Weaponry?
Upon hearing Gawain’s words, Victoria couldn’t help but feel a stirring in her heart.
The situation was not beyond her expectations, everything was as she had surmised over the past few days—Cecil Clan was short on money.
Over the past three days, Victoria employed various thods to investigate the situation in the southern borders, and though she couldn’t directly contact the Administrative Office staff nor leave the city, she was able to access Cecil Clan’s market, their newspapers, hear the gossip in the streets and even witnessed Magic Projection Technique twice—what Cecil Clan called "programs". From this publicly disseminated information, she could deduce a lot of useful insights.
Cecil Clan’s developnt is extrely rapid, and Gawain Cecil, this founding hero who experienced Gondor’s ti, seems to be using his seven-hundred-year-old knowledge to build up the land. He initiated several astonishing projects, including the redistribution of the entire southern border’s population and the simultaneous construction of multiple new cities, which undeniably require shocking amounts of wealth to support.
The newly established Cecil Principality should already be under significant financial strain—this was the conclusion Victoria deduced from her investigations over the past days.
Even before arriving at the southern borders, she had been pondering what could appease and win over this Grand Duke—the royal family’s recognition or the "legitimacy certification" from contemporary aristocrats is aningless to a Duke who himself is the source of legitimacy. But upon realizing the possible financial strain of Cecil Clan, she believed she had found the perfect "gift".
Moreover, after witnessing Cecil Clan’s Beyonder gears, she too developed imnse interest in those items. She did not know how to broach the topic proactively, but now it seems mutual necessity had created the best scenario.
"You must have seen my army and the reard Rocky Ridges Fortress," Gawain noted the subtle change in Victoria’s eyes, knowing she had already begun thinking in his desired direction. He suppressed the irrepressible smile in his heart and continued sternly, "The principality is newly established, my troops are just sufficient to protect this land, but the weapons we prepared for warfare have significant surplus, and they are high-quality Beyonder gears, surely beneficial for the Anzu Kingdom’s military."
"There is no doubt," Victoria imdiately responded, "The Eastern Region’s People are battle-hardened, our Soldiers are hardly able to contend with them, but if equipped with powerful weapons, the situation would undoubtedly differ from now..."
"That would be ideal," Gawain nodded but then shifted his tone, "However, these Beyonder gears are not akin to ordinary sword, Cecil Clan spent a king’s ransom creating them, I can’t offer them to the Anzu Kingdom’s military for free."
Victoria anticipated this: "Of course—Beyonder gears are always scarce, even if they can be acquired with money, it’s a stroke of luck. But I’d like to know, what weapons do you have to offer to the Anzu Kingdom’s military, and how many?"
Gawain smiled slightly, standing up: "Co with , I think a practical demonstration would be more impactful."
Victoria followed Gawain’s steps; they left the feudal lord’s mansion and boarded a Magic-guided Vehicle, promptly departing the administrative district. After a brief drive, the surrounding buildings grew sparse, several sentinel towers gradually appeared in view.
They arrived at the weapons testing grounds located in the city’s northeastern direction.
Upon alighting, Victoria couldn’t resist glancing back at the vehicle they just rode—indeed, it was exceptionally efficient and swift, especially on the battlefield. It wouldn’t easily get startled like a warhorse and possessed a sturdy shell and great power. If equipped with crossbows, stationed archers and javelin throwers, or used for transporting supplies... that would be splendid!
While pondering, a young Knight approached Gawain and Victoria. It was Sir Philip, who had been inford in advance, and had prepared the test grounds: "My lords, everything is ready."
Gawain gestured for Sir Philip to lead the way, while Victoria temporarily curbed her thoughts. Accompanied by part of the attendant personnel, she followed Gawain and the young Knight, swiftly arriving at a cleared area, guarded by Soldiers.
She saw a Soldier approach Gawain with a long wooden box in hand. When the box was opened, inside was a single-handed Longsword with a dark blue blade, aesthetically pleasing yet imposing.
She had seen such a sword—in the hands of the female Knight nad Margarita, leaving a deep impression.
"This is a Beyonder gear infused with fire elental power, we call it lting Sword," Gawain picked up the Longsword, casually swung it a couple of tis, then pressed a chanism on the hilt before Victoria. The Longsword emitted a faint hum, and the blade swiftly turned red, with the air near the blade visibly distorting—causing Victoria to realize the sword’s incredible heat, "As witnessed, its heat blade is its power source. In normal dueling, it can effortlessly slice through any ordinary sword. Against light and dium tal Armor, it can cut through with one strike, though its effectiveness against heavily armored units might be limited—but the heat can continuously warm the heavy armored warriors, and its lethality remains deadly."
Victoria leaned closer; she accepted the Longsword handed by Gawain, feeling the astonishing heat emitted. But she felt more intensely the automatic operating Magic Power within the sword: "Does it not require Magic Power from its user?"
"Indeed, it’s a self-sustaining Beyonder gear. Anyone with training can use it."
A self-sustaining Beyonder gear—among the most expensive of its kind!
"No wonder the southern borders Noble Allied Army couldn’t match you," Victoria admired as she observed the deadly yet beautiful weapon in her hand, "If common Soldiers are equipped with Magic weapons, any army would beco terrifyingly formidable... How much does a sword like this cost?"
Gawain regarded Victoria’s reaction with satisfaction, quoting a price that left her stunned: "Only twenty Anzu Round Gold Coins—or seventeen Shield Gold Coins."
Victoria was astounded—it’s not that it was too expensive, but shockingly cheap!
Twenty Gold Coins for a sword; if it was an ordinary sword, it would certainly be expensive, since non-magical steel Longsword at most would cost two or three Gold Coins, no more than four even if crafted by master artisans. But if it’s a Beyonder weapon... Twenty Gold Coins wouldn’t even cover the materials sotis!
A Longsword with the most basic sharp enchanted symbol could be priced over a hundred Gold Coins, and those with elental power could have their prices doubled, often unavailable even with money—because those who can craft magic weapons are influential Transcendents, who themselves aren’t short of money. To commission them to craft weapons requires not just money, but enough reputation and standing.
Yet in Cecil Clan, a Longsword infused with elental power is just twenty Gold Coins... and such swords are mass-produced.
"Is this price inappropriate?"
Gawain’s voice prompted Victoria to snap back to reality, she shook her head: "No, it’s actually much... cheaper than I imagined."
"The low price is due to certain flaws," Gawain chuckled, "As you must already know, many of the Cecil Clan’s Beyonder gears are mass-produced. However, to mass-produce objects with Magic Power, we have to make certain compromises in quality—when used normally, the sword in your hand has no difference in power compared to real Beyonder gears, but the Magic Capacitor buried within its hilt will break down after a certain period, at which point it turns into an ordinary weapon."
"No wonder it’s so cheap..." Victoria remarked in a mont of realization, then couldn’t help but ask concernedly, "What happens after the Magic chanism in the sword handle is damaged?"
"It can be replaced—to compensate for the quality deficiencies, many of its components are detachable and replaceable," Gawain smiled, "Don’t worry, the Magic chanisms are even cheaper, a new Magic Capacitor costs only a Shield Gold Coin, and if you’re concerned that an ordinary Soldier would improperly replace it and damage other key structures of the sword, you can send them back, and we’ll replace them for free."
"Only a Gold Coin?" Victoria confird, and upon receiving a definitive answer, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Seems... quite cost-effective? Although the long-term accumulation of costs for continuously replacing Magic chanisms may beco significant, compared to buying a real Beyonder gear, this kind of "lting Sword" is still way cheaper.
Afterward, more weapon samples available for sale were brought before Gawain and Victoria.
Gawain commanded the Soldier to demonstrate those weapons on-site, while he introduced them one by one:
"This is a heat-ray gun, capable of firing Scorching Ray, though its range is much shorter than that of regular Scorching Ray, less than a hundred ters, but it already surpasses many bows in range, and its power is far beyond what bows can match. Of course, it’s also a cheap, mass-produced Beyonder gear, and its focusing array is prone to damage—you’re a Mage, you should know this is an unavoidable situation. But you don’t have to worry, the focusing array is very cheap as well..."
"Crystal Grenade, reliable in power—you don’t need to worry about its lifespan, it’s a consumable itself, but it’s definitely cheaper and easier to carry compared to a blasting scroll."
"Magic Armor, excellent defensive asures are equally important to Soldiers, and I believe you also don’t want Soldiers ard with a large amount of Gold Coins to easily die on the battlefield. This armor has multiple effective enchantnts, and the Power Core on the chest allows it to operate continuously for four hours, which is enough to handle most battles. The effects of its various enchantnts rely on the rune trigger in the armor’s slots to generate, in other words, changing or adding rune trigger alters the armor’s magic resistance, which can cope with extrely complex battlefield situations, allowing Soldiers to effectively confront whatever the enemy is."
"What’s the value of this armor?" Victoria couldn’t help but interrupt Gawain’s words, in this armor, she saw a unique design concept—though she did not know this design concept was called "modular", it didn’t hinder her from taking great interest in the Magic Armor.
"It’s free." Gawain said with a faint smile.
Victoria thought she was hallucinating, "Fr... Free?!"
"Yes, the armor is free, because it has different combination thods, making it really difficult to price, so we only sell the rune trigger, the Anzu Kingdom’s military can order specific types of rune triggers as needed, just buy enough three kinds, and the armor can be donated as a free gift. If you buy a whole set of rune triggers, you can also get three additional Crystal Grenades for free."
Victoria felt she heard a lot of unheard-of terms from Gawain’s mouth, but the anings of these terms were not hard to understand, just required so thinking to keep up with Gawain’s pace—she tried hard to catch up with this pace, and then felt... seed quite appropriate?
Everything was reasonable—the Cecil Clan indeed realized the mass production of Beyonder gears, but their mass production ca at a cost, the cost was that the quality of weapons couldn’t compare with real Beyonder gears, they always had various critical components that were prone to damage, then had to be replaced, but those components themselves weren’t very expensive either...
Victoria pondered, then asked, "How many sets of such equipnt can you provide? A whole set of weapons and armor, not counting those Crystal Grenades?"
Gawain estimated the efficiency of the production line and the current inventory, and stated a conservative number, "Before spring, ten thousand sets should be no problem."
Ten thousand...
This was the first ti Victoria heard such a unit used to describe the quantity of Beyonder gears in her life.
She felt her heart pounding, the role a military equipped with ten thousand sets of Beyonder gears could play continuously simulated in her mind, but after the initial excitent subsided, she imdiately realized how vast a sum of money this would require.
The Cecil Clan’s Beyonder gears were indeed very cheap in unit price, almost just a fraction compared to normal Beyonder gears, but...
Their quantity unit was "ten thousand."
That number was quite daunting.
And this did not yet account for the subsequent cost of replacing those fragile components, maintenance, and upkeep costs, although there’s no definite data now, Victoria instinctively sensed that it was also going to be a large sum.
"We perhaps... don’t have enough Gold Coins," Victoria said a bit in difficulty, initially a little embarrassed, but considering the person before her was her elder, as a junior, the embarrassnt dissipated considerably, and she candidly stated the current difficulties of the military of Anzu Kingdom, "The Eastern Territory Rebels occupied one of the wealthiest areas on the Plains of the Holy Spirits, and the past six months of war have already consud a large part of the military’s reserves."
"Ah..." Gawain showed a hint of difficulty, furrowing his brow in thought, he pondered for several minutes, just as Victoria was about to speak, he finally sighed deeply, "But the price I ntioned is already the cost price, you should know, magic materials and Mages don’t fall from the sky... Let’s do this, you can use half Gold Coins, half raw materials to offset, will that work?"
Victoria blinked: "Half Gold Coins, half raw materials?"
"Iron ore, crystal ore, purple copper, quartz... These common materials are all acceptable, deducted at market price to offset the cost," Gawain said, "This is already the biggest concession I can make—I am going to deliver heaps of Beyonder gears to the battlefield on the Plains of the Holy Spirits, all of them were manufactured with resources from the southern borders."
Victoria contemplated, quickly calculating all the data in her mind—she could only estimate, estimating whether the Anzu Kingdom could afford such a still enormous expenditure, finally after adding in a portion of the taxes and mineral resources from the northern parts, she finally managed it.
For Anzu.
"Deal."
User Comments
0 comments from readers