Arcane Lord

In the captain's room of the "Yuanyuan", the sudden arrival of Sha Duo really startled Captain Bill, but this was only due to the sudden appearance of an extra person in the room.

After seeing clearly who the visitor was, Captain Bill breathed a decisive sigh of relief. While saluting, he asked, "Sir, do you have any orders for suddenly looking for me?"

Xia Duo took one look at the narrow and messy room, opened the hatch and said to Bill: "There is indeed something to say, let's talk it out on the deck!"

With that said, he took the lead to walk out of the cabin door, came outside, and walked to the bow of the ship in a few steps.

At this time, the "Yuanyuan" has docked at Harbor Harbor. Some crew members are arranging the cables, some are cleaning, and more are leaning on the ship's side, chatting about dinner or a wandering warbler in the port.

Seeing Xia Duo suddenly appear on the deck, the chatting crew members fell silent one by one and began to help others with their work.

Xia Duo didn't say anything about this. They were just a group of temporarily hired crew members. It was very rare to be able to do the right thing without making mistakes, and there was no need to care about the minor details.

As for Harbor Port, it was beyond Xia Duo's expectation. He originally thought that Harbor Harbor, as a transfer point between the East and West Narrow Seas, would be very prosperous.

But in fact, this is a supply point, with roughly two streets, one is by the sea, full of warehouses, and the other is a little inside, with some twists and turns, and is full of resting places such as hotels and taverns.

It's basically a scaled-down version of the Sevington Port area, which looks very simple.

A mage tower that is somewhat similar to a watch tower is located at the midpoint of the street inside. If a spell is cast through that mage tower, Sha Duo feels that whether it can cover the entire port area is a problem.

Perhaps it only needs to perform the basic functions of communication and transmission.

"My lord——" Captain Bill came.

Xia Duo turned around and looked carefully at the old captain with a weathered face. He did not directly arrange the next itinerary of the "Yuanfang", but asked Captain Bill a more personal question:

"Captain Bill, which territory is your hometown? How many people do you have in your family? What kind of work do they do?"

Bill was stunned for a moment after hearing this. He didn't know what the purpose of his new employer was in asking these questions, but he still answered truthfully:

"Sir, my home is in Harland, not far south of Severington. I have my wife, two sons and their wives and children at home. They run a small leather shop together in Harland. Life is pretty good, but as for me—"

When Captain Bill talked about his family, his face was obviously filled with a happy smile, but when he finally mentioned himself, his face instantly dimmed——

"When I was young, I was recruited by Lord Harlan to join his fleet. I started as a handyman washing clothes for the crew in the bilge, and now I am the captain. I have been doing this for more than thirty years.

"It's a pity that Lord Haran decided to reduce the size of the fleet not long ago, and I unfortunately became the only captain to be dismissed. Maybe after this mission, I will go to Haran to run a leather shop with my two sons.

"This may be a good ending for me, but for my three grandsons who can already call me grandpa, it is almost a turning point of fate. One or even two of them will lose the ability to learn magic. Chance."

After listening to Bill's story, Xia Duo once again felt lucky that he could get Mu Yan's help, and was even more grateful to Mu Yan.

A captain and a leather shop can hardly afford one or two family members to learn magic. How much price will he, a time traveler with no background, have to pay?

Looking back now, if I had not obtained the official apprenticeship status when I first joined the Tower of Time, I would not have been able to take advantage of the opportunities to learn the scrolls and ask questions for free to set up an exchange group.

Then he may still be struggling to pay for library reading fees, spell laboratory usage fees, and consulting fees for asking questions to others!

If there is no official apprentice status and no direct benefit, even if the exchange group is feasible in theory, why should others believe in him?

Even if he finally gained the trust of other apprentices and established a communication group, what was the time cost in the process?

You must know that the orc wave appeared in the winter when he joined the Tower of Time. If he could not obtain the ability to cast spells before then, he might be exempted from recruitment, but the subsequent arcane competition would be one step away.

Even now, he can still become an official mage, but it is impossible to become the lord of Daxia, Niya's husband, or a senior arcanist.

In other words, if he hadn't followed Neil to see the circus outside the town, he wouldn't have met Mu Yan. Sometimes, a single thought can lead to a huge difference in fate.

Now the real turning point of Captain Bill's fate has come. Xia Duo thought for a while and then expressed his long-decided thoughts:

"Captain Bill, you should know that I am the lord of the Southern Bactria Territory. My territory is currently lacking a veteran who is familiar with the affairs of the Northland. I think Captain Bill, you can work for a few more years!"

"Sir, do you want me to continue to be the captain of the 'Yuanyuan'?" Bill's eyes were filled with joy and some hesitation.

The captain's income must be higher than that of the leather shop, but at the same time, the risk of sailing is also higher than that of the leather shop. He had already decided to return to Harland after this mission, but he did not expect that such a choice would appear now.

Thinking of his grandson, Bill silently made his decision.

And Xia Duo did not disappoint him, "Yes, I intend to let you continue to be the captain of the Yuanfang. The Yuanfang will no longer need to go to sea in the future, but will use inland shipping."

"Inland river shipping? I know that your territory is in the south, but I heard that the river in the south is narrow. Can this ship pass?"

Being able to say such words means that Bill has accepted Sha Duo's recruitment and is already thinking about Sha Duo. To this, Sha Duo's answer is——

"In the past, this boat might have been inconvenient to travel on inland rivers, but now I can say with certainty that this boat is fine!"

The reason is naturally due to the previous crowds of fish in Lake Macht.

When Priest Morton was cleaning up the tide of fishmen, the torrent of negative energy swept across the north and south waters, taking away not only countless fishmen, but also parts of the riverbed and river banks.

Under the erosion of negative energy, with Lake Macht as the center, the north and south river channels have been expanded a lot. Although the narrow place is still not enough for the two "Yuanfang" ships to meet, there is no problem at all for one ship.

When actually meeting other ships, the probability of being in a narrow spot is extremely low.