The high-power magic crystal lamp illuminates the vast cave as bright as day. The sounds of mixers, elevators and various magic matrices are intertwined with each other. There are also construction workers and technicians in uniforms. Busy walking between machines and supports, the construction site of the South Gate Fortress is busy.
Gawain, Hetty, and Amber came to the former Shadow Experimental Site. In the center of the cave, they found Gordon, the person in charge of this place.
"Lord, the support structure and the bottom surface of the foundation have been laid. The main wall construction is more than halfway progressed. The southern gate, wall ramparts, outer wall armor covering, and extended fire platform have been 60% completed." Gordon reported on the construction status of the fortress, "The military depot and energy station have been put into use. As of yesterday, this place has initially gained defensive capabilities."
"Not bad, well done." Gawain said with satisfaction Looking at the progress made by the engineering team led by Gordon, he saw that workers were strengthening the walls at the boundary of the cave, and between the southern gate and the inner cave, an additional layer of cement-steel armor was beginning to take shape. , a huge support frame lies across the cave. The lifting device driven by the magic engine is fixed on the top of the frame. The winch pulls the cable and is lifting the huge cargo pallet to the second floor of the fortress. Around each cargo pallet, , you can see the faint glow of runes - that is the weight-reducing rune matrix taking effect.
At this stage, weight loss is still a spell that has not been fully analyzed. Rune masters have not yet solved the interference problem when several weight loss effects act on a target at the same time, so it is difficult to use. On larger-scale items (such as large vehicles), but when dealing with smaller-volume materials, weight reduction has always been a powerful tool for transportation.
At the edge of the cave, you can also see technicians carrying magic terminals using the "Fossil to Mud Technique" and "Mud to Stone Technique" to quickly adjust the rock wall for subsequent installation of wall coverings. The board is being prepared, while another engineering team not far away is inlaying the Magic Network unit on the installed wall cladding. The flash of the plasma welding beam (hot melt welding gun) is shining all the time, showing It depends on the efficiency and coordination ability of each team.
Regarding extraordinary power as a productivity, rather than simply as a "weapon for strong men to fight", brings about this incredible efficiency.
Of course, Gordon's proper command is also an important factor in the rapid progress of the project.
Gawain withdrew his gaze and looked at the circular pit on the ground in the center of the cave. He looked at the ancient and mysterious array of runes and the ancient devices arranged in a ring at the bottom of the pit, and asked casually: "Has this shadow portal reacted abnormally recently?"
Gordon shook his head: "No - we have set up magic sensing devices around it and found no signs of activation of this magic door."
"Very good," Gawain nodded, and then looked at the brand new gate at the end of the cave, "Open the gate, I want to go to the forward base to take a look."
" Yes - open the floodgates! ”
The rune array buzzed, the gears and the winch head made creaking sounds at the same time, and the steel chains and bearings pulled the heavy steel door, accompanied by a vibration that even shook the ground slightly. , the gate of the South Gate Fortress slowly opened in front of Gawain...
If you want to go to the border of the wasteland to start the wall construction project, you must first open a road from the civilized world to the wasteland, and this road It is blocked by an entire black forest—a black forest that humans have not set foot on for hundreds of years.
After deciding to build the wall, Gawain considered two options to open up this road. One option was to pass directly through the mountains from the South Gate Fortress, and then build an advance base in front of the fortress, in the Black Forest. The second plan is to bypass the entire Disobedient Fortress, go out from the mountain pass on the west side of Cecil City, and finally build a road through the Black Forest.
The first plan is obviously more time-saving and labor-saving, but the second plan is to keep the secrets of the Disobedient Fortress and the South Gate Fortress - he does not want too many outsiders to know that Cecil holds such a secret. A special portal controls such a complete ancient fortress. Although there are many rumors that "Duke Cecil holds Gondor relics", there are really too many secrets in the Disobedient Fortress.
But now Gawain still chooses the first option. This is because he has determined that neither the royal family nor the Eastern Territory will send anyone to participate in the project - they want to preserve their strength and continue to fight, but for Gao Wen As for Wen Li, he was happy to have the entire project under his control.
Let a bunch of noble overseers and slave craftsmen from the north get involved, they will only hold back Cecil's engineering team.
Due to the convenient element control spells, it is not difficult to lay simple roads in this world. From the South Gate Fortress to the border of the Black Forest, a broad road was temporarily hardened using the "Turn Mud into Stone" technique. The road has connected the Disobedient Fortress and the Advance Base. Soon after setting off in the car, Gawain saw the towering magic network relay tower and the rising smoke - the temporary base built by the "Pathfinder" was in front.
More than a dozen large and small board houses were built on the edge of the Black Forest. The houses were surrounded by a protective barrier made of wooden fences, steel wire fences, chest-high low walls and sentry towers. The guards responsible for protecting the forward base watched vigilantly in the direction of the Black Forest from the sentry tower, and in front of the entrance gate of the base, stood two strong white knights like iron towers.
As Gawain has emphasized before - outside the boundaries of civilization, there are crises everywhere. This advance base heading towards the wasteland naturally needs to be heavily guarded.
"Salute!!"
The two white knights noticed Gawain sitting in the car. They immediately stood up straight and heard a powerful sound from under their fully covered steel helmets. With the sound of the sound, the base gate opened to both sides, and the magic vehicle Gawain and his party were riding in smoothly drove into the advance base.
As soon as Gawain got out of the car, he saw a strong figure.Shadow walked quickly towards him.
Wright Aviken, leader of the White Knights and the Protestant Patriarch.
This pastor, who has become a "big shot", did not stay in his church. Instead, after hearing that he was going to march into the wasteland, he took the initiative to come to the front and commanded " The escort force of "Pathfinder". Since the White Knight himself is good at guarding work, and the power of the Holy Light has the convenient properties of curing pollution and expelling monsters, Gawain agreed to his application.
Behind Wright, Gawain saw several special figures -
That was Sonia Frostleaf and several elf messengers she brought.
These elves are obviously particularly concerned about repairing the barrier. Although the bustling and novel Cecil City has indeed aroused their great curiosity and interest, they are still more concerned about the progress of the project in the southern part of the Dark Mountains. Over the past few days, Sonia and her companions have only spent one-third of their time in Cecil City, and almost all of the remaining time have been spent in the Black Forest.
"I'm here to check on the progress," Gawain first greeted Wright, then looked at Sonia, "Are you here again today?"
" Watching the progress of the project can make us more at ease," Sonia smiled and said frankly, "and not staying in the city can also prevent some embarrassing... conflicts between mother and child."
Sonia. It was obviously a joke. In fact, the relationship between her and Solderin was quite good in Gawain's opinion, but Gawain still somewhat understood the tangled mentality of the elf mother after seeing Solderin - —
To be fair, if he also has a son who hasn’t been home for seven hundred years, has no partner, doesn’t write letters, is bald and wears a wig and likes women’s clothing...
He wouldn’t even think about it half the time. Don't dare to assume any more.
He thought he might choose to lie back in the coffin and ask someone to help nail the lid shut.
"...As you can see, we are doing our best to speed up the road paving and strive to open the road to the Corrupted Plains before the Harvest Festival." Gawain changed the subject to cover up his momentary embarrassment. "At present, it seems that as long as no major accidents occur, the project can be completed as scheduled."
"We have seen it - this also makes me feel at ease a lot," Sonia breathed out softly , "To be honest, I didn't even expect you to be so fast. In such a short period of time, you have already started to pave the way in the Black Forest. I can see how much manpower and material resources you have invested in this—— But looking at your royal family, they haven’t even sent the first batch of supplies yet! To put it bluntly, you are also from Ansu, how can your efficiency be so different?"
" Not everyone can turn magic into productivity," Gawain shook his head helplessly, "What's more, the nobles in the north may not realize how terrible the threat of the wasteland was to the elves seven hundred years ago. It may still be a vivid thing for human beings, but for humans... it was already an ancient thing dozens of generations ago.A legend for generations. ”
This was not the first time Sonia had dealt with humans. Of course she knew what Gawain said was reasonable, so she didn’t say much. Instead, she looked in the direction of the Dark Mountains and the South Gate Fortress. direction, Youyou sighed: "A fortress from the ancient Gondor period... Seven hundred years ago, I heard that the Northern Pioneer Army discovered an ancient ruins while crossing the Dark Mountains, but I didn't expect that seven hundred years ago, Today, it will play such a role in your hands. "
"We didn't expect it back then," Gawain said with a smile, "just like I never thought that before I fell, I would see the magnificent wall being built, but after waking up from a long sleep, I would actually have to Rebuild this wall - fate is always unreasonable. "
"You are unlucky enough," Sonia couldn't help but shook her head, "You fell down in the most difficult period and woke up in the next difficult period. Fate seems to be deliberately arranging your relationship with Disaster confrontation never gives you a chance to rest. We had seven centuries of peace, but you never enjoyed a day of it. ”
Gawain did not speak, because he was not the real Gawain Cecil, so he had no regrets, but Hetty beside him suddenly raised his head. Housekeeper Cecil seemed to be greatly touched by Sonia's words. She looked at her ancestor intently and suddenly felt extremely ashamed of her usual smoky makeup.
Gawain. I don’t know why Hetty suddenly blushed.
...
At the same time, in the northern part of Cecil Principality, Rock City Port Square
Commander Rock. Sir Walder Perici stood in the square with his guards and guards of honor, preparing to see off the envoys from the royal capital. These envoys stayed briefly in this gateway city for half a day. Now, they are about to board the ship and set off. Cecil City
“This city is impressive, Sir,” the leader of the envoys and the deputy leader of the Royal Knights of Anzu, Cohen Roland, said to Walder with conviction, “ I visited this land two years ago, but it was nothing like this at the time, and I must admit, it was incredible. "
Sir Walder looked at the deputy commander of the Knights before him - this deputy commander had the special surname "Loren", but he was also a member of the royal family. The envoys he led There are also envoys from the East and special envoys from the royal capital in the group. The profound meaning of this makes people have to think about it, but Wald himself is not a person interested in palace intrigues and aristocratic balance. He just smiled and shook his head. Shaking his head: "Pan Rock City is just a gateway, you haven't seen the truly incredible side of this land yet. "
"Oh, I'm a calm person," Cohen Luolen smiled politely. "I will only look at the novel things here with appreciation. After all, no matter what, Miraculously, they are also man-made. ”
“Then please.” "Ward raised his hand and pointed to the dock, and almost at the same time, a melodious whistle sounded from the river.came out in the bay.
A large ship without sails or oars that shocked Cohen Roland, accompanied by the sound of breaking waves and the roar of machinery, gradually sailed towards the port from the distant river.
The boat actually looked like it was made of metal.
"In order to ensure efficiency, the lord ordered the inland express passenger ship 'Breaker' to come to pick up the envoys," Wald Perici said with a cheerful smile, "Please get aboard."