Weapons and equipment?
Victoria's heart skipped a beat when she heard Gwen's words.
The situation was not out of her expectations. Everything was as she had speculated in the past few days — Cecil was short of money.
In the past three days, Victoria had used various methods to investigate the situation in the south. Although she could not directly contact the government officials or leave the city, she could get in touch with Cecil's market, read their newspapers, hear the voices in the streets and alleys, and even see the magic projection twice. The people of Cecil called this magic "program." From these publicly available information, she could infer a lot of useful things.
Cecil's development was very rapid. Gwen? Cecil, the founding hero who had lived through the Gondor period, seemed to be using his knowledge from seven hundred years ago to build this land. He had started several projects of astonishing scale, including the redistribution of the entire population of the south and the construction of several new cities at the same time. And such large-scale projects undoubtedly required an amazing amount of wealth.
The new Cecil Dukedom should be very tight financially. This was the conclusion that Victoria had inferred in the past few days of investigation.
And long before she arrived in the south, she had been thinking about what to use to appease and win over the founding duke. The "recognition" from the royal family, or all the "formal certification" from the contemporary nobles, was meaningless to the duke who was the source of orthodoxy. But after knowing that Cecil's finances might be tight, she thought she had found the best "gift."
And after seeing Cecil's extraordinary equipment, she did have a great interest in those things. She just did not know how to take the initiative to speak in this regard, but now it seemed that both sides needed each other, and this was the best situation.
"You should have seen my army and the rearmed Firmrock Fortress." Gwen saw the little change in Victoria's eyes that ordinary people could not detect and knew that she was thinking in his direction. He held back the unbearable smile in his heart and continued to say, "The dukedom has just been established, and my army is only enough to protect this land. But we have a lot of weapons prepared for war. Those are all excellent extraordinary equipment, and they must be very helpful to the royal army."
"There is no doubt about that," Victoria said at once. "The people of the east are good at war, and our soldiers can't fight against them. But if we have a batch of powerful weapons, the situation will be different from now …"
"That's great." Gwen nodded, but then changed the topic. "But extraordinary equipment is different from ordinary swords. The Cecil family spent a lot of money to make them. I can't give them to the royal army for free."
Victoria was not surprised. "Of course — extraordinary equipment has always been rare. It's great if you can buy it with money. But I want to know, what weapons do you have that you can sell to the royal army, and how many? "
Gwen smiled and stood up. "Come with me. I think a practical demonstration will leave a deeper impression on you."
Victoria followed Gwen's footsteps. They left the liege's residence and took the arcanotech car directly out of the administrative district. After a while, the surrounding buildings gradually became sparse, and a few watchtowers came into view.
They came to the weapons testing site at the northeast of the city.
After getting off the car, Victoria could not help but look back at the vehicle that she had just taken. It was a very convenient and fast thing, especially on the battlefield. It would not be easily frightened like a warhorse, and it had a sturdy shell and great strength. If they could install ballistas, arrange for archers and javelin throwers, or use it to transport food … how good would that be?
While she was thinking, a young Knight had come to Gwen and Victoria. It was Philip, who had been informed in advance and was ready at the testing site. "My lords, everything is ready."
Gwen motioned for Philip to lead the way. Victoria held back her thoughts for the time being. Accompanied by some of the entourage, she followed Gwen and the young Knight, and soon came to an empty space guarded by soldiers.
She saw a soldier coming to Gwen. The soldier was holding a long wooden box in his hand. When the box was opened, there was a beautiful and imposing one-handed longsword with a dark blue blade.
She had seen this sword before — it was in the hands of the female Knight named Margarita. It left a deep impression on her.
"This is an extraordinary weapon with the power of the fire element. We call it the Molten Sword." Gwen picked up the longsword and waved it twice. Then he pressed a mechanism on the hilt in front of Victoria. The longsword immediately hummed softly, and its blade quickly turned red. The air around the blade instantly showed visible distortions. This made Victoria realize the amazing heat on the blade. "As you can see, its high-temperature blade is the source of its power. Under normal circumstances, it can easily cut any ordinary sword and light, and it can also cut light and medium metal armor in half. It may not be so effective against heavy armored units, but its heat can continuously heat the armor of heavy armored warriors, and its lethality is still fatal."
Victoria leaned closer and took the sword from Gawain. She could feel the incredible heat radiating from the sword, but she could also feel the magic power running automatically inside the sword. "It doesn't require any magic power from the user?" she asked.
"Yes, this is a self-sustaining extraordinary weapon. As long as they are trained, even ordinary people can use it."
A self-sustaining extraordinary weapon — this was the most expensive of all extraordinary weapons!
"No wonder the Southern Noble Alliance was no match for you." Victoria looked at the deadly and beautiful weapon in her hand with admiration. "If ordinary soldiers can be equipped with magical weapons, any army will become extremely terrifying … How much is a sword like this worth?"
Gawain looked at Victoria's reaction with satisfaction and said a price that left the other party dumbfounded, "Only 20 Ansu Yuan gold coins, or 17 shield gold coins."
Victoria was shocked — it was not too expensive, but too cheap!!
Twenty gold coins for a sword. If it was an ordinary sword, of course, it would be very expensive, because a steel longsword without magic power was only worth two or three gold coins at most. Even if it was made by a famous blacksmith, the price would not exceed four gold coins. But if it was an extraordinary weapon … Sometimes, twenty gold coins was not even enough to pay for the materials!
A longsword with the simplest sharpness enchantment could be sold for hundreds of gold coins, while the price of a sword with elemental power would double. Moreover, in many cases, even if one had the money, one might not necessarily be able to buy an extraordinary weapon that met the requirements. That was because those who could create magical weapons were extraordinary individuals with extraordinary statuses. Extraordinary individuals did not lack money in the first place, and if one wanted to hire them to create a weapon, one must have sufficient status and position in addition to money.
But in Cecil, a longsword with elemental power only cost twenty gold coins … and this kind of sword was mass-produced.
"Is this price not right?"
Gwen's voice woke Victoria up. She shook her head and said, "No, in fact, it's … much cheaper than I thought."
"It's cheap because it has certain defects." Gwen laughed. "You should already know that many of Cecil's extraordinary weapons are mass-produced. But to mass-produce things with magic power, we have to make a certain compromise in quality. The sword in your hand is no different from a real extraordinary weapon when it's used normally, but the magic capacitor buried in the hilt will be damaged after a period of time, and then it will become an ordinary weapon."
"No wonder it's so cheap …" Victoria looked enlightened, and then could not help but ask, "What happens after the magic mechanism in the hilt is damaged?"
"It can be replaced. In order to make up for the defects in quality, many of its parts can be removed and replaced." Gwen smiled. "Don't worry, the magic mechanism is cheaper. The new magic capacitor only costs one gold coin, and if you are worried that ordinary soldiers will not replace it well and cause damage to the sword and other key components, you can send them back, and we will replace them for free."
"Only one gold coin?" Victoria confirmed. After getting a positive answer, she could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
It seemed … quite worth it? Although the constant replacement of the magic mechanism may cost a lot of money over a long period of time, compared to buying a real extraordinary weapon, the "Molten Cutter Sword" was too cheap.
After that, more samples of weapons that could be sold were sent to Gawain and Victoria.
Gwen ordered the soldiers to demonstrate the weapons on the spot, and he introduced them one by one.
"This is a heat ray gun. It can shoot heat rays. Although the range is much shorter than ordinary heat rays, less than 100 meters, it has exceeded many bows and arrows, and the power is not comparable to bows and arrows. Of course, it is also a cheap, mass-produced extraordinary weapon. Its focus array is easily damaged. You are a mage, so you should know that this is unavoidable. But you don't have to worry, the focus array is also very cheap … "
"The Crystal Grenade has reliable power. You don't have to worry about its lifespan. It is a consumable, but it is definitely cheaper and easier to carry than explosive scrolls."
"Enchanted armor. Excellent defensive means are equally important to soldiers, and I believe you don't want soldiers who spend a lot of gold coins to arm themselves to die easily on the battlefield. This armor has a variety of effective enchantments. The power core in the chest allows it to run for four hours, which is enough to deal with most battles. Its various enchantment effects are generated by the rune boards in the slots of the armor. In other words, changing the rune boards or increasing or decreasing the rune boards can change the magic resistance of the armor. This can be used to deal with very complicated battlefield situations. No matter what the enemy is, the soldiers can effectively resist them. "
"How much is this armor worth?" Victoria could not help but interrupt Gwen. She saw a different design concept in this armor. Although she did not know that this design concept was called "modularization," it did not prevent her from having a great interest in the enchanted armor.
"It's free," Gawain said with a faint smile.
Victoria thought that she was hallucinating. "Free … Free?!"
"Yes, the armor is free. Because it has different combinations, it is not easy to set a price. So we only sell the rune boards. The Royal Army can order specific rune boards according to their needs. As long as three types are bought, the armor can be given as a free gift. If you buy a full set of rune boards, you can also get three additional crystal grenades. "
Victoria felt that she had heard a lot of words that she had never heard of before from Gawain, but the meaning of these words was not difficult to understand. She just needed to think for a while to keep up with Gawain's pace. She tried her best to keep up with his pace, and then felt that... it seemed to be very appropriate?
Everything was reasonable. Cecil's people had indeed achieved the mass production of Extraordinary equipment, but they had to pay a price. The price was that the quality of the weapons could not be compared to the real Extraordinary equipment. They always had key parts that were easily damaged and had to be replaced, but the price of those parts was not very high …
Victoria muttered, and then asked, "How many sets of such equipment can you provide? One set of weapons and armor, not counting the crystal grenades. "
Gwen estimated the efficiency of the production line and the existing inventory, and gave a conservative number. "Ten thousand sets before spring is not a problem."
Ten thousand …
That was the first time Victoria heard the unit used to describe the number of Extraordinary equipment.
She felt her heart pounding as she ran simulations in her mind about the effects of an army built from ten thousand sets of extraordinary equipment. Still, when she calmed down from her initial excitement, she quickly realized that it would require a huge sum of money.
The price of Cecil's Extraordinary equipment was indeed very cheap, and was almost a fraction of the price of normal Extraordinary equipment, but …
The unit of their quantity was' ten thousand '.
That number was more terrifying.
And that did not include the subsequent replacement of the fragile parts and the consumption of maintenance. Although there was no exact data, Victoria instinctively felt that it would be a large sum of money.
"I'm afraid … we don't have so many gold coins," Victoria said, a little embarrassed. She was a little embarrassed at first, but considering that the person in front of her was her elder, the embarrassment of being a junior was mostly dispelled. She straightforwardly stated the current difficulties of the royal army. "The rebels in the east have occupied one of the richest areas in the Plains of the Holy Spirit, and the war in the past six months has consumed a lot of the reserves of the royal army."
"Is that so …" Gwen looked a little embarrassed. He frowned and pondered for a few minutes. Just as Victoria was about to speak, he sighed. "But what I've said is the cost price. You should know that magic materials and mages don't just fall from the sky … How about this, you can use half of the gold coins and the other half of the raw materials. Is that okay?"
Victoria blinked. "Half of the gold coins and the other half of the raw materials?"
"Iron ore, crystal ore, copper, quartz … these common materials will do. You can use the market price to offset the payment," Gwen said. "This is the biggest concession I can make. I want to send a mountain of Extraordinary equipment to the battlefield in the Plains of the Holy Spirit. They are all made with the resources of the south."
Victoria pondered, quickly calculating all the data in her mind. She could only estimate whether the Royal Army could afford such a staggering expenditure. Finally, after adding in a portion of the Northern Territory's taxes and minerals, she finally managed to gather enough.
For Ansu.
"Deal."
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