This meant that they often had amazing intuition. They could also vaguely sense fragments of the future. Soran, for example, spent only one day here and found that the cities in the Northern City seemed to be preparing for war, and this seemed to have been going on for some time. The food, weapons, important materials, and so on, here were all under the unified management of the Chamber of Commerce under the Witches Council. Compared to the hindsight of other places, the response by the North was quite rapid.

Soran was also counting down to the start of the turbulent years!

At the latest, the first batch of Avatars would appear around October this year. Now, it was almost February. The following eight months would play an important role in how prepared one was during the turbulent period that was to come. Once the war between the G.o.ds begun, all kinds of G.o.ds would be rampant in the world. At that time, it would be very difficult to carry on any productions. In addition, the Abyss Demons would invade the material plane, and the devils would stir up all sorts of discord. Then, the resources of the whole material plane would be in short supply.

Soran had been h.o.a.rding food all along, and Snake Island was now becoming a big granary!

It could be said that the price of grain on the South Coast had basically increased by more than 50% because of his large-scale purchase, and the price of grain was still rising, which would be estimated to increase more than double by March.

At noon the next day,

The pirates under Soran's command brought back a message that the fleet he ordered had reached the Deepwater Port, but because of the fear of Soran's forces, the Deepwater Port refused to let Soran's fleet land, and also urgently informed the High Witches Council. If Gloria was not here, the High Witches Council would have directly expelled Soran's fleet. The stronger one's power was, the more attention it would garner. Hence, the fleet that Soran had ordered was too threatening as it had the power to take down a port city. So, in the end, even if Gloria was on the fleet, they could not reach the sh.o.r.e.

"Just let them stop near the harbor."

Soran took a look at the topographic map of the North, pointed at one of the locations, and then ordered: "First transport the first batch of things back. I'll be negotiating a deal with the Witches Council this time, and might be delayed two days."

Standing in front of Soran, Cyclops lowered his head and said: "Don't worry, your Excellency. I'll s.h.i.+p the first batch of things back now."

Very quickly, Cyclops left with a group of people.

Soran stood on the balcony of the Wizard Tower and looked at the departing caravan. Then he turned around and walked towards the laboratory. Gloria, who was in her researcher state, seemed very busy. They were not intimate with each other for much over these two days because Gloria was very busy, and so was Soran. Soran had never been a man of affection. Since he had such a close relations.h.i.+p with Gloria, it would be quite foolish not to seek opportunities to cooperate with the Witches Council through their relations.h.i.+p.

The Witches Council was rich in resources!

And they also had one thing Soran was very short on, which was a large number of extraordinary level equipment.

By the way, any alliance with ent.i.ties that were filled with Wizards would be engaged in a high-value arms trade, including alchemy weaponry, extraordinary equipment, Puppet Golems, etc. These things were quite difficult to buy if there was no relations.h.i.+p.

The Clay Golem's heavy footsteps resounded!

A dull voice of the Clay Golem came from Soran's back, and it went: "Your Excellency! There is a Wizard named Saruman who wants to see you. "

Saruman?

When Soran heard the name, he was a little shocked.

Subsequently, he remembered that he had mentioned to Gloria in his letter that he needed a Wizard who was proficient in alchemy and could make huge amounts of Struvite stones into high-quality fertilizers. Yesterday, Gloria mentioned to Soran that someone would come to see him today, but she did not mention his name. Unexpectedly, it was Saruman. This name was not common in the north.

He even thought that he had heard it wrongly!

When Soran heard him, he nodded softly: "I see. Bring him in."

Very quickly, a Clay Golem came in with a male Wizard. He had a white beard and a very old face. However, the profession level of the wizard was not high, about 10. This meant that he wasn't very talented. Not all Wizards could make great progress all the way. Many Wizards have been stuck on the threshold of the third grade all their lives. Otherwise, Gloria would not have been a member of the High Witches Council if she only had the strength of grade four.

There were also many male Wizards under the Northern Witch Council, and Saruman was one of them!

He wasn't young.

Even if there were no special rituals for prolonging life, he looked to be almost 60 or 70 years old. Soran was observing the old Wizard in front of him, and the other party was also observing Soran. From any point of view, this was a wizard who could never advance to legendary strength. Although he was dressed neatly, he looked a little disordered and down, his eyes were tired and bloodshot, and he seemed to have not had a good rest for a long time. On his staff, one could see a part of it being damaged, but there were no signs of repair.

As Gloria has said, this was a Wizard who was a little tight on his finances and was barely surviving!

Wizards were rich, but most of the time, they were short of money. Even Gloria's liquid money might not be as much as a third of what Soran had!

Otherwise, while playing last night, that lady would not have asked for more than 30,000 Gold Derahls from Soran when they were having their intimate moment.

She needed a lot of expensive alchemy materials!

Anyone who had managed a business knew that the proportion of working capital would be quite tight. If Soran was not doing businesses that did not require capital, his capital reserves would not be as abundant as it was now.

Soran needed such a Wizard because Wizards that were too promising were not easy to control. Wizards with huge potentials might not be willing to work under Soran.

It was just nice that this kind of Wizard's profession level was not high, his age was not young either, and he might not have much ambition of advancing to legendary. At the same time, he had a rich experience in Alchemy, which was the kind of man Soran needed under him.

"They should have told you what has happened before you've come, right?"

Soran looked at the old Wizard named Saruman and said slowly: "Your job for the next three years is to serve me. I will pay you 12000 Gold Derahls every year. At the same time, you can also pay for the magic, knowledge, and materials from Gloria, and she will give you a higher authority at the exchange."

A Wizard's debts were all apportioned layer by layer.

The expensive cost of learning spells must be apportioned to the middle and lower grade Wizards, at last. Otherwise, the cost of training for high-grade Wizards would be too astronomical.

Soran set a time of three years.

Three years was enough for him. After that time, if the Wizard wanted to stay, then he could. If he did not want to stay, then he could leave.

This sort of wizard, who probably could never advance into legendary, wouldn't have a problem to obediently work under him even if it was for a year or two.

"Yes."

The old Wizard was looking at Soran. He was a little confused about the ident.i.ty of the other party. Soran looked like a wizard, but he was obviously as sharp as a Rogue and might be a part-time Adventurer. He bowed his head slightly to express his respect. No matter from which point of view, since Soran could stand in the Wizard Tower and talk to him, Soran's status would undoubtedly be higher than that of his. The middle and lower grade Wizards basically maintained respect for the higher grade Wizards.

He nodded and went: "According to the contract, I will go to the Outer Islands to work for you for three years, and you will pay me 12,000 Gold Derahls every year. After three years, I can decide to continue or leave on my own."

Soran looked at him and replied: "Yes."

"If it's all right, let's set up the contract. You can go and get ready. We'll set off in three days. "

It was expensive to hire a Wizard.

Although Gloria knew alchemy, it was not possible for her to be turning Struvite stones into fertilizers.

Soran, in front of him, was also a Wizard who knew alchemy. Gloria said that he had an uncommon level of alchemy, and this sort of work should be a piece of cake for him.

When high-quality fertilizer got produced, Soran would have a new way to make money, and the cultivation of the Outer Islands would rise strongly.

Basically, self-sufficiency would be easy.

Because of Gloria's presence, Soran did not need to worry about the wizard in front of him having any tricks up his sleeves, so he paid half a year's remuneration quickly. Anyway, after killing the adult white dragon, his a.s.sets had increased by a large part. He had plenty of money in his hand, and the goods from the East were easy to get rid of in the North. The Witches have no way to refuse such exquisite silk and porcelain. No matter in any era, the consumption potential of women was quite amazing. These rich Witches could spend a hundred thousand Gold Derahls randomly.

There was not much to take away from the Wizard Tower.

Even though Gloria was in charge of the Wizard Tower, it was not her private property.

Hiring alchemists was only a part of Soran's plan.

In addition to that, he also needed a batch of superior weapons to arm his elite guards. The limit that can be bought on the South Coast was the meticulously forged military weapons, which were far from the first-grade extraordinary equipment. Soran wanted to buy more than 100,000 Gold Derahls worth first-grade weapons from the Witches Council at a time to arm his pirate army. This + 1 extraordinary weapons could only be equipped by the elite army on land, so whether it can be bought depends on Gloria's vocal authority.

Such a big arms deal must be approved by the Witches Council!

According to the current market price, the price of a grade one extraordinary weapon was about 200 Gold Derahls. Soran was going to buy exquisite equipment for 500 elite armed men this time.

It was estimated that even the elite troops in a small city might not have such a high level of weaponry and equipment.