Chapter 66: Merchants, Training, and Preparing for War

Maybe it was due to the cooperation with the Adventurer's Association, or the news of the ruins here gradually spread, a caravan actually came to Crescent Moon Territory, and the leader of the caravan was a middle-aged man wearing a felt hat.

After a body search, the caravan leader was allowed to enter the hideout above the resort.

The hideout has now been completely replaced with stone buildings. After walking a few steps, you can see the lord's hall, which is already magnificent.

There is also a giant snake coiled above the hall. Due to the low terrain of the holiday villa below, only its huge outline can be vaguely seen in the distance.

Only when you actually arrive at the lair and see the snake bones up close, you will understand what a huge and terrifying monster this is.

Such monsters have now turned into skeletons and become decorations for Lord Rand's buildings.

This made the caravan leader, who prided himself on being knowledgeable, even more awed.

The silver-armored soldier guarding the door confirmed the identity of the caravan leader, checked to make sure he was unarmed, and then stepped aside to allow him to enter the beautifully decorated lord's hall.

The style of painting is a bit strange, with traditional aristocratic architectural style combined with many ancient decorations produced from ruins.

It does look nice, but the style is different from the lord's halls that the caravan leader has seen before.

The long dark red carpet with gold edges in the hall extends to the end where a man with black hair and black eyes sits on the lord's throne.

There was also a female swordsman guarding him with a weapon on her waist, but the swordsman was wearing a mask at the moment so her face could not be seen clearly.

He was not as careless as he was when he was waiting, counting the chandeliers. Now that the guests arrived, he sat more upright.

Looking down at the caravan leader wearing a felt hat.

Rand said slowly: "What do you have?"

The caravan leader bowed his head in respect, not trying to perform noble etiquette in case it backfired: "Slaves, spices, farm tools, gems."

Rand was not surprised that this businessman was also a slave trader. Instead, his eyes lit up after hearing this: "Look at the slaves."

Rand had read a lot of online novels before he traveled through time. Aren't slaves just a talent market in another world? There might be princesses from enemy countries, mysterious descendants of ancient times, demi-human princes who were unfortunately captured, and so on.

He was quite excited when he thought about it. Although there were already a lot of strange people gathered in the den, he could still handle them for now, and he could also handle more if they came.

When these slaves were brought up, Rand was a little disappointed. They were all ordinary people, nothing special at first glance, but they all looked healthy. The men could work and the women could give birth.

Oh, there is an exception. There is actually an elf. Although the human kingdom had ceased fighting with the elves a hundred years ago, there are always some historical issues left over.

Many humans were captured by elves and made slaves, which is one of the reasons why the relationship between elves and humans is still not good today.

Rand asked, "Let's take a look at the spice farming tools, but not the gems."

Then spices and farm tools were presented.

Rand took a closer look and found the spices to be good, but the farm tools to be average.

"Do spices have seeds?" Rand asked after reading it.

The caravan leader wearing a felt hat was a little surprised. It was the first time he had asked about spice seeds. Spices have very strict requirements for the growing environment and it is difficult to grow them outside their native places: "Only a little bit."

However, as a mature caravan leader, he naturally had a lot of preparations and brought some seeds with him to fool some ignorant nobles, but for this Rand...

He recalled the scenes he saw at the holiday villa, the neatly-ordered houses, and after arriving at the hideout, the giant snake skeleton above the lord's hall.

"Sir, spices are difficult to grow in places other than their native habitat."

Rand was stunned for a moment. There was actually a businessman who took the initiative to explain this. Are all businessmen in this era so conscientious? "Ah, I know. It's okay."

Having been reminded, the merchant no longer cared and continued to introduce his products.

Rand listened for a while, called a few believers in the den, and asked them to bring some things: "What I have here are some products from the ruins, and some juice."

Then he asked the believers to make a cup for the caravan leader.

After he tasted it, Rand said, "I can sell the finished product or tea bags here."

Rand urgently invented the tea bag when he heard that a caravan was coming. In short, it is the tea bag of his previous life, with sugar and spices in the tea bag, and just water and juice in the cup.

The effect is definitely not as good as freshly made ones, but the taste is not much different.

The caravan leader frowned, and after Rand's explanation, he understood the meaning of the tea bags. Then Rand smiled and said, "For the relic items, you can also trade directly with adventurers, but we will charge taxes. As for trading directly with us, we will not charge taxes."

In general, it would be slightly more profitable for Rand to barely control the sale of relics from the den than to collect taxes.

After some not-so-long haggling, the price was finally set: 5 silver coins per bag of tea, 500 bags for sale, a large transaction of relic items, a total profit of 10 gold coins, ordinary slaves an average of 10 silver coins each, a total of 15, and elves 5 gold, Rand bought them all.

The price of the elves was much lower than expected, which seemed to be a problem. Rand planned to let Lysa come over and take a look and let her decide how to deal with it.

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After the transaction was completed, the caravan leader said that if there was no war, he would come back in the early spring of next year and would also bring slaves and spices.

This was a good start. As for the agricultural and textile products from those dens, they were not within the trading scope of these caravans, and Rand didn't care. Such things could definitely be sold.

After the caravan leader led the caravan away, Rand said to Olenna, who had taken off her mask, "Let the slaves make arrangements. The elves will manage it separately. Let Lysa take a look."

Olenna nodded and went to do her work, while Rand went to the military training ground of the hideout.

Many qualified soldiers have come out of here, but now this group of magic steel soldiers that Rand wants to be his trump card are still in training.

Now, regardless of anything else, at least the queue is neat and they can understand basic tactical instructions.

And he should be well-informed and would not be so frightened that he could not stand when facing the enemy.

Since there was no suitable mount, Rand had saved a lot of magic steel materials to make horse clothes and armor, waiting for a suitable mount to appear.

He can slowly train this army to become a cavalry, a magic-armed elite steel cavalry, which should still be dominant in the first expansion pack.

If all else fails, Rand will try to make a mount himself. He saw that the game "Deep Moon" had a lot of cool mounts, and he also happened to have Blessing 2, so he could try to hybridize a mount himself.

But now, the autumn harvest is about to end, and the Fengrang Mercenary Group has arrived in Lakehead. Rand watched this group of fifty magic steel infantrymen complete a training process for the last time, and prepared to take them to the village northeast of Crescent Moon.

The road that was dug up there has not been filled up yet, but I didn’t expect that it would be Rand himself who would have to fill it up now.

The chief officer of the army is Rand himself, and his adjutant is Serai. Unlike Serai, who has not received the power of the Mother Goddess, Serai does not have to worry about being detected by the ritual vessels of the Torch Church.

Thanks to Holy Light, that enemy is big and white. The reward is 100 coins.

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Thank you for your reading and support.

(End of this chapter)