408 Saleen’s Skeleton Part 2 (2/2)

To eat meat? He had to buy in bulk, if he were to build his own farm and raise the livestock, how much land would he need?

These soldiers had families too and to let them fight peacefully, their family needed to be taken care of. A private soldier and a common recruited soldier were different concepts. The families of these soldiers were his men too. No matter who the enemy was, even if the pope was standing in front of them, these soldiers would charge without hesitation.

Why were private soldiers so loyal? It was because the entire family counted on the leader. So long as the wealthy did not die, he would be responsible for the lives of the family members. The empire limited the number of private soldiers and at the end of the day, it was because they were afraid of a rebellion by the wealthy.

Saleen had to use his money wisely now. As long as Lex was not back, the amount of money he could put in was limited. He had more than two-thousand Cascausus warriors with him now and that was already a formidable force. It was still insufficient to hold onto such a big city. His city lacked a true teleportation portal and the one on the Pan's Turtle alchemical boat could only teleport a few meters away. A true teleportation portal could transport distances over few thousand miles.

Like the dimension portal, it could only be completed with Lex's Gods Ring. It was not something that could be solved with money.

Luckily he had found an island which was worth a handsome amount. It was rich in minerals. If he had not found it the money needed for Saleen to buy resources would have been a pain in the ass. Even though his expenses to the Oceanic Ice Block were a lot, if he bought equipment from the four families directly, he might as well die.

No matter how good his relationship was with Aini, he would not dare sell the equipment at a lower price. It was prohibited by the empire. A large part of the Clyde family's revenue had to go to paying taxes, if not how would the emperor trust the four families. No other families entered this business because the emperor did not want to hand over such things to a higher-grade wealthy. Once any duke could run a mine, it would become a disaster for the empire.

Saleen realized the minerals did not have to have their profits slashed at Holy Rock City. Any place that was not the empire's territory he could take as his magic territory, just like Alchemy City. In the islands outside of Alchemy City, there were bound to be precious mines too.

Saleen did not care that much about these mines at first. After hearing Aini explaining the related problems, he suddenly understood. In comparison to the mines, the revenue from the magic nuclei did not matter. Even though they were more valuable than metals, it was not controlled by anyone and it could not be controlled.

If Saleen did not have a huge mineral reserve to buy weapons, he would need to bear a heavy price. No matter how much money he had, he would not be able to hold back against other's raising their prices.

His heart started beating fervently. Within his room, over eighty skeletons stood motionlessly. He had to quickly create smaller boats to let these skeletons go out to sea to explore the mineral vein. He did not need to many. If he found another three to five more similar islands, Saleen could ensure that his weapon production would not be limited by others in the future.

He did not feel safe entrusting this to anyone, luckily the winged skeleton could discipline these evolved skeletons. He needed to let these skeletons quickly finish their transformation in the spirit pool, if not they would die soon.

”If this carries on, I would become a death mage,” he thought and sighed inwardly.

A death mage was lucky to have so many trustworthy spirits to count on. Their contract was mutually beneficial, but what about elemental mages? Besides magic chords, there was nothing they could count on.

He was still too young and had oversimplified the building of the city. Saleen thought that with his teacher's support and Lex's assistance, this would not be a big problem. Now, his city wall had not even finished being built and only the city center was completed. The port had taken up much time too and if the entire city building was overseen by him, he would not have any more energy to train his magic.

No wonder no mage was willing to work for the wealthy. For them, this time wasted was indeed a stupid thing.

Who else around him could do it? Jola and the magic beast swordsmen had decent combat abilities but they did not have this skill. Sika? She had to manage the Cascausus people, they would only get more upset without Sika. It would be unlikely that Saleen could command them directly. He could forget about the barbarians, they could only hunt and fight. Nailisi? When she was upset, she could not care about any future problems and would even kill those around her. The demon had to be controlled by his side.

He could not count on the mages from Sregl Island either. They were trustworthy, but they could not be used to manage talents. The swordsmen from Sregl Island were loyal but beside fighting, they did not care about anything else.

The only one he could count on by his side now was Aini. Without his reminder, he might not have taken much notice of that island. Someone from a business family was the most suitable for managing. Aini was a mage and he would not focus too much on things like that however.

Irene? Forget it, he had already given up on her.