In the middle of March 3284 in the morning light calendar, it was the spring plowing season of the Haaland Kingdom, and the steam merchant ship, which had been adrift at sea for more than a month, hurriedly sailed to the Starlight Castle.

In mid-March, the harbor outside the Starlight Castle had already thawed, but the middle and upper reaches of the Heihe River were still frozen, and it would take long for early April to open for navigation.

If you want to take a boat to Heihe Fort, you need to wait for at least more than 20 days.

However, now that the Xingpa Railway of the Harland Kingdom has been opened, if you take a train from Starlight Castle to Heihe Fort, it will only take a day and a half at most.

With Richard's strong support, Starlight Castle grew rapidly, and in just a few years, the total population of the East Coast Province had increased to 1.4 million.

Starlight Castle is the capital of the province on the east coast and is the focus of development. After the major heavy industry factories were put into operation, the population increased by 50,000 or 60,000 again, and now the total population of Starlight Castle is close to 200,000.

After returning to Starlight Harbor with luck, Giggs arranged for the ship to be repaired by hand and prepared to return to Fort William to see if he could recruit a mid-level magician. If there is a mid-level magician stationed on the ship to protect it, it can solve a lot of problems, at least the fifth-order thorn shark encountered this time will not be able to break the side of the ship.

Of course, Hiss, a veteran of the Harland Mage Association, needs to sign a confidentiality treaty before leaving the territory, and all the knowledge learned from the Haaland Mage Association and the papers he has read cannot be leaked.

After inspecting the steamship, Hiss decided to negotiate terms with Giggs.

Due to the threat of the Sea Monster and the Fish-Man Clan, the oceans of this world are far more dangerous than Richard's previous life.

As soon as Giggs spoke, he was unceremoniously rejected.

The vast majority of mid-level mages have signed a service contract with the Haaland Kingdom, so there are only a few people that Giggs can choose, and these people are all veterans of the Mage Association, who have joined the Mage Association for at least fifteen years. They had a good life, good treatment, and it was impossible to agree to Giggs's conditions.

After joining the Harland Leader, Richard personally wrote the Meditation Curse Book for them and stopped their dangerous missions, and Hiss was truly free.

As soon as the merchant ship entered the port, it came to the ship repair shop.

Over the years, Heath has created a sizable family under Haaland.

If it weren't for the magic crystal cannon, which scared away the spiny sharks, a boatload of people would have to feed the fish and turtles.

Now the older children have started a family, the two children with magical talents do not need to be taken care of, and the remaining young children, Hiss has also left them a rich fortune, enough for them to have food and clothing for the rest of their lives.

Although Giggs knew in his heart that inviting a mid-level magician would be difficult, almost wishful thinking, he still wanted to give it a try.

Due to his own lack of funds, Giggs only bought an old ship from the Naval Logistics and Transportation Bureau. I didn't expect to run into trouble on the second voyage.

Listening to Giggs's offer, Hiss immediately refused.

With all preparations in place, Heath and Giggs returned to Starlight Castle together, by which time Giggs's steamship was half-repaired. The mast and sails have been repaired, and the planks are still being replaced.

After joining Haaland's territory, Heath also started a family in the territory, marrying a twenty-eight-year-old widow.

Three months ago, Giggs retired from the Navy and decided to buy a steamship to enter the shipping industry.

Although the magic ship continues to clean up and hunt the monsters in the coastal area, there are countless monsters in the ocean, and this time the steamship encountered a fifth-order stinging shark, and a hole was punched out of the ship's side, and the mast was also broken. If it weren't for the magic crystal cannon installed on the ship, which scared away the spiny sharks, the merchant ship would probably be in danger of sinking on the spot.

A steamship with six magic crystal cannons is still very vulnerable to sailing offshore alone. The large magic ship is in the ocean to feel a little safe.

The most troublesome thing is that there is no market for such a thing as a magic core, and it takes opportunity and time to buy one. What's more, even if you get the magic core, it is also very difficult to transform the magic ship, because the magic shipyard does not accept orders from newcomers.

When the undead on the northern ice field are wiped out, there may not be a policy of exchanging gold coins for meritorious deeds, and even if there is money at that time, the class will not be able to jump.

Mages who can engage in scientific research are more valued by the territory, and their salaries are far higher than those of battle mages, such as the famous magical mechanic Bonova, who has now been successfully knighted, and his own wealth has exceeded 100,000 gold coins, which can be compared with the capitalists and nobles.

As of March of this year, the Harland Mage Guild had 2,100 full members, and the number of magical apprentices had increased to 20,000.

In the early years, Hiss studied the Book of Death, but because of the lack of guidance and the harsh conditions, his body was eroded by negative energy magic particles, and he almost died in the Harland Hospital.

Despite not holding out much hope, Giggs arrived at Fort William and began to contact the target candidate.

Family matters, there is no need for Heath to worry.

Hiss nodded: "Of course, our ship is steam-powered, and there is no need to use magic power, and the structure of the magic energy core is much simplified, not too difficult." Using a magic core as an energy source to drive two magic arrays, as long as you have learned magic inscriptions, it is easy to do.

For more than twenty years, Heath spent most of his time in the hospital, occasionally signing up to fight on the front lines, learning many healing spells and devoting himself to serving in Haraland.

Giggs himself is a sixth-order knight, but unfortunately he is not good at water warfare, and he can't exert his strength on the ocean at all. The magic crossbow in his hand didn't hit the thorn shark for the first time, and was tricked by the thorn shark and easily broke the side of the ship.

When he saw this magic core in Hiss's hand, Giggston couldn't open his eyes, although this magic core was only of the sixth order, and the price on the market was as high as four or five thousand gold coins.

Compared with magicians of the same level, Margaret has already drunk the water of life, the legendary Styx potion, and her spiritual power exceeds forty points, and her combat power is more powerful than that of ordinary nine-ring mages.

With a career level like Hiss, serving the kingdom of Haaland is worth as much as twelve gold coins per month, and there are various subsidies for a year. In addition, there are meritorious awards for killing enemies, and some battle mages are already not far from being knighted.

In just a few years, Xinghui Castle has set up a large number of heavy industries such as shipyards, machine processing plants, locomotive factories, and steel mills. In the past few years, more than 2,000 craftsmen and technicians have been transferred from the Fort William and Blackriver areas.

But our business is just getting started, and there's no way I'm going to charge you a big price. But I can promise to give you 20 percent of the shares. ”

Today, there are more than 100 registered steamships in the Kingdom of Haaland alone, and there are even a small number of private shipping bosses.

Over the next month, Giggs visited more than 30 candidates. Even if he hit a wall everywhere, he still cheered up and continued to visit the next candidate.

Compared to mages who adapt to various battlefield environments, the adaptability of warrior and knight type professionals is far from the same.

The investment of 50,000 gold coins cannot be exchanged for a hereditary baron.

If it weren't for the fact that the north and south territories of the Harland Kingdom were more than 2,000 kilometers away, and there was also a Grant Kingdom separated by it, and there was a need to develop maritime trade, Richard would not have vigorously developed the shipping industry.

Finding Giggs, Heath went straight to the point and said, "What kind of conditions are you going to give me?" ”

I think I've paid enough to get half of the shares. ”

The number of magicians in the Haland Kingdom has exceeded that of the East Coast before the destruction of the kingdom.

After thinking about it for a while, Heath still wanted to see it in the distance, and he couldn't refuse his heart's desire, and finally agreed to Giggs's invitation.

If he hadn't been lucky enough to join the Haaland Collar and received the guidance of well-qualified magicians such as Richard and Sophia, he would not have been able to be promoted to the middle level in his life.

Although the number of mages in the kingdom of Haaland has increased to two thousand, there are less than three hundred mages above the middle level.

Hiss earned a very high income and later served as the director of a hospital, mastering various healing spells. For more than twenty years, he had a wife and two lovers in Haaland, and had seventeen children, two of whom were gifted with magic.

A salary of three hundred gold coins a year, and the need to face unknown risks, is not at all attractive to a five-ring magician.

Giggs himself was a hereditary nobleman who lost his title to defeat on the East Coast. Because the accumulation of merits in the navy was too slow and he couldn't make much money, Giggs decided to go out and go it alone to see if he could find an opportunity to turn over and make a lot of money.

It wasn't until he met Hiss that he considered agreeing to his terms.

Heath has been a member of the Harland Mage Guild for twenty-five years, is a veteran of the Mage Guild, and was originally a member of the Tower of Death. He is now sixty-seven years old, and his career rank has been promoted to the fifth rank.

Heath's life was very simple, he was born into a serf family when he was young, he was coerced into the Tower of Death at the age of twenty-two, and was promoted to the second ring at the age of forty. For the first forty years, he did not leave the narrow confines of his life, as if he were in prison.

Even if you have a salary of 500 gold coins a year, it will only be 50,000 for a hundred years.

Seeing that Hiss looked at himself like a fool, Giggs spread his hands and said, "Dear Mr. Hiss, of course I know that this treatment is worse.

In addition to this sixth-order magic core, I can also provide two thousand gold coins to fund the ship's transformation.

The steamship had been adrift at sea for months, the mast had broken and the planks had broken out. The fact that the ship was able to persist in returning despite such a bad condition was a remarkable stroke of luck.

Hiss's magical talent is average, he is basically unable to advance in this life, he has served the kingdom of Harland for twenty-five years, and he does have plans to retire in his heart.

After receiving an invitation from Ryan Giggs, Heaton was touched and wanted to go to sea to see it.

As soon as Giggs heard that Hiss wanted half of the shares, he immediately declined: "Dear Mr. Heath, half of the shares is too much." You must know that in order to buy this ship, I invested as much as 12,000 gold coins, in addition to the fact that I also hired more than 100 crew members, and there were four retired artillery non-commissioned officers and one artillery officer, and the employment cost of these people was more than 4,000 gold coins a year. If you want half of the shares, put resources into the ship. ”

The difficulty of ocean navigation makes it more difficult to trade in the ocean, and it is very difficult for port cities to communicate with each other. Therefore, the economic development rate of the coastal areas is very average.

Most of these mid-level magicians serve in official departments, such as the military, intelligence system, civilian inspection system, magic academy, and magic research institute. It is difficult for them to give up their good life and stay on boring ships for a long time.

"Twenty percent is too little, I want fifty percent."

"Since I dare to ask for half of the shares, of course I will bring about a change in this ship." Hiss took out a magic core from the space bag on his waist, and said very confidently: "This is the magic core of a sixth-order Galass fishman, with this magic core as the core, we can transform this steamship into a magic ship."

Let me talk about the renovation opinion, first of all, the bottom of the ship needs to be equipped with steel plates. Secondly, with the Galas Fish-Man Demon Core as the energy core, a protective force field magic array is drawn on the side of the ship, and an ice blade technique is drawn on the steel plate at the bottom of the ship to strengthen the ship's defense force. Finally, add a magic speargun, and if there is danger, I will personally go underwater to fight.

"Dear Mr. Heath, can you rely on yourself to transform the magic ship?"

Now if you want to be knighted in the northern region of Priland, if you don't have a powerful armed force in your hands, you have to invest at least 1230,000 gold coins.

In January of this year, the army of the Kingdom of Haaland was once again reorganized, this time following the example of the Divine Radiant Empire's Ace Legion, with a regiment of 300 mages in one legion.

"How about a salary of three hundred gold coins a year?"

It is worth mentioning that Richard's eldest daughter, Margaret, was successfully promoted to the seventh ring in January this year.

At the age of twenty-seven, she was promoted to the Seven Environmental Realm, and Margaret's talent and luck can be seen.

Giggs, from the province of Rex, is a private shipping business owner, a former naval officer on the East Coast. After the defeat on the East Coast, he led his soldiers to hand over the magic ship, surrendered and joined the Haaland Kingdom Navy, where he served for three and a half years.

Although Xinghui Port will be frozen for 40 days a year, Heihe will only be navigable for half a year a year, and the location conditions for the development of maritime trade are not superior, far inferior to Soyer Castle in Rex Province. However, driven by the powerful engine of the Haaland Kingdom, Starlight Castle is still the largest harbor city in the Haaland Kingdom.

It's just that the mage group of the Haaland Kingdom is a little worse in quality, with only a hundred mages and two hundred mage apprentices. Mage apprentices, as long as they rely on magic arrays, energy projection weapons to fight. Compared to the Divine Radiance Empire's Ace Legion, the ability to interfere on the battlefield is somewhat worse.

Giggs sailed to the kingdom of Parame to explore the market, and when he returned, he passed Silvermoon Island, and was attacked by a spiny shark, and almost sank in the northern waters of Silvermoon Island.

Of course, this kind of magic ship is a one-time thing, and after the energy of the magic core is consumed, it must be disassembled and replaced. ”

Although it was a one-time magic ship, Giggs was still very happy to hear it. Because there is a protective circle on the ship, it can protect the safety of the crew. Seeing that Hiss took out a sixth-order magic core, Giggs happily agreed to the condition of half of the shares.

(End of chapter)