"Rosen, I heard that you conquered the Banshee King?"

In the underground magic laboratory of Crescent Castle, instructor Anna suddenly asked a question.

It was the fifth afternoon since Rosen returned to the White Sturgeon Island.

At this moment, the tall and strong Baron was trying to create an ultrasonic magic weapon. His hands trembled slightly when he heard this, but his face remained expressionless.

"Teacher, where did you hear this news?"

"The maid told me so, and she heard it from the fisherman who brings fish to the castle. The fisherman said the witches were telling the story everywhere."

"And also say that you are now not only the Baron of White Sturgeon Island, but also the True King of the Banshees."

Rosen's palm has regained stability: "It's true, I defeated her, and then she acknowledged my ownership of Hank Island and the Triangle Sea."

"Oh~~~This is shocking news. I heard that the Banshee Queen is a very powerful water mage. How did you defeat her?"

"Use the 'Flawless Steel Dragon Body', which is the sixth-level spell you gave me. Teacher, you also know that I have a special talent for combat and my reaction is very fast."

Anna nodded: "That's true, but you should avoid taking such risks in the future. After all, you are a lord, not a soldier charging into the battlefield."

She gave him a serious exhortation.

Rosen nodded: "Teacher is right, but it's worth it this time."

"In addition to a larger territory and a large number of new subjects, I also gained countless pearls and gold."

"Especially that amount of pearls. If it is handled well, it can definitely bring in a lot of wealth."

Pearls are very beautiful and are occasionally used to make potions and craft magical instruments, but their main use is as decorations.

Because of its small quantity and popularity among the people, it is expensive and has become a symbol of strength and wealth.

This kind of thing has the attributes of a luxury product.

For a lord, the essence of creating luxury goods is a pocket-filling trick that exchanges the lowest cost for the highest return.

"No amount of money is worth anything compared to life. But having said that, the gains this time are indeed huge."

After a pause, Anna glanced at Rosen again: "I also heard that the way of conquest is a bit diverse?"

Rosen's hand trembled again, barely visible to the naked eye. "Teacher, the banshees have their own traditions, and I don't want to force them, so I just respect them."

"No wonder you're said to be the king of sharpshooting."

Anna didn't think it was a big deal. It was normal for a lord to sacrifice his personal reputation in order to expand his territory.

She just found it a little unbelievable and very curious.

"I heard that it takes the Sun Warrior an hour or two to conquer an ordinary Banshee. How long did it take you to conquer the Banshee King?"

"Three days."

“Tsk~~~”

Anna was amazed and her heartbeat uncontrollably accelerated. She almost asked Rosen to show his bravery on the spot.

Finally he calmed down and asked, "Are you planning to develop a new route to Levender next?"

Rosen nodded: "Yes."

He added: "But this matter involves huge interests and will destroy the jobs of countless people. Once the news of the new route is leaked, it will definitely attract countless powerful enemies."

“Therefore, we must make adequate preparations before opening new routes.”

Of course he could use the new route secretly, but this matter would not be kept secret for long. Once the news leaked, Aaron and Duke Dawn would be in trouble immediately!

All kinds of means will come at him like a storm.

If you wait until the storm comes before you start thinking about how to deal with it, it will be too late.

Planning ahead and thinking about the overall situation are what a qualified lord should do.

Anna was also knowledgeable enough to know the danger of this matter.

Not to mention the distant ones, just the recent new route, which merely bypassed the City of Dawn, caused several small-scale naval battles to break out in secret.

The game between the major kingdoms in the rear was even more astonishingly fierce, and countless lives sank into the deep sea forever as a result.

She even became a little scared: "Rosen, there's a real storm ahead!"

Rosen sensed a slight tremor in his tone, looked up, and saw that Anna's face was a little pale, knowing that she was scared.

On the sea, no captain can face the raging waves calmly.

Rosen couldn't do that either, but he was the captain! Even if there were huge waves ahead, even if he himself had many concerns in his heart, he would never show it.

If he panicked and retreated, there would be no legendary achievement.

So he put down the work at hand, walked up to her, held her hand, and comforted her in a gentle voice.

"Teacher, you have always wanted to know how many levels of magic power I have, right?"

Anna was stunned. She didn't understand why Rosen said that, so she turned her head to look at him.

Rosen raised his hand and pointed at a number: "In terms of mana cultivation, I am standing here. If I take one more small step up, I will reach the pinnacle of the magic circle."

This number made Anna's eyes widen, and her body trembled uncontrollably. She didn't expect it to be so high! "This last step is very, very difficult to climb over. Even I can hardly see the hope of climbing over it."

"So I firmly believe that in terms of magical power, no one in this world should be higher than me, and naturally no one can see farther than me."

Rosen exerted a little force on his hands, lowered his head and stared into her eyes, and said word by word:

"My height allows me to see the future of magic."

“Although magic has no great power over individuals, it does have great power over the country.”

"This mighty force can move mountains, fill the sea, lift cities into the sky, and call the sun down to earth!"

Anna was shaken when she heard this: "Is this possible?"

The sun summons the world, this... this is too scary.

Rosen said firmly: "Teacher, believe me, I can do it!"

"The current kingdoms on the continent are far from reaching the upper limit of the power of magic."

"As long as we take a step ahead and gain the power of magic first, we can break through the storm and even make ourselves the storm in the eyes of others!"

Anna's uneasy mind was greatly comforted. She sighed with emotion: "In ancient times, you should be called a prophet. No, you should be called the 'Holy King'."

Rosen picked up the ultrasonic weapon again and said with a smile: "I am just an island baron."

After a pause, he continued, "Teacher, don't tell Selena about this in advance, at least not before the baby is born."

Selena has been concentrating on her pregnancy recently, not worrying about anything else. She only does the most basic magic practice every day, and she is growing up to be a beautiful girl.

Anna nodded gently: "I understand."

At the same time, Rosen remotely controlled Puppet No. 2 and secretly summoned his chief intelligence officer, Stoner, in the government study.

"How is the mana improvement recently?"

"The Soul Gem is very useful. It helped me reach the intermediate level."

“That’s good, but it’s not enough. We need to keep working hard.”

"Yes, lord."

"Okay, now let's get back to the topic."

Rosen leaned back in his chair and looked at the intelligence officer who had grown up with him. "I plan to implement a 'Pearl Storm' plan."

Stonard immediately wanted to take out his notebook, but Rosen interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "It's not much, just remember it in your mind."

When Stonard was ready, he whispered, "I will create a large number of exquisite pearl instruments, and then smuggle these instruments to various places in the giant island of Weilan, and sell them as quickly as possible and at the highest price."

Stonard's eyebrows jumped: "Lord, this is a difficult matter. The northern county is easy to sell, but the southern county is not easy to sell."

Rosen nodded: "I understand."

"So, you can use the Lightning Intelligence Network that I asked you to build earlier."

"I want you to find a way to quietly contact the wealthy merchants in each county, preferably those newly emerged civilian wealthy merchants who are courageous and willing to take risks."

At the same time, it is also a new social force that the aristocratic lords are gradually unable to control.

"If it's a southern county, we'll find a way to get them to prepare cash in advance. If it's a northern county, it can be cash or supplies."

"Once the pearl jewelry arrives, we will settle the payment in cash and collect the money as quickly as possible."

Stonard listened carefully and asked, "Lord, if there are more pearl ornaments on the market, the price will drop."

Rosen smiled: "It will indeed decline, but the market price reaction has a lag."

"As long as we move fast enough, we can sell the most goods at the best price."

The speed at which the market reacts to prices depends on the speed at which information is transmitted. In this era, the main means of information transmission is still word of mouth or messaging by fast horses or carrier pigeons.

Then the lag in market reaction will be very serious.

Now, Lawson used telegraph communications to build an intelligence network, and then used the intelligence network to build a secret sales network for pearl products. He could make a huge wave of excess profits before the market reacted.

Laertris's pearls are of excellent average quality and in large quantities, so this wave of excess profits will be very astonishing.

At the same time, pearls look good but are not very useful. Their main ingredient is calcium carbonate, but what you get in exchange is real gold and silver.

The more he sells, the more he earns!

Stonard was a smart man. After thinking it over, his eyes suddenly lit up: "I know what to do, Lord."

"Very good, you go and do the preliminary preparations, I will start preparing the pearl jewelry right away."

After Stonard left, Rosen looked at a document on the table again.

There was a string of statistics written on the document.

'The current territory, including three islands and a triangular sea area, has a total land area of ​​5,500 square kilometers and a sea area of ​​41,000 square kilometers.'

"Most of the farmland on the island is mountainous, and it is estimated that more than 1.5 million mu of land will be opened up. Potatoes are mainly grown, with guano as fertilizer and volcanic ash from San Andres Island as an auxiliary. If the yield of potatoes per mu is 2,000 kilograms, the annual output can exceed 3 million tons."

"In the Triangle Sea, let's not talk about other supplies, let's just talk about food."

'With gentle development using sustainable strategies, an estimated 2 million tons of seafood could be harvested annually, of which at least 1 million tons would be various marine fish.'

Of course, it cannot be done now, it is just potential.

But once it is successfully developed, based on the annual consumption of 300 kilograms by an adult, it will be enough to feed more than 30 million people!

It can even cover the food consumption of the entire Weilan.

This is the development potential of the territory.

Then there is the current population of the territory.

'There are 135,000 people in the human race, including 29,000 former white sturgeon islanders, 37,000 forest elves, 22,000 refugees from the Principality of Bohemia, 36,000 North Weiland mountain people, and 11,000 banshees.'

"Among them, a full 80,000 people possess basic mana."

"There are 370,000 murlocs. Among them, there are 340,000 ordinary murlocs, 30,000 high-level spellcasting murlocs, and 700 murloc queens."

'Ordinary murlocs are the best laborers, and high-level spellcasting murlocs can become good marine battle mages after a little training.'

"There are still not enough people. Given the current situation on the island, it won't be a problem if a few hundred thousand more come."

“We have to continue to immigrate.”

"The Azure Blessing must also be developed and improved so that the people can live not only on the island but also in the sea."

Next is military power.

"160 navy Murloc Busters, 5 converted warships, 3,200 navy warriors in total, 1,400 battle spirit warriors, and 1,800 battle mages."

"Add 3,000 new elite murloc diving warriors and 20,000 patrol murloc warriors."

Looking at the report, Rosen thought to himself, "With the fishmen, the sea area around the island is already fully patrolled. There is no need to worry about a sneak attack."

"But the fishmen are not smart and their combat power is very limited. We have to rely on the human navy for the war."

"The navy has too many people and too few ships. It lacks the ability to sail long distances, its weapons have a short range, and its direct confrontation capabilities are poor."

Speedboats are fast and can race across the sea like wolves, but they can only deal with the weak.

When encountering regular naval warships, it is difficult to bite the opponent.

Others pushed the defense to the limit and rushed forward regardless of the consequences, thus breaking through the sea defense line built by the speedboat.

"On land, we must deploy a large number of coastal defense weapons to build a solid fortress to prevent beaching."

"The navy is lacking the role of shield ships."

In short, the current island navy can fight guerrilla warfare, but lacks the ability to engage in a head-on decisive battle.

After seeing the new situation in his territory, Rosen continued to read on.

It is the statistical information of various countries newly collected by the Intelligence Bureau.

If you want to open a new route and benefit from it, rather than die suddenly, you must consider the overall impact.

In particular, you must know the strength of your opponent.

"15 counties in the south of Weilan, Aaron's puppet, with a population of 19 million and an area of ​​360,000 square kilometers."

"The Dawn Storm Fleet has eight thousand-ton warships, and each county has an average of one thousand-ton warship. There are a total of 23 warships over a thousand tons."

"Yarlen, population 110 million, land area 1.03 million square kilometers."

"The Lion Fleet has 153 warships of over 1,000 tons, including 45 2,000-ton Lion battleships, and the construction of the 4,000-ton Lionheart battleship has begun."

"The power of the Aaronic king is centralized, the nobles are in decline, and the new class that has risen is truly a terrifying behemoth."

Look at Kao again.

'Population 130 million, land 900,000 square kilometers, Black Rose Fleet, 69 warships over 1,000 tons.'

'Although the fleet is a little inferior, Kao's army is extremely powerful. The Red Moon Knights are the strongest in the alliance and are located northeast of Aaron.'

"Kaa and Aaron have always been at odds, and there have been many frictions along the border. Unfortunately, the king is old and no longer ambitious."

Otherwise, Kaa would be a perfect ally to contain Aaron.

Let’s look at Levinder again.

'The population is 90 million, the land area is 1.1 million square kilometers, and the Golden Fleet has 130 warships of more than 1,000 tons, including 30 2,000-ton golden warships.'

'The strength of the fleet is not much different from Aaron's, but Levender lives in the Eastern Golden Cape, and its main maritime trade targets are the Glorious Empire and its vassal states, so there are no major conflicts with members of the alliance.'

In addition to the three major kingdoms, the Natural Alliance also has six duchies.

Weilan is one, and the other five are located in the continent of Witt.

Weilan is the largest principality in terms of area, and it is also located overseas, which makes it a bit out of the ordinary.

The other five did not have any extra thoughts and were all vassals of the three kingdoms.

After reading the document, Rosen concluded: "If the new route is opened, Levender will welcome it. Kao's attitude is relatively neutral. Aaron and Weilan Southern County are the biggest enemies."

But as strong as Aaron was, he also had many opponents.

The biggest rival is the Glorious Empire, which is located in the southwest of the Wit Continent! It is a huge country covering an area of ​​over 5 million square kilometers and with a population of over 500 million.

It is a terrifying existence that uses the power of one country to suffocate the entire Natural Alliance.

"Although Aaron's Lion Fleet is powerful, more than half of it is fighting against the navy of the Glorious Empire in the Storm Ocean. The fleet deployed in the Gilded Strait also needs to intimidate Kao and suppress Weilan."

"So, in the short term, the opponents I really need to face are Duke Weilan and the 15 Southern Counties!"

In other words, if the news of the new route spreads, the worst-case scenario is that a Southern Combined Fleet consisting of 23 thousand-ton warships will come all the way north to attack him.

After looking at the entire game map, Rosen let out a long sigh.

'I am a little stronger now, but I am still just a small fish trying to survive among the big fish.'

"The first step to improve our navy is to use the Weilan Southern Combined Fleet as our imaginary enemy."

(End of this chapter)