Chapter 307 157. I want to sell insurance.
Druchi's mighty Black Ark fleet continued to set off to its next destination. Before leaving, the Slan lords also used resuscitation on the five anchored Black Arks. Wild waves.
After the lizardmen's troops disappeared in New Baker Port, the armies of Taraxlan, Tarax and Slanwupek chose to go north to Huta to start the restart of Huta.
Before long, the jungle near the temple city of Huta trembles with triceratops and ankylosaurs, who bring stones mined from Sotek's Ridge, while countless monitor lizards work to make the city a better place. The temple city is restored to its former glory. The Great Central Pyramid in the Temple City will be rededicated to the ancient sage Huangqi, and the Great Pyramid's Star Chamber will become a place of meditation for the fourth generation of Lord Slanvor Kerr.
With the fall of the Harkon Empire, the name Vampire Coast also disappeared, replaced by Huta Coast.
The troops of Hesiota and Itaza will start the restart work of Astoro.
Originally, Darkus was planning to send laborers from the Black Ark to help Huta achieve a great revival, but after discussing with the Slann lords, he decided to let the lizardmen do it themselves.
Although it is now changed to Huta Coast, Huta is not a port city. Huta seems to be very close to the coast on the map, but its actual location is in the jungle, forty kilometers deep into the coast. The Lizardman Temple City is Establishment needs are based on spiritual nodes, not actual functions, such as seas and harbors that the Lizardmen don't need at all.
Among the many temple cities of the Lizardmen, only the temple city Zamuda, which was dragged into the seabed during the great invasion, and Chapeiuto, which suddenly sank, functioned as ports.
The ghost city, Talax, on the Tarantula Coast? This place is even more outrageous than Huta. In the jungle fifty kilometers away from the coast, this temple city is somewhat different from other temple cities. It is often haunted after the fall of the great invasion. At certain times, ghost-like lizards and demons will suddenly appear. Show up and get into combat. The temple city seems to remember its fall, a trauma it can never shake off.
Every century, Slann mages perform silent rituals at Talax. They summoned the ghost defenders of the temple city and poured magical winds onto the ghost defenders to power them. Talax has become a place where the air is filled with magical winds.
Although Shakspati was attacked once by the Disaster Lord, he was still wandering in Queza, where there was still a lot of follow-up work to be done, one of which was to explore the tunnel leading to the old world. Arranged by Keus.
Darkus has no interest in using this tunnel to travel to the old world, but he is interested in pouring seawater into the tunnel. The shortest straight line between two points is the shortest. He has already discussed with the Slann lords to build a large lizardman version of the black ark for the lizardmen on the Giant Turtle Islands on the left side of Lustria. It is called an environmentally friendly ark, a green ark!
At that time, the Green Ark will depart from Chapeuto and go to Zetland, the hidden city in the southern jungle of the old world. This is much more convenient than ants moving through tunnels.
Outside Sargasso, four plunder ships remained, one of which was commanded by Drasil Bloodscar, while the other three were composed of captains and core forces of the Hellscourge family. They wanted to carry out a mission. On a secret mission, they will be teleported to the underground sea in Spicazuma by Mazdamudi to explore the route of the underground sea.
"Hmph, today, the entire Naggaroth knows the news that I obtained the Sun Flame Sword." Malekith came to the bow of the ship and said to Darkus who was lying there.
Darkus didn't hear what Malekith was saying. He looked at the smoke and volcanic ash in the distance and was lost in thought. He was wondering if Haken's handling was a bit hasty. What if the so-called ancient saint was real? What about? Does this count as killing an ancient saint in disguise? What if that Old Sage personality was that of the Horned Rat and Sotek? An ancient sage whose personality was divided into three parts? But it doesn't seem to be the case... because that personality is planning to destroy a Slann magic priest who stole his magic. Does this mean that this ancient saint may be related to magic?
"What are you thinking about?" After a long time, Malekith continued to ask when he saw that Darkus did not speak.
"Selling insurance!" Darkus, who had recovered his senses, turned to Malekith and said affirmatively.
"Selling insurance? The kind of insurance in Ulthuan? This..." Malekith asked with some uncertainty. He was about to criticize something, but he swallowed the words when he reached his lips and began to think.
Insurance was not some sudden whim of Darkos. He knew that there were always insurance sellers in Asur. The Asur family engaged in maritime trade usually insured ships. And he also knew that premiums would be constantly adjusted based on the ship's loss rate.
Aunt Marlene of Thai Brothers was born in the Emerald Sea family. She could know through the insurance premiums that the vast northern route had experienced a sharp decrease in losses, so much so that the insurance premiums were greatly reduced. The Emerald Sea family made a lot of money. More than at any time in her life, but instead of being happy, she was a little anxious, thinking that this was just the calm before the storm, and that the rain was about to come.
Facts have proved that Aunt Marlene's judgment was correct. It was the year 2299 of the Imperial Calendar. Then in the year 2300 of the Imperial Calendar, under the leadership of the Witch King Malekith, Druchi launched a massive offensive against Ulthuan. !
Darkus has always believed that statistics are very similar to Schrödinger's. Your parents each have an average of one Gaowan! It’s a joke, but statistics is necessary as a tool for rulers. Although Druchi’s bureaucratic team cannot accurately count every Druchi and register them, they can still do it by selling insurance. of.
As the saying goes, if there is no profit, you can’t afford it early. Darkus is planning to sell the insurance of the Nagaros and Lustria routes. Sovereign and other things are not important to him. What is important is to enable Druchi’s dignitaries and common people to class took part in the cause.
There are also fleets of ships traveling between various cities in the Sea of Resentment on the east coast of Naggaroth. These captains and crew members are usually old, weak, sick, or disabled, and are either adventurers who were hit by an arrow in the knee before, or interns who have just debuted. .
As for Lao Youzi and Lao Seogou, both of whom are active in plundering businesses around the world, Darkus wants Druchi to see the profitability of this route, let the dignitaries and civilians spontaneously organize themselves among the people, and give the civilian class another chance. Open a channel. Rather than giving orders through him and Malekith, let the powerful organize the organization forcibly.
At that time, Druchi will make a choice, some will carry out raids with uncontrollable risks, and some will participate in this route transportation that guarantees harvests despite droughts and floods.
There are many benefits to selling insurance. If Asur discovers this Druchi route and cracks down on it, the Druchi ruling class will not discover it in hindsight.
There are pirates in this world, and Darkus doesn't think Druchi's pirates will go crazy enough to rob this route on a large scale, but killing their enemies will still happen. He knew that although the sea guards of Asur were called sea guards, they would sometimes visit pirates and attack Drukki's ships in the waterways and coastlines outside Nagaroth. Many young dignitaries of Asur also You will participate in this business, become rich, famous, and take risks, satisfy your exciting psychology, and win-win-win-win!
Tyrion had done this more than once when he was young, and the huge profits could support his family's daily needs, but he was soon defeated by his father who was obsessed with repairing Aenarion's dragon armor.
At the same time, it can also moisten the rain and silently gradually change the ideological trend of Druchi society. In addition, as a benevolent Druchi, Darkus is also thinking about leeks around the world. With the subsequent launch of the Black Ark, Druchi There will definitely be a wave of large-scale raids, and there will always be a group of people. The big ones are coming, and the small ones are coming again during the reconstruction.
Leeks have to be raised, who can bear it all the time?
"Okay!" After a moment, Malekith, who wanted to understand, affirmed.
"It's time to clean it up properly. Just like gardening, the excess should be pruned away instead of allowed to grow uncontrollably." Darkus said coldly while looking at the giant snake Yandao that was already close at hand. .
Malekith did not answer Darkus, but let out a cruel laugh.
Drasil, who was controlling the steering wheel, looked with envy and longing at His Majesty the Witch King and the Hand of the Witch King standing on the bow chatting. This was the closest she had ever been to these two great figures. But her attention was quickly diverted. As a captain, she had to organize the docking of the ship, and she wanted to show her expertise to the maximum, even if the two big men she longed for but could not reach could not see it.
The Druchi led by Darkus and Malekith and the Red Crown brothers led by Tehenhoin rode cold lizards and disembarked one after another. They wanted to start before the Black Ark fleet arrived at Chapeiuto. A new adventure.
You must come to the Serpent Islands because it is so important. When Darkus came, he looked at the smoke and volcanic ash in the sky and vaguely guessed something. These scenes that have not changed for thousands of years should provide Asur's ships with Some kind of guidance on the sea, like a lighthouse.
Just as Darkus thought, the Serpent Islands are of extremely important strategic value to Asur who is entrenched in the Twilight Fortress. It is on the route from Ulthuan to the Twilight Fortress. The Eagle Ships of the Twilight Fortress will meet Here it escorts the merchant fleet passing the coast of Huta.
The team first came to the Serpent Smoke Island in the north of the Serpent Islands. This larger island named after its dormant active volcano was once the location where the Plague Clan was driven out of Lustria in the final battle. It was also the first time Sotek descended. Where in the world, a hissing tidal wave of fire and rock descended on the heads of the shipbuilding and escaping rodents of the Plague Clan. From then on, the active volcano on the Serpent Smoke Island no longer erupted, but released a thick torrent of Smoke obscures the clouds and blocks the sun.
Moreover, this place has naturally become Sotek's holy place. Before the arrival of White-haired Harken, Tehenhuoyin often brought the red-crested skinks to this island to perform rituals of worshiping Sotek. They will climb to the slopes of the active volcano on Smoke Island, braving the heat and suffocating air to pay homage to the place where Sotigo appeared. But all this was interrupted with the appearance of the white-haired Hakon. The low-key Tehenhuoyin had no way to convince the Slann lords to clean up Hakon as they were now. With the destruction of Hakon, the ceremony began again. . While observing the ceremony, Darkus also wanted to thoroughly inspect the two islands. He knew that these two islands were extraordinary, and he might have to deploy some forces on the islands by then.
After the ceremony, the team led by Tehenhoin arrived at the City of the Dead buried in the volcano. This is an abandoned temple city that is no longer regularly maintained.
This temple city was not a "living" city when it was first established. On the contrary, it was a cemetery city, a home for the lizard people to worship the dead. The skinks, monitor lizards and lizard people after death would be here. Funeral honors were given to the city, but these ceased long ago. And Darkus also believes that there is no need to restart. If the dead are buried, this location will be very bad for the current world situation. If careerists, vampires, necromancers and the like come here, they may cause trouble. If something went wrong, although he didn't feel the stone slab, he could ask the lizardmen to send some power to dig out later. What made him feel strange was that he always felt a mysterious force watching him when he was wandering here.
There are many things that Darkus doesn't know. For example, the white-haired Haken once paid attention to this place and sent his followers to pass here, but in the end only one of his followers returned, and he went crazy. The white-haired Haken imprisoned the crazy servant, trying to understand the crazy gibberish of the servant, who talked about something buried underground.
That thing was as vast, cold and silent as the ocean, hidden deep in the endless abyss. That thing sleeps there, never waking up, never moving, omniscient, omnipotent, immortal, lingering in dreams forever.
However, Haken quickly forgot about this, perhaps because he also became a madman, or perhaps his ancient saint personality did not want him to know the secrets of this place, otherwise the dead here could provide him with a lot of of high-quality soldiers.
The party then arrives at a buried ruin, where a portal leads to a dungeon filled with snakes. This is considered a stronghold of the Sotek Cult. The murals in the dungeon depict a temple city destroyed by a volcano, and Sotek fighting the Horned Rat.
Darkus insisted on coming here, but fortunately the murals he wanted to see but didn't want to see didn't appear, such as a giant snake wearing a gray hood holding a bell, a horn or something in its mouth, and then the whole thing Some abstract image of a white-haired vampire riding on a snake.
Soon, his teammates made new discoveries. Darkus found what he wanted to find, three open-pit mines, but soon he felt a little noisy. Not everything went as he expected. When collecting these mines, Having to endure the high temperatures coming from active volcanoes, just like DEBUFF, will lead to high losses in labor dispatch, and what’s even more disturbing is that the iron ore here is volcanic rock type iron ore.
It is better to say that iron ore is a rock containing iron ore. Darkus has gone from being ignorant to semi-knowledgeable. He knows that steelmaking usually uses iron-rich ores, such as hematite or magnetite. The iron content of volcanic iron ore is relatively low, and it is also mixed with other components, such as silicon, aluminum, etc.
In a word, it is not suitable for steelmaking. From this point of view, it would be a bit uneconomical to simply collect gems from iron ore. Darkus is not a vulture adventurer. Behind him stands Shi, who can pull the veins up from the ground. Orchid Demon Priest.
"It's tasteless to eat, it's a pity to throw it away, it's worthless!" Darkus shook his head in disappointment after enduring the high temperature and walking around in the mine.
The team then came to the Beast's Rest Island in the south. This smaller island with a red snake-like lava flow is also Sotek's sacred land. I want to say here that this breath is not a breath of rest, but a breath of exhalation. The active volcano on this island will erupt at any time. Compared with the smoke blocking the clouds on the Giant Snake Smoke Island, this place is much exaggerated. In the sky Smoke and ash clouded the sky like crimson storm clouds.
The team went around and found no large mining pits on the island, but there was obsidian that could be mined due to the volcanic eruption. Many great weapons were born here. For example, the Shield of Generations held by the Great White Lizard was made here using obsidian and a small amount of volcanic iron ore.
There is also a Star Tower on the island here that can serve as a stronghold. It should be noted that this Star Tower was not built by the elven colonists, but was ordered by the Ancient Saint. The Star Tower happens to be at the spiritual node of the Serpent Islands.
According to the records on the stone tablet, this is half of the lizard people's smelting center. The most exquisite products will be brought here, and then the skink priests will give the products the power of the sky and mountains by guiding the power of the Star Tower. The lizard people need it. Living in a hot environment and having sufficient sunlight, the volcanic heat is still too strong for the lizard people, but the results prove the value of this approach.
These products do not belong to the divine weapon series that require instructions and recipes. They are all made by Skink craftsmen based on the needs of the wearers. In other words, the restart here will provide great gains to the lizardmen's core combat power, such as equipment such as obsidian armor and shields.
After some research, Darkus decided to restart the Star Tower before Asur arrived to serve as a half smelting center for the Lizardmen and an anchorage for the Druchi raider ship, in order to deal with the possible conflict with the Asur navy in the future. The battle in this sea area.
Moreover, this place can not only become a smelting center for the lizard people, it can also become a smelting center for Druchi high-end equipment in the future. Darkus did not take the ordinary path and took a wild path by using industrial stereotypes, but the products in those furnaces can only satisfy Routine needs, consumables of good quality.
But this is not the way to go with high-end equipment. Take Asur for example. Their high-end equipment usually uses meteorite iron such as Ysrama Silver. Although Ysrama Silver sounds good, , but that thing is simply meteorite. These good materials will be crafted by the blind Vaal priests into high-level equipment in the Vaal Temple where the Vaal iron felt is placed in the Caledor Dragonspine Mountains.
In the future, the focus of Druchi will definitely shift gradually. Maybe one day all the Druchi in Nagaroth will return to Nagaryth or move to Lustria. Nagaroth may really be like Darkus. As previously thought, let the greenskins occupy it to resist the Yankees moving south. Before that, Serpent's Rest Island could take on this task, and he had no interest in building a similar system in the Black Ridge Mountains of Krakarond.
"I suddenly discovered something interesting." Malekith, standing under the Star Tower, suddenly smiled at Darkus and said.
"Oh?" Darkus turned his head and looked at Malekith curiously.
"Don't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" Darkus asked in confusion.
"There is a strange existence in this volcano!" Malekith flicked the Sun Flame Sword scabbard on his waist with his fingers as he spoke. He then said with a smile, "Awaken...liberate me...I will Provided..." After finishing speaking, he burst into laughter.
"It's time to upgrade your scarlet sword!" Malekith stretched out his hand and looked at Darkus after laughing.
"This way you won't be interested in the Destroyer in the future." Malekith said with a smile after taking the scarlet sword.
The Druchi who heard Malekith's words suddenly came back to their senses. They looked at the pair of monarchs and ministers exchanging weapons with complicated expressions. Some were secretly happy, some were shocked, some felt incredible, and some It felt like a matter of course. Through this sentence, they obtained a lot of information. For example, the hand of the Witch King once asked His Majesty the Witch King for the iconic Destroyer.
Darkus took off the scabbard of the scarlet sword from his waist and handed it over. He had already guessed what was in the volcano. It was nothing more than the fire element. Otherwise, wouldn't there be a lava dragon? There are only two lava dragons in this world, one is in the volcano in the Badlands of the Old World, and the other he has seen is in the volcano in the Black Ridge Mountains of Naggaros.
The prince of Nagaros who died in the dangerous peaks, his name was Haskon or Baskon, should have been unconsciously activating the power in the sword for nearly six thousand years, even if it was maintained by the mother of the Anasara clan. However, the fire element in the scarlet sword was still half-dead, so he didn't dare to activate the power of the fire element. He was worried that the fire element would suddenly snap.
The team stayed in the Star Tower under Malekith's order. After giving the order, he chose to climb the crater alone. Standing in the crater, he saw a strange exotic sanctuary on the edge of the erupting magma below. The call His voice kept coming to his mind, and he judged that the style of the sanctuary predated the arrival of the Ancient Saints.
Malekith sneered, and then raised the Scarlet Sword. The fire element in the Sun Flame Sword was very powerful. Many users who had used the Sun Flame Sword would not activate the power inside, but the Scarlet Sword was different. He could Feel the dying fire element in the sword. In addition to being a warrior, he is also an excellent warlock. In addition, he has rich experience as a blacksmith, and he knows how to operate.
Druchi from Krakalond looked at the erupting volcano in the distance expressionlessly. They were used to the eruption of the volcano and the shaking of the earth.
This tremor lasted longer than before, and even Darkus was worried about whether this active volcano would erupt in the future.
After a long time, Malekith appeared holding the Sun Flame Sword and the Scarlet Sword, both of which were burning with flames.
Tomorrow..., tomorrow after tomorrow...
(End of this chapter)