Chapter 159 – Hehe, What a Steal

Chapter 159 – Hehe, What a Steal

“Headmistress! We’re splitting profits, not revenue — you’re guaranteed not to lose money! Besides, I generally price at five times the cost for sales within the witch clans and ten times the cost for sales outside. How could you possibly take a loss?” Mo Lan said.

“But you taking ninety percent is way too much!” Amisha said.

Carmela also chimed in: “The split is too small. This measly income isn’t worth us spending all this time and effort.”

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph couldn’t quite figure out all these percentages, but they knew one thing — they were on the same side as Lady Carmela and Madam Amisha. Their interests were their own interests, so they chimed in one after another:

“Yeah, exactly! Moira, give us a bigger share!”

Mo Lan put on a reluctant expression and asked, “Then how much do you want? If it’s too much, I’m out! I can sell my own cards just the same, and it’d be a lot less hassle.”

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph looked toward Carmela and Amisha.

They had no idea — they’d have to defer to whoever was better at math.

Carmela also quietly turned to look at Amisha.

Arithmetic wasn’t her strong suit.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have sold her Sorceress Magic the way she did back then.

Amisha felt the pressure mounting. She held up two fingers: “We need at least twenty percent!”

Changing the ninety-ten split to eighty-twenty — that should be about right, shouldn’t it?

This stuff really did depend on Mo Lan to produce, and on top of that, she’d need to help design the cards.

Seeing the increasingly pained expression on Mo Lan’s face, Amisha felt that the price she’d demanded was probably a fair deal.

She just wasn’t sure if Mo Lan would agree to an eighty-twenty split!

Mo Lan asked the others with a straight face: “You all feel the same way?”

“That’s right! Twenty percent!” Carmela said.

Amisha had studied mathematics — she was better at haggling than the rest of them.

The three young Sorceresses nodded too: “Yes! At least twenty percent!”

Mo Lan’s face twisted as if in genuine pain: “Since we’re all of the same clan, I’ll concede another ten percent. After deducting the energy costs of card production, we split the remaining energy income eighty-twenty — eighty for me, twenty for you! Sign the contract before I change my mind!”

Writing contracts was Carmela’s specialty. Contracts written with her Pen of Oaths were absolutely inviolable.

Five contracts were drafted in a flash, stipulating each party’s responsibilities and profit shares.

The moment the signatures were down and the contracts took effect, Mo Lan couldn’t help but grin.

Hehe, what a steal!

Her bottom-line price had been seventy-thirty!

Sure, she’d have to provide each of them with a management card similar to a stripped-down version of her Magic Light Screen Master Card, but that was a one-time investment!

A one-time investment in exchange for continuous returns — she was making out like a bandit, okay!

As for helping them design cards that would sell well, that was child’s play for Mo Lan.

The moment Lilith saw her expression, her heart sank.

They were done for — they hadn’t bargained hard enough!

This was what happened when you were bad at math!

Amisha also realized something was off: “What was your actual target price?”

“Seventy-thirty,” Mo Lan said.

Lilith clutched her chest.

Vasida and Sylph felt their whole world crumble.

Carmela looked at Amisha: “Did you really learn everything from Moira’s math textbooks?”

Amisha: “…” She really had learned everything — otherwise how would she dare to say she’d start offering math classes next academic year!

“It’s just a little business negotiation trick! You start by quoting an outrageously high price to lower their expectations and give them room to haggle.

Back on Earth in my previous life, the standard practice when bargaining was to first cut the price in half, then slowly negotiate from there,” Mo Lan said.

“Say no more — take all those little business tricks of yours and put them in a book!” Amisha said.

Lilith nodded vigorously: “We desperately need that!”

Even Carmela said: “Let me know when the book’s out.”

She didn’t even dare to think about how many transactions she’d made over all those years, and how much she’d lost in total.

Speaking of books, that reminded her of something else:

“I think it’s time for a new edition of Mo Lan’s Mo Lan, could you write down your experience with designing and selling Sorceress Magic, as a reference for future young Sorceresses?”

“Of course!” Mo Lan said without hesitation.

Writing one chapter’s worth of experience and insights was no trouble at all.

Getting to appear in the same book as the senior Sorceresses and leaving behind advice for future young Sorceresses — that was an absolute honor!

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph all gazed at Mo Lan with immense envy.

They were still on the receiving end of the seniors’ knowledge and teachings, yet Mo Lan had already become someone who could offer guidance to future generations.

The gap was just too enormous!

While chatting, Mo Lan didn’t forget the task at hand and finished crafting their management cards: {Management Card – Carmela}, {Management Card – Amisha}, {Management Card – Lilith}, {Management Card – Vasida}, {Management Card – Sylph}.

“This card lets you manage a single series card pool. You can name the pool, set its tier, upgrade costs, draw costs, and drop rates for various cards.

You can also take semi-finished template cards and process them, then list finished cards for public sale in the card shop or add them to your card pool.

After binding, only you personally can use it.

Just like with Card Magic, clicking the little eye icon in the upper right corner of the light screen will hide its contents from others.

There’s also a usage guide — the little question mark next to the eye icon.

Take a look and let me know if anything’s unclear.”

The card was modeled almost entirely after her Magic Light Screen Master Card, though with much more limited functionality — it could only manage a single series card pool and cards listed to the shop through the management card.

Everyone present had already purchased Card Magic.

After binding the card, they followed the tutorial walkthrough once and understood how to use it.

“Can the card storage slots in this card only hold semi-finished cards?” Amisha asked.

“That’s right! The semi-finished cards I design will appear in the card catalog beside it. You open one up, touch it with your Manifested Gift, then inject Mana, and you can produce a finished card that gets stored in the card’s built-in storage slots. From the storage slots, you can list cards directly to the card pool or the card shop.

As for you, Headmistress — you’ll need to touch the card template directly with your hand while simultaneously opening your knowledge memories of the corresponding otherworldly magic for the card to read.”

Mo Lan said: “Any other questions?”

“No. The tutorial was very clear.”

Mo Lan nodded: “Then let’s discuss what kind of semi-finished cards to make! I need you to tell me about the functions of your Sorceress Magic so I can figure out how the cards should actually be designed.

I’m only familiar with Lady Carmela’s Sorceress Magic. Your semi-finished cards, my Lady, will primarily consist of various contract document cards.”