69novels Page 129
Page 129
Many new recruits looked at these senior soldiers with pity after seeing them.
However, training this Blackrock Legion, which has doubled in size, and maintaining the operation of the large forging workshops naturally requires more financial expenditure.
Whether it's the soldiers having ample food or military supplies and equipment.
These are all large expenditures measured in thousands of gold coins.
And where there are expenses, there must be income.
Arthur's third development strategy was related to his economic lifeline, the rich black crystal mines of Frostraven.
Now, the mining of black crystals cannot bypass an important figure.
He was Livy, a merchant from the Western Regions.
Chapter 125 Count of the Ice Dragon, Orianna
Li Wei completed his three tests ahead of schedule in just three weeks and twenty-one days.
Two weeks ago, he assigned Gao Wen to escort Li Wei to the final test—the sale of the ink crystal ore mined in the third quarter before Li Wei's arrival in Blackrock Territory.
According to past experience.
The total value of this batch of black crystal ore is two thousand gold coins. The steward Leon is in charge of exporting it, and the income will fluctuate, ranging from one thousand nine hundred to two thousand one hundred.
But thanks to his own sales channels and eloquence, Li Wei earned 2,500 gold coins from this batch of ink crystal ore, which was worth 2,000 gold coins.
The substantial income from the territory made him completely look at this seemingly very thin young man with new respect.
Therefore, at present.
Arthur fulfilled his promise and contracted the mining of the Blackrock Crystal Mine to him, entrusting him with the economic lifeline of Blackrock's development.
at the moment.
The large-scale mining equipment designed by Li Wei, along with the top-notch miners he personally trained, is increasing rapidly and being deployed in multiple ink crystal mining sites.
Compared to the past, the mining efficiency of black crystal mines has increased several times over.
He estimated that, as long as the mining sites remain intact, the output of one quarter of black crystal mining could be equivalent to that of three quarters.
The thought of having ample funds to distribute in the future made Arthur even more confident in developing the military strength of Blackrock Territory.
In the training chamber of Blackrock Fortress.
With that thought in mind, he ended his practice for the day.
Subsequently.
He got up and changed into clean clothes:
The shirt is made of high-quality fine linen, which is breathable and very comfortable.
The lower body features finely woven wool trousers that are close-fitting and long, cinched at the waist with a brown monster leather belt.
Arthur didn't deliberately dress himself up, but the vigorous vitality he possessed as a knight, coupled with his golden, tousled hair and naturally handsome face, gave him a unique temperament and charm that set him apart from ordinary people.
After tidying up my appearance briefly.
He let out a long sigh before leaving the meditation chamber.
But what he didn't expect was.
As soon as he stepped out of the cultivation chamber, a familiar figure came into view.
—It was Gawain, a blond young man whose appearance and height were remarkably similar to his at first glance.
"Gawain, have you also broken through to the late stage of the Black Iron Rank?"
Upon meeting this loyal knight, Arthur immediately sensed that he was radiating a stronger life force than usual.
"Yes, Lord Arthur!"
Upon seeing Arthur, Gawain first gave him a respectful knightly salute, then responded with a bright smile:
"This is all thanks to the meticulous guidance you've given me over the past month, Butler Leon and Lord Arthur."
Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have improved so quickly!
Arthur looked at the bruises on Gawain's face that had not yet completely faded, and felt a strong sense of incongruity between them and his sincere words of gratitude.
He couldn't help but grin, thinking to himself:
Careful guidance? No, no, no, Butler Leon is just using you like a punching bag.
It turns out that ever since he brought Gao Wen, this unpolished gem of cultivation, back from Qingfeng Village and handed him over to the steward Leon for training.
After discovering Gawain's extraordinary talent for combat endurance, the butler Leon disregarded his status as a Silver-rank senior and put in his utmost effort during every training session.
They treated Gawain like a ball that had no feeling, and beat him from the east side of the training camp to the west side.
Then kick it from the north side of the training camp to the south side of the training camp.
Now, within the Black Rock Legion.
Many veterans and new recruits went from being utterly astonished by Gawain's resilience to taking it for granted, and even gave him a joking nickname, "Ball Knight."
Fortunately, in the month since he returned to Blackrock Territory and focused on its development, things have been going well.
Gawain's treatment at the training camp finally improved.
He often sparred with Gawain, instructing him on how to flexibly manipulate waveguide power and how to adapt flexibly to basic combat and swordsmanship.
Instead of being relentlessly beaten by a mid-level Silver rank knight.
now.
Compared to the wandering knight Gawain whom he first encountered in Qingfeng Village, who only knew how to act recklessly, Gawain's overall strength has now made a qualitative leap.
Of course, all of this is inseparable from the Lv.4 "Blessing of the Sun" bestowed upon him by the Knight's Heart of "Hot Pillow".
Just like his Lv.2 "Blessing of the Moon", which automatically absorbs the essence of the moon based on the duration of the night, transforming it into the life force needed by the knight, continuously strengthening the life seed, and thus breaking through the realm.
Gawain's Lv.4 "Blessing of the Sun" naturally helped him absorb the essence of the sun during the day, accumulating a large amount of life force, which brought his Black Iron Rank cultivation progress to the limit and also reached the late Black Iron Rank.
just now.
Like him, Gawain encountered an unavoidable bottleneck in his knightly training.
The next step is to stimulate the resonance between the "soul origin" and the seed of life, and establish a connection between the body and the soul, in order to break through and advance to the Silver Rank Knight.
Back to the present.
"Gao Wen, don't worry!"
Arthur wasn't too surprised when he heard the good news from Gawain, but he went up and patted Gawain on the shoulder:
"After I advance to Silver Knight, I will also help you advance to Silver Knight."
Without the aid of extraordinary external aids, it is very difficult for an ordinary Iron-rank knight to break through to Silver-rank knight through hard training alone.
Even someone like him, who recently experienced the resonance between the "soul origin" and the life seed within his body due to the unexpected phenomenon of the "power of the moon goddess" and the "power of the sun" around the life seed, had a chance to experience it ahead of time.
But now, it's impossible to recapture that initial feeling and rekindle the resonance between the two.
However, speaking of Gao Wen...
After saying those words, Arthur suddenly realized something:
His knight breathing technique has been elevated, and like Lancelot's, it is very likely to be of an excellent quality, surpassing his excellent quality "Flame Lion Breathing Technique".
He had heard from his butler Leon that this level of knightly breathing technique could not be understood using the common knightly training principles he had taught him.
Because his former master, his cheap father Richard Field, had practiced the unique, superior-grade knight breathing technique of the Grey royal family in his youth.
In the young Richard, the butler Leon witnessed many miracles that Richard could not comprehend.
But the secrets within were beyond his comprehension as a newly appointed Silver-ranked squire.
However, he witnessed Richard Field's decline and death in his later years.
Butler Leon seems to have discovered another secret related to the extraordinary knight's breathing technique and miracles.
However, when it came to the topic of his adoptive father's death, the butler Leon was very reluctant to reveal the secrets he knew to Arthur in advance.
He will only know once he is promoted to Silver Knight.
Thinking of this, my thoughts turned back.
Arthur withdrew his hand from Gawain's shoulder, frowned, stared at him, and began to ponder:
So, will Gawain and Lancelot's process of advancing to the Silver rank also involve some kind of "miracle" that defies common sense?
He looked at Gao Wen.
He noticed the increasingly serious look Arthur was giving him, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Lord Arthur, why are you staring at me? I'm a little scared."
Arthur makes a surprising statement:
"I'd like to check if there's anything wrong with your body."
"Lord Arthur, your words frighten me even more."
-----------------
The next day, morning.
The airflow over Blackrock Territory today is somewhat different from usual.
The originally pale clouds gradually darkened and drooped, revealing a depressing, leaden gray hue.
at this time.
Arthur is in the training camp behind Blackrock Fortress.
He quickly noticed the unusual airflow and clouds over Blackrock Territory, and thus stopped the military training exercises for both new and veteran soldiers of the Blackrock Legion.
And gave them instructions:
"All Blackrock Regiment soldiers, listen up! Enter Level One combat readiness!"
Immediately, all the Black Rock Legion soldiers present put on their respective knight armor in an orderly manner, ready to go.
And continue looking at Arthur.
He left the training camp and returned to Blackrock Fortress, climbing to the most expansive lookout point in the fortress.
On the lookout tower.
The butler, Leon, had arrived before him.
His mount, the Tier 3 Frost Raven King, circled and flew above the fortress, constantly cawing warningly.
Arthur could also sense an extremely strong sense of fear from the voice of this mutated third-tier magical beast.
Seeing this, he strode toward the butler, Leon, already having a sense of what was about to happen.
"Lord Arthur, it seems that the Earl of the North will be coming in person."
When the butler Leon saw him arrive, he respectfully stepped behind him and then expressed his guess, which was consistent with what he had in mind.
Arthur put his hands behind his back, trying to remain calm, and stared intently ahead:
"Judging by the time, it is indeed time to welcome that Earl."
Unexpectedly, no sooner had the words left his mouth than...
The low-hanging, leaden-gray clouds seemed to be overwhelmed, and were suddenly pierced by a shadow that tore through the sky.
The shadow was enormous, like a mountain with a strong sense of visual oppression.
Its arrival was not a simple gliding, but rather it brought with it the bone-chilling cold of the northern abyss, crushing down like a mountain, descending upon this borderland that originally belonged to it.
It is the Frost Dragon—that being that appears in legends and myths, leaving a terrifying name in the long river of history, the embodiment of the "Will of Frost," and the personification of the harsh winter winds.
Its enormous dragon body filled the field of vision of everyone who looked at it.
Every scale on the dragon's body was covered with frost-blue ice crystals that seemed to have been formed over thousands of years, shimmering with a cold and bone-chilling luster under the darkened sky that had fallen with its arrival.
With each flap of its rugged, broad wings, it unleashed a suffocating, surging storm, carrying countless shards of ice and snow dust as it swept across every inch of Black Rock Territory it passed.
The frost-covered winds swept through Arthur's Blackrock Legion training camp.
The new and old soldiers of the Black Rock Corps, who had just been fully equipped and ready to depart, all felt an unprecedented sense of pressure and tension.