Chapter 135: New Clothing for the Warriors, Wooden Spear Shafts, and New Uses for Elf Metal

The two had agreed that in the afternoon, other merchant guilds would deliver the long spear shafts to the Jinbi Dingdang inn; naturally, this extra cost would need to be settled by Jier on the spot with the merchant guild Steward who delivered them upon receipt.

Furthermore, because this was an unplanned purchase, these long spear shafts would not have the "friendship price" of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild, and since they were needed urgently, the other party might raise the price somewhat. Regarding this, Mr. Scott also spoke frankly, saying he would take a small commission on this transaction, and this money would also be added to the purchase cost of the long spear shafts.

Jier expressed that he did not mind any of this; after all, in the two days since arriving in Duoen Town, he had already come into possession of a large sum of money!

Now, he had plenty of Gold Coins.

With money, one must spend; unlike his subordinates, the Warriors, who went to spend money seeking pleasure, Jier was more practical. He went to a clothing store in Duoen Town and purchased some ready-made clothing suitable for himself and his familiar companions.

So-called ready-made clothing refers to garments that have already been produced and selected roughly according to the purchaser's body measurements. It is not like what most people are more accustomed to: buying cloth and taking it home to be sewn stitch by stitch by a wife or mother.

The former is more expensive, while the latter is far cheaper. Because labor is not calculated in the value, in the end, one only needs to pay for some cloth and needle and thread.

There are even more cost-saving methods; one can buy bundles of spun thread directly. If there is a loom at home, one can even save on the purchase of cloth. Compared to finished fabric, unspun thread is cheaper.

As for whether there are even cheaper methods?

There are, there are.

That is to produce the thread oneself. In some remote villages, many Villagers grow hemp-like plants used for weaving, extract the plant fibers themselves, then roll and spin them to make fine hemp thread, and then use these hemp threads as spun thread to weave hemp cloth. This coarse fabric can be used to make some hemp clothing. Because the production is simple and the finished product is coarse and uncomfortable to wear, the price is low.

As for even coarser hemp cloth, it can only be used to make sacks for holding things. Some particularly poor families will even cut open sacks to use as "clothing" for their own children.

Jier picked out a few sets of good-looking and comfortable summer clothes for himself, and even considering that he might participate in some high-society occasions, he specially bought a set of formal wear worn by martial men. As for the other few familiar subordinates, Jier also helped them buy a set of summer clothing they could wear.

As for the other Warriors, Jier bought a batch of summer clothing in a uniform style at a cheaper ready-made clothing store, with the agreement that it be delivered immediately to the Jinbi Dingdang inn.

When Jier returned to the inn with the Shop Assistant from the clothing store, it was already afternoon.

"Just put the things here, take this, a tip for you." Jier flicked his hand, tossing a Silver Coin to the Shop Assistant who had helped him carry the pile of clothes back.

The assistant left after offering a thousand thanks. Only then did Jier have the Warriors, who were busy in the inn lobby processing the newly arrived long spear heads, come over. While gifting the clothes to Aoni and several other familiar partners, he received the batch of clothing delivered by the clothing store at the inn entrance, letting the other Warriors choose according to their own sizes.

After all, how could his subordinates get by without a set of somewhat decent clothing?

After all, they couldn't just wear a set of Plate Armor all day, could they? Even after taking off the armor, they needed a set of clean and comfortable clothes.

"There is enough for everyone, everyone has a set. Everyone choose these clothes according to your own size. The clothing store sent extra, so I will settle the payment with them only after everyone has finished choosing, so don't rush. Those who have chosen their clothes, go to other parts of the inn to let those who can't get away change; everyone has a set."

Jier greeted the Warriors who had gathered around and asked Xueya Site, who had also received a set of expensive and comfortable clothing from the store, to help him take his own few sets of clothes back to his room.

These clothes cost quite a bit of money, but looking at the new appearance of everyone after dressing up, Jier felt it was worth more than the price.

Especially Aoni and the others; after putting on the full sets of new clothes bought from the expensive clothing store, their entire temperament changed drastically.

Weier had naturally worn higher-value clothing before, so he did not care about this set of clothes Jier gave him, only nodding to express his thanks. However, after putting on this set of loose summer clothing worth over a Gold Coin, his entire temperament changed, and the temperament of a melancholic young nobleman from before was immediately highlighted.

Anyone who looked at him would know he came from an extraordinary background and, because of his slightly furrowed brows, would know he had quite a few worries.

Aoni and Xueya Site were different. Aoni had never worn such expensive clothing before; his limbs were stiff, fearing that a larger movement would tear the clothes on his body. He moved about like prey trapped in an invisible casing, yet he was incomparably awkward.

"Hahaha, don't be so stiff. This kind of valuable clothing isn't so easily damaged. On the contrary, they are much sturdier than the clothes everyone usually wears. When I was choosing them, I chose them according to the standards of wealthy martial men."

Jier said a few words, and only then did Aoni dare to move as he usually did. Soon, he was triumphantly walking back and forth in front of the other Warriors in his new clothes, making the others so jealous that they rushed up together, lifted Aoni up, and a group of them ran to the inn's backyard and threw the shouting Aoni into the horse trough.

Aoni was furious; his new clothes were covered in a large amount of hay and Beans that the horses ate, and he climbed up to chase after the Warriors who had thrown him out to cause them trouble.

Jier was amused and discussed the upcoming itinerary with Xueya Site.

In the morning, Xueya Site had accompanied the Herbalist Mr. Zuojigela to buy some tools and raw materials for preparing Potions, and in the afternoon, he went to buy various supplies the team would need. This included repair tools for the carriage, fire-starters for spending the night out, windproof Oil Lamps, and other necessities they hadn't had the opportunity or enough money for before.

Like the windproof Oil Lamp; with it, one could hang one of these lighting lamps on every carriage. After filling the oil storage tank under the lamp with Lamp Oil, it could burn for at least one night, and its lighting ability was far stronger than simple, hand-made Torches. In fact, the reason for the high price of this kind of oil lamp lay mainly in the transparent glass lamp shade above; the four palm-sized pieces of transparent glass on each side cost about forty Iron Coins each.

When spending the night in the wilderness at night, one could save on lighting two campfires, and the work of lighting the camp could be handed over to this kind of implement.

"Very good, I still have a few jars of Copper Coins and Iron Coins in the carriage; go take and use them yourself. I can't get away this afternoon; the ordnance from the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild and the agreed-upon long spear shafts still need to be delivered."

Because the time had already reached the afternoon, very soon, the cargo carriage from the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild was delivered to the inn gate. Jier had the carriage go to the inn's backyard to unload, and he called over the Warriors who had nothing to do to load the counted Crossbow Bolts and most of the Arrows into an empty carriage.

This carriage was actually the one previously used by the Mao Mao; now the carriage had been cleared out, and the Mao Mao had been preparing for their departure for the past two days.

Because although the Mao Mao hadn't left yet, in fact, since arriving here yesterday, they had already begun moving the heavy Wooden Boxes from their carriage. During the day, it was inconvenient for them to move about on the streets, so last night they took advantage of the darkness to make several trips to move the four heavy Wooden Boxes to the wilderness far outside the town.

During the day today, they found an empty room in the inn to sleep soundly, relieving the fatigue of last night.

Although Jier told them they could spend a little money to temporarily hire a carriage in town to help them transport these Wooden Boxes filled with various metal items to the wilderness outside the town, clearly the Yongqi Maomao, who felt there was no need to spend this money, did not follow Jier's suggestion.

Of course, Jier was also taking things for granted; there wasn't a single bold carriage driver in Duoen Town who would accept a temporary hire from a non-human race for that little bit of money, making several round trips to the wilderness outside the town just to transport a few heavy Wooden Boxes that no one knew what was inside. After all, who knew if those non-humans would wait until the carriage reached outside the town, kill the driver directly, and then occupy the carriage and the horses pulling it.

After all, vehicles and horses were actually very valuable, and such incidents of killing for carriages and horses were not uncommon.

As for the remaining Arrows, Jier untied the Rope and distributed them to all the Warriors who could shoot bows, especially a few specialized archers; each of them received a full bundle of Arrows. Jier himself loaded two hundred Arrows into the quiver captured from the Defeated Soldier, filling the weapon rack of Tianxuecao.

On the warhorse's weapon rack, besides two hundred Arrows, there were also two unstrung Soldier Bows, several bags of heavy Crossbow Bolts, and the hand-held heavy Crossbow he had captured from the Defeated Soldier.

In addition, there was space for empty Long Spears, as well as a rack for storing Shields.

Thinking of Shields, Jier remembered that he hadn't repaired his Elven Metal Shield for a long time.

Since this shield was broken on the front by a Dwarf in the Battle of Babotali Valley, Jier hadn't picked it up for a long time due to the damage. Because conditions didn't allow it, the repair hadn't been carried out while in Sasi County either.

Actually, the production and repair of this Elven Metal Shield were not difficult; Jier had originally had it made at the blacksmith shop in Doraerlin Village. Of course, the blacksmith of that village had an extraordinary background; otherwise, he wouldn't have gifted Jier the magical axe, 【Head-Crossing Skull】.

Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Jier sat in the lobby, waiting for the long spear shafts to be delivered.

Soon, the merchant guild contacted by Mr. Scott arranged for people to deliver five large bundles of long spear shafts. Each shaft was two and a half meters long, ten to a bundle, and the shafts had already been coated with simple paint, so there was no need to worry about rain wetting the shafts.

Of course, the fine polishing and maintenance of the shafts was the work of Jier's own Warriors.

"Knight Jier, because this is wood specifically used for spear shafts, their price is not very cheap, especially at this time. You also know these things are very sought after, and orders for goods are constantly being sent to our merchant guild. If it weren't for Mr. Scott's introduction, it would really be very difficult for us to provide you with fifty long spear shafts all at once."

The Steward of this unnamed merchant guild rubbed his hands, looking at Jier with a troubled face.

Jier knew what the other party meant, and he asked directly: "Then what is the price? How much for one spear shaft?"

The other party gestured: "Because it is a special tree species specifically for making long spear shafts, plus the premium due to the current situation, as well as Mr. Scott's commission, the price of one long spear shaft is three Silver Coins, fifteen Copper Coins, and four Iron Coins."

Jier said nothing; the other party's price had odd numbers, clearly having calculated the price down to every single Iron Coin.

"Buying fifty shafts at once, is there any discount? After all, it's a total price of fifteen Gold Coins, seven Silver Coins, and seventy Copper Coins; you must give me some discount."

As soon as Jier spoke, the Steward immediately replied: "I can waive seventy Copper Coins for you. Sorry, my lord, this is already the biggest discount I can give from my side. After all, I am just a small Steward; I can't even talk to Mr. Scott."

Shrugging, Jier didn't make things difficult for the other party, and even generously gave him sixteen Gold Coins, asking him to send over a few iron brushes for polishing the long spear shafts.

"What a generous Knight, my lord, I guarantee I will have the things you want delivered."

The other party took the Gold Coins, immediately wearing a smiling face, and his bowing and scraping movements were much more frequent than before.

Jier smiled and gestured toward the Warriors busy checking and assembling spearheads behind him: "Just give those brushes to my men."

After saying this, Jier returned to his inn room, and when he came back out, he was carrying an Elven Metal Shield with a large gap in the front, as well as several bundles of lightweight metal rods that didn't seem to have much weight.

This scene was very incongruous, because the metal rods Jier was carrying didn't look light at all, yet Jier held them very nimbly, as if they had no weight.

These metal rods were all the remaining Elven Metal rods from before; in fact, these were only a portion of the Elven Metal he had obtained from dismantling those metal shelves in the Ancient Elf Ruin. Besides the rods, he still had several boards from the Elven shelves! Those were the bulk of it, but compared to what he planned to make, all these railings were already enough.

This metal was, after all, very peculiar; its strength was about the same as normal steel, but its weight was less than one-tenth that of steel, or perhaps even lighter.

Jier did not know what this material was, or how the Elves had produced it; he only knew that this metal was easy to smelt, and the smelted material had high strength, was easy to shape, and was not easily damaged.

At least, it was not easily damaged under normal circumstances.

Because he now possessed the Knight Curved Shield captured from the Knight Hartna, Jier did not intend to smelt a new shield, but instead planned to make something new.

For instance, a set of Horse Armor made of Elven Metal for Tianxuecao?

After all, unlike Jier, Tianxuecao was still just an excellent prairie horse. Although it had a fine pedigree and a tall build, heavier all-metal Horse Armor was still too heavy for it, especially with the fully armed Jier on its back.

Even if Tianxuecao could still move at full speed, its stamina would clearly be insufficient once the burden became too heavy.

To improve the warhorse's defensive capabilities without increasing its load, using this Elven Metal was clearly a good method.

However, Jier did not think he could obtain any more of that Elven Metal which the ancient Elves had used to make shelves. Therefore, he would use as little of this non-replenishable Elven Metal as possible.

Jier had already made up his mind to turn these Elven Metals into thin metal plates, fitted with hooks and rings, so that an extra layer of metal protection could be added over Tianxuecao's current Horse Armor without adding too much weight to the horse.

As for the critical head and neck areas of the horse, more Elven Metal would be used to avoid insufficient protection for important parts.

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