During this period of time, almost every trading company in Golden Port had encountered such a situation. A human who claimed to be a captain would come to their door and sell + 5 magic equipment. Each time, the quantity wasn't too big, only 50 or 100 sets. The goods were stored in a space ring.
The southern continent's thirst for magic equipment could be seen from the fact that the price of intermediate magic equipment in the southern continent was 4 times higher than that of the northern continent.
Therefore, the business of these human captains was always good. As long as the buyer confirmed the quality of the goods, they would pay a high price for it.
After a long time, the employees of the trading companies with extensive connections discovered that many trading companies in Golden Harbor had encountered such captains during this period of time.
However, these trading company staff didn't find it strange. They thought that it was just a case of the number of mages smuggling from the northern continent.
The so-called mages smuggling refers to mages using advanced teleportation spells and space equipment to transport intermediate magic equipment from the northern continent to the southern continent for sale.
The reason why they used the term smuggling was because the northern continent had strict control over intermediate magic equipment.
Eighty percent of the magic equipment in the Northern Continent came from the Alvindale Empire, and ninety-nine percent of the alchemists in the Alvindale Empire were under the control of the Magic Guild. Therefore, the magic equipment in Alvindale was basically under the control of the Magic Guild.
As for combat constructs, combat golems, intermediate magic equipment, magical items … … These types of military goods were strictly regulated by the magic union. They weren't things that you could buy or sell as you wish. A noble, an organization, a company, a mercenary group, or even an individual, if they wanted to purchase a magic item, they would have to register with the magic union. The magic union would then assess whether they had the qualifications to purchase, how much they could purchase, and how much they needed to replace each year. These were all decided by the magic union. Only with a certificate issued by the magic union could one purchase such military goods from the secret magic store.
Even if it was a private alchemy factory, its products were strictly controlled by the magic union. They had to follow the rules and sell their products to the designated secret magic store or trading company.
As for the export of military goods, the magic union also had strict regulations and supervision. The magic union had strict regulations on the amount of military goods that a trading company could purchase from the secret magic market every year. If the amount exceeded this amount, the trading company wouldn't be able to get the goods. This was also one of the reasons why the ocean trade was mainly made up of ordinary goods.
As the largest exporter of magical items in the Northern Continent, Alvendell was more lenient with the quota of magical items exported to other countries in the Northern Continent. After all, Alvendell also needed to export magical items to earn profits.
However, regarding the export of magical items to the Southern Continent, the Alvindale Guild of Magic had strict control over it. The quota of elementary magical items was still fine since the supervision wasn't strict. However, the quota of intermediate magical items, especially those of level 4 and 5, was only one-third to one-fifth of that of the Northern Continent. Furthermore, the supervision was extremely strict.
Only some big companies with deep backgrounds could get these small quotas.
Any merchant ship that has the magic union's export quota must be inspected by the magic union from time to time. Once a trading company is found to be smuggling magic items into the southern continent, the magic union will punish the trading company by reducing or deducting the other party's quota.
Of course, as long as there was a huge profit to be made, it would be hard to put an end to it. The Magic Union's strict control over the normal secret technique market naturally led to the existence of the secret technique black market. The secret technique black market in Tailun City was the largest secret technique black market in the Northern Continent.
The secret technique black market of Tailun City was hidden deep in the slums of the Far East District.
Under the temptation of high profits, some alchemists in the system would secretly sell the magical items they produced to the secret technique black market merchants. These magical items that were secretly sold to the black market, driven by the profits, a large portion of them flowed to the merchant ships sailing to the Southern Continent.
Apart from the merchant ships, a portion of high level mages also participated in this black market smuggling.
For high level mages, there was a faster way to transport magical items to the Southern Continent, and that was to use high level teleportation spells and large spatial items.
High level teleportation spells could only be used by high level mages and above. Ordinary professionals, even if they had high level teleportation spell items, would not be able to use such complicated spells.
Therefore, only high level mages or high level mages could use high level teleportation spells to smuggle magical items.
However, using high level teleportation and large spatial items to smuggle magical items was not possible. Only intermediate level magical items and above would have enough profit. Low level magical items, with the small amount of space items that could be transported, would not make much money at all.
Purchasing from the black market was not the official price. In fact, the price of the black market was much higher than the official price set by the Magic Union. It was also because of this higher price that alchemists would take the risk to secretly sell their products to the black market merchants.
In the black market of Tailun City, a + 3 magical equipment was 1.5 times the official price, a + 4 magical equipment was 1.7 times the official price, and a + 5 magical equipment was more than twice the official price.
Different levels of magical equipment would have different profits after being transported to the Southern Continent. A + 3 magical equipment transported to the Southern Continent could be sold for three times the official price of the Northern Continent, a + 4 magical equipment could be sold for three and a half times the official price of the Northern Continent, and a + 5 magical equipment could be sold for four and a half times the official price of the Northern Continent.
Therefore, for the smuggling mages, transporting intermediate level and above magical equipment from the Northern Continent could almost double the profit.
Of course, this could not be compared to Feng Chou who owned a super alchemy factory, but it was still a good way for many high level mages without any background to make money.
The only downside of this business was that the source of goods was limited, and the black market was always hungry for goods.
For the trading companies of the Southern Continent, the more smuggling mages the better. Naturally, no one would care about why there were so many smuggling mages recently.
Unknowingly, in half a month, Feng Chou had processed more than two thousand sets of + 5 magical equipment, and the funds in his hands had increased to more than a hundred million sols, which was 1.5 billion crowns.
This speed of growth made Feng Chou speechless. If Feng Chou's super alchemy factory of Qiankun Pagoda was restricted by the strict system of the Magic Union in the Northern Continent, then in the free Southern Continent, this super alchemy factory showed its terrifying side.
At this point, Feng Chou no longer had to worry about the funds needed for the next upgrade of Qiankun Pagoda.