"It's fine as long as the mercenaries abide by the contract. Sir, if we don't have enough troops, we can hire a few mid-sized mercenary groups, or just let them be stationed here. This is a new city, and the mercenary groups won't even charge you any fees. As long as you give them a station, they'll help with the defense of the city." Zola explained to Salin.
Salin said to Zola, "This city is my private property. I won't leave the safety of the city to someone I can't trust. A contract... Sometimes, it's not binding. "
"But sixty thousand people, even if we pool them together for a year, we'll only be able to gather half." Zola listened to Salin's analysis from start to finish, and knew that it was almost impossible to recruit soldiers in a place like this. The natives here were almost all captured by the Church, and the only thing Salin could rely on was money.
This city would also expand, and build two huge fortresses in the north, forming a triangular formation to stabilize the city's defense. This was both a commercial city and a military city, and would eventually have more than a hundred thousand soldiers stationed here.
Salin sighed, "Let's not talk about hiring mercenaries anymore. Conan, continue to recruit people. How many are willing to settle in the city now?"
"Sir, in the time you've been gone, there have already been close to a thousand." Conan replied seriously. The barbarians in the north were almost completely slaughtered by the Church. Among the remaining people, other than a few stubborn elders, most of them ran to Salin's city, not wanting to be completely destroyed.
"Ainphent, your five hundred swordsmen..."
"They're my private army." Ainphent answered readily. The reason he could bring so many people, other than the support of his family, was because of other factors. In reality, he had used money to exchange for these people. There were also some who were his father's followers in the early years. These five hundred swordsmen were all Ainphent had around him.
"I want to form a mercenary group, and register it in the Bitter Water Prefecture. They can join the mercenary group, and it'll be easier to control the outside forces." Salin thought to himself, after all the forces on Seriger Island have migrated here, I won't have to worry about this anymore. Sigh, Teacher, when will you be able to bring people here?
"No problem!" Ainphent clenched his teeth. He was gambling, gambling that Salin would have a bright future. If Salin and his city were destroyed, he would lose everything he had invested in the process. If Salin succeeded and withstood the attack of the Vatican, then his city would bring him great wealth. Obviously, Salin wanted this city to have only one mercenary group, and the backbone of this mercenary group would be the 500 private soldiers by Ainphent's side.
"Daniel, take Geyi and form the first battalion. Right now, I can only give you two hundred people. As for the rest, you can use the undead to make up for it. Zola, you will form the 2nd Battalion, I cannot give you any personnel, you will have to think of your own way, if you lack money, just ask me. Jupiter, you will form the third battalion. Next spring, when we can go to sea, I will continue to replenish your strength. Passatro, Cornuko, the two of you will form the Mage Battalion, the 4th Battalion. As for the remaining two battalions, I'll figure it out myself. "
"Sir …" Passatro and Kornuk were a little hesitant. After all, there were two Level 5 Magicians from Serrig Island in the room.
Salin knew what they meant. He said to the two level-five mages, "Christian, Farrance, you two have to return to the fleet with Basta after Rex returns."
"Yes, sir." The two level-five mages were overjoyed. Controlling a fleet was obviously better than being on land.
"Sir, what about me?" Conan the Barbarian asked uneasily.
"When the Caucasians arrive, you can form the 5th Battalion. There is no need to rush," Salin thought. The 5th Battalion should be controlled by Sicar, not Conan. However, Sicar did not look like he was made to be a general, so he still had to spend time to find a qualified commander. Both the Barbarians and the Caucasians had strong fighting power, but without a good leader, they were just a pile of loose sand.
Salin clearly remembered how Rex's Swordsman Battalion charged. The same number of Barbarians would definitely not be a match for them.
"Salin, you can recruit some soldiers from the Rhine Duchy," Ainphent suggested.
"How so?"
"The Rhines are brave and warlike, and most of them do not work. In fact, many of the mercenaries in the Scotia Empire are Rhines. You only need to spend a little money, and people will come to join you. They will be private soldiers for the nobles so that they can become mercenaries in Scotia. "
"What about Grand Duke Rhine?" Salin was a little worried. Grand Duke Rhine was not as weak as Grand Duke Phoenix. This kind of thing could easily anger him.
"Didn't you want me to form a mercenary group? I will go to Didips and set up a base there. Then, I will recruit people from the Rhine Duchy and bring them here from Didips. Grand Duke Rhine will not care about that. By then, those who want to be mercenaries will follow me, and those who don't will follow you. "
"The mercenary group must be registered in the Bitterwater Prefecture. We can only do this after Rex comes back." Salin agreed with Ainphent, but he did not start preparing right away. The place of registration represented the ownership of a mercenary group. Wherever a mercenary group was registered, it was actually responsible for protecting that place.
More than 80% of the mercenary groups on the continent were registered in Scotia. Once a war broke out, these mercenaries would become Scotia's power. That was why Salin did not believe in mercenary groups. Before this, there was no mercenary group registered in the Bitterwater Prefecture. When a war broke out, no mercenary group would risk their lives for the Bitterwater Prefecture.
The reason for this situation was that Salin's newly built city was too remote. Even if the Bitterwater Prefecture wanted to recruit soldiers, it would not take much effort. As long as a magic announcement was made, there would be tens of thousands of swordsmen joining the army in a few months.
However, if Salin built the city in the hinterland of Qinyin, not only would the parliament of Sacred Rock City not allow it, even the surrounding nobles would send troops to attack. Although Qinyin was vast, the good places had long been divided up by the nobles. It was impossible to get a piece of the pie.
Everyone split up to do their own things, while Salin began his training. Many things had to wait for Rex to come back. For example, the officers needed for the army, equipment, training, and so on. Luckily, it was already the end of the year. Rex might return to the city base in April. Salin did not have much time to wait.
Since the Three Lords had been settled, Salin sent two level-five magicians, Christian and Fareins, to the border of Phoenix to welcome Rex's people. The rest of the matters were left to Neris.
This time, Salin did not train step by step like before. Instead, he focused on practicing Water Flame Alchemy and Crystal Finger. Salin had encountered life-threatening situations in the last few battles, so he had to improve his combat power as soon as possible. Luckily, Water Flame Alchemy was a practical magic, and it was very beneficial for understanding the elements. Crystal Finger was a powerful and destructive close-range magic. Although there were many high-level Warriors around Salin, he still trusted his own magic the most.
Salin no longer had any worries about mages of the same level. What he was most afraid of was being close to an assassin or a Sword Saint. Therefore, he wanted to learn these two magic spells. Especially Crystal Finger, it was invincible within ten meters.
According to the magic notes left by Rafael, Crystal Finger was an advanced magic spell, and its basic rank was sixth-level. Salin's special physique lowered the rank of this spell by one rank, so he could learn this spell at level-five.
However, this mutation wasn't a complete success. If Salin had learned Crystal Finger at level-6, he would have been able to cast it 24 times in a row. But now that he was at level-5, he only had enough magic strings to cast it twice.
Even if Salin cast a level-six spell now, he could still release two. It could be seen that the mutation of Crystal Finger was not successful. Fortunately, Crystal Finger was an advanced magic. Salin could continue to increase the power of Crystal Finger after leveling up. At that time, Crystal Finger would be released more times at level-five, but Salin was not sure how many times it would be.
Before obtaining this spell, Salin did not attach much importance to it. What he valued the most was the Water Current Cut spell, especially after refining the gourd. The Water Current Cut spell did not consume Salin's magic string, it only consumed his mental strength and the life force in the water current.
The life force of the water could be replenished by the gourd. Salin's mental strength far exceeded his rank, so Salin loved that spell. However, although the Water Cut was powerful, it could not harm a real powerhouse.
At least Salin knew that the Water Cut was useless against a Magic Shooter, unless he himself became a Magic Shooter. Moreover, the speed at which the water in the gourd was released was slightly slow, and definitely could not reach the level of instantaneous release. The few times he was in danger were related to these reasons. So Salin paid attention to Crystal Finger again, even though this spell consumed a lot of magic string.
How strong was Crystal Finger? Even a powerhouse like Rafael had to rely on the power of magic equipment to bear the backlash of magic after creating this magic.
Salin was in his room, with pieces of white stones piled up in front of him. These stones were used to build drainage facilities, and should have been drilled in the middle. Now that Salin practiced Crystal Finger every day, he could do this work in passing.
On the index finger of Salin's left hand was Rafael's crystal ring. He did not chant any incantation, nor did he need any magic gestures. Suddenly, the area below the ring on Salin's left index finger turned transparent.
Salin knew that this was not true transparency, but that the water element had formed countless prisms on the index finger, transmitting the scenery behind the finger to the prisms in front of the finger. If the finger itself had really become transparent, then at least the phalanges inside the finger should be visible.
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