68: Decide

"Let's do it!"

Lister was currently in need of a large amount of money, and he certainly couldn't miss this opportunity to earn some.

However, facing a beast pack led by the powerful Silver Wolf King, the danger and pressure were not small.

Fifty gold coins was clearly a bit low in his eyes, so he prepared to raise the price with Viscount Connor Kimmler.

The reason he dared to have this idea was that he was certain Viscount Connor Kimmler would most likely agree, for two reasons.

First, Viscount Connor Kimmler was a noble lord enfeoffed by the royal family, and such territories were generally not very close to the lands directly managed by the crown.

Therefore, if Viscount Connor wanted to wait for the royal army to come to his aid, it would likely be too late by the time they arrived.

Since help from afar was out of the question, he had to seek help from nearby.

This led to the second reason: the strength of the territories surrounding Viscount Connor. Currently, aside from Lister's Ironthorn Territory, the Emerald Territory had the strongest overall strength.

However, Humphrey, the Viscount of the Emerald Territory, would never help because he and Viscount Connor had some conflicts in their early years.

He couldn't wait for Viscount Connor to suffer a heavy blow; how could he possibly help? Besides, he didn't lack those fifty gold coins.

In this way, even if other lords with insufficient strength were to help for the sake of those fifty gold coins, it would be difficult for them to deal with that Silver Wolf King.

When the time came, Lister would show a bit of his strength, and Viscount Connor, facing the threat of the beast pack, would have no choice but to agree.

As for going back on his word afterward, that was even more impossible. Nobles valued their reputation, and they wouldn't do something that openly damaged their credit.

After finalizing his plan, he looked at the second divination message.

"Kelvin Quint?" Lister was slightly taken aback.

Memories regarding this name quickly surged into his mind.

Kelvin Quint was the original host's only close friend since childhood. Unlike the original host's dull personality, Kelvin's character wasn't bad; he was the boisterous type who liked to take things easy.

But that was just a nice way of putting it; in reality, he was just idling his life away, with no great ambitions, only seeking to live a happy noble life for the rest of his days.

Precisely because of his personality, even though he was the youngest of Viscount Dickens Quint's three sons, he was not favored by Viscount Dickens.

This time, Viscount Dickens sending him to the Western Frontier Territory was clearly a sign of giving up on him. After all, Kelvin, like the old Lister, was a 'trash' in cultivation.

Furthermore, the overall strength of Viscount Dickens's territory was somewhat weaker than that of Lister's father, the old Viscount.

Therefore, the knight pioneer team provided to Kelvin would certainly have very few people, and their strength naturally couldn't be high.

This could be seen from the fact that his team couldn't even defeat a Rank Seven Bronze magical beast, not to mention comparing his resources to Lister's, who was an only son of a Viscount.

So, for such a team to arrive in the Western Frontier Territory, a place filled with danger, let alone developing, even living a stable life would be extremely difficult.

However, despite being in this situation, this guy actually thought about taking a detour to bring him a gift, which couldn't help but move him.

So, for the sake of this friendship, it was only reasonable for him to step in and save him, especially since he now had the strength to do so.

Then came the third divination message... Just after reading it, he felt a bit surprised, because when Kim had introduced his family situation earlier, he had mentioned the Benson Family as a hostile family.

He didn't expect that just as Kim had represented his family in becoming his vassal, this Benson Family would be plotting to cause trouble.

Without this timely divination message, the merchant caravan led by the uncle and nephew pair, Kim and Cole, would most likely have been ambushed and killed on their way back.

But now with his protection, the Benson Family would have to pay a price... The next morning, the sun on the horizon had not yet fully risen, and a small amount of sunlight, like golden silk, fell upon everyone at the training grounds.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

In the center of the training grounds, accompanied by the sound of longswords clashing fiercely, Lister and Spartacus were darting back and forth, swinging their swords and colliding.

Red and the others nearby watched this sparring match with rapt attention, occasionally letting out various exclamations of wonder.

Compared to before, Lister's combat techniques were now increasingly Proficient. Every move was swift and tricky, and the longsword imbued with battle qi energy was like a swimming dragon in his hand.

Although his realm was one stage lower than Spartacus's, by relying on his Proficient-level swordsmanship skills, he could still hold his own.

Boom!

With the sound of two crescent-shaped energy slashes slamming together, the sparring match came to a close.

The result was a draw!

At this moment, Red stepped forward and praised, "Lord Lister, your progress is truly too fast. According to the swordsmanship skills you displayed just now, I estimate it won't be long before you reach the Mastery Realm."

"To be able to reach such a rate of progress at your age, I'm afraid you are not inferior even to those master swordsmen."

Hearing this, various voices of agreement from the surrounding knights rang out continuously.

And Spartacus, who had personally experienced Lister's swordsmanship, had an even more admiring expression.

Lister gladly accepted everyone's praise, but he did not become arrogant because of it.

He knew very well why his swordsmanship had improved so quickly during this period; without the help of the purple soul fruit and the Spirit Essence Flower, it would have been absolutely impossible to progress so fast.

After encouraging the crowd with a few words, he ended his morning exercise and left the training grounds.

After having breakfast and listening to Brutus's daily routine report, he assigned some matters related to development, and then took Red and the Kim uncle-nephew pair to inspect Ironthorn Town.

Since he had already appointed the Kim uncle and nephew as Commercial Foreign Affairs Officers, he naturally couldn't let them stay idle.

The territory was in a period of rapid development, and their value should be utilized as early as possible.

The purpose of this inspection was mainly to determine the future direction of commercial development for Ironthorn Town.

On the street, Lister responded to the greetings of the townspeople while listening to Kim's analysis of Ironthorn Town's current commercial development direction.

Regarding their status as Commercial Foreign Affairs Officers, after careful consideration and discussing it with them to gain their consent, he did not immediately announce it to all the townspeople.

Since the Cole Family had quite a few competitors—though most were not mortal enemies—compared to before, now that they had the protection of a lord, those competitors would certainly pay more attention and be more wary.

Therefore, there would be more targeting in terms of business, which would lead the forces behind them to also pay attention to the Ironthorn Territory.

This was of no benefit to the Ironthorn Territory, which was currently in its early stages of development.

Making a fortune quietly was what Lister wanted. By the time he had money, the territory was better developed, and he had gained momentum, it would be too late for those noble lords to pay attention and target him.

Of course, his help to the Cole Family would still not be small; it just wouldn't be placed on the surface for the time being.

"Lord..."