Chapter 73 Exploring an ore vein
Perhaps it was because they had personally witnessed the changes with the Norma Tribe, chief Monto and the two elders entered this cooperation with Xu Yi filled with confidence. So these negotiations…..Oh, no, they could be considered business discussions went very smoothly.
In just a short day, Xu Yi had already set all the details with chief Monto.
For the hundred dwarven craftsmen provided by the Angola Tribe, Xu Yi would give the same treatment as Camby and the others, giving them a salary of eight gold coins a month.
But in terms of other benefits, it was a bit lacking.
This was because Camby’s group had already been working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for two months now and they could be considered trained skilled workers. As for the dwarves from the Angola Tribe, they were new hires, so naturally it was impossible for them to receive the same treatment.
Chief Monto and the two elders didn’t have any objections to this since being able to obtain a salary of eight gold coins a month for their clansmen was already enough to satisfy them.
Not to mention that Xu Yi had promised to create a material research lab in the Angola Tribe. Not only did he give them a fixed research fund of one hundred gold coins a month, as long as they succeeded with a project which was useful to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they would receive a bonus of five hundred gold coins.
For the Angola Tribe that had been impoverished for a long time, whether it was their clansmen going to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and receiving a fixed salary of eight gold coins a month, or receiving a bonus of five hundred gold coins a month for any success was like rain at the end of a drought. They were very satisfied with this, so how could they have more requests at this time?
The dwarves were simple and honest and now that Xu Yi had given them these conditions, it was like he was saving them.
So chief Monto and the two elders wanted to bring Xu Yi back to the Angola Tribe as a guest no matter what to show their gratitude.
Xu Yi couldn’t reject their goodwill and could only follow them in the end. With chief Siluka and Camby, they headed to the Angola Tribe.
Perhaps it was because their population was higher than the Norma Tribe, so compared to the previous Norma Tribe, the lives of the Angola Tribe was a bit better. But there was still a limit to this and they were only barely keeping themselves away from starving.
But compared to the current Norma Tribe, it was like heaven and earth.
After walking around the Angola Tribe, Xu Yi saw a little dwarven boy happily eating the candy he had brought and he couldn’t help asking chief Siluka, “I’m very curious, why are the lives of the dwarves so difficult? The dwarves are clearly very industrious, can endure suffering, and have strong forging techniques, they should be living their lives like this by normal logic, right?”
Chief Siluka and chief Monto looked at each other before revealing bitter smiles.
After a while, chief Siluka let out a sigh and said, “Chairman Xu, this problem, you should actually ask your fellow humans.”
“Oh?” Xu Yi looked at chief Siluka with a curious gaze, “Why?”
“It’s very simple. Since the race wars several thousand years ago, humans had complete victories and had taken every good place on the Sines Continent. Whether it is us dwarves, the beastmen, or the halflings that haven’t been seen in a long time, we could only live on barren land and couldn’t obtain enough food at all. If we wanted to obtain food from human hands, we needed to pay large prices. Chairman Xu, you come from Banta City. Let me ask you, how much does one pound of wheat in Banta City sell for?”
Xu Yi was surprised. He thought about it before replying, “If I remember correctly, the current price should be fourteen silver coins per pound.”
“Look, it’s only fourteen silver coins per pound!” Chief Siluka gave a snort, not hiding the dissatisfaction in his voice at all, “Do you know how much you humans sell a pound of wheat to us for?”
Xu Yi knit his brows. There was no need to ask, he already knew that it would be a very high price.
As expected, chief Siluka raised a thick finger.
“An entire gold coin! That can only buy one pound of wheat! Chairman Xu, do you know? We dwarves have a higher capacity for food compared to you humans and each person can eat half a pound of wheat in a single meal. This means that a single gold coin is only enough to feed us dwarves for a single day!” After saying this, chief Siluka’s voice was filled with rage. It was very clear that he had been suppressing his anger at the humans increasing the price of wheat for a long time, “We dwarves only have the habit of enjoying good wine, but good wine requires even more wheat. In order to save the wheat we obtained from the humans with great difficulty, our Norma Tribe had already forbidden wine. Chairman Xu, do you know, last time when you came to our tribe, it was our first time drinking wine in two year?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile. For these dwarves who were addicted to wine, two long years without drinking was a very painful thing.
It was no wonder that when Xu Yi promised the dwarves under Camby that he would provide wine from the Sachi Manor as a reward, the enthusiasm of the dwarves had surged.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help finding it strange.
“This isn’t right. Chief Siluka, based on what you said, did you use something to exchange for gold coins or for the life preserving wheat?”
“It’s very simple, we used ores.” Chief Siluka pointed at the mountain outside the Angola Tribe, “There are many ores inside this mountain, as well as Magic Crystal ores. Humans feel this place is too far and it’s too costly to mine here, so they never cared about it. So, we dwarves have depended on mining these iron ores and Magic Crystals to exchange for food from humans.”
“If my guesses aren’t wrong, they are also purchasing these iron ores and Magic Crystals at a very low price, right?” Xu Yi asked in a thoughtful voice.
“It is very low, but what other choice is there?” Chief Siluka said with a sigh, “This is because these humans don’t care since harvesting these ores are just too costly. If one day humans set their eyes on these mines and send soldiers to drive us away, we really don’t know what we can depend on to keep living anymore. We still have to thank the humans for giving us a path of life.” After saying this, chief Siluka revealed a self deprecating smile.
Xu Yi looked at chief Monto nearby with a somewhat helpless look and chief Monto as revealed a bitter smile. He nodded at Xu Yi and said, “Although the situation of our tribe is a bit better than the Norma Tribe, it isn’t that different. In the end, we aren’t humans and humans are the rulers of the Sines Continent.”
Seeing the expression of the two chiefs, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a bit awkward.
As a human and being here listening to these two dwarves discussing the oppression of dwarves by humans, he did feel like he didn’t belong.
But there was information that chief Siluka gave just now that had attracted his attention. He looked up at the tall mountain for a while and Xu Yi suddenly asked, “Chief Siluka, you dwarves are not just good at forging but also good at mining?”
“Un, that’s right. We dwarves don’t have any other specialties, but we do have some talent in opening up wastelands and refining ores. The ores you humans spend a whole day picking might not be as much as we dwarves can mine in a single meal.” Chief Siluka replied.
“That is a bit off. Since dwarves have this ability, why don’t human companies hire dwarves to mine for them?” Xu Yi asked.
“They did before, but the wages those human companies gave our dwarven brothers was very low. Of course the main thing was that those humans looked down on us and it was easy to be bullied in those mines, so it was better to come back and not do it anymore. After a long time passed, now there are no dwarven brothers willing to work for humans.” Chief Siluka looked over Xu Yi before continuing, “To be honest, chairman Xu, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had no other choice, I wouldn’t have agreed to Lanus and let you take our hundred dwarven brothers away.”
Xu Yi nodded, this had already been raised to him by Master Lanus.
“Of course, Camby has also told me after that our brothers are doing very well at your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Not only does chairman Xu provide food and places to sleep, you also let them drink wine, letting me become gradually assured.” Chief Siluka changed into a voice of praise, “It has to be said, chairman Xu is not the same as other humans, you don’t have any biases towards us dwarves.”
Xu Yi shrugged his shoulders, “I’ll say something you won’t like hearing. I am a pure human merchant, I only care if the other side will bring benefits or not, I don’t care about their race at all.”
Chief Siluka and chief Monto broke out in laughter at the same time. Chief Siluka even got on his tiptoes to slap Xu Yi’s shoulder as he said, “If all humans were as straightforward as chairman Xu, we dwarves would have much better days.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help rolling his eyes. He never thought that him saying this would be considered a frank appraisal.
He looked back at the tall mountain before saying, “Chief Siluka, since you dwarves are good at opening mines, you should be good at exploring for ore veins, right?”
“Un, if it is exploring ore veins, if we dwarves say we are second, there is no race on the Sines Continent who dare claim to be first.” Chief Siluka had a proud look on his face.
“Then that’s good. I have an idea and I need your ore vein exploring experts to help me.” Xu Yi said.
“No problem.” Chief Monto patted his chest before chief Siluka, “Speaking of ore vein exploring experts, our Angola Tribe has many of them. There is no need to mention others, I am an expert.”
Xu Yi shook his head with a faint smile, “Of course there’s no need for chief Monto to personally head out. I hope that chief Siluka and chief Monto can pick five people each from your tribe to explore all over the Lampuri Kingdom according to my requests and it would be best if they can find some mines. Do you two think this will work?”
“All over the Lampuri Kingdom?” The two chiefs looked at each other before knitting their brows, “This might be a bit difficult, but it is not impossible. It just needs a bit of time.”
“How long do you estimate it will take?” Xu Yi asked.
“If it is searching for ore veins and Magic Crystal veins, our clansmen has a rich experience. If there are ten people, I think it’ll take less than half a year to finish.” Chief Monto said, “But if you include other ore veins, it would be hard to say……”
Xu Yi was instantly overjoyed, “It won’t even take half a year? That’s great! Very good, we’ll do this. Chief Siluka, chief Monto, you just need to pick the most experienced dwarves from your tribes. I’ll tell you, not only will our Frestech Chamber of Commerce pay for all their fees, we will also give each person a hundred gold coins at the end of the expedition.”
“One hundred gold coins? That is too much!” When Xu Yi’s voice fell, the two chiefs shook their hands, “This is only a small matter, there is no need to mention a reward, not to mention that one hundred gold coins is too much.”
“The dwarven brothers are working hard, of course there should be a reward.”
“That hundred gold coins is too much……”
…....
While the three were discussing this, an Angola Tribe dwarf quickly ran to chief Monto and loudly shouted, “Chief, the elven guests are here!”
Chapter 74 Female elf
The three were all stunned, especially Xu Yi whose eyes popped out.
Elves?
It was actually elves!
Xu Yi had come to the Sines Continent for three years now, this was not considered a short period. But in these three years, even though he had seen dwarves in cities and beastmen in construction sites, he had never once seen an elf.
It’s said that three thousand years ago, the elves were the rulers of the Sines Continent. However, humans quickly caught up and finally dethroned the elves through the race wars, becoming the new rulers of the Sines Continent.
Since then, the elves had almost completely disappeared from the continent. Even if humans went to the forests where elves lived, they wouldn’t be able to see a single elf.
Many times, elves became things of legends and many people even wondered if the elves had already gone extinct!
But in this dwarven tribe now, Xu Yi would actually get to meet an elf!
Since chief Monto gave the order for that dwarf to bring the elven guests over, Xu Yi couldn’t help stretching his neck out towards the entrance of the Angola Tribe, not even blinking at all.
After a while, a slender elf who was twice as tall as dwarves and almost the same height as Xu Yi was slowly led over by the dwarf from before.
Xu Yi’s eyes instantly swept over that elf and he couldn’t help secretly praising her.
A pair of sharp ears demonstrated her identity as an elf and the tall peaks on her chest showed she was a female. She had a pair of blue eyes like deep springs, as well as a resolute look on her gentle face that gave her gentle appearance a kind of heroic feel. Adding in the snow white calves with perfect proportions that she revealed, she instantly made people’s eyes light up.
Xu Yi had already heard that the elven race was filled handsome guys and beautiful girls, but he didn’t believe it at first. Now that he was seeing this elven beauty, he had no choice but to believe it.
The female elf had already noticed Xu Yi who was like a crane among chickens among the elves from far away. After walking over, she couldn’t help looking over Xu Yi and revealed a look of curiosity.
But elves paid great attention to courtesy, so even if she was very curious about Xu Yi, the female elf still gave a bow to chief Monto first before saying, “Hello respected chief Monto, may the light of Elune forever shine onto you.”
Chief Monto only gave a slight nod in return as he said in a deep voice, “Hello, may your feet always be in Messiah’s palms.”
This was Xu Yi’s first time hearing this kind of greeting and he couldn’t help curiously looking over the female elf even more.
It really was like the rumours said, not only were elves beautiful, their auras were also outstanding. This female elf had white skin, a tall figure, and even more outstanding aura. Although her expression was calm, there was a cold feel to her that made it hard for people to approach her, while also making them want to be closer to her.
After the female elf and chief Monto finished their greetings, she immediately said, “Respected chief Monoto, have you considered the matter from last time? Our tribe’s situation is already very bad right now and I hope you can agree to my request to help us. Our entire tribe will firmly remember the helping hand you will be reaching out.”
Although her words were delightful and pleasant to listen to, even Xu Yi who didn’t understand what her words meant could hear the unsettled tone in her voice.
Thus it could be seen that when she said “our tribe’s situation is already very bad”, it wasn’t a lie.
Chief Monto revealed a difficult expression, “This…..Dear miss Agnes, although we dwarves have a long set relation with the elves and we hope to help you solve this problem, you can see that our tribe is also facing many problems. Moreover, a large group of our adults will be leaving here soon, so we will not have enough people to help you. Can you go look for another dwarf tribe?”
Hearing chief Monto’s response, the female elf Agnes revealed a disappointed look, but she didn’t make it obvious.
“Alright, many thanks to chief Monto for listening to my request. May the light of Elune forever keep your health.”
Leaving this, the female elf Agnes turned to leave.
Xu Yi on the side was stunned by this.
Even though he had heard that elves were so proud that they wouldn’t change their mind no matter what was said, he never thought that this female elf would run all this way for one sentence and leave right after being rejected!
This fellow, does she not know how to talk?
With her attitude, it would be strange if she could accomplish anything.
If the elves were all like this, it wasn’t strange at all for the elves to be dragged down from the throne of the Sines Continent by the humans.
There were various thoughts in Xu Yi’s head before he suddenly took two steps forward, blocking Agnes’ way.
Agnes stopped moving and looked at Xu Yi who had suddenly appeared in front of her with a surprised look on her face.
“Human, do you need something?”
Xu Yi revealed what he considered his most gentle smile and said, “Beautiful elven miss, can I ask you what you and your tribe need help with? Perhaps I could help you with this?”
Agnes slightly knit her beautiful brows and honestly looked at Xu Yi for a while before slowly shaking her head.
“Sorry, I don’t trust humans.”
She didn’t even say goodbye after saying this, as she directly walked past Xu Yi.
Xu Yi never thought that this fellow would be this straightforward and disrespectful. When he finally reacted and wanted to block Agnes again, he saw a flash of green light from her as she directly disappeared from the gate to Angola Village.
“It’s elven magic, it’s the Shadow Stealth Spell.” Chief Siluka came to Xu Yi’s side and looked in the direction Agnes disappeared in as he said, “Unless your magic power is much stronger than hers, you won’t be able to find her and shouldn’t even think about chasing her.”
Chief Monto also came over and seriously said to Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, the elves are very hard to approach. I suggest you give up and ideas about pursuing her.”
Seeing the strange expressions on the faces of the two chiefs, Xu Yi knew that they must have misunderstood. He was too lazy to explain it as he asked chief Monto, “Chief Monto, the thing she wanted your help with and she said that her tribe’s situation wasn’t good…...Do you know what problem they’ve encountered?”
“Un…..This is already her third time here. I had considered it the first two times, but because I’ve already agreed to send a hundred clansmen to your factory, I could only reject her.” Chief Monto said, “As for the problem their tribe has encountered…..it’s actually quite fatal. The elven tribe she comes from lives in the Falling Rain Forest two hundred kilometers away from here. There used to be a river that ran through the Falling Rain Forest and it provided water for her tribe, but the river has become smaller lately and is even close to drying up. It has made their living conditions very difficult.”
“Oh? Something like this happened? What is the reason for the change?” Xu Yi asked in a curious voice.
“Their tribe has investigated it and the river is undergoing this change is because the silt at the bottom of the river has increased. It’s caused the river to flow in a different direction, so naturally the water flowing to their tribe has decreased.”
“Then the help they are asking you for is that they are hoping you dwarves can help them move the silt at the bottom of the lake?”
Chief Monto shook his head and said with a bitter smile, “Although the magic of the elves are pretty good, but their strength is normal. They need help from us dwarves for this kind of large project, but how could we have that many people to help them. We can only reject them.”
Chief Siluka on the side gave a cold snort, “This group of elves aren’t worth helping. We are putting in all that effort to solve their problem and they’ll only give us a few icy words of thanks, they won’t even give us some wine to drink. Why would we help them?”
Chief Monto said with a sigh, “That’s right, if we could secure our own living conditions, based on old friendships, we could help them. But now we can’t even support our own clansmen, so how could we care about them?”
Xu Yi ignored the two dwarf chiefs complaining about what the elves did wrong before, rather he looked in the direction Agnes disappeared in with brows knit in deep thought.
The elves had met trouble and perhaps this wasn’t related to others, but it was not the same for Xu Yi.
He keenly felt that this was a chance, a good chance to let him establish connections with the elves.
Just like Xu Yi had said in front of the two chiefs before, as a pure human merchant, Xu Yi only considered the benefits people brought when he looked over them, he didn’t care about their race.
Even if the elves were facing problems, Xu Yi knew that they had many advantages other races didn’t have, so naturally there were enough benefits for him to explore.
If he could use this crisis of the elves to get closer to the elves, perhaps Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce will earn great benefits in the future.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi took out the notebook he carried with him and drew several drawings before writing several detailed annotations beside the drawing. Finally he ripped it off and gave it to chief Monto.
“Chief Monto, since that elf has come to you three times, I think you should know a bit about her and her tribe, right?” Xu Yi asked.
“A bit.” Chief Monto took the paper from Xu Yi and found that he couldn’t understand it at all, “What is this thing?”
“This is a plan I’ve made for them to change the direction of the river upstream for their tribe. If you give it to her or her tribe, they should understand it.”
“Really?” Chief Monto and chief Siluka both came forward, honestly looking over the drawing on the piece of paper. They still couldn’t understand it in the end and could only give up, “But Xu Yi, why are you thinking of a way to help them? That Agnes just now didn’t have a good attitude towards you.”
Xu Yi laughed, “I believe that after she sees this thing, it will definitely change her attitude towards me.”