Chapter 94 – Blank Energy Storage Cards
by spirapiraIt couldn’t be that the person who invented magic coins simply didn’t want them to allow repeated energy deposits and withdrawals, could it?
It was probably because making that feature work was extremely difficult.
Mo Lan had crafted so many cards by now, and the crafting cost of a card was fundamentally tied to the difficulty of the function it needed to achieve.
Looking at the projected functions again, although they didn’t explicitly mention repeated deposits and withdrawals, they also didn’t specify a limit on the number of transactions—which could be interpreted as unlimited.
She re-edited the projected functions of the Energy Storage Card.
【Projected Function: The user can convert their own energy into Mana through the Energy Storage Card for storage, and can also convert the Mana within the card into any form of energy to absorb into their body for use.
Maximum cumulative storage and withdrawal capacity equivalent to 10 Mana worth of energy. Once all energy has been withdrawn, the card loses its effect.】
She checked the crafting cost again.
【Projected Cost: 20 Mana】
“!!!”
Just by limiting the repeated deposit and withdrawal function, the cost had dropped this low.
Even sold at five times markup, that was only 100 Mana.
That price should be perfectly acceptable.
How much energy would it cost to make an Energy Storage Card that came pre-filled with stored energy, like magic coins that only needed to be directly used?
Mo Lan renamed this card design to {Blank Energy Storage Card – 10 Mana}, then designed another card called {Energy Storage Card – 10 Mana}.
When she tested the cost, it was only 10 more Mana!
She began experimenting with increasing the card’s Mana storage capacity and testing the crafting costs.
【Card Design: Blank Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana】
【Projected Cost: 200 Mana】
【Card Design: Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana】
【Projected Cost: 300 Mana】
【Card Design: Blank Energy Storage Card – 500 Mana】
【Projected Cost: 1000 Mana】
【Card Design: Energy Storage Card – 500 Mana】
【Projected Cost: 1500 Mana】
…
Essentially, the crafting cost of a Blank Energy Storage Card was twice its storage capacity.
And the crafting cost of a pre-filled Energy Storage Card was the Blank Energy Storage Card’s cost plus the amount of Mana used to fill it.
Mo Lan’s Blank Energy Storage Cards and Energy Storage Cards now truly possessed the functionality of magic coins.
The only cost was the energy itself.
A single {Energy Storage Card – 1 Mana}, equivalent to one Magic Gold Coin, could be crafted for just 3 Mana.
A single {Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana}, equivalent to one Purple Gold Coin, could be crafted for just 300 Mana.
A single {Energy Storage Card – 10,000 Mana}, equivalent to one Red Gold Coin, could be crafted for just 30,000 Mana.
Given these crafting costs and card effects, the Energy Storage Cards were undoubtedly a success.
They held value for every spellcaster community.
However, those like Lilith and Sylph, who already lacked enough Mana to research their Manifested Gifts and were counting on Energy Storage Cards to obtain more Mana for their research, would be disappointed.
At Mo Lan’s standard fivefold markup for cards, buying a single Blank Energy Storage Card would cost ten times its storage capacity in Mana.
For example, a Blank Energy Storage Card with 1,000 Mana capacity would cost them 10,000 Mana to purchase.
Even with installment payments, it wouldn’t mean much, since the card could only temporarily store 1,000 Mana anyway.
Buying one for emergency Mana recovery in critical moments was worthwhile, but buying one for everyday Mana storage and withdrawal was not cost-effective.
They’d be better off just carefully budgeting their daily Mana expenditure!
On the other hand, Mo Lan herself could use the Energy Storage Cards to convert the card-crafting energy she’d accumulated in the Book of Cards’ Purple Gemstone back into absorbable Energy Storage Cards—though she would lose a significant portion in the process.
Mo Lan couldn’t bear to disappoint Senior Sister Lilith and Sylph, so she pondered a while longer, trying to increase the number of repeated deposit and withdrawal cycles to see if she could find a card design that minimized cost while maximizing total energy yield.
Unfortunately, the crafting cost and the number of reusable cycles also scaled multiplicatively.
For a Blank Energy Storage Card, each additional deposit-withdrawal cycle doubled the crafting cost. There was simply no way to reduce expenses.
“Is there really no way?”
By the time the midday break was nearly over, Mo Lan still hadn’t come up with a suitable card design. She had no choice but to set the matter aside for now.
“Headmistress, can I sell Energy Storage Cards like these to the young witches?” Mo Lan displayed the card information for a {Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana} and a {Blank Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana}.
She’d gotten into the habit of checking with the Headmistress before promoting anything among the young witches, to avoid interfering with the Academy’s training of them.
Amisha, who had been watching her, glanced at the two cards: “!!!”
“What’s your cost for crafting these cards? And what price do you plan to sell them at?”
Mo Lan looked around suspiciously.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but Lady Amisha, who normally spoke in an unhurried manner, seemed to have a note of urgency in her voice.
She answered honestly: “This one costs 200 Mana in one-time expenditure, and this one costs 300 Mana in one-time expenditure. As for the selling price, about five times markup should do.”
“…” Now Amisha understood why the Amisha protecting Lilith had mentioned that whenever Lilith was running low on Mana, she would mutter about Moira being a goblin Sorceress!
“Five times? Isn’t that way too much?!”
“Not at all, not at all. That price is for witches only—outsiders start at ten times! I have to invest in card research too, you know!”
Every single card design consumed Mana. Just testing a card design’s projected cost and identifying its difficulty points cost 1 Mana each time!
“Fine! At five times markup, that means for a recovery amount equivalent to one Purple Gold Coin, the price is 1,500 Mana in one-time expenditure, correct?”
“That’s right!” Mo Lan confirmed.
“Do you have any idea how troublesome it is to create a single Purple Gold Coin?”
Mo Lan had a feeling the Headmistress’s words carried a deeper meaning: “It should be… somewhat more expensive than my cards?”
“Somewhat?! Using our witch clan’s method for creating magic coins—setting aside the special material value and refining difficulty of the coin itself—just the final step of filling a completed Purple Gold Coin with energy requires a witch to infuse it with magical power equivalent to 1,000 Mana each time, repeated a full ten times, before the coin finally retains a stable 100 Mana.
And the energy loss rate for witch-made magic coins is already the lowest among all races in Valen.
Other races find it even more troublesome to create magic coins.
That’s why magic coins are so precious.
Now do you understand the value of your Energy Storage Cards?”
Mo Lan’s jaw dropped: “I do now.”
She had only guessed that the materials for magic coins were precious, but she hadn’t expected the energy loss to be this staggering!
Each infusion was 1,000 Mana, ten infusions total—that was equivalent to putting in 10,000 Mana and only retaining 100 Mana!
A full 99% lost!
And each infusion of 1,000 Mana meant only Advanced-level spellcasters with a total Mana capacity above 1,000 could even do it!
The recovery effects of the magic coins and their corresponding values mentioned in earlier chapters didn’t quite match up, so here’s a revision:
One Magic Gold Coin stores 1 Mana, allowing any spellcaster to instantly recover energy equivalent to 1 Mana.
One Magic Violet Gold Coin stores 100 Mana, allowing any spellcaster to instantly recover energy equivalent to 100 Mana.
One Magic Crimson Gold Coin stores 10,000 Mana, allowing any spellcaster to instantly recover energy equivalent to 10,000 Mana.