Yue Lan knitted her brows when she heard this as she looked at Lin Fan with a doubtful look.
Based on what Lin Fan had said, she could guess what he was thinking, but if this was true, then…
There was only a limited amount of space that the town could expand to since there were other villages around the town that also took up space. These villages were protected by the empire as long as they paid taxes, so Lin Fan couldn’t expand into their territory without offending the empire.
So what Lin Fan meant by his words was to absorb the villages into the town.
By absorbing the villages, the dungeon town would be gaining more villagers, but at the same time, they would have to pay the taxes that the villages had once paid. No matter what, the empire wouldn’t allow for taxes to be reduced, only increased.
But the ultimate goal of absorbing these villages would be to become big enough to be considered a city.
To be a city lord meant that one had accomplished enough to contribute to the empire and would receive the protection of the empire. This was not only a great honour, but also a great way to protect him and the Love Sect.
That was because the empire was at least capable of dominating over the smaller sects and matching some of the medium sized sects…So if they were recognized by the empire, then the Love Sect would have less to worry about in the future.
However, how could it be that simple to absorb villages?
People were complex and it was hard to convince them of doing something if they didn’t want to do it. So the only way to absorb the villages was to let the people who lived there willingly come to the dungeon town…
That was the real question that Lin Fan was posing to Yue Lan.
How could they convince these villagers to join their town?
Yue Lan knitted her brows to think about this for a while before saying, “We’re fine in terms of money to pay the extra taxes, but…when it comes to work, there’s not much that we can offer them with. So it’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to convince them to migrate here.”
There was the Mercenary Guild branch in the town and as a business, naturally the Mercenary Guild had to pay taxes to the town. With how big the Mercenary Guild branch was, that wasn’t a small amount.
Then there was the dungeon that they managed together with the Mercenary Guild, the money earned from there wasn’t a small amount since there were plenty of precious materials that came from there. At the same time, the Mercenary Guild gave the town a cut of the profits since the dungeon was found in this town.
So there were definitely no problems when it came to money.
The only problems were that there weren’t enough meaningful job opportunities, so there was nothing that attracted people to move here.
After all, the dungeon was self managing and there was no need for people to work there, so there weren’t really any jobs available there. The dungeon was the main attraction of this town, so there wasn’t much else that was here.
While there were a few stores that were opening up because people were slowly coming to serve the mercenaries that gathered to explore the dungeon, that was far from being enough to provide enough jobs. Unless there was some other new business that was started in the town, then it was impossible to absorb all the villages…or at least it was impossible to absorb them peacefully.
However, using force to absorb them also had their share of problems, so Yue Lan wanted to avoid that solution.
Lin Fan naturally understood this, which was why he had already made his preparations. When he heard what Yue Lan said, he didn’t reveal a displeased look, but rather he revealed a smile.
Yue Lan was confused to see this smile, but she still waited for Lin Fan to explain since she could tell that he had something to say.
Lin Fan kept her waiting for a while before saying, “What if I said that there was an ore vein that was near this town.”
“Ore vein?” Yue Lan repeated with a confused look on her face before her eyes suddenly popped out in shock and she asked, “Are you kidding me? You’re telling me that there’s an ore vein near this town?”
Lin Fan just nodded before taking a rock out of his Storage Ring, however this wasn’t just any rock. When Yue Lan looked closely at it, she could tell that this was a piece of metal ore rather than a normal rock.
So she stood up and picked up the rock, spinning around in front of her face, looking at every part of it as if she wanted to see right through the rock.
As she continued looking over this rock, the look of shock on her face became heavier and heavier until it turned into absolute disbelief.
As a merchant, she naturally had the ability to appraise items. This was something that she had trained since she was young because it was something that her father had insisted on, but it did make her a great merchant in the end, so she was happy that she did it.
With her appraisal abilities, she was able to tell that this piece of rock was indeed a piece of iron ore, but it wasn’t a normal piece of iron ore. If it was, how could she have been so surprised by it?
She could tell from her appraisal that the quality of this iron ore…surpassed almost all other iron ores that were currently on the market.
This kind of iron ore was usually hoarded by the empire’s royal family for their private use, it wasn’t something that normal people should have…
Of course, this didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be able to use it.
After all, this town had the support of the Mercenary Guild. Plus with how remote this town was, there was plenty of time to delay this news so that other forces could settle here to deter the government.
But that would all depend on how good her planning was…if the government officials were to learn of this before everything was in place…then it would all be over.
After this thought passed through her mind, Yue Lan immediately asked, “Who else knows about this right now?”
Lin Fan just calmly said, “Just you and me.”
Yue Lan knitted her brows as she asked, “Are you certain that no one else knows?”
Lin Fan gave a firm nod.
He was this certain because he knew something that no one else knew.
This iron ore vein wasn’t a naturally occurring vein, but rather it was a vein that he had made…Well, he had bought it from the dungeon master system and he had placed it near the towns
Though to his surprise, this iron ore vein didn’t even cost as much as the meal making machine. It was so cheap that he even wanted to buy a few more of them.
If it wasn’t for the fact that it would have been strange to discover all of these iron ore veins at once, then perhaps he might have really done this.
Not to mention that the iron ore generated by the system, how could it be normal iron ore?
The purity of those ores was incomparable to the iron ores currently on the market. These iron ores could be considered high end products.
Yue Lan knitted her brows to think for a bit. As she was thinking, she drew lines in the air as if she was planning something.
Lin Fan didn’t mind as he just silently waited for her to finish.
After what seemed like an eternity, Yue Lan finally focused her eyes on Lin Fan and said, “Take me there tonight. I want to double check it to see what kind of prospects it has. If it really is as you say, then we might have a jackpot and a hot potato in our hands.”
Lin Fan nodded to agree to this.
After that was settled, Yue Lan couldn’t help looking at Lin Fan with a doubtful looks
Lin Fan naturally saw this and he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yue Lan hesitated a little before asking, “How did you discover this iron ore vein while those villagers that lived here forever never found it.”
Lin Fan gave a calm shrug before saying, “These people might have lived here a long time, but most of them are farmers. They don’t know the first thing about finding and identifying ores, so they naturally never knew about it. Not to mention, the iron ore vein was several meters down, so it normally isn’t visible.”
Even if he looked calm on the surface, Lin Fan was actually panicking.
That was because he had never told Yue Lan or the other girls about the existence of his systems. His systems were the most important thing to him, he didn’t want to put himself in danger by exposing them or be called crazy, so he hid them even from the girls in his life.
Not to mention that in any novel he read, something always went wrong when the system was revealed…
With Yue Lan asking all these questions, it was hard for him to explain it without mentioning his systems.
Yue Lan felt that this excuse was reasonable, but she also felt that something was off.
But she didn’t know what it was, so she just accepted it and moved on.
After all, there was something much bigger and more metallic that was more important to her.
The iron vein.
If this iron vein was really as Lin Fan described, then it would be the thing that the town’s prosperity depended on.
So for now, she had to focus on the iron vein.