Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 123 - 26: The Correct Way to Play the Game

Chapter 123: Chapter 26: The Correct Way to Play the Game

Sige Town.

Roman had been in this place for 249 days.

He had received the second batch of slaves sent by Scarhead.

The quality of this batch was much better than the last.

It looked like his warning had taken effect.

Even so, Roman still felt that many slaves had died on the way.

But Scarhead wouldn’t admit it, and Roman had no evidence.

"You must be considering giving us a price increase this time," Scarhead said with a fawning smile.

Last time was a trial, and they were worried about encountering problems, so they brought defective slaves. If there were any issues, they would abandon the slaves and escape at full speed.

Now that they had confirmed the reliability of Sige Town, they brought good quality merchandise.

If the son of Selin hadn’t paid in advance, they wouldn’t make a profit without raising the price.

Roman stared at Scarhead for a moment, then spoke, "Eighty pounds of salt for a slave, if you can bring me better, more, and higher quality slaves. However much you want, I will provide."

The slave trade route was extremely fragile, and the slightest disturbance could break it.

Scarhead was not a merchant legally recognized by the nobles; he belonged to the illegal traders risking beheading by doing business on land.

If the profits were not high, they would not come back next time.

"May our friendship last forever!" Scarhead’s smile broadened.

Unlike the penny-pinching land nobles, this young lord in front of him was extremely generous and did not at all shun them.

Normally, pirates like them could not get so much inexpensive, high-quality salt inland.

Roman knew what he was doing; he was aiding pirates by providing them with living supplies, and they would only use their strength for robbing.

But Roman didn’t care. He aimed to outpace everyone, and pirates weren’t even the main characters on the racetrack.

The new slaves were quickly accounted for, and there were a few more than last time, about four hundred.

They had seven transport ships, converted from North Ice Warships. The ships were narrow, rowing and sailing vessels, specially designed longships that moved swiftly like the wind.

But that speed did not mean there was no risk; they would eventually capsize in some hidden gutter, which was also why the trade route was so fragile.

Once a battle started, Scarhead would have to throw some slaves overboard immediately, otherwise, there would be no time to row at full speed.

In this respect, Roman was even less willing than Scarhead to encounter any trouble or complications.

After resupplying in Sige Town, they left with over thirty thousand pounds of salt.

According to routine, the new slaves were kept for three days to observe their conditions, and further classifications were made based on their professions.

Two days passed.

Daken returned with the merchants.

They were still on the same few shabby ships, but fortunately, they still transported a significant amount.

Over time, Daken had continuously brought back to Sige Town over two hundred lambs, more than four hundred piglets, thousands of chicks, and even several dozen calves and foals.

Their work ethic was excellent, with the hope that one day they could get merchant ships and guards from Roman.

He had also made contact with a noble who bred draft cattle on his estate and had negotiated a good price; in some time, he could bring in forty to fifty draft and dairy cattle.

The price for draft cattle was not high.

Dairy cattle were a bit more expensive, costing eight silver coins, with transportation and labor costs calculated separately.

However, Roman’s breeding farm had not yet been built, so for the time being, he could only construct a pen on the grassland to contain the animals.

During this time, Roman specifically selected piglets and lambs for castration.

His technique was swift and effective, capable of castrating a piglet in a matter of seconds.

Yaki observed the entire process, and Roman explained to him the benefits of castrating livestock: their eight months of growth could be reduced to six months, a weight of a little over one hundred pounds could be increased to one hundred and twenty to thirty pounds, and the pork quality would be better, rendering more lard.

Yaki had never heard of such knowledge but believed it unquestioningly.

He had an excellent memory and diligently noted every piece of breeding knowledge Roman imparted to him.

This made Roman feel much relieved as he found Yaki more and more pleasing to the eye.

He felt that Yaki was not much worse than Jimmy in learning.

But Jimmy was still a child, not yet grown, while Yaki was already seventeen or eighteen years old, pretty much set in his ways, strong in execution but lacking in potential.

Of course, he was definitely capable of taking on great responsibilities now.

Roman had been incredibly busy during this period, mainly due to iron refining.

It was so hard to train a group of qualified ironworkers.

The process seemed complicated but was anything but simple.

Roman guided them throughout the entire process, conducting multiple iron refining and stirring steel sessions, but each time he inquired about the process, they were still as ignorant as ever, nearly illiterate.

In the end, Roman became calm and collected.

They were a bunch of fools, there was no point in getting angry with them.

He decided to take it slow, as he couldn’t raise his expectations any higher for them.

He threw himself into the work, doing everything himself and overseeing the iron refining diligently, ensuring there was still output.

Over the past few days, they had smelted three thousand pounds of steel.

The blacksmith shed had been expanded for the second time, with seven hydroelectric hammers set up, the massive waterwheels turning ceaselessly day and night, driving the hammers to heave back and forth to meet Roman’s demands for steel equipment.

Two hundred Blacksmith Apprentices, bare to the waist and drenched in sweat, shaped the steel into form with power hammers.

Among them, Lax and a blacksmith named Ruto worked particularly fast.

The qualified plate armor was mainly shaped by these two.

During this bustling period of steel-making,

After this period of intense extraction, both the coal mine and the iron mine had unearthed Sealed Crystal Balls, which often enclosed some extraordinary resources.

This brought Roman immense joy.

He had been here for over half a year, but the amount of extraordinary resources he had collected was extremely scarce.

Typically, the more abundant and diverse the resource vein, the greater the chances of finding Sealed Crystal Balls.

The quarry and Salt Mine clearly didn’t meet these criteria, with poor veins and few associated minerals.

Roman couldn’t wait to have them brought to him.

The salt-sealed crystal ball shattered at a single strike, and the coal-sealed crystal ball wasn’t much tougher. Only the iron-sealed crystal ball required special methods to extract.

Roman spent some time and extracted the resources enclosed within.

Upon cracking the coal-sealed crystal ball, a wisp of light blue radiance emerged from the fissure.

Roman’s spirit was lifted!

He gradually removed the black coal layer, revealing a Blue Gemstone shimmering with a pale blue gleam before him. As soon as it was exposed to the air, the glimmering blue quickly subdued, but the translucent gemstone remained enchanting, of extremely high quality—pure and flawless.

"Good, good, good! Ruby improves Constitution, Blue Gemstone enhances Spirit," Roman was exceedingly happy.

Although compared to a Conquest Knight, Blue Gemstones were more suitable for Witches and the like.

After all, for ordinary people, Blue Gemstones at most could help them recover their Spirit and concentrate.

But Roman had a significant demand for such resources.

The appearance of this gemstone meant that he could now enhance the Skills of his Angel Envoy.

Or rather, the emergence of these resources signified that he could finally make use of the Noah’s Ark development system!

By consuming resources to improve the strength of his Angel Envoy’s panel.

He had worked hard, tending the fields for over half a year.

Farming the land, repairing roads, chopping trees, brick firing, mining!

How much hardship, how many difficulties.

Until today!

Roman could finally say with pride that he had finally unlocked the correct way to play the game!