Five days later, an enormous fleet left the harbor outside the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base. It consisted of five Large Cargo Mana-Powered Ships and thirty Guard Frigates, along with ten Mana Airships, a hundred Small Mana Speedboats, and two thousand guards from the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps.
This was the largest fleet the Xinfei Merchant Guild had ever assembled, and the most heavily armed.
Besides the two thousand guards and reinforcements from the Xinfei Merchant Guild's various departments, the fleet also included a three-hundred-person delegation sent by the Lampari Kingdom and a hundred and fifty elves sent by three Elf Tribes. Its composition was decidedly varied.
The fleet's central mission was, of course, to provide supplies and personnel to the first Xinfei Merchant Guild Deep-Sea Voyage Exploration Fleet, help them explore the local conditions, establish a forward base, and create a suitable channel for communication.
Beyond that, the additional personnel aboard the fleet each had their own missions.
For instance, the people sent by the Lampari Kingdom and the three Elf Tribes were primarily there to investigate conditions on the Demoncloud Continent, while Akali's Research Group hoped to gain more research cooperation and assistance from the Dragon Race. In addition to helping the Xinfei Merchant Guild build its forward base, the construction crews sent by the Amli Merchant Guild were also tasked with surveying the geology of Fire Rock Island and its neighboring islands...
In short, this reinforcement fleet had complex and demanding duties. Simply to assemble it, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had committed nearly half the Mana-Powered Ships it had accumulated over the past few years. It had even squeezed a full two thousand guards out of its already overstretched Guard Corps to send along, all to ensure the fleet could carry out its missions smoothly.
According