Chapter 134: Dining, Ordnance, and the Small Treasury

Duoen Town is not large; the core streets consist of only these few loops of road in the center of town.

However, unlike other parts of the town, the roads here are easier to walk on, paved with dense stone, and there are people specifically assigned to clean up horse manure moving back and forth along the streets, keeping the entire area clean.

The shops that manage to open here all have immense backgrounds; they are either shops directly subordinate to the Merchant Union, or they have direct connections to nobles from other places, with noble lords acting as their backers.

The most conspicuous ones are naturally the large buildings of the several merchant guilds under the Merchant Union, as well as the local parish of the Church of the God of Wealth, which occupies the largest area and is decorated most luxuriously.

The Church of the God of Wealth is open to all merchants, and ordinary people who are not merchants can also come and go as they please, but you must at least ensure you have enough money in your pocket. Because for the various external services of the church, if you are not a believer of the deity, you must pay to purchase the services of the priests.

But at least the Church of the God of Wealth has one good point: if you pay, they will naturally provide you with the service you deserve.

The Burning Furnace Merchant Guild is naturally located here; when Jier led his people over, he found that Mr. Scott was already waiting in the lobby on the first floor of the merchant guild.

"My young friend, did you eat anything this morning? Would you like to try our breakfast here? I guarantee it won't lose to those novel foods of the Dwarfs from last night!" Mr. Stuoer-Sikete is a tall, thin, middle-aged merchant, humorous and witty, and has a deep understanding of every aspect of Duoen Town. He is the main person in charge of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild in Duoen Town.

"Of course, I had to go to the casino to fish out my foolish soldiers as soon as I got up this morning; sigh, I haven't even eaten yet. Can my companions and friends here come to eat too? Everyone hasn't really eaten anything." Jier pointed to the companions following behind him; Mr. Scott did not mind this and waved for everyone to follow him.

As a large-scale merchant guild, the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild naturally has its own internal restaurant. Compared to the rare restaurants on the streets outside that specifically sell food, the chefs here have better skills, and they work in shifts, always ready to prepare food for the shop assistants of the merchant guild.

The food reserves of the merchant guild are also very sufficient, and it is even said that there is an underground cold storage specifically for storing meat products.

The windows of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild's restaurant are very large, not wooden windows, but expensive glass windows, so the lighting here is bright, and the aroma of food drifts in the air.

"What would everyone like to eat? Meat soup, vegetable soup, thick potato soup, bean paste. Fried meat steaks, fried cured pork, both fatty and lean! There is also fried chicken leg meat, chicken breast, fried eggs—there are several varieties of fried eggs alone. Ha, I don't even know where the cooks find so many types of eggs."

Mr. Scott walked in front, introducing the food. The restaurant is directly adjacent to the kitchen, and those who want to eat can directly ask the chefs waiting in the kitchen.

Everyone happened to be hungry, so they didn't stand on ceremony and ordered the food that looked good to them one after another.

Jier was even less formal, directly indicating that he would have one of everything. The cooks looked at Mr. Scott, and Mr. Scott grinned: "This young man is a Knight, just like in the stories; they need to eat a lot of things. Fried eggs are the fastest, bring some of all the eggs you have on hand for him and me first!"

The two found a table and sat down. As soon as they sat down, several portions of fried eggs were brought over.

From small bird eggs that were less than the size of a palm when cracked open, to regular chicken eggs, goose eggs, and eggs from unknown animals that were much larger than an average person's spread palm, these fried eggs were sprinkled with some spice powder and salt grains and brought over on a wooden tray.

The two picked up their knives and forks, cut the fried eggs, and put them into their mouths. Beside them, Mr. Scott's attendant immediately brought over soft slices of bread, which could be used to dip and eat the egg yolk liquid with the soft bread baked with milk.

Mr. Scott was full after eating only a few types of fried eggs and bread slices, while Jier began to eat fried meat with vegetable soup after finishing the fried eggs.

They talked while eating. Mr. Scott explained the situation regarding the ordnance for later, mostly arrows and crossbow bolts, as well as replaceable spearheads for long spears.

"Arrows are no problem; they can be used anywhere, and the Kendall Baron's army also needs to replenish arrows and crossbow bolts. However, since you have spearheads here, can you find me a batch of tough long wooden poles suitable for making long spears? I will let my people assemble a batch of long spears themselves. Don't worry, they are not for sale, but for our own use."

Jier pointed to Weier and Xueya Site, who were eating elegantly nearby: "Look, most of my companions use some captured swords and shields; as for necessary close-range weapons like long spears, they have never had any. The quantity doesn't need to be large, just prepare about fifty."

Mr. Scott stroked his beard and pondered. Although the Town Guard here had also been picking up their armaments recently, increasing the number of guards to cope with the increasingly complex surrounding environment, Jier had just given the Golden Sickle Merchant Guild a batch of surrendered soldiers yesterday. These people had astonishing combat power, far stronger than ordinary Town Guards.

Especially after they were fed, a test was conducted last night; those people's physical fitness, combat experience, and techniques were far superior to ordinary Town Guards.

Therefore, these Senior Stewards of the Merchant Union, after discussing overnight, decided to change some of the ways the town would confront the emerging Bandit Groups in the future. They shifted from maintaining defense to actively striking the leaders of the opposing groups.

Because the number of those capable surrendered soldiers was small, even if they were equipped with a full set of weapons and armor, there was no need to worry about insufficient armaments in the town. The actual problem was how to restrain those surrendered soldiers; just feeding them well was certainly not enough, and they must be controlled by means with a certain degree of restraint.

Of course, it was enough to give Jier some of the weapons and armor freed up as a result.

"Spearheads are easy to handle; the merchant guild has plenty of them. But as for the wooden poles for the long spears, Jier, you will have to pay for them yourself. After all, we don't produce high-quality timber here, and the tree species used to make weapons are not native to our Duoen Town; basically, those things are specialties of the Mengta Ling in the north. I know a small merchant guild that specializes in some specialty timber from the north; they should have a small batch of these long spear poles. I will send someone to ask for you in a moment."

Mr. Scott said slowly. He would say a sentence, think for a moment, and then finish the whole sentence.

Jier nodded and swallowed the chicken leg meat in his mouth. This meat had been cured, then fried in oil, and sprinkled with spices not produced locally; the taste was not bad. It was even more delicious when sandwiched in bread slices.

Mr. Scott didn't find Jier's way of eating strange; everyone had their own unique way of eating. He even knew people who liked to mash cooked food into a paste and mix it together to eat.

Jier then mentioned the ransom gamble he had just had at the Quantou Jinqu casino. Hearing this new information, Mr. Scott was silent for a while, and then he said: "Have you offended the Thieves Guild before, Jier?"

"I suppose so. Just a short while ago, when I was in the Western Province, I worked with a Knight Lord from a local town to wipe out a gang supported by the Thieves Guild, and incidentally wiped out that underground Jiedian."

Jier said casually, but Mr. Scott gasped: "You are truly bold. You must be careful from now on, Jier. The Thieves Guild is large in scale, and they are very patient. They will certainly take revenge on those who have offended them."

After pondering for a moment, he continued: "I suspect today's matter was just a small warning and a way to collect information about you. You must be careful and tell the people in your team to keep their mouths shut. If anyone approaches them or tries to fish for information, make them stay alert and report it to you in time. Of course, you must handle your own information security at all times."

"Is it very serious?" Jier asked curiously.

"It's hard to say. After all, once an organization reaches a certain scale, personal emotions and hatred have no influence within the entire organization. If you were still in the place where you caused the trouble, you might face severe retaliation; after all, everyone has friends. If you offend someone from a Thieves Guild, their other friends will naturally avenge them. But if you are far away from the place where you caused the trouble, people in other places have no likes or dislikes toward you and will only carry out routine retaliation and reconnaissance according to the organization's requirements."

Mr. Scott spoke eloquently.

"It sounds like you've spent some time in the Thieves Guild?" Jier joked.

Mr. Scott smiled and shook his head: "How could that be? I just know some people over there. After all, you know my status, and here, Duoen Town, has been entangled with the Thieves Guild since its establishment. My judgments about them are also suggestions and guesses I give as a Senior Steward of a large merchant guild, based on the patterns of behavior of similar organizations."

He finally said: "Therefore, that is why the casino planned to extort a ransom of several dozen Gold Coins from you this time. To be honest, if I were you, I would just pay the money. They would feel they had taken revenge on you, and they wouldn't look for trouble with you in the future. But today..."

Jier shook his head: "Paying money is not my style."

"That's also true."

Jier finished his meal. The others had finished long ago and were just waiting for Jier to eat the half-table of food. Then, led by Mr. Scott and his subordinates, they came to the backyard of the merchant guild and entered the underground warehouse of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild from a building on the other side.

Because they were all kinds of metal materials and products that would not burn, the underground warehouse was quite suitable after taking waterproof and moisture-proof measures.

The passage into the underground was wide enough for a carriage to run through, although for most heavy goods and raw materials, the merchant guild used a simple animal-powered activity ladder on one side to transport materials.

For people walking, it was more appropriate to go down through this passage.

The lighting in the underground passage and the underground warehouse was very sufficient. Jier discovered that it was a lighting measure created by pipes that guided light down from the ground. The method was quite ingenious, allowing people to feel the scorching hot sun from outside even underground.

"The underground warehouse is divided into two floors. We don't store things according to the value of the materials, but arrange them according to the turnover speed of the goods," Mr. Scott said eloquently, pointing to the materials piled in wooden boxes beside the rock supports.

"We put things with slower turnover on the lower floor, while goods that are frequently moved in and out are placed on the upper floor. For example, right now, the batch of ordnance we are going to look at is being moved quickly due to the recent situation, so it is just ahead."

After walking a few steps in the quiet underground warehouse, what was piled up next to the supporting rock pillars in front was not wooden boxes, but countless arrows and crossbow bolts bundled tightly with ropes.

"The current market price is ten copper coins for one arrow; here at our merchant guild, it's cheaper at eight copper coins each. One hundred arrows make a bundle, worth eight hundred copper coins, which is eight Silver Coins. Ten bundles are eight Gold Coins, and one hundred bundles are eighty Gold Coins. By the way, Jier, do you want more crossbow bolts or more arrows? Crossbow bolts are simple to make, but the price is more expensive because the arrowheads are sharp metal arrowheads with a certain armor-piercing capability, while arrows have ordinary arrowheads, and the difficulty of production lies in the arrow shafts and fletching."

Jier asked about the price of a crossbow bolt. Sure enough, because of the war, a crossbow bolt actually cost ten copper coins to buy, and this was still the "friendship price" of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild.

In other places, you wouldn't even be able to buy a large batch of ordnance if you wanted to.

"My men are equipped with Soldier Bows, so I need more arrows, but crossbow bolts can be used by the Kendall Army in the future, so I need to get some too. What about the long spearheads?"

Jier asked.

Mr. Scott led everyone to continue walking down. After going down another floor toward the side, they saw those long spearheads in the lower warehouse.

They were all oiled items packed in wooden boxes, with wheat straw padded on the top and bottom, and were very well preserved.

"Although they are all weapons made in previous years that were not sold, as you can see, they are very well preserved, and their condition is quite good. Take them out, remove the grease, polish the spearheads, and attach the spear shafts, and they will be weapons capable of killing."

Mr. Scott gestured as he said, "Their price is relatively expensive; one costs seven Silver Coins. When we sell them outside, the price is at least one Gold Coin each. Look, these are all forged from good steel."

Jier nodded: "Then I want fifty spearheads, eighty bundles of Arrow, and for the remaining balance, take it all in Crossbow Bolt."

Mr. Scott did the calculations and then nodded in agreement.

Because the Long Spear spearheads did not take up much space, a Wooden Box could hold many of them, so Jier and his group carried the boxes out on the spot. Mr. Scott remained in the underground warehouse to write a document for the Steward who managed the warehouse to withdraw these supplies.

"The remaining Arrow and Crossbow Bolt will be sent to the inn where you are staying this afternoon. Jier, you can come by to pick up the money that the Vice President and I have for you. Sigh, that damned Deripari."

Mr. Scott's face showed a flash of heartache, and he whispered his complaint: "It's all my little treasury; just because of one word from the Vice President, it has shrunk by a large chunk."

Jier smiled and said knowingly: "Don't mind that. Here, I obtained some Magic Illumination Ring a while ago; take one to play with."

After saying this, Jier took off a Magic Ring that could emit red light from his hand and stuffed it into Mr. Scott's hand.

Mr. Scott had certainly seen and experienced many things, and he himself had some Magic Tool that he had collected and couldn't bear to use, but no one would complain about having too many of these things, right? Therefore, he also smiled and accepted the ring gifted by Jier.

Jier had the others carry away the Long Spear, while he himself followed Mr. Scott to Mr. Scott's office on the third floor of the Merchant Guild to collect two money bags containing fifty Gold Coins each.

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