Chapter Seventy: Trade Cooperation!
August 14, 2015
Author: Floating Tower
Northern Tower.
When the rhythmic knocking sound outside the door was heard, the Eye of the North slowly raised her head. Accompanied by a faint Spell Light, the Wizard’s hand levitated all the documents and scrolls onto the high shelf behind her, where there were rolls of documents, along with numerous notes recorded by many witches, and at the back were the books and materials preserved by the council. The knowledge stored here was quite precious, its value possibly surpassing that of an entire kingdom’s wealth. Thus, the room was covered with fireproof and dustproof Magic Circles, and directly protected by the large Maze.
“Come in.”
As the Eye of the North spoke, a stern-faced middle-aged witch entered. She slightly bowed to show respect, then placed a thick stack of documents on the desk and slowly said, “Your Excellency, the Eye of the North! This is the trade record for the Southern Coast from the first half of the year, including weapon procurement, trade cooperation, and construction works.”
“Our profit for the first half of the year was around 300,000 Gind, with the largest profits coming from the sale of Extraordinary Weapons to Modo.”
The Eye of the North took the document upon hearing this and glanced over it, shortly nodding, “Very good.”
The Witch Council was quite wealthy.
However, they were also very short on funds. The resources needed to train a witch were immense, and the internal requests for resource allocation to construct lower-tier Wizard Towers had already been submitted thirty years out. Although they had vast lands in the Northern Region that generated income, the internal consumption for research was so great that the council’s finances had always been relatively tight. Now that the profit from trading with Modo matched that of a large portion of the territory’s income, the Eye of the North felt satisfied with her wise decision.
As long as this trade route could remain stable, the Witch Council’s funds would become increasingly ample, allowing them to train more talented successors and have the resources to build one or two new Wizard Towers.
“Your Excellency.”
The stern-faced middle-aged witch produced another document and said in a deep voice, “This is the procurement list for Modo for the second half of the year. I found it somewhat strange, so I brought it to you for your review.”
Strange?
The Eye of the North immediately took it and looked at it. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing unusual, but after comparing it with the procurement list from the first half of the year, she quickly noticed the anomaly.
There was a problem with the weapon procurement orders!
The Northern Witch Council had the capacity to mass-produce +1 Extraordinary Weapons, a legacy built over hundreds or thousands of years. Modo had always placed numerous weapon orders with the Witch Council, with these mass-produced +1 Extraordinary Weapons sold to Modo at a relatively cheaper price, in large quantities, constituting what could be considered the largest arms trade in the Material Plane, often exceeding transaction amounts of over 100,000 Gind.
Sometimes, due to the large transaction amount, Modo would directly pay in unminted gold.
Modo’s elite troops had long been replacing their weapons with +1 Extraordinary Weapons, which the Northern Witches were well aware of. They had a good relationship, and since the council could profit significantly, no one paid too much attention!
The problem lay in the weapon orders.
According to the Northern Witches’ initial statistics, the weapons procured by Modo were already sufficient to arm most of their elites. Logically, the demand for weapon procurement in the second half of the year should decrease. However, the reality was that the weapon procurement orders for Modo in the second half of the year not only did not decrease, but instead increased by nearly double compared to the previous year, with signs of further additional orders.
That wasn’t strange enough!
What was even stranger was that most of the weapons ordered by Modo in the first half of the year were one-handed and medium-sized weapons. However, all the weapons ordered for the second half of the year were medium-sized or larger, including a significant number of heavy weapons, such as two-handed swords, beheading swords, two-handed axes, two-handed greatswords, heavy hammers, large pole weapons, and so on. Such weapons seemed rarely used by armies, and even adventurers didn’t utilize them much, while some races with innate strength preferred such heavy weapons.
Clearly, there was something suspicious!
However, the Eye of the North had no intention to investigate further; after all, they were merely +1 Extraordinary Weapons. As long as the Witch Council could earn sufficient profits, it was fine. After all, if they accepted this batch of weapon orders, their profits for the second half of the year could potentially double! She speculated that Soren might have plans to resell the weapons, but she couldn’t guess to whom—possibly the forces in the Overseas Islands, or perhaps other races. Anyway, Modo definitely could not internally consume such a large volume of orders.
“There’s no problem!”
The Eye of the North waved her hand, returning the second half of the orders, and slowly said, “Have the factories speed up production; also, assign some enchantment tasks to the lower-tier witches, so they can share in the profits. This year’s second half, the Witch Council will mobilize funds to build three new lower-tier Wizard Towers, so this trade route must not have any issues.”
The middle-aged witch nodded immediately and said, “Understood. I will arrange it right away.”
The Witch Council was originally a neutral organization.
For any neutral organization, self-interest was always the most important. The rise of the Witch Council was inherited from certain not-so-clean elements; right and wrong were far less significant to them compared to the pursuit of arcane truths.
“By the way.”
Before leaving, the middle-aged witch turned and said, “The envoy from Modo came today asking when Your Excellency will attend the ceremony; they need to prepare in advance.”
The Eye of the North looked up and replied slowly, “I will arrive a day in advance.”
“I haven’t seen Gloria in a long time, and I wonder how much she has progressed. This girl has a stubborn character at heart; I hope her choices won’t be wrong.”
Sigh.
As a powerful Legendary Spellcaster, she felt the tremors of fate.
A certain unease was detected and became increasingly evident—it was likely to be a very terrible disaster, one that even she sometimes felt powerless against.
The stars dimmed further.
The avatars of the Gods had begun to appear in the mortal realm. When the Gods could no longer look down from above, then all order in the mortal realm would be severely impacted!
………………
Modo.
Lines of soldiers were arrayed, and the entire military camp was steeped in a heavy atmosphere; even an idiot could feel the arrival of war. Modo was about to launch an expansionary war.
Many who had been lurking around Modo began to realize this; however, what worried them was that they weren’t clear where Modo would attack.
When it was learned that Modo was only targeting the nearby Indigenous People’s Tribe, many anxious forces finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At some point!
Modo had become a force that scared them!
…………(To be continued ~^~)
