Chapter 192: Discussing Collaborations
Sam visited all four tower heads for the deals he has proposed and his many badges came very handy. As for the Pharmaceutical tower head of which he was not part of, Sam didn’t even have same resistance he had at the other three towers.
Their previous deal on the potion made the discussion easier.
For the artisan tower head and the formation tower head, he has extra things to discuss.
From artisan tower he needs the help of their special division which is mining department. He needs the supply of the impact crystal from the whole southern star territory and he asked the tower head directly.
But the discussion didn’t go smoothly. Because, this tower head is being a bit greedy. The impact crystal is purely worthless for these people and Sam is the only one who has proper use for it.
He studied and researched on its molecular structure along with a lot of experiments to determine the most appropriate amount of crystal that should be use to make a proper shell based on the launching distance, desire damage and even the size of the shell itself.
It was all his hard work. Even if the time spent wasn’t high, it was still his hard work. This tower head might have sniffed the news of Sam mining all the impact crystal and guessed he might have a use for them, so he was trying to use this chance to get some benefits out of Sam.
Although, Sam didn’t know what he wants, he doesn’t want to give in. So, their negotiation failed and they made an appointment for a day later to think it over.
Sam didn’t have much to think, he didn’t have anything to say and he is firm on his stand.
The next stop was Formation tower. After meeting the tower head, Sam was a little bit surprised. He saw a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties.
He was not surprised by the fact she is beautiful neither was he surprised for a lady being a tower head. What he was surprised was the tower head is a little too soft. She didn’t seem authoritative or imposing at all.
She is slim and pretty with chestnut coloured hair tied in a bun. She does have a scholarly aura befitting a rank 5 formation master. But she lacked the powerful aura of tower head.
But he didn’t care much about it, it was only an observation out of his habit.
This time the negotiation went smoothly.
First thing, is Sam need a Rank 5 formation in his estate all around his project. But the catch is, he will be giving the formation design and all he had to do is lay it according to the design.
Sam briefly explained the design to her, before she could even recover from the surprise of him asking to create the formation of his own design, which made her swallow the words she was about so say.
In short, the design is to protect the whole estate from trespassing. Sam is not ready for the cultivators from the noble families. It is also a form of protection for the people inside and the design mostly uses a large amount of spiritual energy to block an attack.
For the attack below Nascent, there wouldn’t be any damage at all.
For the attacks of Nascent, the formation will be able to withstand three average strikes on the expense of excess spiritual energy drawing from the atmosphere. Even if it is damaged due to an attack, given enough time, it can recover bit by bit.
The tower head was completely dumbfounded and even asked Sam about where he got this design, Sam just shook his head not planning to answer.
He looked at her and said.
"If you have plans to steal the design, you can do so, but the very next day I will release the method to deactivate it." After receiving her confirmation about not copying it, Sam talked about other matter, which is a business collaboration and after a long discussion, both of them shook hands happily.
After that the next two towers are only discussions about business collaborations. Sam is planning a huge thing now and this would be one of his sources of income in this empire and even the Duke might thank him for this.
The next day, Sam went back to the artisan tower to discuss the deal. This time the tower head was bit pushier and more straightforward after seeing Sam’s determined attitude.
"Artisan Sam, you see as we all are fellow artisans, you came for me to help so it is only natural for you to help your fellow artisans too. One cannot only keep on taking from a place.
You made a deal with architecture artisans and you got a great discount, now you are already asking to buy an ore from the artisan tower and you would get a discount too. It doesn’t seem fair. How about this? If you can ’share’ the knowledge on how to use the impact crystal properly so that we can collectively develop, it would be a contribution to the ’welfare’ of the whole artisan tower.
Also, if you can share how an energy cell works, it would greatly help the growth of the artisan tower and the future generations will appreciate you."
Simply put, this old man wants the manufacturing methods of the energy cells and the impact crystal usages. Sam didn’t answer and looked at the artisan tower head coldly.
He stood up and asked.
"Are you sure you want to do this the hard way?"
"What do you mean artisan Sam?" This guy just played dumb.
Sam shook his head and said before leaving. "Your loss."
After that, Sam walked downstairs and there was huge commotion. After an hour, Sam came up again and placed a new scholar artisan badge on the table before saying.
"I need all the ore of impact crystals in the southern star, it doesn’t even have a proper market price and the estimated value is 100 spirit stone for a cubic meter.
As I was a rank 5 artisan, I would have already gotten a twenty five percent discount for ore buying and since it is a big deal, I can get additional two percent, so for I cubic meter I only needed to pay 73 spirit stones.
But with my new status, I get an initial discount of thirty percent and there is an additional discount of 3 percent now, so now I only need to pay 67 stones for one cubic meter.
Now the loss is around 6 percent and how much it is in the actual money; you can find it in the future."
Sam leisurely sat on his chair as he spoke.
In front of the shocked tower head there is a scholar artisan’s badge but it is not a rank 5 one, it is rank 6 one.
Sam went downstairs to take the test as he understood the tower head wouldn’t let go of his greed, so he used the most straightforward way he could possibly do this with his current strength.
That is crush that guy with seniority.
In any profession there is a strict hierarchal system and that is the people from the artisan tower of the lower rank, should respect and shouldn’t play any tricks and try to make trouble for them as long as everything they were requested of was within their abilities and it was nothing underhanded.
This is to give more privileges and also encourage more people to learn and achieve higher ranks which will in turn increase the status of the artisan tower in the society.
Sam took a look at the shocked tower head and seeing he was not replying, he said.
"I suggest you don’t play any tricks, or you could just wait for me to make visit to the imperial capital. From, what I heard you seem to have some relatives in the imperial capital’s tower, but I highly doubt that they are high ranked than me. So, I suggest you prepare these."
Sam said these words and left the tower; he knew that this guy would get things done.
Generally, the scholar artisan badge is one of the most difficult things to gain and increasing the ranks is even more difficult.
Innovation is not easy after all, but for Sam that is one of the easiest things he can obtain. Ideas are what he had in his brain.
The news of his promotion didn’t spread much as he took the exam in a private room.
He didn’t keep it deliberately but he didn’t publish it deliberately either, so he wasn’t surprised.
The next day, a letter came to him from the artisan tower saying that his order was taken and all the impact crystal would be shipped within a month.
He smiled at the letter.
He didn’t talk about the business collaboration anymore. This guy with his large appetite just lost one of the biggest opportunities in his life.