The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 778: Innovation In Industry

Two days later, the army arrived with convoys of cargo trucks to pick up the tax payment.

With their expected efficiency, they spread through the Baronies, collecting the King’s share. That would be roughly one tenth of the harvest, by standard convention. Minus any deductions that they had made, and allowances they were given.

Neither of those applied in great quantities this year, as they were looking for a market for their crops, so they could save the best in storage.

The soldiers laughed with the Barons as they picked up the shipment.

Normally, what was given was the wilted and withered leftovers of last year’s crop, destined for the compost heap if not for the tax collectors accepting them. So, even the off quality produce from Wistover, the things that weren’t quite the right colour or shape, were still a vast improvement on what the soldiers got used to eating during the war.

As it turned out, after eating awful rations for months, you gained a new appreciation for mediocre rations.

And that brought Wistover to its latest factory build.

Led by Baron Abe, affectionately known as Potato, a new factory was being assembled in Potato’s territory, set up to process and create stable rations that were actually edible.

They had two lines planned. The first were standard canned rations, high energy, but with flavours that wouldn’t lead to depression. They had more than enough for most of the dishes, and there were a few pig farms on his territory that were happy to have another reliable customer.

The second was an instant dried ration pack, with magitech enhancement.

The Techno Wizards had come up with a brilliant idea to make themselves some easy money. If they made a whole case of dried and sealed meals, they could include a pair of water creation orbs, made of the cheapest possible materials, and let the soldiers rehydrate their meals, while having constant fresh water for the day.

Normally, that would mean that the orbs would stack up after an extended campaign. But these were made by the new apprentices, and were unlikely to last for more than a week of steady use before the flawed gems in them shattered.

So, while they would last a few days for a full platoon, they would quickly become a disposable item that the soldiers could give to refugees and local farmers as a relief supply.

Valuable enough to be appreciated, cheap enough to not miss the loss.

Of course, if you gave them to a Dragonkin or a Troll, who were both much better than average with mana control, the orbs would last forever. It was the unstable mana flow of an unskilled user that most rapidly pointed out the flaws in the orbs.

While they were intended to make life better for the army, the Adventurer’s Guild was immediately interested in them.

The Guild was continent wide, and unlike Cygnia where storage rings were plentiful, in most regions they were prohibitively expensive, and most groups would still carry their supplies in a backpack.

They were expensive in Cygnia as well. But not more expensive than a new farm, which was the savings goal of many new adventurers. When the item that made adventuring easier was more expensive than what they were saving up for, to get out of adventuring, the storage rings didn’t really spread through more than the wealthy noble portion of society.

They were also in high demand by the hunters and woodcutters. Both were often away from home more than a day at a time, and couldn’t afford a storage ring.

Normally, they just packed a meal for the road, but these were fancy meals, not the sort of simple fare that normally passed for dinner in camp. It was an extra expenditure, but a little treat while you were working a hard shift could really brighten up your week.

Wistover was really settling into its own, with industry spreading from the city and out into the Baronies.

So much that the next few months brought an influx of pigs to the Baronies.

Plenty of farmers kept a couple of sows so that they could have yearlings for pork every spring. But now they had a facility that could process it as more than hard smoked sides, and the farmers saw great potential for the expansion of ham as a primary food product.

Even Dave agreed. Ham was good in soup.

And the Trolls were used to eating a mostly vegetarian diet.

That also changed how the residents of Wistover shopped over the course of the summer. The first change was a bustling meat market in the shopping district. But the second was a surge in demand for freezers.

The ice magic magitech insulated chests were considered a luxury for the Noble houses in the past.

Something that even most Barons didn’t have.

But now, there was a Techno Wizard in town making them for a price reasonable enough that half the town was considering getting one instead of going to the butcher multiple times a week or eating exclusively cured meats.

The Techno Wizards weren’t the only ones making out like bandits.

Their not so friendly neighbourhood River Troll had developed an entrepreneurial streak as well.

The Troll had realized that with all the fishing nets he had stolen over the years, he could bribe the Adventurer’s Guild to lure Goblins and other small monsters to the river. Fish were alright, but to the River Troll, fresh Goblin was a rare delicacy, and he would happily trade fish for them.

It was a win for everyone. The River Troll killed the Goblins, the adventurers got fish for their efforts, and the city remained safe from most forms of wandering monsters.

Eventually, Dominic knew that they were going to have to convince the King that their arrangement was the best way to do things, and that the southern half of Wistover Duchy didn’t need to be populated.

But there was plenty of territory open on the north side of the river still. Enough for another dozen or more Barons and the other Count that the King had initially planned to send to them.

For now, having monster territory for the Adventurer’s Guild was not a bad thing. At least, not in the eyes of the Guild.