Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

While speaking, he looked up at the city wall and prepared to catch something. Suddenly, a minotaur jumped down, and Anthony could only prompt his fighting spirit before feeling like a mountain had crashed onto him.

Vania, with a face of embarrassment, carried the passed out Anthony to Ange, and awkwardly said, “Lord Ange, I accidentally knocked him unconscious.”

Ange took a glance and cast a series of Face Purification Technique.

The burning insect hill was the brightest bonfire. Upwind, Anthony, rubbing his arm, warily glanced at the nearby minotaur. Sensing his gaze, Vania occasionally turned around to give an awkward smile.

Probably, both of them were thinking: Kvada, I almost crushed (got crushed by a bull) someone…

Feeling his arm was better, Anthony suddenly remembered something: “Oh, right, Lord Ange, the Black Mountain Kingdom’s interim government wishes to express their thanks to you and are preparing a gift as a token of appreciation.”

Ange tilted his head, unsure of what to say. He definitely couldn’t explain that he had ‘mistaken the person and jumped down to attack the wrong person, but decided to continue attacking anyway since he needed the insect ash’.

Not long after Anthony finished speaking, the distant city gate started opening slowly, and two horse carriages drove out.

“Wow, two carriages? That’s quite a generous gift.” Anthony praised, but his face darkened the moment he saw the contents of the carriages.

He originally thought it would be two carriages full of gold and silver coins, gems, jewelry, and such. After all, Ange saved a city and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Two carriages might be a bit much, one to one and a half carriages would have been reasonable.

At the current rates, hiring a mercenary group to save a city of hundreds of thousands would cost three times as much.

Yet, the two carriages were laden with unprofitable items: food, cloth, handicrafts, and books. The most valuable item was a pouch handed over by the person in charge, which contained a thousand Demon Crystals.

A thousand Demon Crystals wouldn’t even be enough to buy a bottle of pure Holy Essence Liquid. So, the Black Mountain Kingdom’s gratitude was worth less than a bottle of essence.

Anthony was somewhat annoyed: “No wonder the Black Mountain Kingdom is deteriorating widely. They dare to offer such trivial things?”

Although annoyed, the gifts weren’t payment, and there had been no prior agreement. Even if they offered nothing, it wouldn’t be illegal. Besides, despising them for being cheap and impolite, Anthony couldn’t do anything more than leer a few sentences and return to the city.

Ange didn’t mind; he hadn’t taken action to save the Black Mountain Kingdom, it was merely a case of mistaken identity.

After burning the insect hill, Ange gathered all the ash. At this moment, Rogge suddenly emerged: “Lord Ange I have found the nest of the worm master.”

Since Rogge could not pass the scan of the light of truth he had stayed outside the city. Technically, he could have been taken into the Resting Camp, but the city gate was crowded and the action would have been conspicuous, so he was simply left outside.

The devil’s perception was very keen, so he hadn’t approached the fight. He didn’t think that a devil and a worm master could defeat the Undead God and the God of Knowledge, so he wandered around and unintentionally stumbled upon unexpected gains.

Looking at the bags full of items in the cave, just after settling the price with Anthony, Negris, who was projected on the Bronze Dragon, was dumbstruck: “Did this guy flip the whole of the Black Mountain Kingdom upside down? Is that why the city people’s gratitude was so frugal, they might actually be poor?”

The cave was filled with bags; gold coins and treasures couldn’t be constrained and flowed from the opening of the bags. There was everything in it: rings, necklaces, bracelets, silver candlesticks, gold bowls, various exquisite gold, silver, and copper ware. In short, anything valuable could potentially be found here.

Among them was one bag that made everyone feel sick – gold teeth, obviously knocked off from corpses.

They even knocked down gold teeth, turning over the entire Black Mountain Kingdom would be nothing special, and it’s something that bug eradication experts could handle.

Driving away waves of bugs that infiltrated every nook and corner, whether it be rafters, floors, or even three feet underground. No place could stop the bugs, if there’s a gap they squeeze in, and if not they tunnel through it. Every corner, every brick, every cellar, every ditch became a scouting target for these bugs.

Especially since many nobles and wealthy households liked to bury their food in pits underground, this gave the bugs even more reason to tunnel.

Under such painstaking efforts, the wealth accumulated over thousands of years by the Black Mountain Kingdom was all piled up right here.

“Add the royal treasury into the equation, and the entire wealth of a country has landed in your hands. Talk about a stroke of luck.”

The national treasury increased by one.

Ange barely registered this, finding it rather boring instead. Bags of shimmering gold, silver, and jewelry, necklaces, and trinkets were being moved into the Resting Camp, even slower than when he filled them up with bug ashes.

He had even wanted to stop packing, but seeing Sava excitedly preparing to pounce on the bags, Ange knew that these things still held value to humans.

Negris began discussing the business after packing up the treasures. “Anthony and I have reached an agreement. He’s willing to pay three million Demon Crystals for exclusive rights to the bug repellent. From now on, we can just sell it to him. It’s sixty thousand Demon Crystals per transaction.”

The moment she heard the mention of bug repellent, Sava’s ears perked up. Confused, she asked, “Per transaction? What do you mean? Shouldn’t our bug repellent be sold by weight?”

Looking at her sideways, Negris snorted. “You can’t seriously think that the bugs were eradicated solely due to the insecticide?! Sure, the insecticide played a role, but it on its own couldn’t have eradicated the bugs. Bug Hunters would instantly notice something off and prevent the bugs from turning on one another.”

“You know why Ange stood there motionless earlier? Because only by doing so could he trick that Bug Hunter into driving all its bugs up to their deaths. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been wiped out so cleanly. At the very least, a significant amount of bugs would’ve been left in this cave to guard the treasure.”

“As long as they’re not all dead, even one or two bugs left could quickly breed a whole host of them again. Eradicating them isn’t the problem, it’s entirely clearing them out that’s tricky. Especially in complex environments like cities. How could you possibly get rid of them all? In the end, Ange had to step in.”

“So, I came to an agreement with Anthony. We’re not selling the physical product; we’re offering a service – exterminating the bugs in an area for a one-time fee of sixty thousand Demon Crystals. Bug corpses are ours to keep.”

“Oh, you have a one ten-thousandth share of earnings from the insecticide. So for every sixty thousand we bring in, you get six Demon Crystals in shares. The income from this time might not just be sixty thousand Demon Crystals, so take this as your first shared earning.”

Sava’s eyes sparkled with the shine of Demon Crystals. “Shared earnings? Every time? Does this time count too?”

“Yes, it does. As Gold Coin said, the best incentive for high-end talents is shared incomes, because getting sixty Demon Crystals signifies that we’ve earned sixty thousand more. If you’re excited, create more potions,” Negris smiled.

Of course, Gold Coin did say something else, but he didn’t share that. Gold Coin advised:

“Don’t give too much. Too much might dampen enthusiasm. What if they get enough to last three to five years and then completely slack off? At the same time, guide them to spend on expensive items. Buy a house, a manor, a Demon Crystal vehicle, have children, put them in deep debts. That way, they’ll be driven to make money.”

Sava was indeed motivated, “Lord, take a look. These are the potions I’ve conceptualized over the past two years. Could you see if any of them might be of use?”

She then took out a thick notepad. Negris flipped through it and burst out:

“What the hell are these potions? A Petrification Potion that can make limbs harden for a short time? Shouldn’t it be skin hardening, not limbs? Vasodilation Potion for treating vascular shrinkage? Isn’t there the Purification method? Go find a Priest for purification. And this, a Pregnancy Potion? What on earth do you want to do with this?!”