Weapons and equipment?
Hearing Gawain’s words, Victoria couldn’t help but feel something in her heart.
The situation did not exceed expectations. Everything was just as she had speculated in the past few days - Cecil was short of money.
In the past three days, Victoria used various methods to investigate the situation in the south. Although she could not directly contact the staff of the Government Affairs Department, nor could she leave the city, she could contact The Cecil people's market, access to their newspapers, hearing the voices in the streets, and even seeing two magic projections - the Cecil people call this magic "programs" - can be made public from these She can deduce a lot of useful things from the information spread.
Cecil is developing very rapidly. Gawain Cecil, the founding hero who experienced the Gondor period, seems to be using his knowledge from seven hundred years ago to build this land. He started He carried out several projects of staggering scale, including redistributing the population of the entire southern border and building several new cities at the same time. Such large-scale projects undoubtedly required astonishing wealth to support them.
The newly born Cecil Principality should already be very financially strapped - this is the conclusion that Victoria deduced during the past few days of investigation.
Before arriving in the South, she had been thinking about what she could use to appease and win over the founding prince - "recognition" from the royal family, or anything from the contemporary nobility. Legitimacy certification" was meaningless to the Duke, who was itself a source of legitimacy, but knowing that Cecil's finances might be tight, she thought she had found the best "gift."
And after seeing the extraordinary equipment of the Cecil people, she did become very interested in those things. She just didn’t know how to take the initiative to speak out in this regard, but now it seems... Both sides need each other, and this is the best situation.
"You should have seen my army and the re-armed Rock Fortress." Gawain looked at the little changes in Victoria's eyes that ordinary people could not detect, and knew that the other party was already following him. Thinking in this direction, he suppressed the unbearable smile in his heart and continued to say solemnly, "The principality was initially established. My army is only enough to protect this land, but we have a lot of surplus weapons prepared to deal with the war. These are high-quality extraordinary weapons, which must be very helpful to the king."
"There is no doubt about it," Victoria said immediately, "The people from the East are good at fighting, ours. It is difficult for soldiers to fight against them, but if there is a batch of powerful weapons, the situation will definitely be different from now..."
"That would be great," Gawain nodded, but then the conversation changed. , "But extraordinary weapons are different from ordinary swords after all. The Cecil family spent a lot of money to build them. I can't give them to the Queen for free."
Victoria was not surprised by this: "Of course - extraordinary weapons have always been rare. If you can buy them with money, that would be a great thing. But I want to know,What weapons do you have that you can sell to Wang**, and how many are there? "
Gawain smiled slightly and stood up: "Follow me, I think the actual display will impress you more. ”
Victoria followed Gawain’s footsteps. They left the Lord’s Mansion and took the magic vehicle directly out of the administrative district. After a period of driving, the surrounding buildings gradually became sparse, with several outposts The tower appeared in sight.
They arrived at the weapons testing site in the northeast of the city.
After getting off the bus, Victoria couldn't help but look back at the vehicle she had just taken. Transportation - this is really a very convenient and fast thing, especially on the battlefield. It will not be easily frightened like a war horse, and it has a solid shell and huge strength. If you install a ballista on the vehicle and arrange archers And harpooners, or use them to transport food and fodder... How good would that be?
While thinking, a young knight has come to Gawain and Victoria. This is to be informed in advance, during the experiment? Philip, who was ready on the court: "Two adults, everything is ready. ”
Gawain motioned to Philip to lead the way, while Victoria temporarily restrained her thoughts. Accompanied by part of her entourage, she followed Gawain and the young knight, and soon came to a place that had been cleared in advance. There was an open space guarded by soldiers.
She saw a soldier walking up to Gawain. The soldier was holding a long wooden box in his hand. After the wooden box was opened, there was a weapon with a secret inside. A one-handed long sword with a blue blade and a beautiful shape without losing its momentum.
She had seen this kind of sword before - in the hands of the female knight named Margarita, she liked it. Impressed.
"This is an extraordinary weapon with the power of the fire element. We call it the Melting Sword." Gawain picked up the sword, waved it twice casually, and then pressed the sword in front of Victoria. There was a mechanism on the handle, and the long sword immediately made a very slight buzz, and its blade quickly turned red, and the air near the blade instantly showed distortions visible to the naked eye - this made Victoria realize The amazing heat on the blade, "As you can see, its high-heat blade is the source of its power. Under normal slashing conditions, it can easily cut through any ordinary sword, as well as light and medium metal armor. It can also be cut in two, which may not be so effective against heavily armored units - but its heat can continuously heat the armor of heavily armored warriors, and the lethality is still fatal. "
Victoria came closer. She took the long sword handed over by Gawain. She felt the amazing heat emitted by the latter, but even more felt the magic power of the sword's internal automatic operation: "It's very useful when using it. Doesn't the person need magic power? "
"Yes, this is a self-sustaining extraordinary weapon that ordinary people can use as long as they are trained. "
Self-sustaining extraordinary weapons - this is the most expensive type of extraordinary weapons!
"No wonder the coalition of southern nobles is not your opponent," Victoria looked at her hand in admiration Hit by this fatalBeautiful weapons, "If ordinary soldiers can also be equipped with magic weapons, any army will become extremely terrifying... How much is such a sword worth?"
Gawain looked at Victoria's with satisfaction. In response, Victoria said a price that stunned the other party: "Only twenty ansu gold coins - or seventeen gold shield coins."
Victoria was shocked - not too expensive, but too cheap ! !
Twenty gold coins buy a sword. If it is an ordinary sword, it is certainly very expensive, because a stainless steel sword without magic is only worth two or three gold coins at most. Even if it is made by a famous craftsman, the price It can't exceed four gold coins, but if it's an extraordinary weapon... twenty gold coins sometimes aren't even enough for materials!
A long sword with the simplest sharpness enchantment can be sold for hundreds of gold coins, while the price of a sword with elemental power can even double, and in many cases, Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy extraordinary weapons that meet the requirements - because those who can make magic weapons are extraordinary people with transcendent status. Extraordinary people themselves are not short of money. If you want to ask them to build weapons, in addition to money, There must also be sufficient identity and status.
But in Cecil, a long sword with elemental power only costs twenty gold coins... and this kind of sword is still mass-produced.
"Isn't this price appropriate?"
Gawain's voice woke Victoria up, and she shook her head: "No, it's actually much cheaper than I thought... "
"It's cheap because it has certain flaws," Gawain laughed. "You should already know that many of Cecil's extraordinary weapons are mass-produced, but they must have magical powers. To mass-produce something, we must make certain compromises on quality - the sword in your hand is no different in power from a real extraordinary weapon when used normally, but the magic capacitor embedded in its hilt will deteriorate after a period of time. It will be damaged, and then it will become an ordinary weapon."
"No wonder it is so cheap..." Victoria looked stunned, and then couldn't help but ask with concern, "That sword hilt. What happens after the magic mechanism inside is damaged? "
"It can be replaced - in order to make up for quality defects, many of its parts can be disassembled and replaced," Gawain smiled, "Don't worry, that The magic mechanism is cheaper. The new magic capacitor only costs one round gold coin. And if you are worried that ordinary soldiers cannot replace it and other key structures of the sword will be damaged, you can send them back and we will replace them for you for free."
"Just one gold coin?" Victoria confirmed, and after receiving a positive answer, she couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems... quite a bargain? Although the constant replacement of magic organs may require a large amount of money over a long period of time, compared to purchasing a truly extraordinary weapon, this "melting sword" is still too cheap.
After that, more weapons samples that could be sold were sent to Gawain and Victoria.
HighWen ordered the soldiers to demonstrate the weapons on the spot, and he introduced them one by one beside him:
"This is a thermal energy ray gun. It can emit scorching rays. Although the range is much shorter than ordinary scorching rays, it can only reach less than 100 meters, but it has surpassed many bows and arrows, and its power is not comparable to that of bows and arrows. Of course, it is also a cheap mass-produced extraordinary weapon, and its focusing array is easily damaged - you are a mage, you should know this. But you don’t have to worry about it, the focusing array is also very cheap..."
"Crystal grenade, reliable power - you don’t have to worry about the service life of this one, it is a consumable item, but It is definitely cheaper and easier to carry than the Explosion Scroll."
"Magic armor and excellent defense are equally important to soldiers, and I believe you don't want to spend a lot of gold coins to arm soldiers on the battlefield. It is easy to die. This armor has a variety of effective enchantments, and the power core on the chest can keep it running for four hours, which is enough to deal with most battles. Its various enchantment effects rely on the various slots in the armor. It is produced by the rune substrate in it. In other words, changing the rune substrate or adding or subtracting the rune substrate can change the magic resistance of the armor. This can cope with very complex battlefield situations. No matter what the enemy is, the soldiers can effectively Fight against it."
"How much is this armor worth?" Victoria couldn't help interrupting Gawain. She saw a unique design idea in this armor—— Although she didn't know that this design idea was called "modularity," it didn't stop her from becoming interested in magic armor.
"Free." Gawain said two words with a faint smile.
Victoria thought she was hallucinating: "Free...free?!"
"Yes, the armor is free because it has different combinations and is really not easy to price. So we only sell rune substrates. Wang** can order specific types of rune substrates according to his needs. As long as he buys three types, the armor can be given as a free gift. If he buys a complete set of rune substrates, he can also get three additional ones. "A crystal grenade."
Victoria felt like she heard a lot of unheard words from Gawain, but the meaning of these words was not difficult to understand. It just took some thinking to keep up with Gawain's rhythm. —She tried her best to keep up with the rhythm, and then it felt...it seemed appropriate?
Everything is reasonable - the Cecil people have indeed achieved mass production of extraordinary weapons, but their mass production requires a price. The price is that the quality of the weapons cannot be compared with the real extraordinary weapons. Than, they always have some key parts that are easily damaged and then have to be replaced, but the prices of those parts themselves are not very high...
Victoria pondered, and then asked: "You can How many sets of such equipment are provided? One set of weapons and armor, not counting those crystal grenades." Gao Wen estimated the efficiency of the production line and the existing inventory.He said a conservative number: "Before spring, ten thousand sets will be no problem."
Ten thousand...
This is the first time in Victoria's life that she heard this Use this unit to describe the number of extraordinary weapons.
She felt her heart pounding, and the role that an army of 10,000 sets of extraordinary weapons could play was constantly being deduced in her mind, but after the initial excitement calmed down, she immediately Realized how much money this would cost.
The Cecil people’s extraordinary weapons are indeed very cheap in unit price, almost a fraction compared to normal extraordinary weapons, but...
Their quantity unit is " Ten thousand".
This number is quite scary.
And this does not include the subsequent replacement of wearing parts and maintenance costs. Although there is no exact data yet, Victoria instinctively feels that it is probably a lot of money.
"I'm afraid... we don't have so many gold coins," Victoria said with some embarrassment. She was a little embarrassed at first, but considering that she was her elder in front of her, the embarrassment of being a junior was mostly eliminated, and she was straightforward. Speaking of Wang **'s current difficulties, "The rebels in the east have occupied one of the richest areas on the Holy Spirit Plain, and the war in the past six months has consumed a large amount of Wang **'s reserves."
"That's it..." Gawain showed a look of embarrassment. He frowned and began to think. He thought for several minutes. When Victoria was about to speak, he let out a long sigh, " But what I said is the cost price. You should know that magic materials and mages do not fall from the sky... Well, you can use half the gold coins and half the raw materials to pay for it. Is that okay?"
Victoria blinked: "Half gold coins and half raw materials?"
"Iron ore, crystal ore, copper, quartz... these common materials can be converted into market prices to offset the payment," Gao Wen said, "This is the biggest concession I can make - I want to send mountains of extraordinary weapons to the battlefield of the Holy Spirit Plains. They are all made with resources from the southern border."
Victoria was thinking, quickly calculating all the data in her mind - she could only estimate whether the king could afford such an astonishing expense, and finally filled in some of the taxes and minerals from the North. , she finally had enough.
For Ansu.
"Deal."