On the solid wood table in front of Victor, there is a pile of purification crystals. These transparent crystals are stacked together and shine like diamonds, but their value far exceeds any kind of diamond.

Victor didn't pay attention to the pile of magical crystals, but stared at the two pieces of dry mud, frowning.

There is a human footprint on the mud on the left. The footprint is 13cm long and 5cm wide. The soles of the feet are slender and the toes are round. Judging from the shape and size, this is the right footprint of a human child.

The piece of mud on the right is several times larger than the one on the left. On the mud is a paw print 46cm long and 38cm wide. The paw print has four toes. The toe segments are obviously sharp claws, and there are webs between the claws and toes. This is

The paw print of a giant beast, an amphibious beast.

"Jack, are you sure these are human footprints? Not halfling footprints?" Victor looked up at the alchemical militia opposite.

"Sir, although halflings are similar to humans in form, they are all descendants of the demon rat Serpsis. Halflings almost never leave footprints. A few halflings can even walk on water, so they are human beings.

Footprints!" Jack responded.

Victor nodded. Just yesterday, the alchemical biology team that collected purification crystals returned successfully and brought back a total of 54 purification crystals.

The process of collecting crystals by the alchemical creatures was unremarkable. With the help of the alchemical crows, they avoided most of the dangerous creatures and did not encounter the lizardman tribe. After arriving at their destination, the alchemical humans dived into several pools and filled them with water.

Collect all the purification crystals.

However, they later discovered a set of strange footprints, which were the footprints of a human child and the paw prints of a swamp monster. This set of footprints showed that the human child and the swamp monster were close together, and some

Sometimes the child's footprints will disappear, which means that the child rode on the giant beast and walked a certain distance. Finally, the set of footprints disappeared in a lake. Jack and the others gave up tracking and dug out two pieces of mud covered with footprints.

Brought back the rally point.

"Do you know what animal left this paw print?" Victor pointed to the giant beast paw print and asked Jack.

"It should be a swamp dragon lizard, but it is three times larger than an ordinary dragon lizard."

Victor took a breath of air. The swamp dragon lizard is 5-7 meters long and weighs more than 1 ton. It has sharp teeth and claws. It is powerful and agile. It is a very ferocious predator, especially their skin is very tough.

, is a material used to make top-grade leather armor. It is said that dragon lizard leather armor is hard to be hurt by swords and can also effectively defend against blunt force blows. This shows that dragon lizards are beasts with high attack and defense.

But this dragon lizard is three times larger than the ordinary dragon lizard. In other words, this guy is more than 12 meters long and weighs about 3 tons. This is most likely an alienated creature!

"Why did you bring these footprints back to me?"

Victor was puzzled. He wanted to figure out why the alchemical militia followed these footprints and brought back the evidence.

"Sir, when we perform a level three collection mission, if we find traces of human activity in a dangerous area, we should investigate the relevant information and report to the owner. This is part of our will."

Jack's answer left Victor in silence. It seemed that the Alchemy Militia's third-level mission execution standards were very loose, and even had an investigation function.

"I already know the situation, let's talk about your next mission."

Victor reached out and pushed the two clay tablets on the table gently. Surrounded by the breeze, the dry clay tablets floated back a few meters like feathers and landed steadily in the corner. Victor now had neither ability nor

I don't have the heart to go to the swamp and mind my own business, and it's such a weird business.

"Jack, those four guys should have sneaked into the temporary camp, right?" Victor touched his chin and asked softly.

Yesterday, Victor ordered four other alchemist militiamen at the assembly point to sneak into the temporary camp as free citizens. The alchemist war mastiff was still lurking 40 kilometers away, and Jack followed his instructions and sneaked into the upper camp at night.

.

"Yes, sir, I saw them enter the temporary camp with my own eyes." Jack nodded and said.

"Jack, come here and look at this map." Victor stood up, behind him was a wooden board covered by linen.

Victor lifted the linen cloth, and the entire wooden board was immediately exposed. There was a huge map drawn on the wooden board, but the map was very simple, with many places blank, but there were a few dots on it that said,

Hill Camp, Chebman Camp, Pinghu Village, Great Swamp Entrance.

"Jack, two days ago, I ordered Manniu and the others. By the way, Manniu and the others are the newly joined alchemy militia."

"I ordered Manniu and the others to build a free people camp at this location and recruit mountain people scattered in the territory." Victor clicked on a location on the map.

"Your first task is to take those five big dogs and two big crows to patrol the entire territory and drive the wild people into this area, but you can't let people discover the relationship between the big dogs and you. Secondly, I want you

Draw a detailed map of the entire territory, including remote areas, and investigate the animal communities, monster communities, plant distribution and mineral vein distribution in the entire territory. Do you have any questions?" Victor turned his head and asked York.

"Sir, if those wild people don't flee to the designated area, can you kill them?" Jack asked.

"No, I just want the wild people to be unable to establish a gathering place. In addition, if the wild people threaten your safety, I can kill or injure them."

For Victor, it doesn't matter whether the wild people seek refuge in Pinghu Village or the mountain camp, sooner or later they will be the food in his bowl.

"Sir, when should I set off?"

"You check the equipment, bring the supplies and set off."

Jack immediately took action, equipped with two daggers, a dagger, a hunting bow, two barrels of arrows, a set of leather armor, and without any dry food, he walked towards the secret door of the restricted area.

Victor looked at Jack's neat movements and was secretly proud of himself. With his powerful close combat ability, precise shooting skills, a few dogs, and two birds, he could carry out missions alone in the wild. He would have many such powerful warriors.

.

After Jack disappeared through the secret door, Victor walked towards the cave. This time he went straight to the core of the alchemy tower - the element extraction platform.

"King, report the current production status and capital reserves of the Alchemy Tower." Victor connected to the tower spirit and sent a message.

"Sir, Alchemy Tower No. 7 has currently produced 7 alchemy militiamen, 6 alchemy auxiliaries, 15 alchemy crows, and 5 alchemy war mastiffs. It has consumed 177 soul fire points, has 4823 remaining soul fire points, and has a reserve of 11,550 gold coins."

This figure made Victor smile bitterly. He really didn't know how expensive firewood and rice were. He had a full 40,000 gold soles at the beginning, but now including the reserves of the alchemy tower, his money was less than 15,000 gold soles.

"King, I need to discuss with you the plans behind the territory so that I can decide the alchemical life that needs to be produced." Victor had no staff, so he could only drag Talling to help him fill in the gaps.

"Sir, please tell me about your current situation." The king who has turned on his independent wisdom will naturally not refuse Victor's request.

"The population I currently control is around 900 people, and the food reserves have basically been exhausted. Now the entire camp relies on gathering and hunting to sustain itself." Victor said with some embarrassment.

Originally, there were only 400 people in the hill camp, and they could be completely self-sufficient by relying on food reserves and gathering and hunting. However, as more and more people came to join Victor, food became a big problem in the camp. In order to fill the bellies of these people, the sent

More and more people are going out to collect and hunt, and the places they go to are getting farther and farther. Some teams cannot even return to the camp until the next day.

Victor also discovered a terrible situation. The renewable resources around the hill camp have been destroyed. In other words, the crops that can be collected nearby have been harvested! This is also the reason why the surrounding wild boars have begun to eat purple cane.

The reason is that humans cannot just eat meat.

"Nowadays, more and more people are going out to collect, and the places they go to are getting farther and farther. The number of guards and militia sent out is also increasing, but the collection efficiency is declining." Victor shook his head and sighed.

"The farther the distance, the greater the consumption of supplies, and the collectors and guards also need to eat." The king responded.

"I'm too impatient. Those free people's camps are scattered around the territory, which has its own reason. The free people can meet their needs by relying on the resources near their camps and a small amount of planting, and the surrounding natural crops can also meet their needs.

There will be no destructive mining."

"I gathered them here before I was ready. I should have sent people to take over the free people's camps, dispersed the free people and then resettled them. Only in this way can my hill camp develop healthily."

Victor was very upset because he had sent people to dismantle the free people's camps out of fear of the free people gathering again, and even the materials were used to build camps and villages.

"Sir, it seems that you can only rely on buying food to survive at the moment."

"This is inevitable. Barley and beans have been planted in the fields cultivated in the camp, but they cannot be harvested until the wind season, and the offerings from Pinghu Village are not enough to feed so many people."

"The problem now is that there are only two places where I can buy food. One is the York family and the other is the Chebman family. I don't need to consider the Chebman family. I can't expose my weakness to them anymore. Then there is only Black

Castle Town is an option, so what is the probability that the York family will use this to control us?"

"One hundred percent." The king responded without hesitation.

In fact, Victor also understood the thoughts of the big family, but Sylvia originally supported him with 40,000 gold soles (50,000 gold soles were stolen by the countess) and sold him a batch of equipment at a low price, so that

Victor still has some illusions about the beautiful count's wife.

"Then we can only speed up the construction of the village and divert the population as soon as possible. But those free people are not fully mature yet, how can we ensure control over them?" Victor asked the king again.

"Sir, I suggest that you temporarily let go of your control over the people and allow them to develop freely. At the same time, you can produce enough auxiliary soldiers, establish a secret camp, gather the auxiliary soldiers, and let them bake special bricks to quickly build the castle.

.As long as your castle is built, you can naturally control the entire territory. Moreover, the auxiliary soldiers can also create Thorium equipment to enhance the combat effectiveness of your army. I think this is the best choice." The king suggested.

"This is a bad idea!" Victor said coldly.

"King, I'm afraid you still don't know what special bricks mean to the lords? This kind of brick can change the entire human world. If I expose this technology now, I will soon encounter a disaster. The same goes for Thorium equipment.

So before I have the ability to protect myself, I will not take out these sensitive technologies."

Special bricks allow lords to build more fortresses and castles, thereby controlling more territories. All lords will be crazy about this technology and will not hesitate to launch wars. But in the king's perception, special bricks are just the most common in the alchemy empire.

The technology is not worth mentioning, because the Alchemy Empire focuses on offense, but the current human world focuses on defense. This is a misjudgment caused by differences in civilization.

"Furthermore, in your eyes, the alchemy auxiliary soldiers are only the most basic labor unit, but in this era they are all master-level talents. Instead of letting them concentrate on low-end labor, it is better to use them to drive ordinary villagers to perform more effectively.

Big effect." Victor added in his mind.

"However, your suggestion made me think of a way to control the villages, and that is to let those villages develop abnormally!"

"My lord, what do you mean?" the king asked puzzledly.

"Abnormal development is to allow these villages to take the path of specialization, such as building a village specializing in the production of linen in areas rich in sisal resources, building farms in areas with fertile land, and building villages focusing on ironmaking near mineral veins.

These villages do not have the ability to be self-sufficient. When there are few people, they can supplement the food shortage by collecting surrounding crops, but after the population increases, they will rely on my control." Victor excitedly reported to the king.

The villages under the jurisdiction of ordinary lords are administrative units composed of subjects or vassals. They are loyal to their lords and are self-sufficient. Of course, there is no problem. However, Victor's foundation is too shallow, which makes it difficult for those free people who have only been together for a few months to

Building self-sufficient villages is likely to get out of control, so they must be allowed to grow abnormally.

"That's a good idea. Professionalized villages rely more on advanced technology. The alchemy auxiliaries who master advanced technology also gain the highest authority. Your Excellency can firmly control those villages by sending a small number of managers." The king told Victor.

expressed approval of the plan.

"King, start the construction task and produce 12 alchemy auxiliaries. Each auxiliary is loaded with monkey secrets and remote weapon mastery. Then divide these auxiliaries into three groups, each group is loaded with a different production skill."

Let the alchemy auxiliary soldiers also have a certain degree of combat effectiveness, which is more in line with Victor's needs. Long-range weapon mastery and monkey secrets are good choices.

"As you wish, sir, this production consumes 84 units of soul fire and 6,000 gold coins. The remaining soul fire points in alchemy are 4,739 points and the remaining gold coins are 5,550 gold coins." The king reported the production consumption to Victor.

I am really going bankrupt now, but I don’t know how much money Nelson can bring back for me? Victor lamented in his heart.
Chapter completed!