Calculating Gains

Alaric quickly found the Ryder family's treasury. There was a rather obvious door in front of him, made of pure steel, with only a hole in the middle. No door handle or knob, only a small hole.

'A formation-driven door— put a fitting key in there and the formation will open it up. Sort of like a keycard system in my previous life, but less secure.' Alaric pondered.

Thankfully, physical keyholes were useless before him, "Unlock."

Once Alaric spoke the command, Pamela envisioned it. After exiting its ring form, the change slime immediately shoved itself into the small hole, transforming to fit the inside properly.

This was one of the many commands Alaric had taught Pamela. After all, the chances that he'd rob a few people were, frankly, very high.

Suddenly, glowing, blue lines began to crawl through the door. Eventually, these lines formed what Alaric knew was a formation. The instant the formation had been drawn out, the door rumbled, before sliding into the wall beside it.

Alaric took in the view before him. The room wasn't some grand royal treasury, it even felt a bit gloomy. On the ground were 7 chests, and Alaric realized that 3 of them were empty after opening them. The other 4, were full of useful things.

Coins!

With 3 chests filled to the brim with silver coins, there were definitely more than 5,000 in total! Although Alaric didn't know exactly why the Ryder family was so wealthy, he also didn't care.

"A deep-pocketed big shot like me doesn't need to care about trivial things!" Alaric chuckled, ecstatic at the money before him.

In the 18 years since he arrived in this world, the most money he had ever seen was a single silver coin. It's similar to a kid who only ever saw their parents spending money, suddenly getting a job. It wasn't something he would just look at, this 5,000 silver coins were his own spending power!

Alaric wasn't especially greedy though, he knew that most of the coins in these chests had come from taking advantage of innocent villagers. He planned to return them in full.

'Not to their pockets of course! Just, I'll invest in the place they live in, making it better!'

One could say that he would use their own money to seem like a magnanimous leader.

Of course, coins weren't everything within the treasury. Propped against the wall were weapon racks, armor stands, and multiple luxury items.

'Enchanted weapons, mana steel plate armor, and... oh! connection crystals!'

Connection crystals came in the form of rough, purple, diamonds that was larger than the average man's adult hand. Using two mana crystals that were bound to one another through a formation, you could essentially video call with another person, across long distances.

'To think that the Ryder family had such things... why are they in the treasury? Spares?'

Either way, he'd find out after interrogating the Ryder family head, Penne Ryder. Later, he would need to delegate the task of transferring these objects to Ooze Village.

Alaric quickly exited the treasury, which closed its doors as he did. For now, this was probably the safest place for it. Later, he could lend Pamela to Sonic, and have the cthulhu slime bring the treasure to his quarters.

He had already told Clarus how to manage things here, and for now, he could go back to Ooze Village. There, he would announce his victory and host a celebratory feast.

"It's annoying, but to rally these villagers, I need to," Alaric said.

Later, Alaric arrived in front of the Ryder estate, where Sonic was watching over Penne Ryder. Once he arrived in Ooze Village, Alaric would use the cold storage as a place of interrogation for this villain. It was underground, so it had the best sound insolation in Ooze Village, he would need to build an actual dungeon at a later date.

'Thankfully, excavation is easy with the help of slimes.'

Alaric looked to Sonic and commanded him to bring both Penne and himself back to Ooze Village. Sonic nodded its translucent head, wrapped a tentacle around each of them, and hurried toward the village.

...

Soon, they arrived. At Ooze Village, the villagers had already stopped resting. As of right now, there seemed to be a much larger amount of people surrounding Mulder's forge, helping with its construction.

Alaric commanded Sonic to bring Penne Ryder into his house and to make sure he stayed asleep well enough. Afterward, he rushed to the center of the village. Although the villagers were hard at work, he still needed to announce his arrival.

Having prepared the megaphone as he exited Ryder Village, Alaric quickly began announcing his arrival.

"Ahem... The raid on Ryder Village was a complete success! Penne Ryder is being interrogated, his execution will be done publicly, tomorrow afternoon!"

A young girl, who Alaric recognized as his secretary, Bonnie, was the first to arrive. Others had already stopped what they were doing and began rushing over.

"Chief Alaric! The Ryders were defeated as planned?"

"Yes, Bonnie, was managing the village in my absence hard?"

Although young, Bonnie had quite the intellect. It was the first time he had entrusted a task to her, but Alaric was confident in her competence.

Bonnie, as if reaffirming his trust, said, "No sweat, really! I delegated most of the strong men to finish Mulder's forge if you don't mind. I noticed that we don't have many warm clothes prepared for the winter... so I figured we could finish the forge faster so that Mulder and Mom can work on that."

Alaric had actually planned on doing something similar and smiled once he heard that it was Bonnie who had it done ahead of time.

'Truly, she is a talent. When she awakens, her talent will definitely be powerful.'

Soon, the other villagers arrived, immediately bombarding Alaric with questions about the raid. He would have to slowly explain to each of them how it went, and prepare them for the upcoming expansion he had planned.

'With a forced trade relationship between both of my territories, 5,000 silver coins, and an upcoming rise in population, I think it is finally time I get to seriously developing my territory!'

Once everything had settled, and his territory was stable, he could finally leave for the formation guild in the Neuling Kingdom's capital!