Unlike the Sacred Alliance, the Free city-state's trade policy had always been relatively open and popular with businessmen, which could be seen from the number of ships docked at the docks. Gudilesi University City had a total of six docks, but even so, there were still many new ships that couldn't enter the port without waiting in line. There were only two docks in Port Sethevia, one of which was still in a semi-abandoned state most of the time, and there were few ships docked in the port.
Usually, the docks of Gudilesi University City would be very busy, with all kinds of ships loading and unloading, setting sail and returning to the port. However, the weather was bad today, and there were fewer ships leaving the port. Many cargo ships decided to wait for the fog to disperse before setting sail. Fearing that an accident might happen, the captain of Rob's ship had already ordered to lower the sail and use oars to slow down the ship and reduce the risk of colliding with other ships.
Fortunately, the Marian Lighthouse was erected on the coastline of Gudilesi University City.
The lighthouses in ordinary ports generally used charcoal for illumination, which could provide a limited range of vision. In such extreme weather as today, it was difficult for the light generated by burning charcoal to penetrate the fog.
In order to overcome this problem, the dwarves had specially developed a new type of oil lamp, which used whale oil instead of charcoal as the main fuel. The flame produced was purer and the illumination effect was better. Even on a stormy night, ships several nautical miles away could see the light from the lighthouse.
The dwarves proudly called their lighthouse artificial Wagra. Wagra meant bright moon in the dwarven language, but compared with the Marian Lighthouse in Gudilesi University City, the artificial Wagra that the dwarves were proud of instantly became an artificial firefly.
To quote a traveler who had been to Gudilesi University City, "The Marian Lighthouse is a unique miracle in the history of navigation and another incredible product of human magic civilization. Anyone who sees it for the first time will feel nothing but shock. Its light shines everywhere in the strait, even across the strait to the dwarves' port of Puerto Rico. Any light source is dim and colorless in front of it. I even suspect that you can see it anywhere on the sea. To be honest, I actually don't understand why those mages made this thing so bright. When the light shines on my face, I feel like my eyes are going to be blinded!"
The Marian Lighthouse had a history of more than 1,200 years. It existed even before the emergence of the Free city-state. At that time, the Marian Lighthouse was not yet called its current name. It was just an ordinary small lighthouse beside Gudilesi University City. Its main function was to provide positioning and rescue for nearby fishermen.
Before the appearance of mages, Gudilesi University City was not as large as it is today. However, because of the free and relaxed environment and strong academic atmosphere, many scholars, painters, and musicians were attracted to live and study here. However, because of the relatively ordinary congenital conditions of the city, there were almost no special products to show, and there were no resources to mine around.
Therefore, this rather cultured port city was not very valued by merchants at that time, and there were not many merchant ships coming and going. This situation did not gradually change until Roland founded the Academy of Magic. More and more people with magic talent gathered in Gudilesi University City from all over the world. The large influx of population caused the output of the university city itself to be unable to keep up, which indirectly provided business opportunities for merchants.
Therefore, in the following period of time, merchant ships began to transport ship after ship of goods to Gudilesi University City in exchange for bags of gold coins. On the other hand, the skyrocketing population also brought more employment opportunities. Like ordinary people, mages also needed food, entertainment, and consumption. At the same time, if they wanted to do experiments, they also needed a lot of materials.
Of course, merchants could bring goods from other places to sell, but whether it was by land or by sea, they had to consider the transportation cost. In order to get more profits, more and more merchants began to consider setting up local workshops for some goods that could be produced locally, which, to some extent, revitalized the university city's economy.
Gudilesi University City became the largest port on the southern coast after the emergence of magic devices, or more precisely, the second type of magic devices that could be used by ordinary people. Gradually, humans mastered the elusive power of magic, and its mysterious veil was lifted little by little.
The emergence of non-combat magic devices such as magic lamps was an important milestone in the history of magic, which meant that magic began to enter the lives of ordinary people.
Of course, until today, most of the people who could afford this type of magic devices were nobles, but this didn't stop the second type of magic devices from becoming the most popular commodity in the entire Dawn Continent.
Even though humans later listed magic devices as strategic items and strictly prohibited their outflow, some people still secretly smuggled the purchased magic devices to the dwarves and elves due to the huge potential profits.
In the recent decades, the Dawn Continent welcomed a rare period of peace. Time eased the hatred and trauma caused by wars, and the interactions and exchanges between different races became more frequent. Underground activities such as smuggling became more and more rampant. Sometimes, in order to make up for part of the trade deficit and control the outflow of gold, the rulers would also indulge this part of the gray trade to a certain extent.
In short, the emergence of magic items such as magic scrolls successfully transformed the Gudilesi University City from a pure commodity market to a two-way trade port with both import and export goods. Finally, it became the economic and cultural center of the Free City-State.
At this point, the small lighthouse was no longer enough. Later, someone proposed to expand and modify the lighthouse and invited a mage to participate in the project to solve the problem of light source. The mage lived up to everyone's expectations. After countless experiments, he finally created a new type of magic light source that was very bright and penetrating. On this basis, people built the first Marian Lighthouse.
However, probably because the Marian Lighthouse had a strong presence in the dark, it was destroyed by the giant war puppets summoned by the dwarves with alchemy not long after the Second Magic War broke out.
After the war, the Magic Association took the lead and the local nobles and merchants contributed money and labor to rebuild the Marian Lighthouse on the original site.
As a matter of fact, the new Marian Lighthouse had almost nothing in common other than its name and the old lighthouse. This time, the Magic Association had gathered the wisdom of a group of top-notch Mages and developed an unparalleled super light source. The brightness of the super light source reached an incomparably terrifying level under the enhancement of hundreds of magic circles. It directly penetrated the entire strait and shot at the dwarves on the other side, leaving them dumbfounded.
However, in most cases, well, the Marian Lighthouse was indeed a bit too bright. It even affected the sleep of the residents in several nearby towns, including the Gudilesi University City.
After all, no one wanted to see a small sun hanging outside their window every night. Later, the Magic Association had to modify it for the second time.
Now, the brightness of the Marian Lighthouse would change with the distance. Once it entered within 10 nautical miles of the Gudilesi University City, the brightness of the Marian Lighthouse would weaken, and the closer it was, the lower the brightness would be. In the end, it would only be as bright as an ordinary lighthouse. On the contrary, the Marian Lighthouse could still guide the passing ships from 10 nautical miles away.
In addition, in order to prevent the previous incident from happening again, the mages also built a perfect defense system for the Marian Lighthouse, which was enough to withstand the bombardment of a Supreme Magus for a whole day. Now, the Marian Lighthouse had become a defensive shield on the coastline of the Gudilesi University City.
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