Sorcery Monarch

Chapter 100: Go Seek Your Fortune!

"Exploration Mission: Explore Troll Valley. For every recorded mineral deposit, resource point, troll camp, or terrain feature, you'll receive the corresponding bounty!"

"Small vein: Reward of 100 gold coins, and enjoy 5% of the profits for 10 years."

"Medium vein: Reward of 500 gold coins, and enjoy 3% of the profits for 20 years."

"Large vein: Reward of 3,000 gold coins, and enjoy 1% of the profits for 50 years."

"Discovery of basic magical materials or plant resources: Reward of 5 gold coins, and enjoy 5% of the profits for 10 years."

"Discovery of intermediate magical materials or plant resources..."

"Discovery of..."

"Terrain exploration: Troll Valley is divided into 10 regions."

"For each region, the first 10 pieces of information collected."

"Report information using the communication spell; locations will be assigned based on the reported information, duplicate information will be deducted, and new information confirmed."

"Each region's bounty—1,000 gold coins!"

"Discovery of small (under 10) troll camps: Reward of 5 gold coins!"

"Discovery of medium (under 50) troll camps: Reward of 50 gold coins!"

"Discovery of large (under 500) troll camps: Reward of 1,000 gold coins!"

"Discovery of a troll tribe (over 1,000): Reward of 3,000 gold coins!"

"Alright, folks, go to Troll Valley and seek your fortune!"

Waving to the crowd, Alice finished announcing the lord's new adventurer guide and returned to her adventuring party amid cheers of excitement.

Holding her newly acquired enchanted crossbow, Alice recalled the lord's eager attitude, amazed at his vast wealth. Facing the curious gazes of her teammates, she cleared her throat and said:

"The 500-gold bounty will be split among the 30 of us."

Seeing the smiles on every team member's face, Alice glanced at the complex expression on Chris's face and shared her long-considered plan:

"Also, I'm planning to officially establish our adventuring team. After splitting the money, anyone who wants to stay with me can do so."

"Our focus will be on Troll Valley, where there will be even more wealth!"

"Of course, considering the dangers of Troll Valley, you must be at least Level 5 to join the exploration."

"Those below Level 5 will continue to train and adventure in the outskirts of the Dark Forest."

"..."

As Alice spoke confidently, the initially joyful adventurers began to entertain different thoughts.

While the excited adventurers prepared to delve deeper into Troll Valley, Bay Village was making its own moves.

Lumberyard workers led the way.

They felled trees that blocked the path.

Nearly 2,000 kobolds followed behind them, working busily.

Some cleared stumps, some swept away brambles, others removed fallen leaves, and still more brought gravel from afar, paving the road.

The keen-eyed adventurers quickly realized what was happening, with a trace of disbelief in their eyes:

"Are they building a road to Troll Valley?"

Adventurers who had witnessed the lord's grand gestures became even more excited, diving headfirst into the depths of the Dark Forest with dreams of striking it rich.

"Ding! Your hired adventurer has killed a forest wolf, earning you 15 experience points!"

"Ding! Your hired adventurer has killed a forest wolf leader, earning you 50 experience points!"

"Ding..."

The pleasant sound of experience points notifications echoed continuously in Matthew's ears. As he watched the increasing experience points, he stroked his chin thoughtfully:

"The territory's expansion is on track, and the accumulation of living supplies is steadily improving."

"The potential for the territory's growth depends on whether the adventurers can locate that coal mine."

Indeed, the reason he had invested so much to guide adventurers to help him develop Troll Valley...

Was to locate the open-pit coal mine near "Steel Nest" in the valley from his memories.

On the surface, he had been directing the kobolds to dig waterways and build roads, but in reality, they had already begun secretly mining iron.

Just having mountains of iron ore wouldn't fetch a good price.

But if the open-pit coal mine in Troll Valley could be found, combining the two would unlock the real growth potential of the territory.

To prepare for the upcoming "Orc Onslaught," Matthew had to accelerate the development of the territory.

This was also why he led the soldiers to proactively strike and eliminate the main force of the troll tribe.

With enough steel, the territory could forge better weapons and equipment for the soldiers, produce more heavy crossbows, and begin mass training and building an army!

However, Matthew wasn't in a rush.

Without enough strength to protect it, even the best-developed territory would be just a gift for others.

This brought him back to the original question—how to improve his combat strength as much as possible without leveling up.

"How can I convert these 40,000-plus experience points into skill or specialty experience points, or even attribute points?"

Searching his memory, Matthew actually found two methods!

Checking the time, Matthew left the study and handed a large stack of Arcane knowledge test papers to a still-drowsy Rebecca:

"Give these to Lianna and tell her I'll check them tonight."

The groggy little fool nodded blankly, picking up Yaya in her arms as she wobbled off to another room. Matthew was worried she might fall asleep halfway there.

Soon, Steward Ralph returned.

His presence had grown stronger, and his every movement exuded a faint aura of authority.

Matthew was surprised to find that Ralph had reached Level 5, just one step away from becoming a mid-tier professional.

It seemed that the rapid development of the territory had brought Ralph some unique insights.

As usual, Ralph reported on the progress of the expansion, the stockpiling of supplies, and the construction of houses for the next batch of settlers.

Finally, he handed over the materials list Adamsmith had delivered yesterday, carefully reminding:

"Mr. Adamsmith mentioned that someone has taken notice of him."

Matthew raised an eyebrow, quickly understanding why. Adamsmith had been selling a large number of blood-replenishing potions, and even under the Ser Family's name, it had still attracted attention.

Indeed, this was the reality!

However, Matthew had prepared for this. As he reviewed the basic materials, his eyes fell on 50 earth elemental crystals, and a bolt of inspiration struck!

He vaguely remembered hearing a story, a topic of banter among players.

In the first two months of the game, a player with extraordinary luck had accidentally joined an auction of relics in Blood Moon City.

During that auction, the player spent 100 gold coins to buy a pile of golem parts.

It turned out that while dismantling the golem parts, the player found a treasure worth tens of thousands of gold coins—a legendary earth elemental crystal!

"Besides the intrinsic value of the legendary earth elemental crystal, it has a crucial use—building an elemental energy pool to power a mage tower!"

Matthew's heart skipped a beat. He calculated the time and realized it was only two days away.

"Should I leave the territory? Would that give the mastermind an opportunity?"

Matthew clenched his fists—he had to go!

"I can't live in fear forever, and there might be an opportunity…"