Beast Tamer: My pet has a game panel.

Chapter 268 Escort Fee

Ye Mo lives at the stern of the merchant ship. It is very quiet and the environment is quite good.

Through the window, he could see that the entire merchant ship had started and was moving slowly. After a while, it found the right direction, opened the sails, and under the cover of magic, the entire seemingly ancient ship sailed quickly.

Through the window, in Ye Mo's eyes, the dock of Langge City became smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

Looking at the rolling waves on the sea, Ye Mo felt emotional and wondered if this was the experience of sailing.

When he was still in Shanghai, he had visited many sea areas, but he didn't have a boat at that time. He relied entirely on flying, which had nothing to do with sailing.

After watching for a while and observing carefully, Ye Mo confirmed one thing: the sea here is no different from the sea in the Magic City, it's too boring.

Drawing the curtains, Ye Mo continued to prepare the potion. The so-called fourth-level master cultivator breakthrough mission was almost completed, and he was getting closer and closer to preparing the fourth-level potion.

Bai You continued to ponder the formation. According to what he said, relying on his innate abilities, he was now almost at the level of a fifth-order formation. However, his cultivation was too low, and even if he reached the level of a fifth-order formation master, he would not be able to exert his full strength.

Finally, Bai Ling and Xiao Liu'er hid on the sofa, their eyes wide open, wearing headphones and continuing to look at their phones.

Ye Mo took a laissez-faire attitude towards these two. After all, they were still young, and normal cultivation would have little effect on them.

The most suitable place for them is the battlefield, especially the large battlefield. The endless killing on the battlefield can allow Bai Ling to improve rapidly, and the large number of corpses can allow Xiao Liuer to improve. Compared with these, normal training can only increase a little skill experience.

…………

Two days later, a merchant ship was sailing on the vast ocean, and not far away, a warship with a black flag appeared in the distance. After discovering the merchant ship, it quickly accelerated and came over.

On the deck of the merchant ship, Ye Mo, who was strolling out, saw this scene and looked confused.

Fortunately, with him was the current merchant ship captain, Old Quinn.

"Sir, that is the warship of the Blackrock Duchy." Seeing Ye Mo's confusion, Old Quinn lowered his head and immediately explained.

Hearing this, Ye Mo, who had been busy making potions these days, was stunned and asked curiously, "Since it's a warship from the Blackrock Principality, what does it mean that it's heading towards us?"

Old Quinn made a bitter face and whispered, "Sir, they are here to collect escort fees."

"Ha, escort fee? You can charge escort fee for this? It would be better to charge toll." Ye Mo widened his eyes. This was a warship that he had only seen today, and they charged escort fee as soon as they met. This was too much.

"Sir, I have never heard of tolls, but there are still fees. There are warships stationed on several waterways and specific waters in the Blackstone Principality, specifically for collecting tolls."

"As for the escort fee, it's a fee everyone knows. As long as you encounter Blackrock Principality's warships in the sea, they will charge it. According to the three major fleets of Blackrock Principality, the worst case scenario is that you'll be charged escort fees three times in a row."

Listening to Old Quinn's matter-of-fact speech, Ye Mo felt depressed. He thought about what he said about merchant ships making money, but it turned out that the government didn't make any money at all. They just collected fees along the way and didn't have to do anything else.

Seeing Ye Mo's anger, Old Quinn immediately advised: "Sir, the Blackstone Principality is very powerful. It is better not to provoke it if you can."

After thinking about it, he realized that the Blackstone Principality had three fifth-level Sanctuary-level professionals, corresponding to fifth-level King-level Beast Tamers and King-level Demonic Beast Pets. This kind of strength was definitely not something he could provoke at the moment.

After sighing, Ye Mo glanced at Old Quinn and said, "You can handle it later. I'm going back first."

"Well, leave it to me." Seeing this, Old Quinn breathed a sigh of relief and replied.

After a while, a warship with several warships stopped in the distance, and then a very small warship with several people rushed towards the merchant ship quickly, while constantly shouting, asking the merchant ship to stop.

As the captain, old Quinn ordered everyone to stop the ship and arranged for the fish demi-humans to return to the cabin. As demi-humans, it would be bad if they were discovered by the navy soldiers and made them unhappy.

After a while, the small warship came not far from the merchant ship, and three soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Black Rock Duchy Navy climbed up the rope ladder and boarded the merchant ship.

On the deck, seeing the arrogant and casual navy soldiers, Old Quinn walked over with a smile on his face.

He first handed each person a gold coin, and when the navy soldiers smiled, old Quinn forced a smile and said polite words to them.

Afterwards, after the other party conducted a brief inspection in the cargo hold, they gave the result that the escort fee was eighteen gold coins.

Then, after obtaining the gold coins for the escort fee from Old Quinn, the three naval soldiers nodded with satisfaction, and the leader gave a receipt to prove that their ship had been charged the escort fee.

Afterwards, the three of them returned to the extremely small warship and drove all the way back to the fleet.

"The navy of the Blackrock Principality is too ruthless. The escort fee is 18 gold coins. If I sell all my goods, it will only cost more than 200 gold coins." The red-haired Patton who followed all the way had a gloomy face, and his strong physique was shaking with anger, as if he was going to take out the giant axe behind him at the next moment.

Old Quinn put away his things and said helplessly, "There's nothing we can do about it. As long as you want to operate in Blackrock Principality, you have to pay this money."

When he thought of the strength of the entire principality, Red-haired Patton calmed down a lot, snorted lightly, and left.

inside the room.

"Okay, I know. Let's just do it this way for now."

Facing Old Quinn who came to report, Ye Mo nodded and waved his hand to indicate that he understood.

After Old Quinn left, Ye Mo slammed his fist on the table, making a sound, and an expression of dissatisfaction appeared on his face.

"Damn Blackrock Duchy." After cursing softly, Ye Mo suppressed his inner anger, opened the contract space, and prepared to continue preparing the potion.

Although he was angry, it was better not to provoke the other party in this situation. After all, his current goal was to rush to the commercial port in the Black Stone Principality and find out the information about the three-leaf centenarian grass that could break through to the commander level, or other breakthrough resources.

According to the plan, conflict with the Blackrock Principality is the next best option. It is better not to provoke them if possible. Others have come this way anyway, so just endure it for now.

Thinking this way, after taking out the potion ingredients, Ye Mo calmed down and continued to prepare the potion.

According to his own plan, he intended to purchase or trade for breakthrough resources like the Three-Leaf Centenary Grass. After all, if a principality possessed such a resource, its guardians would undoubtedly be considerable. Using other methods would be too dangerous. Furthermore, if a fifth-level Saint-level professional suddenly emerged from the other side, it would be the end of him. With his current strength, facing a fifth-level expert, if he didn't prepare in advance and use his trump card, the best he could do was escape. As for counterattack, he decided to forget it.

Just when Ye Mo was thinking this, the other party did not give him this opportunity.

As the merchant ship continued sailing towards the trading port, in order to arrive as quickly as possible, it passed through two special sea areas designated by the nobles and a strait. It paid a total of three tolls before it was able to continue its journey.

Although the toll is not as expensive as the escort fee, the three together cost more than thirty gold coins.

Then, after the merchant ship had bypassed many small islands and was less than a day's sail away from the trading port, a whole fleet sailed over on the sea not far away. The flags they flew were completely different from those seen before. It was a real pirate fleet.

The moment they discovered the pirate fleet, the demihuman and human slaves working on the deck showed fear on their faces, stopped their work, and continued to gather towards the center of the merchant ship.

For these subhumans and humans, most of them became slaves after being captured by pirates, so they naturally have a natural fear of pirates.

Faced with this situation, Old Quinn stepped forward and commanded the mercenaries to control the slaves. Even if they could not work, they could not allow them to interfere with the ship's operations.

At this time, after preparing a potion, Ye Mo walked out. Seeing this scene, he asked curiously: "What's wrong? What happened?"

Barton was a little nervous at first, but after hearing Ye Mo's words, he immediately felt relieved.

Yes, what is he afraid of? The other party is pirates, which are just robbers on the sea. Their strength may be strong, but they have adults here.

At that time, the leader summoned two fourth-level monsters. With such strength, there is no need to be afraid as long as the opponent is not an extremely famous pirate.

"Sir, the pirates are coming." Some excited words came out of the mouth of red-haired Patton, and anyone could hear his excitement at the moment.

"Pirates!" Upon hearing this word, Ye Mo's eyes lit up instantly. He had previously planned to obtain breakthrough resources through purchase transactions. The source of the huge amount of wealth he needed was this group of pirates who were wreaking havoc throughout the Black Sea.

Don't underestimate these pirates. On the new map he bought from Langge City, in the vast Black Jade Sea, the Blackstone Principality occupied 70% of the most prosperous islands. Of the other 30%, about half belonged to the Kingdom of Light Spirit, and the rest were unowned islands.

Most of these scattered unowned islands have now become bases for pirates. That is why there are so many pirates in the Black Sea.

It can be said that if a fifth-level Sanctuary-level professional can emerge from this group of pirates and unify all the pirates in the Black Jade Sea, then even the Blackstone Principality would not dare to provoke them.

Such a huge number and a fifth-level professional do not exist. Because of this, this group of pirates will become Ye Mo's next target.

"I just happen to be in a bad mood, so I'll take it out on him later."

The conversation became much more relaxed. Ye Mo smiled, his eyes fixed on the front, where the entire pirate fleet was speeding towards them.

"No, sir." After carefully observing the flags of the other fleet, Old Quinn hurriedly said.

Seeing Ye Mo and Barton frowning in confusion, Old Quinn smiled bitterly and immediately explained, "Sir, I discovered from their flag that they are the Thorn Pirates. Although they fly the pirate flag, they are actually the navy of the Blackstone Principality."

"Or rather, they are one of the pirates under the Earl of Verdant Isle."

"What a coincidence?" Ye Mo asked with a frown.

Old Quinn quickly said, "My lord, the Earl of Verdant Island is the most powerful earl in the Blackstone Principality. Besides the Grand Duke of Blackstone, only the Marquis of Silver Light is stronger than him in terms of background and influence. The other marquis is about the same as the Earl of Verdant Island."

"With such strength, the Earl of Verdant Island naturally has quite a few pirates under his command. Although the Earl's third son didn't reveal all the names of his pirates, several who received money from me did."

"Among them is the Thorn Pirates. They often operate in the sea area over there. I used to wonder why the navy didn't eliminate them at such close range. But..."

"As for why they came here this time, it might be a coincidence. After all, their range of activities is quite close to here."

After listening to this, Ye Mo frowned. He didn't expect that encountering a pirate group would be so troublesome. It turned out that in this seemingly chaotic sea, the outcome still depended on the background.

"Huh." After letting out a light breath, Ye Mo turned his head and asked, "Although they are the Earl's men, they are pirates after all. They won't do anything else, right?"

"Sir, that won't happen." Old Quinn shook his head and said quickly, "I've encountered them a few times before. Just treat them like the navy. After collecting the protection money, they will leave."

"After all, if they go too far, there will be fewer merchant ships coming here in the future."

Nodding slightly, Ye Mo said, "Okay, then you can handle this matter later."

The one who is familiar with this kind of thing is old Quinn. If he or Patton were to handle it, it would be considered good if there was no fighting.

After Old Quinn nodded repeatedly, Ye Mo took a look at the pirate fleet and walked away.

The red-haired Barton, who was carrying a huge axe, could only sigh after hearing this, and he led many mercenaries to guard vigilantly.

In the sea, on the flagship ship of the Thorn Pirates.

On the huge deck, pirates wearing clothes of various colors gathered here, and at the front of the deck, the pirate captain and the deputy captain looked at the merchant ship not far away and chatted leisurely.

"That guy really didn't lie to me. There really is a merchant ship coming from this direction."

"According to what that person said, the cargo on this merchant ship isn't expensive, only a little over a hundred gold coins. Should we still charge protection money?"

"Goods worth over a hundred gold coins? Then our protection fee is only a dozen gold coins, which is too little. Let's just take it all."

"Do we really want to do this? I remember that person saying that this merchant ship seemed to be setting out for the first time. If we really do this, I'm afraid there won't be a next time."

After the second-in-command's words were spoken, Captain Thorn touched his chin and shook his head, "There's nothing we can do about it, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the second-in-command fell silent.

(End of this chapter)