Chapter 287

Chapter 287

Thus, Garrett acquired his first batch of subordinates.

Number: 24.

Roles: Mage apprentices, Priest apprentices.

Sources:

Eight from Black Crow Swamp.

Two from the Curse Magic School, medical branch.

Two from the Transformation School.

Four from the Church of Nature.

Six from the Temple of the War God.

Two from the Spring Water Goddess Temple.

Brackets, training required before use...

Garrett handed over the preparatory tasks before training to Aurora. These included the living facilities in the Mage Tower, necessities like meat, eggs, rice, flour, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and even lab consumables and experimental animals... He tasked her with drafting a list and arranging procurement from Black Crow Swamp or any other interested party.

Meanwhile, Garrett took on an urgent task for the public health department:

Finding funds.

Sitting across Garrett was a newly transferred middle-aged man with greying hair and a face full of worry. With a counting rod in his left hand and an account book in his right, the sleeves of his wool coat were frayed white, evidently a newly transferred accountant in poor financial condition. Sitting down in the small conference room with sighs and groans, he flipped the account book open for Garrett to see:

"The costs for building reservoirs and pipelines, as well as the infectious disease hospital, are not our concern. The council and the major temples have reached an agreement, with donations from nobles and merchants offsetting these construction costs. Any shortfall will be covered by the temples themselves.

But the operational expenses that follow will have to be figured out by us..."

He flipped through the account book:

"The current price of bleach powder offered to us by the Evocation School is 1 gold coin per kilogram. According to your instructions, for the daily chlorination of the city’s drinking water..."

As he spoke, Garrett did the math in his head. With a chlorine dosage of 3 mg/L and the bleach powder’s effective chlorine content at 25%, each cubic meter of drinking water required 12 grams of bleach powder. For a city of 500,000 people, consuming 1,000 tons of drinking water daily, that amounted to 12 kilograms of bleach powder—precise dosage, no waste allowed.

"12 gold coins," he announced. The wrinkles on the middle-aged accountant’s face deepened:

"That’s 4380 gold coins a year. Plus, the salaries for the priest and mage apprentices..."

"..." Garrett originally intended not to pay a cent. A joke, right? They were here for training, yet expecting a salary? Didn’t their own schools provide stipends?

But then he thought again, the apprentices were already dirt poor. If he didn’t pay, and their own schools didn’t either—like the Church of Nature, which provided nothing but food—wouldn’t they starve over the year?

Just like interns and residents in hospitals, they couldn’t earn a full doctor’s salary, but they still received some allowance...

"Let’s budget for..." Garrett pondered. Testing water quality required dedicated personnel; they couldn’t always rely on free labor from various sources. So, how much would it cost to hire an educated ordinary person or a mage apprentice who couldn’t advance by the age of forty in this world?

"Let’s budget for 5 gold coins a month," he said quietly. The accountant noted another entry:

"5 gold coins a month, 12 months a year, for 24 people... that’s 1440 gold coins... totaling 5820... plus the cost of testing reagents... and the daily operational expenses of the infectious disease hospital...

"Come, come, take a look yourself! See what price the Alchemy Guild is buying caustic soda for!"

Garrett was dragged along, stumbling, straight to the Alchemy Guild. A Level 2 mage proficiently interfaced with him:

"Caustic soda solution? 1 silver coin per liter, you deliver it yourself!"

"What? The price dropped again?" The Thunder Horn mage screamed. The alchemist glanced at him:

"What else? How much have you sent over recently? The guild can’t use it all up! The consumption of caustic soda is limited. Making it into soda ash, the weird smell fills the room, we dare not enter without casting a bubble spell!

And what, the fuel for boiling caustic soda doesn’t cost money? The pots for storing it don’t cost money? Boil a few pots, and those pots are ruined!

Otherwise, why don’t you make it into soda ash yourself? We’ll buy it at a high price!"

"This is so annoying—"

The Thunder Horn mage screamed.

Garrett couldn’t help but facepalm. Too tragic, truly tragic. You make soda ash, oh, sodium carbonate, by heating sodium hydroxide solution? No wonder the production efficiency is so low...

"You’re buying soda ash? At a high price?" He leaned forward. The alchemist quickly scanned him, noticing the badge with three copper stars and four white rings, immediately straightened up:

"We’re buying! The consumption of soda ash is huge, we’ll buy as much as you have!"

That’s all I needed to hear. Garrett, grinning, pulled his people back to the lab. Upon returning, he immediately set up a set of glassware:

"Charcoal ignited... The combustion gas is channeled into the caustic soda solution... Excessively introduced, once the reaction is saturated, add an equal amount of caustic soda solution... Finally, heat to evaporate...

See, soda ash is produced, right?

—How to mass-produce, you guys figure it out! Sell me bleach powder cheaply! Sell me soda ash cheaply too!"

"No problem!"

The Thunder Horn mage’s eyes immediately brightened. Soda ash, widely used in washing, dyeing, leather making, soap making, and more, consumes hundreds of kilograms a day in Nevis City without a burp. Following Garrett’s method, the daily accumulated caustic soda solution could be turned into soda ash for sale!

The Transformation School had a workshop producing these materials

daily. Now Thunder Horn could join in! The price could even be lower than theirs, squeezing them out!

"I’ll organize manpower to try it right away! Don’t worry, as long as we can produce soda ash on a large scale, I’ll sell you bleach powder at half price! —Broel! Davila! Brittany! You guys, quickly clear out a room! Order copper pipes, set up furnaces, collect charcoal, and prepare!"

"It’s all on you now!"

Garrett was in high spirits. Ah, money is made and saved. Just by improving the process like this, isn’t that saving two thousand gold coins? Visit a few more places, perform a technical upgrade, and probably the Public Health Office’s finances will be secure...

Ah, actually, the highest cost in bleach powder production is the electrolysis of saltwater—meaning, renting the lab in Thunder Tower for electrolysis. If only we could generate our own electricity, set up a small hydroelectric plant nearby, and install a production line, other materials wouldn’t cost much.

However, the only electricity generation method Garrett knew involved using a magnetic field to cut through coils, generating alternating current. Electrolyzing saltwater required direct current. How to convert AC to DC?

Sorry, Garrett admitted, he didn’t know...

"Aurora! —Aurora!"

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