"The Mage Association dropped off payment for you to upgrade 1,000 of your auto-mappers to C Rank," Leland told Damion when he arrived at the man's shop in the morning.

Before heading to Saung, Damion had let Phil loose on the surface with his own auto-mapper strapped around his neck. The Blizzard King was going to explore the Red Zone on its own for the day. Being a flying Demonic Beast, it was unlikely Phil would run into any trouble and it had the bonus of helping to map out a Red Zone.

Hearing that the Mage Association was going to pay him 2,000 C Rank cores to upgrade the auto-mappers Damion struggled hard not to cry out in celebration. 1,000,000 credits. He could convert those cores to 1,000,000 credits in the Magic System. Of course, that was not taking into account how many credits it would cost to upgrade those 1,000 auto-mappers. His previous upgrade of an auto-mapper from D Rank to C Rank was 160 credits, if Leland had not improved his technique, it would probably cost the same, so around 160,000 credits to upgrade them all. Even with that cost, he was still going to turn a hefty profit.

The problem Damion was having was that according to the timeline he had given Everitt Cromsdale, it should take him more than a month to upgrade all these artifacts. He did not want to sit around and do nothing for that long, so he needed to think of an alternative.

"1,000 auto-mappers is a lot," Damion told Leland. "Do you even have that many in stock?"

"I have about 1,200 in stock."

"What?" Damion could hardly believe the claim. Last time he was in the store, Leland had less than 1,000 artifacts in the store. How did the man suddenly have so many auto-mappers. "How is that possible?"

"Amos and I have been working on them nonstop since you gave us the blueprints. We know the artifact like the back of our hand and Ethan's family has been keeping us well supplied with materials. He's been selling a ton of auto-mappers to different Yellow Zones. They have been a huge success. I think he even paid to have a Portal opened to the White Zones and sent a crate of auto-mappers through to each."

"That still doesn't explain how you are making so many? It takes time to create artifacts."

"Oh, well, in the past it was just myself and Amos in the shop. But after you showing me how useful it was to have another person around; we hired a dozen young mages that like to create artifacts. They work half the day making auto-mappers and the other half they can use to pursue their own projects."

"So, you upped production by hiring a bunch of mages. I guess that works. Do they get a cut of the auto-mappers?"

"If they work on making auto-mappers during the second half of the day they do. Otherwise, their pay is through the use of our materials and workspace for their personal projects, which they keep all the profits of."

"Well, I'm impressed. Since the auto-mapper design is fairly simple and they are not creating anything new, they can probably turn out a few a day each."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Exactly. Though, I was not expecting the Mage Association to want to buy so many at once. This will really clear out our stockpile."

"Where do you keep the D Rank auto-mappers?"

"Oh, that is all we are making at the moment. The only time we do a C Rank is if someone especially requests one. So, it is good that you are here to upgrade these for the Association."

"Have you seen what they plan to do with them?"

"Yes. Quite ambitious to use them to create a live map of the entire human domain. And once that is done, I'm sure they are going to look at ways to send auto-mappers into the Red Zones, maybe even Black Zones."

"You think so?"

"Oh yes. Demonic Beasts don't care about artifacts, once they are in place, unless a Demonic Beast just happens by and accidently damages it, the auto-mappers should last a long time."

"Then I guess I need to start working on those upgrades."

"They are all in your old room. With all the workers on the first floor, we needed some extra storage space, sorry."

"No, it's fine."

Damion headed to the second floor of Leland's shop and opened the door to the room he had stayed in after returning to Saung. The entire room was lined with boxes, floor to ceiling with hardly any room to move around.

'System, analyze how much it would cost to upgrade the artifacts in this room to C Rank.'

{Analyzing…}

{There are 1,253 D Rank artifacts. To upgrade them all to C Rank would cost 199,227.}

'I can upgrade all of these now, but how do I explain to Leland,' Damion pondered. 'Maybe I can just claim to have a spell that upgrades artifacts? Or an artifact that upgrades artifacts? He's always been a friend to me and used to be in Mage Teft's group, I doubt he will say anything.'

"Do you need any tools or a workspace?" Leland asked Damion, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"No. I have everything I need. It would be good if I could go ahead and get the payment. Also, there are 1,253 D Rank artifacts in here. I can upgrade the extras if you want."

"I'll let Ethan know so he can get you the cores. He should be arriving back in Saung this evening."

"Leland, can you make sure only you or Mage Flannery go in this room from now on?"

"I guess, why?"

"I'm going to upgrade all of these. And obviously I don't want everyone to know how easy it is for me to do it."

"I don't understand. You already agreed to do the upgrades. People already suspect it isn't hard for you to upgrade artifacts. Most believe it is due to you having an excellent grasp of the ancient language."

"What I mean is, I will have all of these upgraded by the end of the day. But I don't want to turn into an artifact enhancing slave to the Mage Association. So, I want just you and Flannery to supply 20 or so a day to the Association, until they get their 1,000."

"While you go off and disappear for a while."

"Yes. I'll go out disguised with the Metamorphic Bracelet. All you and Leland have to do is say I am holed up in there working and no one will be the wiser."

"So, we just take out a few a day to give the Association what you 'finished' that day and you get to go on a vacation."

"I would hardly call flying around looking for a labyrinth a vacation."

"You are trying to find a labyrinth?"

"Mage Teft and I want to form a new White Zone. Complete with a magic academy, but chiefly free of the politics and manipulations of the other White Zones."

"I can see why you need a labyrinth. Only a labyrinth can support the economy of a White Zone. But it won't be easy to find one. Is that what Helga has been doing since she disappeared?"

"Probably. I'm not really sure."

"Well, here is the payment," Leland said, handing Damion a spatial stretching box. "I see no reason not to give you the full payment since you have completed the upgrades. I'll send you a message when Ethan brings the cores for the extra artifacts."

"Thank you," Damion told Leland. "I'll let you know when I am done."

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