The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 162 Please support Elf Manufacturing!
The Sun Elf next to him shook his head regretfully:

"Some time ago, we made a suggestion to Her Majesty in this regard: hoping to restrict the export of extraordinary materials to humans, but I'm afraid it will be difficult to change Her Majesty's mind."

"After all, the current Elf King is the Queen of the Moon Elves. And in the Elf Kingdom, the Moon Elves' advantage lies in natural resources, while the Sun Elves' advantage lies in manufacturing."

"During these four years of trade, the families of the Ten Moon Elves not only made a fortune from the export of extraordinary materials, but also benefited greatly from the cheap goods of Eldoron."

"At my joint request and that of the other major Sun Elf families, Her Majesty the Queen only agreed to impose a slightly higher tariff on human goods in order to protect the industries of our Elf Kingdom."

"Even with industry protection, our traditional handcrafted manufacturing simply cannot compete with Eldoron's assembly line production!"

Another elven elder was furious:

"How can we, the noble Sun Elves, the sole chosen people of the gods of Sidrian on earth, the race closest to the divine among all elves, place our hopes on the Queen of the Moon Elves?"

"If it weren't for the fact that our Sun Elf King—His Majesty Larklas Sunshine—has not yet returned from the divine realm, how could our Sun Elf race be in this state?"

It's important to understand that in the elven realm, the Sun Elves, who value honor, unite with each other, and possess the Chosen Ones, are significantly stronger than the ten free-spirited Moon Elf families.

Whether it's the economy, military strength, the number of legendary powerhouses and high-level professionals, or the cohesion within their race, the ten Sun Elf families have the advantage!

However, after four years of ebb and flow in trade, the economic gap between the Sun and Moon Spirits has narrowed considerably, at least in terms of economics.

This led many among the ten Sun Elf families to suspect that the Moon Elf Queen wanted to use the power of the Eastern human kingdom of Eldoron to help the Moon Elf race equalize with or even surpass the Sun Elf race.

—Of course, such a gap and estrangement was within El-Erian's expectations.

Pull one faction and attack the other.

By leveraging the existing internal divisions and conflicting interests within the Elf Kingdom, one can first win over a portion of the enemy forces. This is one of the steps to ultimately conquer the entire Elf Kingdom.

"By the way, has it been confirmed that His Majesty Larklas will be able to return to the mortal realm from the divine kingdom of Avandor? The Sun Elf family can't wait any longer!"

An elven priest replied:

"According to the divine revelation I and other high priests received during our daily prayers, His Majesty Larclaw should still be attending the grand banquet of the gods of Sidrian."

"Of course, Your Majesty will not wait until the banquet is completely over before returning to the mortal realm—that would be far too long. But at least wait until the intermission of the banquet, for to leave abruptly would be disrespectful to the gods."

The questioner followed up, "When was that?"

"It's hard to say. If things go smoothly, it could be done in the next two years. If things go slowly, it might take another ten years or so."

crunch.

Just as the group of elven elders were discussing, two legendary mages from the Radiant family—the brothers Serka and Loran—also pushed open the door and entered the hall.

“Seka, Loran, you’ve come at the right time. In the past few years, since our elven kingdom started trading with the human kingdom, Eldoron has had a huge impact on our industry.”

"Both of you are leading figures in the world of elven magic. Do you have any ideas on how to deal with this?"

"Especially Mr. Serka, you are a hero who once defeated humanity on the battlefield. Now, in the business world, do you have any brilliant ideas?"

Me? What could I do? On the front lines, I was the one who got captured and taken prisoner…

Serka gave an awkward but polite smile, and was about to say that she was also powerless to help when suddenly an idea struck her:
Seven years ago, during the war, Lord Elion of Men managed to get us to agree to the idea of ​​"faking battle results" by exploiting our Sun Elves' cultural trait of "wanting to win no matter what"...

We ourselves can also utilize this trait...

Serka Radiance stood with her hands behind her back, smiling broadly and surveying the scene:
"I believe that there is no future in competing with the human nation of Eldoron in terms of production costs and manufacturing processes."

"Should we abandon our traditions and adopt Eldoron's production model, their magic production bases, and necromancy?"

“Even if we do this, it will take decades to transform our production model. And given the speed at which humanity changes and learns, by then they may be using a more advanced production model.”

"Therefore, we should change our mindset and find the unique advantages of our Sun Elf magical item manufacturing industry!"

Several high-ranking elf members of the Radiant Family, as well as Serka's younger brother Loran, all looked bewildered.

In the past few years, their businesses have suffered repeated setbacks at the hands of Eldoron.

What advantages do we have?
Is the price high?

Amidst the confused looks of the crowd, Seka explained:
"The advantage of our products is that they are made by elves."

“We should consciously promote the idea that using products made by the Elven race is an honor, and encourage our people—especially the Sun Elves—to choose more Elven-made goods and support the Elven kingdom and the Elven industry with practical actions!” Upon hearing this idea, the senior members of the Radiant Family looked at each other and immediately felt that it made some sense.

Indeed, this way, there's no need to compete with Eldoron's products on price and quality...

"This is one direction; we should focus more on packaging [Elf Manufacturing]."

“The handcrafted production of the Sun Elves is a legacy of ancient methods, while human assembly line production lacks soul.”

"Yes, yes, especially since humans use the dead for production, it's a desecration of life!"

"From this perspective, even if the wands and robes we manufacture are more expensive, many elven consumers will still choose them..."

Soon, the Glowing family adjusted its business structure, emphasizing the "elf-made" characteristics.

This includes giving public speeches accusing the human kingdom of Eldoron of using the undead for production; holding public lectures emphasizing the cultural heritage of traditional elven craftsmanship; adding more markings to their own wands and robes to highlight their elven origins; and starting with the curriculum at church schools…

……

Moon Song City Magic Academy

Doron, an elven student, walked along the clean, pure white streets, his exquisite, star-studded robes fluttering in the wind.

This robe, purchased more than four years ago, is still as clean and new as ever. Apart from the automatic cleaning effect being slightly weakened and the enchantment being replenished by an enchanter, there are no signs of any malfunction.

"No matter what, we have to admit that the products made by humans in Eldoron are indeed incredibly cost-effective."

"I don't remember ever hearing about the human race when I was a child. It's like they suddenly appeared overnight."

"I heard that back then, it was Prince Seymour, the younger brother of our Moon Elf Queen, who, along with hundreds of attendants, taught arcane magic to humans."

"As expected of Prince Seymour. If it weren't for Prince Seymour teaching humans magic back then, I wouldn't have such inexpensive items to use today..."

Doron walked along, lost in thought.

Lost in thought, Doron walked up to a magic item shop.

This wasn't the shop where he bought his robes before, but another shop in a more bustling location.

In any case, over the years, these shops, whether run by elves or humans, have all supplied goods to the human kingdom of Eldoron to sell high-quality, low-priced products.

Doron said to the Sun Elf shopkeeper, who was fiddling with something with his head down:

"My old wand broke, and I want to buy a new one, the most basic kind, without any special effects, just to help me ignore cheap materials and channel magic."

In this fantasy world, spellcasters don't need wands like in worlds like Harry Potter where most people do.

Magical artifacts such as wands, staffs, holy symbols, and grimoires are more of a supplementary tool.

The most basic version of the spell artifact can replace the function of the [Spell Material Kit], ignoring cheap spellcasting materials such as sand, small iron plates, sulfur, and bat guano.

More advanced magical artifacts have special effects, such as allowing a specific spell to be cast three times a day, or providing special bonuses to spell effects.

The shop owner didn't look up, but only glanced at the wall out of the corner of his eye:
"20 gold coins, a basic birchwood wand."

"So expensive?" Doron was startled. "Shouldn't the basic wand cost less than 10 gold coins?"

To be honest, the price the shop owner offered was actually the normal price from before.

However, in recent years, with the opening of trade between the two countries, the prices of many magical items have been driven down, to the point that Doron is completely unaccustomed to it.

It's hard to go from extravagance to frugality!

"You're selling it for such a high price, what's so special about this wand?" Doron questioned.

The shopkeeper looked up at the magic wand on the wall and introduced it with immense pride:

"This wand was produced in our elven kingdom, crafted by the wand maker of the Radiant Family. Every single line on it was painstakingly carved by the wand maker himself, by hand!"

"Compared to the mass-produced goods of Eldoron, the land of humans, this product truly possesses soul!"

(End of this chapter)