14: Obsidian and Rapid Fire Crossbow

But it would always be used, so Arthur secretly commissioned the Dawn Merchant Guild to collect it. If he obtained it again later, Arthur planned to duplicate it before drinking it; otherwise, such good things were hard to find.

Over a month had passed. Besides Arthur's strength increasing slightly, significant changes had also occurred in Mad Lion City.

First was the sale of the Golden Knight Kai within the city's Dawn Merchant Guild branch, which greatly increased the branch's popularity.

It also drew many eyes to this place; even some impatient Gold Knight powerhouses had rushed to Mad Lion City to buy the armor to get it sooner.

Coupled with the continuous implementation of the development decree, more and more riffraff gathered at the border, and the pressure on the Counts Mansion naturally grew.

Fortunately, Count Abergh was able to keep everything under control, so no major chaos had broken out for the time being.

As the number of transactions between Matt and the Dawn Merchant Guild increased, it was inevitable that some flaws would be noticed.

However, when those people tried to investigate further through Matt, they found that all the agents they sent out died violent deaths.

This was naturally the work of the Sky Knight in the shadows.

This greatly shocked various factions. Although they were still somewhat restless, at least they wouldn't act foolishly again in the short term.

The probing of these people and the fact that Arthur was about to head to the Barren Plains for development made Arthur realize that conducting transactions every ten days was too frequent.

After more than a month, the Dawn Merchant Guild branch in Mad Lion City had seen massive growth. Presumably, even if Arthur traded once a month now, the Dawn Merchant Guild could still gather enough gold coins.

With this thought, Arthur prepared to explain it to the Dawn Merchant Guild in five days when Matt conducted the next transaction.

Over this month, Matt had conducted a total of four transactions with the Dawn Merchant Guild, earning Arthur a net profit of 13.2 million gold coins.

This brought Arthur's total savings to 14.55 million gold coins. Even after buying another Sky Knight, he would still have over four million gold coins left, making Arthur feel completely secure once again.

Additionally, although Arthur was leaving for development in a few days, his development territory in the buffer zone had already been constructed.

That place was shaped like a small city. To guard against Orc attacks, it was surrounded by a fifteen-meter-high city wall.

The interior was the size of a small town, capable of accommodating 30,000 residents. Count Abergh had already relocated a population of 10,000 there, and it was garrisoned by 1,000 regular troops and two knight squads.

A knight squad consisted of one Silver Knight and nine Bronze Knights.

Thus, two knight squads meant two Silver Knights and eighteen Bronze Knights were stationed there.

This force was already enough to withstand small-scale Orc raids; an average Baron wouldn't even have this much military strength.

Fifty miles away from Arthur's town, other settlements began to appear, ranging in size.

Large ones were similar to Arthur's small city, while small ones had only a thousand people, a dozen houses, and two-meter-high earthen walls.

They were all ambitious people who wanted to claim land and become nobles with real power.

As for why there were no larger cities!

There were many reasons. One was that if your city was much larger than others, you would become the primary target for Orc attacks, often gaining no advantage.

If many people built similar small cities, they could share the Orcs' attention and endure longer.

Of course, this was a secondary factor and a sign of insufficient strength.

The real reason was that building a small city was already very expensive, and those who came to develop were not the most powerful group; they didn't have the ability to build larger cities.

Arthur was an exception; he just didn't want to expose himself too quickly and bring trouble!

Speaking of which, during these three months, the Orcs surprisingly hadn't attacked the various territories under construction.

This was thanks to the kingdom sending troops deep into the Barren Plains to wage guerrilla warfare against the Orcs, drawing their attention.

This laid a good Foundation for everyone to establish themselves in the Barren Plains.

Now, the construction of most territories was basically complete; even if given another three months, the rest wouldn't finish.

This meant the kingdom's army was about to retreat, and for the lords who came to develop, the real test was coming!

Of course, the reason Arthur and the others' territory construction was so fast was mainly due to earth mages.

They were a standard feature for the wealthy, while for those without money, when the Orcs arrived, their two-meter-high earthen walls would be their graves... A week passed quickly, and the new month, July, arrived. It was the day Arthur would leave Mad Lion City.

Two days ago, Matt conducted Arthur's last transaction in the city with the Dawn Merchant Guild. While bringing Arthur a profit of 3.3 million gold coins, the Dawn Merchant Guild also expressed the feasibility of conducting transactions once a month.

By now, Arthur's random shop had accumulated two duplication opportunities and two draw opportunities.

Before leaving, which was yesterday, Arthur used them all.

The two items obtained from the random draw were obsidian and a Gale Crossbow. Their descriptions were as follows:

"obsidian: Entirely black yet incredibly hard, comparable to steel. It can withstand powerful physical impacts while also possessing a degree of Spell resistance.

It requires an Earth Knight's full-strength strike to cause any damage.

Price: 10 gold coins per cubic meter."

"gale repeating crossbow: Capable of firing three arrows in succession, it is a powerful crossbow imbued with magical power. The fired bolts are as swift as the wind yet blend into it, silent and stealthy.

The power does not diminish within three hundred meters. If a Silver Knight is not wearing special protective gear, their Battle Qi alone cannot withstand its sharpness!

Price: 500 gold coins

Note: Bolts can also be purchased separately,

Ordinary iron bolts: 100 per gold coin

armor-piercing bolts: 10 per gold coin."

These two items were considered good, but compared to the things drawn the previous three times, they had clearly dropped a grade.

It seemed that a random draw wouldn't yield a rare item every time; it really depended on luck. In the future, he might even draw a tree branch.

Thinking of that scene, Arthur couldn't help but shudder.

Too terrifying!

As for the two duplication opportunities, Arthur used one to duplicate a bag of flour made from high-quality wheat.

After all, he would have to support so many people in the future and would certainly need food; it was better to be prepared.

As for why he didn't duplicate a wheat Sprite, Arthur felt that one Sprite could only increase the yield of a hundred acres of wheat, which was still too little.

If it were a Greater Spirit, he might consider it.

Besides, it was all for food; wouldn't it be better to just buy finished flour!

For the final duplication opportunity, Arthur realized that his team didn't seem to have anyone or anything capable of healing, so he prepared to look for something in that regard to duplicate.

Healing had always been what Life and Light mages were best at, and the Water element could also barely manage.