned wide all of a sudden, looking very curious, "You mean, we have to check out what the people over there need first? We have already sent a few people over before but they never seemed to get any clear conclusions about the needs of the people there."
Although market survey existed in this world as well, it was not as thorough and in depth as the one on Earth. On top of that, they did not have many respondents and data for their reference so obviously, the result that they obtained would not be helpful at all.
"Send more people there! Don't be stingy with the money. You need to be clear about your market audience. First, you have to screen the products that you can control, its cost and supply that also will fit in with this mode of transportation. Ask the people whom you send there to make the survey according to these goods that you've narrowed down beforehand. Make sure they do a lot of inquiries, visits and observations..." Baiyi roughly explained to her some simple survey methods that were usually used on Earth. He was sure that the methods could be applied here as well.
"Similarly, for the goods that you plan to bring back from there, you have to know clearly the needs of us Southerners. You need to do market surveys on both sides simultaneously. And don't be in rush to withdraw the people you place there after their task is done. Station them there so that they can help you with the preparation for the commercial route. You can just use the Communication Formation to communicate with them in the future," Baiyi continued before pressing on, "Remember! You need to find some reliable and smart people to be placed there! DO NOT go there yourself!"
He was really afraid that the dumb girl would suddenly be seized by a whim and go all the way there by herself. Then, he would probably have to make another trip to save the damsel in distress.
A dumbfounded look was still on Undine's face but at least, she got the basic general idea of how the whole thing should be carried out. Without any hesitation, she promised that she would immediately implement the idea after discussing it with her family.
"Let's talk again after you've decided on the goods that you're going to sell," Baiyi added, "Also, I think that the owner of the drugstore beside the Church is not bad. He's quite a smart guy actually. You can consider him."
"D-Do you mean my distant nephew?" Undine froze for a moment. After a long while of silence and recalling, she finally remembered him but not his name.
Anyway, because she had a much more urgent matter on hand, she did not have any intention to stay any longer. After leaving behind three storage pouches as her gratitude, she forcefully pushed her uncle back into the wheelchair--- despite his struggles and unwillingness--- and rushed back towards her house. She did not even say much of those polite 'thank you' words and Baiyi also did not find the opportunity to give her the quotation of the glider.
Looked like she had started to consider Baiyi a family member of her own.
"This is good as well, I don't have to beat around the bushes any longer. Perhaps I can estimate their profit margin first next time before I set my quotation," Baiyi shook his head and opened the three storage pouches.
One of the pouches was filled with all kinds of magic ingredients and they were all high-end goods. There were the White Dragon's Blood and Dryad's Tears that were suitable for Baiyi to draw magical formations, the Everfrost Crystal and Pallid Glint that could be used to fill the hammerhead shark plushie's belly. The most valuable of all was a piece of Fire-type gem that could be embedded on the staff to increase the power and speed of the caster's incantation or could also be installed on a defensive armor which would then be able to provide a Fireshield that was at least Level 6 or above along with two other Fire-type offensive spells that were not higher than Level 6.
Without a doubt, it was an extremely high-end material. It was not an easy task to refine such a piece of priceless gem. Tisdale's workshop would never be able to produce such fine material that could enchant spells on object and boost its performance at the same time. Perhaps Undine had noticed Baiyi's barren staff, which would explain why she chose the gem to be given to him.
After a while of pondering, Baiyi intended to put it into the hammerhead shark's belly as well so that it could possess two different types of offensive spells, Water and Fire, at the same time, giving the attacks more variety and hard for the opponents to counter. Still, after he had given some thought to it, he decided to give up on the idea. It would be much better to use a formation to enchant spells into the plushie. After all, using such valuable gem on it was a little too wasteful.
However, it would also be wasteful to embed such high-grade material on his own staff. The gem would be much more useful to a Legendary Level sorcerer so it would certainly not be helpful for him at all. After another round of pondering, he decided to make a new staff for Tisdale and embed the gem on it. Well, he could not be biased towards only one girl, right?
Now that the first storage pouch was settled, Baiyi opened the second pouch. At once, the contents inside the pouch made his eyes shine with glee. It was an entire set of magical experiment equipments. Among them was a feather pen that was specially made to draw formations. From the look of the feather's texture, it must have been taken from a bird that was commonly called the Quillbird. Originally, the bird's name was Gale Hawk and it was born with the power of Wind type magic. It was later found out that its feather was suitable to be used as a quill pen as it could direct and transmit one's magic sleekly onto the ink, making it the most fitting pen to create magic and that was why the name was changed to become Quillbird.
Other than that, there were also crucibles which were made from the hardest outermost shell from the Iron Hog 1 --- the item was most suitable for handling corrosive blood materials. There were also glazed crystal bottles that had the best preserving effects and a pair of specially forged gloves that was conducive in handling magical ingredients but among all of them, Baiyi was most satisfied by the furnace that was also the most important item--- the core--- in the whole set of equipment.
This furnace was not particularly exquisite nor its material that it was forged from valuable but instead, there were many control formations on it--- think control board--- that would allow the user to regulate the temperature needed and magical output and so on. On top of that, the furnace was also equipped with a Fluoroscopy Formation that would enable him to monitor the progress inside the furnace directly. It would be very useful in some high-precision refining process.
What was particularly rare was that those control formations were the standard orthodox formations and not some simplified runes, allowing the user to have a more precise and refined control on his experiment. Although it would be extremely hard for a person who did not understand formations, it would not pose a problem at all for powerful people like Baiyi.
Obviously, Undine was aware of Baiyi's profound attainments in magical formations hence she decided to specially select this hard-to-control furnace for him. What thoughtful girl!
Generally speaking, although the magical furnace was not particularly large and the energy supply was from an ordinary Mana Crystal so the amount of Mana that was infused in it was not really that much, and of course, it would not be as good as the large magical furnace in a large-scale workshop, but still, it won hands down in its exquisite design. If we were to describe it in an Earthling manner, then it would be called as user-friendly with high UX 2 .
Now that he had such a complete set on hands, Baiyi could set up his own magic workshop in the mansion however he liked. Whether it was to process raw materials or creating a high-end magical equipments for Mia and Tisdale, it would be very convenient for him from now on.
After going through the second pouch, Baiyi opened the third storage pouch and found out that the content inside was much more ordinary than the other two... gold coins. He did not count how many coins were inside the pouch but they were certainly enough for the three girls to live luxuriously in the mansion for a long time to come.
Without a question, although Undine did not say many polite words, her actions had shown much more than she needed to do. Coupled with the set of black gold armor that Leo had given to Baiyi, the rewards that the Dole family gave to him was too generous to the point that it was ludicrous. Baiyi even felt a little guilty seeing all of it. Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh to Undine from now on?
But anyway, I'll see how it goes later. What's more important right now is to set up my own magical lab and as for the temporary lab in the academy, hmmmm... I guess I'll just convert it into a practice lab for the two little girls.
Without wasting anymore time, he called the three girls over and that night itself, they made huge changes in the laboratory that was situated in the basement. After the girls had gone to bed, he eagerly threw a few pieces of leftover Mana Crystals in the furnace, refining them into pure liquid Mana before he lowered the temperature and threw a piece of enchanted parchment in it. With the help of the control formation of the furnace and his own Psychic Energy, he drew a homeothermal formation on the parchment.
The result of the process left him pretty satisfied. Thanks to the precision of the control formation, the homeothermal formation that was drawn on the parchment was similar to the one that he usually drew with his Mana.
The kind of formation that was engraved using the magical furnace had a life and stability compared to the ones drawn by a pen or Mana. Although they were two similar homeothermal formations, the one that Baiyi drew with his hand could only last 2-3 days before the Mana finally depleted but as for the one that was engraved on the parchment by using the furnace, it could easily last up to one year. Actually, it would also be quite a good idea for Baiyi to sell it to the aristocrats.
However, the almighty Fifth Walker would not lower himself for such a paltry amount of money and even if he decided to do it, wouldn't it be better to sell magical scrolls instead? Those uncommonly used advanced scroll were usually made from this method, too. Along with other materials that aided magical preservation and high-end processing techniques, the magical scroll could be made to be stored for up to centuries without losing its effectiveness.
Should I make some scrolls to disrupt the market? Baiyi asked jokingly in the Void.
To his surprise, the Archmage replied earnestly, "Of course you should! I think that you can use the ancient magic that I invented last time, like the super powerful spell Amalavijñāna - Boundary of Emptiness! 3 "
Isn't this spell declared forbidden by the Sorcerers' Association a long time ago? And I thought the original name was actually Instant Death? Where did you plagiarize the name from this time? Another thing, how are you so sure that this small furnace would be able to refine such an advanced spell that was even banned by the Association? Let just say that even if I could do it, where do you expect me to go find all those bizarre materials that are needed, huh? Baiyi snapped at his teacher secretly in his mind.