You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 67 Second Recruitment

It was very easy for Roman to feed the slaves.

But the waste of resources and labor is something he cannot tolerate.

After acquiring these slaves, the town of Sige now has a population of about 2,500.

Nine children were born in Sige Town during this period, resulting in a dismal population growth rate.

Despite Roman telling every merchant ship that passed through Sig Town about his desire to buy slaves.

But so far, those small caravans have not sent him a large number of slaves, only a few here and there.

We still have to rely on the Daken line.

While Morey could also engage in the slave trade, he is currently acquiring draft cattle and draft horses.

Roman temporarily selected ten slaves who seemed reasonably reliable to be in charge of the slaves that Daken brought last time, and let them manage themselves as long as they didn't cause trouble.

The lack of grassroots managers is giving Roman a headache.

The officials in charge of Sig Town did not demonstrate any qualities that would lead to progress.

Or rather, they are still using medieval landlord mentality to govern that group of fools.

Self-righteous and stingy!
If it weren't for his and Seth keeping a close eye on things, the food they provided for the laborers every day would have been eaten by worms long ago.

The foreman in charge of the ovens and mill was constantly thinking about how to mix sawdust, sand, and pebbles into the black bread, and he was constantly outwitting Seth for it.

Roman was so angry he almost chopped his head off.

Earlier, the farm implement supervisor also opposed Roman's recasting of the iron plow.

If Roman hadn't stood up against all opposition, the in-depth cultivation project simply wouldn't have been able to continue.

The cowherd thinks every day about how to give his cow a rest.

When Roman asked the oxen to help uproot trees during road construction because there weren't enough felling tools, Roman actually dared to object!

A bunch of misers and cheapskates, with typical landlord mentality!

Every day I'm thinking about how to squeeze resources out of the smallest possible source!
And they exploit laborers to the extreme!

TMD!

Is money something you can save up?
Don't they know that this will only make those stupid and unruly people even stupider?

If you don't feed them enough, where will they get the strength to work?

With only two meals a day that offer no nutritional value, how can they possibly be productive?!

You'll be worked to death before you're even fifty!
Roman wasn't joking.

Eating only two meals a day without getting enough nutrition and then doing high-intensity labor is like burning your own lifeblood. Everyone looks pale and thin. If you don't die, who will?
You'll die if you keep working until you're fifty!

What a waste!

Eat more and work until you're seventy or eighty before you die!

I can't take it anymore!

Roman felt it was necessary to retrain a new group of managers at the grassroots level.

Just as he dismissed the original captain of the guard and appointed Dota as the new captain of the guard.

Only the Apostle made Roman feel at ease.

After Dota became the captain of the guard, his relationship with Roman increased dramatically.

From the initial 10% to the current 60%.

Although not as high as Green and Aaron's 70% to 80%.

But it's still quite considerable.

It's worth mentioning that Sais and his "relationship" has now surpassed 80% and is approaching 90%.

Roman found the apostle named Talma, whom he had recruited for the sixth time.

An ordinary, unremarkable farmer.

His stats and skills are even inferior to those of Matthew's son, Ballow.

Roman did not entrust him with important tasks, but instead let him do as he pleased.

Even so, Talma and his [relationship] gradually increased from the initial 10% to around 20%.

Due to limited information at present.

Therefore, Roman can only roughly understand "relationship degree" as... the apostles' loyalty to him, or their favorability, trust, intimacy, etc.

It's likely that Roman improved their treatment, which increased Talma's trust in him.

This also reflects the apostles' view of Roman.

The apostles were drawn from Roman's people. Roman had not continued recruiting after his initial recruitment.

The main reason is... how many talented people can emerge from a small town with a population of two thousand?
Roman believes that the highest potential star is Gweil, followed by four-star Aaron and three-star Green.

The latter two are the knights he brought from the Grand Duchy, and cannot be counted.

It's a miracle that even one Gweil appeared in Sig Town—Roman almost fought with Shasta for her—he only just realized that the guy almost killed a sixth-tier Dawn Knight, and thinking about it now sends chills down his spine.

The recruitment cost over 10,000 raw stones.

Following the normal accumulation process, including the milestone rewards from [Life Story].

Roman should now have 9780 rough stones!

However, because he had unearthed a magical ore along the way, and a small portion of that ore remained after being used to make holy salt, Roman converted it into 800 Primogems, which is equivalent to 10580 Primogems.

This number is enough for him to recruit 68 apostles.

However, the pond in Sig Town was too shallow.

If the pool is full of one-star apostles, it's not very useful, mainly because they have no value in training.

He currently lacks extraordinary resources and is unable to improve the skills and attributes of his apostles.

These low-level apostles couldn't even support him in launching a small-scale expedition.

This batch of over four hundred slaves barely expanded the recruitment pool once.

Roman is preparing to launch a second recruitment drive.

He did not do this immediately, but waited until all the slaves' weakened bodies had begun to recover.

Roman believed this might help with shipments.

Three days later, at his command, this group of slaves were gathered on the grassland of Origin Manor.

He wanted to select some promising individuals from among these slaves, either to serve in the army or to work as blacksmiths, and those with strong will would be arranged to become prospective managers.

Forty guards straightened their posture and made them stand in a straight line.

After waiting for a few minutes.

A square formation of 20 people in a row and 21 people in a column appeared before Roman.

Dota shouted, "No one is allowed to speak! Stand still! Don't move!"

Roman sat in a large chair, his posture extremely unrestrained and arrogant, with his arms on the armrests, leaning to the side, gazing into the void.

To outsiders, he appeared to be lost in thought.

The slaves had no idea what their lord wanted them to do.

They have undoubtedly received extremely preferential treatment these past few days.

There were three meals a day, and once the food was in my stomach, my heart started racing.

And today will likely determine their future fate.

Many slaves secretly vowed that no matter what their lord asked them to do, they would rush to do it and do their utmost to ensure their future treatment.

……

Several days later, Roman conducted a second recruitment of apostles.

The gray pool shimmered with countless faint starlight.

The number of those stars has increased compared to the initial recruitment.

Roman suddenly became nervous.

You should know that he has been handling everything with ease these past few days.

He took a few deep breaths.

Unlike the initial recruitment, where resources were limited and only single-draws were possible, this time there was no shortage of resources.

This time, he went all out and did a ten-pull!
Swish! Swish! Swish! ...

Ten faint starlight emerged from the pool and surged upwards.

Its momentum was like a comet striking the moon, or a white rainbow piercing the sun.

The first card floated in the void, surging with pure white light!

Bang! Bang!
A young face with honest features and simple eyes appears on the card.

Two-star Luca (can be given the title of Apostle)
Attack: E, Defense: E+, Speed: E-, Constitution: E+, Energy: E
Talent: Resistance - Increased resistance

Skill 1: Stability - The body will not easily lose its center of gravity.

(End of this chapter)