"Is there a possibility that they never planned to power Magic Conductors at all? They just want to use this as a front to create magic-rich areas, then make it more convenient for themselves to use?" The lady president of the Gray Fort Church of Creation Association sighed helplessly.
"..." The Wild Mage was speechless.
But thinking about it carefully, this actually did seem like something traditional magicians would do.
"Wild Mage, actually I think this approach isn’t bad either. As long as we can research a receiving device, then we wouldn’t need fixed lines. As long as you’re within a certain range, you could use it normally. It would save a lot of effort, plus ongoing maintenance difficulty would also decrease." The apprentice suddenly spoke up, sharing his thoughts.
In the divine realm.
Watching everything happening in the Tech Lab, Ren couldn’t help but smile.
"Putting these guys face-to-face together really was a great idea! It’s only been a few minutes and they’ve already sparked such an interesting topic."
If they could really do what the apprentice said—use self-charging magic arrays to gather large amounts of magic power, then have it cover a certain area, and as long as you had one device, you could freely access it within that range—then they’d create a special area similar to "wireless charging" or "wireless network."
This would greatly speed up the development progress of the Magic Internet and the magic-powered industry.
"Now I finally get why you’re so insistent on pulling them into this virtual lab." Betty couldn’t help but sigh. "Just these few minutes alone were worth it, let alone all the collisions there’ll definitely be in the future."
"From what you’re saying, you already have ideas?" Ren turned to look at Betty with interest.
"If you’re talking about transmitting power for your magic-tech industry, machine tools and stuff through this mode, honestly, I can’t do it. But if you want our Magic Net rings to transmit more information through this mode, I can definitely do that." Betty said confidently. "We just need to link a special Magic Conductor device to a port, and it can let people within its coverage area freely use the Magic Internet... transmit pictures, sound, and video!"
"You don’t need to have the Magic Net link to a Magic Power Network port—just add one Magic Conductor and you can achieve it for the entire range?" Now Ren was really interested.
"Yes." Betty said. "I estimated that if we just want it to work normally within a ten-meter diameter range, with Roster territory’s situation, it would probably cost 1 silver coin. But if we need to cover a 100-meter diameter range for use, we’d need at least 5 to 8 gold coins worth of materials. And if we want to cover a castle, that would require at least over a thousand gold coins on top of the self-charging magic array. The difficulty of popularization..."
"Then just multiply the price of the 100-meter diameter range and castle coverage by ten or a hundred times. Use their money to subsidize ordinary people—that’s not a problem." Ren naturally understood Betty’s concern, but he didn’t care at all.
Even if second-gen Magic Net rings became widespread and lots of commoners started using Magic Net rings, it didn’t matter. Just squeeze it out of the rich and nobles. Every other noble has one but your family doesn’t—if you were a noble, what would you think?
What if other nobles came to visit? What would they think?
No matter how expensive, as long as it wouldn’t bankrupt them, they’d definitely choose to buy it.
Use their money to subsidize ordinary people and popularize it—problem solved. Plus, at 1 silver coin, anyone who could afford a Magic Net ring could definitely afford it.
"First make a few prototypes to take a look. If it really works, we need to prepare for a major Magic Net upgrade right away. We’re not waiting anymore." As Ren spoke, he seemed to make some kind of decision and spoke without hesitation.
Originally he was thinking he could only use a broadband-like mode to bring pictures, videos, and similar things to this world. But looking at it now, there was no need to wait—they could directly enter the smartphone era.
Compared to the Magic Net that required literacy to use, the Magic Net in the picture and video era would definitely have much lower barriers to adoption...
Just as Ren was thinking about these things, in the Tech Lab.
After this clash of ideas, the matter of self-charging magic arrays and the Magic Power Network had basically concluded. Others also started discussing some other things—the global trade network led by Mr. Dwarf Elf with Roster behind the scenes, procurement and use of Magic Conductors, and even development and production of new Magic Conductor weapons... Any bit of information, if released to the outside world, would probably cause a huge uproar.
Suddenly.
The dwarf elf Labrechaun changed topics. "Speaking of which, Mr. Roster, I think your territory currently has a very serious problem."
"What?" Viscount Roster was obviously stunned.
Everyone else also shifted their attention over.
Roster territory was the best developed among them, the strongest place in the mortal realm for Magic Conductor production. What kind of very serious problem could such a place have that Viscount Roster didn’t know about?
"Knowledgeable workers." Labrechaun said slowly. "As my druid potion workshop keeps expanding, the workers I need to use are also increasing. At first I thought anyone would do, but as time went on, I discovered that many operations are very complex. Some ordinary elves can’t do them—only educated druid apprentices or elven noble children can do them."
"Elven nobles naturally can’t join my engineering production, and druid apprentices have relatively high salary levels. This makes my druid potion production costs higher than initially estimated. I think you’ve encountered the same problem, right?"
Viscount Roster neither confirmed nor denied. "Indeed, I’ve also had to hire lots of mage apprentices, scholars, or fallen nobles and knights’ descendants."
"To adapt to the Magic Conductor era, we need to build lots of schools to fill workers with knowledge, to fill children with knowledge. Elves have long lifespans, so this is difficult. But humans—I think it wouldn’t take more than a few years to cultivate large numbers of excellent talent."
With those words, he wore his intentions on his sleeve.
Labrechaun wanted Viscount Roster to train large numbers of workers suitable for the magic-tech industry, then he’d conveniently poach some of them for his druid potion factory!