Well I dont actually think it takes alot of time to collect ingredients. After getting the battle tower, I straight go full upgrade on my runners, and direct them to collect what I needed. After they went off, I leave the battle tower and re-enter again, 99% all 3 of the runners will be there with ingredients ready for me to collect.
And regarding the equipment enchantment cost, once I get the battle tower, I found that no gold being deduct for every enchantment I made, as I do remember that there is cost deduction while I did my enchantment in broken valley. Bit weird
