Claire quickly left the cabin.
She still needed to prepare dinner.
While she was busy, Sules finally opened the system panel to check the rewards for this mission.
Mission: Upgrade the ship to Level 2 within five days.
Status: Completed.
Reward: A Level 5 fisherman will appear at Seck Tavern tomorrow evening at 7 PM. Players who arrive at the tavern before 7 PM will have a chance to recruit him.
Sules’s eyes widened after reading the message.
“That’s it? That’s the so-called opportunity?”
It didn’t even say what the fisherman looked like or what his name was.
“This is too perfunctory!”
She sighed with a bitter expression.
She definitely had to go.
After all, she’d put in so much effort.
Even though the reward was vague, she had a small chance.
Not going would be a waste.
Having settled that, Sules shifted her focus from the mission and scrolled up the panel to check the ship’s status after the upgrade.
Sules’s Small Boat (Unmodifiable)
Owner: Sules Sulia
Fleet Size: 1 Level:
Sloop (2) Funds: 1 Silver Coin, 20 Copper Coins
Basic Supplies:
Wood x4
Food x42
Rattan x1
Cloth x2
Treasures: None
Passenger Limit: 10 Crew
Count: 2 Captain: Sules Sulia
Captain’s Talent: Heart of the Sea God Crew
Sailor: Claire Louvain (Click to view)
Mission: To Be Activated
She clicked the gray upgrade button to see how many resources were needed for the next upgrade.
Upgrade Requirements:
Funds: 1 Gold Coin, 88 Silver Coins, 88 Copper Coins (Insufficient)
Wood x200 (Insufficient)
Cloth x120 (Insufficient)
Rattan x120 (Insufficient)
Stone x40 (Insufficient)
Iron x70 (Insufficient)
Crew x4 (Insufficient)
Looking at the long list of “insufficient,” Sules felt her head spin.
“Great, it seems like an upgrade is out of reach for a while.”
Not to mention the funds, just gathering these materials would take a lot of time.
Stone wasn’t an issue, but the price of iron ore, from Sules’s memory, wasn’t cheap.
In other words, while the upgrade superficially only required 88 silver coins, it would actually cost several gold coins.
But for the current Sules, earning even one silver coin was difficult, let alone a gold coin, which was equivalent to a hundred silver coins.
She pursed her lips, her gaze firm. She absolutely had to recruit that Level 5 fisherman; otherwise, upgrading would be too difficult.
Speaking of which, it was only now that Sules noticed something.
This ship only had four berths, but the system panel said it could accommodate ten people.
So, would the remaining six people sleep on the deck?
This guess was likely correct because while Sules didn’t know what the Age of Sail was like, as far as she knew, the living conditions for sailors back then were not good.
The berths were probably only for those with real authority, like the captain and first mate.
Sules sighed, thinking to herself that she should recruit fewer crew members.
After all, employees’ workplace experience was a crucial part of their work enthusiasm.
***
The next morning, she went alone to the Albatross Guild branch.
As a crew member, it wasn’t appropriate for Claire to come here, so Sules came by herself.
Claire, meanwhile, was sent to purchase supplies.
For starters, even the fishing nets were insufficient.
She was here today to receive the sea area and missions assigned to her by the Albatross Guild, which was a major reason for her joining the guild.
The guild, of course, controlled more than just sea areas; for a guild, the truly valuable assets were shipping routes.
This was the primary way for guilds and other major powers to earn money.
However, this had nothing to do with the current Sules; she couldn’t access these high-level things at all.
For her right now, having a territory that could consistently make money was enough.
She arrived quite early; there was only one captain in the hall at the moment.
Sules remembered him; he was also one of the chosen ones.
This branch had only three minor leaders in total.
She was currently under Moss, and this person was under another leader.
His name was Leo.
Leo glanced at Sules, his expression subtly disdainful.
Sules was all too familiar with this expression; it was often seen on the faces of her awful relatives back home.
Seeing this, she immediately understood his attitude.
She sneered inwardly and no longer paid attention to him.
Soon, everyone had arrived.
David walked out from the inner room, holding a piece of paper made from special fish skin.
This was also a common papermaking material in this world, and compared to paper from Earth, this fish skin paper was much tougher.
Holding the paper, he first read aloud the rules.
“Our guild’s sea area is vast, and we naturally won’t mistreat you newcomers. But with gain comes effort; you need to turn in one ton of fish every week. You can freely buy and sell the rest. The fishing moratorium will follow the unified regulations of our continent, and you will be provided with a certain amount of funds for living during that time.”
“Fishing moratorium?”
Hearing this term, Sules’s eyes widened in surprise.
She, of course, understood what it meant, because fish also needed breeding periods.
To prevent their extinction and maintain renewable resources, nations would specifically stipulate a fishing moratorium, during which time it was forbidden to go out and fish.
But game worlds didn’t have these rules, so she had completely forgotten about this.
She hadn’t expected that in the real world, there would be a fishing moratorium that didn’t exist in games, which made it feel more realistic.
Speaking of which, one ton of fish a week was quite a lot.
They had only caught three hundred catties (150 kg) last time.
One ton would be a significant amount of work.
If it was just her and Claire, it definitely wouldn’t be enough.
Therefore, recruiting crew members was imperative.
Besides the potential Level 5 fisherman, Sules knew she needed to recruit other crew members.
After all, a Level 2 ship could now accommodate ten crew members.
While she didn’t plan to fill all the spots, she couldn’t waste so many positions.
After speaking, David distributed maps to everyone, “This is a map of the sea areas controlled by our guild. Sules, you’re responsible for Area T1. Leo, you’re responsible for Area T2. Lyle, you’re responsible for Area T3…”
Soon, the areas for a dozen or so people were divided.
Sules looked at Area T1 marked on the map in her hand and nodded with satisfaction.
The scope of this sea area was not small; Moss had treated her well.
But speaking of which, what was the order of T1, T2, T3 based on?
Or was it random?
After roughly glancing at the sizes of the areas, Sules had a guess in her mind.
This should be ordered by area size, with T1 being the largest area.
Before she could think more deeply, she heard Leo next to her snort heavily in dissatisfaction, “Hmph, I wonder how some people get such good territory. Is it by spreading their legs and resources just come?”
Upon hearing this, Sules almost laughed in anger.
These words were almost blatant insinuations against her.
After all, she was the only woman here; wasn’t he implying she got ahead by using her body?
As a female boss who had ventured alone into the financial market in her previous life, she had heard such remarks more times than she could count.
With words spoken to this extent, if she endured it any longer, she would definitely be looked down upon by others.
Sules had a good way of dealing with such people.
She directly questioned, “Are you implying something about me?”
***
Leo froze, completely taken aback that Sules would ask such a direct question, seemingly unconcerned with others’ opinions.
However, his previous words were too pointed; denying them was impossible.
So Leo bit the bullet and said, “Yes, I am talking about you! With your captain’s ability, what makes you deserve Area T1? Who’d believe you don’t have connections?”
Sules sneered, instantly spotting the flaw in his statement, “You mean only those with superior captain talents deserve larger areas? Then tell me, you, who received Area T2 and are unhappy with me getting T1, do you consider your captain ability to be better than everyone else’s?”
“I… I…”
Leo didn’t dare respond.
If he did, he would effectively be putting himself against everyone else.
After all, someone so arrogant as to believe they’re better than everyone else is certainly disliked, even if he genuinely thought so.
Seeing his hesitation, Sules pressed on, “Oh? You’re hesitating? So you actually think you’re not that strong? Then by what right did you get T2? According to your logic, could I reasonably assume you’re the type of person who gets resources just by lying on your back in bed, without even spreading your legs?”
“You!”
Leo’s eyes bulged with rage.
Insulted in such a way, he completely lost his temper and moved to strike Sules.
Sules had already anticipated his reaction; in fact, she’d seen many people like him—souring when outmatched, and quick to resort to violence against those they perceived as easy targets.
Truly, the behavior of a weakling.
Prepared, she darted behind the crowd, loudly taunting, “Oh? Are we resorting to violence now? Are you enraged because I hit the nail on the head? I suggest you look down at your pants; you didn’t even zip up after leaving the room, how careless.”
At her words, Leo instinctively looked down.
His zipper, however, was perfectly intact at the top, clear evidence that Sules had been spouting nonsense.
“Pfft!”
Someone in the crowd couldn’t hold back a laugh, and then others followed suit.
To them, Leo’s behavior was utterly comical, even seeming to confirm the rumors of him getting ahead through physical means.
After all, if he hadn’t pulled down his pants, why would he look down?
Initially, the crowd was indeed somewhat displeased about Sules being assigned to Area T1, so they hadn’t intervened when Leo spoke up.
But Sules’s words were undeniably valid; wasn’t Leo’s statement tacitly implying he was superior to all of them?
This also caused dissatisfaction among the crowd towards Leo.
The confrontation clearly had Sules gaining the upper hand, and regardless of the era, Leo’s behavior of resorting to violence when unable to articulate his thoughts was utterly low-class.
While sailors were burly and might value strength, they also prided themselves on being civilized and were quite disdainful of Leo’s bullying of a young woman.