Thinking about the method of getting around that existed on Earth but didn't exist in the Polaris Realm, Vicente immediately considered the feasibility of such a project.
Traveling by wagons across the continent had many problems. The main one was the risk of being attacked or robbed. That alone represented half the cost of products ordered by people in places far from the points where the products were offered.
But even without the dangers, using wagons was still expensive because they were a slow means of transportation. Each day's journey added more costs to the shipment due to the workers' wages and food.
Although there were many powerful beasts on the continent, few truly powerful ones existed. Certainly, those few powerful beasts were either free or not used by their masters to carry resources around the continent. Consequently, the beasts used to transport resources were relatively weak, which made traveling by wagons slow.
Flying or water boats had similar problems, but related to the weight of the materials on them. Even the fastest of boats couldn't exceed a speed of 50 kilometers per hour.
The dangers of traveling with wagons also existed when traveling by boat, whether they were sea or flying.
Flying boats didn't travel at high altitudes, while ordinary boats traveled by sea, a type of environment as dangerous, if not more so, than the continent's forests.
If Vicente's group could find a faster and safer method, they could facilitate not only their business within the province but also the obtaining of funds for their projects.
"You've just given me an idea," Vicente commented to the blacksmith, drawing the attention of the other men there, including Benson. "What if there was a faster and safer way to transport our resources?"
"That would be incredible. But there are no other ways of doing it." Benson commented.
"Maybe there aren't now. But what if we solved it?"
"Well, we could use it to go from having more resources in less time and at less cost to even thinking about dominating the resource resale business in the province." Benson smiled because that would be too wonderful.
Vicente said nothing before picking up a large map of the province and placing it on one of the tables in the training area.
He then manipulated some lower-grade metals he had with him, quickly making them into the shape of rails and small railcars.
He explained to the group of blacksmiths. "What if we were able to transport resources like this?" He made the small railcars move along the rails, showing what a journey between Saltstar City and Millfall would look like.
"A single railcar could carry the equivalent of 10 common wagons. As for speed, we could reach up to 90 kilometers per hour carrying a few railcars of this type." He explained by making a simple math to understand the capacity of that miniature and what the full-scale version of such a project would look like.
"That sounds interesting. But what difference would it make to travel by railcars? Some wagons do speeds close to that." Said one of the blacksmiths.
"First of all, wagons can only reach those speeds in flat areas. We don't have good roads on most of the continent for traveling by wagon like that. Besides, wagons need beasts and men to control and power them, but beasts and men also need to rest.
That would be different with this little project. These railcars would move using mana and some magnetic effects. That can be done without depending on the physical and mental state of living beings, enabling us to travel non-stop between two points." Vicente explained. "What's more, we can carry much more in one of these than in a wagon. That is almost like a small ship, but simpler, fast, and earthly."
"That..."
"How much would we need to build something like that?" Benson asked with interest. "Wouldn't it be expensive to produce such a large line?"
"I don't think so. The metals to make something like that would be the simplest. I think a line like that, with the railcars and a few stations along the way, would cost the same as three ships." Vicente estimated.
"What about the difficulty of building?" Another blacksmith asked.
"That's the easy part. We could produce the rails anywhere and then assemble them little by little along the chosen route," he replied, imagining that a test would be interesting.
"How about we try to create a more real experiment? Let's make a line between Millfall and Martell Village. The distance between these two places is only a few tens of kilometers, so it wouldn't be expensive to produce it. A test like this would give us a real sense of the costs and dangers of a large-scale project like this."
Everyone was excited by this idea and quickly agreed that putting something like this into practice would be interesting for them to learn what to do and how to bring such a peculiar project to life.
"That's a good idea. We can do it after we finish what we're doing now." Benson replied before asking. "Do you want me to move with some men to study what would be the best route between Martell Village and Millfall?"
"That would help me a lot, master. One of the challenges of this project would be the route our tracks would take. But with the combined powers of magicians with an affinity for earth, metal and fire, we can build even an underground route. That would be more difficult and time-consuming, but it would be the alternative for more dangerous locations."
They agreed to proceed with these plans and soon continued talking about trains. The blacksmiths asked Vicente more detailed questions about the subject, and he taught them about the wonders of trains.
They would do this during Vicente's half-hour rest until, when he had finished recovering, they would put these new plans aside and get back to what they had been doing earlier.
Vicente and his men would continue working on the robotic armor for the next few days, and during their rests or other moments of the day, they would continue talking or thinking about the trains.
At first, trains seemed strange to these people. But the more they thought about it, the more they felt it made a lot of sense, and that could make it easier for them to dominate the province.
Come to think of it, this plan dovetailed perfectly with Vicente's metal city plan!
