Chapter 170

Chapter 170

Different packages for annual and monthly subscriptions—this was an idea that Lorant had come up with a long time ago for the Abyssal Frogs, thinking about how they could be consumed.

The nature of the Abyssal Frogs meant that their abilities could be sold an infinite number of times.

A one-time deal would be a very uneconomical transaction for Lorant.

If he could make a steady and long-term profit, why wouldn't he?

Calculated based on the lifespan of the Abyssal Frogs, this would become the most profitable pet in the Animal Pet Shop thus far, with no other pet coming close.

The price Lorant had in mind was to set the cost of a single empowerment between one gold coin and five gold coins, depending on the effect of the empowerment.

Although this price might seem expensive—almost equivalent to the entire annual expenditure of Lorant’s family, including rent—it was actually quite a bargain.

To put it this way, if you could spend five gold coins to get a lightning empowerment and then head to the Lopulo mountain pass to kill a level three beast, the profit would be far more than just a few gold coins.

Of course, to kill a level three beast, this kind of boost alone wouldn't be enough. If it were a level one practitioner, it would still be futile.

Empowerment was ultimately just an auxiliary ability; it still required the practitioner's own abilities to work in tandem.

However, even so, Lorant could confidently say that the prices he set were more than worth it.

Not to mention the fact that this honest merchant had also prepared different discount packages.

The minimum price for empowering a single ability was three gold coins, but if you bought an empowerment template already prepared by the Animal Pet Shop and empowered three or four, or even five abilities at once, it might only cost ten to fifteen gold coins.

Regarding these empowerment templates, this was one of Jin Baoli's achievements from last night.

Thirty-one Abyssal Frogs with empowerment abilities—some of them complemented each other, while others would cancel each other out if empowered simultaneously.

So they selected several sets of the most suitable empowerment methods to form a fixed template.

If you didn’t know what ability to empower your weapon with, you could simply and brutally apply a package.

For example, the recommended package for shield warriors from the Animal Pet Shop was to empower with 'Rebound', 'Solid', and 'Vibration'.

These three abilities could be perfectly empowered on a shield, resulting in a more solid defense and higher durability. When blocking at close range, there was a chance to rebound the opponent's force and send a shockwave into their body—a powerful weapon indeed.

For mages, 'Energy Expansion', 'Arcane Missile', and 'Wave Reinforcement' were recommended—a series of abilities more suitable for empowering staves to enhance spells.

In addition, for rangers using longbows and daggers, there were 'Micro Toxin', 'Breeze', 'Sharpness', and so on—all empowerments that could help amplify the power of bows or daggers.

In short, although there were only thirty-one Abyssal Frogs, the range and coverage of their abilities were so vast that it was truly dazzling.

Having too much choice could sometimes be a sweet burden.

So, the honest merchant Lorant thoughtfully introduced some simple packages, which indeed saved his customers a lot of trouble.

Ed frowned as he listened to Lorant's quote for a one-time use of the Abyssal Frog, feeling troubled in his heart.

Although he didn’t yet know how much the annual pass would be discounted, the one-time price was already shocking to him.

As a logistics officer, all the expenses of the entire fortress had to go through him.

Ed knew all too well just how bad the economic situation of the fortress was.

Lindbergh was a competent practitioner and a qualified leader, but he was definitely not a good manager.

Wherever he was, the finances were never easy.

Back in Cavendish Earl's Castle, Ed had been the financial officer of the entire fiefdom. He had endured many tight months, tightening his belt.

Later, when he came to Pokara, the fortress's finances weren’t much better than before.

Although he no longer had to worry about the trivial issues of the fiefdom, for Ed, the countless practitioners from the military department in the fortress—those who basically only spent money without bringing any in—were even harder to manage.

Every year's expenses relied on the meager funds allocated, supplemented by the practitioners hunting beasts in the Lopulo mountains for subsidies.

At present, they were barely managing to keep the accounts from being destitute.

There were times when they really couldn’t scrape together a single coin!

Now, if they had to use the Abyssal Frog empowerment...

Just thinking about it made Ed feel exhausted inside.

He suddenly envied his apprentice, the poor devil who had taken over the fiefdom’s finances after him.

No, he should be called the lucky one.

Ever since the young master had hopped on the fast-moving train of the Animal Pet Shop, the finances of Cavendish Earl's fiefdom had gradually become more abundant.

When he went back last time, the other person even said there should be a nice surplus this year!

Lindbergh, on the other hand, didn’t care about his financial problems at all. He didn’t realize the severity of the situation and waved his hand generously, saying, “Annual subscription! We must go for the annual subscription! With such powerful empowerment abilities, our practitioners in this fortress must all use them!”

His thought process was focused on how much benefit his people could gain from the Abyssal Frogs, especially with the upcoming beast tide. Every bit of combat power was something Lindbergh was unwilling to lose.

Lorant smiled slightly, looking at Ed's troubled expression with silent sympathy in his heart.

“An annual subscription will be 3.5 million a year,” Lorant directly gave the price, seeing Ed's eyes widen in surprise, and gestured for him to calm down. “And this means that the military department can empower without any additional fees for a year, not that we hand over all thirty-one Abyssal Frogs to the military department.”

“The Abyssal Frogs will still need to operate normally with the help of the Blue Star Trading Platform, and other adventurers also have the right to use the Abyssal Frogs.”

"Unless there are unused empowerment opportunities by adventurers, allowing for surplus empowerments, the maximum number of empowerments provided to the military each day can only be half of the total."

At this point, even Lindbergh was starting to feel uneasy.

Three million five hundred thousand gold coins! Three million five hundred thousand gold coins!

He never expected that his fortress would have to pay so much!

"This! Young Lorant, this price..."

Lorant, however, remained completely calm. The Animal Pet Shop had already trained a team that had systematically studied mathematical systems and could perform various numerical calculations.

The price had been set after detailed calculations by them.

When used daily, it was definitely more cost-effective than monthly packages or individual purchase plans.

Lorant also intended to have the floating octopus study mathematics seriously, so future calculations might be directly handled by those clever animal companions.

"Uncle Lindbergh, this price is already very discounted," he said sincerely. "And this price is only for the first year. There will be other changes after next year."

"You see, after the official debut of the Devouring Frog, no one will give up on such an animal companion. The military can see its strength, and the Knight Regiment will definitely see it too," Lorant said helplessly.

"It’s not practical to place all the Devouring Frogs in Pokara alone. It’s only because Pokara is in a special period right now that I’m placing up to five Devouring Frogs there."

This was indeed true. He had just seen the surprised expression on Jaina, who was stationed in the fortress, when she saw the Devouring Frog.

Lorant had no doubt that Paul was already on his way.

On this point, Lindbergh couldn’t argue. He opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything, only looking at Ed.

Hoping his miraculous quartermaster could come up with a good idea.

Ed silently calculated for a moment. He was quite sensitive to numbers.

After a quick mental calculation, Ed understood that the annual package proposed by Lorant was already very discounted.

But he still sighed helplessly, "General, we really can't come up with this amount of money..."

He didn’t want to be so miserable, but these professionals ate a lot, spent a lot, and earned little. Although the sale of exotic meats had always been the fortress's own funding, most of it had already been spent.

The rest had to cover the daily expenses of this large group.

With the upcoming beast tide, the fortress wanted to gain resource support from the Church, and the money that should go to the Church couldn’t be saved...

There were expenses everywhere!

After thinking about it, Ed said to Lindbergh, "General, we can at most come up with two million now. We really can't spare any more funds."

Lindbergh, for once, looked somewhat embarrassed. Even the Knights of the Thorns could easily come up with this amount, but the fortress genuinely couldn’t gather the funds.

In fact, Lindbergh himself might be able to come up with this amount, but the fortress's accounts were genuinely insufficient.

And even if he considered this place his own stronghold, a general subsidizing money out of his own pocket would still attract criticism. Even if Michael wouldn’t think too much of it, Lindbergh didn’t want people to say he had ulterior motives.

Lorant hadn’t anticipated that the fortress would be this poor. He looked at Lancelot, who silently shook his head, indicating that it really wasn’t a ploy by Lindbergh; they genuinely couldn’t come up with the money.

"Uncle Lindbergh," Lorant, not wanting the situation to remain deadlocked as it was against his interests, had to say, "If it’s really impossible to come up with the money immediately, I do have a proposal."

Lindbergh looked up quickly, "Speak, young Lorant!"

"First of all, the price for the annual package is directly paid to the military, which means you folks don’t actually need to bear the full cost of this fortress. If the other four fortresses want to use the Devouring Frog's ability, they will definitely need to pay as well."

"Secondly, if it still doesn’t work, I can lower the price a bit, but there will be other conditions."

"If the beast horde really descends, Pokara will certainly see a large number of alien beasts. First, I hope to obtain a batch of cheaper raw materials. Second, I want to take this opportunity to properly boost my military merits, and hopefully gain a sufficiently large territory after the horde."

Lorant looked at Lindbergh and said, "At the same time, if any beasts I need appear during the horde, I hope the military will assist me in capturing them."

His meaning was quite simple: if there’s no money, then there are two paths—either gather funds, or compensate from other areas.

For example, military merits, or cheaper alien beast meat.

Or, for instance, some high-end combat power itself.

Lindbergh thought for a moment. Lorant’s demands weren’t too harsh, and he had no reason to disagree. "Alright, I agree to everything you’ve said. As long as it doesn’t affect the bigger picture, even if you want a powerful beast of level 10 or higher, I can capture it alive for you."

"However, I still hope that you can sign a contract directly with our fortress."

Lindbergh had his own thoughts. This kind of combat power was enough to make them shine in the upcoming horde.

What bad intentions could a General have? He just wanted to outshine his peers.

Lorant didn’t mind. He just nodded. "No problem, I can offer a price of two million and the conditions mentioned above. How about it?"

Ed glanced at Lindbergh, then turned and nodded. "No problem, we can sign the contract later."

"By the way, Uncle Lindbergh, I have a question for you. Do you have these materials?" Seeing Lindbergh’s earlier confidence about not putting level 10+ beasts in his eyes, Lorant suddenly thought of something.

He handed a list from his space bracelet to Lindbergh. It contained high-level materials like dragon bones, which were exactly what he needed for his codex incubation.

Lindbergh took it and couldn’t help but click his tongue. "These materials, young Lorant, are a bit too precious."

"Let me see, hmm, the heart’s blood of a level 12 alien beast, I do have that. What? Do you need these materials?" Lindbergh’s finger slid down the list and he looked up.

Lorant didn’t hide anything. "That’s right, I need these materials for an experiment. Uncle Lindbergh, if possible, could you spare the blood for me?"

Lindbergh thought for a moment, then waved his hand. "No problem! My bottle of the Gemstone Demon’s heart blood is with Diana. I’ll get it for you when I have time."

Lancelot, seeing that the two parties had reached an agreement, finally spoke up. "There’s no need to rush with that. I’ll go get it myself later. What’s important today is to arrange the Devouring Frog’s lodging first. By the way, what’s the current situation at the camp?"

Lindbergh's expression darkened as soon as he mentioned the current situation: "The number of alien beasts has increased again, and it is expected to officially begin within three days."

"The scale of this event is not expected to be small. Michael has already prepared to fully withdraw into the fortress. The fortifications around the fortress are being restored right now."

"The beast tide is about to arrive."

The arrival of the beast tide caught many people off guard.

As the largest mountain pass in Lopulo currently, Pokara hasn't seen a large-scale beast tide for many years.

In just one night, the entire forward camp was completely overrun.

The overwhelming tide of beasts directly reached the foot of the fortress.

The fortifications Lindbergh spoke of had already been raised in advance. Unlike the Black Forest, the fortifications here were not a thin magical barrier.

A massive wall, dozens of meters wide and hundreds of meters high, rose from the ground, connecting the five fortresses together.

It stood as a towering barrier against the barbaric flood on the open plain.