Chapter 298: Armor Prohibition, Slavery Ban
The list of alchemy materials was the longest.
The Ice Sculpture Kingdom had a well-developed alchemy industry and possessed many outstanding alchemy talents. This meant that its alchemy marketplace was also massive.
The dragonman youngster’s gaze suddenly stopped when he saw some undead materials.
These materials were extinct on the marketplace, but Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord could get them through his means.
Why was he selling them?
Wasn’t he worried about the risks?
The entire world hunted necromancers, and the Ice Sculpture Kingdom was no exception.
The dragonman youngster didn’t know what was going no, but Zi Di did.
As a matter of fact, before the undead school of magic had been established, undead materials had been sold all over the world.
Fire type alchemy materials weren’t just used to make fire magical items, and undead materials were the same.
Although the item list had a few undead materials on it, they had a wide usage in the field of daily alchemy.
From this, it could be seen how high end Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s alchemy marketplace was.
Despite the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps having a strong demand for undead materials, the dragonman youngster chose the more dependable option and immediately turned his gaze away.
He continued to be enthralled in his reading.
For a time, Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord calmly sipped his wine very patiently.
The dragonman youngster read it through once, then reread it.
After two readings, he decided.
He put for a transaction, and in the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ name, he first purchased a large amount of magic beast meat.
His battle qi cultivation needed him to eat a lot of path attribute magic beast meat. Zong Ge needed steel rhinoceros magic beast meat.
The mercenary corps added Chi Lai and Men Shi, two silver levels. They also need magic beast meat for their battle qi techniques.
There was also the Quick Knife and Backwater battle squads whose daily training was very arduous. If they were provided with plentiful magic beast meat, it would greatly improve their training efficiency. In addition, nutritious meals could also reduce complaints from the battle squad members to a certain extent.
It could be predicted that in the future, when the dragonman youngster’s and Zong Ge’s level improved and the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps expanded and recruited, along with the big guy and others suddenly distinguishing themselves, their demand for magic beast meat and other transcendent ingredients would grow bigger.
After the magic beast meat, the dragonman youngster purchased a large batch of alchemy materials.
This included all of the dragon corpses available.
It also included some undead materials.
Then, he bought all of the gold level equipment.
There were four, the longbow, harpoon, darts, and round shield.
The scale of this spending startled Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord a bit, causing him to laugh, “It seems that after your corps captured the Iron Lump, you have quite the harvest.”
The dragonman youngster nodded, calmly admitted, “Indeed.”
One of the goals of the battle of Weeping Pine Island was to wash their gains from Two Eyes Island’s seafloor clean.
Seeing Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord’s reaction now proved that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ mission during that battle had been accomplished.
The dragonman youngster slightly explained the reason why he was buying gold level equipment.
“My showdown with Teng Dong Lang is coming. The better my equipment, the greater my chances of victory.”
Those words caused a smile to creep up Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord’s face, he nodded in agreement, “Commander Long Fu, Xiong Ju has already been defeated by you, and the remaining ringleaders are not your match.”
“I await your fight with Teng Dong Lang.”
The city Lord paused, then added, “If you have any special needs, you can put them forth. Perhaps I can use some relationships to give you some help there.”
The dragonman youngster nodded, immediately saying in passing, “As a matter of fact, we need a store to sell some merchandise. Of course, we are just a small power and have some merchandise that can’t be put into the public purview.”
The merchandise out of the public purview was naturally pointing towards smuggled armaments.
The dragonman youngster said this to lay the groundwork for Dragon Rider, and also to give them a platform to sell alchemy arrows and other munitions in the future.
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord was the bigger than Teng Dong Lang.
Every power craved outstanding armaments.
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord was no exception.
The city Lord nodded, “I can make the decision and sell a prosperous shop to your corps.”
“But forgive my bluntness, engaging in a business requires giving sufficient consideration to the environment around it.”
“At least wait until your duel with Teng Dong Lang is decided Commander Long Fu, the environment will be considered stable then.”
The dragonman youngster thanked the city Lord for his advice.
After reflecting on it, he had another request for Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord, he wanted to buy a gold level short spear.
Along with blank magic formation slabs.
“If you have gold level armor, that would be better.” The dragonman youngster added.
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord shook his head with a laugh, “Gold level armor is difficult to purchase. The list having that round shield is already a considerable rarity.”
“Don’t have much hope of buying a short spear in a short time span either.”
The dragonman youngster was puzzled, “As far as I know, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom has flourishing alchemy technology, and also has many alchemy talents. Since the market demands this kind of equipment, don’t tell me none of them want to make money?”
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord explained, “You are fresh off the boat and don’t know about this matter. The kingdom has explicit decrees on alchemy that all alchemy workshops in the kingdom have to strictly comply with. One of the ten decrees stipulates that the amount of gold level armor the Ice Sculpture Kingdom produces every year cannot exceed 27. We commonly refer to it as the armor prohibition.”
The dragonman youngster thought on it, somewhat understanding.
The armor prohibition was obviously a decree the Ice Sculpture Kingdom made to protect its rule.
Refining arrows, bullets, and other weapons took less materials and time than armor.
Many small weapons were far easier to transport and hide than armor.
Therefore, when regulating these, it was better to regulate armor.
Regulating armor was more cost efficient.
Apart from that reason, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom was also considering its people’s livelihood.
Regardless of whether it was a hunting group, fishing boat, mercenary corps, or so on, all of them needed weapons, and nowadays, pirates were getting more rampant by the day. All of them expended lots of arrows and bullets.
If they put a ban on weapons, then that would affect every profit everywhere, affect national defense, and impact the national economy.
The amount of 27 pieces of armor under the prohibition was decided after challenging negotiations and the weighing of the pros and cons between all parties.
As for the gold level armor that was made, the dragonman youngster could guess with his tail that those in positions of power would be the first to receive them.
“My corps has an alchemy magic ship and also a gold level cannon that needs repairs. If they aren’t fixed, they cannot be used.”
The city Lord nodded, “I can arrange for master alchemists to come do repairs for you. The repair cost will be 20% below market value.”
Of course, the dragonman youngster didn’t forget to mention alchemist talents.
Currently, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ greatest deficiency was of master alchemists and alchemists.
But strangely, the city Lord’s list didn’t have any slaves.
After the dragonman youngster asked, the city Lord answered that it was due to an Ice Sculpture Kingdom decree.
“My country strictly prohibits slaves on the marketplace.”
“All slaves were nationalized.”
“This is my country’s slave ban.”
Under those circumstances, the dragonman youngster regretfully abandoned the matter.
After ten minutes, the transaction was struck and both sides determined the time and place of delivery in detail.
The dragonman youngster looked out the window, and upon seeing the night was deeper, asked the city Lord if he could take his leave.
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord gave the dragonman youngster a warning before parting, “Commander Long Fu.”
“Please be careful of Teng Dong Lang.”
“According to my understanding of him, he will never resign himself to be passive.”
“While you are recuperating, you need to pay more attention.”
“He won’t let you calmly heal. Therefore, I sent you medicine and the blanket to lessen the possibility of attacks.”
“He will make a move.”
“Gangs often use dirty and despicable methods.”
“I’ll also reveal some secret information to you.”
“Teng Dong Lang and Hua Tang have a secret relationship.”
“Perhaps you don’t know who Hua Tang is.”
“He is an excellent thief who has been active all over the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. Many city governments have been robbed by his hands.”
“The magician tower cannot detect him either.”
“He has been wanted throughout the kingdom for a long time, but after a dozen years, Hua Tang has never been caught.”
The dragonman youngster memorized the name Hua Tang.
Previously, although he had purchased a lot of information from the Thieves Guild, this information was centered on Snow Bird Harbor.
This resulted in a big time thief like Hua Tang who committed crimes everywhere and didn’t have a fixed residence being overlooked.
The dragonman youngster decided on the spot that starting tomorrow, he would buy information on Hua Tang.
The night sky had many stary specks.
The lights along the way illuminated the streets.
The carriage’s wheels rolled across the flagstones, issuing a rumbling noise.
After the dragonman youngster left the government mansion, he specifically chose the road with the least pedestrians.
Even so, the streets were still clamorous with the sounds of people.
The more bustling a city was, the livelier the nights were.
Snow Bird Harbor was one of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s eight harbors, and so it was naturally very bustling.
Under this bustling, the dragonman youngster sensed the tumultuous and bubbling undercurrents.
When he recalled his conversation with Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord, the dragonman youngster sighed to himself.
“I didn’t expect that the Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord would have such a deep hostility to the Bayonet Gang.”
“The prior inquiries and information reports didn’t indicate that at all.”
“As expected, simple information purchases cannot ascertain this kind of secret relationship and the attitude of a high ranking person.”
“The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps needs a competent person that can scout out the truth and crucial facts.”
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord had invited the dragonman youngster to dinner to use the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps as reasonable grounds to attack the Bayonet Gang.
“Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord has hidden his enmity well; this is the mind of a profound person. To deal with the Bayonet Gang, he must have already prepared many methods and only needs a sensible justification.”
“If I agreed, then Snow Bird Harbor would get caught up in a massive internal struggle.”
The dragonman youngster knew that Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord wanted to exploit him.
But at the same time, the dragonman youngster knew this was a rare opportunity.
If the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps aligned themselves with Snow Bird Harbor’s government, and were victorious, after the Bayonet Gang was suppressed, a massive gap would appear.
They only needed to take a fraction of it for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps to completely root themselves here.
This was something may people desired but couldn’t obtain.
Generally speaking, without such an opportunity, it would take at least two to three generations of hard work for someone to reach the upper layers of power in Snow Bird Harbor.
This rare stroke of luck also implied immense risks.
If the dragonman youngster had agreed, then the entire Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps would be on the foremost front lines of it.
The Bayonet Gang would want to eliminate the Dragon Lion Mercenary corps as quickly as possible.
While Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord had to protect the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps to defend crucial witness and reasonable grounds for making war.
Two of Snow Bird Harbor’s big native powers were centered around the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, constantly tearing, tugging, tussling, and grappling against each other.
It would last until a winner was decided.
Regrettably, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was not a normal mercenary corps, nor was it the transportation power of an arms merchant.
Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord’s error of judgement happened because of that.
“It seems I cannot put off my heroic duel with Teng Dong Lang.”
“Snow Bird Harbor might become a troubled city.”
“The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps needs to attain qualifications as soon as possible and enter into the Ice Sculpture Kingdom proper.”
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ destination was the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s capital.
However, as foreigners, being able to rush to the capital was impossible.
The laws and institutions here did not permit newcomers to travel to important areas like the capital.
To go there, they needed to be audited.
Many things would be audited, such as how long they would be staying in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, what they would be doing, if they had anyone vouching for them, what kind of property they had, and so on.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had registered with the Mercenary Guild and could rely on them to reduce the relevant indexes to travel to the capital at an earlier date.
But the lowest criterion was staying for 12 days, having a 3 star mercenary corps rank, along with the local Mercenary Guild’s recommendation letter and vouching.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had the Anti-investigation and Prophecy and Deceptive Disguise spells and were capable of ignoring the law and sneaking into the capital.
But after everyone in the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps deliberated, they felt that plan was too extreme.
On the one hand, the blackmail bizarrely vanished without a reply, and none of them knew what problem had arisen.
On the other hand, the survivors had to consider this: if their communication with imperial higherups failed, it was possible they would hunted down for the treasures.
Therefore, the survivors had to keep a firm grip on time and every opportunity to increase their fighting strength.
After comprehensive consideration, the dragonman youngster and the others decided temporarily settling in Snow Bird Harbor and grow during this time.
During this time, they would absorb Snow Bird Harbor’s resources to develop, liquidating their riches and turning it into strength as much as possible.
If they could create a way out in Snow Bird Harbor, then that would be even better.
The Ice Sculpture Kingdom was vast, and completely different from Snake Rat Island and Two Eyes Island.
On other island, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps could flee with the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
But in the interior of Ice Sculpture Island, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps would be far from the Deep Sea Monster Fish. This way out was now suspended and temporarily lost.