After a short conversation, Han Shuo understood that Trunks had already gathered several dozen original Rainbow Sickle mercenaries to take on Florida. These people hadn't entered the valley yet, but were staying in a mountain cave on the outskirts of the valley, waiting for Trunks' orders.
Trunks was a former member of the Rainbow Sickles and had a wealth of experience as a mercenary. He was well versed in the operations of a mercenary band, and only lacked the funds to register a mercenary band and maintain its day-to-day operations. Phoebe controlled the Boozt Merchant Guild, and there were many ways to make money from that guild alone. Besides, the Boozt Merchant Guild was quite wealthy and could certainly fill the capital gap temporarily.
Emily had a huge intelligence network within the Dark Mantle. With her position and role, she could definitely provide Han Shuo and Trunks with a lot of valuable information.
Not only was Emily excited about their conversation, Phoebe was also very interested. Han Shuo was well aware of Trunks' abilities and strength. Han Shuo knew that once the mercenary band was established and running, their business wouldn't be too bad.
"Trunks, can you give me an estimate of how much gold you're still short of?" Han Shuo looked at Trunks and asked.
Han Shuo and Phoebe had both shown great interest up to this point. As the owner of the Boozt Merchant Guild, it wasn't difficult for Phoebe to solve the problem of lack of funds. Now that Trunks had heard Han Shuo's critical question, he replied with some excitement, "Registration depends on the number of members, and each member's salary, equipment, weapons and horses, as well as the band's facilities will require gold coins."
"At present, only fifty to sixty people have come to the Valley of Sunshine. They were all key members of the Rainbow Sickles before. If we use them as a base to form a new mercenary band, we'll only need twenty thousand gold coins to start. We may need to add to that in the future depending on the strength and number of members, but once our mercenary group's reputation is established and we have stable partners to work with, not only will we not need to invest any more gold, we'll be able to save money and slowly increase our strength!
Han Shuo looked at Phoebe and then at Trunks and smiled faintly, "I made great gains during our last trip to the Dark Forest. I think I can set up the mercenary band with the wealth I accumulated last time."
Han Shuo had obtained large amounts of gems and crystals from the dark elves and lizard men during his trip to the underground world. Not to mention his last haul of jewels from the forest trolls' sacred ground, which had been even larger than the last batch he'd given to Phoebe. When Han Shuo took out all the riches he'd collected during that time,
Phoebe, Emily and Trunks were all stunned and amazed!
Under the light of the lamps, the many glorious colours of the gems and beautiful jade shone. There was a small mountain's worth of wealth, and even wealthy people like Emily and Phoebe were momentarily stunned by the sight.
"Oh my goodness, where did you get all this? Emily exclaimed in astonishment, shock written all over her face.
"The last time you offered a pile of treasure, this time it was even bigger. Exchanging this amount of treasure for gold coins would net you at least fifty thousand gold coins, where did you get this?" Phoebe was equally surprised.
After a moment of stunned silence, Trunks shook his head with a wry smile, "I spent three years in the Dark Forest and hunted hundreds of magical creatures, but I only made less than ten thousand gold coins. You are certainly impressive!"
"Change all of this into gold coins for me, then take thirty thousand as an initial investment in Trunks' mercenary band. Keep the rest with you so you can collect the items I need!" Han Shuo smiled faintly and spoke to Phoebe.
Han Shuo had already trusted Phoebe quite a bit before they'd confirmed their relationship, and now that they had touched each other intimately, he naturally had even fewer reservations. Phoebe also felt that Han Shuo's trust was quite natural and nodded in acceptance. She laughed softly, "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything for you. The Valley of Sunshine is the best place to do business, I'll turn all these items into gold coins for you in the next two days!"
When Emily saw that Han Shuo had handed over such an enormous amount of wealth to Phoebe without any reservations, she became noticeably jealous. But she knew that Phoebe, as the owner of the Boozt Merchant Guild, was the most sensible person to handle this matter, so there was not much else she could do.
"Huh? Where did you get that bow?" Trunks suddenly walked over with a strange expression on his face as Phoebe was putting all the items away in her space ring. He picked up a bow with bizarre patterns and turned to ask Han Shuo.
Han Shuo suddenly remembered that this bow had belonged to the Dark Elves when Trunks had asked him this question. The original owner had expended all of his life force to shoot a single arrow, severely injuring Gilbert. After Han Shuo received this bow, he did some research and came to no conclusion. Add to that his lack of desire to expend his life force on shooting the bow, and he'd thrown it into his space ring without further question.
"I got it from a dark elf clan in the underground world. This bow is quite strange, it seems to be able to absorb one's life force to shoot a terrifying arrow!" Han Shuo explained.
"Oh my gosh, the legends speak of a bow cursed by Rose, this must be it! Legend has it that the evil goddess Rose of the Dark Elves once cursed this bow to absorb the life force of the wilderness and fire an arrow of terrifying power. Normally, only perverts seeking revenge at the cost of their own lives would use it!" Emily exclaimed, having heard of the legends surrounding this bow.
"Indeed, this is the bow. But I heard that this bow was a wonderful treasure that could increase thunder magic before it was cursed. When thunder magicians held the bow, they could use it to shoot out amazing electricity with great power." Trunks explained to Han Shuo as he held the bow.
"Keep it, perhaps someone in the future will be able to remove the curse from it. If the curse is removed, then this bow will become a treasure for thunder mages to fight over!" Emily thought for a moment and said to Han Shuo.
It's unlikely that many would dare to buy a bow that absorbs the life force of its wielder. As a magic cultivator, Han Shuo would be able to use his own magical yuan to create formations and forge magical weapons as his strength increased. Perhaps in the future, he'd be able to remove the curse on it.
Therefore, Han Shuo nodded to Emily's words and put down the bow, "All right, maybe in the future we can use an altar to communicate with the evil goddess so that she'll remove it. Let's try it in the future!"
After receiving Clarendon's memories, Han Shuo understood a bit about communicating with evil gods. The basic principle was that as long as you could provide something that the evil god wanted, you'd be able to receive a corresponding blessing from the evil god. It was really just a business transaction.
The sparkling and glittering jewels had been stored in Phoebe's space ring in a short span of time. Han Shuo thought for a moment and took out another set of dwarven forged weapons, handing a heavy battle axe to Trunks. Han Shuo smiled, "What do you think of this quality?"
Trunks' eyes had already begun to gleam when Han Shuo took out the weapons. He picked up the battle axe without another word. As he swung it once, a howling sound emanated from the shiny surface of the battle axe. A natural wave of cold killing intent emanated from the axe as Trunks held it in his hands.
"This is great! Where did you get it?" Trunks was delighted as he looked at Han Shuo.
"The dwarves forged all these weapons. Maybe there's something in this pile that's suitable for our comrades!" Han Shuo smiled faintly.
"Haha, I think they'll like it. Dwarf forged weapons are well known in the lands. I knew these were no ordinary items when you pulled them out just now!" Trunks happily accepted the weapons and placed them in his space ring.
He was silent for a while, then he looked at Han Shuo carelessly and smiled, "Chief, everything is ready now, and we are just waiting for you to come up with a catchy name!"
Han Shuo started after hearing these words, then smiled and waved his hand, "I only have to be vice-chief, that's enough for me. The real chief should be you, you decide the name of the band!"
Trunks was smiling when he suddenly turned serious and said gravely, "You must be the chief of the mercenary band. This matter is not up for discussion. I'd rather reject your good intentions if you refuse, and nothing we've talked about before will count for anything."
Emily and Phoebe had wanted to ask who the owner of the mercenary band was for a long time. However, it wasn't the right thing to do to actually open one's mouth and discuss it, so they had kept it to themselves and planned to take some time to discuss it with Han Shuo.
As far as the two girls were concerned, they would only help the mercenary band if the band belonged to Han Shuo. They didn't know Trunks and of course had no relationship with him. Even though Han Shuo and Trunks seemed to be close, they were naturally unwilling to risk their lives for Trunks.
The two girls became very attentive after Trunks mentioned what was bothering them. Their beautiful eyes kept looking between Han Shuo and Trunks, anxiously waiting for their decision.
"Trunks, I know nothing about forming and leading a mercenary band. It's a bit inappropriate for me to be the boss!" Han Shuo really didn't know what a mercenary band needed.
"No worries, all you need to do is give them general orders. I can take care of everything else for you as the deputy chief. Bryan, Miss Phoebe and Madame Emily will only help me if you're the chief. I don't have the charisma to get their support!" Trunks self-deprecatingly winked at Han Shuo.
"Eh, since that's the case, don't keep refusing!" Emily wasn't embarrassed at all, as if Trunks' words had been quite ordinary.
Phoebe also nodded with a distant expression and turned to Han Shuo, "That's right, I'll only help this mercenary band unconditionally if you're the boss."
"Alright, the men should be more decisive. Hurry up and decide on the name of the mercenary band so that I can register it and officially give my brothers a new home!" Trunks looked at Han Shuo and urged him on.
Han Shuo was actually more aware of the circumstances than anyone else. Seeing that everything that needed to be taken care of had been decided, he no longer hesitated and nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, then call it the Soul Destroyer mercenary band!"
"You're so wrong! You even thought of the name and said you didn't want the position. You had to make a show of turning it down, so shameless!" Trunks couldn't help but laugh and yell at Han Shuo when he heard that Han Shuo had immediately given out a name.
Emily and Phoebe both looked at Han Shuo questioningly. They too hadn't expected Han Shuo to come up with a name so quickly. Then they understood that Han Shuo had been planning to take control of the mercenary band for a long time, and he'd just put on a show of refusing.
"He's always been so shameless!" Emily and Phoebe both deeply agreed with Trunks' words and actually opened their mouths to say the same thing.
When they finished speaking, they realised that they'd actually said the exact same words. This made them quite amused as they began to giggle softly.
"Alright, let's call it the Soul Destroyer mercenary band. I'm going to go about my business, you too!" Trunks said.