There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

This is because they not only used flowing water to wash the ore, but also likely used it to transport it. The river's main channel was close to the beach, which is why they settled the second batch of miners on the island there.

There must have been a group of people, or someone, who dumped all the waste that had been piled up outside the mine over the years into this cascading pool, which created the hard ground we dug out.

But even at this point, the water still flows through this rock face!

Lacking a pool to buffer its flow, the waterfall turned to slag as its new enemy, seemingly about to begin another water war that would last for millions of years. But then, an accident happened.

It was during a springtime flood that the torrents, lacking the regulation of waterfalls, finally broke through the existing breaches and were diverted to another path. On this path, they submerged Goetz's house…

“Götz’s house is located in the middle of the forest, where there are no rivers or undercurrents, and it is entirely on the edge of the mountains. How could it possibly be flooded?”

I stared intently at Gray, picked up a small twig, and drew a heavy tangent line on the diagram he had just drawn on the ground!

This tangent line starts from the hillside lake, connects to the waterfall route I envisioned, and then abruptly ends after crossing the hot spring house where we are currently located.

But the rainwater followed the strokes of my brush, seeping into the deep marks, as if a real river had flowed through them. The water only gathered for a moment where I finished writing, then hesitated for a second before bursting through the dam and flooding into the Gotz family's woodland!

“Look, according to the existing river, even if a flash flood occurs, it will only breach the levee at the weakest point of the riverbed downhill. Therefore, my guess is that before Gots suffered his misfortune, the river meandered downhill from the hot springs.”

"It was because of the existence of this waterfall that the water rushed into the forest. Originally, there was a cascade pool that could regulate or even reduce the impact of the water flow. But coincidentally, before that, the miners filled in this cascade pool in order to expand the mining area, which foreshadowed the mountain disaster."

After listening to my logical analysis, Gray couldn't help but nod and say, "Boss, what you said is probably the closest to the truth!"

“Grandpa said that the reason he first came here was because he was invited to forge a batch of tools for dredging the river. That year should have been the year the river was artificially diverted, and the town set up a flatter, gentler, and less prone-to-collapse route.”

That's right, it was because of that mountain accident that a layer of gentle soil covered the hot spring, concealing the horrific traces of that year.

That layer of soil was like a wound on the mountain gradually healing, slowly becoming smooth, even, and natural. If it weren't for our intrusion, no one would ever bring up the past again. And Gots would never want to recall those events.

I walked to the edge of that mountain wall and pondered its structure.

The faster the river flows, the stronger its erosive force on the riverbed and banks. Erosion is faster in the middle where the water volume is greater and slower at the sides, which is why many waterfalls are horseshoe-shaped. At the edge of a cliff, the river's speed increases, and the flowing water and the rocks it carries erode into a cascade at the base of the waterfall.

One thing to note is that, generally speaking, the depth of the pool is the same as the height of the waterfall!

This cliff face is so high and imposing; the cascading pool that once formed here must have been incredibly deep. How could such a place have been so completely untouched by human intervention?

"Boss Marcus?"

Gray looked up and suddenly realized that my figure, which had been lingering at the foot of the rock wall, was gone. He quickly stood up to look for me.

Just as he was wondering, my voice came from the dense vegetation on the cliff face. It was hard to hear clearly from a distance, and my shouts echoed.

My disappearance was not an accident, but a geographical inevitability!

Because faults are generally sloping and rarely vertical, most waterfalls are formed in slanted terrain, where the water flow carves out a cave beneath the surface. Similarly, a cave has been carved out behind this waterfall on Mount Mades…

That's the Water Curtain Cave I discovered!

Chapter 126 Secret Base

"Shh!"

With his katana in hand, Gray swept away the overgrown weeds in the cave with a stylish slash, creating a barely passable path.

"Gray, be careful when you use it. The blade can chip if it hits a rock, and then it will be hard to repair."

This hidden Water Curtain Cave is filled with jagged rocks and overgrown weeds, clearly untouched for many years. When the waterfall existed, the climate here was humid and the light was dim, with countless stalactites hanging upside down and growing slowly. But from the moment the water receded, wild grasses spread through the dried-up water curtain and crept into this cave.

I have confidence in the weapons manufactured by the colonists, but I also know Gray's strength. With such immense force, the blade struck the stone pillar; I wonder if the katana's durability can withstand it.

“I really like this knife.” After Gray came in, he resigned from his position in the UC Shock Department, resumed his cold expression, and walked ahead to clear the way.

His skillful movements showed that he was quite familiar with the use of weapons. Every move he made was imposing, and his hand holding the knife was as steady as a mountain.

This omnipotent feeling... he might actually be able to be a butler like Alfred. He truly lives up to his name!

“This cave is bigger than I imagined.” I followed behind him, holding the Holy Sword of Physics in my hand, tapping and examining the traces along the way.

Based on the principle that the depth of the cascading pool is consistent with the height of the waterfall, the Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall must have been riddled with holes in the past, covering this cliff. I suspect that beneath this filled-in cascading pool, there are many similar caves, and this is just one of the best-hidden ones.

The air inside the cave had been stagnant for a long time, carrying a distinctive fishy smell of rotting plants, but it did not cause any discomfort to the lungs.

Due to the lack of light, we could only walk on the outside of the rugged cave, constantly wary of the stalagmites under our feet, making the journey extremely difficult.

But just around the corner ahead, a strange shadow caught my attention.

The light that leaked through the vegetation on the cliff we broke through created a perfect right angle that could not possibly exist in nature!

"Is this a... shelf?"

What Gray and I saw was an iron frame leaning against the mountain wall at the corner. It was a two-meter-high, double-layered structure, and the main body was rotten in many places, looking as if it would fall apart at the slightest touch.

On the upper shelf of the iron rack hung several worn-out clothes, their colors faded but the canvas texture still discernible, dark blue with black buttons. On the lower shelf hung an iron safety helmet, two belts, a pair of trousers, an old miner's lamp strapped to his waist, a self-rescue device, and then tall mud boots.

At the very bottom of the shelf, shovels, pickaxes, hammers, and other mining tools were scattered haphazardly. These tools were originally supposed to be suspended from the wooden supports, but the wood had been eroded by bacteria and could not bear the weight, so it broke in the middle.

The signs of aging on the iron frame and wood indicate that the cave has been abandoned for at least 20 to 30 years, and certainly no more than 50 years.

"Boss, these must be equipment from the old miners. I don't know why they're here. They look like no one has used them in a long time."

Gray picked up his miner's lamp to light it, only to find that the dilute sulfuric acid inside the lamp case had completely leaked out and was unusable. Furthermore, most of the clothing had been severely damaged by the damp air inside the cave, and the sawdust that the miners had used as moisture-proof mats in their mud boots had become a breeding ground for mushrooms.

"Grey, let's stop here. This is our base."

I called out to Gray, who still wanted to explore, and we started checking the surroundings.

This is the end of the Water Curtain Cave; further in, there's only a moss-covered stone wall. From the corner where the shelf is located to the deeper stone wall, the total area is about seventy or eighty square meters, which is quite spacious. Even in this enclosed environment, one doesn't feel oppressed.

This iron frame also proves that this is a suitable hiding place.

Judging from the old-fashioned miners' clothes and mining tools, these must have been left behind by the first miners to land on the island. Over the years, the cave has been cleverly hidden deep in the vegetation of the cliff, undiscovered by anyone else, thus meeting the site selection requirements for a secret base.

In reality, the early Batcave was simply a cave beneath Wayne Manor, and at that time, it didn't even have an elevator. The old butler and Batman built a steel furnace underground to smelt the equipment and metals needed by Batman.

"The scene is so realistic... don't you think, Gerfred?"

"Boss, what are you talking about?" Gray gave up arguing and tacitly accepted his identity as Butler Afu.

"Let me explain my plan. I will build a base here that can meet a variety of needs." I leaned against the cave wall, brought up the blueprint function of the colonizer system, and began to lay out the void lines that only I could see.

"Let's first describe the structure of the bat cave:"

Intelligence room, armory, workshops, storage room.

"The intelligence room relies on computers, so we can only store data on paper. You will bring over the completed blueprints later, and I will build a device to store them. From now on, this will be the manufacturing base for First Dimension."

"The weapons room is simple. I will build weapons platforms ten steps from here to store various experimental and combat weapons. This way, we can avoid the town's attention."

"The largest area of ​​the cave will be the workshop, which needs to be gradually improved with various workbenches, including but not limited to forging tables, sewing tables, stone-cutting tables, and manual processing points. It would also be best to have a medicine station to prepare medicine for the wounded."

"As for the collection room, it's completely useless right now. Does defeating an enemy mean you have to collect loot? Only monsters display their loot like that. These things should belong to the victims."

After ranting about Batman's quirks, I felt refreshed and began arranging blank lines throughout the cave.

At the entrance, I will tidy up the ground and walls, and set up various workbenches. However, the raw materials for the workbenches can only be collected from outside and made on-site, as transporting them over in a large-scale manner would be too noisy.

The last, deeper area will be set up as an intelligence room—just a table and two chairs for the two of us to chat idly, ostensibly to exchange information.

The original iron racks used by miners will be replaced by weapon racks and storage racks to store the weapons we designed and prevent them from aging in the open air.

I plan to store one of every weapon I can make here. That way, I'll have a variety of weapons to deal with if things go wrong.

In the deepest part of the cave, in a corner near the stone wall, I plan to set up a bed and stock up on durable foods like potatoes and dried meat patties to ensure I won't go hungry for ten days or half a month.

Once this is done, the basic structure of a base will emerge!

Chapter 127 The Painting in the Dream

"Boss Marcus, this place will be our secret base from now on!" Gray said to me with a resolute expression, clutching his katana tightly, as if carrying a profound sense of mission.

I can probably understand how he feels.

As a young man who has been oppressed by Sebala for a long time, he not only has to act like a grandson under the old man's tyranny year after year, but he is also a real grandson! At the very least, he can't escape being cared for in his old age and seen off in his final days.

Living in such a peaceful rural town, with no opportunity to use his talents, he inevitably felt resentful over the years, which led to him becoming introverted and withdrawn, immersing himself in his own fantasy world every day.

Coincidentally, that's when I appeared!

With his incredible (?) weapon-forging skills and Batman's inspirational story, he successfully awakened his dream!

He began to channel his pent-up energy into studying weapon blueprints, gradually realizing his dream.

That's why I have high hopes for this young man. Other young people are easily distracted, their actions outpacing their thinking, and they tend to give up easily when faced with problems. But Gray is different. Before taking action, he focuses his energy on thinking out solutions, and the effort he puts in afterwards is truly outstanding.

If it weren't for my keen eye that allowed me to discover this talent from among the crowd, he would still be buried in obscurity!

I looked at him with awe, wearing the First Dimension Right Armguard.

"...Boss, could you give me back that piece of equipment you have? I want to adjust and optimize it a bit."

"No need, I think this is perfect!" I quickly hid the arm guards behind my back and said to him, "You should focus on studying the two weapons I gave you and hurry up and research the rest of the equipment. Don't worry about the base, I'll take care of it!"

Upon hearing the word "base," Gray immediately perked up and looked at me excitedly: "Yes, boss! I'll definitely work overtime to complete the mission!"

Now he has weapons and equipment to research and can look forward to a future secret base. He can endure not only the 996 work schedule but also the 007 work schedule.

"Young man, hurry up and get down the mountain!" I urged him to hurry down the mountain, lest he get caught by Sebaka again and get beaten up.

…………

After clearing away any traces of passage in front of the secret base, we emerged from the dense undergrowth and returned to the entrance of the hot spring inn.

On the surface, this cave appears to be a cliff wall covered with a large grove of trees. Only by getting very close can one discover the entrance, which is smaller on the outside and larger on the inside. It has been hidden by vegetation for countless years.

After descending the mountain, we followed the path until we left the Mineral Town ranch, at which point we parted ways. Gray explained that he needed to return to continue researching the other components of the first dimension; he already had a vague concept in mind that needed to be translated into a tangible form on paper.

My goal is to purchase some seeds for the ranch, especially crops like potatoes. Potatoes will be essential for the large-scale reclamation that follows.

So I continued along the stone path, past the shallow puddles, and through two rows of neatly maintained houses, until I arrived at Karen's general store.

"Boss Jeff, are you home?"

I leaned my dripping umbrella against the doorway and pushed open the heavy wooden door of the general store. The bell hanging on the door immediately jingled, alerting the owner that a customer had arrived.

As soon as I entered, I saw a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt and a black bow tie, holding a palette and standing intently in front of a drawing board, studying the color scheme of a painting.

This is an oil painting with a draft and a set color scheme. The painting depicts a vast, turbulent ocean, with a few scattered buildings struggling to emerge from the water. Bold lines, representing the waves, cover most of the painting, and the overall color is deep, cold, and somber, as if the temperature and light of the entire world have been swallowed up.

Near the bottom of the canvas, a traditional sailboat is drawn in perspective, with only a corner of the mast visible, but the angle of tilt already indicates that the sailboat is on the verge of capsizing and is in imminent danger!

"Boss, your painting skills are truly profound! You've surpassed Monet and are approaching Picasso's level!"

Jeff's attention was then interrupted, and he reluctantly looked away, only to find me standing next to him.