strokinit Chapter 67 The Great Fortune Won't Come
Chapter 67 The Great Fortune Won't Come
Im and Anthony, along with the militia, shielded Richard and Karl in the middle, facing outwards and warily watching the surrounding darkness.
They turned a blind eye to the lord's and captain's atrocities, as if the hard-shelled flying insect being repeatedly ravaged was nothing more than an insignificant stone.
Although the monsters were ferocious.
However, most of them possess basic intelligence and are slightly more human-like than ordinary wild beasts.
The methods for taming them are actually quite simple. Without a tamer, it's nothing more than "subduing them through beating" and "bribing them."
Faced with absolute violence, you either have to be beaten to death or show weakness and submit.
Once you choose to submit, after further training, it can understand some simple commands and become a battle pet to follow the troops into battle.
At first glance, it seems that forming a monster army would be simple, but in reality, very few lords are willing to do so.
because...
—That's too expensive!
Monsters have an astonishing appetite; creatures like the Hard-Shelled Flying Insect can consume at least tens of kilograms of food a day.
Just look at the Universiade; they can eat nearly a thousand kilograms of vegetables in one meal, and that only adds a little over 40 points to their satiety level.
and.
The food you feed monsters must be a mix of meat and vegetables.
After all, they were living a carefree life eating humans and wild beasts outside, but they were captured and brought back to be fed rye every day. Even a fool couldn't accept that, let alone a monster.
Richard feeds Dayun only silver star crops, so there's no need for a mixed diet of meat and vegetables, and Dayun is happy with his meals.
Although tamed monsters will not devour their masters, if they are left to starve for an extended period, they will break free and venture into the wild to forage for food on their own.
The food of a single monster far exceeds that of a dozen extraordinary soldiers of the same level, so forming a monster army would be a losing proposition, and no one would do that.
of course.
This refers to monsters that cannot be ridden.
Only larger monsters, such as the Rock Armored Earth Dragon and the Gale Dire Wolf, which are suitable for riding, are recruited and trained.
After being tamed, they become battle mounts, which can improve the mobility of the army and also have a certain amount of attack power.
If you want your war mount to advance, you need a constant supply of life-giving food.
For other lords, life-giving food is already scarce, and they are struggling to train extraordinary soldiers and battle mounts. Where would they find the extra resources to feed other unrideable monsters?
Even the most powerful lords would only train a few unique monsters to enhance the magical power of their high-ranking legions.
But for Richard, these were not problems at all.
Farming has now been upgraded to Lv.10.
The yields of silver and gold star crops reached 25% respectively.
One acre of land can grow 10,000 crops, which means that each harvest can yield about 5,000 life-sustaining foods.
With so many crops, we can't possibly eat them all ourselves, and we don't dare to sell them on a large scale until we find enough distributors.
For a small, newly developed territory, selling a hundred or so is acceptable, but selling more than a thousand would be problematic.
This is practically telling everyone, "I have some treasure here, come and grab it!"
and so.
Instead of letting them mold and rot, why not build a monster army and feed them?
Before going down into the mine, Richard had discussed with the guards that if they encountered a suitable low-level monster, they should capture it and beat it until it was subdued.
In the future, if you feed them well with silver or even gold crops every day, they will be impossible to drive away, and their loyalty will be artificially maxed out.
...
Karl continued to beat his lord, but he was filled with mixed emotions. Only his lord had such confidence; other lords probably wouldn't even dare to dream of it.
After another beating and feeding, the hard-shelled flying insect finally stopped struggling.
It lay on the ground.
His body trembled slightly, but he remained unmoved by the golden cabbage leaves at his lips, his compound eyes fixed on Richard with a pleading expression.
Richard remained unmoved, gave Karl a wink, and Karl understood, raising his iron shield again and slamming it down hard on its back.
The hard-shelled flying insect emitted a faint hiss, but instead of twitching or flinching, it simply lowered its head even further.
The ancestors of the Wolf Cubs were beast tamers, and even the least professional wolf cubs and their descendants all know to some extent how to forcibly tame monsters.
Following the instructions in the book, Richard stared intently at the compound eyes of the hard-shelled flying insect, trying to observe the changes within them.
After Karl struck it again, tiny, pinhole-like dents appeared in some of the compound eyes of the hard-shelled flying insect, and its wings stopped flapping, indicating that it had completely given up on escaping.
Richard was delighted. He quickly took out a whole golden cabbage from his package and placed it in front of it.
The golden cabbage, as big as a washbasin, exuded a rich life energy that sent shivers down the spines of the hard-shelled flying insects.
It glanced at Richard, then at the golden cabbage near its mouth. Although it really wanted to eat it, it didn't make a move.
Richard chuckled, patted its head, pointed to the golden cabbage, and said softly, "Eat."
It hesitated for a moment, squeaked, and finally cautiously opened its jaws and began to wolf down the food.
After eating, its body instantly relaxed. Richard then took out a bottle of healing potion and fed it to the animal. Instantly, its listless state was restored.
It flapped its wings and slowly flew into the air, circling twice above Richard's head, looking at him quietly with a docile demeanor.
Richard was smiling happily.
Become!
With continued training and feeding, it will follow you wholeheartedly; monsters also follow the principle of the strong ruling.
...
The exploration continues.
Richard spent the entire next day in the mine, and finally, as the sun set, he had cleared away all the monsters from the first level.
Everyone was exhausted, not physically, but mentally.
Searching for monsters in such a dark and enclosed environment requires one to be in a state of high tension.
In particular, you need to be especially careful of a monster called the Rock Crab, which can disguise itself as an ordinary boulder.
They acted silently, waiting for the group to get close before suddenly launching their attack; it was really scary.
Richard and his guards were fine; they had strong mental fortitude and didn't have any major problems. But the rookies in the militia were no match for them.
Richard didn't want to put them through too much hardship. The purpose was to toughen them up, and it would be counterproductive to make them suffer from nervous breakdowns.
then.
He simply took advantage of the lunch break to eat and replenish torches, and replaced all five militiamen except for Katherina.
Kelsarina was among the group that insisted on staying, and she was highly motivated.
Richard then discovered that this guy had a natural tendency to be a battle maniac, which greatly increased his interest in her. He also wanted to see where her potential was, so he agreed to her request.
She lived up to expectations.
In the afternoon, when Richard and Carl were forcibly capturing a rock crab, two slimes suddenly appeared nearby, and she actually planned to take one of them into her own hands.
Born a serf, she possessed a fighting spirit comparable to that of a reserve officer who had served for several years, earning even Karl's admiration.
...
Throughout the day, the team captured five armored flying insects, two rock crabs, and killed more than a dozen green slimes and burrowing bugs.
The captured monsters were all handed over to the guards to feed and tame, so that they would have a reliable helper when they went down into the mines.
Due to their size, these monsters can pass through the mine entrance to reach the surface or descend to a deeper level.
The luck won't be good.
The hole, which is two meters long and wide, is not even as big as its butt. Otherwise, Richard would have liked to bring it down and crush it all in one fell swoop.
Carl suggested that the entrance to the cave be widened artificially to make it easier to enter and exit.
Richard refused.
After all, he didn't know if doing this would cause any problems. If he accidentally damaged the portal, he would have nowhere to turn for help.