Meanwhile, Lin Yuan also closed the private chat channel and began examining the crafting blueprint for "Explore the Sea."
[Blueprint: Cannon "Explore the Sea"] [Special equipment. The finished product's power will vary enormously depending on the crafting materials. It will also gain supernatural abilities based on the supernatural properties of the materials used.] [Material requirements: three primary materials, several supplementary materials, and one additional material] [The three primary materials must include one metal, one bone, and one wood material.] [Primary materials affect the cannon's power, range, and rate of fire.] [Select at least three supplementary materials from the following: black pearl, ambergris, metal extract...] [Supplementary materials affect firing accuracy.] [The additional material is one Transcendent Core from a transcendent creature.] [Note: Crafting is still possible without the additional material, but the finished product will have no supernatural abilities.] [The "Explore the Sea" cannon automatically generates its own ammunition and cannot use any other ammunition.]
There were further detailed instructions below, mainly classifying material quality and specifying how powerful the finished product would be with different materials.
After reading the design instructions, Lin Yuan's first reaction was-this trade was an incredible bargain!
According to the blueprint, using even slightly higher-quality materials, such as reinforced steel and active wood, together with the bones of a large Magical Creature, would produce power comparable to a modern large-caliber naval gun.
Of course, its rate of fire, range, and accuracy would fall short of modern naval guns, but against marine creatures, it would be unstoppable.
The bodies of transcendent creatures were tougher than those of ordinary creatures, but only to a limited extent.
He had asked Lilia before and learned that the transcendent creatures of the Main Sea could be considered powerful marine behemoths with a few special abilities.
Their special abilities were not outrageously powerful, either. Most were things like ranged attacks or effects on the mind.
A few direct hits from a modern cannon would spell the end even for the transcendent creatures of the Main Sea.
Of course, beings from the Deep Sea were another matter, but things of that caliber could not enter Paradise.
If he built "Explore the Sea," Lin Yuan would have a means of threatening the life of the dark shadow that had set its sights on him, giving him a fighting chance.
Taking that thought a step further, if he turned that dark shadow into materials, using its core as the additional material and its bones as a primary material...
Then found two more primary materials of the same quality, just how powerful would the finished product be?
The thought alone set his blood pumping!
There was just one small problem-he could only build one "Explore the Sea." Once he built it, he would no longer need materials from the dark shadow. But without building "Explore the Sea" first, how could he turn that enormous creature into materials?
After agonizing over it for ages, Lin Yuan finally understood why Research Institute 3154 had warned him that the greatest pitfall when crafting "Explore the Sea" was aiming too high.
This blueprint really did tempt its crafter into stockpiling high-grade materials!
After much consideration, Lin Yuan decided not to decide for now.
There were still at least two weeks before the dark shadow's true body entered Paradise. If he could not obtain any other effective means of fighting it before then, he would build "Explore the Sea" with whatever materials he could acquire.
On the other hand, if he could obtain some other powerful means of attack through another avenue...
Then he could look forward to seeing just how powerful an "Explore the Sea" cannon made from exceptionally high-quality materials would be!
Having settled on what to do about "Explore the Sea," Lin Yuan turned his attention to another matter.
His entire warehouse full of Shell Treasure Chests.
These were the spoils from the whole of yesterday's daylight hours. He had originally planned to trade them for weapons once the trading market opened.
But weapon prices on the World Exchange were inflated, and no one in the Regional Chat Channel was selling shipboard weapons. Lin Yuan therefore decided to open the chests himself and see whether he could get anything useful.
"5 wood, 10 Shell Coins."
"4 cloth."
"8 wood."
"7 wood."
Shell Treasure Chests mostly contained basic supplies, with wood being both the most common and the most space-consuming.
Before long, Lin Yuan's warehouse was packed full.
With a thought, the ship's blueprint appeared in his mind, and he performed a few operations on the warehouse section.
[Spend 100 units of wood to expand the warehouse?]
"Confirm!"
At Lin Yuan's command, most of the wood in the warehouse vanished, while the warehouse itself doubled in size.
Now that he had Lilia's coffin as his regular means of recovery, he no longer needed to stockpile so much wood as healing potions.
However, this was the warehouse's maximum size for now. Any further expansion would require upgrading the ship's level first.
Fortunately, the subsequent Shell Treasure Chests finally stopped yielding nothing but wood and began producing other things. The expanded warehouse was just barely sufficient.
Before long, every chest had been opened except for the silver Shell Treasure Chest Lin Yuan had obtained from inside the magical shell.
"Most of it is wood and cloth, along with some steel and food. I can sell those in the regional channel, but they aren't worth much."
"The valuable items are mainly a small amount of active wood, a revolver with a full load of ammunition, and a bundle of high-powered explosives."
Active wood was a higher-tier wood material. When Lin Yuan obtained it, the system informed him that it could be used to upgrade the "Wooden Armor" skill or replace part of the ship's material to obtain the "Extremely slow durability recovery" skill.
Naturally, Lin Yuan chose the former, upgrading his skill to "Active Wooden Armor."
[Active Wooden Armor (passive): Ignores all attacks incapable of breaking through 20 cm of wooden armor. Only effective against physical attacks. Taking multiple attacks within a short period can increase the armor's effectiveness, up to double.]
His previous 10 cm Wooden Armor had been of rather limited use, only defending against attacks from small fish and shrimp. Now, he finally had sufficient defense even against large marine creatures.
However, he had not obtained the heavy shipboard weapon he wanted most.
The Steel Harpoon worked well enough against ordinary fish, but against a marine behemoth like the dark shadow, it seemed puny and powerless.
"Whether I can get a weapon like a cannon comes down to this last silver treasure chest. Open!"
He had deliberately saved that silver Shell Treasure Chest for last. Both its origins and its appearance were far more impressive than those of ordinary Shell Treasure Chests, making it the most likely to yield something good.
The chest opened, releasing dazzling golden light!
Delight stirred in Lin Yuan's heart. Wow, a golden legendary!
Of course, he had supplied that last bit of narration himself.
In any case, judging by this display, it was clearly something high-grade.
As the golden light gradually faded, a strange, elongated cylindrical machine appeared in the warehouse.
The machine was milky white all over, with a shape somewhat resembling an aircraft's jet engine.
Strangest of all, the machine slowly expanded and contracted.
It looked just like some creature breathing.
Once that thought occurred to him, the more Lin Yuan looked, the more the machine's milky-white material resembled the muscles of some kind of shellfish.
Just then, information about the machine automatically flowed into his mind.
[Shell Pump Water-Flow Propeller] [E-rank transcendent item] [For ships only] [Biologically active] [Description: A miraculous propeller that continuously generates thrust underwater, consuming ten kilograms of fish and shrimp per hundred kilometers. Feeding it the flesh and blood of Magical Creatures allows it to briefly produce several times its normal thrust.] [Warning: Leaving it unfed for extended periods or feeding it too much flesh and blood from Magical Creatures within a short period will have unpredictable consequences!]
Before you continue