Volume 10: The Call from the Sea Route Chapter 7: The Pirate Captain's Training Base

Returning to the city of Chanas, Libin thought the matter was finally settled. After all, this chaotic skirmish had been provoked by Shuiyuetainlian, and the three sea dragon eggs had also fallen into his hands. Libin had never intended to contend for the title of the master of the seas; towing a few floating islands to build some warships was merely a measure to ensure the security of his territorial waters.

However, Xuanyu did not see it that way. He could have fought Shuiyuetainlian to a standstill if not for Libin's sudden appearance, and he would not have suffered such a crushing defeat.

Therefore, until he fully recovered his strength, he vented all his anger upon Libin. From the day Libin returned, one or two squads of enemies launched attacks outside Chanas every single day.

Whenever Libin dispatched troops to deal with them, these squads would instantly turn around and flee, giving Libin no chance to capture them. If Libin ignored them, they would sneak into the Chanas waters to sabotage the construction of Libin's docks and other facilities.

After enduring several such assaults, Libin reached his limit and was forced to send a messenger bone dragon to Shuiyuetainlian, hoping to receive some assistance.

Yet, because of Libin's previous abrupt departure, Shuiyuetainlian remained deeply displeased and offered no direct response to this request.

In the end, Libin had to devise his own solution. He found a nearly dried-up riverbed nearby and established a shipyard there. Once the warships reached a certain number, he had the gloomy wind ghost servants drag the completed vessels into the Chanas Sea.

However, Libin still had to figure out how to acquire crew members and troops capable of maritime combat on his own. At that moment, Todina suddenly brought up a suggestion.

"Master, do you remember the three batches of forces given to you by the Dark Guild? It seems there are pirates among them."

Hearing this, a light went on in Libin's mind. The Dark Guild had been developing within his territory for quite some time. The three squads of forces that had initially followed him had all become guild leaders in various sub-cities of his domain. For so long, Libin had merely extracted intelligence from the Dark Guild without obtaining anything else from them; now was the time to make the Dark Guild bleed.

With this thought, Libin quickly sought out the counterfeit tavern specifically allocated to the Dark Guild. As soon as he stepped inside, he spotted a bartender disguised as a rogue welcoming patrons whose authenticity was questionable.

Catching sight of Libin, the rogue bartender immediately rushed over and babbled, "My esteemed Lord, we certainly haven't leaked any of the secrets in your city!"

"I am not here for that. Where is your branch guildmaster?" Libin asked casually, pulling up a chair to sit down.

"The branch guildmaster will be right here. I wonder what requirements my Lord has?" the rogue bartender asked while serving Libin some drinks.

"Sailors, pirates, and some troops capable of fighting at sea," Libin said directly, ignoring the casual setting.

Before the rogue bartender could respond, a burly man in pirate attire slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "Splendid! Every day we only see those pilferers and landlubbers going out to split the spoils; it has been far too long since we last took action. With your word, my Lord, we will follow you to the end!"

At that moment, the branch guildmaster of the Dark Guild also hurried out. He invited Libin into the back room and, after clarifying the situation, hesitated before speaking: "We can provide sailors and pirates, but as for troops specializing in maritime combat, we truly have no way to supply them."

"Why?" Libin stared coldly at the branch guildmaster. As long as he lacked a valid reason, Libin was confident he could make him vanish in the shortest time possible.

"Because our guild was not born for combat."

"Yet the professional roster I received back then included many troops with formidable combat power," Libin's gaze grew progressively colder.

"Those require training grounds, which are essentially city-scale structures and fall beyond the management scope of our guild," the guildmaster hurriedly explained.

"Are you implying this is my fault?"

"Please do not be angry. I happen to have the blueprints you need. Just take a look at these first," the guildmaster hastily retrieved several design drawings from the table behind him and placed them before Libin.

Libin merely glanced at them before slamming the table and standing up. "What is the meaning of this? A Pirate Captain Training Base, where every pirate has a single opportunity to participate in training, with a success rate of only seventeen point three percent?"

"That is not the case; you have misunderstood my intention," the guildmaster explained frantically. "I mean that if you build such a base, pirates from the Dark Guild across the entire continent can come here for training. Those who succeed become pirate captains and are free to leave or stay, while those who fail are transformed into skeleton sailors, ghost pirates, and the like within the training facility... As you know, these undead-type forces are not under our direct control..."

"I want one-third of the pirate captains who successfully complete the training," Libin stated without a moment's hesitation.

"How can that be?" the guildmaster immediately cried out.

Without allowing him to continue protesting, Libin declared bluntly, "If that won't do, I'll simply slaughter them all and convert them into undead creatures. Very well, tell me what is required to build such a training facility."

Realizing the matter was settled, the guildmaster could only say with resignation, "Three ghost ships, two pirate ships, and a dangerous expanse of reef-filled waters."

"How is it to be done?"

"You need only drag the five ships into that hazardous sea area and sink them there; the rest will be handled by our Dark Guild."

"Very good, I shall take care of that. However, I suggest you lower the training success rate even further until higher-tier naval units appear in my city." With that, Libin left the Dark Guild.

Three days later, amid a cluster of reefs in the Chanas Sea, five or six vessels sank simultaneously. At the same instant, a new specialty structure appeared within the city of Chanas: the Sunken Ship Waters.

Here, each week could yield two squads of level-zero skeleton sailors, one squad of level-two ghost sailors, six level-four skeleton pirates, three level-six ghost pirates, and one level-eight skeleton pirate captain, while a level-ten ghost pirate captain would randomly appear once a month.

The weekly troop output precisely matched the personnel requirements of either a ghost ship or a pirate ship.

Yet, this was still insufficient for Libin. Xuanyu's daily onslaught left him with no time to wait any longer; he desperately needed even more naval forces.