Mercenary Wars

Chapter 55 Orange Merchant

After the assault, the war entered a dull stalemate. For several days, nothing happened except for the cleanup of the battlefield.

The first step in cleaning up the battlefield is to collect spoils.

Gao Jianuo really wanted to enjoy the "tax-free" privilege of the spoils, just like he did last time in Tideland, on the grounds that "the pharmacist's contract has no spoils clause."

Unfortunately, he failed to achieve his wish this time.

On the one hand, this time the spoils of war were mainly distributed among the combat teams. A portion of the spoils of the entire team was concentrated and handed over, and the rest was distributed within the team, so it was difficult for him to exercise his personal privileges.

On the other hand, the quartermaster discovered a loophole: if someone gave the spoils to Gao Jianuo to hold on their behalf, they could easily "evade taxes" on the spoils. For the mercenary group, and indeed all armies, this was clearly a situation that needed to be avoided.

Thus, in the end, the spoils were divided up on the same general principles as those of the others.

Fortunately, his contribution was unanimously recognized by the team, and he still got a lot of spoils. After all, he directly shot and killed five enemies, including a level 3 hunter and a level 4 warrior.

A level 4 warrior is judged as level 3 in Gao Jianuo's panel, but his warrior badge is level 4, so the distribution of merit and spoils is calculated based on level 4.

Unsuitable weapons and ill-fitting armor were the bulk of the spoils. Gao Jianuo exchanged all the useless items for money, which brought him an income of several hundred silver coins.

There were also some spoils of war that he could use, such as arrows. The gray-haired archer had more than a dozen enchanted steel arrows, which he kept for his own use.

The enchantment of fine steel arrows is basically the same "easy to sharpen", which does not greatly improve the power. The biggest advantage is that there is no need to polish the arrowhead. An arrow will not become dull even after several years of use, which is very convenient and practical.

Therefore, the three enchanted steel arrows shot out were found and recovered by Gao Jianuo.

The spoils have been collected, but there are still bodies to deal with.

The bodies of their own side were naturally brought back, while the bodies of the enemy were gathered in a few places, and then Juris sent people to collect them. After all, both sides were Mossadists, so there was still some respectability. If they were fighting against infidels, they might have set up a memorial.

When carrying the enemy's bodies, Gao Jianuo volunteered to help so that he could collect some blood.

After all, it is not easy to collect human blood in peacetime. Now there are thousands of corpses lying outside the city. He only needs to move his fingers slightly and sweep the blood-collecting magic around. At least he will no longer have to worry about the materials for the blood disguise spell.

John was carrying the body with him.

It is worth mentioning that after the battle, John gained the third holy name - Matt.

The blessing of the Holy Name is the trampling of war.

To be more precise, it is "Saint Matt's War Stomp", because there are many similar blessings and spells, such as "Saint Laurent's War Stomp", "Saint Valentine's War Stomp", and the "Simple War Stomp" of the Warrior Guild... more or less have some characteristics of their own.

Upon hearing the news, Gao Jianuo couldn't help but suggest that John perform.

John shook his head repeatedly: "I can't use War Trample more than a few times a day. What if I just used it up and Yuris's army suddenly attacked?"

"Okay." Gao Jianuo nodded, then asked, "When did you get this holy name?"

"Last night," John said, "before I went to sleep, I was thinking about the battles of the day, and suddenly I remembered a mural I saw in church when I was a child called 'The Battle of St. Matt.' And then I got my third holy name, 'Matt.'"

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh: "If I had known this, I should have thought about Saint Laurent's murals, or even prayed to Saint Laurent - I heard that his war trampling is worse than Saint Matthäus's."

"Or if I could choose a holy name," John sighed again.

Gao Jianuo said nothing. John's process for obtaining a Holy Name was quite typical. Most people went through this process: first, they had a remarkable experience, usually a battle, then a related deity or saint flashed through their mind, and with a bit of luck, they could obtain a Holy Name. It was quite random and accidental.

This elusive process is often referred to as motivation.

In fact, Gao Jianuo suspected that everyone's upgrade followed the same rules, whether it was himself, John, or anyone else.

The only difference is that other people don't have the blessing of "cognition" and cannot see information such as proficiency and experience as intuitively as he does, so they don't know when they will upgrade, why they will upgrade, or even whether what they are doing will help them upgrade.

Thinking of this, Gao Jianuo couldn't help but look at his panel again.

[Experience: 832/1200]

There are still more than 300 experience points needed to upgrade.

Yuris should launch another round of attack, but there is no way to know when it will happen.

It is also foreseeable that the second round of attack may be more brutal than the first.

Therefore, Gao Jianuo did not hope to gain more than 300 experiences in the next round of attack.

He thought of the invitation from the strong medicine expert.

How about going to that underground cave and taking a look? The cave explorer said there are some low-level monsters in there, which might be able to help him accumulate the more than 300 experience points. Although monsters give less experience points, they are usually easier to deal with than humans.

Amyro's divination had previously come back as "positive," meaning it was worth going. While mortal divination results weren't as unchangeable as fateful predictions, they still held considerable value.

Gao Jianuo gradually made up his mind.

So that night, he changed into the image of "Taft" and went to the black market to find a strong medicine expert.

He first asked the strong medicine expert for some potions and herbs.

The market was almost at its peak, and after one shipment, Gao Jianuo received 20 gold coins directly. Including the income from the spoils, the expenses of preparing for the war were recovered.

After finishing the deal on the medicine, the strong medicine expert asked, "What do you think? We already have five people and we're ready to leave tomorrow."

Gao Jianuo: "Who are the two new members?"

"One of them sells banned books here. His stall is over there. I think you should have some impression of him." The medicine expert pointed first, then his tone became a little hesitant. "As for the other one..."

"how?"

"He's an orange merchant." said the medicine expert.

Gao Jianuo couldn't help but frowned: "Why is it an orange merchant?"

Orange merchants are not orange merchants in the literal sense, but a kind of industry jargon, referring to vendors who roam the streets and alleys selling products made from poisonous lamphun leaves. They often hide their goods in oranges, hence the name "orange merchants".

As you can imagine, this kind of people are not reliable.

(End of this chapter)