Feng Chou had also made significant improvements to the layout of the cannons. He reduced the number of cannon decks and the number of cannons. Originally, the Patrick had three cannon decks and more than one hundred and eighty magic cannons.
After the improvements, the two new ships only had one cannon deck left. The number of cannons had also been reduced from one hundred and eighty to less than forty.
The reduction of the cannons had resulted in an increase in the caliber of the cannons.
Feng Chou had imitated the goblin's technology and forged large caliber secondary black steel cannons.
The goblins had used ice magic internal cooling technology to solve the problem of the cannons being prone to explosion when they were forged. They had forged large caliber wine bottle cannons. These cannons looked like wine bottles with large bellies and small mouths, hence their name.
Most of the wine bottle cannons had a caliber of more than one hundred pounds. The largest cannons could even reach two hundred pounds. Moreover, they were front-loading cannons and were extremely powerful.
There were twenty one-hundred-pound wine bottle cannons installed on the cannon decks of the two ships. There were also three two-hundred-pound wine bottle cannons installed on the bow and stern of the ships.
Qiankun Pagoda had equipped these wine bottle cannons with large alchemy cannon mounts. This allowed these cumbersome goblin cannons to have automatic repositioning, automatic aiming, and anti-wave functions. This greatly increased the effectiveness of the cannons.
Apart from that, Qiankun Pagoda had also installed a section of arcane copper cannon barrel at the front of each wine bottle cannon. This was used to temporarily enchant the shells that were fired.
After such modifications, the goblin engineering technology and human alchemy technology were perfectly combined. This greatly increased the power of the alchemy cannons.
In order to install the heavy cannons, Qiankun Pagoda had also modified the outer appearance of the two ships. He had removed the forecastle and stern and replaced it with a bridge in the middle of the ship.
After simulation calculations, Qiankun Pagoda discovered that after these modifications, not only did the two ships increase in weight, the heavy alchemy cannon mounts also required a large amount of magic energy to operate. This caused the 'Magic Permanence' energy supply system on the two ships to be unable to make ends meet. It was insufficient to provide sufficient power for the entire ship.
"Spell of Permanence" produced magic energy by absorbing the magic energy in the natural environment. If too many "Spell of Permanence" were gathered together, the magic energy in the natural environment would become thin and the effect of Spell of Permanence would weaken. When the number of "Spell of Permanence" in a certain space exceeded a certain number, it would even form a magic vacuum. Once a magic vacuum was formed, increasing the number of "Spell of Permanence" would not work.
The Magic Permanence array used to absorb energy on the magic ships was not an ordinary one. it was a large-scale Magic Permanence array. Its energy absorption effect was ten times that of an ordinary magic spell.
The original Patrick had three large-scale Magic Permanence arrays at the bow, middle, and stern of the ship. They were close to reaching the saturation point of the ship's size.
Qiankun Pagoda had modified the design to increase the length of the new ship. In order to not increase the weight of the new ship, he had also reduced the width of the ship, making the entire ship even longer and narrower.
After this modification, Qiankun Pagoda had added a large-scale Magic Permanence array to each of the two magic ships.
Even so, it still did not solve the problem of the lack of energy.
Feng Chou did not have any more advanced information on energy technology. To ensure the mobility of the ships, Qiankun Pagoda had no choice but to equip the two ships with two steam engines.
Qiankun Pagoda discovered that even if the two ships were equipped with goblin steam engines, it would still be difficult to meet the speed and performance requirements of the ships when they were at full power.
To solve this problem, Qiankun Pagoda had no choice but to design and manufacture two high-efficiency steam engines that were far superior to current goblin technology.
The steam temperature, pressure, speed, and horsepower of these steam engines were many times higher than the most advanced steam engines of the goblins. The thermal efficiency had also been raised from ten percent to twenty-five percent of the goblin steam engines.
After installing such a steam engine, the two new ships would be able to maintain a high speed of more than 30 knots by relying on the steam engine to compensate for the lack of functions while operating at full power.
After this modification, Feng Chou discovered that the limit to the size of the magic ships of this world was not the material. The magical wood of this world was strong enough to support the size of a giant ship, but the energy provided by Magic Permanence was not enough to power such a large ship.
If Magic Permanence was used as the energy source, then an armed merchant ship like the Patrick would be the optimal size. Any larger and the speed of the merchant ship would be affected.
If Magic Permanence and the imprisonment of elementium creatures could be used as the energy source, then the hull of the ship could be increased to a hundred and fifty meters long. In other words, it was the level of a medium-sized warship.
If he wanted to increase the hull of the ship, he would need the elementium pool as the energy source.
Qiankun Pagoda went all out and completed the two ships in less than two weeks.
Feng Chou named the two ships "Pioneer Knight" and "Warrior" respectively.
Feng Chou teleported to the deep sea and drove the Pioneer Knight out of the tower.
With the help of Qiankun Pagoda, Feng Chou piloted the Pioneer Knight to an uninhabited island nearby and anchored there.
After anchored the ship, Feng Chou teleported back to the magic lab under Stellin Manor.
The scouting sparrow above the manor reported that everything was calm.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Feng Chou left the underground lab and returned to the study. He called for Gliss, Natasha, Chapman's son and daughter, and all the apprentices to gather in the castle.
The apprentices and servants had long since gotten used to their master's elusiveness.
Over an hour later, all of them had gathered in the spacious corridor outside the study room of the castle.
Feng Chou didn't explain much and took everyone to the underground magic lab through the teleportation portal. He opened a portal to the Pioneer Knight and teleported everyone to the sea.
After leaving everyone on the ship, Feng Chou teleported to Niklos and went straight to Longman Real Estate, entrusting Stellin Dominion to them.
After spending two days to complete the handover, Feng Chou returned to the Pioneer Knight once more.
Back on the sea, Feng Chou felt much more relaxed.
As long as he drifted on the vast sea, be it the devils, Drow, or vampires, they wouldn't be able to find him.
Feng Chou held a high-order white dragon bloodline ceremony for Natasha and Gliss in the captain's cabin.
Compared to golden dragons, white dragons were too weak. In the growth stage of dragons, ancient dragons were three levels higher than their prime. However, the challenge rating of an ancient white dragon wasn't even as high as that of a prime golden dragon.
The challenge rating of an ancient white dragon was only Level-18. It also required a high-order dragon bloodline ceremony to bring out the potential of its blood. It could directly create a Level-15 Dragonborn Warlock or Dragonborn Warrior.
Natasha and Gliss were both Warriors. In order to quickly bring out their strength after the ceremony, Feng Chou chose Dragonborn Warriors for them.
Natasha's talent wasn't bad. According to Qiankun Pagoda's analysis, her ceiling was around Level-12.
Gliss was even worse. She was just a normal person. No matter how hard she trained, she would only reach Level-8 for the rest of her life.
After the ceremony, the two directly became Level-15 Dragonborn Warriors.
Gliss:
Constitution: 212
Strength: 213
Agility: 111
Intelligence: 10
Awareness: 10
Spirit: 102
Physical Assessment: Healthy
Spirit Assessment: Full
Special Energy Reaction: Dragon Strength (White Dragon)
Innate Spells:
Level-0
Detection Magic
Detect Poison
Frost Ray
Level 1:
Endure Elemental Damage
Walking on ice (as stable on ice mountains as on flat ground)
Ice Road (Creates a large smooth thin ice surface)
Chilling Touch
Magic Tooth
Level 2:
Ice Spear (Causes physical and cold damage. At the same time, it will freeze the enemy and slow down their speed)
Frost Ray (Advanced version of Frost Ray)
Resist Energy Damage
Level 3:
Snow Storm (Summons a small snowstorm, causes cold damage, blocks the enemy's vision, and turns the ground into ice)
Advanced Magic Tooth
Level 4:
Ice Wall
Ice Storm (Extremely cold storm, freezes and frostbites the enemy)
Dragon Speech
Level 5:
Ice Spike (Powerful Ice Spear)
White Dragon's Breath (Cold cone-shaped breath)
Eye of Truth
Level 6:
Ice Armor (Immune to fire and cold damage. Has a certain level of physical defense)
Steel Skin
Level 7:
Ice Claw (Creates a large ice hand, grabs the enemy and causes continuous cold damage)
Dragon Oath
Level 8:
Group Suggestion
Frost Ray (Extremely cold ray, causes the enemy to be frozen in an instant)
… …
The White Dragon's magic ability was far inferior to the Gold Dragon's, but it was still quite good. With this kind of power, with a little training, it would be a powerful combat force.
Feng Chou appointed Natasha as the captain of the Pioneer Knight and Gloria as the first mate. He also selected two mages from the apprentices to be the second and third mates to be in charge of steering the ship. He also selected two stronger knights to be the first and second boatswain.
In the next few days, Feng Chou began to train them to pilot the magical steamship.
A week later, Feng Chou left the Pioneer Knight and let them train on their own. He then teleported back to Stormwind City.
Feng Chou returned to Stormwind City and found Chorre and the others. He found that they had completed the task he gave them well.
The task that Feng Chou gave to Chorre and the others was to sell some alchemy cannons dismantled from the Patrick.
Feng Chou's funds were running low again, and he was still waiting to sell the cannons in exchange for food.
The ordinary alchemy cannons on the Patrick were worth 50,000 to 100,000 crowns. A 36-pound magic cannon with an alchemy cannon mount was worth more than 300,000 crowns.
The total price of more than 180 cannons was even more expensive than the Patrick.
Chorre had gotten to know some arms dealers in the black market during this time, and then sold a lot of small cannons as a middleman.
The cannons on the Patrick were all alchemy cannons of good quality. Because they were made of high-strength arcane copper alloy and reinforced by magic, they were much lighter than ordinary cast copper cannons. The temporary enchantment effect of the shells also made these lightweight cannons more powerful, so they were very popular on the market.
During the transaction, Chorre and the others purposely put the two skeletal golems on display to deter those with bad intentions.
Under the deterrence of the skeletal golems and the fact that Chorre and the others only sold some small caliber magic cannons without alchemy cannon mounts, they didn't cause any trouble.
The work that Feng Chou arranged for Chorre and the others was actually just to test the waters and get to know some powerful arms dealers through small businesses.
After Feng Chou returned to Stormwind City, he immediately asked Chorre to find a way to arrange a meeting with a rather famous arms dealer in Stormwind City.
According to the information that Chorre had gathered, this arms dealer named Rudolph had a lot of connections.
According to the investigation of the simulated bird, this Rudolph seemed to have close relations with a few large arms manufacturers in Stormwind City in addition to the pirates. He had a rather important position in the grey world of Stormwind City's port area.
Chorre had been constantly selling high-quality alchemy cannons during this time, and he had already gained a bit of fame in the underground arms trade in Stormwind City. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have been able to enter Rudolph's villa.
Rudolph had a large villa in the bustling area of the port area that was quiet in the midst of chaos.
Chorre waited for a full hour in the reception room on the first floor of the villa before it was Rudolph's turn to meet him.
Rudolph was a burly man with typical Sutton characteristics. He was burly, had very white skin, and his beard, hair, and eyes were all dark brown. Although this man was wearing a gentleman's suit and sitting behind a luxurious desk, he didn't look like a civilized person at all. Instead, he looked like a grizzly bear in human skin.
It was said that Rudolph was a master level berserker.
Berserkers were a special branch of the Sutton warriors. This kind of warrior inherited the bloodline of the ancient barbarians and had the talent of berserk. After cruel training, they could control their berserk talent, thus making this uncontrollable skill controllable.
After the berserker's berserk skill was activated, they wouldn't lose their mind and could stop it at any time. This gave berserkers the advantage of berserk and at the same time abandoned the weakness of berserk, which made them far more terrifying than the barbarians.
Moreover, after the berserker's berserk skill was activated, they could still use the series of skills of Hedgar's Strength, which gave them explosive power that far exceeded that of ordinary warriors for a short period of time. Of course, this also led to the berserker's poor endurance, but it was enough to make the berserker's combat power above that of ordinary warriors.
Rudolph's office was very spacious. There were several sofas on both sides of the office, and five or six burly men were sitting on the sofas. These men were all Rudolph's right-hand men, and it was said that they were all above high-grade professions.
Chorre was only a ninth-level fighter. In front of so many high-grade professions, it was natural for him to be under a lot of pressure.
Rudolph looked at the trembling Chorre and sneered slightly. He didn't ask Chorre to sit down, but asked straightforwardly, "You said you have a big deal for me. Then tell me. If your 'big deal' doesn't satisfy me, I'll have someone throw you out of the window."
Joel swallowed his saliva and said, "My master, Archmage Solomon, has a batch of 32-pound magic cannons with alchemy mounts that he wants to sell. The total value of these magic cannons is more than 15 million crowns. I think you will be interested in such a big deal."
Rudolph put away his sneer and frowned. "Then your master should come and talk to me in person instead of sending a small fry like you."
Chorre said, "My master said that if you're interested in the goods, you should send someone with me to see them. After seeing them, if you're satisfied, we can make a deal in person. If you're not satisfied, then he'll find someone else."
Rudolph's eyes flashed dangerously. "I heard you have two Skeletal Golems?
Do you think you can look down on me with just two Skeletal Golems? "
Chorre said, "Your Excellency, we don't mean to look down on you. You're the best and most trustworthy arms broker in Stormwind City. Otherwise, my master wouldn't have come to you first. And we have more than one Skeletal Golem. My master has 20 of them, and about the same number of Black Steel Combat Constructs. If you're interested, we can sell them to you. You just have to send someone with me, and you'll see the goods."
Rudolph squinted and stared at Chorre for a while. Chorre didn't dare to meet his gaze and quickly lowered his head.
After staring at Chorre for a while, Rudolph suddenly said, "Twain, take a few appraisers and follow this guy."
Rudolph then said to Chorre, "I hope you and your master won't disappoint me."
Chorre hurriedly said, "Definitely not."