The combat power of the low-cost armed merchant ships was uneven. Some of them were only made of ordinary wood, and at most, they used magic wood for the keel and other key parts. They were also equipped with ordinary cannons and a magic power system that used the Magic Permanence Spell as the power source.
Some of them used low-level magic wood to build the hull, mid-level magic wood to build the keel, and magic to strengthen the keel and hull. They were also equipped with large-caliber alchemy cannons. The biggest difference between this high-level magic armed merchant ship and the magic warship was that the armed merchant ship did not have the ability to fly and could not be equipped with magic cannons.
In fact, even the real magic warship did not have the ability to fly. The magic warship technology mastered by the Church of the God of Ocean was only a simplified version of the magic ship technology. The magic warship could only fly for a short period of time. It was not like the real floating magic ship, which could fly in the air for a long time.
The technology to create the flying magic ship was only mastered by a few organizations such as the Church of the God of Arcane Magic, the Church of the God of Knowledge, the Federation of Wizard Towers of the Alvindale Empire, the Red Robe Wizards Association, and a few others.
The real flying magic ship technology was an ancillary product of the Floating-Space Tower technology in the Arcane Era. This kind of alchemy wonder was generally used as the peripheral guard of the Floating-Space City during the Arcane Era.
The Federation of Wizard Towers and the Red Robe Wizards Association were ancient mage organizations that existed during the Arcane Era. Only then could they master the manufacturing knowledge of this kind of top-level magic creation. After the Arcane Era ended, the knowledge of this kind of top-level magic creation was explicitly prohibited by the Treaty of Preventing the Spread of Arcane Magic by the gods.
The Patrick was a rather powerful armed merchant ship. The ship's overall length was more than 90 meters, and its width was more than 20 meters. It had a displacement of 6,300 tons and a carrying capacity of 3,800 tons.
The hull of the ship was made of a kind of low-level magic wood called red oak, which was produced in large quantities. It was reinforced with low-level enchantment. Not only did it have the strength close to that of stainless steel, but it also had strong fire resistance. Not to mention ordinary flames, even low-level magic flames could not ignite the wooden ship. Although mid-level magic flames could ignite the ship, if there was no continuous magic output, the ship would not be able to continue burning.
The keel of this ship was made of mid-level magical wood. After being reinforced with magic, it was as strong as black steel. Ordinary wooden ships were like toys in front of this magical ship.
In terms of power, there were a total of six large propulsion magic energy rings installed at the front and back of the ship, which was powered by three large advanced magic spells. The cruising speed on the sea was as high as 28 knots, which was almost 50 kilometers per hour. This speed was comparable to the speed of modern large warships on Earth.
It was said that real warships were much faster than armed merchant ships. The best warships could even reach a cruising speed of more than 40 knots.
In terms of firepower, the ship had three fire decks. Fifty-two 12-pounder magic cannons were installed on the upper deck, fifty 24-pounder magic cannons were installed on the middle deck, and fifty-two 36-pounder magic cannons were installed on the main deck. There were also four 12-pounder magic cannons and four 68-pounder magic cannons on the forecastle deck, and twenty 12-pounder magic cannons on the stern deck.
These magic cannons were made of high-strength copper alloy mixed with arcane copper and other precious metals. The propellant was made of high-energy alchemy gunpowder, which was very powerful. It was said that even the weakest of the 12-pounder magic cannons had the terrifying power of a level 6 spell.
When these magic cannons were fired, they could temporarily add a low-level anti-magic effect to the shells. This anti-magic effect could cancel out the effects of the enchantment on the ribs of the enemy ship.
Without the anti-magic effect, not to mention the 36-pounder cannons, even the 136-pounder cannons wouldn't be able to penetrate the nearly half-meter thick enchantment of a high-grade magically armed merchant ship.
But when the enchantment effect was canceled out, the 24-pounder cannons could still penetrate the half-meter thick magic wooden ribs.
All of the 36-pounder magic cannons on the Patrick were installed on an alchemy cannon frame with an arcane copper core and a black steel shell. This alchemy cannon frame was actually a special type of structure. Not only did it have the ability to automatically reset and aim automatically, it could also cancel out the errors caused by the ship's shaking, greatly increasing the firing accuracy of the ship's cannons.
If one only looked at the cannons, the cannon technology of this world was far inferior to the cannons on Earth. But if one took into account the alchemy cannon frame under the cannons and the enchantment technology of the shells, the alchemy cannons of this world were not inferior to the modern technology on Earth. It could be said that they were extremely unique in a magical world.
An alchemy cannon with an alchemy cannon frame could be said to be the perfect combination of gunpowder and alchemy. The cost of each cannon was more than three hundred thousand crowns.
The cost of such a warship, not including the cannons equipped, was more than twenty million crowns.
Count Patrick was one of the top twenty merchants in the new port area of Tailun, but he only had one such merchant ship under his name.
Feng Chou had taken the risk of staying at Count Patrick's manor in order to wait for this merchant ship.
The Patrick that had returned from the Sutton Empire had brought back large amounts of various raw gemstones from the Sutton Empire, crude black iron, arcane copper, the fur and bones of magical beasts from the Wild Highlands of the North, herbs from the Nature Elf Kingdom, wood from the Dark Forest …
Feng Chou didn't pay any attention to these goods. Only a small portion of these goods belonged to Patrick. Most of the rest belonged to the vampire family that Patrick belonged to. In the company under Patrick's name, there were many spies of other vampire nobles keeping an eye on it. This ship's goods would definitely be the focus of many eyes. If he touched them, it would be very easy for him to be discovered.
Feng Chou arranged for his subordinates who were familiar with the company to handle the goods that the Patrick had brought back according to Patrick's memories and his usual routine.
After the Patrick had been emptied, he immediately arranged for his subordinates to load the containers containing the magical equipment that he had stored at the docks onto the Patrick.
These magical equipment hadn't been equipped with magical gems and naturally hadn't been activated. Even if someone opened the containers, they would only think that they were ordinary black iron armor and weapons. They wouldn't think that this large batch of goods was actually + 2 magical equipment.
After loading the magical equipment onto the ship, Feng Chou arranged for his subordinates to purchase regular goods. He wanted the Patrick to set sail again in a month's time.
When preparing the regular goods, Feng Chou could use the company funds that belonged to the vampire family as usual. The regular goods belonged to the organization, and the containers containing the magical equipment were Patrick's personal goods. These were all things that had been agreed upon.
He didn't hesitate to use large amounts of funds to purchase large amounts of high-quality steel armor and weapons.