After leaving the Eternal City, everything in Thunderhawk City returned to normal, and everything was running smoothly and orderly.
However, in reality, subtle changes were quietly taking place in Thunderhawk City, changes that were unnoticed by many because they were too minor; probably only those who were driving these changes could perceive everything that was happening, but these changes were indeed occurring.
Monte, who had sworn loyalty to Rocky, had taken up his post successfully. He became the new instructor of the Thunderhawk City Guard Squad and began targeted training of the Guard Corps with Liliya’s help.
At the same time, the leather crafting training class had also started. When the registration for the training class ended, the number of participants in the first session stopped at thirteen, which meant that, in a city with a population of one thousand, only about one percent of the population participated in the training.
This number was obviously much lower than what Rocky and Aileen had expected, but even so, the training class started as scheduled, and the first step in the economic reform of Thunderhawk City was taken. Perhaps this step seemed small, but it was taken nonetheless.
Thunderhawk City was changing silently like this, a change that might not seem effective now, but it would be enough to affect everyone soon enough.
As for Rocky, the City Lord, he was quite busy these days. Although everything in the city was running smoothly, he was still very busy because he was preparing for his next goal.
Just as he had meticulously prepared for the successful hunting of Demons before, Rocky now set his next goal on the tasks of the Mercenary Guild. The training Monte was conducting for the Guard Corps was for this purpose, and he too was swamped with work because of it.
He had to draw up a batch of rune equipment for the city’s Guard Corps by himself!
As mentioned before, Rocky had spent thousands of Gold Coins buying a large amount of fake Magic Energy Equipment, to use these fake items to cover the truth, taking the opportunity to utilize the function of the Mana Runes.
And what he had to do was to inscribe True Runes onto the fake Magic Energy Equipment.
But… that’s over a hundred pieces of equipment!
One hundred shields, plus one hundred sets of Armor, Rocky had to inscribe Runes on all two hundred pieces of equipment; and not just one or two Runes per item, he needed to inscribe a significant number of Runes on each piece of equipment to make them truly effective.
According to the conversion of Mana Points, a small Magic Stone contains Mana equivalent to 40 Energy Value points, while a First Level Magic Energy Rune has an Energy Value of only 1 point. This means if one wants to make a piece of rune equipment reach the effect of One-Star, they must inscribe at least 40 First Level Runes on it.
This is a huge undertaking, indeed. One piece of equipment needs 40 Runes, ten pieces would need 400, a hundred pieces would be 4,000, and two hundred pieces of equipment would be 8,000…
The thought of having to inscribe so many Runes made Rocky’s head spin, and he acutely realized the limitations of First Level Runes, which was that they contained too little Mana.
If Rocky had mastered the Level Two Mana Runes now, his task would be much simpler, as the Energy Value contained in a Level Two Mana Rune is 15 points. This means he would only need to inscribe three Level Two Runes on the equipment to achieve the effect of One-star Magic Energy Gear.
Unfortunately, Rocky was not yet able to learn Second-Level Runes. His magic level was too low, and only Third Level Mages could inscribe Level Two Mana Runes, while Rocky was still a First Level Mage.
In this situation, he had no shortcuts to take and had to honestly stay in the laboratory, inscribing Runes day and night.
But fortunately, there was nothing in Thunderhawk City that needed his worries at the moment, and with the help of Liliya, Aileen, and Monte, he didn’t need to concern himself with the minor affairs of the city, allowing him to work in peace as a diligent little worker.
And as time passed day by day, a week went by in the blink of an eye.
A week later, Thunderhawk City’s Skyport was suddenly graced with the arrival of five skyships, all of them merchant vessels.
After making their appearance, these five merchant ships slowly descended within the Skyport. Shortly thereafter, a man disembarked, surrounded by a crowd… This man was none other than Jia Xi! And these five ships were the very grain transport vessels from the Azure Commerce Guild!
In fact, as soon as Rocky returned from Eternal City, he had already received news of the Azure Commerce Guild’s arrival. No, it would be more accurate to say he had actively arranged for the Azure Commerce Guild to transport the grain, even though Aileen had already purchased all the grain from the Ruby Chamber of Commerce by the time he made this decision.
Still, Rocky let the people from the Azure Commerce Guild come. As for why—it didn’t seem to be too important, at least that’s what Rocky believed.
As he got off the merchant ship, with a crowd escorting him, Jia Xi’s smile froze and he looked around bewildered.
He had disembarked to find the place empty—not a soul to welcome him!
This scene left Jia Xi both dumbfounded and utterly unprepared.
According to his estimation, upon his arrival in Thunderhawk City, the reception ought to have been even more grandiose than the last time, even expecting Rocky, the City Lord himself, to come in person.
After all, he was bringing grain this time! Was there anything in this world more important, more deserving of attention than grain?
Moreover, after the last negotiation, Jia Xi felt that the City Lord of Thunderhawk City, provided he was not a fool, would have guessed that following the rise in yarn prices, the price of grain was bound to increase. Shouldn’t the City Lord understand then how crucial it was to curry favor with him?
After all, with just a word from him, Thunderhawk City could potentially save tens of thousands of Gold Coins!
For this reason, Jia Xi had employed a little trick—he deliberately delayed his arrival by a few days to make Thunderhawk City anxious, thus gaining more bargaining power upon his arrival.
But to his astonishment, the reception at Thunderhawk City was so lackluster; there wasn’t even a person to meet him!
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“Hey! You, come here!”
After a moment of stunned silence, Jia Xi shouted angrily for a guard, then furiously asked, “Where is your City Lord! And what about that Aileen! Why aren’t they here to welcome me!”
The guard he called over was none other than Felly, who was in charge of the Skyport. Facing Jia Xi’s intimidating presence, Felly quickly tried to appease him with a nervous smile, “Overseer Jia Xi, please don’t be angry. The City Lord and the finance officer were really tied up with matters today, that’s why they couldn’t come to meet you.”
“However, the Lord has arranged for a carriage and ordered us to take you to the City Lord’s Mansion as soon as you arrived.”
As he spoke, a carriage indeed pulled up in front of Jia Xi, clearly having been waiting there for him.
“Hmph!”
Seeing the carriage before him, Jia Xi huffed coldly. Although he was very angry, he knew he was here for business, so he boarded the carriage with an air of displeasure.
However, once he was inside the carriage, he had already made up his mind. He decided to raise the price of grain by another ten percent, to give Rocky a shock—that would be the only way to appease his anger!
