Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 429 Exploration Base and Permanent Fortifications

After the low humming sound of the magic network teleportation array being activated, the space in the center of the array suddenly distorted briefly, and then a tall human-shaped figure made of metal and machinery appeared in the center.

"Mr. Asdalen! You... came here in person?" The Eye of Illusion shouted in surprise.

The soul fire that had been extinguished in Asdalen's eyes slowly ignited. After a long pause, he spoke aloud, "For such a long-distance two-way transmission, I naturally need to enter the transmission channel first to test the stability..."

Once the transmission channel of the magic network fluctuates, alchemical life forms like him can at least wait for rescue. The soul beacons scattered in the magic network space can be quickly locked by Harvey, the "creator". At most, they can be collected again and replaced with a new body.

Duncan stepped forward and said with a smile, "Did the city lord ask you to come over and oversee the construction of the exploration base?"

Asdalen gave a rare bitter laugh, raised his hand sideways and grabbed the void in the center of the magic circle, pulling out a tall and thin figure with a pale face.

It turned out that Harvey was controlling his soul puppet and teleported here personally.

"City Lord? This... this is simply too risky! This place hasn't been fully explored yet, and there may still be unknown dangers!"

Harvey awkwardly moved the puppet's limbs, then said with a smile, "It's just a puppet. You're the ones who are truly risking your lives. You're much braver than me..."

As he stepped out of the teleportation array, the makeshift small energy-gathering array behind him suddenly erupted with a violent surge of magical power, and the array began to operate at full speed again...

Vivid human figures appeared one after another in the center of the formation, followed by a large number of various materials and supplies - the city lord actually brought an entire engineering team!
Many ordinary engineers had never experienced the continental teleportation array. As soon as they arrived, they knelt on the ground in pain and retched. The few who were still strong felt dizzy and could not stand steadily for a long time.

The accompanying medical staff quickly took out various medicines from their briefcases and distributed them to everyone. The dizziness caused by riding the continental teleportation array is similar to the "flight sickness" symptoms caused by riding an airship. Some mild medications to soothe the mind can be taken orally.

A doctor, who was clearly a hybrid elf, approached White and asked, "Where are the two injured members of the exploration team right now? We'll give them some basic treatment first, and once they're stable, we'll send them back to the city via the teleportation array for treatment."

White was overjoyed and quickly led the medical team back to the airship pod to check on the injuries of Blake and Michel.

The last group to emerge from the teleportation array was a group that made everyone present feel even safer—battle-hardened Northern Army soldiers, commanded by officers who were bloodline warriors, with two battalions totaling nearly 300 people.

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and whispered to Harvey, "If I hadn't experienced the attack from this strange enemy, I would still believe that the ability of the spellcaster far exceeds that of these ordinary soldiers under your command..."

Now, after experiencing a series of thrilling adventures, the master of illusion finally realized that the strength of an individual cannot compete with the power of a collective in some aspects. In the absence of a leap in the level of life, spellcasters with mortal bodies cannot compare with the human wave tactics endowed with magical technology.

Ha smiled and soothed, "I came here to discuss this very matter with you... I have reason to suspect that the masked monsters who attacked you might be the alien enemies rumored to be from the [Center of the Continent]." Upon hearing this, the Eye of Illusion slapped his thigh in deep regret. "If we had known this, we should have done our best to take away one of the monster's corpses. That way, we could at least know their true identity."

As they were talking, the engineering team had already directed the alchemy beasts to build a temporary camp, and the Northern Army soldiers were also dispersed into groups. Some were responsible for guarding, some cooperated with the engineers in surveying the surroundings, and some continued to receive follow-up personnel at the teleportation array... All work was carried out step by step in an orderly manner.

It seemed that as long as Harvey himself arrived here, even in the depths of the wilderness thousands of miles away from the human kingdom, everyone seemed to have a backbone and support, and they were not afraid at all to explore in this strange land surrounded by foreign enemies.

Harvey stood at the conference table, staring at a quickly drawn simple map of the surrounding area. He frowned and analyzed, "Let's put the exploration of the ruins at the bottom of the pit aside for now. Our first priority... is to quickly establish a permanent outpost here!"

He raised his hand and pointed to the center of the map, at a massive pit covering an area comparable to half the size of the pioneer territory. He continued in a deep voice, "The ancient wizards who built a city here to monitor the movements of the alien races to the north must have also determined that this vast ice field offered a wide view and served as a necessary buffer zone between the center of the continent and the human kingdoms to the south..."

Since it is a natural terrain advantage, their successors can naturally continue to use it.

Asdalen said with some worry, "But this place is too far from our base camp. Just sending this little bit of supplies and personnel through the teleportation array would consume as much magical energy as a magic arsenal. Maintaining the operation of this permanent outpost... is truly a bottomless pit."

Harvey nodded in agreement, but his tone left no room for doubt. "Even if it costs a lot of manpower and resources, we must do this... To this end, I'm even willing to postpone the summer offensive against the southern countries and prioritize the proactive defense plan in the north."

He paused, summoned the project manager in charge, and unfolded a detailed construction blueprint. He smiled at everyone and said, "Besides... I don't intend to ship all the supplies all the way from Spark City. Where we can save on local materials, we should naturally do so."

The Eye of Illusion was stunned and said, "Use local materials? Lord City Lord... This vast icy plain is barren! We can't just fish up the remains of the City of Eternal Night from the bottom of the pit and reuse them, right?"

The engineering supervisor, who had a full beard and was obviously from the wasteland, laughed heartily and stomped his foot on the solid ground. "Mr. Spellcaster, can't you see? There are materials all over our feet!"

Ice...ice layer?
Harvey looked around and saw that everyone looked stunned. He then smiled and said, "Yes, I plan to cut directly into the ice beneath my feet and use this solid ice, which has remained unmelted for millions of years on the frozen sea, to build an equally solid exploration base."

At Harvey's nod, the engineering director pointed to the base construction drawings and began to introduce them in a torrent of words - the base is backed by the edge of the pit, with defensive walls and warning bunkers built on three sides. The base does not need to occupy a large area, but it has temporary living quarters for soldiers, workers, and technicians, food and material warehouses, weapons and equipment depots, as well as the most core energy gathering arrays and continental teleportation arrays. A powered elevator controlled by an alchemical device will also be set up on the edge of the pit to facilitate subsequent descents into the depths of the ruins for exploration.

"Such a large-scale construction project...how long will it take?" Duncan always felt uneasy because of the presence of those skinned monsters lurking around him.

Harvey confidently stated, "Building a base out of solid ice...will only take three days. It's such an excellent building material, and we don't even need to wait for it to dry like cement concrete does."

(End of this chapter)