Chapter 161

Chapter 161

During this period, the two Shield Knight brothers mainly trained around Pokara and rarely went to the front lines for battle.

So they mostly stayed at the garrison here, seldom returning to the frontline camps to endure the hardships of the outdoors.

When the group arrived, it was already close to evening, but the sun in Pokara still hung high, looking no different from the afternoon in Mauplan.

The climate here determined the extremely long daylight hours, and the people living here had long grown accustomed to such weather.

Led by Leon Rist, the group headed straight to the chosen site.

Lindbergh, perhaps worried that Lorant might change his mind, had quickly arranged for the matters concerning the animal feed factory that Lorant had mentioned, sending people to finalize everything since their return from the Animal Pet Shop.

The site was selected the next day and Lorant had already sent someone to inspect it.

Originally, Lorant wasn't in such a hurry, as most of the Crystal Flame Hounds at the Animal Pet Shop were still being raised in the backyard, and their daily meals could be handled by Kongwu and Kongliu together, without the need for large-scale production.

However, since he had promised Lindbergh, Lorant naturally wouldn't go back on his word.

Although he was a bit anxious now, Lorant understood the principle of acting early rather than late.

In the end, Lorant decided to order a batch of magical instruments from Liszt, preparing to get the animal feed factory up and running here first.

At least for now, the few branches selling finished animal feed could directly supply from here.

The factory building hadn't been much renovated; the area Lindbergh allocated to Lorant was right next to the military camp outside Pokara.

This place was considered the outermost part of the city. From the factory gate, it was just a short walk to the city gate, where military personnel were stationed year-round, ready to address any issues.

And following the main road forward led to the same small path Lorant and Lancelot had taken before.

It wouldn't take long to reach the military headquarters.

Such a prime location clearly showed Lindbergh's considerable favor towards Lorant.

This excellent spot, originally part of Lindbergh's private property, was sold to Lorant at a very low price, almost as a gift.

On one hand, this was because the Animal Pet Shop was also a subsidiary of the Cavendish family, which held a portion of the shares.

On the other hand, as a general, Lindbergh himself was showing goodwill towards the Animal Pet Shop.

Currently, everyone acknowledged a common fact: simply making a regular reservation would not suffice to obtain an animal pet.

While waiting was an option, the exact duration was uncertain.

Therefore, one could either bind themselves to the Animal Pet Shop early like The Knights of the Thorns, or join halfway through but with unwavering determination, like the Beast Tower.

Lindbergh had fulfilled both conditions, and he certainly had his own ulterior motives.

As one of the five generals, Lindbergh's troops could be considered his personal force.

From his perspective, he naturally wanted to arm his forces with the best equipment.

He didn't believe that Lorant would remain indifferent to his actions.

Once Lorant appreciated his efforts, Lindbergh was confident that his troops would eventually surpass The Knights of the Thorns.

Upon entering the factory, it was evident that the scale of the place was indeed substantial, showing that Lindbergh had invested heavily.

The area consisted of three long, tall buildings.

Lorant had already planned out their uses during his first visit.

The largest building was intended for storing raw materials, so Liszt had carved corresponding freezing arrays around it. It was currently empty, but once operations began, it would soon be filled with various exotic beast meats.

This would become a massive cold storage, though the temperature wouldn't be too low to avoid excessive consumption of crystal energy, which would be counterproductive. However, it would be sufficient to temporarily store the recently deceased exotic beasts.

The medium-sized building was designated as the main processing workshop.

It was already filled with numerous magical instruments.

Pushing open the factory door, the orderly interior contrasted sharply with the dilapidated exterior.

The roof was illuminated by the familiar Light Spell, making the entire factory bright and clean, unlike what one would expect from such a place.

In addition to the familiar instruments previously used in the exotic beast kitchen in the backyard, Liszt had added several new pieces.

These included specialized machines for processing low-level exotic beasts, capable of skinning and extracting cores, as well as mixers, blending and crushing magic arrays, and instruments engraved with freezing and fire arrays.

These magical instruments could fully meet Lorant's desire to achieve complete 'mechanization.'

While these instruments were inherently dangerous, they posed no problems as long as they were operated according to regulations.

Here, the exotic beast corpses purchased from the front lines would undergo preliminary processing, with valuable items like cores being extracted from their bodies before further processing.

The skins and cores would be stored and sold uniformly, while the meat and bones would be separated.

The meat would be processed into different types of minced meat through various procedures, and some of the bones would be ground into bone powder, while others would be boiled to extract their essence before being discarded.

Lorant was indeed concerned about the possibility of the animal feed processing methods being leaked.

Especially after the midnight assassination attempt, he placed even greater emphasis on the safety of himself and the Animal Pet Shop.

He hoped to keep all his formulas as confidential as possible to prevent them from being stolen when he couldn't guard them.

After all, the last batch of Dream Weavers failed to produce another Phantom Spider, and the biggest problem Lorant faced now was a lack of high-end combat power.

While a large group of Crystal Flame Hounds could temporarily immobilize eighth-level professionals, preventing them from escaping, defeating high-level professionals without significant casualties was impossible.

This was something Lorant did not wish to see.

He was unwilling to let his Crystal Ice Flame Hound become a disposable force at the middle level, which was why he was even more urgently in need of a stronger beast pet.

Lorant was certain that there would always be someone keeping a close eye on his factory, trying to steal secrets from it.

Lindbergh had indeed arranged as many protective measures as possible for Lorant's factory, whether it was the geographical location or the patrolling knights who occasionally passed by the factory gate, all giving a sense of security.

However, after meeting Blood Fang, Lorant naturally knew how strong those people who coveted him were.

A ninth-rank professional, no matter where they were, was an absolute top-tier powerhouse. Being hired to kill him meant that the other party had already gone all out.

Not to mention, just the items found in Blood Fang’s spatial bracelet could make any eighth-rank professional an overnight millionaire.

He knew that whoever was coveting the Animal Pet Shop in the shadows, they were already at a point of no return.

Today, Blood Fang could come to the Animal Pet Shop to kill and rob; tomorrow, some Black Fang or White Fang might go to his factory to steal his secrets.

Perhaps one day Lorant would choose to make part of the beast food formula public, but definitely not now.

After carefully inspecting those large and peculiar instruments, Lorant was quite satisfied with Liszt’s work.

From the initial catalog to the current various instruments, Liszt had formed a very close connection with the Animal Pet Shop.

Moreover, perhaps it was his natural affinity with these beast pets, but Liszt’s research capabilities had made tremendous progress during this period.

According to him, he had already touched the threshold of the next level and was preparing to undergo rigorous training to break through.

Liszt was quite considerate; he came here himself to supervise his apprentices as they neatly arranged and debugged each instrument before leaving.

Furthermore, he had directly set up a one-button start production line for Lorant.

As long as the exotic meat was fed into the initial inlet, pressing a button would allow him to only worry about whether the intermediate instruments were operating normally while waiting for the corresponding beast food to come out from the outlet.

There were three different lines in this huge factory: one for the Crystal Ice Flame Hound, one for the Windbreaker Horse, and one for the Candy Rabbit.

Different types of beast food required different types of exotic meat for production, which Lorant planned to inform the person in charge here to keep a close eye on.

The significance of this factory was considerable. After discussing with Lancelot, Lorant decided to appoint two supervisors in Pokara to oversee the factory.

From the acquisition of exotic beasts to processing and the timely delivery of beast food to various branches, everything would take place here. The importance of this place to the Animal Pet Shop was no less than that of any branch, and it would be the most solid logistics department of this massive organization.

For these two positions, Lorant asked Nia and Emma to each recommend two candidates, and then he and Lancelot would make the final decision.

This was naturally for balance, but more importantly, it was a test for the two main managers.

To stand firm in the territory Lorant had planned, being capable alone was not enough. As leaders, these two managers must have sufficient ability to recognize talent.

This was a crucial test, and if anyone was lacking in this aspect, they would likely never have the chance to advance further.

Putting aside these thoughts, Lorant continued to tour his factory.

The three beast food production lines occupied most of the space here. If additional production lines were needed in the future, additional space would have to be developed.

However, it was currently sufficient.

Moreover, based on the current rate of beast pet production at the Animal Pet Shop, such efficient beast food production would likely only reach saturation by the end of the year. It might not be until next year that full capacity operation would be necessary.

Before then, the power of these three production lines would exceed what was needed.

Fortunately, beast food was something that could be stored for a long time without easily spoiling; otherwise, he would have to consider operating for only a few hours each day.

As for the smallest of the three factories, Lorant planned to use it for storing finished products, which would be transported out once a certain amount had accumulated.

Lorant did not plan to set up another teleportation array here. The cost of creating a teleportation array was not low, and Lorant was not extravagant enough to install one in every factory.

Moreover, it took less than twenty minutes to walk from here to the inner city, where the public teleportation array could be found.

At that time, they could simply pay the regular fee to use that teleportation array.

As for the staff of the beast food factory, apart from a few key management personnel who had to be his own people, Lorant planned to hire local residents.

This was also one of the reasons Lindbergh was willing to offer such a significant discount.

The beast food factory may not seem to require many hands, but just the transportation of exotic meat and the transportation of finished beast food would require a considerable number of people.

This would bring many benefits to Pokara.

Of course, these trivial matters would be handled by the managers once Lorant selected them.

In addition, the appearance of the factory was another thing Lorant could not overlook, and it would definitely need to be renovated.

Leaving the factory, even in Pokara, known as the 'City of Eternal Day,' the sky began to darken.

Lennart and his brother bid farewell to Lorant and Lancelot and headed out of the city, while Lorant and Lancelot moved towards the inner city.

It was at this moment that this city, said to be the most prosperous of the many entrances to the Lopulo Mountains, revealed its true face.

As the scorching sun that could bake a person alive gradually set, people who had been hiding in their homes began to emerge onto the streets.

Night lamps hung outside the windows of the houses on both sides of the road, illuminating the night streets brightly.

The entire city seemed to come alive, with adventurers of all kinds appearing on the streets, leisurely strolling around. Street vendors also emerged from nowhere, like mushrooms after the rain, popping up everywhere.

Lorant and Lancelot rode their Windbreaker Horses, slowly wandering through the bustling streets.

At this moment, the street market here was truly bustling, not only with a variety of delicacies from the inland gathered here, but Lorant also saw many elves, dwarves, and beast people walking around the streets with ease.

All intelligent races can be seen on this street, presenting a scene of prosperity.

Noticing Lorant sneakily eyeing an elf in front of him multiple times, Lancelot couldn't help but smile, "What? First time seeing one?"

Lorant turned his head, his eyes bright as he nodded, "Yeah! It's my first time!"

"The only other race I've ever seen before was at the Black Forest outpost camp, that goblin selling snacks."

Lancelot smiled at him; Lorant's curious and innocent demeanor was truly amusing. "This is Pokara, not only the largest mountain pass guarded by humans, but also the largest known pass among all."

"And compared to the entrance to Lopulo, which is guarded by organizations like the Knight Regiment and only allows their own people to enter, this place is the most open."

"Regardless of race, everyone here has only one identity: 'Lopulo Adventurer.'"

"The only places that can match the level of freedom here are probably the larger towns like Kamkuo." Lancelot hadn't been to Pokara for many days and looked around with a nostalgic gaze.

"Known?" Lorant quickly picked up on the key point in Lancelot's words, looking at him in surprise, "Do you mean there are mountain passes we haven't discovered yet?"

"But if there were such places, wouldn't they have been overrun by beasts long ago, causing chaos inside?"

Lancelot, seeing Lorant's curious expression, didn't answer directly. He looked around and finally found what he was searching for.

The white-haired knight rode over to a vendor roasting huge skewers of meat. "Wait a moment, Lorant. Hello, four skewers of specialty meat, please."

"Sure thing! Just a moment!" The vendor, an ordinary person, responded enthusiastically upon seeing Lancelot, deftly picking up prepared skewers and starting to grill them over the fire.

Such a casual attitude seemed somewhat unusual given their respective statuses.

In both Mauplan and Holland, most ordinary people were reluctant to deal with professionals.

Even vendors who did business were no exception.

Seeing the cheerful vendor grilling the meat, Lorant noticed that many of the small vendors here were ordinary people. They, like the one in front of him, did not show the fear of professionals that Lorant was familiar with.

Lancelot, noticing Lorant's gaze, curved his lips. "What's wrong? What are you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing, just thinking that the atmosphere of this city is quite nice," Lorant smiled, summarizing his thoughts briefly.

In his mind, this kind of atmosphere was normal, but after spending so much time in this world, seeing such a situation felt somewhat strange.

He silently shook his head, sighing inwardly that he had been assimilated by this world.

Lancelot, however, didn't think too much about it. "After all, this is the entrance to the Lopulo Mountains. Everyone here is equal, so you can see such a situation."

"Don't underestimate them. These people, who have lived here for generations, all have some skills. Many of them can hold their own against first-tier professionals."

Hearing Lancelot's words, the vendor looked up and smiled proudly. "This gentleman clearly knows his way around! We in Pokara aren't boasting when we say this!"

"Our kids come out of the womb fighting!" He laughed, extending the skewers he was holding.

Lancelot dismounted, took the skewers, and paid.

The vendor, taking the copper coins, looked enviously at the tall and handsome Little Qing beside him.

"Sir, this must be a legendary Windbreaker horse! Truly impressive!"

Lorant was amused by the talkative vendor and nodded. "Yes, it's a Windbreaker horse. Are there many Windbreaker horses in Pokara now?"

The vendor, while putting two more skewers on the fire, looked at the sizzling meat and smiled. "Not many! But it's said that our military has already made arrangements to bring in a batch of Windbreaker horses. There should be more soon!"

"Here, these are for your two horse lords!" The vendor handed over the nearly done skewers. These two skewers were just grilled without any seasoning.

"Rest assured, my skewers are suitable for Windbreaker horses! One of them once followed the scent of my food and brought its owner here!" He said proudly.

"They're very fragrant. Give them a taste!" The vendor waved his hand generously.