Chương 116: Putting It All to Work

[Contract Payment Successful]. Tears rolled down Arthur's cheeks as he paid the total of 490 Faunite Crystals required to hire the [Garrick] Skeleton. The saddest part was that even Cecil had needed a lesser amount of 410 Faunite Crystals, and he came with the option to communicate. However, after seeing the abilities and the variety of weapons it could wield, Arthur knew the price was well worth it. It was a master in hand-to-hand combat, as well as with the sword, archery, mace, halberd, dagger, and shield.

Just as its specialty indicated, it was a master at utilizing versatile weapons, completely justifying the cost. From its very posture, the skeleton emitted a strong, dominating pressure. It was a formidable skeleton to possess, and with it, Arthur could finally feel safe from any enemy.

"Cecil, what do you think about the Garrick Skeleton?" Arthur asked.

"Sire, Garrick seems to be a very strong and capable worker, so I am glad you hired him. He will ensure your safety in difficult times," Cecil said.

"Yes, I think the same." Arthur revealed a satisfied smile.

"Next, let's spend the gathered materials to hire a Beginner Level Combat Team," Arthur said.

"Cecil, I currently have a total of 8, 000 Alpha Standard Cores. Do you think this amount would be useful somewhere?" The combat team led by the Yabo Skeleton had performed too well. Not only had it collected a total of 9 kilograms of Night Crystals, leaving only 3 kilograms more required for the second quest to be completed, but aside from the Night Crystals, the combat team had also collected a total sum of 8000 Normal Cores.

Even though Arthur had given the command to collect Night Crystals by killing every monster, the Yabo Skeleton had clearly utilized Coburn's skill that could identify the Night Crystal monsters. They must have hunted some colony of monsters; otherwise, this much yield would not have been possible. Now that he had already evolved his first Core Layer to the Alpha Standard, he no longer needed Alpha Standard Cores.

He could spend them without any worry, but he still wanted to seek advice from Cecil, just in case they could be put to better use.

"You can definitely spend the Alpha Standard Cores without any issues, Sire, but do not spend them on a single profession," Cecil advised, providing a solid suggestion to avoid investing everything into combat skeletons.

"Since the current combat team is already very capable of killing monsters, you can think about the future. Do you have anything in mind that you want to do?"

"You are right. In the beginning, I wanted to start my own blacksmith company…" Suddenly, his voice faltered. He had forgotten something he needed to do: revive Bathory. If he remembered correctly, he needed to perform the revival within ten days, and four days had already passed.

"Cecil, how rare are Revitalize Stones?" Arthur asked. Although he still had six days remaining, he doubted he would obtain that stone during this trial.

"Revitalize Stones are considered a Standard-tier commodity. They are widely used and available," Cecil replied.

"Do you think I will find that stone in this territory?" Arthur asked. He did not know how much time this trial would take, so he simply wanted to begin the search. If he managed to exit this Concentric Trial within the time limit, he would be lucky; otherwise, he would have to start searching for the stone here. Even though Bathory was only a Beginner Status skeleton, Arthur felt he needed to revive him, as the skeleton had died saving him.

"I lack knowledge about this, Sire, but let us have Mayo search for the crystal in the territory. There is a chance this place may possess a different variety of minerals and crystals, similar to the Faunite Crystal," Cecil speculated.

"Oh, do you think there could be a variety of minerals found here?" Suddenly, an idea began to form. In the beginning, his desire had been to start his own blacksmith company, but that dream was shattered by the people of Sector A. However, once he exited this place, he would definitely become a formidable force with his Great Grandmaster Skeletons. There would be very few people who would oppose him and ignore him the way they had at the [Industrial Regulations Head Office].

He could easily obtain a license and start his own company. Now, according to Cecil, there could certainly be a lot of minerals hidden in this territory. He could mine them and start his company right here. He had an abundant amount of iron ore waiting to be mined in the quarry. On the outside, he had to pay 2, 500 Credits for a single kilogram of it, but here, it was free. He could mine the ore and start producing as many weapons as he wanted. Once he exited, he could sell them as soon as he obtained the license.

It was a great plan; without any investment, he could start his business from here.

"Cecil, here is my proposal. I want you to tell me how to approach this," Arthur said, quickly explaining his plan to utilize the territory's resources while they spent their time here. Since he had plenty of resources to hire skeletons, he could easily accomplish this.

"That is a very good idea, Sire. Since this work does not involve your time and attention, you can easily do it. I am sure it will definitely benefit you financially once you exit the Concentric Trial," Cecil agreed with this plan.

"Furthermore, the minerals and other resources are free, so a lot of capital is saved. There is only profit." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Excellent. Now, help me hire the workers. Currently, we have a total of six Beginner Status Miner Skeletons and four Expert Status Miner Skeletons. That should be enough to mine the iron ore from the quarry. If Mayo finds any other mineral deposits, we can hire a few more at that time," Arthur said, outlining their current situation.

"I have one Master Status Blacksmith Skeleton who can easily create weapons based on the available materials. We can hire a few more Beginner Status Skeletons capable of forging from different blueprints, rather than relying on a fixed blueprint like Bathory. In that case, once Ortiz creates a unique sword, we can share that blueprint with the other skeletons to streamline the forging process," Arthur explained.

Although this might require a factory setup, with Ortiz present, there would be no issues; he could easily craft high-quality forging tools.

"Then, we can hire a few Labor Status Workers to transport the materials. Yes, we can easily achieve this." Arthur was overjoyed. He could forge tons of weapons in a wide variety, and once Mayo started discovering other materials, Ortiz could use them to create items of different qualities and standards.

"That is a good plan, Sire," Cecil said after listening to everything.

"So, let us hire a few combat skeletons that can accelerate the current combat team's overall performance." Arthur quickly opened the Marketplace and selected a variety of Beginner Combat Skeletons. He chose a [Gladiator, a Lancer, a Spearman, an Axe Warrior, and a Shieldbreaker], a total of five skeletons. He chose to skip the Swordsman, as he already had four on the team. Hiring a variety of classes would give Yabo a chance to utilize them efficiently in battle.

These skeletons required around 200 to 250 Alpha Standard Cores each, so they were definitely a worthwhile hire. Following this, he summoned the combat team and Commander Yabo. He gave them clear instructions to hunt normal monsters and to avoid any monsters that were stronger or felt impossible to kill. Currently, a Boss monster resided somewhere within the territory. If the combat battalion were to encounter the Boss, the outcome would be disastrous.

Therefore, he gave strict orders to avoid even Special monsters, which Arthur normally considered a source of special rewards. Once that was settled and the combat team departed, Arthur sent Coburn along as well. He believed their previously effective hunting was mostly due to Coburn's input as an Expert Skeleton and his comprehensive knowledge. The skeletons left the safe spot, with Yabo leading the team. Then, following Cecil's suggestion, Arthur summoned Hall.

He had decided to send the Assassin out to scout for the Special monsters and pinpoint their locations. As a Master Status Skeleton who had made it out alive after facing multiple enemies in the Main Chamber, Hall was an incredibly capable assassin in Arthur's eyes. Therefore, he could easily handle this task. After receiving its instructions, Hall was sent out to scout.

"Okay, next is the mining team." Arthur summoned a total of ten Miner Skeletons, consisting of the six Beginner and four Expert Skeletons he had hired while mining the Faunite Crystals. These ten skeletons would be enough to satisfy the material supply for a single blacksmith.

"Cecil, do you think hiring Beginner Status Blacksmith Skeletons would be enough to forge a blueprint created by a Master Skeleton? Would they be capable enough?" Arthur asked. He was slightly reluctant to hire Beginner Blacksmith skeletons. Since Ortiz was a Master Skeleton, his blueprints would naturally be of high quality. Simply hiring Beginner Skeletons might just be a waste of his resources.

"It would be difficult for a Beginner Status worker to adapt to a blueprint created by a Master Status worker. Their status must be at least at the Expert level so that the failure rate during forging remains very low," Cecil advised.

"That makes sense. Let me check for Expert Status Skeletons that can be hired using my Cores and other materials." Arthur then filtered the list for those specific options. Soon, he found blacksmiths that could be hired with Cores. However, as usual, the required amount was enormous. It cost around 1, 500 to 2, 000 Alpha Standard Cores for an Expert Status Blacksmith Skeleton. Nevertheless, the price was reasonable, so he decided to hire three of them.

A total of 5, 200 Cores were spent to hire three skeletons: [Abril, Font, and Nieto]. Every one of them was versatile in their specialty, meaning they could easily adapt to any blueprint. As a result, his possessed Cores drained from 8, 000 down to a mere 1, 600. He still possessed a lot of other materials, such as meat, carcasses, bones, and other body parts, but he could not use them to hire any higher Status Skeletons.

Although he could have hired many Beginner Status Skeletons with those materials, he decided that his current workforce was sufficient for now and chose to leave the safe spot. After exiting the underground safe spot, he summoned Mayo, the Mineral Detection Skeleton, and sent him off to find minerals and other valuable crystals and stones. However, Mayo's top priority was to detect any traces of Revitalize Stones. Following this, Arthur started walking towards the crater.

There was something he wanted to show Cecil to get his input. He also summoned Repp, the Barrier Sorcerer, and ordered it to activate a Protection Barrier. Purple energy shrouded his skin, and a purple halo appeared above his head. The Four of them quickly reached the crater, and Arthur walked toward the cave hole he had accidentally stumbled upon earlier. The memory of how he had hidden there and met those strange people with red hair and black hair was still fresh in his mind. Who could they be?

Were they also from Faith City? Whoever they were, they were undeniably the reason for his second death. What should he do? Should he eradicate everyone in their families, including the children? That would certainly put a satisfied smile on his face. However, killing children would be taking it too far; instead, he would kill everyone who had awakened. Yes, that was exactly what he was going to do.

Once he left this Concentric Trial, he would eliminate three families: the Pleasence family, the red-haired family, and the black-haired family. With his current strength, he believed he could accomplish this. Moreover, he would definitely grow stronger as the trial continued. His only concern was that if he somehow died again, it would be his permanent death. With these thoughts in mind, Arthur reached the cave, and the four entered.

His main reason for coming here was to ask about the egg that stood at the center of the water. He simply wanted to show it to Cecil and find out if this egg could be one of the rewards he was supposed to obtain. Arthur entered the first room and led the three skeletons into the Main Chamber. Once he laid eyes on the egg, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had almost thought those people would have taken it with them, but somehow, they had ignored it and left it behind.

"Cecil, check this egg. Do you think it is a real egg or just a statue?" Arthur asked.

"Sire, this seems to be a real egg, but…"