Chapter 2650 - Small Mobile Fortress
No wonder the recorded information is so massive. Thankfully, the information is only for a Small Mobile Fortress. Had it been for a Medium Mobile Fortress, even Concentration at the peak of Tier 4 wouldn’t have been sufficient to read it.
Realization dawned upon Shi Feng when he saw the details regarding the Small Mobile Fortress Design.
On the surface, the difference between a normal fortress and a Mobile Fortress might not seem very large, with one stationary and the other mobile. However, the difference distinguishing them was far from just mobility.
In the construction of a normal fortress, the construction materials had priority, while magic arrays were secondary. For a Mobile Fortress, it was the opposite; the magic arrays took priority, while materials were secondary. A Mobile Fortress could also be labeled a Magic Fortress. The two constructions were on entirely different levels of complexity.
From what Shi Feng could see, just the magic arrays required to construct the Small Mobile Fortress numbered several thousand. Moreover, even the weakest of them was a Basic Master Magic Array. One could easily imagine how complex of a construction a Mobile Fortress was.
If the design he received were for a Medium Mobile Fortress, its complexity would be even more frightening, most likely boasting tens of thousands of magic arrays. Just thinking of this number gave him the shivers.
However, when Shi Feng took a closer look at the details of the Small Mobile Fortress Design, he did not know whether he should cry or laugh.
A Mobile Fortress was something countless powers had yearned to obtain in his previous life. In fact, the superpowers had even been willing to exchange a Main City for a Mobile Fortress.
This was despite the exceptionally high difficulty of upgrading a Guild City into a Main City. A lot of time and effort were needed to obtain a Main City. However, even when offered a Main City, there had never been any power that was willing to part with their Mobile Fortress.
After all, a Mobile Fortress was an aerial base. Even though a Small Mobile Fortress’s size wasn’t comparable to that of a Basic Town, in a situation where Flying Mounts were incredibly rare and very few Guild Cities could get established in Level 100-plus maps, a Mobile Fortress was worth far more than three Main Cities.
In the past, any power that possessed a Mobile Fortress had been a target of partnership for the various superpowers. Countless independent peak experts and top adventurer teams would also do whatever they could to gain the qualifications to enter a Mobile Fortress. Some first-rate Guilds that were fortunate enough to obtain a Mobile Fortress had even instantly become pseudo-superpowers as a result. Moreover, none of the superpowers wished to offend them.
Now, although Shi Feng did not obtain an actual Mobile Fortress, he had the design to make one. Moreover, as an Intermediate Master Magician, he could build a Mobile Fortress now and instantly stabilize Zero Wing’s position in God’s Domain. This was definitely a matter worth celebrating.
However, after studying the design, Shi Feng also discovered a headache.
While he indeed possessed the Mobile Fortress Design as well as the necessary skills to construct it, the Mobile Fortress’s material cost was stratospheric.
Setting aside the various materials necessary for the several thousand magic arrays, just the materials for the basic structure of the Mobile Fortress were already more than enough to make any superpower in the current God’s Domain faint.
Eight million Magic Crystals…
Thirty thousand Mana Stones…
Two million pieces of Mana Ore…
Although these were all generally available on the market, the amounts required were not something ordinary superpowers could afford. Not to mention, the construction of the Small Mobile Fortress also needed various other valuable materials such as Magic Metal.
By Shi Feng’s rough estimates, completing the Small Mobile Fortress would cost a minimum of 50 million Gold.
Let alone ordinary superpowers, even veteran Super Guilds would need a long time to collect such an enormous sum of money.
Ordinary superpowers would be fortunate to have a liquid fund of three or four million Gold. Even ten ordinary superpowers combined wouldn’t be able to fork out 50 million Gold unless they sold off their assets. However, doing so would be akin to putting the cart before the horse. Before they could even finish constructing the Mobile Fortress, they would’ve caused the collapse of their Guilds already.
Most importantly, Coins weren’t the main problem. After all, Coins were the most basic form of currency in God’s Domain. However, it was a different story for Magic Crystals, Mana Stones, and Mana Ore. Aside from being hard currency, they were also essential items for players to get by. Whether it was now or in the future, this fact would remain true. Hence, the difficulty of obtaining all these materials was much greater than the difficulty of accumulating 50 million Gold.
Since the minimum material cost alone is already 50 million Gold, it’s no wonder no powers were willing to sell their Mobile Fortresses and would even refuse to accept Main City ranked Guild Cities. If it were up to me, I definitely wouldn’t make such an exchange, either. Shi Feng could not help a bitter smile when he saw the list of required materials.
The value of a Main City ranked Guild City indeed surpassed 50 million Gold. However, 50 million Gold was only the material cost of a Small Mobile Fortress. Moreover, this was under ideal market conditions.
Magic Crystals, Mana Stones, and Mana Ore were in low supply and high demand in God’s Domain. Just collecting the necessary amount to construct a Small Mobile Fortress would most definitely cause a shortage, which would, in turn, raise their prices. In the end, the material cost would definitely far exceed 50 million Gold. In fact, 100 million Gold might not even be enough to pay for all the necessary materials.
After factoring in the time and labor costs, one would make a loss if they sold their Mobile Fortress for less than 200 million Gold.
With Zero Wing’s current strength, obtaining the required Magic Crystals and Mana Stones shouldn’t be a problem. It’ll just take some time. However, gathering two million pieces of Mana Ore is a problem.
With the Philosopher’s Stone’s help, he could easily convert Magic Crystals into Mana Stones. Overall, he needed just 9.5 million Magic Crystals, which shouldn’t be a big problem for the current Zero Wing, as the Guild was earning a large amount of Magic Crystals through the Starlight Fortress, Stone Forest City, and the Dark World’s Teleportation Gate.
However, it was a different story for Mana Ore.
On the surface, Mana Ore was cheaper than Magic Crystals. Ordinary players normally wouldn’t have any use for Mana Ore. Only the various powers would occasionally make use of it to construct buildings.
However, the production of Mana Ore was also significantly lower than that of Magic Crystals because Mana Ore was an associated ore with only a certain chance of appearing when harvesting ores containing dense Mana. In addition, the various superpowers were treating Mana Ore as a strategic resource and would not sell it unless absolutely necessary. The difficulty of collecting two million pieces of Mana Ore was far greater than the difficulty of collecting 9.5 million Magic Crystals.
Although we currently have an alliance with the Azure Chamber of Commerce and can also source some from the Secret Pavilion, purchasing such a large amount of Mana Ore will definitely attract the attention of some superpowers. If these superpowers start interfering, it’ll become even more difficult to collect Mana Ore. It seems I have to secure some Grade 2 or Grade 3 ore veins.
If he tried purchasing the uncommonly used Mana Ore in bulk, just the price inflation alone would already present a problem.
Currently, due to a sharp increase in member count, Zero Wing’s daily expenditure had likewise increased substantially. He also needed funds to support the development of the Guild’s Knight Legion, Towns, Cities, and Airport.
Now, let alone purchasing two million pieces of Mana Ore, Zero Wing didn’t even have the funds necessary to purchase 500,000 pieces. Then, when the Guild’s members started challenging their Tier 4 Promotion Quest, the Guild would also have to invest a lot of funds and resources to assist them. Overall, Zero Wing was extremely short of funds right now.
The only way he could secure a large amount of Mana Ore now was to acquire a Grade 3 ore vein or better. That way, not only could he obtain a long-term supply of Mana Ore, but he also wouldn’t have to worry about interference from the various superpowers.
Meanwhile, as Shi Feng was pondering how to go about obtaining such an ore vein, he suddenly received a call request from Aqua Rose.
“Guild Leader, something big happened to the Purple Thorns Kingdom!” Aqua Rose reported anxiously.
“Something big happened? What is it?” Shi Feng asked, curious.
Due to the Demon God’s Chaos expansion pack, the entire God’s Domain had fallen into turmoil, and Guild wars were being waged daily. With how large the Purple Thorns Kingdom was, it would be strange if nothing happened there.
“The Purple Thorns Kingdom is…no more…”