I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

Unlike the ruins of Red Oil Town, the houses in Iron Mine Town are mostly well-preserved, mainly consisting of 2 or 3-story buildings.

There are also pedestrians on the road, though they are all in a hurry, only showing half their faces in this late autumn season, but they all have their own destinations, without the sense of confusion on the faces of the townspeople and thieves in Red Oil Town.

The town certainly isn't bustling, but most of the shops are open, and townsfolk are coming and going.

Seeing travelers arriving in the town, the townspeople didn't show much curiosity, but rather tried to avoid them, as if Li Yue had some kind of dangerous aura, or perhaps they had seen too many travelers and heroes, and had lost their sense of novelty.

Instead, they would glance at the skinny horse a few times, showing more interest.

Following Gamma's scent straight into Iron Mine Town, there was another billboard at the street corner.

Once away from the sentries, Li Yue paused for a moment to look at the requests on it—there were many, haphazardly posted on the board, some obviously quite old, so old that it was hard to say whether the requesters were still around.

With many large mercenary organizations disappearing, even this kind of request work is no longer smooth…

This continent is truly bleak.

The requests are divided into those within and outside the town. Most of the outside-town requests are for purchasing some kind of rare commodity, or hunting down certain demon materials.

It's still going to take a while, and I haven't even visited all seven towns yet. Li Yue still finds it difficult to judge how long it will take to fill that light and gain new skills and memories.

"What is it?" Li Yue sensed that the shopkeeper had more to say.

"The Cleaners are a purge squad composed of the Empire and the Kingston family's private army, used to… uh… ensure the safety of the townspeople, and to sweep away the shadows and dissenters in the night," the shopkeeper said haltingly, as if reciting some forcibly instilled idea.

"Or if you really want to be my apprentice, you can also go to the church and become a believer…"

I can even personally forge some sharp things, like daggers or iron nails.

"Hello? What did you just say?" Suddenly, someone pushed the door open and entered.

"Underground room?"

"Did you find it?" Li Yue asked Skinny.

"The reward is eight loaves of bread a day, not moldy, and you can live in the underground room…" The shopkeeper noticed Li Yue's tall stature and had the idea of taking him as an apprentice.

Anyway, the goal is to stay in the Seven Gold-Splitting Towns for a certain amount of time, so having a stable place to stay is not bad.

This can then be used to transport finished products down.

"Need anything?" Seeing a customer, the shopkeeper greeted lazily.

Li Yue looked around. This was the commercial street of Iron Mine Town, also the place with relatively more townspeople.

Li Yue roughly understood the logic of the Seven Gold-Splitting Towns.

This part of the requests is also the oldest, so old that even the contact between the contact person and the requester is… the bread is carelessly made, and it's been abandoned?

"What is the apprentice responsible for doing?" Li Yue didn't discuss Skinny's fate further with the shopkeeper, but instead tried to understand the townspeople's way of life.

But upon seeing the prices in Iron Mine Town, Li Yue almost sweated—an ordinary iron sword costs as much as 3 silver coins, which translates to 300 copper coins, enough to find eight children…

Equivalent to a porter, eight loaves of bread a day.

It's almost the same as what the sentry station soldiers said.

After roughly looking at the requests on the billboard, Li Yue felt that if he had money, he might be able to take on some in-town requests.

Seeing the weapon shop, Li Yue naturally pushed the door open to see if there was a handy sword, or to sell Skinny's broken saddle and reins for some copper coins.

The bread is covered in furnace ash, obviously with a special flavor.

"Yes, our few shops share an underground room, and the apprentice can sleep there," the shopkeeper pointed to a large building across the street.

For example, patrolling for young children only costs 100 copper coins, while requesting a duel costs as much as 10 gold coins, obviously based on the depth of the requester's purse.

"What the apprentice should do, of course, is what the apprentice should do, such as going to the mine to transport finished products down, transport finished products down…" When mentioning the apprentice's job, the shopkeeper could only say one piece of information.

Skinny struggled to distinguish it, and could only reluctantly shake its head, giving a rough direction.

"Do you take saddles?" Li Yue temporarily gave up buying any weapons.

These ironware shops, without exception, are all recruiting apprentices, but the wages are only bread, bread, and bread.

"Are you new here? If you really don't have any money, you might as well come work for me."

"Cleaners?" Li Yue hadn't heard of that.

The commercial street of Iron Mine Town mainly consists of derivative shops around iron ore resources, such as household ironware shops, tool shops with hammers and nails, iron jewelry shops, etc.

"The economy is really bad…" Li Yue looked at the desolate commercial street, and then at the job postings at the shop entrances, and felt that the lifestyles of the townspeople in the Seven Gold-Splitting Towns should be similar, quite miserable.

Piles of weapons, armor, and shields are quietly lying there, seemingly untouched for years.

"This is too far away… Self-healing bone, isn't that the material transported from the restriction behind the sentry station?" Li Yue exclaimed.

"If you sell your horse along with it, I can also arrange a good bed for you outside the underground room."

Skinny didn't respond—it twitched its nose, searching for Gamma's whereabouts.

Expensive…

Of course, there are also weapon shops.

Directly barter?

"Let's go, let's take a look, and if possible… at least buy you something to eat," Li Yue patted Skinny's back, and the two turned into the commercial street.

In short, they don't allow vagrants or beggars to exist. The excess labor force will be caught and sent to the mines to mine.

No wonder it's hard to find apprentices.

At the moment of arriving at the sentry station, the landmark of the Gold-Splitting Mountain on the map faintly glowed, and the light was being filled.

"In short, in the Seven Gold-Splitting Towns, you must not sleep on the streets," the shopkeeper rubbed his eyes, "Either find a job, or you'll be caught and sent to the mines. Many people can't get out of there."

"Can't sell it? This is just a temporary cessation of war. When the next battle ends, these goods of mine will be snatched up very quickly," the shopkeeper glanced at Li Yue, very confident.

"One loaf of bread," the shopkeeper looked up, looked at the skinny horse in the shop and the saddle on it, curled his lips, and took out a dark bread from under the table.

"You can't sell these things, why not exchange some scrap materials you don't need with me?" Seeing that he couldn't exchange for finished products, Li Yue thought it would be okay to get some scrap iron.

Anyway, that body has excellent balance, and he doesn't care if it rubs his butt when riding, so saddles are not necessary.

"I need to consider this," Li Yue certainly wouldn't become an apprentice in a blacksmith shop as soon as he entered the town, but he didn't refuse directly either.

Li Yue became more and more confused as he listened.

"Just that little?" Li Yue expressed dissatisfaction.

"I'm already very generous, take it or leave it," the shopkeeper took back the bread, simply not taking it.

"Preaching is perhaps easier than being an apprentice, hahaha…" The shopkeeper seemed to be telling a joke, amusing himself.

The in-town requests are much more varied, including finding missing children, renovating new houses, requesting duels, etc., with very chaotic classifications, and the reward levels are also completely different.

"Out of my goodwill, I'll share this information with you," the shopkeeper winked at Li Yue, "The Seven Gold-Splitting Towns prohibit sleeping on the streets. If you are found by the Cleaners, you will be directly arrested and sent to the mines…"

【The scent is… faint…】

The requests included materials that Li Yue had never heard of, such as brain spirit pituitary glands and self-healing bones.