674: Punitive Sanctions from the Magic Weaver Industry Association
The same thing was happening at the Solas Lightfoot (30k) seminar. During their most recent market analysis and review, this group of wizard managers, wizard designers, and wizard manufacturers discovered that in the Golden Crown Mountain centralized procurement, the winning bid for the First Ring wizard shoes was a brand they had never seen before.
The Moon Ring Wizard supervisor of Solas Lightfoot (30k) said irritably, "Pure Magic Plant wizard shoes? What on earth is that? It doesn't look like a sub-brand those Melchior Magic Step fellows would establish."
The Moon Ring Wizard department head's expression was very unsightly. Although it was only a First Ring market with a transaction volume of just over twenty million magic stones, the problem didn't seem too severe on the surface.
Compared to Solas Lightfoot (30k)'s overall market share and stock price, it was but a drop in the ocean, a mere pittance.
But the problem was that Solas Lightfoot (30k), as a large-scale Shop Alliance, employed a production model completely different from Locke's augustus wizard shoes brand.
Locke's wizard shoe brand used an asset-light model; besides brand management, both distributors and manufacturers relied on Alsace.
To avoid dependency on platforms like Alsace, Solas Lightfoot (30k) had to maintain its own distributors and manufacturers while constantly investing huge sums into business maintenance and advertising.
To bolster the reputation of Solas Lightfoot (30k), they sponsored many sports competitions and contests between Wizard Academies every year.
The asset-heavy model played by Solas Lightfoot (30k) used massive upfront investment costs to maintain its competitive moat.
Consequently, Solas Lightfoot (30k) carried a lot of leverage, making their liquid capital relatively tight.
These twenty million were already considered a significant cash flow for Solas Lightfoot (30k).
Though compared to Solas Lightfoot (30k)'s over one billion in fixed assets, it was once again negligible.
Asset-heavy Shop Alliances feared falling into a cash flow death spiral most, and the Demonic Realm War in the Cloud Marsh was an excellent advertising platform.
The entire Demonic Realm War, from top to bottom, was filled with traces of interference from the White Wizard upper echelons and could be fully commercialized. Thus, as a famous wizard shoe Shop Alliance, Solas Lightfoot (30k) had spent a great deal of effort competing for wizard shoe orders within the Five Great Wars of the seven major academies.
Who would have thought that this time, they would lose all the wizard shoe orders from Golden Crown Mountain? They lost the First Ring to a small brand that appeared out of nowhere, the Second Ring market to Melchior Magic Step, and the Third Ring to Vicos.
It was said that Vicos focused its development on Third Ring Wizard shoes this time, thereby winning the recognition of the Golden Crown Mountain evaluators.
But here was the problem: at the technical seminar, many Solas Lightfoot (30k) wizards were flipping through the data on the augustus wizard shoes brand.
They all realized one thing.
On the surface, Solas Lightfoot (30k)'s defeat at Golden Crown Mountain saw Melchior Magic Step and Vicos as the biggest enemies, as they had defeated Solas Lightfoot (30k) in the Second Ring and Third Ring Wizard shoe markets.
However, in the other six wars, Solas Lightfoot (30k) had products that outperformed those of these two Shop Alliances.
After all, Solas Lightfoot (30k) had submitted 21 design proposals and physical samples to the seven top academies.
The crux of the issue was that if augustus wizard shoes were just a brand created by a Magic Weaver, it wouldn't matter much.
At most, Solas Lightfoot (30k) would just spend money to buy the brand afterward. With an amount of money that a First Ring Wizard had never seen in their life, they could just purchase the entire brand and the related technical route.
But the problem was, these were pure Magic Plant wizard shoes.
At the Solas Lightfoot (30k) technical seminar, a group of Second Ring and First Ring Wizards looked at each other, all realizing the gravity of the situation.
The Second Ring chief designer of Solas Lightfoot (30k) whispered, "When a Shop Alliance uses an asset-heavy model, once it's established, it's difficult for latecomers to replicate."
"So, we aren't very afraid of Melchior Magic Step. As for Vicos, heh, it was just a coincidence that they managed to snatch an order from between our fingers."
"There is a huge technical and asset gap between Vicos and us; it's just small-time play," the Second Ring chief designer whispered. "As I said, the moat established by an asset-heavy model is like a giant moving in heavy armor—it's hard to topple, and it has already claimed most of the profits on this route."
"But..."
The Moon Ring Wizard supervisor took over: "But... that is only based on the existing model. As a giant in heavy armor, Solas Lightfoot (30k) is only invincible on this existing path. But once a second or third path appears, the giant in heavy armor will instead become clumsy and restricted at every turn."
"Pure Magic Plant wizard shoes could never have been our enemies before. Moreover, we have funds spent on identifying research routes that might threaten our Shop Alliance in advance, and we even established a 'Crisis Pre-processing Department' specifically to persuade those wizards to abandon those research routes early on."
"This was to ensure that talented wizards would never research those paths."
"We could even just give those wizards money to make them give up voluntarily."
"But look at these pure Magic Plant wizard shoes, the Magic Plant performance of the Great Snow Peak Pineapple 02 Version... the various performance metrics of these wizard shoes can already keep up with our top-tier First Ring wizard shoes."
The Moon Ring Wizard supervisor said, "Where is the head of our Crisis Pre-processing Department? What are you being paid for? Why did you let such mature pure Magic Plant wizard shoes hit the market?"
At the technical seminar, the First Ring Crystallization Stage wizard sitting at the very end of the long table immediately stood up, bowed to the supervisor, and said, "I'm sorry, Supervisor. This wizard brand was established within the last six months. Our department has indeed been observing it for a while."
"The wizard behind this brand is a researcher from Golden Crown Mountain and is closely related to a Third Ring Throne Wizard. Therefore, we did not act rashly but were assessing the threat level to Solas Lightfoot (30k). A month ago, our assessment result was still that there was no significant threat..."
"At that time, the quality of their wizard shoes was only mediocre, and there was a possibility of conflict with the Tyrant Element No. 1 industry. So, our department planned to deal with it gradually..."
The Moon Ring Wizard department head's face darkened. "What do you mean 'no threat'? What do you mean 'gradually'? Then tell me, why could the augustus wizard shoes brand produce such mature, top-tier First Ring wizard shoes in such a short time!"
"Have you considered whether our Shop Alliance's stock price will plummet, whether our investment will decrease, and whether our capital chain will break? Most terrifyingly, where there is one, there will be a second. Those Breeders will swarm in like sharks that have smelled blood."
"That is an unknown market, an unknown world. Solas Lightfoot cannot fall into such a market, such a world. We will lose the advantages that have kept us prosperous."
"And this Demonic Realm War is the best advertising platform!"
"That augustus wizard shoes brand is enough to leap from here into a third-tier or even second-tier wizard shoe brand, and it has great potential!"
At the long table, a Second Ring Wizard muttered, "There has never been a precedent of a First Ring Wizard owning a third or second-tier wizard shoe brand in such a large market before."
"This doesn't follow the rules. I recall that if such a situation occurs, a series of association regulations can be invoked to strip the wizard of his brand, so that the economic order adapts to the magic level order."
Another Second Ring Wizard reminded him, "Look at this wizard's credentials. He isn't just an ordinary Golden Crown Mountain researcher; he's also the champion of the Spell Fighting Competition and a participant in the Silent Grail. He is basically guaranteed to be a Second Ring Wizard."
"With these identities combined, he will likely be viewed as a Second Ring Wizard in the Sacred Master Court. In short, wanting to use the law as our helper to clear out a high-potential opponent... I think it's unlikely. If he didn't have these identities, it would be much easier to talk about."
This Second Ring Wizard smiled. "Young people should always experience how dark this world is. It's just that this wizard truly has status, so he really won't see that darkness."
The head of the Crisis Pre-processing Department apologized in a low voice, "Everyone, it is our department's fault."
At this moment, the wizard capitalists at the long table had no time to deal with him and instead began discussing how to respond.
A designer from Solas Lightfoot (30k) suggested, "Since we can't solve it through force, how about trying commercial suppression?"
"Suppress his production line, drive up the production cost of every pair of his wizard shoes, reduce his profits, and then we can just directly pay to acquire his brand and technical route. Don't these First Ring Wizards just want to make a profit? Then let him make one."
"Let him make a huge profit."
The Second Ring chief designer of Solas Lightfoot shook his head and said, "Heh. A First Ring Wizard? You think he's easy to brush off? He's a top student of Golden Crown Mountain and a participant in the Silent Grail. I have reason to believe that if he weren't participating in the Silent Grail, he would likely have already advanced to the Second Ring or be in the process of doing so."
"If you treat him as a wizard who can be dismissed with a few scraps, you're likely to suffer a great loss."
"Moreover, look at his production line; he's cooperating with Alsace. The distribution channels he uses are provided by Alsace, and the production channels he uses are provided by Alsace. How do we fight that? With our size, we can't touch a true capital like Alsace."
A Second Ring Wizard said with dissatisfaction, "Alsace? Capital? They don't deserve the title! They're just a bunch of landlords. Damn it, we only fell out with them not long ago. They used to rely on being a platform to harvest us every day."
"Now we've already fallen out with Alsace. If this kid were cooperating with some other small Shop Alliance platform, we could directly bribe that platform to ban cooperation with him."
"We used to suppress small brands like that, but now that this kid is an honored guest of Alsace, it will likely be difficult."
The wizard continued, "How about suppressing him with price cuts? Well, that's not very likely. Our products are works of art and are so expensive; how can we cut prices? If we lower the prices, I'm afraid the impact on us will be even more severe."
The group began discussing how to handle the situation.
At this time, Solas Lightfoot (30k) and Melchior Magic Step had the strongest reactions, while other third and second-tier wizard shoe brands did not react too violently.
The main reason was that other wizard shoe brands were already just eating the leftovers from these two, so they naturally had no motivation to overstep their bounds and act as industry giants to suppress a newcomer.
Meanwhile, the Rose Council and the Magic Weaver Industry Association also had some reactions.
As a transcendent top-tier Wizard Academy, the Rose Council naturally just had some discussions. A group of Magic Weavers and Floramancers exchanged some information they cared about during their conversations, and so the topic turned to the augustus wizard shoes brand.
Most Rose Council wizards were mostly disparaging of it, but the matter had little to do with them.
However, some high-level teaching wizards within the Rose Council were themselves major shareholders in traditional big wizard shoe brands, and at this moment, they were naturally very unhappy.
But after seeing that it was a brand established by a Golden Crown Mountain researcher, they had no thoughts of doing anything.
The Magic Weaver Industry Association, on the other hand, had a very strong reaction. They began emergency discussions overnight, determining that someone had seriously violated the regulations of the Magic Weaver Industry Association.
Furthermore, from its creation to its rise, the augustus wizard shoes brand had never once sought the opinion of the Magic Weaver Industry Association, nor had it applied for relevant asset audits or production licenses from this industry association.
Of course, as the association's meeting progressed, they discovered that Locke was a Breeder and didn't need to pay any attention to this association at all. Producing wizard shoe products didn't require any association production licenses, and establishing a wizard shoe Shop Alliance didn't require any asset audits.
These things were all unspoken rules spontaneously formed by this private association and had absolutely nothing to do with the White Wizard Association.
So, after meeting for a long time, the association found that they actually had no way to deal with Locke Augustine.
Consequently, the association chairman flew into a rage and immediately had someone write a letter of sanctions. Four copies were printed and sent respectively to the Breeder Industry Association, Golden Crown Mountain, Locke himself, and Alsace.
At the meeting, a First Ring Crystallization Stage Magic Weaver asked, "Chief, then how are we going to sanction these people who violated the rules?"
The association chairman thought for a moment and said, "Threaten them first. As for specific sanctions, we will henceforth ban Locke Augustine from joining our association."