Sam didn't know where to start, so he looked through the files of his new students in the Naval Base. After finding some capable and well-connected people, he used the connections to get some basic information about some other nations.
He even used his military rank to get some more information. The military information is mostly related to the borders and armies, not much of the internal workings and the terrains. At least, he got one thing right though. Mov empire didn't have that much a volcanic region.
So, he definitely has to move to another planet to see.
After some futile efforts to get the required detailed terrain and contacting Yodha, Sam was stuck in the starting point.
Now, he felt like he might as well directly travel to other nations one by one. But he only had six months, he cannot come and travel through all of them.
As he was thinking, he went back to his ship-building factory. He has been encouraging the artisans there to create new ship designs with the engines as the core of the design. He even said to use multiple, engines, multiple transmission systems, anything that is necessary to create any kind of ship.
They are also trying, but few had made some significant changes regarding this. But there is still an improvement.
As he walked to the office of the factory, he saw someone and had a new Idea. Someone is talking to the Orphan two, who is now in charge of Sales. They seemed to be in a heated argument.
When he entered the office, he could hear something.
"I need them earlier than that, I cannot wait that long. How about you give someone else's ship and you can delay their order if there is no urgency?" The smuggler requested. But Orphan two didn't reply as he stood up to greet Sam.
"Hello, Boss."
Sam gestured him to take a seat, but he didn't sit in the same chair, he moved to the side and sat on the assistant's chair before offering the main seat to Sam.
Sam took the seat and asked.
"What is the matter?"
"This man wants a new ship. A decently large one. And that too a custom order. It is more like a fusion of a cargo and passenger ship. But we cannot meet his timeline. So, now he is trying to get a ready-made ship. But we don't have such large ships ready-made."
Sam understood the matter and asked the Smuggler.
"What are specifications?"
The smuggler handed a scroll to him. Inside there are requirements of the ship. He frowned for a minute.
"Come with me, let us talk in private."
Sam stood up and took the man for a walk along the dock of his factory.
"I will be honest with you. That ship would take a month to manufacture with our current manpower. We completely abandon all the other orders we will take around ten days. That too because you are lucky enough that there is a pre-made engine that is suitable for this ship.
And currently, we are working on the Navy's order. So, we cannot delay that easily."
"Is there no other way?" The smuggler asked.
"Why do you need this ship so badly?"
The smuggler thought for some time and said.
"You know what my profession is. But what I exactly do is find a way of escape to the people in different places and send them to a different nation or city and such.
This time, something big is going to happen in a month in flavos empire. There would be a lot of new fugitives that want to leave the country."
"Flavos? The Empress' home country?"
"Yes. This is a special time of the year and there are so many people coming there. A treasure trove is going to be opened and people from different nations will go there for that. There will be many fights and deaths and a lot of people will want to escape the place intact and avoid the wrath of the local factions.
That is why I need a ship. In fact, I could have gone on my old ship. But it is damaged and it would take more time to repair than your new ship.
I cannot miss this chance after all. All those rich pricks will be practically giving me the money."
"What kind of place is opening up?"
"Flavos has one of the most active volcanic regions. And the magma concentration and the fire elemental energy are so high that there are many naturally formed Golems there and it is hard to go there is any time of the year.
Even the Consummate realm cultivators cannot withstand the heat. The Lava is also not red in color. Most of it is in Golden Yellow and is hotter than any Lava you could have even seen in Mov or any other empire.
Some people also go there in normal times, to sit on the edges of the regions so that they can enhance their fire element or increase the resistance to the fire element.
At this time of the year, it would be open only for a month. And only Nascent stage cultivators and Pre-transcendent stage cultivators can go there. Everyone who can find any sort of treasures there can keep them.
But that is only a rule with so many loopholes. Inside that region, everything is allowed, people kill, slaughter and rob as they like.
That is why this is one of the best options for me. I will get so many customers to move to various nations. This is something I cannot miss."
Sam thought for a while with a calm face. But his mind is a mess. He didn't expect there would be such a coincidence. In fact, he didn't believe in too many coincidences. The Black horse task and the Magma Lotus being the first thing on the list that too in the planet he was present. This is too good to be a mere coincidence.
But after he thought of the gods that are playing with him and their means along with their twisted ways of testing the players, there is not much a surprise if they really made it happen like this.
He is feeling a headache. He was trying to find a suitable volcanic region from this smuggler and go there, pick the herb and come back and try to get to other planets.
That is what he thought. But now, he realized that all he had are pipe dreams. He would already have a handful with the rest of the players targeting him. Now he also has to deal with the remaining competition from all the nations.
This is too much of a hassle.
He looked at the smuggler and thought of something.
"How many nations have you traveled?"
"All of them. Small and big, there are a total of fifteen empires and thirty-seven kingdoms on the planet. Except for the places that are least developed and a deficit of resources, I have visited all of them. I might be a smuggler. But I smuggle people mostly and I sent man people to, many different places."
"Then I have a business proposal. Are you interested?"
"Tell me."
"I will give you a ship temporarily and you can keep it for six months. It is quite spacious and it can actually five times faster than a normal ship you guys use on this planet.
After six months, I will give you some ships in the form of payment. They will include two small speed boats. One small passenger ship with six cabins, a bigger passenger ship with twelve cabins, a fishing boat with six cabins and large fish tanks that could even store sharks of this sea, a small ocean-liner that can be both cargo and passenger ship.
But for that, I need you to do something for me. If you are down for that, we can continue talking business.
The smuggler was stunned. He didn't expect that Sam would give such a large payment. Their market price goes to almost three hundred to four hundred million.
But Sam didn't think it is too much. He will need something that could be spending billions. So, he can give a commission like this and the cost price of these ships is nowhere near three hundred or four hundred million.
The profit margin is quite large actually and Sam wouldn't even feel a thing even if he gave them all for free.
This deal intrigued the smuggler, so they went into a private office and discussed everything there.
But there is one step that made it hard for the smuggler to agree. There is a pill on the table that Sam needed him to take.
He is hesitating, but after some thought, he gritted his teeth and took it.
Sam felt a sensation in his mind and smiled before he shook his hands and saying.
"It is great doing business with you. Now, our first stop will be the Flavos empire and for this first phase of the deal, I will be coming with you. I want to take a look at the volcanic region. If you can get this done, you can proceed with the next remaining deals directly."
Then Sam took him to a ship that was already on the dock. This is one of the ships that was built during the training period of the employees in the factory. It is completely supervised by Sam and The smuggler is quite satisfied with this.
After arranging a time for their departure, the smuggler went to the resort upon Sam's invitation. As Sam was thinking of contacting Yodha again, the man himself came to Mirage city which made Sam relax a bit.
