Chapter 1104: Construction of Battleship
The human alliance naturally denied this accusation vehemently. At the same time, they also expressed their sympathy for the great loss of the dwarves. However, sympathy was one thing. When it came to dividing the spoils of victory, they did not show any mercy because of it. Instead, they became more carefree, and almost completely excluded the dwarves. The environment in the territory of the dwarves was too harsh, but they might not have been able to even keep their territory if not for that.
The High Elves’ attack and the disappearance of Master Sol and the Sky-breaker blueprints had become a historical case that everyone had been involved in for nearly 1,000 years. In the recent 300-400 years, the tension between dwarves and the human kingdoms had eased up a little. At the very least, they restored the normal trade between the kingdoms.
However, when the dwarves lost all hope of seeing the Sky-breaker again, a Sky-breaker blueprint appeared again. In terms of how to deal with this matter, if they obtained the complete blueprint of Sky-breaker, the senior management of the Dwarf Kingdom would be divided into two.
One of them reacted vigorously, and believed that the Sky-breaker originally belonged to the dwarves, and thus they felt that the Tower of Dusk should return the blueprint of the Sky-breaker. They disagreed with the decision to help create the Sky-breaker in exchange for the complete blueprint of Sky-breaker. A powerful weapon like Sky-breaker should only belong to the dwarves. How could it land in the hands of the greedy humans?
They even made a suggestion that the Dwarf King Odin order the best dwarf warriors to go to the Breezy Plains to retrieve the blueprint of the Sky-breaker. In their opinion, the Tower of Dusk was nothing more than a local human force, which was akin to a tribe in their kingdom. They couldn’t compete with the Dwarf Kingdom at all.
However, on the other hand, the other neutral camp suggested that they cooperate with the Tower of Dusk in order to get the complete blueprint of the Sky-breaker. After all, they were no longer in the era of war when the Dark Age just ended. Even if they created the real Sky-breaker, they might not have to rely on it to start a war.
In this era, the Sky-breaker was more of a deterrent force that could boost the Dwarf Kingdom’s status in the mainland. Once the Dwarf Kingdom waged a war using Sky-breakers, they would probably soon become the public enemy of the whole continent. No matter how powerful Sky-breakers might be, it wasn’t enough to give the Dwarf Kingdom the power to challenge the kingdoms on the mainland.
The dispute between the two sides put King Odin of the Dwarf Kingdom in a dilemma. He was at a loss for what to do. After all, the Dwarf Kingdom was not a kingdom with a centralized monarchy, but was formed by the union of tribes. Although King Odin of the Dwarf Kingdom had a good reputation, he couldn’t disregard the opinions of the tribal chiefs.
However, during the argument, the ones who were more amicable gained the upper hand. Although the dwarves had a bad temper, not all of them were fans of war. That was the reason that the orders for the Magical Crystal Cannons placed by the Tower of Dusk could be fulfilled successfully, allowing Beckley to ship back the first batch of Magical Crystal Cannons without any problems.
The dispute caused by the blueprint of the Sky-breaker in the Dwarf Kingdom was actually within Lin Li’s expectations. After all, the Sky-breaker was too important to the dwarves. However, Lin Li believed that the dwarves would eventually make the choice he wanted. Although some of them wanted to snatch the blueprint, they would probably have to shut up when they saw the terrifying strength of the Tower of Dusk.
Hence, Lin Li was not too worried about the matter of cooperation in the manufacture of the Sky-breaker. In fact, it could be considered set in stone. The only problem was time. On the other hand, the Gilded Kingdom had made some trouble during the purchase of Magical Crystal Cannons for battleships. The people of Gilded Kingdom were no fools, and selling the naval Magical Crystal Cannons to the Tower of Dusk was giving a benefit to their enemy.
The Tower of Dusk and the Gilded Kingdom had a hostile relationship with each other, and that was a fact that was known to both parties as well as the people in the Breezy Plains. Everyone knew that a war would break out between the two parties sooner or later. In such a situation, if the Gilded Kingdom sold their Magical Crystal Cannons to the Tower of Dusk, it would be the most foolish act in the history of Anril.
However, the matters that happened on Cage Island previously caused the Gilded Kingdom to plead for aid from the Tower of Dusk and the forces of the Breezy Plains while promising many conditions. Although the Tower of Dusk did not mention the purchase of the Gilded Kingdom’s Magical Crystal Cannons, they had also left some leeway. Unless the Gilded Kingdom was willing to be branded as liars who went back on their words, they would have to take the loss and go ahead with the sale.
From a political point of view, as long as there were enough benefits for the nation, the Gilded Kingdom wouldn’t mind forfeiting the agreement. After all, for more than 1,300 years after the end of the Dark Age, the kingdoms had been signing and breaking agreements for benefits and interests.
However, since the Gilded Kingdom wanted to develop in the Breezy Plains, they couldn’t help but act like they were keeping to their word. Otherwise, they might really have a tough time in the Breezy Plains. Besides, the Gilded Kingdom did not plan to go to war with the Tower of Dusk just yet. If they rejected the Tower of Dusk’s legitimate request, it would be no different from falling out.
However, as the Gilded Kingdom’s envoy, Cantory was not completely solutionless. Faced with the Tower of Dusk’s request to purchase Magical Crystal Cannons, he didn’t reject them directly, and instead began stalling for time like he was used to. Their Magical Crystal Cannon model might not be that different from that of the Dwarf Kingdom’s in principle, but it was larger, and thus harder to manufacture. Those were Cantory’s excuses.
“I know, according to the previous agreement, we should not refuse your request to purchase the Magical Crystal Cannons from us, but the difficulty of the manufacturing process of our Magical Crystal Cannons is very high, and its large size makes it inconvenient to transport, so please wait patiently. I can’t possibly dismantle the Magical Crystal Cannons on our battleships for you,” Cantory said with a helpless expression.
Actually, Cantory’s excuse was not exactly nonsensical. If it had been Lin Li, he would have been able to take away countless Magical Crystal Cannons by using his Ring of Endless Storm that had infinite space. However, the Gilded Kingdom did not have a powerful storage device like the Ring of Endless Storm. Hence, they still had to rely on their ships’ cargo to transport goods, and thus it was indeed very difficult to transport a large number of Magical Crystal Cannons over.
There was indeed some difficulty in manufacturing. After all, the Magical Crystal Cannon of the Gilded Kingdom was not simply an enlarged version of the Magical Crystal Cannon, because it involved the use of various types of alchemical technology. Otherwise, the Dwarf Kingdom would not have to fret over the Sky-breaker. They could have just created a massive Magical Crystal Cannon.
However, the one in charge of negotiations about this matter was the old and sly Gerian from the Tower of Dusk, who was not gullible.
“Remove the Magical Crystal Cannons from the battleships? Sure, that saves the hassle of transportation!” Gerian’s response almost made Cantory inhale.
Although Cantory was stalling for time, Gerian didn’t get impatient or angry. Instead, he sent a message to the forces that were engaged in trade with the Gilded Kingdom. All the forces terminated their business dealings with the Gilded Kingdom almost overnight, causing the Gilded Kingdom to be unable to buy even a single piece of copper in the Breezy Plains.
If this happened before the battle on Cage Island, perhaps only some of the forces of the Breezy Plains would abide by the Tower of Dusk’s orders. However, after the battle on Cage Island where the forces witnessed the strength of the Tower of Dusk and its Sanctuary-realm president who could severely damage the dragon corpse with one move, no one dared to offend such a force.
Now, it depended on how long the Gilded Kingdom could hold on. After all, the Gilded Kingdom also had a great demand for the resources of the Breezy Plains. Based on the latest news, Cantory had begun to gradually give in a little. He first promised to trade one Magical Crystal Cannon with the Tower of Dusk every month. Later on, he increased the number to two. However, Gerian wasn’t satisfied yet. Two Magical Crystal Cannons a month might seem like a considerable number to others, but it was far from enough to meet the needs of the Sky Castle.
The Sky-breaker and the Gilded Kingdom’s Magical Crystal Cannon didn’t seem to have great effects, but Lin Li was very clear that both the Dwarf Kingdom and the Gilded Kingdom would succumb in the end.
Hence, Lin Li did not care too much about those two matters. After instructing his subordinates to install the first batch of Magical Crystal Cannons in the Sky Castle, he immediately left for Ortland Port, which was a new seaport built by the Tower of Dusk close to the Tera Mine on the southern coast of the Breezy Plains. It was originally meant as a dock for the battleship that they obtained from the Gilded Kingdom. Its main task was now to guard the coast of the Tera Mine to prevent anyone from attacking it again.
However, after Lin Li obtained the nautical information of the Gilded Kingdom, he even invested a large amount of wealth to expand Ortland Port, and built a massive shipyard there. Although the Tower of Dusk now had no maritime trade, they were facing the powerful fleet of the Gilded Kingdom, and relying on the transformed battleship alone was not enough for them to really safeguard their coastal areas.
Besides, the prize battleship might have been transformed beyond recognition, but its foundation was still the giant alchemical battleship of the Gilded Kingdom. That caused many aspects of the transformation to be subject to considerable restrictions. It was a lot more restrictive than building a new battleship.
Besides, Lin Li had a vague feeling that he might one day need an incomparably powerful battleship to be able to cope with a crisis. He couldn’t figure out the real reason for that hunch, as it was purely a premonition, or perhaps he had been influenced by the world that Geresco had created.
After all, since Geresco had created a world like that and left behind such a powerful ship, The Star, he must have wanted his inheritor to learn something from it, and not just give him a show. Although Lin Li still couldn’t figure out Geresco’s intentions, he felt that he ought to be more prepared.
After Lin Li arrived at the shipyard in Ortland Port, the basic frame of the battleship in the shipyard had just been completed, and the massive hull was breathtaking. Compared to the giant alchemical ships of the Gilded Kingdom, the newly built battleship of the Tower of Dusk was probably comparable to four or five such giant alchemical ships. When Lin Li first saw the ship in person, he even got reminded of the aircraft carriers from his previous life which were known as the giants of the sea.
Upon sight of their president in the shipyard, the few who were in charge of building the battleship could not help but feel a little anxious. After all, the construction progress of this battleship was much slower than they expected. Well, no matter how experienced they were, it was still the first time they built such a huge battleship.
Fortunately, Lin Li did not blame them for the slow progress, and instead got all the people in charge as well as many shipbuilders to make substantial changes to the original design of the battleship. Fortunately, they had only completed the construction of the hull of the battleship. Otherwise, they would have to do a lot of dismantling and modifications.
Lin Li’s latest modification plan was a result of the inspiration he got from The Star. In addition to gaining full control of The Star, he also had a clear understanding of its entire structure. The comparison between the two made him realize that there were too many things that he had to improve on on the original battleship.
For example, the most basic issue would be the power system of the battleship. The power system used in The Star was actually very similar to the power system of the Sky Castle. However, Lin Li had always believed that the power system of the Sky Castle could not be perfectly replicated and used on a battleship. After all, it was not just a matter of scaling and resizing, as there were many other issues like the power transmission compatibility that had to be resolved.
Hence, Lin Li had not considered transplanting the power system of the Sky Castle to the battleship that was under construction. Instead, he stuck to the design of the power system of the giant alchemical ships of the Gilded Kingdom. However, the type of power system selected would have to match the battleship. That was a standard that the Gilded Kingdom had paid a huge price to determine over thousands of years of nautical technology development.
Lin Li wanted to build an even larger battleship. Although the Gilded Kingdom’s design of the power system would be modified to enable the power system to support the operation of the larger battleship, there would definitely still be a lot of problems. Some problems might not be obvious for the time being, but they would be exposed one by one after the battleship began sailing.