Chapter 1425: Shipyard
Ning and the rest arrived at the Shipyard where multiple shipping vessels were tied on either side of a dock.
A young woman with silver eyes and tanned skin walked Ning around the place, showing the various ships they had for sale.
“You need many people to run these ships. That one with the golden bow needs around 40 people in total to run. And that one with a bird’s figurehead needs over 50.”
“If you truly want a ship that does not require that many people to run it, I’m afraid it is not in this place. Even a simple dingy needs 2 people to run in most cases after all.”
Ning nodded as he looked through the shipyard. He began seeing a small flaw in his plan. “Are there truly no ships that can work with just 4 people?” he asked.
“Nope,” the girl said. “Just handling the sails alone would take you a lot of people. Then you need someone to deal with food, someone to stay in the Crows nest, and not to mention that you would have to constantly cycle through crewmates day and night so as to not overwork them.”
“I understand,” Ning said. He didn’t want to do what he was planning now, but it seemed he would have to.
“Thank you for your time,” Ning said and tossed a single gold coin toward the young girl. “For your troubles.”
The young girl looked at the gold coin in surprise and looked up at Ning, unable to believe what she had just received.
“Sir, you don’t… this is too much,” she started saying, but Ning simply waved at her and walked away with the other two.
“So what now?” Tim asked. “Are we not buying a ship? Are we to ask someone else to take us on their ship for treasure hunting?”
“No, that is not what we will be doing,” Ning said. “I have another plan. Let’s just return back to the hotel for now.”
“We will be going treasure hunting at least, right?” Jasmine asked. “That’s all that matters for me, ship or no ship.”
“Treasure hunting won’t be stopped unless I learn the whereabouts of the other two people,” Ning said.
A big man walked out from the shipyard’s office building and walked up to Ning and the other two.
“That was quite fast. Did you come to a decision on what ship to buy?” the big man asked. He was the owner of the entire place and worked as the manager in this instance.
“No, we decided that we aren’t going to buy anything,” Ning said.
“What?” the man looked stunned. “But why? I assure you that our ships are the finest in all of Gova. I dare say they are the best in all of Horace,” the man said.
Ning shook his head. “It’s not about the ships. Your assistant here helped us see that if we don’t have someone to run the ship, we shouldn’t be buying it so easily,” he said. “So, we decided to leave. We have no reason to stay here anymore.”
“What? No, but you can always find sailors. There are people willing to go on boats all around. You just have to look for them. I’m not joking,” the man said.
His eyes flashed toward his assistant, who looked down as she realized what a mistake she had made. She was going to get scolded very soon for losing a big customer so easily.
Tim came close to Ning’s ear and whispered the same thing.
Ning gave a rueful smile as he had come to realize what a mistake he had made as well.
“Well, let us restart then,” Ning said and waved his hands.
The man’s expression suddenly changed and he looked around for a moment, confused about something. He then looked at Ning and the other 2 and gave a big smile.
“Welcome, customers. I’m the manager of the shipyard. How may I help you this fine day,” the man asked.
Tim and Jasmine suddenly looked at each other with weirded-out looks, unsure what had just happened.
“Hi, can you tell me the average costs of buying a ship here? I wish to purchase one, but I’m not sure if I have the money for it.”
The man gave a thoughtful look. “Well, what sort of ship are you looking for? Is it for fishing? Or just traveling?” the man asked.
“Traveling, I suppose,” Ning said. “Can you give me a price on such a vessel?”
“Hmm,” the man gave a thoughtful look. “Even the cheapest ship we have here comes to around 400 gold coins. So you would need that much at least.”
“I see,” Ning said. “400 gold coins. That’s a big sum of money. I’ll have to consult this with my family. Thank you for your help.”
Ning gave a small nod and walked away.
Tim and Jasmine followed behind Ning quickly, walking by his side as they desperately vied for answers but to no avail. Ning would not tell them exactly what he had done to the man at all.
“I had to protect that young girl,” he said and shrugged.
Tim then tried asking about ships too, but there too he couldn’t get any answers. Tim and Jasmine reluctantly stopped asking any sort of questions and returned back to their hotel rooms.
They slept overnight and the next morning there was a letter for them brought to them by the concierge.
Ning took the letter and read through it quickly.
“We will get to meet the professor today it seems. He was given our message and will meet us in a restaurant downtown,” Ning said.
Tim got excited. “Dr Tony sent us a letter? This is good,” he said. “Let us go meet him then.”
“Yes,” Ning said.
After a while, the three of them left the hotel room once again, making their way to a restaurant in a bustling part of the city where they would meet the professor.
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