A Sorcerer's Journey

Chapter 537: Governor of Moth Frog Town

After four months.

All the students of Netherheart’s first inherited vein had reached the premises of Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy from all their respective areas. After Deidarion, Peranos and Orton had gone through the short Dean’s inauguration ceremony, the true fifty-year assessment had begun for all the third generation and fourth generation students.

Moth Frog Town was the town that Grandmaster Netherheart had assigned to Grimm for the assessment.

Moth Frog Town had a population of seventy thousand people while surrounding the town were nine small towns along with three hundred and forty-two villages. The total population of all being two hundred fifty-seven thousand people. Due to the fact that the town was popular for having Moth Frogs that were rare creatures, and the fact that it was a nine-day Knight’s journey from Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy, it had become one of the cities that was the earliest to be developed in Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy.

Grimm sat before a table as he carefully read the information about Moth Frog Town’s resources and population.

In the giant hall sat about twenty nobles from Moth Frog Town that were looking expectantly at the Sorcerer that had a spiral printed white mask on. Their faces were all filled with anticipation.

Little Myna was standing on Vivian’s shoulder as both of them were behind Grimm.

After quite some time, Grimm put down the massive amount of information as he said slowly while looking at the nobles, “You guys know the purpose of my arrival. So let me talk about my plans. Firstly, my objective is to increase wealth.”

There were three ways to go about increasing the population—increasing the birth rate, lowering the death rate or attracting migrant populations.

Gaining wealth would make it easier for him to achieve the last two mentioned. As such, it was indeed the first thing that Grimm wanted to achieve.

At the mention of wealth, the eyes of a few nobles that came out of obligation started to burn with excitement.

Old Marquis Gumoza revealed what was left of his few old teeth as he asked intriguingly, “What way does Master Grimm have to help the town increase its wealth?”

“Call me Governor from now on.”

After correcting him, Grimm pondered for a moment. Grimm recalled the time when he chatted with Alastair.

Picking up the information once again, Grimm said, “Besides the natural resources such as Moth Frog, green fire bugs, oak tree, Yichun fruits and black malt, are there any mineral resources available?”

After all who were present looked at one another, old Marquis Gumoza said, “Actually, behind the rotten swamp toward the West, there’s a gold mine on Crooked Fang Mountain.”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Behind Grimm, both Little Myna and Vivian let out their exclamation of surprise. There was a gold mine in this little town yet no one had thought of exploiting it?

Grimm furrowed his brows as he asked, “What’s that all about?”

Old Marquis Gumoza said, “Well first, there are man eating monsters called Crypt Ghosts that reside in the gold mine. The monsters are good at digging up holes in the ore and mud. Even if we were to assemble a group of Knights to terminate them, they’re still unable to be completely annihilated and doing this might even cause a huge loss to us. We aren’t able to recruit miners at all. Secondly, it’s that rotten swamp. The air around it is humid and filled with many bugs and mosquitoes so those who reside there are easily infected with various kinds of diseases.”

Grimm nodded but a noble suddenly spoke of another piece of information regarding mineral resources abruptly.

“There’s an iron mine and a rare blood agate mine when heading a couple miles down the East from Moth Frog Town. It’s just that an army of Knights assembled by nobles from the Dawn Protector City has taken over them. That Knight army of theirs is way too strong.”

An iron mine could mean farm tools, farm tools could mean harvests. Blood agates could mean that the town would be able to request for the help of Sorcerer-Apprentices to solve difficult challenges by giving out tasks in Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy.

“Huh!? D*mn! Young master, we must reclaim it back! No, not only are we gonna reclaim them back, we’re gonna claim other mines!”

After hearing about the mineral resources that were taken over, Little Myna called out in rage.

Grimm thought about it for a while. The Dawn Protector City seemed to be under the management of one of Master Hydra Wrath’s students. According to the assessment rules, the conflict between cities cannot be solved by relying on the Sorcerer’s own strength. The role that the Sorcerers played in this assessment was just as governors.

After that, the nobles reported on some information about lean mines but the information did not prove to have much value. Of course, the nobles must have had some private mineral resources. If not, Moth Frog Town would have become Moth Frog Little Town.

***

“Senior Grimm, what should we do?”

Vivian asked as she lowered her voice.

Grimm looked at the tax wealth he had control over as he rubbed his worried eyebrows under the Mask of Truth and said, “Vivian, go and find out what’s up with the bandits around Elode Town. If you can buy them over, help me pull them in to become city guards. If there really is no way, kill the leader and spare the others. Or if your hands are still tied, then just kill them all, or... chase them away to Dawn Protector City.”

“Uhm... okay.”

Vivian nodded and left, following the Knight that was dispatched by Elode Town.

“Little Myna, follow her. Take care of Vivian.”

Grimm used this chance to quickly draw away Little Myna who was too controlling. If not, Grimm’s head would explode from the irritation of managing the livelihood of normal humans. Due to the fact that this was a lagging Sorcerer Academy area that had yet to be developed, there were too many difficult problems that the weak normal human beings could not solve.

“Huh? Okay.”

Little Myna fluttered his wings as he flew away.

“Sheriff!”

Grimm shouted loudly as a Knight ran in from outside. The big bellied Knight had metal armor on with an axe on his shoulders. His extremely strong figure kneeled on the ground as he gasped for breath.

Having lived lower class in Bi Seer City ever since he was young, Grimm knew the dark cashflow going on in the city like the back of his hands.

“Assemble a group of city guards. I want to patrol Moth Frog Town. You guys follow me as well.”

‘You guys’ naturally referred to the nobles in the hall.

“Yes, sir.”

Thump thump thump thump...

The sheriff ran out to assemble the city guards. Grimm, as the governor, led the nobles and walked out steadily. For this brief moment, the plan to increase wealth had come to a halt.

After half an hourglass.

Grimm led the nobles, along with hundreds of city guards, to observe the city folks. After making rounds around a few busy streets, Grimm suddenly pointed into a direction and said, “Here.”

The sheriff did not dare to defy orders. He immediately led the city guards to change their direction.

After passing through a huge area of muddy shanty towns, Grimm finally found what he wanted.

Getting down from his horse, Grimm said coldly, “Fence this place up for me.”

“Yes, sir!”

The city guards that were not trained well enough fenced the entire street. Grimm examined house by house as a tax manager followed closely behind him.

“Have you collected tax from this bar?”

The tax manager said in a low voice, “No.”

“Hehe, no? Whose shop is this?”

Grimm sneered as he set his gaze on the noble that the tax manager was looking at. Grimm’s cold, cruel Sorcerer’s gaze immediately led the noble to fall into silence, not knowing what to say.

And just like this, Grimm went around the streets and returned back to the main quarters of the city.

On the next day, a large amount of bribes had appeared on Grimm’s table. He was even offered shares for businesses that ran in the dark.

Grimm sneered as he said to the one behind him, “Pass the money to the accountant and tell him to store some food. It will help provide salary, and some food for the poor, homeless and unemployed so that they will help with the mining.”

Naturally, Grimm’s goal was road construction, in order to change the transportation system.

Fully utilizing resources was the only way to transform resources into wealth.

This was also the reason why wealthy areas in the Holy Tower’s center district always had empty harbors. It represented the convenient exchange between resources and information, thus showing the full utilization of resources.

However, the bribes and the small amount of taxes from the accountant’s office were far from enough for the funds needed for Grimm’s second plan.

As he was pondering upon this problem, Grimm flew toward the gold mine on Crooked Fang Mountain alone.