Alexander Smith
"That confirms it. Our smart naval mine won't work in this battle. Might as well we disable all the remaining mines than waste them on a futile attempt to entrap the incoming fleet." Edward proclaims.
The new pirate fleet that has been detected consist of seven ships, one ship more than the previous pirate fleet. The incoming pirate fleet is sailing towards the barony in a two-three-two formation covered in a shield of some sort. From the spirit energy fluctuation, the pirates seem to have gotten their hand on a level four talisman or scroll to negate the barony's defensive mines formation. What Alex finds alarming is the third pirate fleet came just seven months after they have eliminated the second pirate fleet and is even willing to squander a precious level four item to invade a barony. Pirates are self-serving scumbags and there is no way they would waste such a precious strategic item on a raid that won't make them a profit.
Given how much Charles have spent organizing the first two pirate raids, there is no way he can gather the funds for a third pirate fleet so quickly. His barony can be considered a prosperous one but there is still limit to how much money it can make. The level four item alone would have costed a fortune. Alex can conclude that the Count Of Winsloff definitely has a hand in this matter. The Count might spoil his bastard child but he is not a fool. There is no way he would squander so much money just to keep his son happy. The only explanation Alex can come up with is the Count has also set his eyes on the Barony Of Redshore's salt fields. Alex is amazed how far the Count is willing to go just to obtain their family's improvised salt refining technology. From a financial point of view, the Count's action doesn't make much financial sense. The salt trade is lucrative but salt is a mundane commodity. Given the estimated amount the Count has spent to date, it will probably take him more than a hundred years to recoup the sunk cost. Alex could think of hundreds of ways to use those money to make more profits than seizing their family's salt refining technology.
It seems like the illness of the cultivation world is at play here. Gosh, haven't they heard of the story of never kill the goose that lays the golden egg? Alex has been careful to choose a mundane technology innovation yet those in powers still conspire to wipe out their family to steal it. More importantly, it would seem that those in power never learn from history the practice of stealing technology doesn't work most of the time when they wipe out the inventor. A more wasteful possibility is the nobles might not even care whether they managed to steal technology in the first place.
It is actually not surprising nobles of this world having such mindset. Humans in general are creatures of habit. The nobles, being at the top of the social pyramid would rather things remain at status quo than introduce any unknown variables that might threaten their interest at large. It is no wonder human civilization in the cultivation world has been progressing at such a horrendous pace when those at the top have such mindset. A lot of new inventions has probably been lost due to such wasteful practice by those in power. Despite a recorded history in the millions of years, the cultivation world's technological developments lag far behind Earth's shorter history. The only field that enjoys continuous progress and development is centered around cultivation.
In any case, Alex can ponder about the regressive mindset of the cultivation at large another time. His priority now is wiping out the impending pirate fleet invasion. "Captain William, I believe you know the drill. Get your men ready for battle."
Captain William Brown belongs to the first group of people Alex's family has hired to work for them in the cultivation world. Alex's master, Jean Aubert has managed to build his first runic fusion reactor back on Tolena two Earth months back. Their family has played a major role in completing the runic fusion reactor and Jean has been generous to reward the family a thousand access slots to be used as they see fit. For the family's initial batch of recruitment, the plan was to recruit two hundred new personnel split equally between combat and research role. Hiring all one hundred combat personnel has been much easier than hiring the needed research personnel. Even until now, the family has yet to complete the recruitment for all one hundred research personnel.
The recruitment for all one hundred combat personnel was completed within days after the first few hires the family managed to recruit gain access to
After two Earth months in the cultivation world, Captain William and his men are now all in the proficient stage of the first major realm. Except for Captain William and few of his men who had decided that their current cultivation pathway is not their true calling, the rest of his men will be operating the spirit cannons spread across the fortress. Direct combat is still too early for them and it will be left to Joshua and Edward undead armies.
As for Captain William and the select few, they will be going on a suicide mission to destroy the level four shield protecting the pirate fleet. Earthlings' ability to revive is one very convenient cheat code in a number of circumstances. Once a cultivator has chosen a certain pathway, they are usually stuck with their choice most of the time. It will take rare potions or alchemy pills before a cultivator can abolish his or her current cultivation progress and restart all over. Given the rare nature of such potions or alchemy pills, such option would not be available to most cultivators.
Captain William and his suicide team attempt will also saves Alex from revealing the fact that the family has in their possession level four scrolls and talisman as well. It is frustrating that the sect has been constantly updating the list of prohibited weapons any Earthlings travelling in the lower realm are allowed to bring out. Runic bombs are allowed due to the existence of explosion talisman. Even the spirit cannons spread across the fortress has to be severely curtailed to match the standard of the lower realm. Those spirit cannons need to be manually charged by cultivators and charging them with spirit stones is a luxurious practice done only in the immortal realm. Spirit battery is now a known entity in the lower realm but it is so rare at this point in time that a fringe world like Hycean should be able to acquire in large number. Spirit batteries are status symbol that only those at social pyramid gets to own.
Without the weapons prohibition, Alex won't even need to worry about the threat posed by the royal family and the two duke families anymore. Back on Eldorin, weapon prototypes that can threaten a cultivator in the third major realm has already begun to appear. One such weapon is a hypersonic runic missile. With a top speed at Mach Six, even a third major realm cultivator wouldn't be able to escape the hypersonic runic missile's pursuit. The reinforced runic warhead has also been miniaturized to a point where it could take out a third major realm cultivator in the intermediate stage at point blank. As for third major realm cultivators in the proficient or peak stage, launching a few extra missiles will do the trick. Given another few Earth months or a year at most, he is confident the runic warhead will be improvised further to a point where a single hypersonic runic missile will be able to eliminate a third major realm cultivator at the peak stage as well.