I start building the new base near the ocean. Once it is complete, I'll move the kobolds here to defend it. Kobolds don't get along well with most other races. It is best to separate them from other non reptilian humanoids. This base is built with a dock connecting it to the water. We'll be able to store our boats here once they're made.

This base is more out in the open than our main fortress. It will need to have more fortified walls. I bring all my elemental/nature magic troops to help with building the base. Each earth wall is fortified together from all the troops that can. The foot thick earth wall can now stop a mana cannon blast without faltering.

Building an attached hot springs for the kobolds. Also setting up a few fermenting stations for beer within a dark dry hut off the base entrance. I need to make a distillery for them as well. Sometimes having a single bottle of whiskey would be better than a dozen bottles of beer. Especially for the long trips on the ocean. A dozen bottles of whiskey would be easier to store than twelve dozen bottles of beer. If we clear out the pirates we might be able to open up the base as a port for trading. Greed drank a lot and he preferred whiskey.

What else should we make then… Crops would be nice, but mainly for the fact that we need to grow the plants used for making beer. Maybe it would be best to make several different types of beer. Like potato, pumpkin, corn and wheat beers for variety. I'm not even close to an expert so I'll leave it up to the kobolds.

Adding some mana cannons to some scout towers of the new base is the last thing we need to do for defense. I make sure some are also facing the ocean just in case we have to retreat back here, we can more easily defend it. This might be the first thing the pirates have to invade in order to attack Shienta.

Finishing the base we still need to build ships. I move the kobolds to their new home though. It was only a few days to make the base. Making the boats shouldn't take much longer... Unless I decide to make some extra special ones. I'm going to mimic the designs Greed had made. Also incorporating some of my own ideas in with tinkerer.

Getting all my generals together, we cut the wood we need and expand it with control nature and elemental magic. The logs are now easily five times as big as when they were originally cut down. Once we cut them I'll strengthen them with control nature.

Having my generals help would be an extremely long time to do. Just working together expanding the trees to make more wood takes around five minutes per tree. Adding up the hundreds of hundreds of boards we would need to strengthen together would take too much time. Still just increasing the size of the trees for production help save time, since the bigger pieces of the ship can be cut straight out.

Making the keel is much easier with a giant log. It is far easier and cheaper than making one out of metal, which we would have to do. The keel also acts as a boat stabilizer, meaning the better the keel is the more stable the ship will be. The keel is the foundation of the ship so enhancing its strength with my generals is the only piece we will do that for. After that we can build normal boats. I'll add my extra designs after they are finished.

We make two black shivs. Two black daggers. Two black swords. Finally, a new ship I created myself called turtle ships… Following the black theme they will be called black turtles. Each ship is being outfitted for its intended role.

The shivs have mana canister powered paddle wheels on each side of the ship. Increasing the overall speed and making it not require sails or man powered to move. Finally adding an extra large and wide rudder to the ship allowing for sharper turns. The shivs are also outfitted with a metal bowsprit to punch holes in the side of ships by ramming them.

The swords are far more armed than the shivs are. The ship has the same mana canister operated paddle wheels as the shivs. The main difference is, there are also several smaller paddle wheels on each side that can be manually operated by the crew. I'll have to train the crew to paddle at the same speed so the boat doesn't go around in circles. Finally each sword is armed with a heavy cannon. An extremely large mana cannon that can't be moved and faces forwards. Each heavy cannon could potentially sink a ship in a single shot.

The black daggers are a hybrid version of both. Meaning a mixture of each. Ramming bowspirit, powered by both paddle wheels and manual work if necessary. More weapons than the shivs not as much as the swords. Each dagger is armed with a large mana cannon that can be swiveled to face the direction to shoot. Smaller than a heavy cannon but still big enough to out range most other ships of a similar size.

The black turtles are complete defensive ships. They can be used for ramming other ships without the fear of being boarded. They can't fight far ranged though and will be used only for close quarters fights by ramming and flank firing cannons. The ship was built as a giant automaton… THEY WERE DIFFICULT TO BUILD! Each one of the turtle ships takes around the same time to build as ten of the other ships.

Taking an entire month to design and build them both. They also take five black mages constantly powering them to stay active. Five mages using all their mana every single hour to power it for a single hour. The turtles can be used on land though since they're designed like actual turtles. The turtles can be completely submerged without risking the troops lives inside the turtles. I add some wind scrolls to be used in case the oxygen levels get too low. The ports that fire the cannons are specially designed to seal completely before they submerge.

My army will be fighting primarily with hit and run tactics unless we outnumber them. That is of course after the first pirate ship we encounter. I plan on taking it to interrogate the pirates for more information.

The shivs run with crews of two dozen men. The daggers run with crews of fifty men. The turtles run with crews of as low as five but as many as fifty. Finally the swords run with crews of one hundred and fifty men. More than the number of soldiers I have if you don't include the automatons.

The reason I went with man powered and mana canister paddle wheels is because, learning how to operate a normal ship would be far to difficult for the crew members to learn. At least to the competence that I feel they could fight evenly against pirates who have done it for years. With the paddle wheels we can go full speed with no dependance on wind currents. The turtle ships can be used in surprise attacks by approaching from land or appearing close from underneath the water.

The entire time we were building the ships my men have been learning how to swim... It was a hard going process. A few actually drowned while learning but when there are close to 500 people learning to swim at once. You are going to have some accidents. Two or three deaths now could be the difference from a ship being sunk later and causing the entire crew to die.

The kobolds are above average swimmers but nothing outstanding. I'm the fastest swimmer in the army right now because of my blue mage passive water affinity. I would like to get some type of longer breath or something from monsters but until we're out on the sea we wont be attacked.

I feel my army can fight against an army of similar size with no problems with these ships now… We can leave towards the pirates at any time now. I build eight more portals first. Attaching one to each ship and a return portal to our main base. I would like to make one single trip to buy some slaves first. I'll set them free under the promise that they serve me for a single year as payment.

Heading to Merideth from the portal Sock had moved. He set up camp on the outside of the city and I brought enough money to buy a home while I'm in town. As well as enough for a few slaves. Buying the house first I let Sock's group rest inside. Picking a middle quarter house was smarter and far cheaper than buying an upper quarter house. It is still fairly well sized. A family of five could live comfortably here. We head to the slave auction next.

Entering the open market you can smell the stink of poverty. At least it doesn't smell like shit anymore. Approaching the crowd of people watching as a human female was auctioned off. She must have collected a huge debt or was sold by her parents to slavers. I hope the best for her but I'm looking for different races to buy. You can't pity every single person… If I still had the kind trait, I would have most likely tried to buy every slave here to set them free… The auctioneer spoke up.

“Next up we have a group discount sale! A family of dwarves had recently fallen into debt from their father. He fled the country, fleeing to our rivals land after racking up a huge debt. His wife and children are being sold at a discount price to pay some of it off.”

While he was talking the family of dwarves were being pulled out by chains. Altogether there is five of them. A mother, two daughters and two young children, hard to tell their sexes since they're so young. They're all completely naked, seems like a poor business practice to me. It would be a waste if they died from cold weather. Someone bids on them.

“Fifteen silver!”

Wow, I might be able to get them for cheap. I wait until the bidding is almost done. The man who was bidding found himself a competitor and the raised the price up to fifty silver. The one who initiated the had given up though. I take his place.

“Sixty silver!”

Everyone looks back towards me… With my very irregular group of non humans… They must think I'm a collector of non humans with the ones behind me. The other competitor has also given up. Dwarves aren't nearly as attractive as other races. Very plain women, the only people bidding on them are those who would use them for work purposes. I win with my first bid. I walk up to talk to them. I speak in the dwarf language… I learned it when I was little and haven't gotten to use it yet.

“Please stay by my group until I'm finished here. I'll explain my conditions for your freedom at my house.”

The bidding continues. While it does I send Brick off to buy a few sets of cheap clothing for the slaves I'm about to purchase… You think they'd cloth them but they were just handed over, as is. A few more humans go up for sale… Thinking about it, it might be beneficial to buy a few... If humans weren't so racist towards other races that is… No, I'll avoid owning humans for now. The auctioneer speaks again.

“We have another big sale folks. We have some captured elementalists from the skirmishes against the country to the north. You can do with them as you like once you buy them. Even kill them as they stand in front of the crowd here. They are technically war criminals.”

Brick isn't here! I have to buy them at any cost, they'll most likely be expensive though, I can see the blood lust in a few of the participants eyes. Their are twelve of them being sold separately. He brought them all up at the same time to show that they are all from the elementalist tribe… Brick might start killing people if I can't buy them all… He needs to get back here quickly… Is there any way to save them without spending all of my money…

The bidding on them is as insane as I though it would be. Reaching upwards of a gold for every single elementalist… I managed to buy them all so far but one of the craftier bidders keeps continually raising the price… If he keeps it up I might not have enough money to buy them all… Brick comes back from purchasing the cloths and drops them on the ground when he see's the elementalists on the auction block.

He looks towards me and notices that I've been buying them. He approaches me and whispers.

“Get them all… If you can't, I'll make sure everyone dies here so I can free them.”

I whisper back.

“I'll do my best. If I can't go berserk until I try something else first.”

We continue to win every single elementalist. I only brought around fifteen gold. The house was a gold piece and as the price has risen per elementalist it is now over a single gold coin per one. With three left I don't think I'll have enough money by the end… Brick will kill everyone who gets in his way if I can't get them all. For the sake of his tribesmen, he'll risk his life a hundred times over.

“We're slowly closing down folks. Only two left! Will the generous bidder in the back get all of them! Or will he run out of money first!”

Shit the auctioneer is provoking the crowd. The next one takes almost all of my money to buy! I'm out of money I can't buy the last elementalist! This is going to end badly.

“Only one left! Will he get her as well?”

People are bidding a gold piece already… Waiting for me to bid. I don't have anything… FUCK! WHAT DO I DO?

“I… I BID... MY ABILITIES AS AN ENCHANTER FOR THE LAST ONE!”

The crowd goes silent… I don't think they understand what I just said. The crowd starts to look strangely at me. Some start to laugh. I don't care though, if I don't win them all Brick will kill everyone here if he can. The auctioneer speaks up again.

“We only accept money at these auctions. It would be un-businesslike to barter for slaves young man.”

“I can make slave collars. I can make cursed collars. I can combine them to make cursed slave collars. It would be a mistake to not do business with me!”

I plead. Please just take this you fool!

“We can't, even though that is such a gener-.”

I cut him off, turning into a dragon. Calling upon the bluffing powers of Greed I yell.

“YOU FOOL! DO YOU NOT REALIZE I AM THE DEMIGOD OF LIFE! I COULD KILL EVERYONE HERE ON A WHIM WITH NO NEGATIVE EFFECTS TOWARDS ME! IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME THE LAST ELEMENTALIST, I'LL KILL EVERYONE HERE!”

The crowd went silent. Please let this bluff work. If they do attack, I doubt we wont have any casualties… Why didn't I bring Gear with me!? PLEASE WORK!

“...If… No one else… Wants the slave still…”

Someone from the crowd speaks up.

“Yea! I bid one gold twenty silver!”

I shift back into human form, aiming my double barrel knife cannons as quickly as I can and blow him away. Injuring a few people around him. Instantly killing him with immense force. I speak up again.

“The auctioneer asked if anyone else wanted to bid more than my single copper. Does no one else want to bid?”

The crowd has fear showing in their eyes. Some of the crowd has already started screaming in an effort to rush the exits to leave. I speak again.

“ELEMENTALIST I THINK I WON THE AUCTION! Get over here so we can leave.”

Like that, we calmly walked out of the auction house… I still wanted to buy more slaves but I guess I'll have to buy them with a proxy so as not to cause another scene. We head towards my house… To not cause a scene I'll have to go talk with the king before I leave. I wish I wouldn't have brought Brick now. Oh gods this was a knockout punch to the army coffers. Almost twenty percent of the armies wealth was just spent on a few troops...