Four hundred thousand Gold Coins… For Rocky, that was absolutely an astronomical sum!
For a moment, Rocky even felt his breathing become rapid, experiencing a tension and excitement he had never known before!
With so much money, how should he spend it?
Money, naturally, is to be spent, and the purpose of making money is to spend it. Hence, after accepting this astronomical sum, the first thing Rocky thought of was how to use this money to develop Thunderhawk City.
Unfortunately, he who had always been worried about money suddenly couldn’t think of a way to spend it!
Because now the coffers of Thunderhawk City were quite substantial; as its City Lord, he no longer had to worry about food, yarn, and such. But suddenly not having to worry about these things left Rocky feeling at a loss— if he wasn’t worrying about these things, what should he worry about?
After much thought, Rocky finally clarified his ideas; he wanted to use this money to develop Thunderhawk City and expand his strength!
Firstly, he would use the money to accelerate the pace of Thunderhawk City’s economic reforms, then make another trip to Eternal City, hire more technicians, and have more people start learning leather manufacturing techniques. At the same time, he would also build a leather manufacturing factory in Thunderhawk City, setting the city’s manufacturing industry on the right track.
This was something he had never considered before because he didn’t have the money to build a factory. In Rocky’s original plan, even if the residents of Thunderhawk City learned leather manufacturing techniques, they would still, just as now, do manual production at home. Thinking about building a factory was a plan far in the future.
But now he had money, so to take out tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand Gold Coins to develop Thunderhawk City had become easy. Under these circumstances, previously unfeasible ideas could now be realized!
Besides the development of Thunderhawk City itself, he would also use this money to enhance Thunderhawk City’s military strength. If the economy was the soft power, then the military naturally was the hard power.
The mission to Backhill Village not only allowed Rocky to genuinely experience a war against Demons but also to understand many things. For instance, through continuous battle, he increasingly realized the importance of the Void Magic Armor.
In this mission, he was the only one who possessed Void Magic Armor, yet the combat power displayed by just this single set of armor was enough to rival an entire squad of soldiers, no, even more exaggeratedly so. Because judging from battle achievements alone, Rocky had killed more Demons in various battles than an entire squad of soldiers.
And if he could have a fully-composed Void Magic Squad, how much would Thunderhawk City’s strength be enhanced?
Unfortunately, a fully-formed Void Magic Squad would require ten people, and considering the exorbitant cost of Void Magic Armor, even Rocky with his four hundred thousand Gold Coins couldn’t form such a squad all at once. However, he could start by buying one or two sets of Void Magic Armor!
Not to mention much else, once he sold the Demon Corpses, Demon Cores, and ores, he would definitely have enough to purchase two sets of Void Magic Armor. When the time came, giving one set to Liliya and another to Monte or Lin Feng, even like this, Thunderhawk City’s strength would see a significant increase.
And then there was the Skyship, something Rocky absolutely mustn’t forget.
In this mission, the Skyship had played a far greater role than Rocky had anticipated, giving him a completely new perspective on Skyships.
Having started with his own Void Magic Armor and then extremely fortuitously discovering Mana Runes, a top-tier technology, Rocky hadn’t paid much attention to Skyships, even thinking that in front of Void Magic Armor, Skyships would be of no use.
However, this mission changed that ingrained idea; Void Magic Armor was indeed strong, but Skyships were by no means weak, especially in aerial combat where, in some respects, their role could even surpass that of the Void Magic Armor.
Furthermore, the price of Skyships was substantially cheaper compared to Void Magic Armor, which was a crucial factor.
Take the latest Fifth Generation Void Magic Armor, for instance, the cheapest model on the market ranged from 80,000 to 100,000 Gold Coins, and the price could double, or even triple, for some of the more powerful models. Your next read awaits at empire
But the latest models of Floating Warships, especially the small ones, were significantly cheaper by a large margin. Rocky remembered the last time he saw a new model Reconnaissance Ship on the weapon market in Eternal City; it was priced at only 50,000 Gold Coins. And if it were an older model or a second-hand Floating Warship, then the price would be even cheaper.
In such circumstances, Rocky felt that he should also purchase a few Skyships. Currently, Thunderhawk City only had ten Skyships, all outdated Reconnaissance Ships, and it was time to expand the fleet.
After all, when facing demons, he could send the soldiers into battle, but between Sky Cities, the combat was dominated by Void Magic Armor and Skyships—ordinary soldiers simply couldn’t play a significant role.
In addition to the Void Magic Armor and Skyships, it was naturally necessary to provide benefits for the soldiers, such as new equipment.
In this mission, the power and utility of rune equipment were fully demonstrated. The casualty rate of the Guard Corps equipped with rune equipment was at least half that of the Backhill Village troops in ordinary gear.
This was despite the fact that the Guard Corps consisted of new recruits with little battle experience, while Backhill Village’s troops were veterans with substantial combat experience.
If the Guard Corps were to undertake the same mission again, Rocky believed that with the protection of rune equipment, the casualty rate among the Guards would be even lower!
That was the role rune equipment played on the battlefield, and Rocky felt it was essential to replace all the Guard Corps’ gear with rune equipment!
And lastly, there were the Mana Runes.
As the ace of aces and a secret among secrets in his hands, Rocky thought that once he had money, he should further expand the applications of rune equipment. Currently, he had only used Mana Runes on equipment, but could runes be used on Skyships or Magic Cannons as well?
Both Skyships and Magic Cannons relied on Mana for flight and firing. Since Mana was being used, Mana Runes certainly had a role to play. It was just that Rocky currently lacked the technical expertise in this area.
In fact, Rocky had this idea for a while but, being a transmigrator, his understanding of Magic Energy Technology was limited. Although he had specifically purchased many books on his last trip to Eternal City, his learning progress was very slow.
Therefore, he felt that he should hire a real teacher, preferably an expert in the Magic Energy Domain, to improve his skills in this area as quickly as possible.
In light of this, Rocky had a rough direction on how to spend the 400,000 Gold Coins.
Part of the money would be used for the construction of Thunderhawk City, a rough estimate would be about 100,000 Gold Coins; combined with the current treasury of Thunderhawk City, it would definitely be sufficient. The remaining 300,000 Gold Coins would be allocated for purchasing Void Magic Armors, Floating Warship battleships, and also weaponry and equipment for the soldiers.
And if there was any surplus afterward, Rocky would hire a teacher for himself so that he could learn all about Magic Energy as quickly as possible and maximize the effectiveness of Mana Runes.
Heavens… after making these plans, Rocky roughly tallied up the budget and found that the 400,000 Gold Coins were almost entirely allocated, and even… might not be enough?!
PS: Third release! Seeking recommendations! Seeking recommendations! Seeking recommendations!