[Steve Plambeck]

From ITL (152-153) one (1) apprentice is required for every 25 ST/day needed (I assume after the wizard itself spends 25 ST/day). So yeah, they are getting worked hard. Allowing for even a few missed DX rolls, each apprentice will slave all day to pump out 25 net ST.

Of course the one thing they will be learning is how to make those Iron Flesh rings they see being created all day long. Fat lot of good that'll do them until they get to at least IQ 18, and earn enough of everything to open their own Iron Flesh ring factories.

My reworking of all that, if I ever start a new game world that allows for magic item creation, would be to rewrite all that. The ST (Mana) cost per day would be low enough for all enchantments to be accomplished by one or two powerful wizards working in solitude. But the number of weeks required would go up immensely. It should take years in game time to make a Greater Magical Item, even a lifetime for multiple enchantments on a single item.