Over the following period, the Swarm began to accelerate the production of drones.
One by one, these strangely shaped creatures crawled out of the nearby Egg Fortresses.
They quickly scurried toward the distant mines.
By this time, the Hive was slowly moving, dragging the creep along with it.
Xia Jin sat on a rock atop the creep.
Placing a mirror in front of her, she looked at the pure, snow-white figure sitting atop the writhing creep with the terrifying Hive as a backdrop. She propped her chin in her hand, speechless.
...
The production rate of land-based insects was subsequently reduced to free up capacity for upgrading all the Swimmers in Clearwillow Lake.
Afterward, these insects were transported across the entire kingdom to the Great West Sea by zerglings, who had nothing else to do after the battle ended.
As for the east coast, she wasn't considering expansion there for the time being.
However...
Not long after, the scourges Xia Jin had deployed for aerial reconnaissance discovered many ships from other nations.
It seemed there were other countries on the other side of the ocean. They were sailing toward the southern part of the continent—perhaps to the Empire, or perhaps to other nations.
“Speaking of which, this is the Great Navigation era. Many of the kingdom's ships were destroyed by me. It might not be a good idea to head out openly using the Zerg. It would be better to establish some merchant fleets to open trade routes and see what other countries are like under the guise of humans.”
Due to the discovery of the fleets, Xia Jin dispatched two thousand Swimmers to clear the harbors of several cities on the east coast. Once she confirmed the waters were safe, she ordered the kingdom's craftsmen to begin building ships.
During these few days, a merchant fleet arrived at a port city.
...
“Quick, quick, quick! There are still vacancies over here!”
The soldiers responsible for guidance personally led several large ships, fifty to sixty meters long, to the shore.
One of these ships actually had an iron hull, giving it the distinct feel of a warship.
Soon, a group of personnel disembarked.
“What's going on? It looks like there are some issues with your port?” The man in the lead handed over something resembling a cigar. The official at the shore immediately took it, lit it without ceremony, and took a puff.
“You wouldn't know since you just arrived, but the sky has changed in Clear.”
The soldier shook his head and stepped aside, allowing several workers carrying cargo to pass.
“Changed? What happened?” the man asked, looking surprised.
“Civil war... but it's already over. The true ruler of the entire kingdom has changed from the King to the Little Princess.”
“What? The Little Princess... who? Wait, you don't mean the one who was exiled over a month ago, do you?” The man was shocked.
“That's the one. After being exiled to the forest, Her Highness returned with a race called the Zerg. She allied with the Northern Lords and marched south, capturing the capital directly. Furthermore, the southern cities were taken by her seaborne landing forces.”
After saying this, the soldier shook his head and glanced toward the town.
A unit of the Zerg was stationed there.
Although the kingdom had a new master, the soldier was fortunate enough to continue his former job of receiving foreign fleets in the port area.
Everything seemed much the same as before.
Especially at this harbor; because they had surrendered quickly, no fierce fighting had occurred.
“Alright, enough talk. Start unloading. Everything is mostly the same as the past. There's just a new species called the Zerg in the kingdom's territory. Just treat them like a type of magic beast.”
“Fair enough.”
Seeing the soldier put it that way, the man didn't care much either.
Ultimately, it was all about making money.
The goods were quickly moved to the ground, and the man promptly paid the fees.
“By the way.”
After all the cargo was unloaded, the soldier couldn't help but ask, “That thing equipped on your ship... the cannon. What's the deal with that?”
This soldier had not actually been integrated into the Swarm yet. He only asked because he remembered the orders from above to keep an eye out for information regarding other countries.
“You mean this? It's a magic-driven naval main gun. This one has a range of over eight kilometers and a 120mm caliber. Of course, this is just a civilian model for fighting pirates. The truly powerful ones are on the navy's ships; they have a much faster rate of fire. Not like this one, which can only fire two rounds a minute.”
Despite his modest words, the man's tone was very proud.
“Impressive,” the soldier marveled.
“Haha, it's just an imported weapon. Recently, a magic revolution occurred in the Empire. Apparently, they broke through some kind of technology that allows many magic weapons that were previously expensive and difficult to produce to be mass-produced.”
“I see. I've heard something about that.”
After their brief conversation, the fleet finished unloading, collected their gold coins and silver coins, and departed.
After handling the matter, the soldier thought for a moment and ran to a certain place in town, where he met a very beautiful elven girl.
He submitted the intelligence he had gathered.
“You did well.”
The elven girl handed over several silver coins.
“Thank you.”
In truth, the soldier was more interested in the elven girl than the money, but unfortunately, she had no intention of engaging in further conversation.
Rate on N.U.
