Traces of the Wild Tribes

Lynn climbed the bare, pointed hill with Second Brother.

The hill was covered in loose gravel and looked entirely unremarkable.

However, the mining hammer icon on his map reminded Lynn that a mineral deposit existed beneath his feet.

The icon was translucent and flickering, indicating that the deposit was buried quite shallowly.

Under Lynn's command, the four of them picked up shovels and began to dig.

After only a few minutes of digging, Lynn unearthed a white, crystalline stone coated in dirt from the shallow layer of soil.

He didn't mind the filth; he scraped a bit off with his fingernail and tasted it on the tip of his tongue.

It was bitter, astringent, and salty, yet a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Second Brother noticed the movement and trotted over with his shovel. "Big Brother, did you find it?"

Lynn tossed the stone directly to him. "Taste it."

Second Brother followed suit, scraping a bit off with his nail and popping it into his mouth. His eyebrows immediately twisted into a knot, and he spat it out.

"Big Brother, what on earth is this?"

"Salt." Lynn's answer was short and powerful.

"Salt? Salt looks like this?"

Second Brother stared at the stone in his hand, puzzled. He had only ever seen coarse, snow-white salt grains; he had never seen raw, unprocessed salt ore.

"This is unrefined salt ore. Right beneath our feet, there is a salt mine of unknown scale buried here." Lynn shouldered his shovel and surveyed the pit where he had just dug up the ore.

Under the sunlight, the pit shimmered with a faint luster, as if countless First Kings of the North were winking at him.

The gold coins circulating in the North were known as "Northern Gold Shields," named for their resemblance to round shields.

The obverse of the coin bore the portrait of the current King of the North, while the reverse featured a longsword pointing straight to the sky, symbolizing the great achievements of the First King of the North in conquering the region.

"Salt... a salt mine?!"

Second Brother's breathing grew rapid, and his gaze toward the ore in his hand turned increasingly fervent.

Before today, he hadn't known what salt ore looked like, but he knew that salt could make a man wealthy.

In the North, salt was a royal monopoly; the profits were self-evident.

"Big Brother, can we sell salt from now on?"

Second Brother usually wouldn't blink an eye when killing a man, but faced with this immense, heaven-sent fortune, his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

Lynn was far less excited than Second Brother.

He could see the gold coins buried beneath the salt mine, but he could also see the murderous glint flickering upon those coins.

Those with the guts to sell illicit salt might not have the life to enjoy the profits.

Selling private salt in the North was equivalent to challenging the massive interest group headed by the King. The Marsh Duke was likely a member of that chain of interest as well, and crushing a tiny White Bear Territory would be as easy as play.

Furthermore, it was not certain they could even mine the salt safely.

Sure enough, after Second Brother circled the small hill, he quickly discovered traces of human excavation on the northern side that had been covered up.

"Big Brother, could it be that people from the territory are secretly mining the salt?"

Second Brother instinctively assumed that the Territory Steward, Old Albert, and the others were stealing the salt.

Old Albert had previously tried his best to dissuade Lynn from patrolling the forest, surely to hide the existence of the salt mine.

Add to that the Baroness who had tried to seduce his Big Brother the moment they arrived.

It all matched up; everything matched up.

Second Brother even darkly concluded that the poor former Baron must have been murdered by Yagna and Old Albert in a conspiracy to seize the salt mine.

They were likely still plotting to harm his Big Brother now.

Lynn squatted before a pit dug by human hands, carefully observing the various marks within it, and then analyzed, "No, it should be the Wild Tribes from the north."

"Wild Tribes?" Second Brother had already been contemplating how to interrogate Old Albert, and he couldn't help but look surprised at Lynn's conclusion.

"The excavation marks are very fresh, and the cross-sections of the rock are rough, which shows that the miners only recently discovered this salt mine. The tools used were relatively primitive, and the pit is located on the north side of the hill. Taken together, it is highly probable that the miners are Wild Tribes."

After saying this, Lynn stood up and looked around, discovering quite a bit of fresh wild animal excrement near the mine.

"The Wild Tribes must have inadvertently discovered this salt mine while hunting. Open-air salt mines in the wild easily attract large animals."

Since discovering the peat mine two days ago, Lynn had unlocked the [Gathering] function, and knowledge regarding various mineral deposits had appeared on his panel.

Now that his [Farming] had grown to level two, he simply reassigned all five of his followers to this salt mine.

Second Brother, Albert, and the other five pixelated figures soon began swinging their pickaxes on the salt mountain.

[Gathering experience +1]

[Level 1 Gathering: 1/100]

"Big Brother, if it really is the Wild Tribes, what should we do?"

Second Brother's expression was slightly dazed.

As a horse bandit, he usually cut down noble knights; he lacked combat experience against the Wild Tribes and knew very little about them.

"No rush. Let's head back first."

Judging by the traces near the salt mine, Lynn believed the Wild Tribes hadn't discovered it long ago.

This meant the group of Wild Tribes had only recently migrated near the White Bear Territory, which aligned with Old Albert's description.

As for why the Wild Tribes hadn't stayed permanently near the salt mine, they were likely afraid of being discovered by the people of the White Bear Territory.

The brutal war thirty years ago must have terrified the Wild Tribes.

It had taken a full thirty years for them to dare to tentatively migrate south.

Lynn's preliminary plan was to levy corvée labor this summer to connect the White Bear Territory with the peat mine and the salt mine via roads.

Before the roads were completed, he would continue to explore the forest and attempt to establish effective communication with the Wild Tribes.

A peaceful resolution was best.

What Lynn needed most urgently right now, besides money, was population.

The White Bear Territory did not lack land; vast stretches of high-quality, humus-rich soil were waiting for people to cultivate them.

Although the Wild Tribes were uncivilized, farming in the North was not exactly high-tech work.

With careful instruction for a period, they would make the best farmers.

As for today, they could only return to the territory first.

After all, Lynn only had three people with him; no matter how strong their martial prowess, they feared being swarmed.

Who knew how many people were in this southward-migrating Wild Tribe?

The prerequisite for a peaceful resolution was having the confidence to resolve it by force.

Next time he explored the northern forest, he would bring more men and dispatch multiple small teams to search for traces of the Wild Tribes.

Overall, Lynn was already very satisfied that his first exploration had yielded a large peat deposit and an open-air salt mine, while also clearing a large portion of the map's fog.

Just as their group packed their belongings and headed south to return to the White Bear Territory, Yagna walked out of the castle.

During the few days Lynn had been away, she had been tormented by the question he left behind, leaving her conflicted and unable to sleep at night.

After four days, Yagna even felt a sense of suffocation and urgently needed to leave the castle to clear her mind.

Old Albert, who was left to guard the castle, knew the importance of this woman to Lynn, so he didn't make things too difficult for her, merely sending two horse bandit lackeys to follow and monitor her.

Just after leaving the castle, having not walked many steps, Yagna noticed the new-style heavy plow moving through the strip fields.

This was a plow? But why did a plow have two wheels?