With no one monitoring him, Faka could move freely and felt comfortable. He saw that there were only a few hundred thousand people in the city, but the business was very prosperous. Most of the people who had migrated from Phoenix were nobles and businessmen with a lot of money.
Although the taxes in Metatlin were complicated, the actual tax rate was very low. Any business was profitable. Moreover, many of the things provided here were difficult to buy in other cities. Even Qin Yin's garrison in Phoenix had noticed the existence of Metatlin City.
Because of Holy Rock City's tacit approval and the remote location, the garrison in Phoenix didn't plan to attack. Instead, they sent caravans to buy magic cores and wood.
After Salin left, Daniel organized people to hunt on the sea. The supply of magic cores was still sufficient. He had two warships. Although the warships consumed a lot of magic cores to hunt, the sea was rich in resources. Every time he went out to sea, he would earn a lot. Coupled with the magic cores left behind by Salin, Metatlin City had already become a somewhat famous commercial city.
If Faka hadn't appeared from the north of the city but the west gate, there wouldn't have been any patrols to question him.
Faka didn't seem to be in a hurry, but he quickly went around Metatlin. He didn't disturb the core of the city. There were more skeleton soldiers there. To Faka's surprise, the people in the city weren't afraid of skeleton soldiers. For people like Mages, skeleton soldiers were obviously miscellaneous troops that they could deal with at will. However, it was strange that ordinary people weren't afraid of skeletons.
He also sensed the aura of the three lords. Although he wasn't afraid, he wasn't here to destroy Metatlin. He had other plans. Thus, he treated himself as a level-two Mage and waited patiently for Salin to return.
One day, Faka saw a few pieces of shell of sea magic beasts in a shop in the east of the city. He found them interesting and wanted to buy them. These things weren't very useful to others. After all, there were too few of them. However, Faka had his own refining method and could make small weapons.
Just as he was discussing the price with the shop assistant, someone rushed in. His face was bloodstained and his clothes were tattered. This person entered the shop and picked up a long sword on the shelf with a ferocious expression. At this time, dozens of patrolling soldiers blocked the door.
At a glance, Faka could tell that this person was already at the level of a beginner swordsman. With a long sword in hand, he had a valiant aura. The soldiers outside the door were all swordsmen. Seeing that this person had a weapon, they all took out their bows. However, they did not rush in immediately for fear of hurting the customers and employees in the shop.
The shop assistant who was discussing the price with Faka looked calm and retreated behind the counter. The fugitive with the long sword glanced at Faka and was shocked. There was actually a magician here! Thus, he gave up on the idea of taking hostages.
"Why are the people outside chasing you?" Faka had nothing to do, so he asked this person. The man was stunned. Clearly, he didn't understand Faka's words.
Faka spoke Qin Yin with a Scochenya accent. That person clearly didn't understand at all. He held a long sword in his hand, and his expression was one of panic.
Seeing this person's expression, Faka did not suspect anything. He had already figured it out. In Metatlin City, as long as one did not approach the core area, it was actually very relaxed. The people monitoring him had long since withdrawn. Metatlin City was developed as a commercial city. There was no need to test it again for a level-two magician. Otherwise, there would be more people in this city in the future. How many spies would be needed to complete such a huge surveillance mission?
"Mr. Magician, save me!" The person being chased spoke. As soon as he opened his mouth, he spoke in the strange common language.
Although the common language came from Myers, there was a huge difference. It had nothing to do with Ancient Myers. Fortunately, Faka was very knowledgeable. Although this person's accent was heavy, he could quickly understand it with his calculation ability. It was just a change in scales. Even magicians were good at this, let alone mages who focused on spiritual training.
Faka glanced at the huge glass window of the shop. Outside the window, more soldiers were gathered. There was even an extra magic apprentice with a dozen skeleton soldiers. Although the Skeleton Soldiers were not strong, that was only in terms of large-scale battlefields. In this kind of capture operation, skeleton soldiers were not afraid of swords and knives. They could use their bodies to control the enemy. It was not a big deal to lose them.
Faka walked out of the shop and waved at the captain of the soldiers. The captain was a very young senior swordsman. He used to be a private soldier of a noble family. Later, the noble defected to Rex and moved his family to Metatlin City. There was no need to keep so many soldiers. About half of the private soldiers had been bought by Rex.
The captain was well-trained. After seeing Faka's attire, he didn't dare to be negligent. He took a few steps forward and saluted Faka. "Sir Mage, that person is an escaped slave. Please don't interfere."
Faka frowned. "I heard that the Qinyin forbids the slave trade."
Faka was right. The Qinyin Empire forbids the slave trade. Although Metatlin City was not Qinyin's territory, it was attached to the Kushui Prefecture. The laws of the Kushui Prefecture were no different from the Qinyin. There should not be slave trade here. Faka himself hated the slavery system because the beliefs of the slaves were not pure enough. Once they were free, they were more likely to betray the gods than ordinary people.
The Vatican allowed the slave trade in the Tanggulas Empire to weaken the power of the Tanggulas Empire so that the Vatican could have more room for development. However, it did not mean that the slavery system was beneficial to the Vatican. In the long run, the slavery system must be eliminated. Otherwise, the Vatican would encounter a bottleneck in development and could no longer expand.
In the past two years, the war between the Tanggulas Empire and the Qinyin Empire had fully demonstrated this. Often, tens of thousands of slave soldiers would be defeated by a flag regiment of the Qinyin Empire, and even the elite troops commanding these slaves would be implicated. The troops that the Qinyin invested in Jia Loulan were basically local troops. Their combat power was far inferior to the Qinyin Imperial Swordsman Battalion. Even so, the battle in Jia Loulan was still in a stalemate, and the situation could not be completely changed.
How could the Qinyin, who opposed the slavery system, have slave trade?
"Mr. Magician, this person is not a Myersman." The soldier looked a little ashamed, but he still patiently explained to Faka.
Faka immediately understood. He already knew that Holy Rock City had created war puppets and destroyed the East Sea Coalition Army. The millions of troops of the East Sea Coalition Army could not resist the army of Holy Rock City. After several battles, more than 200,000 soldiers of the East Sea Coalition Army were captured. These captives, according to the laws of the Qinyin Empire, could indeed be bought and sold.
Because they were not people of the Myersman Continent, Qin Yin was already very merciful not to kill the foreign invaders.
"Mr. Magician, please save me. I don't want to mine. I am willing to be your follower!" The captive of the East Sea Coalition Army in the shop shouted.
Faka smiled and said, "How much can I buy this person?"
The soldier looked troubled and said, "Mr. Magician, I don't have much money, but he escaped and injured a few of our soldiers. If you are from the Qinyin Empire, it will be very troublesome to buy him. "
"I am from the Scotia Empire," Faka said frankly.
"Then you need a deposit of 1,000 gold coins. If he doesn't cause any trouble to our empire within a year, I can only refund you 500 gold coins. It's not worth it." The soldier tried to persuade Faka out of kindness. It was indeed too expensive to buy a junior swordsman with more than 1,000 gold coins. Generally speaking, gold coins were still very important to low-level mages.
"Where can I sign the purchase contract?" Faka certainly didn't care about 1,000 gold coins. He heard from the swordsman that he wanted him to mine, so he wanted to ask about the details. Besides, he was also interested in learning more about the East Sea Coalition Army. The Vatican had always had no control over the sea. In Faka's opinion, it was a huge mistake.
If they could develop a fleet like the clouds, the Vatican would have expanded to the entire continent.
"Then … Mr. Magician, please come with me to the city hall." The soldier had already tried to persuade him. Seeing that Faka was stubborn, he didn't bother to persuade him anymore. Mages were strange people. Who knew what they were thinking?
Faka successfully bought the swordsman for more than 1,200 gold coins, including a deposit of 1,000 gold coins. It was basically very difficult to return the deposit.
Faka brought the swordsman back to his residence and signed a follower's contract with him. Then, he started asking questions.
After asking, Faka was a little disappointed. Although this swordsman was a guard officer of a king in the East Sea, that country was too small and couldn't even build its own big ships. However, the situation in the East Sea was what Faka liked very much. There were hundreds of countries scattered on more than 3,000 islands. That kind of place was suitable for preaching.
The East Sea countries had suffered a great loss in this expedition. If the Vatican could take advantage of the situation, they could definitely gain a large number of believers immediately.
The only trouble was that the countries in the East Sea also had faith. They didn't believe in gods, but a royal family. It was said that they were nobles of the First Dynasty. They had migrated to the East Sea countries and once established a unified empire. However, that empire didn't live long and immediately split. Later emperors and kings treated this family as spiritual leaders in name.
Descendants of the First Dynasty? Faka thought about it and felt that it was feasible. If this family was really very powerful, how could it cause the collapse of the dynasty they established?
The matter of the mines was simple. There were many mines in the land north of Metatlin City. The people from the Inquisition had also come to investigate, but because it was too far away, they didn't pay attention to it for the time being. Metatlin City announced that it had ownership of these mines, but it allowed nobles and merchants to invest and mine.
Although the nobles of Phoenix had escaped here, the process of escaping was not considered urgent. They all brought all their family property with them, and they were all very rich. The only thing they lacked was manpower.
Helene specially organized people to buy a large number of captives in Lianyun City, then sold them to the investors of these mines and sent them further north to mine.
In the absence of large-scale mining machinery, this method was also the fastest way to make profits.
After listening to the swordsman's description, Faka thought about it and didn't kill this swordsman. After all, he had spent more than 1,000 gold coins to buy this swordsman. It was good to keep him by his side to run errands. This time, he came alone to discuss some deals with Salin. He would leave the fighting to the Cardinal Institution and the Inquisition.
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