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Chapter 363: Birth of the Tempest Regiment

Although he didn’t know if the ore vein Delmann mentioned would be able to sustain his long term plan of making Verdant Breeze Town a town focused on blacksmithing, it would still enhance the commercial sector of the town by quite a lot, even if it was just at the beginning. Who knows? If the town transformed into a renowned blacksmithing town in the future, then they might not need to rely on an ore vein at all. They just needed to rely on the forging skills of the blacksmiths that lived in the town.

With that in mind, he decided to make use of this ore vein to the fullest as he told Delmann, “Try and find someone in town to check the total size of the ore vein. As long as you give them a gold coin or two, I’m sure a few people would be willing to do so.”

Delmann nodded in response. At this point, since Argentum had enough confidence that he would be able to make these plans a reality, then he wasn’t surprised if he told him to use gold coins wherever needed. Then again, that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious as to how much funds Argentum had access to. Of course, he knew that it wasn’t the right time to ask about that, given how the town’s benefactors were in the same conversation as him and Argentum.

Not long after, he asked, “Should we hire a few people to mine out the vein as well?”

In response, Argentum nodded as he replied, “Only do so once the total size of the ore vein has been measured. Though, if it’s possible, try to also find some people to find more ore veins near the town. At most, the farthest they can be would be around three thousand houses away.”

At first, Argentum was about to say 30 kilometers to Delmann, but then he remembered that he wouldn’t understand what he was talking about unless he had a greater level of education. Fortunately, Delmann understood the message Argentum was getting across, responding with, “How many people should I give that task to?”

“How many able-bodied men does the town have?” Argentum asked in response.

“Hmm…around a thousand or so,” Delmann quickly replied since he was familiar with all of the people in town due to him being quite friendly with the townspeople. With that figure, it did not take long for Argentum to come to a decision, saying, “I guess around a hundred people or so. They must make sure to not go as far as three thousand houses away, okay? If they don’t find one, reward them with three gold coins. If they do, reward them with ten. Of course, only reward the latter if you’ve seen the ore vein with your eyes.”

“Understood, Sir Argentum,” Delmann responded not long after, committing Argentum’s words to memory.

“Well, I guess that settles all of the initial development plans I have in mind for Verdant Breeze Town,” Argentum said after a while, only for one of the three to start speaking not long after.

“Argentum, I think you’re still forgetting one more thing,” Felix said to Argentum, who pondered over the statement for a bit, though could not find out what Felix was trying to say. So, in response, he asked Felix, “What do you mean by that, Grand Blue?”

“With such massive initial development plans, haven’t you considered that the nearby towns wouldn’t be envious of Verdant Breeze’s advancements? Sure, they might be far away, so there’s a chance they won’t take action. But what if they do?” Felix explained his thought process, which Argentum fortunately understood within a few seconds.

“What you’re saying is…I should enhance the defensive properties of this town,” Argentum replied, to which Eleanor continued as she said, “And offensive. Knowing you, you wouldn’t be satisfied with Verdant Breeze Town staying as a town.”

Although Delmann was surprised to hear that come out of one of the benefactors’ mouths, he could not help but be inwardly surprised as he did have dreams of expanding Verdant Breeze Town even further while he was acting as a proxy leader for Argentum. Naturally, he dispelled those thoughts since he didn’t have the power or the funds necessary to do so. But now that Argentum was leading the helm of the town, there might be a possibility for this idea to come true.

After all, which person didn’t want to make a name for themselves?

Oblivious as to what was going on inside Delmann’s mind, Argentum let out a light chuckle in response to Eleanor’s words before saying, “Well, since you’ve talked about it, I guess this project would begin in tandem with the first three projects. This project wouldn’t really affect the first three projects in any way, plus some of its elements tie in with the farming and land expansion project, so it should be done at the same time.”

Looking at Delmann, he then asked, “How many active guards does the town currently have?”

“About 20 guards, Sir Argentum,” Delmann hastily responded as he was a guard himself in the past.

“Hmm…” Hearing that, Argentum pondered over it for a bit, thinking of a perfect number to expand to for now. After a minute of contemplation, he then said, “I want you to raise that number to 300 guards.”

He continued, “After that, I want you to select three guards to be responsible for commanding groups of 100 guards. Within those 100-guard groups, have them select 10 guards that would be responsible for commanding 10-guard groups. Also, among the first three guards, have them choose between the three of them on who would become the captain among them. That captain would be the one who would relay information to me regarding actions involving the guards.”

“Er…understood.” It took some time for Delmann to respond as Argentum’s order this time around involved a lot of steps. Then again, he wrote this order down as it was harder to complete compared to the other ones he had mentioned so far. After making sure that his note was correct, he then asked, “Would that be all, Sir Argentum?”

“I have some more things to say,” Argentum replied as he went silent for a bit before asking, “If I remember correctly, Verdant Breeze Town has a lot of Wind energy particles in the surroundings, right?”

“Yes, that is correct. Although this town is located slightly far away from the Greater Tempest Cliff, it’s still more inclined towards the Wind element,” Delmann replied, only to become silent as he had an idea as to why Argentum asked him that. Wanting to make sure if his idea was correct, he soon asked, “Do you want all of these guards to train in Tempering skills related to the Wind element?”

“Exactly,” Argentum said with a smile. “All guards must at least achieve a Rank 1 class with a Tempering skill like that, while the three heads need to be at least Rank 2.”

He then shifted his attention towards the three and asked them, “Is it possible to obtain a Wind-related Tempering skill and Ascension skill? It doesn’t have to be really good, just slightly better than most.”

In response, all three nodded as Rosalia was the one to respond for them, saying, “Yeah, we can. It wouldn’t take that long of a time for us to find one or two. So, expect it to come in a few days or so.”

“Understood,” Argentum said before deciding that it was now time to finish talking about the initial development plans of the town. Letting out a cough to attract the attention of the four, he then said, “With that, all of the initial development plans I have in mind have been said. And with that, this meeting is now adjourned.”

After that, he sent a private message to Felix and the others, making sure Delmann wouldn’t listen in as he said, “I hope you three can send the gold coins tomorrow.”

“We’ll try to make sure, Argentum,” Felix said in response as the other two nodded. Not long after, the three disconnected themselves from the connection, leaving only Argentum and Delmann in it. Naturally, with the two of them near each other, there was no need for such a connection, so Argentum cut it not long after.

With only the two of them remaining, Delmann was now free to voice his doubts towards Argentum as he asked, “Is it really possible for us to do all of those things you said, Sir Argentum? Even if I wrap my head around it multiple times, I still don’t think it’s quite feasible, given how we don’t have much funds at the moment.”

In response, Argentum lightly chuckled as he replied, “Relax, Delmann. If I say it’s possible, then it’s definitely possible. In any case, we should definitely announce the changing of leaders tomorrow, lest we want the citizens to revolt.”

“Do you want me to tell the guards to spread the news?” Delmann asked, to which Argentum nodded as he said, “Please do.”

Nodding in response, Delmann then left Argentum alone in the manor as he headed to the guards at the gates, telling them to spread word of an announcement happening tomorrow.

After a few minutes or so, Delmann went back to where Argentum was, noticing that a mass of gray energy was circling around him. He then lightly coughed to attract Argentum’s attention, which worked as that gray mass disappeared.

Knowing very well that Delmann letting out a cough had to mean something, Argentum then asked, “Is there a problem, Delmann?”

“Not really, Sir Argentum. I’ve just noticed while you were talking about the initial plans that you’ve placed in quite a lot of detail into the expansion of the guards,” Delmann responded as he shook his head. “I was just curious if you’re planning to do something else with them.”

Hearing that, Argentum lightly smiled as he replied, “Well, I do have a use for them. As Undying Flame has said before, I’m not content with Verdant Breeze Town staying as a town. In the future, we’ll surely expand this town’s territory to transform into a city. After that, we’ll conquer other cities to form a state. And after that, we’ll conquer states to form a kingdom. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

Seeing how big Argentum’s ambition was, Delmann could not help but get sucked into it as well. Though, he did see the dark side of such a plan, telling Argentum, “Achieving it would cost a lot of lives, though.”

“And that’s why I’m putting a lot of focus into the expansion of the guards,” Argentum said, only to correct himself soon after, “Or better yet, I’m putting a lot of focus into the creation of this town’s military.”

At this point, Delmann had a feeling that Argentum’s words had a chance of becoming true. Nevertheless, the idea of turning the guards into the town’s military force had never come across his mind. Naturally, as a man, his blood started to boil from the excitement of the town having a military in the future. With that in mind, he asked what he considered was the most important thing for a military force, “Do you have a name in mind for this future military, Sir Argentum?”

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t thought of that yet,” Argentum soon replied before going silent as he pondered over the question. Not long after, he started to think out loud as he muttered, “Since we’re in Verdant Breeze Town, a place where Wind energy particles are plentiful, it would make sense that the name of the military would be related to wind.”

“Hmm…since the military I’m aiming to create would be as swift as a coursing river and as fierce as a great typhoon…I think the word ‘Tempest’ would fit.”

After muttering for quite a while, he looked at Delmann and asked, “What do you think of the name ‘Tempest Regiment’?”

In an instant, a wide grin could be seen on Delmann’s face as he became even more excited. Of course, he calmed himself down not long after as he replied, “That’s a wonderful name, Sir Argentum.”

“I know, right?” Argentum said with a light chuckle. After that, he said, “Well, from this day forth…”

“The Tempest Regiment is now the official military of Verdant Breeze Town.”