The Small Town's expansion had continued for seven or eight days, mobilizing more than half the idle people in town. As long as they were paid, nothing was a problem.
They blasted through mountains and built roads directly connecting the Iron Ore Vein and the Mithril Vein.
The Mithril Vein had not been occupied by the Orcs, so William naturally intended to mine it. After all, no one ever complained about having too much Mithril.
They expanded the streets and repaired the houses.
He consolidated all the buildings in town and planned to designate six residential districts.
Humans, Half-Elves, Elves, Dwarves, barracks, blacksmith shops, and various manufacturing rooms.
Of course, entertainment and cultural facilities could not be neglected either.
A bathhouse had to be built. Many Commoners had complained to him that there were no public baths in town, only the Rainbow River. Men did not really care; they could find an empty spot, strip naked, and go pick up soap...
Women, however, had to carry water back home, which was truly troublesome.
Most of their daily water also came from the Rainbow River. The thought of that felt awful, like something was stuck in one's throat!
Even worse, many single men knew perfectly well what even worse things they had done in that river before, such as with fish...
At the same time.
William also wanted to build a magnificent central fountain over the Rainbow River, with Mages and Dwarves working together to handle the technical details.
The thriving Border Town also put the Commoners of the territory at ease.
Many races lived together in town, yet there were not many communication barriers. After all, this was the Legendary Continent...
Everyone spoke the Common Language...
Although every race had its own language, those were mainly used for communication within their own race.
As for inconveniences caused by different living habits?
William had already done his best to separate their residential areas. If there really were any inconveniences, they could roll up their sleeves and settle it themselves. He could serve as the Referee...
The Dwarves had excellent construction Talent. If appearance was not taken into account, every building they constructed gave people a sense of security. Their skill in building fortifications was among the best on the Gods Continent.
However, Dwarves were best at forging. They were also highly talented at researching new equipment. Though they could not compare with Goblins in that regard, they were still outstanding.
The blazing sun hung high in the sky, while insects chirped and birds sang.
Whether in town or deep within the dense primeval forest, there was no sense of coolness.
The damp air in the forest only made people feel more stifled. The trees felled while clearing roads were not wasted either; they were carried back to town as building materials.
Odom carried a massive tree that took three people to wrap their arms around by himself, then threw it onto the ground with a crash that sent dust flying.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, picked up a waterskin, and poured its contents directly over his golden hair, which gleamed brilliantly beneath the sunlight.
This was the thirty-second tree he had carried back!
It had to be said.
Professionals had greater advantages when doing hard labor, and they earned more money too...
Dressed only in a white linen shirt, his chest was slightly exposed, and his scarred, muscular body was faintly visible beneath the fabric, carrying an alluring air.
He looked at William, who was drinking fruit juice. "The full-scale construction of the Small Town is taking too much time. I don't even know when it will truly be finished."
William rubbed Second Bear, who was biting his pants. "How long will it take?"
"The town has 4,300 residents and 800 soldiers. Of those, 300 soldiers are permanently stationed at the two mines as guards and overseers. Right now, only 2,700 people can participate in expanding the Small Town.
"At our current manpower, even if we build houses day and night without stopping and only construct the fortifications afterward, it will still take around half a year.
"That is because many of the workers are Professionals. Otherwise, it would take even longer."
Odom took a drink of water and continued, "I understand your plan. You want to build a sufficiently complete foundation, even an underground system, to lay the groundwork for future expansion. But with this construction method, there are too few people. It really will take a long time."
William kicked Big Bear away when it kept gnawing on his shoes and said bluntly, "I'll think of something. I'll go to the Blackrock Duchy and buy a batch of slaves!"
"How many Gold Coins does the town have left?" Odom twitched his mouth. Building a town was not free; everyone had to be paid.
"Don't we have Iron Ore? The Iron Ore produced recently, along with quite a bit of Iron Essence, should sell for more than 500 Gold Coins. And then there's the Mithril..." At this point, both William and Odom grew somewhat dejected.
The Mithril the Dwarf Race had mined over several years had all been refined, totaling as much as 1,680 jin!
What did that mean?
It meant a fortune!
Mithril was as light as a feather and as tough as Dragon Scale. That was somewhat exaggerated, but Mithril was several times harder than steel while weighing less than half as much.
With 1,680 jin of Mithril and a sufficiently skilled Blacksmith, they could forge 3,360 pieces of Silver Equipment.
Or it could be used as magical materials for Mages, with countless applications.
In short.
One jin of Mithril could be exchanged for at least 100 Gold Coins.
The scarcer Mithril was in a region, the more valuable it became. In a place like the Blackrock Duchy, which produced no Mithril at all and relied entirely on imports from other countries, it would not be impossible to charge nearly 150 Gold Coins for one jin of Mithril if they truly wanted to name a price. It was even the sort of thing that had a price but no market.
Iron Ore, however, could hardly fetch much. The name Steel Duchy made that obvious enough. It had three to five Iron Ore Veins within its borders, so much steel that they practically had to throw it away. It had to be said, this was truly a sad story...
That was why William had chosen the Blackrock Duchy as the place to trade.
The two Duchies were currently in an extremely tense situation. The Late King of the Blackrock Duchy had been bedridden due to old injuries and was barely clinging to life, looking as if he might go to Hell at any moment.
This situation had also given the Steel Duchy some dangerous ideas. They were preparing to start a war.
Therefore, certain critical war resources would definitely not be sold to the Blackrock Duchy. Even with private trade among Nobles, the quantities would be very limited. As a result, Iron Ore could also fetch a decent price in the Blackrock Duchy.
But no matter how the princes of the Blackrock Duchy fought for power or how incompetent they were, once Dawn City exposed the existence of something as precious as Mithril, it would draw the attention and greed of many people.
"How about carving some markings onto it?"
"Hm?" William did not understand. Only after Odom explained did he gradually grasp the idea.
Odom had certain unique methods that could imprint the insignias of other countries onto Mithril. The one he was most proficient with was the insignia of the former Lonely Mountain Empire...
This method could make others believe their Mithril had been obtained somewhere else rather than mined from a Mithril Vein.
"But if we really imprint another country's insignia, we can't sell too much Mithril. Otherwise, it'll arouse suspicion!" William had no good solution for the moment.
They could also sell Mithril elsewhere, such as in a different region.
But he had neither the time nor a flying mount. This lousy place did not even have a teleportation array or a Spatial Gate. They would surely be robbed along the way.
The place where he had appeared was basically a Novice Village. Even the strongest people here were only above level sixty. If he encountered them, he could at least struggle and resist. If they truly tried to kill him without mercy, William could still try to sweet-talk them...
But if he left the Novice Village to roam around, even if Lotner fought with his life on the line, he would not be able to guarantee William's safety.
"Lotner!"
"Lotner!" William suddenly shouted in delight. His excited expression made Odom take several steps back, thinking there might be some filthy relationship between the two that went beyond friendship.
"Who says we have to trade with humans? We can obviously trade with Elves!" William slapped his forehead. He had been a player for too long in his previous life and still retained a player's habits, forgetting the advantages brought by his current identity.
Although Border Town was very far from Dark Night City, he knew that more than a hundred li to the east stood a prosperous Elf town inhabited by many Black Leaf Elves.
He could sell part of the Mithril to those Elves, then use the Gold Coins to purchase other supplies from the Human Duchy.
It would be more troublesome, but the safety factor would increase enormously.
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