Chapter 160

Chapter 160

Lancelot suddenly turned to look at the two shield knight brothers. "Lennart, where is the person you found?"

The two brothers quickly reacted, realizing they shouldn't be foolishly trailing behind Lancelot. They hurriedly moved forward to lead the way.

After receiving Lancelot's message, the shield knight brothers had quickly found someone to handle the acquisition of exotic beasts.

This camp was full of idle people waiting for a chance to work.

Most of them were refugees from nearby villages, lacking the ability to hunt valuable exotic beasts outside the Lopulo Pass and having no other means to make a living.

So they spent their days in the camp looking for any available work.

For example, helping professional teams watch over their luggage, assisting caravans with loading and unloading goods, or helping adventurers carry their prey when they returned.

This being military territory, these people were quite obedient and didn't dare to steal or rob their employers.

Anyone bold enough to do so would only have their bones buried in the yellow sand, leaving nothing behind in this dog-eat-dog place.

Lennart had found an old hand who had previously worked with the military.

Near the entrance, under a simple tent, stood three thin men.

Their linen clothes hung loosely on their bodies, swaying in the wind.

Seeing Lennart approach, they quickly stood up and respectfully waited on the side.

"How is it going? How many have you acquired?" Lennart asked the leading middle-aged man as he stepped forward.

The middle-aged man bowed and smiled. "We've acquired quite a few, sir."

Lennart had left them some 'exchange coins' to help them acquire exotic beasts at the entrance. If a transaction was made, they were to take the seller to a designated location and exchange the worthless 'coins' for real gold.

As for their pay, each of the three received about ten copper coins per day, responsible for acquiring and transporting the beasts to Lennart's designated location.

Lennart nodded and turned to look at Lancelot.

Lorant, standing to the side, frowned.

Not only was everything at this stall very basic, but Lorant couldn't see anything that recorded specific numbers.

There wasn't even a single piece of paper.

"Today, how many exotic beasts did you acquire, and what levels are they?" Lorant stepped forward, riding his horse next to Lancelot, and asked the leading man.

Given the ground here, Lorant was unwilling to dismount.

He was now more delicate than Lancelot, who had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but this was something Lancelot himself had indulged, and he enjoyed it.

The gaunt middle-aged man first glanced at Lennart, reading his expression.

Those who survived and thrived here were all shrewd.

He quickly realized that his employer seemed to have little say in this group.

The true bosses were the two men on the windbreak horses.

"N-no records, but we remember the approximate numbers. We've acquired about ten level-one exotic beasts, five to six level-two beasts, and one level-three beast," he answered respectfully.

Lorant frowned, unsatisfied with the result.

This acquisition needed to be a long-term operation, and relying on someone who couldn't even count properly would be problematic if issues arose.

His money didn't grow on trees, and he couldn't afford such mismanagement.

Lennart, noticing Lorant's expression, coughed and said to the man, "That's enough for today. I'll contact you if I need you again."

He took the few oddly shaped coins the man reluctantly handed over and then gave them copper coins as payment.

The three men thanked him profusely; for them, having work today was a stroke of luck.

The job was easy, and the pay was good. If they could do this every day, they might soon leave this hell.

Of course, provided they didn't squander the money on something illicit.

Lennart and his brother continued walking, explaining to the puzzled Lorant, "These people are hired daily, working one day at a time."

"They are refugees from the surrounding areas, many from the slums, and can only do this kind of work. They are mostly illiterate, let alone able to count."

"But in a place like the Lopulo Pass, it's difficult to find anyone who can count," he said helplessly.

If not for the circumstances, Lennart wouldn't have chosen such a person.

Understanding this, Lorant fell into deep thought.

Continuously hiring new people every day was unacceptable to Lorant.

It would increase the workload for the Lennart brothers and wasn't a sustainable solution.

Moreover, unclear accounts would be manageable with small quantities, but for a long-term business like his, it was impossible.

It seemed he would need to bring someone from Mauplan.

Whether to hire someone, use a servant from the Cavendish family, or find another option, Lorant would need to consider carefully upon his return.

In any case, he needed to get things running smoothly here as soon as possible.

If the Blue Star Trading Platform is to be established here and the Devouring Frogs placed, it would naturally require a fixed staff.

A few days earlier wouldn’t be a problem.

The Lennart brothers walked familiarly to a large tent at the very edge of the camp, which seemed to be a resting area for the military on the front lines.

The tent was huge, capable of accommodating hundreds of people.

Those who had just been relieved from their posts at the entrance and some who still had bloodstains on them, seemingly having just returned from outside the mountains, were sprawled out here and there.

Several priests were moving around inside the tent, tending to the injured.

The person in charge here was a young man, who smiled when he saw Lennart: “Lennart, Leon, come to collect your things?”

He clearly knew the two brothers; otherwise, they wouldn’t have had all the exotic beasts they had acquired temporarily stored here.

Even the one paying them was this young man.

Outside the large tent, there were many human-drawn carts, piled high with the corpses of exotic beasts.

These corpses would be transported to Pokara and then distributed throughout the continent.

Of course, whether using these carts or hiring the emaciated people from the slums to transport goods, it all cost money.

Although buying exotic beast meat in Pokara was still quite cheap, it couldn’t compare to buying it directly here.

Therefore, some large families or organizations would send people directly to purchase here, where the exotic beast meat was the cheapest in the world, no doubt about it.

Scattered adventurers also tended to exchange their prey for gold coins right at the entrance here.

Though they would earn less money compared to taking it back to Pokara, at least they wouldn’t have to exert so much effort dragging these heavy carcasses along the way.

Today, Lennart had acquired enough exotic beast meat to fill five large carts, surrounded by a circle of black and emaciated people.

They looked eagerly at the massive carts that required five or six people to pull.

For them, the journey from here to Pokara took several days, and dragging these heavy carts under the scorching sun was a painful task, but it was one of the few ways they could survive.

So they hoped someone would hire them, allowing them to support themselves and their families.

“What’s up?” Lorant, who had been hunched over a dilapidated table half-sunk in the sand, stood up and looked at the Lennart brothers, rummaging through a pile of clutter and pulling out a bag.

“These are the leftover gold coins you gave me. The few people who sold didn’t bring much, and that Level 3 exotic beast was a bit expensive, but I lowered the price when they came to collect their payment,” he said with a smile.

This was military territory, and as the sole leader of the Lopulo Mountains, no one dared to cause trouble here.

“Hahaha! I knew I could count on you, thanks!” Leon Rist laughed, taking the bag of gold coins: “When you’re done, come to Pokara. We’ll use the saved gold to find a tavern and have a good drink.”

Lorant smiled without refusing; they were true friends and didn’t need much formality: “Sure, I’ll come find you!”

“Are you going to take these exotic beasts back to Pokara?”

“No, we want to exchange them here.” Lennart handed the crystal in his hand to the person in charge: “Directly transfer it to this account as military merit.”

Lorant raised an eyebrow: “Military merit? Honestly, if you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten about its existence.”

“But, no problem.” He continued rummaging through the clutter, eventually finding a brick-sized device with a small crystal-shaped slot.

Lorant blew off the dust, revealing intricate, semi-transparent magical patterns underneath.

He inserted the crystal, and immediately, the fine patterns on the device began to glow, activating the entire device.

Then, Lorant found a small booklet and followed the steps to operate the device, though his movements were clumsy, he managed to light up the crystal and complete the necessary steps quickly.

A holographic screen appeared in mid-air, refracting through the small crystal, displaying the number ‘578’ in a wavy, snake-like script.

“Here, take it. You now have 578 points.” Lorant handed the crystal back to Lennart.

Although it hadn’t been used for many years, the device for calculating military merit points was still in perfect working condition.

As for the points, they were automatically calculated by the device based on different exotic beasts.

Higher-level exotic beasts could be exchanged for more points.

However, even exotic beasts of the same level but different species would have different point calculations.

Lennart didn’t bother to count his points one by one, trusting the process as he took the crystal and put it away.

“Thanks! Come find us in Pokara!”

Handing over the matter of military merit to the Shield Knight brothers was clearly a wise choice.

First, they were familiar with the front-line supervisor, Lorant. Second, although they appeared rough, they were actually quite meticulous.

After all, they had grown up following Lancelot, handling various trivial matters for this young master, so they weren’t really brutes.

Lancelot felt very comfortable entrusting these tasks to them.

“Wait a moment.” Just as they were about to leave, Lorant suddenly thought of something and said: “Excuse me, can the exotic beasts we exchanged for military merit be repurchased at a lower price?”

Lorant raised an eyebrow, first looking at the Lennart brothers, and seeing them nodding, he understood that the fair-skinned youth was the one truly interested in exchanging military merit.

“Certainly, you can take the exotic beast meat for 80% of the market price, and if you need more, I can provide additional transactions,” he said with a smile.

Outside this large tent, the carts were not only filled with the exotic beasts Lennart had acquired but also with dozens of carts belonging to the military.

Some of these exotic beasts were hunted by military members themselves, while others were sold to them by adventurers seeking convenience.

Like the outpost, the military here also provided a service to buy back exotic beasts, making it easier for adventurers to hunt without burden on the front lines.

Lorant glanced at the heavily laden carts on one side, where a large number of exotic beasts were piled together, making his eyes gleam with desire.

"Then I'll buy back my share of the exotic beasts first. Can I take a look at the list to choose from the others?"

The supervisor nodded cheerfully and pulled out a large leaf of paper, handing it to Lorant.

"All the ones listed here are available for purchase. As for the prices, they are uniform here. Exotic beasts from level one to three have a standardized price per pound, while those of higher levels are priced based on their species and condition."

Lorant scanned the leaf, and the low prices made his eyes turn red.

"I'll take all the level one to three exotic beasts."

With a generous wave of his hand, he bought them all, causing even the people in the nearby tents to glance at him with surprise.

Naturally, so much exotic beast meat couldn't just be left there. In front of the eager gazes of the thin and dark-skinned laborers, Lorant hired several dozen large carts and these workers to transport the goods to Pokara.

Normally, if no merchant caravan accompanied these transport carts, the military could provide manpower for a fee to ensure safety along the way.

After all, the route was through desolate wilderness, full of places like where Martha's family had stayed, where half the population turned to banditry out of hunger.

A merchant caravan without any professionals wouldn't last long in such areas.

However, given his relationship with the Lennart brothers, the supervisor readily agreed to the task without charging, finding a squad preparing to return to Pokara for rest and assigning them to escort the convoy.

Teleportation arrays, being expensive, weren't something everyone could use as casually as Lorant. The military professionals usually chose to walk back during their rest periods unless there were special circumstances.

After Leon Rist slipped some money for drinks to the squad members and chatted with them for a bit, they happily accepted this additional task.

While waiting for his exotic beasts to be loaded onto the carts, Lancelot took Lorant on a tour of the camp. Lorant found that, contrary to his expectations, the camp was actually quite orderly.

Although the tents looked makeshift and varied in shape and color, Lancelot explained that they were all managed uniformly by the military.

The users rented these tents from the military for short-term use.

Like the labor force, the military charged a nominal fee per day for the tents, typically just one or two copper coins, to cover some expenses and maintain order, preventing strange elements from infiltrating.

Having gained a better understanding of the local conditions to prepare for their stay, the four of them returned to Pokara after the dozens of large carts set off.