Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Chapter 498 Cleaning Up the Mine

Back to the Clefthoof Mine.

Ian handed the conscription order to Nilos, "Gather three hundred men for me within a month."

"Yes." Nilos picked up the dominoes.

Ian leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the outside.

The miners were coming out in twos and threes after finishing their work, dragging their tired steps into their respective caves.

In the distance, the scorpion demon patrol team had changed shifts. Six scorpion demons stood in a row at the entrance of the mine tunnel, carrying bone spears, their expressions blank.

"How many of the miners are capable of carrying weapons?"

"They usually do hard labor, but if they were to pick up weapons—" Nilos thought for a moment.

"Seven or eight hundred, but most of them are very weak, so we can barely muster three or four hundred laborers."

"I don't want those obedient laborers," Ian said, looking out the window at the backs of the miners.

They carried baskets of ore bigger than themselves on their shoulders, their steps faltering.

These guys have been captured by Ironjaw for at least half a year, and they've been digging rocks in the mine from morning till night, their physical strength completely drained. Their situation only improved slightly after Ian arrived.

What really caught Ian's attention was another group of people.

In a corner of the open space, five or six miners squatted there, neither queuing for food nor returning to their caves, but instead huddled together and whispered among themselves.

They had no obvious injuries, and their clothes were relatively clean, appearing unusually clean compared to other miners.

"What's going on with those guys in the corner?"

Nilos followed his gaze and frowned.

"Those are cunning old foxes," she said with a hint of disdain.

"They never do any extra work on the assigned mining tasks. They always stay at the back of the team and slack off. When the Scorpion Demon comes to check, they just pretend to do it, and then they go back to their old ways after the Scorpion Demon leaves."

"How long has it been?"

"It's been like this since the day I came to the mine, at least three or four months now," Nilos said with disgust.

"When Iron Jaw was around, he punished me a few times. He tied me to a stone pillar and whipped me, but after I took him down, he continued to slack off. He never changed."

Ian looked away. Ironjaw couldn't control himself because he was an idiot.

Mining slaves who just coast along in the mines are essentially spineless. They find working more tiring than being whipped, so they choose to slack off.

Such people are the first to run away on the battlefield, or even kneel down and beg for mercy before the fighting even begins.

But that's exactly the kind of person Ian wants; anyway, Cripples just need three hundred cannon fodder.

The lives of cannon fodder are worthless; they die on the battlefield and their names won't even be remembered. Rather than sending those still capable miners to their deaths, it's better to get rid of these slackers and good-for-nothings.

"Give me a list of those few, and others like them among the miners."

Nilos was taken aback. "You want to use them, sir?"

"With these, we'll almost have enough spots for three hundred people."

Nilos opened her mouth, but then refrained from asking.

She had followed Ian for a few days and had roughly figured out his personality.

"List all of these two-faced individuals, as well as those spies you mentioned before that are suspected of being spies."

Nilos's eyes lit up. "You mean—"

"Not now." Ian glanced at her. "You can deal with it when I go to war."

Nilos was startled and nodded silently.

Ian didn't care whether the team could fight or not. Instead, he used the guise of conscription to take away all the unstable elements in the mine in one go.

Nilos took a deep breath. "I'll get on it right away."

She turned to leave, but Ian called her back, "There's one more thing."

"Please speak, sir."

"Among the miners, is there an old scorpion demon, with gray armor, and missing half of its left pincer?"

Nilos recalled, "Yes, there was the old scorpion demon Kata in the patrol team, a veteran from the Ironjaw era."

"Was it not on patrol the day the bone-chilling cold came last time?"

Nilos's expression changed. That day, Chi Gu suddenly appeared at the entrance of the mine, faster than anyone expected.

"Does Your Excellency mean that Kata is the mole?"

Ian said calmly, "Arrange its patrol duties as usual, and keep it by my side when we go out to war."

Nilos nodded vigorously. "I understand."

Ian sat down again, took out the conscription notice from his pocket, and looked at it again.

Recruiting 300 people in a month isn't a tight schedule, but it's not easy either. Besides those selected from the miners, we also need to find other people.

The idle demons of White Bone Fortress are a ready-made source of soldiers.

However, directly recruiting them would easily attract attention. Although Chigu made him a recruiter, he would not allow him to run amok in White Bone Fortress, as these people were originally intended to be cannon fodder.

He had hunted down almost all the demons within a radius of several dozen miles, leaving the border areas vulnerable to infiltration by other demonic forces.

Recruiting demons under the guise of reinforcing the mine's defenses is a plausible reason.

Ian put away the conscription order, got up and walked out of the stone house.

Dusk fell quickly over the mine, the horizon was shrouded in a thin layer of gray-red mist, and the distant rock walls cast shadows in the twilight.

The miners had finished receiving their food and retreated into their caves, bringing silence to the mine tunnels.

Ian walked to the entrance of the mine and sat down on a clean rock.

The senses slowly spread, covering the entire mine area.

More than 1,300 miners were scattered in various caves, most of them already asleep. The scorpion demon patrol team walked back and forth in the mine tunnels, their orderly footsteps echoing between the stone walls.

He noticed the old scorpion demon named Kata, huddled in a stone house deep in the mine tunnel. Its gray armor was covered with traces of old wounds, and its left pincer was only half intact, with a thin layer of new shell growing from the broken end.

It wasn't sleeping; instead, it curled up there, occasionally lifting its head to look at the doorway.

Ian's senses swept across the stone house, but he found nothing unusual. Inside the stone house was only a stone bed and a wooden box containing a few pieces of ore and some dried meat.

Kata was one of the earliest Scorpion Demons under Ironjaw's command. When Ironjaw was alive, he treated Kata neither well nor badly; he was just used as a watchdog.

But the change in Kata's attitude after Ironjaw's death is quite interesting.

It showed neither loyalty nor hostility towards the new warlord; its cooperation was merely perfunctory.

They did whatever the patrol was assigned, refusing to take even one more step.

In the demon world, there are only two possibilities for this attitude: either it's a seasoned veteran who's completely given up, or someone is backing it up so it doesn't care who the new warlord is.

Ian withdrew his senses, stood up, and decided to take it with him when he went to war.

The next day, Nilos brought over a list.

"There are eighty-seven slackers among the miners." She spread the list on the table and pointed at it with her finger.

"They are all repeat offenders. Iron Jaw was punished many times while he was alive, but he never changed his ways."

"So many, just what I wanted," Ian chuckled.

Nilos pulled out another animal hide. "Seven of them were behaving strangely before and after Ironjaw's incident."

"What's unusual about it?"

"Two of them, who never used to talk to the Scorpion Demon, have been hanging out with Kata a lot lately. And there are always some sneaky people at the mine entrance. I don't have any concrete evidence, but I have a feeling something's not right."

Ian glanced at the list.

Eighty-seven lazy and slacking miners, still a bit short of three hundred, but there should still be some in the Bloodslag Mine.

Using those scorpion demon patrols as the framework, and then filling them with mine slaves, they could barely manage to form a presentable formation.

That way, he can easily gather three hundred. These useless people with no fighting ability would just be sent to their deaths on the battlefield. They would be scattered in one encounter, but he doesn't really want to fight.

"How many outstanding members does the Scorpion Demon Patrol have?"

"Drucker and Mog," Nilos said. "Drucker is the patrol captain, stronger than the other scorpion demons, and has a calm personality. Mog is the vice-captain, short-tempered, but quite strong."

"Let Drucker be the team's forward captain, and Mog lead the second team. They'll continue patrolling for now."

Nilos noted it down.

"Go to the market in White Bone Fortress and recruit another batch of people." Ian stood up and stretched his shoulders.

"Yes."

"Also," Ian glanced at her, "don't let anyone know about Livna."

Nilos's expression changed slightly, and she lowered her head.

"Yes."

It was the third day when Nilos returned from Bone Castle.

She was followed by more than twenty newly recruited idle demons, of all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of walking styles.

Some carried rusty iron sheets, some carried bone clubs they had picked up from who-knows-where, and the poorest of them held stones in their hands.

Ian stood at the entrance of the mine, glanced at the team, and said nothing. As long as they could breathe, that was enough.

Nilos arranged for the new demon to stay in an abandoned cave on the outskirts, then hurriedly ran to find Ian.

"My lord, I have heard some news about the Mighty Demon."

Ian was refining ore in the stone house, not even looking up. "Speak."

"The Mighty Demon has a stronghold in the east of the city, specifically used to imprison and tame lower-level demons. It is said that it likes to collect rare races for use as—"

"What are you doing?"

"A practice target." Nilos's voice was low. "The Mighty Demon likes to capture some wandering demons and use them to test their skills and vent their anger."

Ian paused, "How strong is it?"

"I don't know, that's all I've found out," Nilos said, lowering her head.

"The stronghold of the Mighty Demon is heavily guarded, and I dare not get too close."

She didn't find out exactly where Livna was being held or what her situation was.

Ian put down the ore and looked out the window.

The Mighty Demon is different from the Bone-Piercing Demon. The Bone-Piercing Demon relies on the trust of the Bone Demon leader and their kinship, while the Mighty Demon relies on pure strength.

Under the Bone Demon leader, the Mighty Demon is probably the strongest in one-on-one combat.

We'll need to pay some attention to this on the battlefield in the future.

Ian wouldn't risk his life to save Nilos, but if one day the Mighty Demon deliberately provoked him, he wouldn't mind collecting another talent.

"Continue gathering intelligence on the Mighty Demon, and do not expose yourselves."

"Yes." Nilos hesitated for a moment, then added.

"My lord, my people—she must be going through a very difficult time right now."

Ian glanced at her. "What are you trying to say?"

Nilos pursed her lips, said nothing more, and bowed her head as she left.

The next morning, Ian took Nilos to the Bloodslag Mine.

The Knicks managed the mine well, ore production was stable, and the miners did not cause trouble.

Ian praised it a few times and led some lazy miners back to the Clefthoof Mine.

On the way back, Ian Ridge glanced around briefly, paused slightly, and then continued on his way as if nothing had happened.

Nilos nearly bumped into his back. "My lord?"

Ian did not answer; he had just caught a familiar aura—the aura of a succubus.

"Let's go."

Nilos followed him, looked back in confusion, but found nothing.

In the distance, behind a boulder at the end of the fork in the road, a succubus huddled in the shadows, trembling.

She was much thinner than Nilos, and her skin was a pale purple. She should have been very pretty, but now she was covered in bruises and scars.

The left arm was hanging limply; it was Livna.

She didn't see Ian and Nilos, and Nilos didn't notice Livna in the distance either. She walked behind Ian with her head down and her steps hurried.

Ian Ren did not linger; the succubus energy behind him grew farther and farther away, eventually disappearing beyond the range of Lingzhi.

On the way back, Nilos kept thinking.

Livna is still in White Bone Castle. She knows that she is temporarily unable to rescue her, but she thinks every day about how to bring Livna out if she can see her one day.

She didn't know why Ian had suddenly stopped; perhaps he had just tripped over an uneven road.

During the rest of the meal, Ian frequently went out, focusing his main energy on improving his strength.

Meanwhile, Nilos was busy training a new batch of demons. The training was very simple, consisting of only two things: forming ranks and running away.

The beggars' formation was to prevent the generals from looking too bad when they went to war, and the escape was to give them a chance to run away alive if they were truly no match for the generals.

She had Drucker and Mogg take turns leading the team, training them daily in the open space outside the mine.

The results were disastrous.

Those lazy devils were used to being undisciplined. The beggars' team members were all slouching and some even sneaked away during breaks to find food. The miners were even worse.

Drucker was a patient man; he corrected the formation again and again, his whip never stopping.

Mog wasn't so good-tempered. The first time he saw a miner dozing off in the beggars' camp, he grabbed him with his pliers and cut off half of the miner's ear.

Nilos would sit on a distant rock every day, watching the drills without saying a word, lost in thought.

On the evening of the fourth day, Nilos came to find Ian, who had just returned to rest.

"My lord, three of the demons I recruited at the White Bone Fortress market have escaped."

"When did you run away?"

"This afternoon, while I was away, they stole some magic iron crystals and ran away." Nilos's face was very ugly.

"It was my fault for not making proper arrangements. Please punish me, sir."

Ian wasn't angry; it wasn't surprising that only three had run away so far.

The idle demons have no fixed abode; they'll follow you if you offer a little benefit, and they'll try to steal anything that offers them a bigger reward—that's their law of survival.

"Do you know which way to run?"

"They went west," Nilos said. "But they didn't take much with them, so they can't go far."

"Never mind them," Ian waved his hand.

"But----"

"Just three deserters. Keep a close eye on the rest." Ian didn't care at all.

After they escape, they will be captured by other warlords and made into mine slaves. Either way, it will be the same for them.

Nilos didn't say anything more, lowered her head and left the stone house, standing at the door for a while.

The sky outside the mine had darkened, and the distant rock walls cast long shadows in the twilight.

She suddenly thought of Livna; could she run away like this?

Nilos stood at the doorway, looking at the gray sky in the distance, and suddenly felt a little cold.

She adjusted her collar, turned, and walked into her stone cave.