RNP Page 108
Page 108
However, Mo Jiang did not mention the collaboration with Joshua, for a simple reason: even he himself did not have much hope for it.
When you can't be sure about something, and you can't do it even if you say it, it's really a blow to team morale.
"Are you going to..."
While stretching his joints, Mo Jiang replied, "Can't you tell? After dealing with everything in the mine, it's almost dawn. I hope to find a good place in town for breakfast."
Last night, because he was rushing, Mo Jiang only ate a few bites of dry food on the road. Now he has an absolute need for a hot meal.
"Stay where you are and don't move."
As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Jiang transformed into a crimson figure and raced wildly into the depths of the mine.
Serena felt a violent gust of hot wind rush past, blowing her long golden hair wildly, and the ends of her hair even began to curl due to the high temperature.
Staring blankly at Mo Jiang's departing figure, Serena sighed after a long while, "I hope he doesn't blow up the entire mine."
……
Around 10 a.m., the town mayor and a group of people in charge were taken to an open space in the town.
The open space had now been piled up into a small hill, and a pungent smell of burnt meat wafted from it.
A tall, black-haired, black-eyed young man stood in front of his "trophy," arms crossed.
For some reason, the mayor felt that what was standing there was not a human being at all, but a ferocious tiger.
The young mayor's favorite activity used to be hunting with a group of noble friends.
"You're the town mayor?"
Upon seeing the main body, Mo Jiang pointed with his thumb to the nearly one hundred corpses behind him. He had to find many people in the town to move so many bodies back.
"The information you provided in the bounty is seriously flawed. The mine is almost becoming a nest for species from the Underdark, and there is also a passage leading to the Underdark."
198. As everyone knows, the drow elves' credibility is even lower than that of the Holy Lord.
The mayor's face turned deathly pale, whether from Mo Jiang's questioning or from the confirmation that there really was a passage leading to the Dark Underworld inside the mine.
If the news is true, then the mine obviously cannot continue to be mined, since the Underdark doesn't have much goodwill towards the races on the surface.
The fact that the mine tunnels contain passages to the Underdark means that drow elves, mind flayers, or even the Underdark's army could appear there at any time.
Miners can accept mining ore in a dangerous place as long as they are paid enough, but they will never accept working in a deadly environment.
The worst thing is to earn the money but not live to spend it.
As the source of mineral raw materials for Neverwinter, if it cannot produce raw materials, its future will inevitably decline into ruin.
Without ore, there will be no merchants coming to buy it. Without merchants, taverns, hotels, and commercial streets will have no customers. After the economic decline, population exodus will be inevitable.
The mayor unconsciously twisted the hem of his clothes. Dark underground passages had appeared in the mine, exceeding the mayor's ability to handle the situation.
He was originally just a village chief. The reason he became the town mayor was because he expanded a commercial street, which attracted more merchants and residents, turning the village into a town.
The mayor has clearly done a good job in terms of economics and overall planning, but it is really difficult for him to face the potential arrival of the Underworld army.
Looking at the hundreds of corpses with obvious characteristics of the Underworld races, the mayor had no doubt whatsoever that there was no other way to gather so many Underworld races in such a short time except through a passage leading to the Underworld.
At this moment, the town mayor could only put aside the matter of the Dark Realm Passage; his first priority was to appease the resentment of the powerful figure before him.
The fact that the bounty information contained significant errors is something adventurers find most objectionable and even abhorrent.
Adventurers are always on the edge of their seats, living for a day and not knowing tomorrow. They have their own way of calculating the danger of bounties.
Inaccurate reward information can easily lead to death, and if there isn't enough compensation afterward...
An adventurer's sword can cut down monsters, or it can kill your entire family.
"Your Excellency...please follow me."
The mayor stammered, perhaps frightened by the mountain of corpses. Although he wasn't an adventurer, as mayor he knew the challenge levels of most monsters.
To put it bluntly, if any of these corpses had entered the town alive, with a number of over a hundred, the mountains of corpses would now be made up of humans.
Mo Jiang, who was able to kill these monsters from the Darklands, clearly also had the power to slaughter all the town's sheriffs.
Upon arriving at the mayor's office, the mayor, having had ample time to calm himself and prepare his answer, finally spoke, "I wonder what kind of compensation you require, sir? Money, weapons, or armor? The weapons forged by our dwarven masters are quite famous in the North."
Mo Jiang tapped his fingers lightly on the table; he had already decided what he wanted before he came.
"I want 50% of the shares in the mine."
The town mayor was taken aback by Mo Jiang's outrageous demands. This was not something he could decide on his own. In fact, the 20% stake mentioned in the bounty referred to the monthly profit share of the mine.
Strictly speaking, the mines are the property and resources of Neverwinter, and even the mayor is merely a manager, not an owner.
"Your Excellency, this is unacceptable..."
Whether Mojiang intends to ask for an exorbitant price or genuinely means it that way, the town mayor is unlikely to agree to such a thing.
Just as he was about to refuse, Mo Jiang interrupted him, "I can help you solve the problem of the Underdark passage, so that the miners can start working as soon as possible, and I can also arrange a trade route between you and the Underdark."
Mo Jiang's words made the town mayor swallow the words that were about to come out of his throat.
If what Mo Jiang said is true, and the mine can be restarted without worrying about attacks from creatures of the Darklands, then giving up 50% of the shares is not an unacceptable thing.
After all, the town didn't have many options against the creatures of the Underdark and could only watch helplessly as the mine was abandoned.
As a result, the town directly lost the entire mine, along with the huge influx of customers it brought.
Neverwinter might not care about this, because they are not the only place that produces ore. From Neverwinter's perspective, it would be a huge loss for a non-existent mine to choose to wage war against the Underdark and station troops there for a long time.
If Neverwinter had the choice, it might have preferred to simply blow up the entire mine, as that would have been more convenient.
Subconsciously, the mayor began to calculate how much profit would be generated if the mine could resume operations and he gained another trading route through the Underdark.
He quickly came to the conclusion that the profits he would receive would far exceed the 50% stake offered.
"Sir, are you telling the truth?"
"You can also post a bounty, following the rules for adventurers, and you can also write a letter to Neverwinter to inquire about it."
Mo Jiang saw the surprise and longing in the mayor's eyes, and knew that the matter was half done. The other half was in Neverwinter City, which was a factor that he could not interfere with in the short term.
But based on his thinking, Neverwinter would most likely agree.
Because the Lord of Neverwinter has an undercover agent working for the mastermind behind the Howling Death plague.
Although it's unclear when the "Howling Death" will break out, it's estimated that it won't be long. Since the undercover agents want to reduce Neverwinter's resistance, the best way is to infect Neverwinter's guards with the plague.
Therefore, when the town discovers a passage through the Dark Realm, Neverwinter cannot send troops to garrison and guard the passage.
Otherwise, when the plague broke out in Neverwinter, there would still be an uninfected living force outside the city.
This is not a good thing for the mastermind behind it all.
Therefore, the undercover agent would do everything possible to deny the possibility of sending troops.
Since Neverwinter City couldn't send troops, the closure of the entire mine would result in even greater losses. Therefore, the best option would naturally be to follow Mojiang's lead, offering 50% of the mine's shares in exchange for the mine to reopen and a trade route through the Darklands.
Soon, the town sent a messenger to deliver the mayor's letter to Neverwinter City as an urgent matter.
Mo Jiang also settled down in the town.
They awaited an answer from Neverwinter, and they also awaited Joshua's arrival.
When talking to the town mayor, he said that restarting the mine was not a big problem; if all else failed, they could just blow up the tunnel.
But he really wasn't very confident about the trade routes in the Dark Regions.
Because those are drow elves, and as everyone knows, drow elves are even less trustworthy than the Holy Lord.
199. Acquired 50% stake in the mine
In Neverwinter, Lord Nasir rubbed his temples, looking at the urgently delivered letter, feeling a headache coming on.
The discovery of a passage leading to the Underdark in a mine in one of the towns under their jurisdiction was already a headache.
Any lord would be terrified if a passage to the underworld appeared on his territory.
Because the advantages and disadvantages of this passage are equal.
The advantage, of course, is the ability to acquire specialties from the Underdark. Since the Underdark sells items that are only available on the surface, both sides, being physically separated, have a considerable need for each other's specialties.
With a little tinkering, it becomes a gold mine that never runs dry.
But there are just as many downsides, one of which is the direction the passage leads to in the Underdark.
Different regions of the Underdark are inhabited by different people. If the portal to the Mind Flayer City is opened near the Underdark, then disaster will befall them.
Also unlucky are those whose passages are located inside dragon nests; most of the dragons that live in the Underdark are chromatic dragons.
Okay, to put it more bluntly, the dragons living in the Underdark are either red or black.
Let a giant dragon live next to Neverwinter?
Lord Nasir has no intention of going bankrupt before reaching retirement age.
Another problem is the drow elves of the Underdark.
If we make contact with them, who knows, one day the drow elves might plan to wreak havoc on Neverwinter and offer it to Lolth, the Spider Queen.
Those drow elves who are obsessed with intrigue and betrayal have quite a history of such behavior.
Neither the drow elves nor their Spider Queen Lolth are easy people to talk to.
The situation was rather tricky, so Lord Nasir directly called over his right and left hands to discuss what to do.
Soon, upon receiving Lord Nasir's summons, three figures entered Lord Nasir's study.
Eribes, a devout follower of Tyre, the god of justice, and an important lieutenant of Nadal, lord of Neverwinter.
Vanswick is more talked about as Irebeth's fiancé than as he is in Neverwinter.
Deszel, a high-ranking priest of the Temple of Heim, is also a traitor to Lord Narsir.
He had long used his position to orchestrate plague events, his aim being to weaken Neverwinter so that the Reptile Queen could expand southward.
However, because of his status as a high-ranking priest of the Temple of Heim, no one had ever suspected him, and Lord Nasir even firmly believed that he was not a traitor.
These three were Lord Nasir's trusted confidants, and they managed the operation of Neverwinter for him.
Lord Nasir handed the mayor's letter to the three men, asking for their opinions. "Here's the thing: a passage to the Underdark has appeared in a town with mines. What do you think?"
The three of them read the entire letter and learned the cause and effect of the matter. First, the werewolves and the bear goblins went inside, causing the miners to be afraid to start working.
“Werewolves and goblins ran into the mines; that happened a few months ago.” Irebeth looked at Vanswick, who should have been in charge of the handover between the various villages and Neverwinter at that time. “Why wasn’t it dealt with in time?”
Vanswick thought for a moment and remembered what had happened: "The werewolf curse is very troublesome to spread, so I commissioned the temple to prepare a potion that would prevent the soldiers from getting infected from the werewolf's scratches."
Meanwhile, Deszel testified, "Yes, Vanswick came to me saying he needs a large quantity of potions to cure the werewolf curse infection, and at the current production rate, it will take another five days to complete."
While reading the information in the letter and exchanging ideas, the three of them quickly understood the whole story.
Lord Nasir asked them what they thought, not how to deal with the werewolves and goblins, as that was no longer an issue.
What the lord really wanted to ask was whether to leave the passage to the Underdark intact or to blow it up.
"I think it's feasible."
Deszel spoke first, pointing to the mayor's proposal in the letter, "If you want to send troops to garrison the passage, you either need to transfer people from Neverwinter's own defense forces or form a new team."
I must remind everyone that we just finalized the allocation of funds for Neverwinter this quarter ten days ago, and we currently lack sufficient funds to build a team.
“I remember Riverwood. It used to be just a village, but the discovery of a large mineral vein attracted many merchants and developed it into a town. Without the mines, the construction progress in Neverwinter will be much slower.”
The mines in other villages and towns are not as good as the large mine in Creekwood, which is a rich mine.
If the mines are closed, a town will become impoverished due to a lack of industry, leading to more thieves and less tax revenue.
“So…” Deszel concluded, “my opinion is that agreeing to his offer to exchange 50% of the mine’s shares for a trade route to the Underdark is a good deal.”
Deszel didn't know what Eribes and Van Siewke were thinking, but he knew that the plague was almost ready and that the Neverwinter Guard absolutely could not leave at this time.
Otherwise, the plan would be subject to many unforeseen changes, which he could not allow.
So before the other two could speak, Deszel voiced his opinion first.
He knew that as long as he expressed his agreement, the other three, including the lord, would not raise any explicit objections.
Because this matter is quite ambiguous, closing the passage is acceptable, but leaving it open is also fine. Furthermore, Deszel knows the current finances of Neverwinter and knows that the lord is probably also having some headaches about the city's funds.
Lord Nasir had planned a major expansion of Neverwinter and had even begun the first phase of the expansion, leaving Neverwinter with very little available cash flow.