Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“My Lord, this is a middle-sized iron mine. The Orcs only took a very small part of it. The mine contains a very high amount of iron.
“I saw a lot of iron ore, all of which was composed of at least thirty percent of iron. This is a very good situation for a middle-sized iron mine!” An Elfin ranger ran over hurriedly, holding some iron ore as he explained the situation.
When the other warriors heard this news, their lips curled up unconsciously.
That was right.
A middle-sized iron mine contained at least a million tons of iron ore. There was also a lot of pure iron ore. Because the mine was large enough, they could dig open more holes. As long as they had enough manpower, they would be able to dig out at least three hundred thousand tons of iron ore. If they refined the iron themselves, there would be a lot less, but they could sell it at a higher price.
However, if the ore contained a high percentage of iron, its selling price could be raised significantly as well.
With a normal mining speed, if there were no accidents, it would last for a few decades.
Although to others this was a game and iron was not worth anything to normal players, to NPC Lords like him, it was a very precious material.
Just one iron mine could earn up to twenty thousand gold coins in a year.
One gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10000 copper coins.
The gold coins might not be much but being able to produce continuously was very important. Besides, his territory required a lot of iron.
Also.
He was poor! Even if he had easily used millions of gold coins in his previous life easily, his heart still ached for it…
However, he had to take care of too many people now. If he wanted to expand his territory and build an even larger neutral camp territory, thousands of gold coins alone were not enough. Lords and normal players could not be compared.
“Now that the territory finally has a mine that we can earn from, let’s go back and choose our workers to start work immediately. All of you will be rewarded with 5 silver coins!” William didn’t hesitate. It was just a simple iron mine, so it was fine even if the news spread. The two nations next to them didn’t need to send their armies to wipe out the Border Town just for twenty thousand gold coins a year.
The Border Town had survived for so long, once under his father’s leadership and now under him and so many Blackleaf Forest pure-blooded Elves. As long as he didn’t get involved in the two nation’s war against each other or expose their treasure, the enemy naturally wouldn’t do anything either.
After all, no one wanted to anger the Blackleaf Forest’s Elves!
Although they didn’t know William Blackleaf very well, they could understand that he was very important to the Blackleaf Elves just because he owned 500 Elfin guards…
“Thank you, my Lord.” The Elfin warriors all cheered happily.
Lautner smiled slightly, before he pointed to the dead bear in the trap, saying, “What about this middle leveled magical beast? We cannot sell its hide anymore. if not, a complete giant wild bear’s hide so big could sell at least 1000 gold coins. If we sell its meat, we can get at least 800 gold coins too!”
William thought for a while. “Never mind. This giant wild bear is at least 4000 kilograms. Its meat possesses significant magic too, so let’s keep it for ourselves. Every warrior that came with me will get 5 pounds of meat while the warriors guarding our home will receive 2 pounds.”
“Thank you, my Lord! May the world tree’s honor always bless you!” This time, the gratitude was completely different as the Elfin warriors immediately had a better impression of William.
Items that could increase a person’s ability were hard to buy. 5 pounds of magical beast meat was priced at about 10 silver coins, but the truth was that it would be hard to buy precious magical beast meat even with 50 silver coins.
This sort of gift was very generous no matter which Lord it was from.
Besides, none of them were injured and he didn’t leave out the guards that had been left in town either. This definitely showed that the Lord had really changed this time! At least, his character was really good!
However, William kept the bear’s large head. Of course, he wasn’t going to eat all of it. No matter how good a middle leveled magical beast tasted, it would be too tiring.
Although William was both an NPC and a player, he didn’t have the upper limit of being able to eat meat, but he could still keep the bear meat for a future reward.
For a professional, using such things as a reward was worth a lot more than the value of gold coins and it was a lot more useful as well.
After all, William had missions to level up, other NPCs could only depend on food, fights, and training to improve their strength.
“Lord, is this little guy hungry?” Norton was carrying three bear cubs now. Since they only had a thin layer of white fur to cover themselves, he had no choice but to take off his inner shirt and wrap it around them, afraid that one of them might fall sick. If that happened, his sin… would be unimaginable.
“Let’s go back now. Get a ten-member ranger team to stay here to keep watch and see if any other people have found this mine. Once we return, we’ll send out the miners and teams to change!” William carried one of the cubs. The cub looked as though it was really hungry, so he needed to get some milk to feed them as soon as they returned.
As soon as their voices fell, William Blackleaf led his men back in the direction they had come from. The mine was about eight kilometers of mountainous road away from Border Town. It wasn’t too near, but it wasn’t too far either.
The main point was that the mountainous roads were hard to walk. If they wanted to clear this mine, they would have to make a road. If not, they wouldn’t be able to move the iron ore.
On their way back, William suddenly thought of this and he felt an impending headache, axing trees required money, but making a road required money as well.
However, there were a lot of weirdos and poor people in Border Town. As long as there was money, these people did everything.
There was no choice.
They were part of the neutral camp.
There were too few good citizens. People who were able to survive here were basically thugs. If they didn’t possess some crazy hatred for someone, they were wanted criminals that didn’t dare appear in the Bright camps. That was why they could only live in the neutral camps.
Back when his father was still around, he had used his own ability to make many criminals become obedient workers or soldiers.
However, the moment they disappeared, this group of soldiers were the ones to show their true colors the quickest…
However, the good thing about having thugs was that they were strong and powerful. There were even various occupations amongst them. As long as they were capable enough and could be attracted by money, it was very easy to make this group of people do something.
Two hours later.
A group of soldiers, with armor drenched in blood, finally walked out of the forest and arrived back at Border Town.
Many free peasants glanced towards them in surprise and they all started to discuss. What magical beast was this five-meter tall giant bear exactly?
It was definitely a magical beast since no normal animal could grow to such a big size.
“This is a giant wild bear, a middle-leveled magical beast! Or it could be a high leveled magical beast!” Someone said suddenly, a fire flashing in their eyes.
After all, this was a middle-classed magical beast, with tasty meat that could increase their ability.
“Oh my god, there are even bear cubs. There are even three of them! Could it be…” When the people saw the cubs in William’s arms, envy filled their hearts.
The first person they saw when they opened their eyes would be their owner!
As long as these three cubs could grow up healthily, they would be the best weapon on the battlefield.
William walked proudly, ignoring this group of dishonest peasants. The reason he had dragged the journey out to two hours was that he didn’t want to decapitate the giant bear. He wanted to let them see this bear and show off his guards’ capability at the same time so that they wouldn’t do anything out of order.
“Milk. Bring some milk now! I want to feed the bears!”
“I’m sorry, my Lord. We only have lamb milk now!”
“… Just bring that!”
“We have very little lamb milk as well. If we want to raise them further, we still have to… go to Iron Nation to buy some!”
“… Buy!”
