After a series of recent battles, all the Barbarians were now Tier Four Soldiers, and there were even eleven Tier Five Soldiers.

Levi examined the standard equipment for each tier. He found that in terms of weapons alone, the fine steel War Axes and Warhammers he had purchased from the Dwarves were not much worse than the Standard Weapons of Tier Five Soldiers. There was absolutely no need to replace them.

After comparing the Standard Armor for Tier Four and Tier Five Soldiers, Levi found that the difference in their defensive capabilities wasn’t very significant.

The Tier Four Soldier’s armor consisted of an inner layer of Chain Armor with an outer layer of Stitched Armor, while the Tier Five Soldier’s was a full set of Plate Armor.

The price difference between the two was huge. The former only cost Thirty Gold Coins per person, while the latter required nearly eighty.

After a moment’s thought, Levi decided to purchase forty sets of the Tier Four Soldier’s Stitched Armor.

’The Barbarians will definitely upgrade later anyway. I’ll use the Tier Four Stitched Armor for now, and once they all reach Tier Six, I’ll buy the Tier Six standard equipment directly.’

One Thousand Gold Coins was an absolute fortune in the eyes of a commoner—enough to buy a few maids and a manor to live out one’s days in leisure. But when it came to arming an army, it barely made a dent.

In the blink of an eye, the One Thousand Gold Coins from Baisitina were gone, and he even had to chip in another two hundred himself.

Some famous person once said that war is just burning money, but Levi felt that was nonsense. Burning money was nowhere near this fast.

The development of High Cliff Castle was a money pit, and a return on his investment seemed nowhere in sight.

It was said that the Debei Kingdom invested millions of Gold Coins in its military every year. Of course, how much of that was *truly* spent on the military was anyone’s guess.

Levi slumped into a lounge chair, completely dejected. He had originally thought that becoming a Lord meant being surrounded by maids, with an endless stream of noble ladies and banquets.

As it turned out, being a Lord was worse than his days as a mercenary. At least Lady Philia had never charged him for drinks; sometimes, she even gave him a little extra on the side.

’Sigh... once this is over, I have to get High Cliff Castle’s arms industry up and running fast. Then I can make a killing in the Wilderness.’

The Lord sighed to himself.

Levi had never considered opening a restaurant or making soap, things from his past life. None of that could ever make as much money as arms dealing.

An iron weapon that cost a few dozen silver coins in Debei could be sold for several Gold Coins in the Wilderness—a profit of at least five times the cost.

Debei strictly prohibited the sale of weapons and equipment to the Wilderness, which was why their prices there were sky-high.

Levi wasn’t worried that arming the Wilderness Natives would make them a threat to High Cliff Castle.

He had a strict policy when it came to selling weapons.

Phase out one generation, let another become outdated, mass-produce the third for the main force, arm the elites with the fourth, research the fifth, and plan for the sixth.

And he would only ever sell the outdated generation.

Besides, if he was going to sell them weapons, how could he let them live in peace?

For example, Levi would set a quota for the number of tribes that could buy weapons from him. When an additional Tribe wanted in, he’d just say...

"Apologies, but High Cliff Castle’s production is limited. We’ve already signed agreements with three tribes, so we can’t sell any more weapons. My hands are tied, you see."

Those Wilderness Natives would absolutely go back and start fighting amongst themselves. Their thinking would be, ’You’re my neighbor, and now you’re getting well-equipped. Who knows if you’ll suddenly decide to attack me?’

’I’d better strike first and take that spot for myself.’

Once the tribes started fighting each other, the more viciously they fought, the more money Levi would make.

Soon, Zat was called in. He looked confused when he saw the floor covered in wooden crates, at which point Levi kicked one of them open.

"Is this... Armor?!"

Zat reached into the crate and pulled out a set of Stitched Armor. Finding that it was sized perfectly for a Beastman’s frame, he was overcome with shock and delight.

To a soldier, Armor was a second life. In terms of its importance, a single soldier wearing Heavy Armor was worth at least ten without.

The Barbarians only had twelve sets of Iron Armor; the rest were all Leather Armor. Zat never imagined the boss could get his hands on so much more. From the looks of it, there was just enough to equip the remaining Beastmen.

The Feder Remnants had some Iron Armor as well, but it was far too small. The Beastmen, with their massive frames, couldn’t possibly fit into it.

And with the way things were, there was no way he could have bought them.

So he couldn’t for the life of him figure out where the boss had conjured all this Armor from.

"The War God..."

Facing Zat’s confused gaze, Levi simply gave a mysterious smile. After uttering those two words, he gestured toward the Feder Remnants passing by outside and put a finger to his lips.

Zat nodded in immediate understanding. Acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary, he went to gather the Barbarians to receive their new equipment.

...

「Two days later.」

Levi had run the numbers. The cost of upgrading the Barbarians themselves was negligible; the real expense was always the equipment.

A single Level Six Soldier Species cost over one hundred Gold Coins to fully equip. An army of a thousand such soldiers would require more than one hundred thousand Gold Coins.

And that wasn’t a one-time purchase. While the initial investment was the largest, that thousand-man army would still require Ten Thousand Gold Coins a year for upkeep.

It was just like buying a car in his past life. Spending a huge sum to purchase it wasn’t the end; you still had to fork over thousands more every month for maintenance, gas, and other expenses.

Debei’s annual military budget was in the millions of Gold Coins. If every last coin was actually spent on supporting soldiers, they could maintain an army of several hundred thousand.

In reality, however, they had several tens of thousands of elite soldiers at most. Including their ragtag supplementary forces, they could barely muster a hundred thousand troops. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

If Levi had that kind of money, he could raise an elite army of fifty thousand soldiers, all of them Level Six. An army like that might not be able to sweep across the entire Middle Ages Continent, but conquering the Debei Kingdom would be a piece of cake.

Thinking about it this way made Levi feel much better. He consoled himself, ’This is just what it takes to build an elite force.’

If he were to follow the Debei Kingdom’s example, he could probably arm a few hundred soldiers with One Thousand Gold Coins, but their combat effectiveness would, of course, be subpar.

"Sam, are you sure that spell of yours will even work?"

On his way to the barracks designated for the Barbarians, Levi heard a clamor of voices. When he went to take a look, he found a group of Barbarians crowded around the little old man, Sam.

"What’s going on here?" the Lord asked, watching as Sam rapidly chanted a string of unknown syllables. A gray light then shot from the old man’s hand and struck a nearby goat.

"Sam insisted on dragging us over to demonstrate his Magic. Said he wanted us to ’witness its power’," Muto explained with a shrug, a grin on his face. "The old codger said if any of us can so much as break the skin on that enchanted goat, we each get to give him ten lashes."

"Is that so," Levi chuckled, his interest piqued.

"Any one of you can try! If you can even break its skin, I’ll let every one of you give me ten lashes!" Sam declared with unshakable confidence from the center of the crowd. His Stone Skin Technique could normally be applied to hundreds of people at once. Now, he had focused all that Magic Power onto a single goat, making its hide no different from solid rock.