Nagas are amphibious and are very useful characters both underwater and in the water.
But the Naga Kingdom is not a very large country.
The main reason is because Naga, like orcs, are tribal.
In order to compete with the human empire, the fortress camp and other forces, the stronghold reluctantly formed a unified regime.
But even so, the Beast King only has the power to mobilize each tribe. At most, he can appoint officials from the royal court, but the major tribes still listen to the clan leaders.
And compared with the ground, the vast sea is vaster.
In the sea, Naga also has its own opponents, such as the legendary mermaid, the terrifying sea beast Leviathan, etc.
No matter civilization or innate geographical conditions, no such terrifying maritime empire is allowed to exist in the sea.
So, there are actually many Naga kingdoms. Basically, a tribe can be called a kingdom.
They are independent and not unified. They may still have a hostile relationship with other Nagas. They call them kingdoms to show respect and elevate each other's status.
Tribes are generally a symbol of barbarism. Anyway, humans and elves who claim to be civilized don't think much of the word tribe.
The mission is not large, about 3 or 50 people, plus Wei Yihong and his guards, as well as several accompanying people from Naga Town.
There are only less than ten people from the Naga Kingdom, including 6 eight-armed Nagas and 2 Naga Sword Masters with the same eight arms but holding a machete.
The eight-armed Nagas are four men and two women, and the two Naga Sword Masters are one man and one woman, but they are all protectors. The one with the highest status is guarded in the middle, and there are only two-armed Nagas. Naga Siren.
The Naga clan is very good in physical combat, but relatively speaking, their magic ability is a bit weak.
This caused them to suffer a great loss in the competition with the mermaids and sea dragons who were good at water spells, and they were even gradually driven to the land.
After all, no matter how fast you swim in the water, you will be beaten back by a waterspout when you get close to the enemy. You will be beaten so many times in vain, and countless people will die in the charge. Too much to take.
On the contrary, on land, the Naga tribe can often be invincible at the same level by virtue of their superb sword skills and more arms than ordinary creatures.
But Naga, who had suffered enough from spell losses, directly hooked up with the wizards in the tower.
The Nagas provide melee protection for the mages, while the mages are responsible for teaching the Nagas magic knowledge.
It's a pity that the mages are very happy to give money, but they are not so concerned about cultivating magic talents.
There is no other way but to blame the Nagas for being too useful. How could those smart mages not know that once the Naga tribe gives birth to a large number of magic talents, the mages in the tower will have no leverage.
So, when the tower was invaded by demons, the response of the Naga tribe was also very dull, which can be regarded as interconnected.
“My dear Princess, please allow me to introduce you.
This person is the owner of this grassland, the Lord of Qingfeng City, Your Excellency Xu Lai.”
Knowing Xu Lai's preferences, Wei Yihong no longer mentioned Xu Lai's so-called baron status.
After that, Wei Yihong said to Xu Lai: "My respected lord, this beautiful lady is Her Royal Highness the Princess from the Deep Sea Kingdom, Emilia."
Emilia should She had been taught by the tower mages. She wore completely human female clothes, a beautiful dress that covered most of her tail.
Naga is different from a mermaid. A mermaid has a fish tail, and only the legs below the buttocks are fish-shaped. The mermaid's body is still convex up and down, which is very in line with human aesthetics.
Naga, on the other hand, has a snake's tail, and it starts from the waist and becomes a snake's tail, just like half a human body transplanted directly onto a bucket.
I wonder if this Naga lady has been so influenced by humans that even she doesn’t like her snake tail, which is all curled up in her wide dress.
It is quite rude to keep staring at others.
Although Xu Lai was very curious about the Naga species, he still restrained his gaze and only stared at the other person's eyes, mouth and other parts without moving his gaze downwards at all.
First of all, a knight salute was performed, and after the other party returned a mage salute, the meeting between the two parties officially began.
Of course, before that, Xu Lai had to welcome the other party to his castle, otherwise it would be really embarrassing for everyone to talk outside.
There is an atmosphere of scholars over there in the tower, and the gang of wizards are tinkering with weird things every day. There are countless puppet factories, which is quite a bit like the Industrial Revolution period.
The city-states on the empire side are a combination of ancient city-states and castles.
Outside is a large city, and in a corner of the city is a castle that is more tightly guarded and more private.
The Naga team is very interested in the empire's large cities, especially Xu Lai's Qingfeng City, which is still under construction.
Qingfeng City has demolished two city walls, but with the help of more construction workers, a taller and wider city wall is being built at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In addition to these workers coming and going, there are also caravans, mercenaries and guards that are constantly flowing in and out.
In addition, there is a large camp being built outside the city, temporary kitchens, and supply convoys that are constantly being transported.
The entire Qingfeng City seemed extremely busy.
In the current Qingfeng City, two city walls have been demolished, and the throughput is very fast, so there is no blockage.
The Naga team looked around.
Others were doing better. The little princess named Emilia was quite curious about everything and kept asking Wei Yihong in a low voice as he approached.
Seeing this, Xu Lai simply walked and introduced them to them.
For this reason, they deliberately took a detour to the big market first to let them see the business confidence of Qingfeng City.
People come here for business. Of course, they must first look at the market size of Qingfeng City.
After several constructions, the market is no longer as crude as it was before.
The big market occupies a large character, directly spanning two blocks. The location is the best, and the largest one is the store officially operated by Qingfeng City.
It includes two 5-story commercial buildings selling different products, as well as two large and small warehouses.
Wei Yihong pointed to the middle of the two commercial buildings and said:
"In the middle, we have reserved the space for a teahouse and a restaurant. We will start building it when there is free time. The business will be sure in the future. Not bad.
Moreover, we not only have a sales point here, there is also a livestock trading area at the end of this block.
But the place is too smelly, and you are definitely not interested in horses or anything like that, so I won’t take you to see it. After moving the horse market and cattle and sheep market outside the city, the environment will be much better. ”
Indeed, compared with the current environment of Qingfeng City, the immigrant population accounts for the majority, but there are not many restaurants.
If there are enough restaurants, I believe that The tavern owner didn’t dare to trick Xu Lai so blatantly.
“The shops on both sides are rented by the major chambers of commerce in the grassland. Those who are qualified to rent the shops are those with strong backgrounds. Chamber of Commerce.
We also have an area here that is specially prepared for mobile caravans. There are no such shops there, they are all temporary sheds. ”
Xu Lai himself has not been to the market a few times. This time he followed Naga's mission and he listened with interest.
Especially at the end, Wei Yihong also roughly mentioned the throughput scale of the large market, that is, the transaction volume.
This is not only what the Naga envoys are interested in, but it is also what Xu Lai is most interested in.
Wei Yihong has been away for more than a week. It took several days just to get there and back, and he also stayed in Naga Town for a few days.
Qingfeng City changes day by day. When Wei Yihong was here last time, Qingfeng City was just an ordinary city, but after more than a week, Qingfeng City has become a large castle-level city.
Xu Lai's ambitions are not small. He is not satisfied with ordinary large cities. He directly expands according to the standards of a very large city like Emerald City.
The data revealed by Wei Yihong is both outdated and reserved.
But even this is already an exaggeration. Just for the more than a hundred temporary stalls in the big market, plus the rent of more than twenty shops and large and small warehouses, it will take a month. Tens of thousands of gold coins. This is equivalent to the net profit after deducting Qingfeng City's own costs.
In addition, when operating in the big market, the major chambers of commerce and the caravans that come and go must pay taxes to Qingfeng City.
This money is not the largest income in the big market, the most income is from self-operated products, most of which were seized by Xu Lai, which is almost equivalent to zero cost.
But wars don’t happen every day, and if Qingfeng City’s business can be done well, taxes can be collected on the spot.
The amount of money was also large. Wei Yihong did not dare to disclose the specific number in front of Xu Lai. He only said that it ranked second. It was obviously more than tens of thousands of gold coins in rent, and it was There are many more of the above.
Finally, under the protection of Xu Lai's guards, several people entered Xu Lai's shop and took a look at the main products Xu Lai was selling.
The market is divided into two parts: buying and selling. Xu Lai has purchased a large number of soldiers, wood and ore resources for a long time, and the price is higher than the market price.
Most of this expenditure is purchased with the price of these goods after they are sold.
It’s still those things, the war horses can’t be seen here, the main items lined up here are high-quality weapons and armors that have been repolished and modified by the blacksmith shop.
The items on display are naturally of high quality, each piece of equipment is magic level, and the treasures are at least intermediate level or above.
The lobby on the first floor and the display cabinets on the second floor are both used for display.
But the goods stored on the second floor are more expensive, such as the best magic equipment, crystals, gems, and even the best resources such as fine gold and mithril on display.
On the third floor, there is an area for offices, receptions, and business negotiations.
After Emilia asked clearly, she thought that since this was a trading area, they could simply complete the transaction here first, and then go to the castle as guests.
There are several reception rooms in this building, and the one Wei Yihong took them to was the largest one in the whole building.
But even so, it is a bit embarrassing, because these Nagas are huge.
Don’t look at the total of 9 Nagas, plus several representatives from the Naga town, as well as Elvi, Roland, Wei Yihong and others from Xu Lai’s side, the huge room is no longer How much space is left.
Xu Lai took the lead and set an example, asking Roland and Elwe to wait outside the door.
Although Roland was worried, he was more obedient than Elvie. He went out in a good manner and personally visited the door for Xu.
Alvy, on the other hand, bit her lip and refused to go out, just leaning against the white wall next to the door.
Since she didn’t occupy a position, Xu Lai just went with her.
This made the Naga Mission members embarrassed.
Although they are coming from the territory of the human lords, our side definitely does not have the advantage.
But at least, this human lord is sincere enough. He would rather drive out all his guards than touch anyone on Naga's side.
In the huge room, there were nearly 20 people on Naga's side, but Xu Lai and Wei Yihong were the only two.
"Fa Men, why don't you go out first."
The eight-armed Naga called Fa Men looked at the two sword masters beside the little princess Naga and bowed He bowed and left with the remaining eight-armed naga.
Each of these eight-armed naga holds a weapon or armor. Not only does one person have to occupy the position of at least two people, but they also make a clanking sound when walking.
Seeing this, Xu Lai asked curiously: "Princess Emilia, I'm curious to ask, do you Nagas with so many arms usually fight?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Lai realized that he might have been a little reckless, and quickly apologized:
"I'm sorry, I'm just curious. I have no other meaning. You don't need to answer."
Two Nagas The sword masters all frowned, but Emilia covered her mouth and smiled:
"It doesn't matter. In fact, it's not just you. There should be many curious people.
If it is an untrained person, so many arms will inevitably collide. Even we Nagas must accept the extraordinary Rigorous training.
Even so, our tribe members are still often injured.
Also, Dear Mr. Xu Lai, I am just the daughter of a tribe leader in the Naga tribe. That’s all, I don’t deserve to be called your princess.”
Xu Lai smiled bitterly and said, “Let me call you Emilia, and you can call me Xu Lai, okay?”
Emilia said without any hesitation: "Of course there is no problem. I have lived in human society before, so just call me this."
Xu Lai smiled and said: "It's over there in the tower, right? Speaking of which, I also know several great mages over there in the tower.
Master Thoros and Master De'ai, I have received help from them."
I'm sorry, Xu Lai. Speaking of helping each other, they did help him anyway.
Xu Lai has never been to the towers for a day, but this does not prevent him from relying on the masters of these towers to build relationships.
Both Thoros and Master Deai are members of the Twelve Mage Council in the Tower, and they are also one of the famous Grand Magisters.
As long as Emilia has been around the tower, there is no way she has not heard their names.
Sure enough, Emilia said in surprise: "Do you still know Master Thoros and Master De Ai?
They are in the tower, but they are both well-known great magisters.
Unfortunately, they are usually very busy and I have never had the chance to see them.”
Xu Lai nodded and said: "Master Soros' chain lightning and Master De'ai's interdimensional space are both very powerful spells."
"Yes, I am very interested in space spells. I really want to be my teacher.
It’s a pity that Master De’ai is so busy that I don’t even have the chance to meet him.”
“You want to study space. Spell?"
Emilia nodded: "The seabed where we live is not a peaceful place either.
Our warriors are invincible in close combat, but their weaknesses are also too obvious, lacking the power of long-range and spells.
Remote physical damage is okay. The sea is a natural protective layer, and long-range physical damage has almost no effect.
But the sea is also a place where the water element is extremely active, and the water element is a very useful spell in the sea.
However, our mortal enemies, the mermaid clan, are particularly good at water spells.
No matter how hard I practice the water system, I can't surpass them. ”
"So, you are planning to find another way and learn space spells directly."
Emilia blinked and said with a smile: "Then I can't learn fire spells, I really want to be under the sea Let’s set up a bonfire for fun.”
Xu Lai also smiled and said: “That’s not impossible. Although water spells can restrain fire spells, fire spells can also cause damage to enemies who are good at water spells. More damage."
Emilia smiled bitterly: "But on the seabed, except near the submarine volcano, the fire element cannot be sensed at all."
"Are you serious? , but to be honest, if you really want to learn from Deai, maybe I can really help you.”
"Eh? You're not fooling me, are you?"
Xu Lai said with a smile: "If you are interested in lightning magic, I'm not sure yet.
But you want to become a disciple of De Ai , I happen to have a close relationship with Master De Ai.
I can’t say I’m 100% sure, but it won’t be a big problem if I recommend him.” (End of Chapter)