The vastness of the sea is incredible.

Wider than the Whitewater River, wider than the Gorgon, and wider than any river or lake on land.

Byron stood on the high platform of the foredeck of the Curiosity, letting the cold sea breeze blow in his face, the salty smell of the sea blowing into his nostrils, the infinite stretch of water in his field of vision undulating in front of the bow of the ship, the sound of the waves crashing, the sound of the wind, the mechanical sound of the ship, the chirping of unknown seabirds, all around him.

He glanced back and saw that the sailors were busy at various posts on the ship, there were technicians checking the connection between the magic wing and the upper deck mechanism, the Naga "philosopher" with deep melancholy eyes was observing the celestial phenomena in the distance through some kind of magic device, and in the waves next to the ship, there were several beautiful and ghostly figures swimming in and out of the water.

He suddenly remembered his years as a mercenary - something completely unrelated to his vision, but it brought an inexplicable nostalgia in the heart of the halfway knight, he remembered the days of adventure in the jungle and secret realms, and remembered the companions who followed him through many strange lands and finally buried in strange lands......

When the sea breeze blew, he squinted his eyes, smiled and said to Viola, the Siren, who was standing beside him: "I originally thought that I was already a middle-aged person who pursued stability, but I didn't expect that I still had a bit of adventure in my bones. ”

"Humans have always been adventurous—you're not as strong as the Kraken, but you're more daring than us, and we've been amazed for years," said the long-haired Witch of the Deep earnestly, "but it's probably because of this adventurous spirit that you've been able to move so fast, and always full of variables." ”

Byron smiled, looked up at the sea in the distance, looked in the direction of the distant sea, and said casually: "We have only taken the first step today...... Circumnavigating the land along the safety of the offshore sea is far from challenging the ocean, at best testing Curiosity's performance parameters, or a real challenge to the far sea...... At the very least, you have to get close to that dividing line. ”

"I discussed the plan of exploration in the open sea with the 'philosopher'," Viola, the Siren, who served as a technical advisor, nodded, "Based on the experience of the Church of Storms, we believe that human navigation in the open sea should start from two directions - one is to remotely observe and avoid the 'disordered turbulence' that has been formed, and the other is to ensure the survivability and navigation ability of the ship in the event that the disorderly turbulence suddenly forms out of thin air and envelops the ship, and returns to the safe sea area in time before it disintegrates......

Byron nodded seriously: "It makes sense - His Majesty sent a batch of information to Beigang before, which also mentioned the importance of remotely discovering disorderly turbulence, and how to survive in case of being involved in turbulence, the former is actually okay to say, now we have the help of Naga, they have the spell model of the Storm Church, and the research department on the imperial capital has begun to try to reverse analyze the relevant spells into equipment that can be used by ships, but the latter is not easy to ......"

Speaking of this, Byron shook his head: "The Children of the Storm rely on their own subtle perception of the ocean as transcendents, coupled with the blessing of the 'power of faith' to ensure safety, especially the latter, allowing them to find those narrow safe paths even in the face of disorderly turbulence, which is not yet possible with current magic technology, and we do not intend to establish faith in the ocean and storms - although we all know that it now points to the spirits of your race, But it is our basic national policy to try to avoid introducing theocratic forces into the military and scientific research system. ”

"Hopefully your Wizard will have a solution, thicker armor, stronger shields, and higher speed...... These may help your human ships to resist the turbulence of the sea," Viola said unhurriedly, "Of course, we will provide some 'Kraken-style' technical ideas, but those ideas may not be applicable to your terrestrial creatures......"

Byron recalled discussing with the Kraken technical experts how to deal with the shipwreck, and shook his head with a smile: "When the ship is gone, everyone will swim back...... We really don't need this ......."

Viola shrugged blankly—a move she'd recently learned from humans—and looked into the distance, "We're close to the port. ”

……

With the second whistle of the Curiosity, the massive and advanced steel ship began to slow down and adjust its bow orientation, approaching the harbor pier of Hakuba Harbor like a behemoth.

Paladin Huishanyan, who was standing on the trestle, looked up at the giant beast and drew closer to him, and an expression of surprise and envy gradually appeared on his face, and then his already reddened nose became even more rosy, and a smile bloomed on his face, with which the decorative metal ornaments at the end of his beard rattled. The temporary envoy from the dwarven kingdom in the western part of the continent happily said to his companion beside him, "Hey! I want one of these, too - those 'Cecil' have some skills! ”

"I want to know how the ship moves!" Another dwarf shouted in a loud voice, "If those Cecils are willing to teach, I can apprentice my nephew to their craftsman for twenty years!" ”

"Enough, your nephew has been given to someone else as an apprentice at least a hundred times under various pretexts! If every time counts, he'll have to be an apprentice at least five hundred years from now—spare your nephew!" ”

"Quiet," Paladin Huishanyan immediately glared at the clansmen following him, "We're standing here on behalf of the Forge City, don't be embarrassed in front of humans." ”

The noisy dwarven representatives finally quieted down, and Wenna Bai Zhi, who was standing next to them, also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Dwarves, this group of optimists living in the far west of the continent is a very troublesome race, although most of them like to nest around their ancient melting pot and bang, there are still quite a few dwarves out of their kingdom and running around in this world, and the Oguray tribal country adjacent to the dwarven kingdom has the most dealings with these guys, so Wenna is also well aware of the nature of dwarves - their natural optimism and adventurous impulse make them dare to try anything, Even on such a solemn and formal occasion, it is difficult to guarantee that these "messengers" who have been plugged in will not make any trouble......

After all, the dwarves, who call themselves "people of steel", have always been dismissive of the red tape of the human world.

She retracted her attention and took a deep breath as she looked at the Wizard ship that had docked beside the pier and was lowering its stairs and gangplanks.

The dwarves were envious and surprised when they saw it, and she only felt a little suffocated.

She seemed to suddenly understand the means by which Gawain Cecil the Great and the army of wizards he commanded to quell a war and build an empire in a short period of time, and understood the dependence, or rather one of the dependencies, of all these great causes.

She was a little glad that the races of the Oguray clan had chosen to help rather than take advantage of the most difficult period of the Cecil Empire's civil war, and that the grey elves of the Moss Forest had always dealt with people through commerce, so they had not had any conflicts with the human kingdom that lived next to each other, but in addition to being glad, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

But in the end, she restrained all the emotions that shouldn't have come to her at this moment, put all her thoughts behind her mind for the time being, and after a slight adjustment of the muscles on her face, she showed the smile that was most suitable for the current situation.

Byron stepped off the gangplank and stepped on the sturdy wooden trestle, with no one with him except the lieutenant and a few of his own soldiers—the Sirens and the Naga technical advisors were all on the boat or in the sea, and they didn't need to be involved in the contact.

The patriarch of the grey elves walked over with a faint smile on her face, and although she was as short as a human child, her countenance was that of a standard adult, and she exuded the poise and bearing of a ruler. She held out her hand to Byron, and a slightly hoarse voice came, "Welcome to White Feather Harbor, General Byron - it's good to see you all the way." ”

Byron also reached out - two fingers and "squeezed" Wenna's hand: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Wenna Baizhi." Today is undoubtedly a day to remember. ”

Then he turned his head to look at the other aliens who had appeared with the representatives of the Grey Elves, and a dwarf in black armor and a gray beard walked towards him, like a moving barrel made of muscle and iron, and the dwarf held out his hand to him, and said in an urn voice, "Paladin Huishanyan from the Dwarven Kingdom, greetings to you, human, I bring greetings from the Forge City." Your iron striking skills are really good. ”

Byron was stunned for a moment, but quickly understood what the other party meant: this was a compliment to the cutting-edge experimental ship "Curiosity".

He burst out laughing as he reached out to shake his hand, "Hello to you—we received the news that the dwarven representatives would also be there before we left." ”

"The Forge City is very interested in your plan to 'restart the route'," Paladin Huishanyan said with a big grin, "Frankly, your large mining machinery is a good thing, but unfortunately it can't be transported to our side, and it has to pass through the entire Oguray tribal country, as well as a ridge on the edge of our kingdom, but now that I see this ship, I don't think we need to dig through that mountain—the Ansu people used ships to do business with us for a short time seven hundred years ago, but unfortunately they stopped as soon as they improved, When I get back, I'll make a suggestion to the Forge City Council to fix the port on the west coast......"

Byron finally withdrew his hand from the other's palm with great difficulty, and at the same time deeply felt what it meant to be "dwarven straightforward".

What the other party mentioned was actually not in his mission plan today - the main task today was to conduct the inaugural voyage test of the Curiosity, as well as collect sea state and coastal data in the offshore area, and the meeting with the representatives of the gray elves and dwarves in Hakuba Harbor was more of a ceremonial contact, in order to announce the success of the inaugural voyage of the Curiosity, to announce the official resumption of the route from North Port to Hakuha Port, as for further business plans and route development...... That needs to be slowly agreed upon by a more professional person later.

He believed that Venna Bai Zhi thought the same, but the dwarven envoy in front of him obviously didn't think so, and the other party's thinking had obviously expanded to how to repair the ports on the west coast......

It gave him the feeling of facing Gawain or Rebecca – one incredibly forward-looking, the other daring to say anything......

But soon he smiled - it was not a good thing to deal with such a straightforward representative, and in all fairness, he preferred this kind of person, which was much more lovely than the nobles and foreign ambassadors who made seven or eight bends with a word and had to quote a scripture with a sneeze......

The representatives of the three parties on the port chatted briefly, each with different thoughts, and the entourage stood at their own angles, and the atmosphere at the scene seemed harmonious and harmonious, and the gray elf "camera crew" of White Feather Harbor and Cecil's official recorder who disembarked with the Curiosity recorded this scene at the same time with the magic net terminal.

One picture is sent to the Mossy Forest, and one is sent to the North Harbor Hub.

……

"The Curiosity completed its maiden voyage and arrived at the port of White Feather on the border of the Ogurai Tribal State at 12:15 noon today, where General Byron and his entourage met with the leader of the Grey Elves, Lady Wenna Baizhi, and the dwarven representatives......

"The successful maiden voyage of the Curiosity marks the opening of the route from the North Harbor to the northwest coast of the Auguray Tribal State, and the laying of the foundation for the Empire's maritime shipbuilding technology, and we will take a further step towards the sea......

“…… It is planned to extend the route to the Dwarven kingdom and further to the southern part of the Oguray tribal state......

"In the foreseeable future, we may be able to establish further connections with the Silver Empire by sea......"

Victoria Wilder waved her hand, turned off the screen from the Magic Net terminal, and stood up from the couch.

"It's really an optimistic forward-looking idea...... The distance between White Feather Harbor and the Silver Empire is still far away," the Northern Duke muttered to himself, "But it's not wrong to be optimistic, the restart of the shipping route is going well, and according to this trend, sooner or later, you will be able to connect with the elves by sea......"

It was quiet in the room, and Victoria glanced up.

A maid stood not far from the room, bowing her head and waiting for the duchess's orders, and the maid obviously did not understand or know how to reply to what the duchess said to herself, and perhaps even did not listen at all.

"Alas...... If Maggie is there, she will at least participate in the conversation. Victoria couldn't help but sigh, and there was a look of helplessness on her normally expressionless face.

Just then, there was a rhythmic knock on the door.

Victoria sensed the breath outside the door and said casually, "Come in." ”

The door to the study opened, and an elderly mage in a dark blue starry robe, with a dry and thin body, but still in good spirits, walked in and bowed to Victoria: "Good day, sir." ”

"Victor," Victoria nodded to her chief mage, "what's the matter?" ”

"The connection test of the hub core is complete," said the old mage, with a bright and proud smile on his face, "the data is perfect, and you can accept it at any time." ”

(A book recommended by friends, "Reborn Genius Single Girl", should also be written by a book friend.) emmmm…… All in all, the milk sacrificed to the sky. ）