Natural God's Gift

After a bit of casual chatting and a few jokes, they steered the conversation toward the main topic. After all, they were all spiders whose time was worth dozens of original stones per minute, and they didn't have time to waste on endless idle talk.

Fourleaf: "Little Thistle, I'd like to commission a ship from you. What types of ships do you recommend?"

"Commission a ship?" Little Thistle seemed a bit surprised. Although the Flame Spider Kingdom had rivers and was close to the sea,

there weren't many times when ships were actually needed.

Even when ships were used, it was mostly by the Flame Spider Merchant Guild, who would navigate the rivers in search of insect tribes to develop trade routes.

However, it didn't ask too many questions. In recent years, the original Flame Spiders had also been going out to develop trade routes. Who knew if they had found new insect tribes?

"How big do you plan to make it? Where will it be used? River? Lake? Or Sea?" Other things could be left unasked,

but these essential requirements for shipbuilding needed to be clarified.

Fourleaf thought for a moment, gathering its thoughts: "Mainly for use in the sea, but it would be best if it could also navigate rivers."

"In the sea?" Perhaps feeling that it wasn't easy to explain verbally, Little Thistle invited them: "Let's go to my nest and discuss it slowly."

Fourleaf and Bai Zhi arrived at Little Thistle's nest. Little Thistle took out some dried meat and dried fruit to treat the two spiders: "Fourleaf, Bai Zhi, what kind of ship do you want? The kingdom has records of many types of ships."

Bai Zhi asked curiously: "What kinds are there?"

"Many kinds. Let me tell you about some that are suitable for us Flame Spiders.

The kingdom has spider-ships suitable for us Flame Spiders. Spider-ships are slender at both ends, and Flame Spiders can lie prone in the center.

Using their eight spider legs to control the oars and glide. Generally, spider-ships are between six and twelve meters long, suitable for one spider to control. If not needed, then..."

"Um, that's pretty good. Are there any others?" Listening to Little Thistle's description, this kind of spider-ship seemed more suitable for navigating calm rivers. In the sea, a single wave would probably capsize it, and besides, there were more than just one of them.

"There are many. How about a three-sail ship? It has a total of three spider-silk sails, which can adjust the course according to the wind direction. It's quite suitable for sailing at sea and is about ten meters long overall."

"Are there blueprints or models?"

"Wait a moment, I'll go find them." Little Thistle kept rummaging in its small warehouse, and after a long while, it came out holding a dusty book.

"Heh heh," Little Thistle said awkwardly: "I haven't used this book for many years. It's been gathering dust in the corner." Fourleaf and Bai Zhi were speechless.

Little Thistle wiped the dust off with a spider-silk scroll and handed it to Fourleaf and Bai Zhi.

The book was about 50 * 80 centimeters in size, with a cover made of gold. Gold is an inert metal, and as long as it's well preserved, it won't change much even after thousands of years. Insect warriors like to use metals such as gold and silver to make tools.

The book's cover was written with "Shipbuilding Technology." Opening the book, the pages inside were also made of gold leaf,

shining with golden light.

The book recorded various types of ships and also included the ship's manufacturing methods.

Little Thistle rubbed its front feet with a chuckle: "I asked the Mountain Lord of the Violet彩 Flame Spider tribe to copy this book from the kingdom's treasury. The book in the kingdom's treasury was brought down from a former starship, and it records countless types of ships, including those powered by sheer strength.

In addition to wind power, water power, fire power, electricity, and other driving forces, there are also extravagant ones that use original stones.

Fourleaf, take a look and see if there are any types of ships you like. If you have a plan in mind, customizing according to your ideas is also fine."

Fourleaf and Bai Zhi put their heads together, carefully flipping through this book about ships.

They found that there were really many types of ships on it, including circular, spherical, conical, shuttle-shaped,

semi-circular, elliptical, and all kinds of strange shapes.

As they gradually flipped through it, they also understood why Little Thistle, who was so shrewd in business, would leave such a book to gather dust in the warehouse.

They looked at it, and most of the ships in the book were not suitable for Flame Spider warriors to pilot. For example, circular ships. They couldn't imagine how to control or pilot them. Perhaps other races could.

In fact, before coming, Fourleaf and Bai Zhi already had a rough idea of the shape they wanted for their ship. Now that they could see so many ship types, they further materialized the ship's shape.

Bai Zhi asked while eating a slice of meat: "Little Thistle, how many original stones would it cost to customize a 20-meter-long ship?"

"That depends on what kind of ship you're customizing, and what materials you're using. There are all kinds of ships, and different woods have different prices, both cheap and expensive. The more common ones are cedar, pine, and cypress.

These trees are planted more in the kingdom, and the kingdom harvests a portion of them every year for storage, which can be purchased directly."

"If you want other woods, there are also green maple, ginkgo, elm, camphor, etc., etc. The kingdom has no shortage of this."

Listening to Little Thistle pointing out the landscape with such familiarity, Fourleaf and Bai Zhi also felt more confident.

"Little Thistle," Fourleaf raised a claw to interrupt it: "Can you make a ship that looks like a starship?"

"A shape like a starship?" Little Thistle was a little strange, wondering why they would choose this type of ship. Did they think starships were cool?

Little Thistle patiently explained: "Fourleaf, a starship shape is actually not suitable for us Flame Spiders to pilot.

Although we Flame Spiders have eight legs, we are not as agile as the four-legged Ape or Beast race warriors.

Moreover, starship-shaped ships have no external drive, no oars, and cannot row themselves. Water power, wind power,

fire power, and electricity cannot be used, unless driven by original stones. But driving with original power is too costly and expensive."

"Heh heh," Knowing that Little Thistle was kindly reminding them, Fourleaf politely said: "It's okay. I know a sea beast warrior who can tow the ship. I want to build a starship-shaped ship mainly to store original power food."

"Oh oh, I see, then I was overthinking it." It had also heard a word or two in the past two years, saying that Fourleaf was developing trade routes towards the Star Sand Islands. It really didn't know that Fourleaf also knew a sea beast warrior.

"What kind of warrior is it?" Little Thistle couldn't help but ask. It wasn't a curious spider, but it wanted to see what kind of ship would be suitable for a sea beast warrior to tow.

Okay, it still had a little bit of curiosity.

Fourleaf smiled and said: "It's a blue whale little warrior. For the past two years, it has been carrying us to the Star Sand Islands. As we bring more and more original power food, it's getting harder to place it on its back, and the sea is stormy, making it easy to overturn the goods.

So we want to build a fully sealed ship to place the original power food, and let it tow it forward, so that the speed can be increased."

"A blue whale little warrior?" Little Thistle widened its eight eyes, somewhat disbelieving: "How big is it?"

"The blue whale warrior is currently in the advanced stage, about eighteen or nineteen meters long. It will be even bigger in the future. There is a Lord-level blue whale warrior that is over a hundred meters long. We will use it as a reference to customize a ship for future trading on the Star Sand Islands."

"Is that so? No wonder you said to make a twenty-meter-large ship. A sea beast warrior the size of a hundred meters can indeed carry such a ship with ease."

Little Thistle carefully pondered, "Besides mimicking the appearance of a starship, are there any other requirements?"

Four-Leaf said, "If you could add water-powered or Force-powered propulsion, that would be best.

That way, in some shallow waters unsuitable for Bluefin Warriors, we can still propel it in other ways."

"That won't be cheap."

Some things need to be clarified in advance, otherwise, if they think the price is too high and don't want it after it's made, wouldn't the thing be stuck in my claws?

Four-Leaf: "I estimate that this ship can't be made in a short time.

Little Thistle, how about you come up with a design sketch first, we'll see if it's suitable, and then we'll offer a price based on the sketch."

"Alright."

Building a twenty-meter-long ship is a big project.

It will require more than just one or two Flame Spider Warriors.

It would take several months just to create the sketch, but if this business deal really goes through, it would earn much more than renting out a few small scissors and shovels.

After reserving the ship, Four-Leaf and the others didn't focus their attention on it.

Building a ship isn't easy.

From drawing the sketch to selecting materials, preparing materials, assembling, etc., these tasks can't be completed in three to five years.

Moreover, most of the advanced Flame Spider Warriors have left the kingdom to develop trade routes.

Perhaps the ship will take even longer to build.

It only needs to provide the raw stones when the time comes and let Little Thistle build the ship.

There's no need to obsess over this aspect.

It has always adhered to one thought, which is to leave professional matters to professional insects.

As a Primal Flame Spider, it only needs to learn to take care of its Life Seed and avoid losses when trading.

Even managing the territory, a trivial matter, only requires grasping the general direction, and everything else can be transferred to trusted insects.

After the two spiders left Little Thistle's territory, Bai Zhi asked, "Four-Leaf, where are you going next?"

Four-Leaf thought for a moment and said, "I have to go back to Twin Peaks to see how everyone is working."

It usually doesn't pay too much attention to the forest sea developed within the territory, but during the flowering and green fruit seasons, it still needs to pay close attention to prevent the God-given Seeds from being missed and the fruits within the kingdom from being secretly picked by animals in nature.

Bai Zhi: "Perfect, I also need to return to Bai Zhi Mountain to manage the territory."

Four-Leaf: "—"

Bai Zhi shamelessly changed the name of its territory to Bai Zhi Mountain.

The area of the entire mountain range is not much smaller than Four-Leaf's territory.

It has Artemisia leading the bee colony to work, which saves it from hiring Flame Spider Warriors, but because of the kingdom's regulations, it still hired two Flame Spider Warriors to work in the territory.

They separated after returning to their respective territories.

Four-Leaf inspected the Twin Peaks territory alone.

Currently, the number of Life Seeds in its territory is not large.

Artemisia manages it on a daily basis, and it only needs to give Artemisia some Force-powered food each year.

The scale of the forest sea is not large either.

It doesn't put its energy into it, and directly hired twenty Intermediate Flame Spider Warriors to cultivate the land.

Each small Flame Spider is allocated a small piece of territory for them to cultivate.

Each one is paid three to four hundred raw stones a year, which only costs seven to eight thousand raw stones a year.

It sounds like a lot, but if it relied on itself to fiddle around in the territory, how long would it take to fiddle out hundreds of square kilometers of Twin Peaks?

It's not short of raw stones, and it can afford to raise twenty Flame Spider Warriors.

Last year, it already harvested 40,000 raw stones.

This year, the God-given Seeds of the Mangrove Tree and the Date Palm Tree will also mature, and the annual income will directly reach over 100,000 raw stones.

With so many raw stones, wouldn't it be better to improve its age?

Why waste that time in the territory?

Four-Leaf's territory mainly cultivates multi-seeded banana trees and durian trees.

The durian trees have not yet reached the flowering stage in the short term, so there is no need to worry about them.

Banana trees are more troublesome.

This thing can flower and bear fruit all year round.

Fortunately, each banana plant only bears fruit once a year, so you only need to watch it during the flowering season.

Four-Leaf came to the banana forest that had been planted in previous years and saw more than a dozen Flame Spider Warriors waving metal tools to cut down the banana trees.

It didn't stop them, just watched quietly.

Although banana trees grow as tall as big trees, they are still herbaceous plants.

Their growth characteristics determine that they will not grow again after bearing fruit, but will gradually wither and may grow new seedlings.

As long as the banana tree's root system is not damaged, timely cutting down the withered banana tree can promote the growth of new seedlings.

"Mountain Lord Four-Leaf,"

The little spiders who were working saw Four-Leaf and the leading Flame Spider Warrior happily ran towards it: "Are you here to inspect the territory?"

"Yes,"

Four-Leaf moved its pedipalps.

As the Flame Spiders grew, the water hyacinth, daffodils,

Hollyhock, and winter hollyhock that originally worked for Four-Leaf had all been promoted to Advanced Flame Spiders and left the kingdom to trade on the Myriad Nations Continent.

Their positions were also replaced by new little warriors.

Now, the one leading the Flame Spider Warriors is a junior, Fire Maple, from the Ziyun Mountain Lord's lineage.

Compared to other spiders that it wasn't familiar with before, the juniors born in the Ziyun Merchant Team were naturally closer.

Moreover, Fire Maple is not as erratic as Mountain Lord Fire Torch.

It is very smart and inherited the good wisdom of the Ziyun Mountain Lord's lineage.

Hearing Four-Leaf's response, Fire Maple took the initiative to introduce it without waiting for Four-Leaf to ask: "Mountain Lord Four-Leaf, we are now cutting down the old seedlings of these banana trees.

Because too many banana trees were planted in previous years, we have been busy from the beginning of the year until now, but most of the banana trees have already been cut down, and now these remaining ones are the last part.

We should be able to complete the task within three days."

"Not bad."

Four-Leaf asked, "What do you plan to do with these cut-down banana trees?"

Facing the boss's question, Fire Maple said confidently: "This year, we raised a hundred pigs.

These banana trees have rich nutrition.

Using banana trees to feed pigs can not only make waste utilization, but also save a lot of time searching for food for the pigs."

Seeing Fire Maple's confident appearance, Four-Leaf suddenly wanted to test it: "What about the manure from so many pigs?"

"Simple, the swamp ponds that Peony and the others dug out a few years ago have been deepened and expanded.

Pig manure can be put into the swamp ponds for fermentation and then used as fertilizer."

Four-Leaf: "Why choose to cut down banana trees in the spring?"

Fire Maple: "Cutting down banana trees in the spring is because the starch accumulated in the banana tree trunks is sufficient, and the nutrients are relatively rich.

It is suitable for feeding pigs and fish.

The most important thing is to stagger the flowering time of banana trees and other trees.

Banana trees can flower and bear fruit all year round.

Choosing to germinate in the spring will cause them to flower in the summer.

This can avoid missing any God-given Seeds as much as possible ·—.."

Four-Leaf asked several questions in succession, and Fire Maple answered them fairly well, which also allowed it to be more hands-off about matters within the territory.

Four-Leaf patted Fire Maple's front leg: "Do a good job, and I'll give you a raise at the end of the year."