Chapter 460: Wild Pokémon Trading Market

High-speed text release

Mobile synchronous reading

Crest City is located at the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Steel Ridge and is the central metropolis of the territory of Marquis Pheasant Plume Benedict Gubasu. The territory of Marquis Pheasant Plume is called the Rooster Hills, which is said to be larger than Iron Hoof Island.

Of course.

The land is so vast that the size of the territory doesn't hold much significance, as most of it is covered by primeval forests inhabited by numerous magical beasts. Many of these primeval forests are no-go zones for human activity, and even sky knights dare not venture into them lightly, fearing attacks by high-level magical beasts.

Humans on the continent mostly build large cities in flat plain areas and gather towns along the roads between cities to ensure safety for survival and communication.

Many long-distance trades require the escort of knight orders.

Ordinary merchants can't afford to hire regular knight orders for protection, so they employ mercenary groups instead. Hence, the existence of mercenary groups is always legal.

"Gubasu is a type of fruit magical herb, tasting like a mix of chocolate and pineapple, and is an expensive specialty of the Gubasu family. It is said to be a variant of the cacao fruit, which can produce chocolate. The chocolate in our country is all imported from Crest City."

Introducing this to Liszt was Captain Leiden, who had once again been assigned to Liszt's knight order.

The Marquis had already gone to the Rooster Fort to attend the welcoming banquet hosted by Marquis Pheasant Plume and to hold a war council. Liszt wandered around Crest City, buying some local specialties: "The sales of chocolate are huge, why hasn't any lord in our country planted cacao trees?"

"Probably the climate isn't suitable, or perhaps there are no cacao spirits."

Crest City is larger than Coral City, with buildings up to seven stories tall lining the streets. The residents range from splendidly dressed nobles to ragged serfs, all mixed together. There are also many knights dressed like them, probably all participating in the pioneering decree.

"Hi, Viscount Liszt." Soon someone greeted Liszt, a young viscount from Golden Island who had attended a wedding on Coral Island.

Liszt recognized him; he had personally received him: "Viscount Cyril, are you also here to visit Crest City?"

"Haha, I'm not interested in Crest City. I plan to go to the spirit market to see if there are any suitable spirit bugs. I'm planning to buy a few."

"The spirit market?" Liszt became interested. "I was planning to go there too."

"Then let's go together."

Following Viscount Cyril, the group soon arrived at the spirit market located in a corner of Crest City. This is a small wild spirit trading market, with not many spirit bugs for sale. Liszt has a magic book called "Wild Spirit Bug Market Prices," which records the spirit market.

In the capital of the Kingdom of Steel Ridge, Steel City, there is a large wild spirit trading market, where the prices of spirit trades are clearly recorded in the book.

For example, a flytrap spirit bug is sold for three thousand six hundred gold coins—he bought it from Viscount Jonas for only seven hundred gold coins.

However, in Steel City, mosquitoes and flies are rampant, and every household likes to buy flytraps to keep at home. Even though the flytrap's insect-catching ability is very low, as long as the planting scale increases, the effect of catching mosquitoes and flies is still good.

On Coral Island, flytraps are almost useless, as there are not many mosquitoes and flies, and commoners can't afford them, while nobles have other ways to repel mosquitoes and flies.

As he walked along, Liszt gradually gained a clear understanding of the prices in this small spirit market.

The prices are similar to those in Steel City, generally around one to two thousand gold coins; spirit bugs that are not very useful are about a few hundred gold coins; those linked to magical herbs are priced at two thousand gold coins and above; the most expensive spirit bug Liszt saw was priced at three thousand eight hundred gold coins, a mysterious fruit spirit bug.

The mysterious fruit is not a magical herb, but it can enhance the taste buds of humans, making it an excellent food for meals.

"It's too expensive, buying it back would not recoup the cost. The population on Coral Island is too small, and there are not many nobles, so there is not much demand for mysterious fruit." He shook his head, not intending to buy it.

He did want to buy some grain-type spirit bugs.

However, the prices of grain-type spirit bugs are not cheap either, none below two thousand gold coins—considering the value of the grain increased by the spirit bug over ten years, it cannot cover its own price. Buying it back is more about hoping it will evolve into a spirit bug, which would be a huge profit.

After all, grain is an important component of human food, and the increase in grain brought by a spirit bug can save countless lives.

Liszt was in dire need of grain-type spirit bugs. He only had one Barley Bug, one Millet Bug, and two Wheat Bugs. Perhaps corn grass insects could also be considered grain-type spirit bugs, especially since there are now varieties like stick corn and grain corn.

"The price for a Wheat Bug is 2,300 gold coins, which is not cost-effective. I don’t have that many gold coins right now, so I’ll just wait for my territory to naturally produce them. I have the Smoke Mission, so the source of spirit bugs isn’t a problem," Liszt calculated silently and decided against purchasing.

He planned to continue looking around to see if he could find Nightshade Bugs, Rubber Bugs, or Thorn Bugs. As long as the prices for these three spirit bugs weren’t outrageous, he would definitely seize the opportunity without hesitation.

Unfortunately, after a round of searching, he found none.

The spirit bug market had fewer than a hundred spirit bugs for sale, most of which were useless—spirit bug trading was not very prosperous to begin with. Many were provided by minor nobles who couldn’t sustain their operations, while major nobles only bought and never sold—spirit bugs were always scarce for nobles.

If Viscount Jonas hadn’t faced financial difficulties, he wouldn’t have sold the Nightshade Bug and the Flytrap Bug back then.

After leaving the spirit bug market, Liszt asked Captain Leiden, "When does the serf trade take place?"

"Not yet, but once the war begins, mercenary groups will soon contact us. We just need to prepare ships by the coast, and the mercenaries will bring large groups of serfs for trade. The process is very quick—it might be completed within an hour, and then everyone leaves."

Captain Leiden had participated in multiple expansion campaigns and was very familiar with the serf trade.

In fact, some serf trades involved raiding villages on the same day and bringing the captured serfs for trade immediately.

Captain Leiden added, "We can also contact slave traders, who always have channels to acquire large numbers of slaves. Then we just need to wait for their dilapidated wooden ships by the coast. We don’t even need to go ashore to complete the trade."

This kind of indirect serf trade was clearly designed to avoid detection by knight orders during the transaction.

It was much safer, but the slave traders would take a cut, making it less profitable than dealing directly with mercenary groups.

"Do we usually trade directly or contact slave traders on Coral Island?" Liszt inquired.

Captain Leiden smiled mysteriously.

After ensuring no one was nearby, he whispered, "Commander, do you know how those small lords on the coast, who are frequently invaded, survive? Their territories might not produce much, but the mercenary groups they raise are even larger than those of some major lords. They are secretly involved in the slave trade."

He added, "The rats will help us contact the mercenary groups. We might even gain a small port without having to fight."