Magic Industry Empire

“What are you doing?” Still asked in a curious voice.

“Ah? You’re back?” Xu Yi looked up to reply before pointing at the map and saying, “I’m currently studying the terrain of the Stantine Duchy.”

“Stantine Duchy?” Still tilted her head to think. She remembered when she had learned continental politics as an elective back at school and she had learned a bit about the duchy near the Lampuri Kingdom, “Oh, it’s that duchy in that crevie. Why are you suddenly studying their terrain?”

“Because in a while, I might have to take a trip there, so I’m studying first to prepare myself.” Xu Yi replied.

“You’re going to the Stantine Duchy?” Still was even more surprised, “Why?”

Xu Yi roughly explained what happened at his lunch meeting. Still thought for a bit after hearing this and the first thing she talked about surprised Xu Yi.

“Un, the Stantine Duchy’s people are really pitiful. I heard the teacher in continental politics mention that the average lifespan of people in the Stantine Duchy is only forty years, it’s much worse than our Lampuri Kingdom. Now they’re even selling their copper mines, it seems like Duke Stantine really can’t hold on.”

Xu Yi’s expression became a bit strange, “I say, Still, why does it sound like I’m a shameless person coming in to take advantage of them?”

Still pursed her lips into a smile, “If it was another merchant, they would be taking advantage of someone. But you Xu Yi as a good person wouldn’t do this, am I right?”

“Don’t give me a good guy card……” Xu Yi couldn’t help muttering as he rubbed his nose. He then said with a serious face, “You’re right that I wouldn’t take advantage of others. Actually, according to what Anklo said, the Stantine Duchy is always in danger, so I’ll be taking advantage of them whenever I go. But this time they came to find me, so I can’t be considered shameless. It can only be considered…..everyone taking what they need.”

“Then what does the Stantine Duchy plan on taking from you?” Still asked in a curious voice.

“I haven’t discussed this with Anklo yet, but Anklo said that they aren’t in need of gold coins, so it should be something that is difficult to buy with gold coins. I’m guessing it’s some kind of technology.” Xu Yi said.

“Technology?” Still said in a surprised voice, “What technology do they need from you? They can’t use the magic machine technology even if you give it to them, right? I feel that they might as well do the same as the Rudson Kingdom. They should first buy some agricultural magic machines back to let their people eat their fill.”

“No, they can’t use the agricultural magic machines right now.” Xu Yi shook his head and pointed at the Stantine Duchy on the map, “Look, the Stantine Duchy’s terrain is different from the other countries of the continent. Over half their territory is by the ocean, so it is frequently hit with hurricanes and tsunamis and half of the kingdom’s grain yield is very unstable. It could make their entire year’s worth of crops disappear into thin air because of a random hurricane or tsunami.”

Still looked at the map for a while before giving a slight nod and a look of sympathy.

“The people of this duchy really are pitiful, they can’t even grow crops. It’s a good thing that they can depend on the sea for fish, otherwise I really don’t know how they could keep living.”

Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Actually although they encounter frequent hurricanes and tsunamis from half their territory being by the sea, this also gives them a natural advantage, but they haven’t found how to use it yet.”

“Natural advantage?” Still looked at the map in a confused manner for a bit, but she couldn’t find anything, “What is this advantage?”

“The long coastline is their natural advantage.” Xu Yi replied, “Of course, not mentioning the Stantine Duchy, there isn’t a single country on the Sines Continent that understands how important this is.”

“What advantage does the coastline give?” Still was even more confused.

“It’s too early to talk about this now, but as long as we develop the engines, we can make full use of this advantage.”

Seeing the mysterious smile on Xu Yi’s face, Still couldn’t help rolling her eyes at him.

According to her understanding of Xu Yi, Xu Yi was someone with long term plans. Because he didn’t have confidence in them right now, no matter how she asked him, Xu Yi wouldn’t give a clear response.

Still didn’t keep asking him about this like a normal girl. After being with Xu Yi for this long, when she met this kind of situation, if she kept asking about it each time, it would make Xu Yi rather unhappy.

Still was a smart girl, she wouldn’t do something dumb like that.

After the two went on to talk about the Rudson Kingdom, Great Magician Camilla had come back from the lunch banquet at the Magicians Guild.

Seeing that Xu Yi was here, Great Magician Camilla asked him without any politeness, “Hey, kid, you’ll be participating in the certification exam tomorrow, have you prepared yourself?”

Xu Yi gave a shrug and replied with a relaxed expression, “What is there to prepare for, I just need to demonstrate my abilities.”

When Great Magician Camilla looked over, Xu Yi’s smile disappeared and he asked in a mysterious voice, “Your excellency Great Magician, you are responsible for the exam tomorrow, can you tell me about the topics ahead of time?”

Great Magician Camilla knew that Xu Yi was joking, but he couldn’t help glaring at him as he snappily waved his hand, “Scram!” After pausing for a bit, he added, “The exam of a high grade magician is the same as the exam of a low grade magician, but they just added a high grade magic test. There isn’t much of a difference, you don’t need to worry.”

“High grade magic?” Xu Yi couldn’t help knitting his brows.

The so-called high grade magic was the higher grade variant of the four basic elemental magic of wind, water, fire, and earth.

For example, the high grade magic of wind magic was thunder magic, the high grade magic of water magic was ice magic…..

Properly speaking, after a magician reached the Sixth Grade, they would start grasping high grade magic. But for Xu Yi who thought that high grade magic didn’t have much meaning when it came to magic machines, he rarely studied them. Although his magic power was at the same level as a Seventh Grade Magician, he had a weak grasp of high grade magic.

To put it simply, he was quite biased in his magic research. He wasn’t weaker than Eighth Grade or even Ninth Grade Magicians when it came to Magic Arrays, but his destructive magic was at most on par with a Sixth Grade Magician.

Seeing Xu Yi’s expression, Great Magician Camilla and Still were a bit surprised. Still quickly asked, “It can’t be that you don’t have a grasp of high grade magic, right?”

Xu Yi revealed an awkward smile, “This…..I’m not that good…...Alright, strictly speaking, I still haven’t completely grasped a single high grade spell.”

Great Magician Camilla and Still’s eyes popped out. Great Magician Camilla angrily said, “Kid, didn’t you tell me that you had the strength of a Seventh Grade Magician? What Seventh Grade Magician are you if you don’t know high grade magic!”

Still slightly knit her brows as she said in a worried voice, “Grandfather is right. If you don’t know high grade magic, the Magicians Guild will not accept you as a high grade magician. Not to mention the Seventh Grade exam, you might even pass the Sixth Grade exam.”

“This damn kid, I already told you to spend some time researching magic, but you just wouldn’t listen!” Great Magician Camilla angrily said, “What do we do now? You’re participating in the high grade magician exam tomorrow, you can’t just tell people that you don’t know any high grade magic, right? That would be a great joke!”

Xu Yi didn’t react as intensely as the two of them. His expression was more relaxed as he said with a smile, “This isn’t that bad, right? I can just take the exam next year if I don’t pass. I’ll properly study high grade magic during this year and I think I’ll definitely meet the requirements.”

“You say it so simply!” Great Magician Camilla’s spit almost splattered on Xu Yi’s face, “Kid, at the lunch banquet today, I kept praising you in front of everyone. I said that with your talent, you would definitely pass the exam. Now you’re telling me that you’re planning to give me? You’re not afraid of me losing face in front of others! Let me tell you, if you run away this time, do you believe I won’t tell Still to stop associating herself with you?”

“Ah?” Xu Yi and Still were stunned at the same time.

Still stomped her foot, “Grandfather, what nonsense are you saying? How is this related to our relationship?”

“Humph! I’m saying it like this. Kid, what are you planning to do?”

Xu Yi knit his brows and helplessly said, “But even if I don’t give up and go to the exam, I really don’t know a single high grade spell, so I won’t be able to pass the exam.”

“You really don’t know a single one?” Great Magician Camilla’s expression was a bit ugly, “Kid, I know there’s no use in threatening you, but do you know that your performance in this exam will very likely affect the guild’s attitude towards magic machines? If you perform well, the guild might pass the patent idea faster than you expected, but if you perform badly…..Even if this patent act passes, it wouldn’t be as good as you imagined.”

Xu Yi was stunned, “Your excellency Great Magician, why didn’t you say this earlier? If I knew how serious this matter was, I definitely would have studied high grade magic.”

Great Magician Camilla glared at him and angrily said, “How did I know that you didn’t study high grade magic at all!”

Hearing what Great Magician Camilla said, Still was also a bit anxious.

Xu Yi had mentioned in front of her many times that if the patent act passes, how important it would be to the development of the magic machine industry, so he always hoped that a perfect patent act would be passed by the Magicians Guild.

Now based on what Great Magician Camilla said, Xu Yi’s performance would affect the patent act, so this was a very important matter for Xu Yi.

“Grandfather, can’t you think of a way? How about you properly teach him and see if he can grasp a high grade spell in a day?”

Great Magician Camilla looked at Still and said with a cold snort, “With this kid’s talent, that isn’t impossible. But do you think that in a single afternoon and night, he would be able to properly learn a high grade spell? If he goes to the exam tomorrow, he would just embarrass himself.”

Still was already a Fifth Grade Magician and began having contact with high grade magic, so of course she knew that Great Magician Camilla was completely right.

“Then what do we do?” Still anxiously said.

Seeing Great Magician Camilla’s tightly knit brows and Still’s worried face, Xu Yi’s thoughts kept turning.

Actually he wasn’t that worried.

Even if the patent act passed by the Magicians Guild this time wasn’t perfect, with the development of the magic machine industry, the Magicians Guild would realize how important this patent act was and would eventually change it in the direction that Xu Yi wanted.

Moreover, Xu Yi could use the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s special position in the industry to set some rules, so this patent act wasn’t that important.

But since Great Magician Camilla and Still worried about him this much, he couldn’t just seem like he didn’t care at all and had to work hard for this.

Countless thoughts passed in his mind and suddenly, there was a flash of brilliance that appeared in Xu Yi’s mind.

Xu Yi revealed a confident smile to Great Magician Camilla and Still, “I thought of something. Actually I already grasped a high grade spell and I’m quite skilled with it.”