Volume 4 Chapter 69 Dreams of the open sea
Many people were confused about Leslie’s plans for the future, but Xu Yi was more surprised.
Because Leslie actually wanted to run around on the endless sea and become a ruler of the sea!
Hearing Leslie’s idea, Xu Yi almost couldn’t help saying that he was dreaming.
Ruler of the sea?
He can’t even touch the sea, how could he be a ruler!
Because of the limits with this world’s crafting techniques, they couldn’t make large ships that were big and sturdy enough to sail the open seas.
In the history of the Sines Continent, only the Candra Empire had attempted this once. They had built twenty large wooden boats and formed a fleet to conduct a journey to the open seas. They wanted to reach the legendary other continent that was far off across the sea.
However, this fleet had encountered a storm in just three days of heading out. In the end, the twenty wooden boats were crushed by the storm and most of the people that went on the journey died. There were only less than ten people who were lucky enough to survive.
Since then, the people of the Sines Continent had given up the dream of sailing the seas, even listing the endless seas as a forbidden zone.
Other than people who lived by the sea who fished off the shore, normally no one dared to take a single step into the boundless seas.
Now Leslie said that he wanted to become the ruler of the sea……If it was just near the sea, it would be unrelated to one’s marine strength and one’s strength near the coast.
“Xu Yi, this is the old concept of the Sines Continent, it’s already gone.” Leslie looked at Xu Yi in confusion, “It really is strange, you were the one who personally thought of and developed this Magic Boat. Now you’re telling me that you’re not confident in designing a seafaring vessel?”
“It is because I developed this thing that I know its limits better than anyone.” Xu Yi said with a serious look, “Although I’m certain that this Magic Boat is better at resisting a storm compared to the wooden boats, this thing will be safer to go on the seas with, saying that there is no danger at all is an exaggeration. It can’t guarantee that you will survive on the seas.”
“According to what you said, this thing isn’t that much better than wooden boats? Then why did you spend all that effort making this?” Leslie knit his brows and looked a bit disappointed, “I thought that with this thing, you could navigate the endless seas like my dreams from my youth.”
“I can guarantee that you will accomplish those dreams, but not now.” Xu Yi shook his head and said with a serious look, “I’ll give you a better suggestion, make your goals a bit more realistic and don’t decide on something that is so far away first. A voyage on the seas is something that needs to be accumulated, you should go step by step and prepare bit by bit.”
Leslie looked back at Xu Yi, “You think I’m dumb? Of course I won’t be like those idiots from the Candra Empire, going right into the depths of the seas. I was planning to explore the deep seas bit by bit with the Magic Boat that you developed. You think that I would charge in like a fool?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help rolling his eyes.
After all this time, he was worried for nothing.
“Alright, then what is your specific plan?” Xu Yi asked, “This medium sized Magic Boat that our company makes is priced at eight hundred thousand gold coins, I don’t think you can take out that much money now.”
“Eight hundred thousand gold coins?” Leslie was surprised, “It’s this expensive?”
“Of course.” Xu Yi proudly said, “This medium sized Magic Boat can take up to five thousand tons and has three thousand tons of cargo space. This means that the cargo for a single trip is better than going by land a hundred times. You think it’s expensive? I think that it’s very cheap.”
“It can hold three thousand tons of cargo each time?” Leslie looked at the ceremony on sea, looking at the Magic Boat that was currently slowly gliding along the waves before nodding, “If it’s like this, it is indeed worth quite a bit. But Xu Yi, it seems like my estimates were wrong. What I need isn’t this kind of cargo Magic Ship, rather I want a smaller faster one, the kind that can carry soldiers.”
“Battle Magic Ship?” Xu Yi knit his brows and looked at Leslie in surprise, “What? You want to become a pirate?”
Leslie laughed, but he didn’t answer.
Looking at the strange smile on his face, Xu Yi didn’t ask. After thinking for a bit, he said with a nod, “Actually it’s very simple. We just need to make a few necessary changes and then add in weapons and defenses to meet this need.”
“Good, I need some that are a bit smaller than these medium sized Magic Boats and they need magic weapons on them. For example, a small Magic Boat with a Magic Trebuchet on it, it would be better if it was also a bit faster. What do you think, Xu Yi? Can you do it?”
Xu Yi spread his hand, “We can do this, but with our company’s current productive forces, we might not be able to make it within half a year. If you’re in a rush, it definitely won’t work. Moreover, with your request, although the cost would be less than this medium sized Magic Boat, it would still cost four hundred thousand for one. Are you certain you want on?”
“Definitely.” Leslie gave a certain nod before taking a gold note from his chest for Xu Yi, “This is for the first order, I hope that you can deliver it as soon as possible.”
Xu Yi looked down and found that it was a fifty thousand gold coin note from the Chimera Chamber of Commerce. It was to be used as a deposit for the military Magic Boat that would cost around five hundred thousand gold coins.
But Xu Yi didn’t understand what Leslie was planning to do.
Boats couldn’t just be bought, the maintenance expenses weren’t considered small. If he couldn’t gain enough benefits, this might not be a good thing to have.
Xu Yi had focused on studying Magic Boats for one, he wanted to advance the research progress of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, improving the current magic machine industry system. On the other hand, he planned to form an open sea transport fleet to be used to transport goods for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But Leslie wanted to buy some military use Magic Boats. If he wasn’t going around being a pirate, this thing would be a bottomless hole and he could only keep investing more cash in.
Even if Leslie hadn’t been expelled from the Stagg Family and had the financial support of the Stagg Family, it would be hard to do this kind of losing business.
And now that this land had been taken back by the Lampuri Kingdom, it was impossible to have this financial resource.
But Leslie didn’t plan on explaining his plans to Xu Yi, so naturally Xu Yi wouldn’t keep asking.
Compared to Leslie who didn’t care about these transport Magic Boats, Xu Yi cared quite a bit.
Being able to make the medium transport Magic Boats meant that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be making a breakthrough in terms of technology.
The first was the engine technology.
Although the Magic Car and the Magic Boat both used the same Wind Magic Engine which was the same in theory, there was a large difference in real life.
Whether it was the magic research facility or the magic machine development center, the research for the engines of the Magic Car and the Magic Boat were separate.
Now that the Magic Boat was complete and it was soaring on the sea, it was enough to show that there was a major breakthrough in the development of the Magic Boat engine. This meant that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s research into the Wind Magic Engine had reached a new height, which would in turn increase the speed of the development of the Magic Car engine.
For example, with the breakthrough with the Magic Boat engine, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Car’s engine had also improved. During experiments, they had developed a Magic Car that could transport over twenty tons of goods.
But because of the natural disadvantage of the Wind Magic Engine, they couldn’t make any big breakthroughs when it came to speed.
That would have to depend on the research of the Fire Magic Engine.
Other than research, the success of the medium sized transport Magic Boat meant that there were breakthroughs in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s abilities to make large magic machines. For example, the most basic steel welding, the casting of large parts, and the overall design of large magic machines…..as well as other aspects. They had all been improved during the design and construction of the medium sized Magic Boat.
This medium sized Magic Boat came from an idea from Xu Yi and it had taken close to two years to make it.
Even on earth, this would be considered very fast.
But for the Sines Continent with no foundations at all, this was a miraculous speed.
Now that the first medium sized Magic Boat was out, the time to make the second one would be much quicker.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce finished their fleet, they could transport their cargo more easily to every part of the Sines Continent.
Take the Rudson Kingdom as an example.
Right now for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to transport goods to the Rudson Kingdom, because of the topography of the Stantine Duchy, they could only go into the Black Rice Wasteland, into the Lampuri Kingdom and turn south at Banta City to enter the Rudson Kingdom.
This trip would be close to a thousand kilometers. Not mentioning the high costs, because of the tariffs that came with passing through the Lampuri Kingdom, there was a very high transport cost.
But once their fleet was finished, they could load this cargo onto the ships and make a small circle to the south of the Stantine Duchy, before landing on the south coasts of the Rudson Kingdom.
They wouldn’t need to pay any fees at all and with the Magic Boat’s strong carrying capacity, a single boat was like several land transports, so the costs would be greatly decreased.
And because they were transporting by sea, they could go further, reaching some of the further countries of the Sines Continent that were near the ocean. This would be very helpful in spreading the magic machines of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce across the continent like Xu Yi wanted.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production force wasn’t good enough. Even with this success, the next medium sized transport Magic Boat would take several months to complete.
To really put together a fleet, it would take several years at the earliest.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help looking at Leslie with an annoyed look.
He was already in a rush, but this fellow had to come butting in now.
This was simply a waste of time!