"Youyue Weixiao, are you really okay with selling so many intermediate magic armor pieces to those guilds?" As soonally as the higher-ups from the major guilds had cheerfully departed from the reception hall, Youyue Weixiao finally couldn't help but speak up.
The beginner enhancement armor pieces were one thing — after all, the blueprint for those could be farmed, and any blacksmith could make them. But the intermediate magic armor pieces were different. The only person who could craft them was Shi Feng, and the output was extremely low.
Moreover, the whole reason for selling the intermediate magic armor pieces in the first place had been to draw business to the Candlelight Trading Firm.
Now that the Candlelight Trading Firm had already begun to take shape, there was no longer any need to use intermediate magic armor pieces to attract attention.
Selling so many intermediate magic armor pieces to other guilds and letting those guilds grow stronger — wasn't that just inviting trouble for Zero Wing?
"We're a trading firm. If there's business to be done, why shouldn't we do it?" Shi Feng smiled. "Besides, I've already made a fortune. Surely I can't begrudge others a little soup?"
"Made a fortune?" Youyue Weixiao looked confused.
"If I had quietly sold the same quantity of intermediate magic armor pieces, I definitely would've earned more gold coins. But my goal isn't just gold — it's the much more important Magic Crystals," Shi Feng explained. "Right now there are very few places to use Magic Crystals, and they only drop from dungeons. Small dungeons don't have high drop rates either — usually only raid dungeons yield a decent amount. But the major guilds tend to hoard all their Magic Crystals, so if you're asking who has the most, it's undoubtedly these big guilds."
"We've got plenty of Magic Crystals in our own firm, too. There's a whole warehouse full that we can't even finish using," Youyue Weixiao said, even more confused.
"Did you forget about the simulation device in the supreme-grade forging room?" Shi Feng asked with a smile.
It clicked instantly for Youyue Weixiao, and her eyes lit up.
To use the simulation device, you had to spend Magic Crystals.
The number of Magic Crystals consumed varied depending on the materials being simulated — the rarer and more precious the materials, the more Magic Crystals it cost.
Of course, the simulation device allowed crafting players to rapidly master an item's production process, dramatically increasing their success rate and crafting speed. Compared to the materials wasted without it, the Magic Crystal cost was dirt cheap.
Now that the Candlelight Trading Firm was developing across several cities, the crafting players inside the firm were feeling short-handed — especially for producing high-tier goods. Advanced apprentices and blacksmiths were in critically short supply. Even though the firm was recruiting in other cities, it was a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, in the current market, demand for high-tier goods was actually increasing.
Take level-20 Bronze Equipment and Iron Rank Equipment, for instance — only blacksmiths had a decent success rate crafting those. Ordinary advanced apprentices simply couldn't manage it, which had other trading firms in the Divine Realm desperately poaching blacksmiths.
But for a player to become a blacksmith was easier said than done.
Not to mention the cost of cultivating a whole batch — the money poured into it could bankrupt an ordinary small guild.
To rapidly develop a cohort of advanced apprentices and blacksmiths, using the simulation device in the supreme-grade forging room was genuinely the most efficient and cost-effective method. But letting so many people use it would consume an astonishing amount of Magic Crystals, and the stockpile sitting in the Candlelight Trading Firm might not actually be enough.
"Alright, you go receive the Magic Crystals those guilds are sending over in a little bit. I've already opened up the access permissions for the supreme-grade forging room I had set aside earlier — you can send anyone with real potential in there to practice," Shi Feng said as he enabled the forging room permissions within the Candlelight Trading Firm. "Oh, and keep purchasing more Magic Crystals on your own time, but don't be too conspicuous about it. We don't need anyone jacking up the prices."
"Don't worry, Guild Leader. I'll send people to other cities to buy quietly. No one else will find out," Youyue Weixiao nodded with a smile. This wasn't her first time handling something like this.
After that, Youyue Weixiao left the reception hall.