"My lord, this is a medium-sized iron mine. The mine contains a very high amount of iron and the Orcs only mined a small portion of it.
"In particular, the majority of iron ore I saw seemed to have almost 30% iron content. It's already very good inside a medium-sized iron mine!" An Elven ranger ran over hurriedly, holding a few pieces of iron ore as he happily explained.
When the other warriors heard this news, they could not help but smile.
That was right.
A middle-sized iron mine contained at least millions of tons of iron ore, as well as plenty of haematite. As the mineral vein was large enough, they could dig more mining caves, allowing for more parallel digging. As long as there were enough people, they could dig up at least three tons of iron ore every year. If they refined the iron, there would be a lot less, but the selling price would be higher.
However, when the iron content was high, the selling price would increase significantly.
At a normal mining speed, without any accidents, the mine could last for a few decades at least.
Although to others, this was a game, and iron was not worth anything to normal players, to a Lord like him, it was a very precious item.
Just by relying on the iron mine alone, he could earn nearly 10,000–20,000 gold coins in a year.
One gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10000 copper coins.
Although there were not many gold coins, having a continuous production was very important. Besides, his territory required a lot of iron.
Moreover, he was poor! In his previous life, he could spend ten thousand gold coins with a wave of his hand even though his heart still ached for it…
He had too many people to take care of now. If he wanted to expand his territory and build an even larger neutral faction, hundreds of thousands of gold coins alone would not be enough. Lords and unaffiliated players could not be compared.
"Now that the territory finally has a mine that we can earn from, let's go back and choose our workers to start immediately. You will all be rewarded with 5 silver coins!" William did not hesitate. It was just an iron mine, so it did not matter if the news spread. There was no need for the two dukedoms next to them to send their armies to wipe out Border Town just for twenty thousand gold coins a year.
Border Town had survived as a neutral faction for a long time. It was once under his father's leadership and now it was under his, together with many pure-blooded Elves from Blackleaf Forest. As long as he didn't participate in the fight between the two nations or expose his treasures, the enemy wouldn't attack them.
After all, no one wanted to provoke the Blackleaf Forest's Elves!
Although they didn't know William Blackleaf very well, they knew that he was very important to the Blackleaf Elves because he owned 500 Elven guards…
"Thank you, my lord." The Elven warriors all cheered happily.
Lautner smiled slightly. He pointed to the dead bear in the trap and said, "What about this Intermediate magical beast? We cannot sell its hide anymore. If we could, a complete giant wild bear's hide so big could sell for at least 1000 gold coins! If we sell its meat, we can get at least 800 gold coins!"
William thought for a while. "Never mind. This giant wild bear is at least 4000 kilograms. Its meat possesses significant magic, so let's keep it for ourselves. Every warrior that came with me will get 5 pounds of meat while the warriors guarding our home will receive 2 pounds."
"Thank you, my lord! May the glory of the World Tree always bless you!" This time, the gratitude was completely different as the Elven warriors became very fond of William.
Items that could increase a person's strength were hard to find. 5 pounds of magical beast meat was priced at about 10 silver coins, but the truth was that it would be hard to buy precious magical beast meat even with 50 silver coins.
This reward was very generous for any Lord.
Besides, none of them were injured and he didn't leave out the guards that had been left in town either. This definitely showed that the Lord had really changed this time! At least, his character was pretty good!
However, William kept the bear's large head. Of course, he wasn't going to eat all of it. No matter how good an Intermediate magical beast tasted, he would get sick of eating it.
Although William was both an NPC and a player, there wasn't a maximum amount of meat he could eat and he could still keep the bear meat to use it as a future reward as well.
To a professional, using such a thing as a reward was much more valuable than gold coins. The value was also much higher.
After all, William had missions available for him to level up. The other NPCs could only depend on food, fights, and training to improve their strength.
"My lord, is this little guy hungry?" Norton was currently carrying the three bear cubs. Since they only had a thin layer of white fur to cover themselves, he had no choice but to take off his inner shirt and wrap it around them, afraid that one of them might fall sick. If that happened, his sin… would be unimaginable.
"Let's go back now. Get a ten-member ranger team to keep watch and see if anyone else has found this mine. Once we return, we'll send the miners and troops to swap shifts!" William carried one of the cubs. The cub seemed really hungry, so he needed to get some milk to feed them as soon as they returned.
As soon as their voices fell, William Blackleaf led his men back in a hurry. The mine was about eight kilometers away from Border Town. It wasn't too near, but it wasn't too far either.
The main point was that the mountainous roads were hard to walk on. If they wanted to clear this mine, they would have to make a road. If not, it would be impossible to transport the iron ore.
On their way back, thinking of this William felt an impending headache.
Axing trees required money, but making a road required money as well.
However, there were a lot of weirdos and poor people in Border Town. As long as there was money, these people would do anything.
There was no other choice.
They were part of the neutral faction.
There were too few good citizens. People who were able to survive here were basically thugs. If they didn't possess some crazy hatred for someone, they were wanted criminals that didn't dare appear in the light faction. That was why they could only live in the neutral factions.
Back when his father was still around, he had used his own ability to make many criminals become obedient workers and soldiers.
The moment he disappeared, this group of soldiers was the ones to show their true colors the quickest…
However, the good thing about having thugs was that they were strong and had good combat skills. There were even many professionals who were not. As long as they were powerful enough and were tempted by money, it would be easy for them to help.
Two hours elapsed.
A group of soldiers, with armor drenched in blood, finally walked out of the forest and arrived back at Border Town.
Many free peasants glanced towards them in surprise and they all started to chat among themselves. What magical beast was this five-meter tall giant bear?
It must be a magical beast. No normal animal could grow to this size.
"This is a giant wild bear, an Intermediate magical beast! Or it could be an Advanced magical beast!" someone said suddenly, a hint of interest flashing in their eyes.
After all, this was an Intermediate magical beast. Its meat tasted pretty good and was able to increase their strength.
"Oh my god, there are even bear cubs and there are three of them! Could it be…" When the people saw the cubs in William's arms, envy filled their hearts at the sight of the cubs that had yet to open their eyes.
The first person they saw after they opened their eyes would be their master!
As long as these three cubs could grow up healthily, they would be the best weapon on the battlefield.
William walked proudly, ignoring this group of dishonest peasants. The reason he had dragged the journey out to two hours was that he didn't want to decapitate the giant bear. He wanted to let them see this bear and show off his guards' capability at the same time so that they wouldn't cause trouble.
"Milk. Bring some milk now! I want to feed the bears!"
"I'm sorry, my lord. We only have lamb milk right now!"
"… Just bring that then!"
"We have very little lamb milk as well. If we want to raise the cubs, we will have to… head to Iron Dukedom to buy some!"
"…Buy it!"