Chapter 1003
Chapter 1003 - 989: Recruitment
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The ironman strikes, the iron spirit resonates, ding, ding, dong, dong through the afternoon, totaling an income of a mere two and a half cents.
Lu Ping’an here went ding, ding, dong, dong all day, and while what he harvested wasn’t money, it was worth far more than any amount of money... it’s just that everything still went through the public accounts, and he couldn’t pocket the profits himself.
But Lu Ping’an’s first industry unfolded so easily, not only offering a service for the "acquisition of taboo items," but also for the reshaping of these taboo items.
Of course, the "material costs" and "labor costs" were not to be taken lightly.
Thus, this naturally triggered a new wave of "acquisition trends."
And the abundance of high-quality low-level taboo items attracted even more customers... Although the prices were still not cheap, there was at least a purchasing channel available.
Yet all of this made Lu Ping’an a little irritated.
"It’s time to find a professional craftsman...."
At this stage, the only person capable of handling the reprocessing was Lu Ping’an himself.
He had a multitude of tasks and had no interest in the ding, ding, dong, dong of a blacksmithing career.
The "Workshop" had an operating platform that could carry out simple "restructuring" by itself, and for taboo items to become taboo items, there was no need for a "transmutation," thus his life investment wasn’t necessary.
"...Finding a useful high-level craftsman is just too expensive."
𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
These repetitive tasks, in contrast, required the assistance of a professional craftsman, not just because they had a deeper understanding of these "labels," but also because they naturally knew more about market demand and product market prices, maximizing the workshop’s output.
Lu Ping’an’s current craftsman team could essentially boast only Fang Wen as a capable member. She specialized in mechanical enlightenment and her forging industry skills were truly not up to par... Even so, she could easily outperform any ordinary craftsman below the Decree-level.
In a place like the ancient city, craftsmen above the fourth-tier could be called masters, and recruiting them was not only difficult but also possibly not sufficient.
"If we take ’equipment fabrication’ and ’forging metallurgy’ as requirements, ordinary Decree-level craftsmen may not be up to the task. We need to find at least one true master."
Lu Ping’an also wanted to cultivate his own talents, but in this respect, his team was truly short of people, lacking even one who could hold out independently.
"What do you think about the Luka people? That group of Luka people owes you a big favor."
"...This means that local artisan recruitment is too difficult, so we could attempt recruitment from the Exotic Races? Indeed, this idea is worth a try."
Lu Ping’an had no fixation on having to recruit humans only; the technology of the Luka people was quite outstanding, and these days they should have completed their localization. Now might just be the best time to recruit.
"I’ll give it a try, but I can’t have too high of expectations. They have many options, and both the national and state governments can offer better conditions. Let’s see if I can borrow a few of them. But they alone won’t be enough...."
Being a race from the Foreign Domain, they specialized in refining "metal shells" and possessed their own secret techniques in material science and forging. As long as they completed localization in "material science," "technological equipment," and "vehicle manufacturing," they were extremely formidable.
"...But with them on board, the standards for recruiting other craftsmen can be more realistic,"
Big Cat said so, and although she was not an outstanding entrepreneur, her insight and experience were enough to offer solutions and ideas that Lu Ping’an couldn’t have come up with.
Lately, she had been quite proactive, even actively involving herself in these managerial matters that she would normally not care about.
It seems she wanted Lu Ping’an to resolve these troublesome issues and focus his attention on the "main business."
"When are you going to the Church of the Lady of the Forest to deal with the Gardener stuff? I also have some thoughts about your Battle-profession, here’s the plan..."
"Don’t rush, the reality is that with the Workshop up and running, the Courtyard has clearly become more ’prosperous,’ and I can feel it positively helping my professional path."
Lu Ping’an did not conceal the fact that his professional path was already set, his profession could provide help to the Courtyard, and in return, the Courtyard could give "nourishment" back.
The most basic rule buildings could provide certain specific "talents" and "experience." Although Lu Ping’an hadn’t studied seriously, after a brief glance, he felt as if he had learned many "skills" of a craftsman.
The most important thing was his intuition, which easily pointed out the most valuable paths in "enchanted items."
"...This is probably what they call talent. The enhancement of the courtyard boosts my most important foundation, and as each project takes shape, my ’sphere of influence’ is officially established, which also enhances my potential and limit."
Lu Ping’an even felt that these enhancements were just the "minimum guarantee," and that his career path required mutual prosperity, more "trading," and "industrial circulation."
Since Lu Ping’an was clear about his plans, Big Cat didn’t urge him further and silently handed him a plan filled with content.
With limited time on Earth, Big Cat was more eager to see a "qualitative change" than Lu Ping’an himself.
He flipped through the plan, which mentioned those tempering methods...
"Uh, continuing to ’farm’ is simpler. Okay, okay, stop glaring at me. I will take care of the matters at hand, the essential decisions that I must make, then move on to the rest. An Xin, Chris, I know what’s important."
As he spoke, Lu Ping’an wrote out a new craftsman recruitment plan.
"Craftsman" here actually referred to two departments.
One was equipment manufacturing, which didn’t mean "equipment" literally, but rather "heavy/light industrial equipment" in modern industry.
Manufacturing, localization, and exotic improvement of technological industry items, Demon-puppets, external armament, and mechanical equipment all required specialized talents. Fang Wen was a professional fit for this aspect, but now it seemed more appropriate to involve the Luka people.
The other part was forging and metallurgy, the traditional blacksmithing.
However, this content also divided into two parts, both requiring specialized talents.
"Metallurgy" included material science, alchemy, and other specializations, focusing on identification and synthesis of new materials... Considering future "prey" which might include high-level Demons and Magic Plants, it was necessary to extract practical resources from them and provide raw materials for other industries. The pay for this job was not easy to earn.
This part was somewhat managed by Miss Rou, but she also had her projects to oversee and had prompted Lu Ping’an several times to find more people.
But material science was too profound... uh, perhaps the Luka people could still be a consideration.
The other aspect was truly the most traditional manufacture of equipment and clanging iron forging, which was what the courtyard needed most.
However, high-level craftsmen were adored by all major forces and difficult to find...
"We can recruit some of the exotic races from the Volcano Secret Realm; our relationship with them is good," suggested Xia Qin.
"Are they skilled enough..."
Lu Ping’an remembered those people; they supplied some mass-produced equipment for the Special Service Team.
At the time, it seemed quite acceptable, but in retrospect, it was actually rather subpar.
"I’ve talked with them, their tribes have high-level Masters too. An invitation should do," she said.
After Big Cat made a broad outline of the plan, the feasibility of recruiting increased significantly.
There was no need for a single master to handle everything, but rather to use a "group of experts" to meet various needs, naturally allowing for a decrease in intensity of talent required in each version.
By leveraging past relationships and networks, Lu Ping’an should be able to put together an okay professional team at this time.
"But in the long run, we still need master craftsmen to oversee, determine the research direction, and facilitate coordination and communication. Keep an eye out for suitable ones..."
Still, the necessary elements were indispensable.
— End of Chapter 1003 —