"Ah, so you're with them?" The old designer came behind us.
"What's up? You done the calculations?"
"That's right!" He began to read his notebook. "750 paddle chambers, 600 cannon rooms, 400 lounge rooms, 40 double rooms, a large chart house, a combat command center, 16 damage control rooms, 8 modified storage rooms. I need to explain this a bit. Since there are too much space you don't use, I decided to merge those storage rooms into 8 bigger cargo holds, to save material. I also put up a temporary prison, you can place up to 200 captives in there. There are also a medical ward, a kitchen, a dining hall, an armory, a strong room and a backup command center. Composite sail cloth, 5 masts, that means 5 main sails and 45 studding sails. We can't change the bone's shape so I also installed a medium sized ramming horn on it. Don't worry you can still put your figurehead. There are also three rotating platforms on the deck bow, for your crystal cannon. Two extra platforms at the back. You can put your cannon wherever you like. The final price is...2.8 million crystal pieces. This may be the most impressive work I've done in my life, so I'll even give you a discount. 2.2 million should be enough!"
"2.2 million crystals??" Everyone jumped.
Rose mumbled: "1 million from Ziri, 0.6 from Hawk and Zirai... We still need 600 thousand crystals!"
"Now I know why few guilds have their own ships." Coin said in defeat.
"Uh, excuse me...how big is your ship?" King has been standing there with wide eyes and mouth in the whole process. "The Ocean Might is already a big one and it only cost us 500 thousand. What kind of ship needs 2.2 fucking million? That's enough money to build an entire fleet!"
I gave him a serious look. "Quality over quantity. This ship will be more deadly than a fleet."
"That...I agree." King nodded. "But you don't have money right?"
"Yeah..." I admitted. "Still 600 thousand to go."
"Figured. It took us months to get 500 thousand for our ship. Is 2.2 million the construction fee or total cost?"
"Construction...huh?" We looked at the old man for explanation.
"It's for construction. That's what you need to pay for the materials and labor work. You will figure out the rest of the stuff for yourselves. Of course we don't provide everything for free."
"You mean, we still need more money even after the ship is built?"
"What do you expect? Our job is only to build the ship itself!" He lifted his fingers one by one. "You need sailors to get your ship moving right? Go to the Sailor Union to hire them. Different people have different prices. The paddlers are usually cheaper, and cannoneers will ask for more. There are also ship doctors, chefs, et cetera et cetera. And yes, you can hire players too. For a warship, you need combat sailors. Either those NPC archers or whoever's good at close combat when enemy got on board. Anyway, they all cost money. Go to a blacksmith who sells siege weapons to buy cannons. Powerful ones are more costly. Don't forget about supplies. Cannons are just useless junks without powder and ammunition. That figurehead is not free either. It's a magical item. Those wizard guilds sell them, and they're all different, so you better do more research before buying one. That thing isn't cheap and they never refund! Also, you need food. Players don't need to eat but NPC sailors do. A starving sailor may even betray you and cause a lot of problems."
"...Anything else?" I feel faint. I'm afraid we need at least 3 million to settle everything now.
"That's all, for now."
"Well...!" Rose hesitated. "We don't have enough fund now, can we pay the money later?"
The designer's face immediately turned dark. "No. The project has already started. The money will be charged off you by the system. Get enough money before the end of the project or we'll sell the ship to someone else."
"How long will the project take?"
He lifted a finger.
"A month? Phew, we still have enough time." I signed in relief.
But the old man shook his head.
"...A year? The nation war would have ended by then!"
"It's a day! No matter what you ordered, we always deliver it the next day! You can pick up your ship tomorrow afternoon!"
"What?? Just one day? We're never going to make it!" I yelled. I know the game setup is meant to make it easier for players, but now it's a serious trouble for us!
"Can you please give us some more days?" I tried to leverage my Charisma again.
...And it worked!
"I can make the discount bigger...if you make your ship a most famous war machine in the world and help me make some advertisements."
"How do we do it? And, how much can we save from it?"
"First, you must engrave the name of our boatyard onto the ship's hull. That should produce enough advertisement effect. Then you are going to take down enough enemy vessels whose total value goes beyond the manufacture cost of your own ship, within a week. Should you fail, we will confiscate your ship AND ask for extra penalty payment. What do you say?"
"We can. But how much exactly does that give us?"
"How much money do you have?"
"1.6 million crystals."
"Then the payment shall be reduced to 1.6 million crystals."
"Oh! Thank you very much sir!" I could almost kiss him. We can spend 1.6 million for a ship tagged 2.8 million! Lottery of the month!
The designer interrupted my joy. "Not yet. Remember you still need to hire sailors? Your ship's not going to pilot itself you know."
"We'll get on to it!" I turned to King. "Can you tell me where the Sailor Union is?"
"Yeah, I'm going there anywhere. We lost a good number of sailors in that fight. Follow me!"
"Right behind you."
The designer stopped me again before we can leave. "Tell me the name of your ship!"
"Bi-Lin!"
---------------------
We followed King Conqueror across half of the city district area before we saw a house with several life buoys hanging around the wall. "Sailor Union" is written on the door sign. He gave us a direction before going off somewhere for his own business.
Following the direction, we came to the room at the end of the hallway. A small reception room stays behind the broken wooden door, with another old man sitting behind the desk.
I stepped in front again. Charisma bonus. "Good day, we need to hire sailors, can you tell us the procedure?"
"There are no procedures, it's simple." He replied politely. "Tell me the name, type of the ship, captain name, captain level, types and number of sailors you're looking for."
"The ship is under construction until the next day. It's called 'Bi-Lin'. What do you mean type?"
"Is it a battleship or fishing boat? Or a tour yacht?"
"Battleship!"
"Captain?"
I looked towards the others for confirmation.
"Ziri." Hawk didn't hesitate.
"Ziri it is. Alright. Your level?"
"339."
"Sailor types? And how many for each?"
"3000 paddlers, 1800 cannon duty, 300 sail operators, 200 support. And a team of essential crew like doctors and cooks. I don't know about the combat sailors, can you introduce them?"
"Not many choices. There are lightweight choppers, heavy swordsmen, archer adaptive at short range, long range or those who use fire arrows. There are also mage squads. Water, fire, wind, lightening, four types of them. Okay, which one?"
"What's the price?"
"Do you buy or rent people?"
"Buy."
"50 crystal for paddler and support crew, 100 for cannoneer, 150 for sailman, 10000 for everyone else including doctors, chefs, maintenance and such. Chopper is 200 crystals, swordsman 500, close range archers 200, long range ones 400, and fire arrow archers 500. Mages are all 1000 crystals regardless of their type."
Rose gave me a nudge. "Hey, the basic sailors already cost near 400 thousand crystals. With our lounge rooms we can still hire 2700 combat ones, but we don't have enough money for even the cheapest!"
I spoke to the NPC, apologetically: "Excuse me, we need to talk about it a little."
Then I quickly dragged everyone outside.
"This is too much!"
"But it's reasonable. These are meant for guilds, not individual players like us." Coin commented.
"Yeah. We should create a guild too!" Zirai suggested.
Yuri: "Oh, Ziri already created one, and miss Rose is the only member. We can join them."
"You have a guild??" Zirai just noticed that badge on me. "Perfect. I'm in!"
"You sure? I'm not really serious about it. You probably won't enjoy anything in my guild." I explained.
"No biggie. We never wanted to join any guild anyway, now this can help us stay together. We don't have to regroup every time people get online from now on!" Zirai seems insisted on staying with me.
"Alright alright, if you all agree."
They did. I invited everyone. So now I can consider myself as the leader of a "big" guild (12 people, including myself). Must admit, this feels pretty exciting.
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