novelraw Chapter 380: Bargaining
Chapter 380: Bargaining
Eh?
Upon hearing the other party's quoted price, Li Wei actually blanked for a moment. That cheap? He had fully prepared himself to be fleeced.
Because warhorses could be considered scarce resources.
A Two-Star Warhorse typically sold for 800 to 1200 gold coins, which was almost the price of a piece of Three-Star Enchanted Equipment.
And if it were a Three-Star Warhorse, it typically sold for 2000 to 2500 gold coins.
But the lady in front of him directly quoted 500 gold coins a piece. Could it be that these were all cast-offs that barely qualified as Two-Star Warhorses?
Right then, Li Wei wasn't in a hurry to speak. He casually picked up two Pet Cards. Instantly, he could check the two warhorses inside. Aside from their specific stats, he could also inspect their age, temperaments, and growth potential.
Yes, this was an extremely important criterion. An old Two-Star Warhorse might be bought for 800 gold coins.
A young Two-Star Warhorse might require 1200 gold coins. If it was more ordinary, it could only be bought for 1000 gold coins. That was the market price.
But if a Two-Star Warhorse had relatively high growth potential, a single horse might sell for several thousand gold coins, or perhaps even tens of thousands.These things didn't come off an assembly line where thousands and tens of thousands all fetched the same price; it specifically depended on the individual.
As a result, after Li Wei checked through all of them, he found them very good! Not a single one of the twenty Two-Star Warhorses was an elderly horse. Their temperaments weren't too extreme either, and their growth potentials were all medium level—meaning they were the kind that could be consecutively strengthened to Four-Star at the highest.
So, according to Li Yue's logic, these couldn't have been bought for less than twenty-three thousand gold coins.
Yet this elder sister turned out to be quite generous.
"Lord, are you satisfied with this batch of warhorses?"
At this time, the scruffy elder sister smiled and spoke.
"Not bad. But I am a bit curious. After all, this price is a bit rare. Or perhaps, Your Excellency has a request?"
"Indeed, I do have a request. Or rather, every spellcaster who places themselves on the Tavern recruitment list as a mercenary has the same request: a graduation project—namely, a One-Star Mage Tower."
"A spellcaster who cannot independently deploy, design, and construct a One-Star Mage Tower will forever be unable to make it to the main stage. They might even find it forever impossible to advance to a Tier Three Spellcaster, let alone become a Mage."
"Those twenty Two-Star Warhorses just now were merely a token of my goodwill. If the respected Lord would allow me to rely on this Magic Well to research and construct a One-Star Mage Tower, then I would be willing to sign a one-year contract with you. During this period, I would be willing to serve as a staff officer in your territory, while simultaneously not requiring you to pay me a salary. I only need you to provide whatever assistance is within your power for my research and construction."
"A year from now, if I cannot successfully build a One-Star Mage Tower, I will voluntarily leave and be willing to pay a ten-thousand-gold-coin compensation fee. And this is exactly the reason why I wanted to make a transaction with you, Lord. You are completely welcome to take those twenty Two-Star Warhorses now, and pay the tab a year later..."
A Mage Tower?
So that was it!
Li Wei suddenly understood. Thinking back to that red-robed Witch in Ron's territory, wasn't it the same for her?
Sigh, it was indeed time to lose the allure. Spellcasters were actually no different from other professions.
"Then I am still somewhat curious. Your Excellency should also possess your own territory; why not construct a One-Star Mage Tower in your own territory?"
Li Wei asked again.
"It's very simple. Because my territory has already been cut off from Magical Power. Currently, it's just an extremely ordinary Three-Star Territory with a Legal Territory area of only 20 square kilometers and an Illegal Territory area of 50 square kilometers, which barely provides me with less than 3000 gold coins in profit every year. If I had the opportunity, the capability, and the resources to build one back during my Pioneering Mission, I absolutely wouldn't have hesitated."
"In fact, I can state bluntly that if I hadn't continuously sold off 150 elite freemen from my territory over the past ten years, I reckon my territory would have gone bankrupt by today."
"Consider this a small, free piece of advice to you, Lord. Unless you have a sufficiently large territory with sufficient yields in the future, then no matter how high-spirited and vigorous you are today, and how painstakingly you nurture and strengthen freemen, in the future, those exact elite freemen will turn into a noose that strangles you to death."
"This is the simplest logic: a thousand freemen with a vigorous birth rate only need over a decade to expand into a population of thousands, and then into tens of thousands. Yet your territory is less than a hundred square kilometers. How could problems not occur?"
"Unless your territory can become a behemoth like Weir City, and you can become a Five-Star Lord worthy of the name. Of course, even that comes with its own myriad of troubles."
"May I ask one more thing? What is this about selling off elite freemen in your territory?"
"What else could it be? Permitting them to leave the territory and go out to work and earn money as mercenaries. But they generally sign a five-year contract. After the five years expire, they can choose to return to the territory, or they might go to major cities like Weir City. Having broadened their horizons, how could they still fancy their original little mountain ditch? Right? But by the time they wait to regret it, it's already too late. This is what's called a sell-off."
"However, respected Lord, if you have a One-Star Mage Tower in your territory, then in the future you absolutely wouldn't be reduced to my sorry state. After the Mage Tower upgrades a few times, you could even proactively launch plundering campaigns externally, or open up a battlefront yourself. Of course, the risks are also massive. But at least anything becomes possible, right?"
Hearing this point, Li Wei roughly understood.
"Could you allow me to consider it for a bit?"
"Naturally. I am not forcing this matter, Lord. This is a matter of mutual consent and heading towards each other. There's no need to be too shy. Before you, over the past fifteen years, three Lords have already rejected me. It's no big deal. Many of humanity's troubles stem from excessively high demands and expectations. Once you lower your demands and lower your expectations, you'll discover that your troubles decrease by a lot as well."
"Thank you for the guidance."
Li Wei nodded. After thinking for a moment, right in front of this scruffy elder sister, he directly upgraded this One-Star Magic Well into a Two-Star.
Consuming five Silver Quality Tokens plus 5000 gold coins.
Not a huge issue.
Because his current supply of tokens on hand was actually quite plentiful.
In fact, if he wanted to, directly upgrading it to a Three-Star Magic Well didn't seem to be anything difficult.
At this moment, the scruffy elder sister watched the Two-Star Magic Well before her—with a diameter of 1.5 meters and surging to a height of 45 meters—her gaze flickering slightly, seemingly feeling somewhat emotional.
"Lord, can you upgrade it to Three-Star? The free-floating Chaotic Magic Particles in this river are quite abundant. It would truly be a pity to just waste them. Once it's upgraded to Three-Star, one could truly be considered completely free of worries within a fifty-kilometer radius. If luck is good, fifty units of Magical Power could be gathered in three months."
"That works too!"
Li Wei nodded. With a single thought, twenty Black Iron Tokens synthesized into ten Silver Tokens, concurrently consuming 10,000 gold coins, successfully unlocking the Three-Star Magic Well.
Reaching this point, with a loud hum, that pale blue magical tower immediately transformed to have a two-meter diameter and reached a height of sixty meters.
It was incredibly spectacular. Of course, as long as one stepped back ten meters away, nothing could be seen at all.
"Impressive!"
The scruffy elder sister offered a word of praise, then stopped speaking. Her mood seemed slightly sour?
It couldn't be.
Li Wei didn't think much of it and continued to ask in detail: "May I ask, if you are to assume control of this Magic Well, what exactly will you do? It looks to me like this Magic Well can operate autonomously and siphon the surrounding Magical Power on its own."
"Respected Lord, things aren't that simple. Operating autonomously and siphoning on its own means the Magic Well will evenly siphon all Magical Power within a fifty-kilometer radius. The very first thing this will affect is the territory's farmland."
"So, if a spellcaster like me is in control, I would relatively flexibly choose the siphon zones. For instance, I would lock onto this river as the focal point. The free-floating Chaotic Magic Particles in this river water are undoubtedly more abundant than the Magical Particles on the lands of both banks."
"However, there is one thing I must remind Your Lordship of. Somewhere on the upper reaches of this river, there is inevitably a fragmented magical artifact existing in the form of meteorite fragments. Should there be an opportunity, it would do no harm to go investigate. Perhaps there will be rewards to be reaped."
Hearing these words, Li Wei couldn't help but look at this scruffy elder sister in a new light. After thinking for a moment, he took out that Magic Crest blueprint again. "Can you craft this?"
"Eh? A Sequence 3 magical structure, primarily defensive. A Magic Crest crafted based on this could block at least three lethal attacks. If supplemented with a Four-Star Quality blank-slate armor, it could immediately be upgraded into Five-Star Enchanted Armor. The manufacturing cost of one of these things starts at ten thousand gold coins, and the price increases by another five thousand gold coins for every additional lethal attack it can block. In any case, this belongs to the absolute high-end spectrum of magic—at least for anything below Six-Star."
"As for whether I can craft it—of course I can. But I won't lie either; Sequence 3 magic is profound and vast, and I have only preliminarily dabbled in it. If I were the one crafting the Magic Crest, the most I could craft would be one capable of blocking four lethal attacks. Whereas those truly formidable, highly talented spellcasters can even craft Magic Crests capable of blocking six, seven, eight, or even nine lethal attacks. A Magic Crest of that caliber is practically unsolvable unless one employs Sequence 4 magic to break through it."
So that was how it was.
Li Wei's heart stirred. "What if I wish to hire you to craft such a Magic Crest for me?"
"No major issue. I can craft one for you in ten days, but this process will require consuming five units of standard Magical Power, along with a crafting fee of 5000 gold coins. That's the cost price. However, if you allow me to join your territory as your staff officer and support me in building a One-Star Mage Tower here, I can guarantee that within a year, I will craft three Magic Crests for you, completely free of charge. Of course, you must provide the Magical Power and the materials. What do you say?"
At this moment, Li Wei was quite tempted. In truth, he really had wanted to take this Magic Crest blueprint to Hathaway to have a look. But on second thought, Hathaway was currently racing against time to build her Mage Tower. Even if she could craft it, she wouldn't be able to spare the time.
When it came to certain matters—when one had to go tit-for-tat without yielding an inch—one absolutely had to do exactly that, because bottom-line principles couldn't be conceded.
But when it came to other matters, if one still shamelessly went back to make demands without knowing their boundaries, they would just turn into a thick-skinned bastard.
If Hathaway truly agreed, then Li Wei would be forced to concede sufficient benefits to her in other aspects.
(End of this chapter)