Aldred's group continued to discuss which ship to buy and how many they would buy.
After hours of discussion, Tulban listed out their order.
"So you want one hybrid mothership, 4 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 6 frigates, and 10 submarines?"
"I guess that's enough," Aldred said.
"Wait, Aldred," Zafrina said. "I think you need one or two cargo ships."
"Why? I have enough storage already."
"You do, but a cargo ship can be an extra storage space for you. When you destroy a ship, you can salvage their wreckage and store them in your cargo ship."
"And I can use them to build more ships!"
"Exactly. The cost of building a ship is largely dependent on their materials. You can save a lot of money to procure more ships."
"Great idea! Tulba, add two cargo ships to my list."
"Alright."
"So how long do I need to wait?"
"Well, since you do have the materials, it will take less time, but it will be done in 6 months."
"6 months!? That's too long."
"Too long? Damn, son, I thought you would be surprised at how fast we are. Mind you, other nations couldn't even comprehend how we build these ships so fast."
"Really?"
"Fuck yeah really! A mothership can take them 3-4 years to build. I can give you an entire fleet in 6 months, boy!"
"Now that you say it like that, it does sound impressive."
"Yeah, and don't worry too much about time. Your competitors might still be planning their fleet too."
"I know. But the faster the better. You said you have a slight problem with manpower."
"What about it?"
"Can you use golems to speed up the process?"
Aldred opened up a portal in Folineley City, and he willed for 200 worker golems to enter the portal. He had more than 2,000 worker golems already, and they were all spread out in his territory. But taking 200 from Folineley was fine.
He had warned Tarrar that he might take a hundred or two hundred golem somewhere when he needed it.
The golems walked into the portal one after another, and they stepped on top of the expensive ship materials.
Tulban then raised an eyebrow after all 200 golems arrived.
"Impressive. These golems might not have the specific skill to build a ship like my workers, but they can help around."
Aldred smiled. His golems can actually level up and learn like humans do. If they watched the workers how to build a ship, they might learn how to build it on their own.
In the future, he can build his own shipyard on an island.
"How long will it take with these 200 golems helping you?"
"I am not sure. 5 months maybe?"
"What if I give you 2,000 worker golems instead?"
"2,000? That will help a lot. It will possibly speed up the process to 3 months possibly."
"Wow. That's fast." These people can build an entire fleet in 3 months... No wonder the Ceraisian Empire was feared.
They were literally the super power of this continent. In modern earth, they might be comparable to America in military might.
Well, the Ceraisian Empire was groomed by the God of War so it was no wonder they had a great military, but how could they not defeat the Holy State of Montcresia already?
Montcresia was also protected by a god, so that might explain it.
"Okay, so how much do I need to pay?"
"Ony 700,000,000 gold coins."
Aldred's skin turned pale when he heard that. Bartrem and Mary staggered and about to fall to the floor.
"Seven hundred million?"
"Yep. And I already gave you a 99% discount because you are on the empress' side."
And it was already discounted by 99%! Holy demon of hell! What was the real price then?
Meanwhile Zafrina was still calm. "Why are you so surprised? A mothership requires a few Diamond Rank magicians to make. 700 million gold coins is so cheap for an entire fleet."
"Does that really justify the cost?"
"The mothership can even kill Platinum Rank and wound Diamond Rank if used correctly. And you think 700 million gold coins for that type of weapon is expensive?"
"Yeah, don't make things hard on me now, boy. You only need to pay 1% of the total cost. But luckily you have brought your own material, if not you might need to pay more."
Aldred took a deep breath. He made the right choice to buy the ship materials in Paphia, if not then he would have to sell an arm and a leg to pay it.
"Okay, I will give you the money." Aldred took out his adventure guild's card.
Tulban took out his card as well, and they tapped the card against each other.
Aldred sighed as he sent 700 million gold coins, leaving him with 2,567,169 gold coins left.
"Haish. I am poor now."
"Aldred, 2 and a half million gold coins is a lot. Only Platinum Ranks can earn that much."
"I know, but I worked hard for that money."
Mary and Bartrem rolled their eyes. Both of them knew Aldred got it by scammming rich people on Mount Fargon.
"You still have a lot of treasures, right? Those could be worth more than 700 million gold coins," Mary said.
"Yeah, most likely," Aldred replied. "So where do we stay as we wait for the ships to be made?"
"There are two major adventurer's inn in the city. One of them is controlled by the empress. Let's stay there in the meantime," Mary said.
"Everything big is split between the empress and the emperor, huh."
"Of course. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to grow so big," Mary said. "In fact, we can stay at the palace as well, but that will alarm the enemy even more."
"Let's play it safe then." Aldred said. He wasn't usually the type to be scared, but this turf was filled with Diamond Ranks.
A single glance from them could prove disastrous.
