Saleen looked at the excited faces. Other than Aini and Guya, the rest of them were extremely satisfied with the conditions he had given. The binding strategy was a success. What did the nobles want? A status that was compatible with their abilities.
Aini and Guya were mages, so they understood what Saleen wanted to do. Their goals were different from the other nobles, so they would not be disgusted. Aini and Saleen were friends, and Saleen had a good relationship with Aini's parents. Guya's sister was also someone Saleen wanted to nurture. Her future achievements might not be lower than Guya's. These two people were actually the ones Saleen valued the most.
They all understood that Saleen controlled everything by controlling the mages.
Without Saleen's mages, the nobles were nothing. If there were enough materials, a mage would not need a single gold coin. A high grade mage could create food, drink, and even eat without spending money.
Among the grade-10 spells, there was one that was the most common. Almost every grade-9 mage would learn it, and that was the essence of the elements. It was a paste like substance. Besides healing, its biggest use was to allow a mage to maintain their physical strength even if they did not eat for months. A portion of essence of the elements could be divided into four standard quantities. Creating one portion would allow a mage to last for more than a year. Besides magic training, they did not need to do anything else.
At grade-10, a mage was almost out of the human category, and the strength of their body began to change. As long as a mage consumed the essence of the elements for a long time, their body would be as strong as some high grade magic beasts.
At this stage, a mage would no longer need the supply of a normal person.
Humans could not lack mages. Without mages, humans would not be able to build huge cities, farm on a large scale, and prevent the spread of diseases and plagues. Without mages, human cities would be destroyed by powerful magic beasts. If creatures from another dimension came, they would cause many creatures to go extinct.
Saleen distributed the wealth, but these people would not get a share of the mages.
Saleen's conservative estimate for the hunting in the Oceanic Ice Block was that one-million gold coins a year would be enough. As for the return, he planned to hunt two-hundred thousand red phosphorous prawns a year. That many red phosphorous prawns could only feed a few huge grade-9 magic beasts. It would not affect the balance of the Oceanic Ice Block.
If it was risky, Saleen could increase the hunting quantity by a few times.
Two-hundred-thousand red phosphorous prawns' magic nuclei a year. If Saleen sold them at one-hundred gold coins each, it would be a total of twenty million gold coins. Twenty million gold coins a year. Even though it was not as much as Holy Rock City, Saleen did not have much land. He had earned it all by hunting.
Twenty-million gold coins were enough for Saleen to raise an army of one-million soldiers.
Originally, Saleen had not been able to sell these magic nuclei. Now that the nobles were sharing eighty percent of the sales for him, he could just sit on the ground and split the money.
Saleen had actually prepared the detailed rules of distribution long ago. Since no one had any objections, he could discuss the details with Daniel.
Daniel was very happy as well. Originally, the Holy See had only wanted to kill necromancers. Now, he was no longer their primary target. At least, before they killed Nicholas, the Holy See would not have the mood to target any necromancers.
Saleen did not leave. Instead, he began to converse with the people around him in a low voice. Such communication was always necessary, especially with the twelve counts. The four dukes could still be invited to see him at any time, but the other nobles could only negotiate with Daniel first.
Saleen used the shortest amount of time to understand what everyone was lacking. The magic nuclei that were sold last year had already been refunded. These nobles did not lack gold coins. Saleen's food supply was also very stable, but the nobles still lacked sources of goods. Of course, what they lacked more was land. They still had to feed their own farmers.
Saleen communicated with these nobles and felt that it was too late to cultivate crops this year, but they could still grow vegetables. After the vegetables were processed by the magic apprentices, they could be harvested in a month. Saleen agreed to purchase all the vegetables and provide the processing of the vegetables. This way, the nobles would not have to feed the farmers for free.
Saleen had given so many benefits, so the nobles had to reciprocate. Saleen did not open many shops in Metatrin City, but he still had to set up some shops in the small towns along the trade route and the cities outside Metatrin City. The nobles provided manpower to help Saleen nurture merchants, while Saleen provided magic apprentices to the nobles.
After a meeting, everyone was very satisfied. At this moment, another soldier came to report that there were skeletal warships returning from the port.
Saleen then left the meeting hall and came to the port. The skeletal warships were sent out by the winged skeleton's order, but these skeletal warships were only commanded by jade skeletons. They lacked human professionals, so they did not dare to go to the Oceanic Ice Block. Hunting and patrolling in the coastal waters was the mission of these skeletal warships.
When the two skeletal warships returned, they had hunted a large number of low level magic beasts.
The number of magic beasts in the sea was hard to estimate, especially low level magic beasts, there were at least tens of thousands of them in a group. The lower the level, the greater the number. These low level magic beasts provided sufficient food for the powerful magic beasts in the sea, they were also the best prey for Saleen.
This time, the two skeletal warships encountered low level magic beasts like barracudas. Barracudas were of different grades, the lowest was grade-1, the highest was grade-3, and the adult ones were grade-2.
The two skeletal warships did not have any space equipment, but each of them had captured forty-fifty thousand barracudas. Barracudas were not big, so the warehouse could still fit them. The jade skeletons on the warships were grade-5 to grade-6 intelligent spirits, under the winged skeleton's nurturing, they would continue to advance. If the spirits of the dead only relied on natural progress, the advancement speed would be extremely slow.
Barracudas were creatures with magic nuclei, their skin was extremely tough and they swam at an extremely fast speed. This time around, they had fallen into the trap set up by the two skeletal warships. There were close to one-hundred-thousand barracudas, in addition to their magic nuclei, their skin was enough to make tens of thousands of pairs of boots.
Saleen's army was located in the north, the military boots had to be waterproof and cold resistant. These barracudas lived in cold waters, their skin was the best material to insulate them from heat. Even though it was a little wasteful, Saleen did not intend to use these materials for other purposes.
Saleen kept these low level magic nuclei for himself, he did not intend to sell them. After all, the market for low level magic nuclei was bigger, but the profits were smaller. The profits of the nobles would also be spread out, there was not much meaning in transporting them.
Saleen looked at the busy figures at the pier and sighed. He had an additional source of magic nuclei, the price of magic nuclei in the Qin Empire would drop sooner or later. Since the quantity could be guaranteed, many mages would also increase the speed of their training. Alchemy City released twenty percent of the magic nuclei every year because they were afraid that the number of mages on the mainland would decrease drastically.
Saleen had yet to consider increasing the number of magic beasts he had hunted. Firstly, he was still unsure of the extent to which he would be considered overhunting. If he killed too many mid-level magic beasts, the number of magic beasts in the sea would be difficult to recover. This would need to be explored gradually. Many magic beasts on the mainland had gone extinct because of such hunting by humans. Saleen did not want the same thing to happen to the sea. If that was really the case, the mages would not be able to survive in the future.
There was a warehouse at the pier, but these magic nuclei could not be stored there. Daniel continued to discuss with the nobles, Nailisi was beside Saleen, she was in charge.
Nailisi commanded two demons to bring spirits of the dead and Caucasus soldiers to escort the unprocessed barracudas to the underground cold storage. There, the prey would be further processed, the magic nuclei would be decomposed, and the skin of the magic beasts would be carefully removed. The teeth and bones of many magic beasts were useful, so were the barracudas.
In the future, Saleen's main forces would rely on these magic beasts for the arrows. Although metal was more durable, it was too troublesome for mages to handle. In comparison, the cost of these bones was lower. Refining the bones of magic beasts was much more effective than using magic to refine steel.
Most of the holy masters and heavy infantrymen of the expeditionary army had died under alchemy arrows.
The jade skeletons on the two ships came to see Saleen, Saleen chose a fortress. The jade skeletons bowed to Saleen, Saleen then realized that the two spirits of the dead were very intelligent. They were not summoned creatures that simply listened to orders, they were like the winged skeleton, they could move on their own.
"My Lord, Sir Bing went to the Oceanic Ice Block alone and asked us to escort the goods back. There are some preys here, please check them." The two jade skeletons handed over their space equipment.
"You can use this too?"
"Yes, but the space inside is not very big, only important things can be stored," the jade skeletons replied.
"What else did Sir Bing tell you?"
"Sir Bing told us to be wary of pirates, when we return, we will head south to escort our ships. Sir Bing also told my Lord that he will not go deep into the Oceanic Ice Block, he will be back in about two and a half months. "
Saleen looked at the two winged skeleton skeletons, they were wearing normal bone armor, then asked, "Why is your equipment so bad?"
"Sir Bing did not have time to refine them, he said that it would be better for my Lord to do it personally."
Saleen thought about it, it was indeed so, the winged skeleton's spirit alchemy was not bad, but it was time-consuming. It would be better for him to use water flame alchemy to help him solve it quickly.
"How many of you brothers do you have now?" Saleen was asking about the number of jade skeletons.
"Almost one-hundred, Sir Bing will not make too many, he said that one-hundred is the limit."
"Mm, the two of you can go ahead with your work, I will refine one-hundred sets of armor that are suitable for you. If you have any special needs, tell me now."
"My Lord, we spirits of the dead are most afraid of not being able to obtain power from the death dimension. It would be great if there were Green Spirit Gemstones on the armor, if not, obsidian is acceptable too. "
"What about weapons?"
"My Lord, we are skeletons, we can use anything that humans can use. But … it is best not to use any metal materials, we can use magic too. "
Saleen smiled, the skeletons' tone was no different from humans, when they were making requests, they would also be nervous.
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