Chapter 370: Iron Skin and Iron Bones

Through observations around the Snow Crystal Lake, Richard discovered that there were many underground rivers around the Snow Crystal Lake, of which five flowed into the Snow Crystal Lake from the main peak of the Eagle Mountains.

The underground rivers that flowed into the Snow Crystal Lake were mainly sourced from snowmelt from the mountains.

Because the Snow Crystal Lake was the spawning ground for the Snow Crystal Fish, it was very dangerous under the lake, so Richard did not send anyone to explore the details.

There were two underground rivers flowing out of the Snow Crystal Lake. According to Richard's estimation, they should flow into the Samba River, which was dozens of kilometers away.

The Samba River was a major artery on the northern grasslands. It turned a corner in the northern part of the Snow Crystal Lake. With this river as a natural defense line, the defense of the Harland Territory in this section could be easier.

In June this year, engineers in the Harland Territory successfully manufactured a paddle steamer powered by a steam engine.

This new type of ship, due to its imperfections in design and manufacturing, still needed a lot of water testing and inspection.

In order to prevent information leakage and keep secrets, Richard placed the test work in the north of the Eagle Mountains, far away from the core area of ​​Harland.

Up to now, three steam paddle steamers have been built, and it is estimated that the water test and transformation will not be completed until next year.

Three steam paddle steamers are already a considerable water force in the northern prairie, which can assist the nearby Wilde and Sutton troops in defending the defense line.

From early August to late October, it is the spawning season of snow crystal fish, and the time to catch snow crystal fish is less than three months.

Through continuous observation and summary, Richard found that there are six populations of snow crystal fish that enter the Snow Crystal Lake to spawn. The number of the six snow crystal fish populations is about 50,000 to 60,000, and the small population is 10,000 to 20,000, and the total number is roughly 200,000 to 300,000.

The fight between the snow crystal fish populations is very fierce, and there will be some casualties in every conflict. The casualties of these snow crystal fish made Richard feel very painful, because the snow crystal fish in this lake are all resources of Harland territory.

On average, a fishing team needs twelve magicians and thirty warriors, and can catch dozens of snow crystal fish every day, which is worth thousands of gold coins.

Because freezing the ice requires a large number of magicians to work together, the Harland territory can only organize three fishing teams. By the end of October, the number of snow crystal fish caught exceeded 10,000.

The internal organs of 10,000 snow crystal fish can be used to refine 20,000 bottles of Tenghui potion, which is worth 600,000 gold coins.

As long as the six snow crystal fish populations are not extinct, they will still have the habit of entering the Snow Crystal Lake to spawn, and this income will continue.

An annual output value of 600,000 gold coins is undoubtedly a huge industry. The output that the Snow Crystal Lake can bring to Harland is greater than the steel industry that has been cultivated for many years.

Before refining the Tenghui potion, the pharmacist needs to prepare a special potion to extract the internal organs and cerebrospinal fluid of the monster. Then, extracts must be extracted from two extraordinary plants, mixed and refined liquid medicine, and finally converted through a special magic array before a bottle of Tenghui potion can be made.

To make a bottle of Tenghui potion, the market price of the main material is about twelve gold coins. Using the magic array to convert twelve bottles at a time, three magic crystals are needed, and each bottle also costs three gold coins. The two auxiliary materials can be grown on a large scale in the magic botanical garden, each plant costs one gold coin, and making special potions also costs eight silver coins. In addition to the wear and tear of the refining tools, the average cost of refining a bottle of Tenghui potion is about eighteen gold coins.

However, the price of Tenghui potion in the market is often around thirty gold coins. The profit exceeds two-thirds, which is only slightly lower than the high-profit luxury goods.

Luxury goods are just small industries serving the nobles. The perfume industry in Harland Territory basically monopolizes most of the market in the Kingdom of Grant, and the profit to the territory is only 10,000 gold coins each year.

The scale of the noble dress industry is slightly larger, but the clothing industry is an extremely personalized industry and basically cannot be monopolized.

The market size of shoes, hats, accessories and the like is not even comparable to perfume, and the profit is even pitiful.

The annual demand for Tenghui potion in Grant Kingdom exceeds 100,000 bottles, but the annual output is only about a little more than half, and the market size exceeds 1.5 million.

Producing more than 20,000 bottles of Tenghui potion a year will result in a net profit of 240,000 gold coins. Moreover, Harland Territory does not need to purchase materials, and the cost of expenditure does not exceed 100,000 gold coins, and the total profit will reach 500,000.

The net income of 500,000 gold coins is enough to support 30,000 main legions. This money is a huge source of income even if it is placed in a dukedom. Even if most of this batch of potions have to be digested in the territory, selling a few thousand bottles can be exchanged for a large amount of extraordinary resources.

In order to protect the resources of Snow Crystal Lake, the magicians of Harland Territory must carefully calculate every time they fish and catch according to the number of snow crystal fish populations. A fixed quota is set each year to prevent overfishing. According to careful estimates, the number of catches in the first year is a little more than 4%, with a total of 10,000.

In order to catch more snow crystal fish, Richard sent people to build a simple base near the Snow Crystal Lake, and the nine magicians who were promoted this year also came here to train.

Sophia and the members of the potion team also built a simple alchemy workshop near the Snow Crystal Lake. Because there are many materials this year, Sophia can also let go and train potion personnel.

The Harland Territory has built three magic towers, each of which has a magic plant plantation, so there is no shortage of auxiliary materials for refining Tenghui potions. There are magic crystal mines in the Losa Basin, and magic crystal charging technology has been invented. The supply of magic crystals can be self-sufficient. Now there are enough main materials. In just three months, the territory pharmacists consumed 20,000 bottles of materials. Because they need to train new pharmacists, the success rate is much lower than in previous years, and only 17,600 bottles have been successfully refined.

Refining Tenghui potions, if the success rate is less than 60%, it is considered a loss. This year, the success rate of the territory pharmacists is only 88%. If all materials are purchased from outside and a premium is paid, there is actually no extra profit.

After consuming 2,400 pieces of materials worth more than 40,000 gold coins, the Harland Mage Association has added six pharmacists. Through this year's high-intensity refining of Tenghui potions, the level of experienced pharmacists in the territory has also improved a bit. From the perspective of long-term interests, the territory still has something to gain.

Six new pharmacists have been added. The Harland Territory Pharmacy Society, including two elven pharmacists, now has thirteen members.

Normally, it costs a lot to train a pharmacist. Even if there is a mentor to guide, it takes a long time to train, and it takes a lot of trial and error. To make Tenghui Potion without losing money, you need to spend three to four thousand gold coins for materials.

Because Harland Territory caught too many snow crystal fish, the materials could not be preserved for too long, so the training time could only be shortened, and the pharmacist apprentices spent a lot of materials to practice and summarize experience. The cost of the six newly trained pharmacists has exceeded seven thousand gold coins.

Now Harland Territory has thirteen pharmacists, which is comparable to the Grant Mage Association, although the number of formal members of the Harland Mage Association is less than one-third of the Grant Mage Association. On the contrary, there are more mage apprentices in Harland Territory.

By catching snow crystal fish, a large amount of raw materials for refining Tenghui potions were obtained. In addition to the harvest from hunting monsters this year, by the end of October, the number of Tenghui potions successfully refined in the Harland Territory exceeded 21,000 bottles.

More than 20,000 bottles of Tenghui potions were refined. Not only did they not need to be imported this year, but they could also sell some at the commodity fair in exchange for various extraordinary resources.

After repeated discussions by the top leaders of the territory, it was finally decided to leave 15,000 troops for the Harland Territory Army. Among them, there were 13,000 main legions, 1,000 city defense troops, and 1,000 public security troops.

To exchange extraordinary potions for soldiers, they need to pay merits and gold coins.

Generally speaking, officers with qualifications and the hope of being knighted will accumulate merits and exchange them with gold coins. In particular, officers with good backgrounds and support behind them will not spend merits to exchange for such low-level extraordinary resources.

Officers with average qualifications and ordinary backgrounds basically have no hope of being knighted, so they will exchange merits, hoping to increase their strength a little by taking Tenghui potions.

Professionals with poor qualifications and slow progress in cultivation, on the contrary, disdain extraordinary potions. They will accumulate merits and exchange them for gold coins when they retire to make their lives better.

In addition to the 15,000 Tenghui potions left for the army, some should also be reserved for more than a dozen noble vassals in the territory.

Harland Territory now has thirteen vassals, twelve barons, and one viscount. Except for Viscount Sutton who does not need this low-end potion, the other twelve baron territories are in great need of it.

Sutton has very few people under his command. Together with his direct descendants and humans with half-elf blood, there are only more than sixty members in total, and more than a dozen of them are still minors.

These children are taken care of by high-level professionals such as Sutton, Sylph, and Undine. They don’t lack basic things like Tenghui potions.

The remaining elves and half-elves have been promoted to professionals. Elves generally use a basic potion called natural essence. They have their own pharmacists who can collect materials and refine potions.

The effect of natural essence is better than Tenghui potion.

Viscount Sutton did not exchange, and the other twelve barons reserved a total of 1,200 Tenghui potions, with each baron having a share of 100.

The noble coalition under the vassal is also an important force in Harland, and its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the city defense army and the security army. However, the vassal of Harland has accumulated resources for a short time and has no resources. The Tenghui potion is left to them and needs to be paid on credit.

In addition, the Demon Hunter Guild reserved 500, the Mercenary Guild kept 500, and the Intelligence Department reserved 500. The various systems of Harland were divided, and 17,800 Tenghui potions were needed.

The nobles of Geda Province cooperated well with the Duke of Harland, and played a crucial role in this battle, and also needed Richard's care.

The Harland Territory took out an additional 1,500 Tenghui potions to exchange resources with them.

The food produced by the nobles of the Geda Province, the captured orc slaves, and even the mined mineral resources can all be exchanged with the Duke of Harland for a certain amount of extraordinary resources, including Tenghui potions and alchemical bombs.

It is actually very difficult for the small nobles of the Grant Kingdom to obtain extraordinary resources. Most of them exchange with the royal family for merits. The annual quota for merits is relatively small. A baron can exchange up to 30, which normally can only train three or four professional officers.

The second is to exchange other extraordinary resources with the great nobles. This kind of exchange requires luck and opportunity.

Then you can train pharmacists and collect materials for refining. This is even more difficult. Most of the hereditary nobles have no magic inheritance at all. If they occasionally get lucky and train a magician, it is also a wild magician, and it is difficult to master the knowledge of refining potions.

Richard is willing to exchange ordinary resources such as food, minerals, and orc slaves with Tenghui potions and alchemical bombs. This is undoubtedly a great help to the nobles of Geda Province.

The remaining 1,700 Tenghui potions were placed at the commodity fair in exchange for various extraordinary resources. For example, elf black tea, fur of magic horned rabbits, spider silk of flame spiders, snake-body human scales, etc. As long as it is an extraordinary material, Harland Territory will not refuse anyone, even if it is a little disadvantageous, it is willing to exchange.

After entering October, before the commodity fair was held, Richard had sent personnel from the territory's business system to spread the news in advance and strengthen publicity.

In October, the climate in the northern border area has become relatively cold. This year, in order to defend against the invasion of orcs and coordinate the command of the military station defense line, Richard plans to stay in the northern part of the Eagle Mountains after winter.

After entering October, Richard's warrior level has reached the peak of level 6. After four years and five months of hard training, his warrior experience value can no longer be improved.

At this moment, Richard has accumulated enough strength to break through to level 7.

Generally speaking, a warrior needs to use high-level potions to break through to level 7. If the potion is not used, once the breakthrough fails, the violent fighting spirit will destroy the body's acupoints.

Although the seventh-level potion is very precious, Richard is the duke lord and the third person in the Grant Kingdom. The seventh-level life evolution potion is not scarce for him.

Sofia is originally a seventh-level pharmacist. The main material of the life evolution potion is the seventh-level magic core. The Harland Territory has already mastered the potion formula. As long as Richard has a demand, Sofia can quickly refine it.

In mid-October, Richard took the life evolution potion and completed the advancement smoothly.

After being promoted to a seventh-level warrior, by checking the attribute panel, Richard found that his strength had increased to 23 points.

When the strength exceeds 20 points, the first talent will be awakened. Warriors usually awaken their first physical attribute talent after being promoted to level 7.

After William was promoted to level 7, he awakened the talent of violent force. When he was emotional and crazy, his strength would surge by three to six points.

When Soros was promoted to level 7, he awakened the talent of super endurance. This talent greatly improved endurance and helped Soros' outstanding shooting skills, extending Soros's fighting time.

After Jennings reached level 7, he awakened a better talent, which strengthened his nerve reaction speed and enabled him to avoid danger calmly.

Richard's strength broke through 20 points, which also brought him a talent called Copper Skin and Iron Bones, which can strengthen the toughness of skin, muscles, and bones, and is of great help to a warrior's ability to resist attacks.

To be honest, this talent is dispensable for Richard.

Because of his outstanding mental strength and the fact that he is a duke, his current fighting method is mainly based on magic, and close combat with the enemy is very rare.

Besides, Richard was wearing a seventh-level enchanted armor, and his defense ability far exceeded that of a bronze-skinned and iron-boned general. This kind of talent should be reserved for a brave general who needs to charge into battle, but Richard was a duke and a monarch, and a talent for strengthening defense was actually not very helpful to him.