"The money is gone. ”

A group of mages looked at each other, never expecting to fall into such a situation. "Ryze, how did you lose the money? Didn't you leave it to you to watch? What are we going to do next, I only have three days of tobacco left!"

Ruiz pressed his nose with his thumb and looked at the others with some dissatisfaction, quite unconvinced: Oh, you smoke and spend money, I saw a small casino to spend some money, what's wrong with me? And I didn't lose the bet, but my wallet was stolen.

"Forget about the cigarettes, how long have we been staying at the hotel?"

"It's twelve rooms in total, and there's a month left. Ruiz said.

"You go and get the deposit back, and we will live for half a month, so that the money can buy half a month's tobacco. The mage who had just warned him not to talk about tobacco was now happier than anyone else: "If we squeeze it, it will only be six...... Four rooms, so it could be longer, right?"

"Or we can go back to the Holy Three Castle. Ruiz sighed and said.

Some of the mages were a little moved but hesitant, some shook their heads resolutely, and some did not care about the proposal at all, but carefully pinched their breast pockets with their fingers to estimate the amount of "tobacco stock" inside. "The Holy Three Castle has become like that, and the cardinal has made it clear that he will not support us anymore. And most importantly, in the battle with the Beamon Behemoth, Broken Dragon set the tobacco shop on fire, and we don't have a purchase channel in the Holy Three Castle - but I have to say, it smells so good. ”

The group of mages all looked intoxicated, and they all participated in the mission against Beamon, but all gathered around the lit tobacco shop, and none of them were willing to go to the other defense areas. This attitude of militancy angered the United Holy See, which had been established in the midst of the war, and as a punishment, all appropriations for them were cancelled, and the large house of the "Mystic Mist" was confiscated and reverted to the dormitory of the pastor of the Church. The Holy Three Castle almost completely collapsed, and the mansion hiding in the corner survived, so it was only a matter of time before it was targeted.

"The deposit can't be refunded, and even if it can be refunded, what will we do in half a month? We have to find a way to make money, mages! Everyone is a smart person, can't you see this clearly? Do you have any way to make money? Manor, land, industry? Don't hide it now!"

"Rieze, don't you know if we still have a estate and an estate?" said one of the mages, "I remember ten years ago when you gave you a vineyard to take care of, and you said you sold it for a good price. What about the money?"

"Your tobacco is two levels higher than the others, why didn't you think of this money when you showed off?" Ruiz waved his hand vigorously, and his voice directly increased by a full octave: "I have worked hard to make the money allocated by the church barely enough for your daily use, has anyone thanked me? I am still the only one who cares about you! Even in this crisis, I still found a good job and can make a fortune." ”

"Tell me about it, is there another evil shopkeeper who needs us to rob it...... Did you blow it?"

"The elves on Minas Ihir's side want to build a magic circle, and they need someone to help make rune boards. I've inquired, and it's a standard way to write runes for magic circles on wood chips, and I think it's very simple, and it's not difficult for everyone. The elves provided spell materials, and each standard rune board was paid a silver coin. ”

"One silver coin is too little!

"Well, it looks like you don't want to participate. Ruiz snorted, and then said: "The entire project of the elves requires 600,000 standard rune boards, and they have to pay 60,000 gold coins for the remuneration alone! Each rune board is a small job of three or four runes, which is essentially just writing with mana. In the case of materials provided by the other party, one silver coin is a good reward. There are twenty-two of us in total, and it is not a dream to grab a reward of 30,000 or 40,000 yuan. Then, with that money, you can open a shop, or invest in spells and alchemy materials, even if you invest in a tobacco merchant, you can live for a long, long time. ”

"Tobacco merchants, for sure. The two mages said in unison, and the others nodded their heads as well.

"Then it's decided, I'll hurry up and sign up and sign the agreement. Oh, you can give me a power of attorney so you don't have to go over and sign the agreement one by one. Even if I had a power of attorney, I would have to rush back tomorrow, and it would be a headache ...... paperwork," Ruiz said troublesomely, but with a quick hand, he took out a scroll, quill, and ink, and began to write the commission contract. "Minas Ihir uses a standard contract, and all contracted staff are the same, paid according to qualified rune boards. I tried to start working within three days. ”

"Three days, aren't you in a hurry?"

"Only if we start working in three days, we won't run out of cigarettes and won't be kicked out of the hotel!" Ruiz threw the quill on the table: "It's okay if you don't want to take this job, if you have a better way, say it quickly, I won't have to run back and forth so much trouble to deal with these headaches!"

The mages stopped squeaking, and Brett Smock raised his chin slightly, and instructed Ruiz: "Hurry up, don't talk nonsense, go early and come back early, do it beautifully." It would be even better if the pay could be higher. ”

Ruiz nodded vigorously: "Okay, I'll try." ”

The work of a silver coin and a standard rune board came from the construction of the "strategic teleportation platform", and 60,000 gold coins were given to the craftsmen, which has now become the latest and hottest topic of conversation in the entire Minas Ihir. Feige and Eddie put all their money into the project. Originally, the two of them hoped that Didrite would also invest in the shares, but the elven lord's mind was not to make money, but wanted to give half of his money to the church to rebuild the Holy Three Castle, and half to improve the living standards of the elven immigrants. She felt that she would not be able to take it if she only contributed 1,000 gold coins, so she declined the investment.

If the lord doesn't get involved, how can he be an official or a businessman?So Eddie stalked and forced Didlett to write an IOU of 10,000 gold coins, and then took the IOU into shares. "The lord of Minas Ihir is reputable, and of course he will pay his debts first. So after a while, Didrite became one of the shareholders. It's just ......," Eddie said to Feige in a low voice, "but she doesn't have a lot of shares, so she can't decide or veto anything alone." ”

"Forget about small things, big things, especially when the business of the strategic teleportation platform is in conflict with the core interests of the church or elves, and there is no way to negotiate a compromise, then back down. This circle serves a strategic goal, and obtaining money is only a process, not a strategic goal. ”

"What are the strategic goals?" Eddie asked, wide-eyed.

"I'm free to use my ideas to make a difference in the world. ”

Feige's strategic goals sound powerful, but they're really just a one-size-fits-all phrase. For Eddie, Feige's idea of freedom could be from earl to duke, or even to prince. If it is to Didrite, it may be the Reformed Church to better spread the Goddess faith. Only Xia Ni really understood what Feiqi's strategic goal was: he hadn't really thought about it at all, but vaguely felt that this teleportation platform was important and should be built, and then it would be more lofty under the name of "strategy". As for what to do and how to use it in the future, it's good to be improvised.

After accounting, the initial construction of the strategic teleportation platform will cost a lot of money, and the material cost can be controlled at more than 10,000 gold coins, but the production cost of the magic circle is frighteningly high, even if Fei Qi does day work, the rest will cost 60,000 gold coins. Feige gave the blueprints, but he refused to draw all the runes by hand.

"I have other things to do, and I can't afford to spend on this. And this repetitive work is left to the craftsman, and this time I spent some money to count how many people can draw runes with mana. ”

Eddie knew that she couldn't force Feige to do anything, and after "saving 60,000 gold coins" as an excuse couldn't convince Feige, she had to bring in other investors. The Countess responded first, and Andrew and his wife also contributed a part. Some of Feinberg's fugitive nobles joined in, and then some of the chambers of commerce smelled the opportunity. However, they only knew that this was a "spell investment project", but they couldn't find out the specific content at all. This is an IPO based on the premise of trust, and you can come if you want to, and you will not be forced if you don't come. This "I'm just playing mysterious, I'm arrogant" attitude is quite suitable for a magic project to some extent. And if he takes 10,000 steps back, if he can't get enough gold coins, Eddie has also thought of a countermeasure. She would "persuade" Feiqi that in order to be able to complete the project, he would have to go into battle and draw the runes himself - for the sake of "strategy", could Feige not agree?

However, the craftsman's fee of 60,000 gold coins was still made up, and Fei Qi didn't have to be pulled into the strong, which made him the happiest. Finding ways to make it easier for yourself is one of Feige's credos. To this end, he designed the circle in a modular way, using "function calls" and "function access" as much as possible, making the backbone of the circle as simple as possible, and branching out as many standard modules as possible to implement the spell function. As a result, the backbone he is responsible for—the core process control—has less work to do, and a higher percentage of modules that can be crafted with standard runes. This is the idea of industrialization rather than artisanization: a large-scale division of labor and cooperation on the basis of standard, simple repetitive work, instead of the excellence done by craftsmen independently. Which is better? For the user, which is cheaper and more practical is better.

Feiqi set the standards for the production of rune plates, and designed and made a magic circle to check the quality. To put it another way, Fei Qi is equivalent to changing the production of magic circles from hand-copying to movable type printing, at least at the level of movable type typesetting. The standard rune board is the "movable type", and the criteria set by Feige include font, concave and convex degree, spacing, arrangement specifications, and so on. The goal of the future is definitely to produce movable type in batches, and there is no way to do it in a "labor-intensive" way now.

The strategic teleportation platform is located just outside the town of Fuzang, separated from it by a low mountain pack. It was placed here so that it could be linked with the three-barrel circle in the future, of course, this reason is only known to Fei Qi himself, and the external explanation is that the closer to the magic school, the more convenient it will be to maintain it in the future. Considering that there will be a lot of loading and unloading work in the future, the hill will be densely planted with trees and shrubs to reduce noise.

He arranged all these things in order to give himself time for other things. The entire territory was busy earning the 60,000 gold coins, and they didn't care about quarrels. The students of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry embarked on their first large-scale engineering internship, where they were responsible for inspecting the acceptance criteria rune plates, tracking the progress of the project, and assembling the circle platform according to the blueprints. In order to make it more attractive to be a student at the school of witchcraft, Feige and Eddie offer them a high salary.

Everyone is busy, and Feige can take a break to prepare for his trip to hell, after all, there is still a demon form that has not recovered, and it is impossible to continue to advance to get rid of the fork in the road demon completely. However, before going to hell, he unexpectedly meets Reze Vega.

He was going to take half of the work of the standard rune board, which was at least 30,000 gold coins. The stakes are high, so I brought him here. Eddie winked at Feige, "If you can give him this part of the work, it's a ninety percent discount." ”

"You can save some money if you make it in batches, we're all spellcasters. Ruiz smiled and said to Feiqi, "Within the scope of the Model Leader, the Sect, and the Kingdom of Aria, the mages of the Mystic Mist are the highest level of spellcasters. I looked at the standard rune board and that thing wasn't that hard to make. ”

"The mysterious fog has all left the smoke house...... I mean the mansion?"

"The church has suffered so much, and we, as long-term recipients of the church's help, must have something to contribute, right? Ruiz winked at Feiqi: "Mr. Saint, Chief Advisor, thank you for your concern, but now we are talking about the rune board business, right? If you don't agree and still buy at the original price, it's obviously not right for you. How to accept or how to accept, it will not affect the project, and you can also save at least 3,000 gold coins. ”

"It's better to buy it at the original price, I don't lack these three thousand gold coins. Feiqi's refusal was a bit unexpected, and Eddie was just about to persuade him, but was forced back by Feiqi's look: "The mages of the mysterious mist do not lack the ability to make rune plates, but I think they lack the consciousness to complete the task. I won't threaten the progress of the project in order to save 3,000 gold coins. ”

"So what if I can show enough efficiency? In a week, you can see the quantity and quality of our work, if we can surpass others, will we be qualified to contract a part of the project?"

"It's more reasonable, but it's not out of the question. But I wonder, why would you rather take less money and take the project down?"

"Because we're going bankrupt and need a lot of money to start over. Ruiz spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders: "What can I do, I can't let go of this good opportunity, right?I learned that there are spellcasters in the elves in your territory, more than half of the Tibetan women are spellcasters, and you also have a magic school." However, the elves mostly use elven runes, the Tibetan women use ancient runes, and the students of the magic school are all novices, and they are certainly not as skilled as the mages of the mysterious mist. ”

"Okay, if the mage of the Mystic Mist can complete the rune board with quality and quantity and prove his ability, then you can talk about contracting some of the projects, and you can find Eddie when the time comes. ”

Ryze had already gotten the results he wanted, and he patted himself on the back for a while before leaving. Feige let Eddie stay and said to her, "Ruiz is going to do something, I'm pretty sure that." ”

"Ah, if that's the case, then I'll arrange for more people to check the rune boards they sent. ”

"In addition to checking more, draw some of their rune plates and send them to me, and I'll see them for myself. But that's not the problem......" Feige cast a detection spell to make sure no one was eavesdropping, and said, "The mages of the Mystic Mist are on the verge of bankruptcy, and Ryze is likely to abandon them. Note that if Ruiz wants to pay for the project in advance, it means that he may be running away. ”

"He came to talk to me, but he didn't show that idea. Eddie thought for a moment and said, "If he wants an advance, I won't give it to him." ”

"Give it to him, let him run, I'm going to leave the mage of the mysterious mist, and I have to put them in a desperate situation. Fitch said to Eddie, "Go ahead and bring me some gold and gems, and I'll cast a tracking spell on them." Then find the Chamber of Commerce you are familiar with to open a withdrawal voucher, which is the kind used by the Chamber of Commerce for long-distance transportation, and I will mark him with the method of Monster Hunter. As long as he runs, I can chase him back, or at least get the money back. ”

"Could he have thought of that, what if he escaped with a spell like teleportation?" Eddie tugged at his hair in annoyance, "Well, it looks like I'm going to have to go to magic school too, and I'll inevitably have to deal with spell-related things in the future!"

If you want to advance magic, you need people to learn magic, and the way to promote learning is to show it to everyone: magic is powerful, magic is convenient, magic makes money. No, Eddie already had the need and initiative to learn magic.

"If he had teleported, he wouldn't have even been hunted. Feige smiled confidently, in the field involving space and teleportation spells, although he didn't think he was invincible, it was absolutely fine to suppress Ruiz. As long as he does something with the "silver ticket" of the Chamber of Commerce, as long as the starting point of Ruiz's teleportation is within a radius of three hundred miles, he will only return to the three-barrel magic circle, and then be controlled inside, just like those captured demons.

"On the one hand, don't show flaws, don't agree so easily when you advance the project money, let him beg you more. On the other hand, say hello to Liz, and if necessary, use the Tibetan Lady and the Titan Spider to suppress those mages, and I will try to be there. ”

"Trying to be there, are you leaving Minas Ishil lately?"

"No, I'll be here, still working and teaching students from noon to night. I'm just going to do some magic experiments, and I'm probably not going to be able to get out of it right away. The Strategic Teleportation Platform is just the starting point, and I still have a lot to do!"

"Wow, in that case, shouldn't I start expanding the size of the alchemy shop for spell materials?" Eddie said, "Although you have a strong ability to make money, don't worry about money! Spell materials are a large part of the expense!"

"Just look at it. At this stage, it's useless to make too much money, can I buy anything good?" Feige doesn't look down on the goods of this world, except for those related to spells. "I need more people, even those who can carve simple spell runes. Note that if someone is not a professional spellcaster, but can earn money by completing a standard rune board, leave him and ask him to tell the students of the magic school what they have learned. If he is willing to give the method to more people, then let's give him money, give him a lot of money!"

"Okay, I'll take notice. It's still the same sentence as before: pay attention to craftsmen. ”

"It's about valuing producers. Eddie, I'm sure you can do it well. ”

This time, Ruiz is sophisticated, and can set traps and deceive people without changing his face and heartbeat, but he can't hide the changes in the soul fire. Fei Qi just felt troublesome at first, although the method of pricing by the piece was a little inflexible, but it was not easy to have an accident, why should he change it? It's just that he used the ability of the demon to see the state of Ruize's soul fire, and after becoming alert, he slowly pondered, and roughly guessed Ruize's plan. He just had to think about it: How could a nimble gambler be kind enough to lead a group of heavy smokers and procrastination all day long if he didn't have enough benefits? When the church no longer supports the mysterious fog, Ruiz must think about himself first! First get the authorization, become the "contractor foreman", and then run away with a sum of money, this routine is not difficult to think of.

In the same way, Feige has to think about his own interests. He had a lot of ways to stop Ryze, but it looked like it would be better for him to let this happen. The group of mages in the mysterious fog basically have no hope of changing on their own, and they may still have a chance only by means of force. However, there must be a reason for the coercion, Minas Ihir is not a tyrannical rule, and Feige also has to consider his reputation. Killing people to pay off debts and paying off debts, Feige needs such a natural reason.

The rest of the development was basically according to Feige's vision. During the first week, Ryze piqued the interest of Mystic Mage with high-quality tobacco, making a number of standard rune boards, showing that these mages did have good experience with rune spells - if they couldn't do that, Feige didn't want to bother dealing with them at all. Then, in the second week, Ruiz and Eddie finalized the "engineering contract" agreement, which was a total of 35,000 gold coins. To add fuel to the fire, Eddie set a relatively short deadline for completion in the contract, so that the mages of Mystic Mist would have to work at least as efficiently as they had in the first week to complete it.

Rhyz took the bait, or so he had planned it. He proposed that in order to better complete this workload, he needed to purchase special equipment to improve work efficiency, so he hoped to get a part of the project money first. Eddie disagrees, unless Ryze can leave her the work-enhancing equipment when it's finished, and teach her how to use it.

This was exactly what Ruiz wanted, he "hesitated" for a long time, agreed "very reluctantly", and left with 12,000 gold coins "one step at a time". When he left Minas Ishir and used a teleportation spell scroll that he had treasured for a long time, his mind full of dreams of taking the gold coins to a distant land and starting a happy new life, he found himself in a mysterious cavern, trapped by a super-complex circle.

"Is this hell?" asked Ruiz.

However, the demon on the other side didn't answer at all, and directly killed him with a long sword.