Four months later.
All the descendants and disciples of the Netherheart lineage had crossed over to the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy. After Deidarion, Peranos, and Udon had gone through the short inauguration ceremony of the academy's dean, all the third and fourth generation disciples and students began to undergo the real assessment that would last for fifty years.
Moth Frog Town was the city that Grandmaster Netherheart randomly assigned to Grimm for the assessment.
Moth Frog Town had a population of seventy thousand. There were nine small towns and three hundred and forty-two villages around it, with a total population of two hundred and fifty-seven thousand. It was the earliest city developed by the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy. It was famous for the unique creature, Moth Frog. It was a nine-day Knight's journey away from the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy.
Grimm sat in front of the table and read the information on Moth Frog Town's resources and population seriously.
More than twenty nobles of Moth Frog Town sat in the hall. They looked at the Sorcerer wearing a spiral patterned grayish-white mask, full of anticipation.
Little Eight stood on Vivian's shoulder and followed behind Grimm.
After a while, Grimm put down the large amount of information and looked at the many nobles in the hall. He said slowly, "You already know the purpose of my trip, so let's talk about my plan. First of all, my goal is to increase my wealth."
There were three ways to increase the population. Increase the birth rate, reduce the death rate, and attract foreign population.
With wealth, it would be easy to complete the last two. It was indeed the first thing that Grimm wanted to do.
Upon hearing about wealth, the few nobles who were just perfunctory had their eyes lit up.
Old Marquis Gumoza revealed his few yellowed teeth and said with great interest, "Master Grimm, what methods do you have to increase the wealth of this small town?"
"Call me City Lord from now on."
After Grimm corrected himself, he pondered for a moment and recalled some of the experiences he had with Alastair.
Picking up the information again, Grimm said, "Other than the Moth Frog, Green Fire Worm, Oak, Yichun Fruit, and Rye Malt, are there any mineral resources?"
After everyone looked at each other, Old Marquis Gumoza said, "Actually, there's a gold mine in Crooked Fang Mountain behind the Corrosive Swamp in the west."
"Huh?"
"Ah?"
Behind Grimm, Little Eight and Vivian exclaimed in surprise. There was a gold mine in this small town, but no one had developed it?
Grimm frowned and asked in surprise, "What's going on?"
Old Moza sighed and said, "First of all, there's a kind of man-eating monster called the Crypt Ghost that lives in the gold mine. It's good at digging holes in the ore and soil. Even if we organized a group of knights to wipe them out, we still couldn't kill them all. Instead, we suffered great losses and couldn't recruit any miners at all. The second is the Corrosive Swamp. The air is humid and there are a lot of mosquitoes. People who live there are prone to all kinds of diseases. "
Grimm nodded. Suddenly, another noble interjected with the news of mineral resources.
"Dozens of miles to the east of Moth Frog Town, there's another iron mine and a precious blood agate mine. However, they were robbed by the Knights organized by the nobles of Dawn Protector City fifteen years ago. The Knights over there are too powerful."
The Iron Ore Mountain represented farming tools, representing the harvest of arable land, and the Blood Agate represented a small town that could be issued in the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy to apply for Sorcerer-Apprentices to solve some difficult problems.
"Gah!? Motherf * cker, Young Master, we must get them back! No, not only do we have to get these two mines back, we have to rob others too! "
When Little Eight heard that the mineral resources were robbed, she was so angry that her hair stood up and she clamored.
Grimm thought for a moment. Dawn Protector City seemed to be managed by one of Master Hydra Wrath's disciples. The assessment content stipulated that conflicts between cities could not be solved by the power of the Sorcerers themselves. Many Sorcerers only played the role of the city master.
Later, the nobles reported some information about the poor mines, but they were not of much value. Of course, these nobles must have some private mining resources in their hands. Otherwise, this Moth Frog Town would have become Moth Frog Town long ago.
…
"Senior, what should we do?"
Vivian asked in a low voice.
Grimm looked at the tax wealth he had under his control and rubbed his eyebrows under the Mask of Truth. He said, "Vivian, go to Elode Town and investigate what's going on with the bandits. If you can recruit them, help me recruit them here as city guards. If it doesn't work, kill the leader and dismiss the others. If it doesn't work, kill them all or … rush to Dawn Protector City."
"Uh … okay."
Vivian nodded and left with the Knight sent by Elode Town.
"Little Eight, you go too. Take care of Vivian."
Grimm quickly took the opportunity to send away Little Eight, who had a strong desire to show off and manage. Otherwise, the irritated Grimm's head would explode. It was too tiring to manage the livelihood of these ordinary humans. For these wilderness areas that had not been completely developed, there were too many thorny problems that ordinary humans could not solve.
"Caw? Okay. "
Little Eight flapped her wings and flew out.
"Sheriff!"
After Glenn shouted, a knight with a big belly ran in from the outside. He was covered in iron armor and carried an axe on his shoulder. He was incomparably strong and strong. He knelt on one knee on the ground and panted slightly.
Grimm, who had lived at the bottom of Bi Seer City since he was a child, knew some of the illegal income in the city like the back of his hand.
"Organize the city guards. I'm going to inspect Moth Frog Town. You guys come with me."
The so-called 'you guys' naturally referred to the nobles in the hall.
"Yes."
The sheriff ran out to gather the city guards. As the castellan, Grimm led the nobles out unhurriedly. For a moment, there seemed to be no follow-up on the plan to increase their wealth.
Half an hourglass later.
Among the hundreds of Knight Guards, Grimm led the nobles around the busiest streets under the watchful eyes of the people in the small town. Suddenly, he pointed in a direction, "This way."
The sheriff did not dare to disobey. He quickly led the Knight Guards in a different direction.
After passing through a large area of muddy and dirty shantytown, Grimm finally found what he was looking for.
Dismounting from the horse, Grimm said coldly, "Surround this place."
"Yes!"
Many city guards, who were not highly trained, surrounded the street. Grimm inspected each house one by one, followed by a manager who was in charge of tax collection.
"Has this tavern collected taxes?"
The person in charge of taxation said in a deep voice, "No."
"Hmph, no? Whose tavern is this? "
Grimm sneered and followed the gaze of the tax collector to a noble behind him. The cold and cruel gaze of the Dark Sorcerer made the noble shiver in fear, not knowing what to say.
Just like that, Grimm circled the street once and returned to the castellan's mansion.
The next day, a large amount of bribes appeared on Grimm's table. There were even shares in the dark industry.
Grimm sneered and said to one of his subordinates behind him, "Give this money to the accountant. Tell him to stock up on some food. Prepare to organize the homeless and poor people in the city to work, distribute food and wages, and mine for stone materials."
Grimm's goal was, of course, to build roads and change traffic.
Only by fully utilizing resources could they be turned into wealth.
This was also the reason why the rich areas of the Sanctum Central District had an airship port. This represented the convenience of the exchange of resources and information, and the full use of resources.
However, it was obvious that these bribes and the remaining taxes in the accountant's office were far from enough to fund the second step of Grimm's plan.
With this thought in mind, Grimm flew alone towards the hard-to-develop Crooked Fang Mountain gold mine.
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