Chapter 27: A Trade with the Woodland Realm

As the harvest season approached, the villagers of Wilderness Village were extremely busy; not only did they often have to guard their fields, but they also frequently went out in groups to hunt and gather wild fruits at the edge of the forest.

The villagers who had taken on the project of building the city wall began working every day after dawn, and they often needed to work until dusk before returning home.

This work schedule, which seemed like exploitation to Allen, did not seem to matter much to the villagers.

Allen fell into confusion amidst words like, "What's the big deal? When I used to hunt, I would go whole nights without sleeping to track prey; that was even more tiring than this."

"It doesn't matter, as long as I can eat my fill and eat well, I can handle this bit of fatigue."

Allen found Artimenner and told him to arrange for the villagers to rest in stages, as working continuously for long periods could easily lead to safety issues.

Artimenner looked at Allen in confusion and told him that he had originally arranged for them to work for one hour and rest for ten minutes.

After getting the answer, Allen left the construction site looking embarrassed; one should always trust the professionals.

As for the five Dwarf blacksmiths, Allen had arranged for them to go to Fulei, since this young man was the first blacksmith in the village.

Allen also used Dinar to purchase a considerable amount of pig iron, handed it over to the blacksmiths, and requested that they forge enough Spears to equip the thousand or so troops that could be conscripted.

There was no other way; if one wanted to form a certain level of combat effectiveness in a short time, Spears were the best weapon.

Especially when facing the Orcish of the Misty Mountains, who had extremely poor discipline.

As long as Allen's army could form a battle formation, and as long as the number of Orcish was not too high, Allen felt there would be no major issues in a head-on confrontation on the plains.

As for armor, which was an extremely scarce item, Allen had no way to equip them with it yet.

He could only wait until he had money in the future to consider buying it from the Simulator, but that would be very expensive.

The Simulator did not offer discounts; even for the cheapest Leather Armor, buying thousands of sets would be impossible without hundreds of thousands of Dinar.

Therefore, Allen was in urgent need of trade now; buying from the Iron Hills was not realistic, as it was too far away.

Thranduil might not necessarily agree to let the Dwarf goods pass through his territory.

Allen thought to himself that once he had the strength in the future, he would definitely open up the Old Forest Road and then collect taxes there—heavy taxes.

Allen thought bitterly, but he knew that by then, things might not be the same.

The most important thing for Allen now was to open up a trade route with the Woodland Realm.

There was plenty of manpower now, and building a simple road was not a particularly high-difficulty task.

As the saying went, food was important; Allen did not want to stop the progress of building the city wall, and he did not have much Dinar left to buy food.

Allen set his sights on Desaiwei; he needed Desaiwei to go with him to the Woodland Realm to discuss the details of the trade.

Desaiwei was very surprised after hearing Allen's arrangement.

This girl said with a lack of confidence: "My Lord, have you thought this through? I have absolutely no experience. I think Yamila would be more capable of this job; I'm quite fine just doing patrol duties."

Allen waved his hand, his face full of encouraging smiles.

"Desaiwei, it's fine, you don't need experience, and you don't need to worry too much about not being able to complete this. Your scouting abilities will come in handy; what I need is a team leader, not a merchant. Trust me, you will be very, very suitable for this task."

Upon hearing Allen's words, Desaiwei said: "As long as you think I can do it, then I will certainly try my best to complete the task you have entrusted to me."

The day after discussing it with Desaiwei, amidst Cress's unhappy expression,

Allen announced the news that he would be taking a group of people to the Woodland Realm again, but Cress was not on the list.

Furthermore, Allen also instructed Yamila to keep an eye on Cress and not let her sneak out alone again.

Cress was very angry about this, and it wasn't until Allen returned from the Woodland Realm that Cress forgave him—of course, that is a story for later.

To keep up appearances, Allen spent thousands of Dinar to purchase Wine from Pendor and Calradia.

He loaded them onto several flatbed carts and set off with Desaiwei and some residents of the Woodland.

Allen also brought Artimenner along, so that Artimenner could arrange for people to build a road leading to the Elf Path.

Finally, after about ten days, the group arrived at the entrance of the Elf Path again.

At this point, Artimenner went back to Wilderness Village with the men; he would soon arrange for people to build this path, which was over a hundred kilometers long.

Fortunately, Allen's requirements were not high; as long as it was one meter wide and barely passable for flatbed carts, that would suffice.

If this road were built, they would be able to use carriages to transport goods in the future.

On the way back, Artimenner roughly calculated that this road would take until next spring to finish, and it shouldn't delay next year's spring plowing.

It was just that the construction of the city wall might be delayed a bit; Allen had ordered too many things.

He missed the days when everyone else went out to fight and he had nothing to do.

The Elf Path was not suitable for flatbed carts, as most of the roads inside had steps.

Allen's group left the carts behind and walked into the Elf Path, leading the horses that were carrying the wine barrels.

After traveling less than two kilometers, they ran into the guards of the Woodland Realm, and the leader was actually Galion.

Galion was not an Elf responsible for scouting, and his age could be considered that of an elder among the Elf.

His position was the butler in charge of supplying red wine to Thranduil.

In the original story, it was precisely because he drank too much Wine that Bilbo seized the opportunity to escape; at the same time, he personally sent the members of Thorin's Company out of the Woodland Realm.

It is conceivable that at that time, this old Elf must have had to spend a long time in the King's dungeon to dissipate Thranduil's anger.

At this moment, Galion was still perfectly fine, enjoying the King's trust, waiting here for Allen's Wine.

Galion was an old drunkard no less than Thranduil, and his taste in Wine was also quite high.

Upon learning that Allen had become the new wine supplier, he came here specifically to wait for Allen.

His reason was also very sufficient: if this wine could not satisfy his palate, then it should not be transported to the Woodland Realm, so as not to waste the King's time.

Allen felt there was no problem with this; as the butler responsible for supplying red wine to Thranduil, Galion had this right.

Therefore, Allen did not mind and directly poured two small cups from the two types of Wine and handed them to Galion.

As soon as the first cup of Wine produced in Calradia entered his mouth, Galion knew that this wine was good.

It would be no worse than the Wine of Dorwinion, Galion nodded secretly; sure enough, this trip was worth it.

When the second cup of Wine produced in Pendor entered his mouth, Galion noticed something wrong.

This Wine not only had an excellent texture but also a unique flavor.

After drinking it, a faint power actually radiated from the Wine, filling his body.

Galion felt as if he were more real in this world.

He was astonished; he had not expected that a mere village of a few thousand people could provide such top-quality Wine.

He had only heard that the Elves of Rivendell could brew a honey Wine called Miruvor, which had the effect of uplifting the spirit and restoring Vitality; he had not expected to drink a Wine with a different feeling today.

"Could... could I have another cup? Just this one."

Galion handed the second cup to Allen, and Allen could tell that Galion was very satisfied, especially with the Wine produced in Pendor.

Allen thought that as long as he was satisfied, that was fine, and he poured another cup of Wine and handed it to Galion.

After the old Elf drank it again, he confirmed that it was not his hallucination.

He excitedly said to Allen: "This Wine is truly excellent, even better than what is produced in Dorwinion; no, the stuff from Dorwinion cannot compare to this at all. Let us leave quickly; I cannot wait to let His Majesty the King have a taste."

Allen was very surprised by Galion's praise; he had not failed to drink these two types of Wine, and he had not felt that there was any difference.

Allen made a preliminary guess that the first reason was the special constitution of the Elf, which had a special sensitivity to things produced in the world of Magic.

The second possibility was that the Wine produced in Pendor was special; after all, there was Magic energy in the environment there, and heaven knows if there was this kind of stuff in the Wine.

Allen's speculations were not wrong; what he did not expect was that his own constitution was also very special, and he could not sense this energy.

Regarding Magic energy, the first thing that came to Allen's mind was actually the mana addiction in World of Warcraft.

But then he thought again, Wine is something that is easily addictive, so he could only wait and see Thranduil's reaction at that time.

If he did not like it, it would be better to provide Wine from Calradia, so as not to affect the friendship between the two forces because of this.

Under Galion's guidance, the group quickly walked along the Elf Path toward the Woodland Realm.

And unlike the last time when they walked the whole way, a few days later, the group arrived at a small river, where several Elves were already waiting for them in small boats.

Galion told Allen that the small boats were there because he had passed the information to His Majesty the King through the birds, and only then did His Majesty the King time it well and arrange for people to pick up the group.

After the group unloaded the Wine from the horses onto the boats, they left a few people and a few Elves to watch the horses.

The remaining people took the boats along the river toward Thranduil's halls.

Allen stood on the small boat, feeling as if the Elves' boats had Magic; he did not see the Elves rowing the boats use much effort, yet the small boats glided very far, both fast and steady.

Galion thought that Allen was interested in this river, and because of the fine Wine, he was very willing to chat with Allen for a while.

He told Allen that this was a Magic River; except for the Elves living in Mirkwood, anyone who entered the vicinity of this small river would fall into drowsiness, and in severe cases, they would even fall into a deep sleep and take a long time to wake up.

Allen knew these things, but he could not show it.

He could only pretend to be very interested and ask about things he did not know, such as where the Magic of this river came from.

The answer Galion gave was the Magic of King Thranduil; Allen was not sure if it was true, as the data he knew did not record it.

Time passed slowly during the two people's conversation, and Allen felt that the small boat had only traveled for half a day before reaching the destination.

And Thranduil was already waiting for Allen in his halls.

Seeing Allen again, a slight smile appeared on Thranduil's face.

He had learned from the birds that Allen had brought extraordinary good Wine, and he was eager to have a taste.

He was seen standing up from the table in the banquet hall and walking toward Allen to welcome him.

He said: "Allen, welcome to my halls again. If the birds' words were not passed on incorrectly, you seem to have brought some very excellent Wine. I really want to know what kind of fine Wine is worthy of such praise from Galion."

"I think it should satisfy you, Your Majesty."

After Allen finished speaking, he handed the Wine from his arms to the serving Elves, and he and Thranduil sat back down at the long table in the banquet hall.

Soon, the Elf brought over the crystal glasses filled with Wine.

As a king, Thranduil very elegantly picked up the crystal glass on the table and drank the Wine produced in Pendor.

After drinking it, Thranduil knew that this Wine was worthy of Galion's praise.

Thranduil felt that this Wine indeed had some extraordinary effects, making the energy in his body become more active.

This was indeed different from ordinary Wine, and the most critical thing was that Thranduil did not detect anything bad in the Wine, such as the power of darkness.

Thranduil was particularly curious about where Allen had obtained this kind of Wine.

But the reserve of being a king did not allow him to express his doubts.

Thranduil knew that this must be an undisclosed secret of Allen's clan, and prying into such secrets could very likely sever the friendship between the two clans.

However, while secrets could not be pried into, the price could still be negotiated; Thranduil calmly discussed the details of the trade with Allen.

Through Thranduil's performance, Allen knew that this king was satisfied with the Wine, but Allen did not know exactly how satisfied he was.

The two discussed for a long time, and Allen felt that he had taken advantage in the negotiation; he believed he had secured a very favorable price.

That was ten times the original value of the Wine in grain; the price of a barrel of Wine was 120 Dinar, and now it could be exchanged for grain that would cost 1200 Dinar to purchase. Trading at such a price, Allen would no longer have a grain crisis in the future.

Moreover, Thranduil also promised that he would not only provide grain, but he would also order the Elves to continuously repair the Elf Path.

At that time, he would load the grain onto boats and transport it to the junction of the Magic River and the path, where Allen and his men would pick it up.

For the sake of their friendship, Thranduil would not only give Allen a large batch of pack horses, but would also arrange for Elves to ensure the safety of Allen's caravan in Mirkwood.

Allen thought for a moment; the dozen or so barrels of Wine he traded to Thranduil every month would be enough to meet his needs in exchange for grain.

The only trouble was the transportation problem, and this problem would also be solved by the Elves in the future. Thinking of this, Allen always felt that Thranduil might have suffered a loss.

Thranduil's thoughts were the same; he also felt that he had taken a big advantage in this trade.

This kind of special Wine could not be thought of according to the price of regular liquor; he always felt that this kind of Wine would bring good changes to the Elves' bodies.

Although the Woodland Realm did not produce grain, there were plenty of large plantations on the plains east of Mirkwood.

As long as Thranduil exchanged some of the Wine trade quota for grain, there would be plenty of merchants coming to his door with grain at that time.

Just like that, the two people, both feeling that they had taken advantage, happily agreed on the details of future trades.

After the agreement was reached, Allen left the Woodland Realm without stopping, taking Desaiwei toward the Iron Hills.

Allen did not have the idea of doing business with Dain Ironfoot, but since he was out and it was on the way, he naturally had to go see a friend.

Dain happily received Allen and greatly praised the ale Allen brought, jokingly complaining that the ale Allen brought was too little.

After Allen had lived here for two days, he took the ten Dwarf Swords that Dain had gifted him and set out on the road for his return journey.

In short, it was another month later when Allen returned to Wilderness Village once again.