579 Black Dragon King Part 2 (1/2)
The element mage knew that those three bandits were false dragon knights and the silver grand swordmaster would definitely be able to deal with them. With the silver grand swordmaster in front of him, he would be able to cast spells with confidence and assurance. At most, he would use the scrolls given to him by the Rolande family and protect the lady.
The mage had already made up his mind to go all out and use the scrolls that he had been unwilling to use until now. If he had known that back then, Saleen and Lex had destroyed more than 10,000 scrolls in order to subdue the metal titan, he would not have been able to bear that thought, and his heart would have bled in pain.
Mages like him that depended on noble families were actually very poor. A middle-grade magic scroll would cost at least 1,000 gold coins, and that was just the price of an empty scroll. If he could create such a scroll on his own and infuse it with spells successfully, his profit would have been 100 gold coins. Vice versa, his expenses would also be 100 gold coins if he failed.
The equipment worth 100,000 gold coins clad all over his body was all given to him by the Rolande family. If he could only depend on himself, he would probably still be stagnating as a grade-two mage.
Aini made 200 corpse soldiers stick against the wooden wall before entering Saleen's barrack. Su jumped down from the rooftop and blocked Aini's path.
”Mage Aini, our incoming opponents are beast knights. The element mage will not be able to handle them on his own. Let me help.”
”Your weapon…” Aini looked at Su, meaning that he should look for Saleen for a proper weapon. The weapon that Su held at the moment would not be suitable for dealing with knights.
Su was wearing magic armor with his mask still on. On his back was a long sword, with another half-sword on his waist. The knights of the black dragon bandit gang were all armed with long weapons.
”No worries, I know what to do.” Su waved his hand and pulled Aini back to the front door of the camp. Behind both sides of the wooden walls were corpse soldiers.
In the barrack, Narnia felt uneasy and asked Saleen, ”We really don't have to go out and help?”
”The enemy's main forces are not here yet. No hurry.”
”Not yet?”
”Yes. Those forces that have been settled by the mage must have been heavy infantrymen. You have been with Lex for a long time. You must know how much a suit of armor of a heavy infantryman costs.”
”Minimally 700 to 800 gold coins. If they are magic armor, 10,000 may not even be enough.” Although Narnia was a lifestyle mage, she was still knowledgeable about weapons.
”It took two rounds of grade-five spells to settle them, so surely each suit of armor must cost about 2,000 gold coins? So 100 soldiers alone would cost 200,000 gold coins. These heavy infantrymen would need at least two horses each and to be served by another two servants. Every ten of them would require a wagon. In total, these 100 men cost 300,000 gold coins. Were they really bandits? If they were, how many caravans do you think they would need to rob to gather so much money?”
”They are actually conventional armies!” Narnia's voice tightened. The laws dictated that sales of weapons of every empire came with expensive taxes. If the weapons were ordered by the empire's armies, then the prices would be much lower. Otherwise, the emperor would never be able to afford any armies.
”Not exactly. Over at Laiyin Duchy and even Sikeqinya, it is not uncommon for noblemen to create their own weapons in private. People with connections will be able to buy them at a cheaper price. A basic suit of heavy armor, excluding manpower, only costs about ten gold coins each.”
”That's so cheap!” It was the first time Narnia was hearing about this.
”Of course, but the mines were always under the control of the royal family so the noble families could only mine a small area in private. Why would merchants from around the country travel to Metatrin to buy ores, otherwise? That's because the profits are high. Even if the cost was 80 percent of the total revenue, they would still profit.”
”So, what is your plan?”
”To be able to carry out an attack of such a large scale on this road, the mastermind must be someone of significance. If we allow him to continue hiding in the shadows, he will pose a threat to Metatrin sooner or later. After this round of attack, we will leave immediately. I will pass a message to Lex, asking her to find an excuse to occupy Telensu Town and build three castles that will be able to look out for each other and control this trading route for the time being.”
”Three castles will not be enough.” Narnia was knowledgeable. She knew that a castle, even without any inhabitants, could only contain 1,000 soldiers. Three castles meant 3,000 soldiers, which would not be enough to maintain order on this road.
”It has to be small scaled. If we scare these people away, they will not dare to attack anymore.” Saleen smiled. If he built castles here, the enemy would definitely think of ways to get rid of them. What Saleen was most afraid of was that these people would disappear without a trace. He would not be able to deploy people just to track them down.
Rather than let these people continue hiding, he might as well lure them out.
Su came to the front door of the camp and drew his long sword. This sword had been refined for him by Saleen according to his preferences. The sword was black in color and concealed many magic patterns. Without these patterns, it would have just been a normal eight-sided Qin sword.