Captain of the Pirates: My Fleet's Limitless Upgrading-Chapter 41: The Idea of the Steam Engine

"Priest, have enemies shown up recently?" Leo noticed that Minotaur was very nervous. Many people were wearing heavy armor and holding weapons, so he asked with confusion.

The priest nodded. "Yes. These days, Giant Whale Island hasn’t been peaceful. Three days ago, the ships of the Kingdom of Noah appeared. They said they were looking for you. But they met the ships of the Black Dragon Kingdom, and they fought hard. Both sides suffered heavy losses and finally pulled back."

The soldiers of the Kingdom of Noah had come so fast.

Leo felt a bit lucky. He was glad they had met the soldiers of the Black Dragon Kingdom. If he had faced a kingdom’s force directly with his current strength, he would have definitely lost.

He felt a sense of urgency. He had to make a smoothbore cannon, maybe even a more powerful rifle cannon, as soon as possible.

"Has everything I asked for been prepared?" Leo had already told Minotaur to look for Sulfur Stone and smelt Iron Ore before he left. He had been away for over a month, so there should be a lot now.

The priest nodded. "Sir, we have collected a lot of what you asked for. But we didn’t find much of that kind of saltpeter and Flamestone."

He didn’t know what those items were for, but he didn’t ask much.

"Let me see them first."Leo said. He was eager to start building his own force.

Now he had angered the Glan Empire, the Black Dragon Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Noah. Without a strong force, he would be almost helpless on the open sea.

"Sir, follow me."the priest said, leading Leo and the others to a temporary storage warehouse.

There were many Minotaurs guarding the place. When they saw the priest, they all greeted him, but they didn’t show much respect to Leo.

Humans had done a lot of harm to them. Even though Leo had saved their lives, they still felt some resistance in their hearts.

Inside the warehouse, there were a lot of Sulfur Stones, copper ores, and other rare minerals.

What surprised Leo the most was that there was also coal.

Wood charcoal could also be used to smelt iron, but the temperature was barely enough. Plus, with coal, he could make more things.

"Sir, this is all the saltpeter and Flamestone we found."the priest said, pointing to a pile of white crystals, and apologized.

It was just a small pile of saltpeter and seventeen Flamestones.

Leo nodded. "That’s enough for now."

At that moment, a black shadow flew out of his pocket and rushed toward the pile of Flamestones.

It was Pyrothar.

"Dragon!?" The priest shouted in surprise and stepped back. The Minotaurs around him also got ready to fight, pulling out their weapons.

"Stay still! Those aren’t food!" Leo was startled and quickly grabbed Pyrothar.

Those Flamestones were for making gunpowder, and they were very important to him.

Even so, Pyrothar had already eaten three of them and was struggling in his hands, complaining loudly.

The priest was shocked. He swallowed hard and said, "Sir, have you tamed a dragon?"

"Yeah, just a baby dragon. Don’t worry."Leo said, trying to calm the Minotaurs down.

They put their weapons away and looked at Pyrothar with curiosity.

They had heard of dragons before, but this was the first time they had seen one — and it was a baby.

"Leo, are we making gunpowder now?" Anna asked excitedly.

She had already heard from Ava that Sulfur Stone and other items were ingredients for making gunpowder.

Leo was cautious and said, "Don’t mess around. You can’t touch this."

He still clearly remembered the times Anna’s experiments with gunpowder had caused explosions. If she wasn’t a water mage, she would’ve been hurt for sure.

"Hmph, you’re so cheap. Where’s my hot air balloon?"

Anna complained. She wasn’t too interested in explosives anymore. What she really wanted was a hot air balloon.

"Relax, I’ll give you the blueprints later. You can make it yourself."Leo said, trying to get rid of this girl.

"Okay!" Anna nodded excitedly. She thought it would be more meaningful to make it herself.

"Priest, help us find somewhere to stay."Leo said, looking at the sky. It was already dark. A few days of drifting at sea had left him exhausted, and building weapons wasn’t something that had to be done right away.

The priest nodded. "We’ve already arranged a place. Come with me, sir."

The sea breeze blew, and the night was quiet.

Leo didn’t rest. Inside the room, the candlelight flickered. He frowned, tugging at his hair, unsure where to start.

"Huh, Lilia, you’re still up?" Ava’s voice came from the door.

"No."Lilia sounded a little nervous.

Since the time she fell into the water, she had been avoiding Leo. But on Giant Whale Island, she still wasn’t sure if he was safe, so she stayed quietly by the door.

"Is the sir still up too?" Ava looked at the glowing room and felt a little worried.

At that moment, the door opened, and Leo appeared.

He looked at the two women and said, "There are Minotaurs on guard here. No danger. Go back and rest."

"Sir, you should rest too."Ava said, a little angry.

"Okay. I still have some things to do. I’ll sleep after I finish." Leo sent the two women away and returned to the room, back to work.

Not long after, a soft noise came from the door.

Leo sighed in annoyance. He didn’t need to guess — it was Lilia coming back.

"Lilia, come in."Leo said, looking at the door.

He knew it was impossible to get this woman to just go to sleep.

The door opened, and Lilia’s small head peeked out. She asked, "Did I bother you?"

"No. Come sit with me for a while."Leo said, pointing to a chair.

"Okay."Lilia said awkwardly, sitting down and secretly watching Leo.

Her mind kept going back to the time she had fallen into the water. Every time she thought about it, her heart felt strange and her face turned red.

"Hey, weren’t you going to talk to me?" She noticed Leo was working again and complained.

"What?" Leo finally realized and awkwardly scratched his nose. He didn’t know what to say.

At that moment, the candlelight flickered, lighting up Lilia’s red face like a juicy apple. He felt like he wanted to take a bite.

"Um... did you run into some problems?" Lilia felt the silence was strange and broke it.

Leo did have a problem. He didn’t think Lilia could help, but he still put down his charcoal pen and said, "I came up with a special kind of power device. But I only have some theory, and I don’t know how to make it work."

"A power device?" Lilia was confused, but she was used to hearing strange words from Leo.

He nodded and continued, "Have you ever seen a kettle boiling? The steam lifts the lid. I want to use that steam to build a power device that can drive big ships."

"Doesn’t make sense."Lilia said, her eyes clear and honest, shaking her head.

Every word Leo said made sense to her, but once they were put together, she had no idea what he was talking about. It felt like some kind of ancient script.

Leo smiled slightly. He didn’t expect Lilia to understand, but he still explained the principle of the steam engine in detail.

But it felt like he was playing music to a cow.

Lilia rubbed her chin, her brow furrowed, her eyes confused. "I think I kind of get it."she said.

Leo smiled, but said nothing more.

Lilia shook her head, her frown easing. "Leo, how can something this complicated be made all at once? I think you should give this to Barnett and Solomon. They’ll definitely be able to test it out."

"Uh...?" Leo’s eyes lit up. It was like a lightbulb turned on in his head. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Right, practice makes perfect.

He just needed to know if the idea was feasible and how it worked. Then he could hand it over to the dwarves to work out the details.

Plus, his theory was correct, but still had a lot of flaws. Just like with the smoothbore cannon—once it was built, he found out his design had too many mistakes.

Only through trial and error could it become perfect.

"Lilia, you’re a genius!" Leo sighed, feeling a sudden warmth toward her.

"Naah, I just said that randomly."Lilia blushed, standing up. "You should go to sleep, it’s already so late."

She said that and hurried away.

Leo rechecked his notes, made a few more adjustments, and finally went to bed.

The steam engine was just a temporary idea. What he really wanted was a more efficient internal combustion engine.

He knew more about internal combustion engines, but some technical and material issues were still unsolved.

...

The next morning, the group had a quick breakfast and got to work.

Lilia and Anna led a group of Minotaur elites to explore the volcano, collecting sulfur and searching for saltpeter and Flamestone.

Ava and Marina started burning the Sulfur Stone, preparing to make gunpowder.

Biggy and Secondy led the Minotaurs in refining the Iron Ore.

In the temporary workshop, Barnett stared at the blueprint in his hands, his brow furrowed.

This was the blueprint Leo had just given him for a steel warship.

"Sir, this thing doesn’t have sails or oars. How is it supposed to move?" Barnett asked, confused.

A steel warship was much heavier than a wooden one. It needed sails, and also oars for extra power.

Leo smiled and pulled out another blueprint. "This is what I need you to build."

"Steam engine?" Barnett and Solomon looked at the blueprint, frowning one moment, then suddenly understanding the next.

"Hot water for power? That’s even crazier."Barnett tugged at his new beard, thinking it was impossible.

Solomon also thought it was impossible.

Leo explained, "It’s not hot water. It’s steam. It’s just a theory, but it has to work."

The two still looked confused.

Solomon finally said, "I believe you, sir. If a big ball without wings can fly, then a big ship without sails or oars can definitely move too."