“What will the associations do, knowing that we work together?” Erik asked.
“The associations won’t care. As I have said before, even if Vuzgal is attacked, unless they lose out on the deal with the new person moving in, they won’t lift a finger. They are a neutral party in all this, though they record and take notes of everything.” Hiao Xen passed the tea over to Erik.
“Thank you.” Erik sniffed the tea then sipped on it.
Hiao Xen pulled out a letter and placed it on the table. It had a complicated stamp of what appeared to be wax sealing it shut. “This was left behind by someone from the Sha.” Hiao Xen pushed the letter over.
Erik’s motions stilled as he looked from the letter to Hiao Xen.
“It is safe, but I don’t know what is written inside. A lady came to Vuzgal. She was here for a while, studying and learning, but she didn’t cause any issues. There are many such people in Vuzgal. She came to the gates with a recommendation and a meeting made by the Blue Lotus. She introduced herself as a messenger from the Sha.
“I met with her, and she said her master is interested in Vuzgal and its people. It piqued his interest. She gave me this letter to pass onto the city lords. From what I can tell, her master is the Marshal.”
Erik set down his tea and picked up the letter. He stared at the fleur-de-lis seal, took out a knife, and opened the letter. He read it.
“Complete this test, and I will debate if we can work together. Bring me a sample of your gunpowder.”
Erik read the few lines again.
==========
Quest: The Marshal
==========
The Marshal, leader of the Sha clans, has extended an invitation to you.
==========
Requirements:
Reach level 60 and ascend to the Seventh Realm
Head to the Sha clan headquarters
Provide a sample of Gunpowder
==========
Rewards:
750,000 EXP
==========
It sounded simple, and it was. But to know what gunpowder was, they had to be from Earth, and the Sha was testing him to see if he was as well. They also knew about his weapons being related to theirs. If he brought them gunpowder, what did they want with it? Did they want them to make more of it? Did they want to take it for themselves? They had only sent one person with the message, but there must be others in the shadows, watching. Whoever met him would have to be at least level sixty. Then there was the fleur-de-lis, which was a French symbol. He would have to check, but he didn’t think it was a common symbol in the Ten Realms.
Erik put the letter in his storage ring, a complicated expression on his face.
“Something wrong?” Hiao Xen asked.
“Just confused by what I read. If I think about it too much, it’ll become more complicated. Best that I keep it in mind, but no need to worry about it now. Got enough to do,” Erik said.
Hiao Xen nodded and didn’t pry any further. “You seem to have advanced again. Your rate of improvement puts me to shame!”
“Fighting allows one to advance faster, but it is not an easy path.” Erik drank from his tea.
“No, it is not, and I like the world of business and management. Are you interested to hear of the changes that have occurred since you have been gone?”
Erik leaned forward. “Might as well get into it.”
Hiao Xen cleared his throat and told Erik about everything that had happened in Vuzgal in the last few months.
9
Alva Production
“So, what are you all doing in Vuzgal? Shouldn’t you be down in Alva?” Rugrat asked Taran, Tan Xue, Julilah, and Qin.
“We’re all working on a new project together: the Conqueror’s Armor,” Tan Xue said.
“Conqueror’s Armor?”
Taran quickly explained.
“We’re working on the stacking arrays too,” Qin added.
“With those kinds of buffs, with all our forces working together, we can increase the range; that will be some scary buffs,” Rugrat said. “Good work!”
“We are running into a problem, though. There are fewer people who want to work on Journeyman-level gear. Everyone wants to work on higher-level gear, so they can get Experience and increase their skill level,” Taran complained.
“I know that only too well,” Rugrat said.
“What happened?” Tan Xue asked.
“Expert-level smith. I just can’t get there,” Rugrat admitted.
“It can take a lot of time,” Taran comforted him.
“Reaching the Expert level in crafting is no longer about copying what others have done before but doing your own thing. Creating your own path. I thought about making something similar to a railgun, but it just melts apart,” Rugrat said. “But enough about me. This project of yours sounds interesting. We need more people to help out. I can lend a hand if you need it.”
“You’re diverting. This isn’t some small problem you’ve run into; it’s something that is messing with you and annoying you,” Tan Xue said.
“Well, worrying about it is not going to make me an Expert.” Heat entered Rugrat’s voice.
“I’m not saying that.” Tan Xue gave him a hard look.
“Sorry. Just frustrated, you know?”
“We’ve all been there, lad.” Taran patted his shoulder.
“So, these new sets of armor and formations—how are you producing them?”
“We’re creating two new modified manufacturing lines in the weapons factories. We are already producing more armor plates than we have soldiers who require them. The spare plates are used to test out our new production line. Creating those factory lines bends the damn mind,” Qin said.
“Once we have the lines modified, we can create as many sets of armor and formation plates as we need,” Julilah said.
“Gets us all back to working on our own crafts,” Tan Xue said.
Rugrat held his chin, frowning and biting his lip. “Something has been annoying me for a long time. Why don’t other people set up assembly lines? Most crafters just do enough items to increase their abilities and increase their skill, grinding out weapons to get higher.”
“Creating the first piece of armor, creating the factory line—it takes a lot of time. You get the most amount of Experience making it the first time, and it decreases as you progress. That’s why weapons are rated by the rank of the forger: The higher their level and the level of ability they use on the item, the higher the item’s power. Copying other’s designs teaches us the basics. Producing our genuinely own items, we have a greater growth that can change how we do everything,” Taran said.
“Factories aren’t used in the realms. Say a sect is producing a sword. They have all their students making the same sword; some are bound to come up with modifications and updates. The sect will always have that sword and different deviations of it. Their factories are their students. As their students increase in power, it gives rise to the entire sect, as they have a stronger person who can assist the sect, gaining access to more resources and channels that would have been closed to them before,” Tan Xue said.
“The main reason we use factories is due to the low numbers we had previously and our requirements to create massive numbers of equipment. Our population is exploding, and people are coming up with new ideas and plans all the time, which is developing Alva at an incredible rate!” Qin said.
“How many of those ideas were mass-produced?” Rugrat asked.
“They are mass-produced if the traders see a demand for it in the market and the crafters of the schools are unable to fulfill them. The cost to have people take time off school and their craft to build factory equipment is high. People say that the best time for one to develop is while they are young, so plenty of people look to push themselves up the ranks of crafting and reach their peak before settling down,” Qin said.
“That’s fucking stupid.” Rugrat blinked, and the others gave him bizarre looks. “Co
me on! Does that mean people over a certain age are already declining, that there is no way for them to push on? Like, think about that. I started smithing in my thirties. I am now thirty-four and have more ideas than ever before. Maybe in sects and places where there is a limited education, that might be a thing. If you are told ‘follow this path; this is the only path, and you will reach a great height,’ most will follow that. We don’t have a path, so we’re always creating new ones. There is no one way to the higher realms or to higher crafting.”
Rugrat shook his head. “With that system, people have determination, they have willpower, but it doesn’t matter. If you go up a steep incline and every hundred meters, a hundred pounds is added to your back and you can only take that one route, you will fail eventually. Some sects might give you better paths where the incline or the weight is lower, but they will still fail. We just point to the mountain and say pick your gear, adjust your weight. Don’t blindly run up the hill; take your time. As people learn, that weight lessens, the incline gets a little less steep. It might be slower, but they can get much higher than the person taking the steep incline.”
Everyone fell quiet.
Rugrat laughed to himself. “Hell, who knows. We might meet one another along the path and teach each other different paths one can take. In the Ten Realms, the apex is reaching the Star system of crafting. Does it really matter, though? If you can make one person a powerful shield, can they defend everyone? Aren’t they carrying so much weight that they might crumble under it? No, that’s ridiculous and dumb.” Rugrat’s eyes opened wide. A fire seemed to have ignited inside them and burned brighter.
“What if we are not looking to get to higher mountains? The academies teach people according to different levels, teach them the basics and more complicated information. Now they’re told copy this, do that, and it creates this. Well, some people can do that, and some can only go so far. Others thrive under greater pressures. They thrive when they find an answer to a question that might not have been asked.” Rugrat snapped his fingers.
“The Ten Realms puts progress above all, that you should constantly try to make things at a higher crafting level. You could, but that doesn’t mean that a Journeyman- or Apprentice-level item is useless. Really there are a lot of Novice and Apprentice items, like our heating and water treatment systems that can have a massive effect,” Qin said.
Rugrat turned to her and saw that she had a troubled look on her face.
Taran played with his cup. “This glass is of the Apprentice level. We’re in the Fourth Realm with a massive amount of resources, but the glass, plate, cutlery—all of them—had to be made by crafters. It doesn’t make sense to create Expert-level glasses, knives, and forks. Not many people take up those crafts because they do not progress much further than the Journeyman level; there is no demand.”
“Though take the glass. We can use it for weapon sights, can use it to focus light. We could create screens that relay information, insulate doors and houses. Could use it to create telescopes to stare at the stars or microscopes to look at samples,” Rugrat said.
“We can use a formation to create a weapon sight, though?” Julilah said.
“What if we had the glass magnifying what is in front of us and then had a formation to increase that zoom or to create a second mode that allows us to see mana life or heat signatures? Then it would be a Journeyman-level piece of equipment instead of an Expert-level piece of equipment. Also, if the formation ran out of power, the aiming sight would work no matter what.”
“What are you thinking, Rugrat?” Tan Xue asked.
“Instead of crafting mountains, we have questions, ideas, problems, let’s say. A rolling problem would be how we can increase the effectiveness of our military. There are many problems there: We have armor, clothing, food, training, weapons, and more. Through all those efforts together, you can create a trained soldier. Qin, Julilah—you’re on the right path, using all the strengths and abilities you and Alva have to push forward. It’s brilliant! You took different problems or ideas and created solutions that work and can work together, not just increasing their effectiveness, like one plus one equals two, but multiplying the effectiveness of both systems together to create ten or twenty times increase in power. The people of Alva are great and smart, and the limitations of the crafting system are dumb. Crafters can increase the power of some people, but inventors—what they can come up with can greatly affect the entire world.”
Rugrat sat back in his seat, as if the air had fled his lungs.
“Crafts other than smithing and formations aren’t really used together. There are few benefits for them to do so, other than creating items for one another. That cross-pollination of ideas—just what could happen?” Rugrat seemed to be breathless. The fire in his eyes had turned into a raging storm; his eyes flickered back and forth, looking at things to improve, ways to push forward, anything and everything that could be advanced.
“That is a good idea, but will crafters go for it? Won’t it hurt their own progression?” Tan Xue said.
“Contracts and patents. Someone comes up with an idea and produces it. For ten years, it is their idea and they can create as many as they want of the item. Every subsequent item that they create is also covered under a ten-year patent. Now, they can hold on to that patent or they can produce it, get a factory to make the item, then traders sell it. The crafter earns a percentage of the product’s value. They work on their different ideas, and the item passively brings in income.”
“Though our ranks might drop,” Julilah said.
“The crafting levels only matter for Experience. They don’t necessarily mean people can earn more money. Crafters are some of the people with the greatest debt. If you could figure out how to pay your way out of that debt and create your own private workshop and unlimited materials, do whatever you wanted? I think we might need to revise the whole ranking system in the schools. Right now, it is based on the skill level the Ten Realms says that you have.”
“What about a whole new department to deal with it? With teachers who know what the hell they’re talking about and have created practical products? Hah, we should call it the applied sciences, taking the knowledge from the academics and turning it into real-world solutions,” Rugrat said.
They all fell silent around the table.
“It could create instability within the academies and drop the ranks of people, as Julilah said,” Tan Xue said.
“Yup, it could,” Rugrat agreed.
“How could we mark the people who are in the academies for these projects?” Qin asked.
“They would have their own academic projects. If they create something within that time that is their own creation, then why the hell not?” Rugrat said.
“Use the academies to teach them, create their foundations, and leave them the freedom to create their own applications for what they have been taught,” Taran said.
“Is anyone going to want to do it, though? People might feel that they are wasting their life away. Trying to make products and not increasing their skill level,” Julilah warned.
“Not everything succeeds; we all know it. Although they might only create products at the Apprentice level, they could have the knowledge of an Expert. That is how one’s skill level doesn’t relate to their potential or true ability.”
“If we can get more factories going, we could have crafters focusing on building the prototypes and an influx of factory jobs to take the original design and mass-produce it. Then we don’t have to fear that a crafter will find something new to work on and never make that item again. As they create new items, we can have others reproduce their original creation. Where are we going to find people to do that?” Taran asked.
“You’re thinking inside the box. The crafters don’t need to. The traders can build the factories and pay the crafters to create the items and assembly lines. Also, there are crafters who like building but might not like inventing. There are all kinds of people and personalities. Aga
in, working with others with different mindsets and skillsets,” Rugrat said.
“They already look for solutions among what the crafters create, but few are willing to work with them and instead wanting to push ahead more,” Qin said. “But won’t it decrease the competition within the crafting departments?”
Rugrat bit his lip.
“The trade is if we want people to increase their crafting ability or to focus on inventing new things to increase our overall strength,” Taran said.
“Does it have to be a choice? Can’t we do both? You know, give incentives for people who are looking to do different jobs?” Rugrat asked.
“If we need something, we could have people bid on it with gear they have created,” Qin said. “It would create competition between the crafters, like how traders will have auctions to create competition between the buyers.”
“The person with the best item for the job wins.” Julilah nodded.
“It might be like a spoon: The person who can make it the cheapest and in the largest quantities will win over the person who can make the most finely handcrafted one,” Rugrat said.
“It will make it so that crafters and traders need to work together to make it viable, and if they want to make more profit, then they need to know other markets or people to sell it to,” Qin said. “Teams of traders could go to crafters and pay them to create something for them. Or crafters could go to traders before creating something to get the traders to back them.”
“I forget that your dad was the head of a massive trading company,” Tan Xue said.
“You know what, there are some people who are more inclined to create functional machines over just increase their crafting. Also, there are crafters who have reached a certain stage and are unable to progress further. If they can create factories and know how to adapt the items created by the academics into applications…” Taran shook his head. “I think creating a system that is based on their inventions instead of their skill level is flawed.”
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 10