Westfall! Here I Come

"Old Jackson, same as before—I want ten, enough to meet coastal transport and fishing standards. Build them as large as you can. When can I get the ships?"

Duke's words gave Old Jackson quite a fright.

He had never expected this young mage, who looked like he had never seen the world, to actually want to build ships.

Money delivered to his door was money he would be a fool to refuse.

Old Jackson sighed. "I don't have that much material here. I only have enough keels for five new ships. For more, I'll need time to find the materials. If you only want five new thirty-ton ships, I can guarantee their quality and finish them within a month. Fifty gold coins each."

A thirty-ton ship was actually quite small. By the dimensions Duke was familiar with, it was only around fifteen meters long and a little over three meters wide—just slightly bigger than a skiff.

"Fine, it's settled. Here's the deposit." As he spoke, Duke immediately took out the hundred gold coins Lothar had given him that morning.

"This... that's too much. Since it's you, Mage, a ten percent deposit will be enough."

"Then use the rest to hire some sailors for me."

A hesitant look appeared on Old Jackson's wrinkled face. Biting his lip, he finally spoke. "There are plenty of idle young men at the docks. I can help you recruit them, but while they're good lads with decent seamanship and character, they aren't naval soldiers. I can't promise they'll take on high-risk work."

Duke smiled casually. "It's fine. We'll just be fishing and transporting some legitimate goods. In fact, I'd prefer the men you hire to keep their hands clean. If I find anyone daring to pocket even a little cargo..."

[Presence of Mind]

[Pyroblast]

A fireball the size of a water vat instantly formed in Duke's hand, shot out, and exploded in the sea beside the shipyard.

With a thunderous BOOM, it sent up an enormous column of water.

Windsor froze stiff—so Duke had been holding back that morning! If a fireball that big hit him, wouldn't he turn into charcoal instantly?

Everyone in the shipyard, including Old Jackson, had their legs shaking uncontrollably.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intimidate you. But what I'm about to do is truly important. I don't want any unsavory people slipping into my ranks." With that, Duke nodded and strode away with Windsor.

Rather than returning to the residence Lothar had given him, Duke went straight back to the guesthouse at the Academy of Arcane Arts and borrowed paper and a pen from old Norton.

He spread out and secured a sheet of white paper roughly the size of A2 paper on the table. Picking up a quill that needed to be dipped in ink, Duke silently activated the system's assistance.

The system prompt rang out:

"Ding! Detected auxiliary information in the host's memories, including Descriptive Geometry and drafting software such as AutoCAD... System optimization and organization in progress... Drafting assistance function complete!"

Before Windsor's astonished eyes, Duke took less than ten minutes to draw a cross-sectional elevation of a sailing ship and handed it to him.

"Keep this blueprint safe. Here are five hundred gold coins for travel expenses. I need you to make a trip to Kul Tiras and abduct... ah, invite the entire families of craftsmen capable of building ships of this caliber back to Stormwind. If I haven't returned by then, settle them in the house Lord Lothar gave me."

Naturally, Windsor could not understand the blueprint. But he could barely recognize the name of the original owner on the gold note, which was accepted for exchange in the capitals of the seven human kingdoms: the highly respected old mage Norton.

"Hiss—" Windsor sucked in a sharp breath. So whether he was involved or not, Duke had been planning something huge!

Windsor could not help asking, "Then what will you be doing during this time, Lord Marcus?"

"Of course, leveling up—ah, cultivating magic. At the same time, I'll make preliminary preparations for this investment."

The world of mages was not something a mere foot soldier could pry into. Though still doubtful, Windsor was grateful for Duke's trust. In his eyes, five hundred gold coins were already an enormous sum. That money was enough to let an ordinary family live in prosperity for the rest of their lives.

Yet Duke had handed over such a fortune without even asking another question.

"Very well. Please rest assured, I, Reginald Windsor, will not disappoint your expectations."

After hurriedly returning to his "home" in Stormwind, Duke left the city. Lothar truly valued him; his house was located in the Garden District. By the standards of his previous world, it was already a villa, with two small gardens of roughly ten square meters each in the front and back.

Before his transmigration, such a property in a first-tier metropolis would have been worth millions. But in Stormwind, compared to the mansions of the nobles, it was truly quite ordinary.

Duke did not put much thought into it.

Since the house was destined to be destroyed by war, there was no point wasting effort on it.

However, news of Duke's investment quickly reached the ears of another group of interested people.

When Fam Brando heard that Duke was investing in shipbuilding, he burst out laughing on the spot.

"That idiot—he's actually building ships? Stormwind doesn't have any special products worth selling at all! Every year, we collect so much in taxes, yet we can only let those profiteers from Kul Tiras bleed us dry, or those even more damned goblins..."

"Fine, I'll watch Duke lose everything, even the pants off his ass!"

The Brando family was not stupid. When Lothar subtly questioned the Brando family about their grudge with Duke, the family patriarch sternly warned Fam Brando.

"Until the situation is clear, you are forbidden from making any form of contact with Duke, whether direct or indirect. Otherwise, if we offend Lothar, the entire Brando family will be destroyed."

Being temporarily unable to act against Duke did not mean they could not "bless" him with the worst curses possible. In truth, it was not only the Brandos. Even within the Academy of Arcane Arts, quite a few mages looked upon Duke's actions with contempt.

In their eyes, for a noble mage to personally engage in business was simply an insult to the profession of mage.

Even the most neutral mages felt Duke was neglecting his proper duties and wasting his talent and time. After all, the sea of magic was so vast, while a human lifespan was far too short compared to the time required for the pursuit of magic.

But Duke paid little attention to any of it.

After hiring a carriage and a squad of mercenaries, Duke spent a full five days crossing Elwynn Forest before arriving in Westfall, southwest of Stormwind.

"Westfall! Here I come!"