You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 112 The Correct Way to Play the Game

Sig Town.

It was the 249th day since Roman arrived here.

He received the second batch of slaves sent by Scarface.

The quality of this batch of slaves is much better than the last one.

It seems his warning worked.

Even so, Roman still felt that many slaves had died on the way.

But Scarface denied it, and he had no evidence.

"You'll have to raise the price for us this time," the scarred man said obsequiously.

Last time, they were testing the waters and were worried about problems, so the slaves they brought in were all defective. If any special circumstances arose, they would just throw all the slaves off and run away at lightning speed.

This time, the reliability of Sige Town was confirmed, and all the goods brought in were of high quality.

If the son of Selin didn't pay in advance, there's no profit to be made if the price isn't raised.

Roman stared at the scarred man for a moment, then said, "Eighty pounds of salt per slave. If you can bring me better, more, and higher-quality slaves, I'll give you as many as you want."

This slave trade route was extremely fragile and could break at the slightest disturbance.

Scarface was not a legitimate merchant recognized by the nobility; he was an outlaw who risked his life to do business on land.

If the benefits aren't high, they won't come back next time.

"May our friendship last forever!" Scarface's smile widened.

Unlike those petty and calculating land nobles, the young lord in front of them was extremely generous and showed no prejudice against them.

Normally, these pirates wouldn't be able to get so much cheap and high-quality salt inland.

Roman knew what he was doing: he was aiding the pirates, providing them with supplies, while their strength was only used for looting.

But Roman didn't care; he wanted to compete with everyone in speed, and the pirates weren't even the main characters on the track.

The number of slaves was quickly counted, and it was more than the last time, about four hundred.

They had seven transport ships converted from Arctic warships. The ships were narrow-hulled, oar-powered sailing vessels, and specially made long ships that moved swiftly like the wind.

But speed does not mean no risk; sooner or later, things will go wrong, which is why trade routes are fragile.

Once a war breaks out, Scarface has to throw a few slaves off the boat on the spot, otherwise he won't have time to row at full speed.

In this respect, Roman was actually less inclined than Scarface to want them to encounter any setbacks or unexpected complications.

After resupplying in Sige Town, they left with more than 30,000 jin of salt.

According to custom, newly arrived slaves are kept for three days to assess their situation before being further categorized based on their occupation.

Not even two days passed.

Daken returned with the merchants.

They were still those same few dilapidated ships, but at least they could still transport goods.

Over the years, Daken has brought back more than 200 lambs, more than 400 piglets, thousands of chicks, and even dozens of calves and foals to Sig Town.

His work ethic was excellent; he only hoped that one day he could get the merchant ship and guards from Roman.

He also contacted a nobleman who raised cattle in a certain territory, and they had already agreed on a price. He was expected to bring forty or fifty oxen and dairy cows in a while.

The price of draft cattle is not high.

Cows are a bit expensive, costing 8 silver coins, while transportation and labor costs are extra.

However, Roman's livestock farm was not yet built, so they could only temporarily build a fence on the grassland to keep the livestock in enclosures.

During this period, Roman specifically selected piglets and lambs for castration.

His technique is swift and efficient; he can castrate a piglet in just over ten seconds.

Yaki toured the entire area, and Roman told him about the benefits of castrating livestock: the 8-month growth period could be reduced to 6 months, the weight of livestock over 100 pounds could increase to 120 or 130 pounds, and the quality of the pork would be better, and more lard could be rendered.

Yaki had never heard of this knowledge before, but he believed it wholeheartedly. He had an excellent memory and wrote down all the breeding knowledge that Roman had told him.

This made things much easier for Roman, and he grew to like Aki more and more.

He felt that Akie was not much worse than Jimmy in terms of learning.

But Jimmy is still a child and hasn't grown up, while Yaki is already seventeen or eighteen years old and has reached maturity in many aspects. His weakness is a lack of potential.

Of course, he is now certainly capable of taking on important responsibilities.

Roman has been extremely busy lately, mainly due to iron smelting.

Training a group of qualified ironworkers is extremely difficult.

This process may seem complicated, but it is actually not simple at all.

Roman provided guidance throughout the process, leading them through numerous iron smelting and steelmaking trials, but each time he asked them questions, they remained completely clueless, demonstrating a high degree of illiteracy.

In the end, Roman calmed down.

They're a bunch of idiots anyway, why bother getting angry with them?

Let's take it slow; there's no way to demand more from them.

He did everything himself, overseeing the entire iron smelting process, and there was still some output.

Three thousand kilograms of steel have been smelted in the past few days.

The blacksmith's workshop underwent a second expansion, with seven hydraulic forging hammers installed. The huge waterwheels rotated day and night, driving the forging hammers to strike back and forth; otherwise, it would be impossible to meet Roman's requirements for steel equipment.

Two hundred blacksmith apprentices, shirtless and drenched in sweat, used power hammers to forge steel into shape.

Lax and a blacksmith named Ruto were particularly fast.

Those qualified plates were basically all knocked out by the two of them.

During this period of vigorous steelmaking.

After a period of intense mining, sealed crystal spheres were unearthed at both the coal and iron mines. These crystal spheres often contain some extraordinary resources.

This made Roman ecstatic.

He has been here for more than half a year, but the amount of extraordinary resources he has collected is extremely scarce.

Generally speaking, the richer and more diverse the mineral veins, the greater the probability of finding dust-sealed crystal spheres.

Quarries and salt mines clearly do not meet these conditions; the mineral veins are barren and there are few associated organisms.

Roman couldn't wait to have them brought out.

Salt-sealed crystal spheres shatter easily with a tap, and coal-sealed crystal spheres aren't much harder. Only iron-sealed crystal spheres require special methods to remove.

Roman spent some time retrieving the resources sealed inside.

When the coal-sealed crystal sphere was knocked open, a wisp of pale blue light emanated from the crack.

Roman was invigorated!
As the black coal seam was gradually peeled away, a sapphire with a shimmering blue luster appeared before Roman. After being exposed to the air, the sapphire's brilliance quickly faded, but the crystal-clear gem remained captivating, of extremely high quality, pure and flawless.

"Excellent! Rubies enhance physical fitness, and sapphires enhance wisdom!" Roman was overjoyed.

Although sapphires are more suitable for witches and others to wear than for knights.

After all, for ordinary people, sapphires can at most help them restore their mental energy and concentrate their minds.

But Roman has a great need for these kinds of resources.

The appearance of this gem means that he can now enhance the Apostle's [skills].

Or rather, the appearance of these resources means that he can finally use the Noah's Ark development system!
He used the resources he consumed to increase the strength of his Apostle panel.

I've worked hard farming for more than half a year.

Farming, road construction, tree felling, brick making, mining!
There were so many hardships and difficulties involved.

until today!

Roman can finally proudly say that he has finally unlocked the correct way to play the game!
(End of this chapter)