Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

Chapter 93 The Treasure in the Misty Mountains

Matthew immediately summoned Sun Zhengwu, explained the situation to him, and sent him back to Blue Star to confirm the situation with the "sacrificed" personnel. They agreed to summon them over to report the situation an hour later.

Of course, Matthew had another task for sending Sun Zhengwu back to Earth: to develop a concrete implementation plan and personnel arrangements for the "Soap Workshop" in Ironrock City.

After an hour's wait, Matthew summoned Sun Zhengwu, as well as Lei Hu, Li Yuangang, Yang Guang, and other members of the fallen adventurer team.

The moment the group appeared, Matthew didn't waste any words and asked directly, "What happened?"

Lei Hu saluted and began his report. Since they had just reported the situation to Sun Zhengwu, his account was now clearer and more organized: "Reporting to the commander, we discovered the ruins of an ancient magic crystal mine deep in the Misty Mountains. I led a twelve-man team to explore it, but we were attacked by an unknown and powerful horde of magical beasts deep inside the mine, resulting in the annihilation of our entire team."

Lei Hu's report made Matthew's heart skip a beat, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Magic Crystal Mine, this is absolutely exciting news! If I can achieve freedom in obtaining magic crystals, then I can also achieve freedom in summoning.

Moreover, magic crystals are also an extremely precious strategic resource, and the future realization of magic technology will be inseparable from this powerful magic energy stone and important magic materials.

Unfortunately, the result was obvious: there seemed to be an extremely powerful group of magical beasts deep within the mine, making it no easy task to enter and mine.

"Tell me the details!" Matthew suppressed his excitement and asked Lei Hu and the others to give a detailed report of the whole process so that he could better understand the specific situation and assess the danger involved.

"Yes!" Lei Hu began to recount the events from the beginning, trying not to miss any important details or information. They had initially discovered a cave that was clearly man-made, with wide passages but low vaulted ceilings, obviously designed for some kind of short but strong race.

Upon further investigation, they discovered numerous ancient, rough-style reliefs on the inner rock walls, depicting what appeared to be a dwarf race.

However, because those patterns have been "artistically processed," it is not yet possible to clearly determine whether they are dwarfs or other sub-human races.

No complete skeleton was found inside, only some weapons and excavation tools that were already rusted.

"As we ventured deeper into the main mine shaft, scattered patches of low-quality magic crystal ore began to appear on the rock walls. Finally, we reached a massive underground dome, where we discovered an abundance of magic crystals. The entire dome's rock walls were studded with numerous clusters of magic crystals. We could now be fairly certain that this was a vast vein of extremely high-quality magic crystals!"

"However, just as our vanguard team attempted to approach the core area to collect samples, an anomaly occurred." Lei Hu's voice deepened. "From the deepest darkness of the dome, numerous unknown monsters with membranous wings, resembling giant bats yet also like lizards, suddenly sprang forth. They were incredibly fast and possessed astonishing strength; their shrieks seemed to carry some kind of mental shock, leaving us dizzy!"

"We were killed by those monsters almost instantly, without even a chance to fight back."

After the report was completed, the room fell into a brief silence. Matthew remained silent for a moment. The situation was now quite clear: the adventurer team had indeed successfully found a magic crystal mine, a mine that might have been mined by dwarves or demi-humans.

This is undoubtedly fantastic news.

The bad news is that it is guarded by terrifying and mysterious monsters.

The twelve elite summoned units were annihilated almost without any chance of fighting back.

The strength of these magical beasts probably far exceeds that of any enemy they have encountered before.

However, Matthew knew this was normal. The energy emitted by the magic crystals would naturally attract some magical beasts. With their current strength and equipment, they could handle a group of goblins and low-level magical beasts, but they were completely outmatched when facing powerful magical beasts.

"Thank you all for your hard work this time. Discovering the mineral vein is already a huge contribution, but with our current strength and equipment, we are definitely not capable of mining the magic crystal ore. Therefore, we will keep it as a secret for now and explore it again when we have sufficient strength," Ma Zheng said solemnly. "In addition, please also report on the results of our exploration over this period of time."

"Yes." Lei Hu then reported on the adventurer team's exploration results over the past period.

Over the past period, they have explored a range of several dozen kilometers deeper into the Misty Mountains, completing preliminary exploration and resource surveys, as well as marking dangerous biological areas and identifying dangerous biological species.

At the same time, they were fortunate enough to collect three kinds of precious magical plants and several magic crystals, and hunted down many lone goblin groups.

According to Lei Hu's plan, if they were to perish in the mine, the rest of them would immediately return to Ember Ridge for rest and resupply.

Moreover, according to the timeline, they should be back to make adjustments and report.

After Lei Hu and his men left, Matthew fell into deep thought. This setback served as a wake-up call, making Matthew realize more clearly that the dangers of this world were far more than just a group of goblins or bandits.

They also need more powerful weapons and better protective equipment.

Moreover, relying solely on technology to deal with Warcraft is clearly not feasible; magical items and equipment are still necessary.

Fortunately, Conrad brought back Evelyn, which gave Matthew more hope.

That night, the rest of the adventurer team returned to their territory. After completing their mission report and delivering the resources, Matthew sent them back to Earth to rest and recuperate before embarking on a new round of exploration.

Time flies, and Ember Ridge, like a finely wound-up machine, operates at full speed with unprecedented efficiency under Matthew's leadership and the coordination of the Blue Star strategists.

Every day, this land is undergoing visible changes.

Under the efficient management of Will, Conrad, and others, the new residents have largely integrated into the work-point system and lifestyle of Elmstone Ridge.

The stable food supply made these refugees, who had experienced hunger, more dependent on this new place. Their faces gradually regained color, and even though the work was hard, their health improved.

The use of healthy drinking water and the cleansing effect of soap have significantly improved their physical health.

What's even more interesting is that the arrival of young girls and women seems to have greatly improved the mental health of the young men, making them smile more and more motivated at work.

The construction of the city walls surrounding the core residential area of ​​the territory has accelerated significantly with the addition of more human summoned units and new residents.

The wall is rising at an average rate of nearly one meter per day. The main structure is more than 80% complete, with an average height of four meters and key sections even exceeding five meters.

Although not yet fully encircled, an effective protective outline has been initially formed for the lord's manor, main workshops, warehouses, and residential areas.

The pre-designed bastion structure and firing ports have also begun to be constructed.

The heavy wooden frame of the city gate has been erected, and it is being covered with iron sheets and a winch is being installed.

The simple road leading from the territory to the coal mine has also been widened and reinforced, greatly improving transportation efficiency.

The coal mining area has been expanded in an orderly manner, and the daily coal mining volume has reached tens of thousands of kilograms. This not only meets the needs of blast furnaces and various kilns, but also has a surplus to store for fuel in the winter, and may even be sold through safe channels at an appropriate time.

Matthew's soap workshop in Ironrock was also fully completed. Through simple renovations and refurbishments, the courtyard was transformed into a public soap-making workshop, while secretly serving as a warehouse for gunpowder raw materials and storing grenades and landmines.

The workshop is an assembly site for weapons such as demolition charges, and may even serve as an assembly point for other weapons in the future.

To ensure the absolute safety of this "workshop," Matthew also arranged for ten of his most elite human summoned units to act as workers and protect the place.

However, in Matthew's view, even if someone discovers what is stored in the warehouse, they have no idea what the people are actually going to use those things to make.

Meanwhile, Conrad's intelligence network and informants, which he had built at his own expense, had begun to quietly gather intelligence on the rotation of the Ironrock garrison and the transportation of supplies.

In order to realize the steam engine as soon as possible, Matthew has been practicing magic and mage's hand day and night. Now his control over magic is more precise, and his use of mage's hand is becoming more and more skillful. He can even be said to be able to do it with ease. Through his tireless and repeated practice, he can now complete very complex and delicate operations.

It can be said that he was fully prepared for the subsequent "industrial processing," and was just waiting to completely solve the blast furnace problem and produce excellent steel materials.

Meanwhile, Will's trusted confidant, dispatched by his mother Alicia, safely arrived at Emberstone Ridge through clandestine channels. The confidant brought not only urgently needed alchemical tools but also a batch of controlled magical materials, a considerable sum of gold, and several books on basic magical theory.

This was undoubtedly a timely help, and Evelyn immediately threw herself into her work after receiving these crucial supplies.

She first used the delivered materials to successfully prepare a stable basic magic-guiding ink, which is a key material for inscribing rune arrays.

They then began refining and blending the rune base materials.

After doing all this, Evelyn did not rush to start working on the blast furnace.

She demonstrated the meticulousness expected of an excellent alchemist.

She carefully mixed different proportions of magic-conducting materials and adhesives, drew the simplest "breeze" rune on a heat-resistant ceramic slab, and then used the mage's hand to guide a weak flow of magic to conduct activation tests, observing its stability, durability, and actual effect on airflow.

She repeatedly adjusted the formula and rune structure, recording data from each experiment until she confirmed the method was feasible.