I Became the Progenitor Vampire-Chapter 140 - Urgent Financial Crisis

Chapter 140 -140 Urgent Financial Crisis

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another day’s sunlight was showering upon us.

When the ice and snow on the streets of Dawn City melted, when the howling cold wind turned into a gentle warm breeze, when the cuckoos began to call atop the freshly budding broad-leaved parasol trees,

the cold and solitary Frost Month had passed.

The warm and moist Planting Season had arrived.

At the beginning of March, the crowds, originally wrapped in thick cotton clothes, had already shed most of their layers, ready to tackle the day lightly.

And Dawn City, which had been brought to a standstill by the winter cold, was once again teeming with vitality.

...

The paused Mage Tower had begun to recruit workers,

the blacksmith shops moved out piles of farm tools to distribute to the civilians,

and the tailor shops changed their new clothes from thick cotton garments to thin outerwear.

The entire city was reinvigorated with life.

A new year had begun.

Lide stood by the window of his third-floor office in the City Hall, looking out at the bustling crowds on the streets below through the open window, with a deep smile in his eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the Frost Month had passed.

A lot had changed this winter, and Dawn City had completely transformed from the year before.

Now, the land beneath his feet housed a city with nearly ten thousand residents, and among them, the number of Bloodlines had surpassed 400.

The majestic Dawn Mage Tower was under construction, the busy figures in the fields outside the city were the farmers at work, and the spirited Security Team members, wearing their new uniforms, were patrolling the streets.

Every face bore hope and admiration.

The vitality radiated by this city was astonishing.

“Harrison, report on the current status of Dawn City,”

After a while, Lide, dressed in a blue Mage’s robe and exuding an aura of elegance and perfection, withdrew his gaze from the streets.

He turned to face Harrison, who wore a dark gray robe and had a delicate appearance.

Harrison was well-prepared and, after a brief respectful greeting, began to report on the work progress of the entire winter.

He had developed a work habit of summarizing his work at the beginning of each month.

Today was March 3rd.

“Clan Leader, Frost Month did not halt our steps of development.

Firstly, regarding urban construction,

we have repaired many dilapidated houses, increasing the population capacity of the southern district by roughly 3000 people.

Now, the total number of houses can accommodate about 25,000 residents, and the population capacity of Dawn City has been further elevated.

However, in preparation for Frost Month’s population raids this year, we estimate that we need to build more housing to accommodate 3000 to 5000 more residents.

The construction of Dawn City’s Mage Tower also resumed yesterday. With the assistance of 100 Bloodlines, we expect to complete the overall construction of the Mage Tower before May.”

Lide nodded and did not interrupt Harrison’s remarks.

After the spring, all focus will shift to the construction of Dawn City, and the population raiding activities will be suspended.

According to past habits, after Frost Month, Beastmen will leave the Nolan Empire’s territory to return to the barren wastelands, and humans will take back control of this land.

To raid for population now would certainly mean a direct confrontation with the human armies. Beastmen would not fight to the death against the Bloodlines, but humans would not mind hunting down a Bloodline whose entire body is made of alchemy materials.

Since the focus is to be shifted onto urban construction, there is no doubt that Dawn City’s Mage Tower will be the key construction project for the next two months; for this reason, he has allocated hundreds of Bloodlines to participate in its construction.

“The second point is market economic development.

Due to the increase in population, many people are interested in opening shops and chambers of commerce. The City Hall has specifically cleared a whole street near the square to facilitate trade for humans.

In the future, this area will become the commercial center of Dawn City. Currently, this district has six tailor shops, five bakeries, one flower shop, one grain store managed by the City Hall, and one general goods store.

Because of the shortage of supplies, many residents interested in business cannot find an appropriate entry point, so this newly built market is not yet thriving. However, I believe that after the land becomes tillable, there will be a boom.”

Lide did not deliberately control the economic development of businesses. The shortage of supplies is a major problem, and to develop commerce, this issue must be resolved first before moving on to the next step.

Lide nodded for Harrison to continue.

“Thirdly, regarding the Bloodlines themselves.

“”

After the hero selection competition, the Bloodline population had reached 400, but the newly born 200 Bloodlines were still relatively weak, all between Levels 1 and 3.

It was expected that their strength would receive a boost after the construction of the Mage Tower was completed, but in the short term they could only engage in simple tasks within Dawn City and were not of much use for anything substantial.

The expansion of the Bloodlines meant that the new offspring undoubtedly had low strength; they needed time to grow. Lide was eager to build the Mage Tower precisely to increase the strength of the new Bloodlines more quickly.

“Fourth, the iron mines of Giant Valley.

The One-eyed Giants are now the most effective mining workers; they can extract forty tons of ore every day.

Although this iron mine is a rich vein, the quality of the ore is average. After refining in the blast furnaces newly set up by the blacksmiths of Dawn City, four tons of pig iron can be produced from these ores.”

Lide nodded slightly. There was no way to solve the quality of the ore, but he was quite satisfied with this production efficiency.

Manual ore mining was undoubtedly a very inefficient task, and if humans had to do the mining, maybe hundreds of them would not be able to dig out forty tons of ore in one day.

The One-eyed Giants undoubtedly solved this big problem for him.

These beings with Ancient Giant Bloodline possessed terrifying strength and seemed to be born for mining, besides fighting.

And the One-eyed Giants only needed to mine diligently every day to be able to eat their fill and even save some surplus food; they also felt quite happy.

“Fifth, the operation of City Hall.

The Agriculture Department has been established and, over the past half a month, has begun guiding residents on seed selection and breeding…

The personnel of the Security Team have reached 200 members. They engage in military training tasks as required every day, and regular security issues are now handled by the Security Team members…

The Logistics Team…

The Propaganda Department…”

During Harrison’s lengthy report, which lasted a whole Sunshine Hour, he provided a detailed summary of the various issues of the livelihood, agriculture, economy, politics, and military affairs of Dawn City.

He presented the development of Dawn City over the past six months in an intuitive manner right before Lide.

The city was flourishing.

However, the last issue he talked about made Lide frown.

He was actually running out of money…

“Clan Leader, we have been engaging in intense city construction and various welfare expenditures. Now, there are only just under 2,000 Gold Pucks remaining in City Hall’s accounts.”

“Each department of City Hall needs a fixed expenditure of 1,000 Gold Pucks every month. The money on the accounts is only enough for two months of operation.

That is to say, we are out of money.”

These figures made the corners of Lide’s mouth twitch slightly. The development of Dawn City had been entirely supported by the Bloodline’s treasury, and his secret chamber filled with Gold Pucks had long been emptied.

2,000 Gold Pucks might not be considered a small sum for an individual, but for a rapidly developing city, it was painfully inadequate.

Imagine a company with over ten thousand employees, which still needed to carry out large-scale construction every month, and had only twenty million in liquid funds left on the books.

This kind of development was undoubtedly walking a tightrope.

The rapid development of Dawn City in the early stage could be said to be built entirely on the accumulated wealth of the Bloodline.

Purchasing food, magic materials, all sorts of farming tools, cotton, cloth, and even paying the salaries of the Security Team, the logistics crew, and other temporary workers –

The wealth of the Bloodline was transferred into the hands of the residents through the purchase of labor.

However, Dawn City now had no other means to retrieve the wealth from the residents’ hands.

So, the current situation was that, apart from their daily expenses, the residents’ accumulated wealth would slowly increase, but very little would flow back to City Hall.

City Hall could only generate income by collecting taxes. Grain was sold at cost, so the harvest gains could be considered negligible.

But now with the market in decline and a deficiency of goods, there was hardly any commercial activity, and furthermore, the newly established guilds and shops could enjoy a one-year tax exemption policy. This resulted in City Hall having expenditure but no income.

Utilizing the Bloodline’s foundation for development could undoubtedly make the city prosper in the fastest way possible, but this prosperity would also come to a halt after the wealth was exhausted.

If no more funds were injected into Dawn City to obtain tax revenue, they would probably face the awkward situation of being unable to pay internal salaries and having no money to purchase materials from outside.

After pondering for a moment, Lide showed a meaningful smile.

“No worries, I’ll take care of the Gold Pucks. You just continue to maintain the development of Dawn City, and soon there will be a large amount of Gold Pucks coming in.”

Frost Month had passed, and spring had come.

The adventurers from Green City should be going out on expeditions by now, right? And those mercenaries who risked their lives should also be ready to accept employment, right?

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His Magic Scroll Factory, after stockpiling for a winter… it was time to make a sale.