Volume II: Chapter 82: The Slums
Due to the existence of the five major forces, the jurisdiction of the town has also been divided by the major forces, except for the Cult of Light, the remaining four major forces have demarcated their spheres of influence according to their respective positions. With the central cathedral and town square as the main symbols, the mercenary guild controls about one-third of the town's total area to the north, while the garrison to the west also controls almost one-third of the town by military power, and the remaining third is divided equally between the Salante Carriage and the Beltagut Chamber of Commerce.
However, although it occupies only about one-sixth of the area of the town, the southeast of the Salant Carriage and Horse Shop and the Beltagut Chamber of Commerce is the largest gathering of wealth in the whole town, and under the joint operation of the two continental-level chambers of commerce, the southeast side of the town has the best buildings, the most luxurious entertainment venues, and the best security. Almost all the nobles and merchants who wanted to have a place in the snowy town would have their own villa built by the Beltagut Chamber of Commerce in the southeast of the town, as well as a carriage provided by the Salante Carriage and Horse Company.
To the north of the town is the largest residential area in the town, where more than eighty percent of the town's residents live, of which forty percent are mercenary members of the Mercenary Guild or their families. The power of the mercenary union is defined by the residential area, because the town is divided by the four major forces, so in addition to paying the taxes stipulated by the state, the residents also have to pay a certain amount of private taxes to the major forces, and part of the operating expenses of the mercenary union comes from private taxes, because there are many residents in the north, even if the private tax is very low under the interference of the Church of Light, it still brings a lot of money to the mercenary union.
The west side of the town is the location of the largest market in the town, due to the proximity to the city gate, most of the mercenaries and hunters will be troublesome to transport the prey to the town, and they will sell the prey nearby, and the merchants will wait for the mercenaries and hunters at the city gate in order to get the prey they want earlier.
Over time, several markets were formed that specialized in selling various items. The garrison also saw the interests of taxation in the market and the right of first refusal, so that its sphere of influence was extended to the extent that it was enough to cover most of the market in the west of the city. So even though the Pompeii garrison had nearly a third of the size of a small town, the only thing they valued and managed was the markets that could bring profits. In other places, there is no management at all, and even private taxes are too lazy to send people to collect them. It also gives a place for small-town residents who can't afford to pay their taxes because they have lost their breadwinners. Of course, those who had committed crimes in the north or offended the nobles in the southeast would occasionally seek refuge in the west of the city. After coming and going, the west of the city formed the largest and only slum in the town. However, since the garrison did not exercise any control over the slums, it became one of the most chaotic areas of the town.
The place where Shi Leiyin wants to take Lily of the Valley is a corner of the slum in the west of the city, and if you go to the west of the city from the main gate of the Sarant carriage and horse shop, there is a straight avenue leading to the city gate, in fact, one of the reasons why Shi Leiyin was noticed by the surrounding people at the beginning was that they stood directly in the middle of the road that led directly to the gate. This road is an official road, and the middle is reserved for troops, and in times of war, the entire road is forbidden to ordinary people and even nobles without military rank. The three of them standing there with a big grin will naturally be noticed.
Fortunately, Shrayin quickly heard the problem from the words of the person next to him, and took Lily of the Valley and Zilde to a less crowded road provided by the slime, and the two thieves were only found by Slimin using the surrounding slimes after following this path.
The two thieves didn't follow him into the slums, which made him feel a little glad, and he was still thinking about whether to find a way to get rid of or simply kill the two stalking thieves, but considering that either one would alert the forces behind the thieves, if he allowed them to follow, he would not be able to summon slimes to get money. Now that the two thieves had voluntarily given up on tracking, for whatever reason, they had given Slime a time to get the money, and all he needed was a little bit of time for the slimes to spit out the gold coins.
After the two thieves gave up their tracking, Shrayin led Lily of the Valley and Zilde for another ten minutes into the slum interior, where they came to a house that resembled a large warehouse. The house is very dilapidated, with large cracks in the roof and walls, and there is still a lot of water in the interior, and there are even a lot of plants growing inside, which has become a living place for slimes and other creatures. Carefully bypassing the stagnant water and collapsing interior walls, Shi Leiyin walked to the only corner of the house that could not be seen from the outside world.
After instructing Lily of the Valley and Zird not to wander around, Shi Leiyin began to devote himself to controlling the low-level slimes. One by one, the low-level slimes headed towards the abandoned house he was in, through the grass, to the front of Shrayin, and then spit out the coins hidden in their bodies, and then quickly left from the other end.
As the control of the shrewn was imposed, the movements of the low-level slimes became faster and faster, and the grass throughout the slum made a rustling sound, which was the sound made by the slimes as they passed quickly. If one looks down from the sky, then they can clearly see that various slimes appear from all directions, converging into several slime streams that flow into the ruined house where Slimin is, and then scatter and disappear from the other end of the ruined house.
The slimes in Snow Town are obviously not as rich as the slimes in Senetown, most of the slimes only spit out one or two copper coins, and even a few Ice Slimes that are close to level 2 can't spit out anything. However, fortunately, the number is large enough, and there are also many low-level slimes who are lucky enough to get gold coins and gem-like items.
In just half an hour, the slimes spit out more than a thousand copper coins, and since the silver coins can be slowly digested by the Ice Slime and the Snow Slime, there are less than twenty or so. Although he was not as lucky as the previous time he found a single golden slime, he found several rare slimes and squeezed a lot of gold coins out of their bodies. One of the second-order outlier slimes already has a third-level strength, which is comparable to the Ice Slime King, but in Shi Leiyin's opinion, luck is the most powerful thing about this outlier slime, because this slime spits out more gold coins than the golden slime, a full fifty, in addition, there are two gems that should be set in the ring. It was clear that the gemstone ring had been in the body of the outlier slime long enough, and the ring itself had melted away from the bodily fluids and mixed with other metals. The gem was a sapphire that Shi Leiyin was very familiar with, one was about half a centimeter in diameter, and the other was much larger, and Shi Leiyin believed that these two sapphires alone were worth a lot of gold coins, because the larger one was obviously larger than the gemstone ring on Anaceton's hand in the carriage and horse shop before.