Lord Highlander

   Chapter 515 514. Lava Land

   During this period of time, Suldak has been nesting in Wall Village.

  The young magician Lance and two colleagues came to Wall Village again and visited Suldak.

   It is said that the law enforcement team of the Magic Union has recently been looking for magic members of the Dark Moon Gate organization.

  Carl is also very busy during this time.

The infiltration of the Grimm Empire rebels into the province of Bena made the high-level council very angry. This group of rebels organized a burglary and assassination operation in the city of Bena. It is said that they stole a very precious treasure from a nobleman's house. The rebels escaped separately from the city of Bena.

  Although some rebels have been captured back to Bena City, and some rebels died during the capture process, the most precious treasure of the nobleman has never been recovered.

  The Bena Provincial High Council believes that the exposed rebels are just the tip of the iceberg.

  This matter involves the interests and safety of the nobles, and should be taken more seriously. Therefore, the guard battalions and city defense battalions in the entire Bena Province are very busy.

  Carl and the Cavaliers from the support squadron have been running around the countryside all spring.

In contrast, the daily routine of the security team in the barren land outside the Paglos Pass is much more relaxed. Andrew likes to ride his horse around in the wasteland. Green is rarely seen on the ridges, and barren wheat fields are only exposed around small mountain villages in some ravines.

As the old village chief Brett said, there is not much water left in the first-level reservoir in the upper reaches of the village. Although a stream of spring water is continuously injected into the reservoir every day, it is still unable to make ends meet. The stored water can only be used to irrigate the wheat fields on the edge of the river.

  The main dam of the secondary reservoir has been completed, and three gates of the secondary reservoir are currently being built. As for the bottom of the third-level cistern, more than half of it has been paved, and volcanic ash and lime powder will need to be continuously transported in to further treat the ground at the bottom of the cistern for anti-seepage.

  After the reclamation of the tidal land in the river bend, no crops have been planted yet.

   May have to wait until after the rainy season to plant some crops such as onions, tomatoes and cabbages.

  Surdak has prepared the seeds.

   Tapioca starch has appeared in the free market in Hailansa City. The current sales of this starch are not bad, and it is still very cost-effective to exchange it for whole wheat flour.

The formula for the gunpowder has been held in Suldak's hands all along. He only said that the second-level earth-type magic scroll "Earth Cracking Technique" that Suldak bought from the magic store in Hailansa City shattered the limestone in the river. Celia Cooper helped Suldak think of this statement.

  According to Celia Cooper, the magical effect of the 'Earth Splitting Technique' happens to be very similar to the effect caused by this explosive.

Under the auspices of the old village chief Brett, the children's home has been built on an open space 50 meters away from the kobold slave shed at the entrance of the village. The children's home is next to the stream flowing out of the village. The main body of the house is made of oak frames. , a layer of delicate reed mats was laid outside, and what the villagers care most about is the stove built outside the welfare home, because the children's home provides three meals for the children free of charge, this is the most attractive place.

   Except for Wall Village, Selena is temporarily in charge of the current daily work of the children's home.

  In the morning, there is chestnut rice porridge, for lunch, oatmeal porridge, and occasionally a meal of fried stew, and in the evening, there are broth and wheat cakes. The amount is not too much, but at least the children can eat enough. In addition to the children in the village, the children's home also took in children from other villages passing by the entrance of the village. When the women who went to Oak Ridge to dig wild vegetables passed Wall Village, those carrying children would be invited by old Sheila. Advise them to keep their children in children's homes.

   At the very beginning, some people were still suspicious about this matter. Only the villagers of Wall Village happily sent their children to the children's home.

  There are only twenty-three children in Wall Village who meet this age limit.

A week later, those poor people who went to the oak forest in the mountain pass to dig wild vegetables really understood what was going on in the children's home. The number of children in the children's home increased by more than one hundred in an instant, and the number of women who helped Selena to take care of these children also increased to six people.

  The move of Wall Village immediately made Wall Village the most famous village in the barren land.

  …

  Surdak sat at the desk, wrote a reply letter to Hathaway, put the letter paper into the envelope of the kraft paper bag, and glued the envelope with baked gum.

I just waited for the drivers from the horse-drawn carriage shop in Hailansa City to deliver cassava in Wall Village, and entrusted them to bring it to Hailansa City. The carriage shop has a mailing service for letter paper, but the postage is much higher than what Suldak thought. It was much more expensive. A letter sent to Bena City actually required a silver coin and fifty-three coppers.

   "Dark, we have to go..."

  Luke's shout sounded outside the yard.

  Suldak poked his head out of the window, waved to Luke outside the wall, and promised, "Come right away!"

Handed the written letter to Natasha, and asked her to hand the letter to the driver of the carriage. Then, with the help of Natasha, he put on the magic pattern outfit of 'Earth Shield' and rode Gu Bo to The horse walks out of the yard.

Luke was already waiting at the door with his group of people on Gubolai horses. Seeing Suldak come out on horseback, several young people behind Luke straightened their waists unconsciously. From then on, he already had some prestige in Wall Village.

  The team walked along the village road to the entrance of the village, and the villagers encountered along the way gave way to both sides of the road.

When passing the temporary residence of the security team, Suldak called out the ogre Gullitum and the native warrior Andrew from outside the yard. The two were waiting honestly at the door. When they saw Suldak appear, they hurriedly joined to the team.

   Ogres rarely have the opportunity to leave Wall Village, so this time they followed Suldak into the Pustule Mountain area of ​​the barren land, and they were particularly excited.

  The night before his departure, he also asked the women in the village to sew a face towel for him, which almost completely covered his big face below the eyes, and he couldn't wait to wear it on his face before he left Wall Village.

   The ogre treats every trip as a picnic, and is always thinking about how to catch the gray rock iguanas hiding deep in the rock crevices.

Andrew just came back from patrolling outside this time, and caught up with the knight leader who was about to enter the pustule mountain with Suldak, so he planned to follow Suldak into the pustule mountain area. He rarely came to this area, mainly because of the pustule Within tens of kilometers of the mountain, it was covered by thick volcanic ash, and the volcanic ash fell from the sky one after another, almost forming a dead zone in this area.

   Not only the villagers in the barren land will not step into this area, even the bandit gangs that run rampant in the desert will not enter this area without permission.

   Pustule Mountain is the knight leader of Suldak after all. Andrew wanted to get familiar with the surrounding environment, at least the positions of the boundary markers, so he followed Suldak into Pustule Mountain.

Samira was not in Wall Village. A very aggressive black panther appeared in Oak Ridge. It bit several villagers who were digging wild vegetables in Oak Ridge in three days. Most of them were women and half-old children. After Mira heard the news, she entered Oak Ridge almost overnight, probably planning to hunt the leopard.

The succubus Aphrodite has no interest in the lava land. She can be seen everywhere in the burning **** that is more dangerous than the pustule mountain. After finally leaving hell, the last thing she wants to smell is the smell of sulfur. How can she go to the pustule mountain? suffer.

  Suldak and his party met at the entrance of the village with the wagon convoy heading to the mine in the rocky area to transport sulfur ore, and walked into the barren land.

  …

  It is already the end of June, and the monsoon blowing from the southeast these days already has a damp taste.

  While passing by the Beigou Grassland, Suldak actually saw a group of villagers from Wall Village repairing a reservoir at the bottom of the dry pool in the Beigou Grassland.

  The four-wheeled carriage that drove out from the depths of the barren land was filled with volcanic ash. When passing by the convoy of Suldak, everyone greeted them familiarly.

   Entering the land full of volcanic ash, the world here is almost a dead place, and all plants and animals have lost their vitality here.

  Under Suldak's strict requirements, even the horses wore masks.

  The four-wheeled carriage was full of daily necessities, and the road had already been pressed into two clear ruts. It was almost unnecessary to recognize the direction. As long as you walked along this road, you could reach the sulfur mine at the foot of the pustule mountain.

  When Suldak arrived at the sulfur mine, the two hundred kobold slaves were still alive and kicking.

Judging from their state, they are far more nourishing than the kobolds in the slave camp in Wall Village. Obviously, they are better adapted to the harsh environment here than humans. Suldak found that the kobolds have a special nose structure that can block the here and there. of volcanic ash.

   Except that there is no food and water here, there is nothing bad about this group of kobold slaves.

  The extent of mining at the sulfur mine in the rocky area is far more thorough than what Suldak thought.

All the raised rocks in the rocky area were turned over by these kobold slaves. They even dug up the cooled lava river. In the place, it piled up into a large black magmatic rock.

  Suldak rushed to the sulfur mine with supplies, and Charlie was already waiting at the mine.

Half a month ago, Charlie led two young people from the village to wander around the Pustule Mountain on horseback, trying to find a new open-pit sulfur mine. There was no sign of any sulfur mine at the foot of the mountain within a dozen kilometers. .

Charlie told Suldak that they climbed along a river of cooling lava to the side of the pustule mountain, and saw some sulfur mines by the river of lava flowing with hot magma. These sulfur mines were all attached to some On the raised rock wall, stalagmites are like stalagmites growing against the rock wall. The sulfur mine reserves there are almost ten times that of the sulfur mines in the rocky area. This is the reserve that was conservatively estimated by the first exploration.

   "Then move the sulfur mine over there, just so four-wheeled trucks can transport the materials here. Except for the sulfur mine, all other materials will be transported there." Suldak said.

  Hearing what Suldak said, Luke immediately arranged for people to put away all the reed mats and dust-proof gauze in the mine shed, and loaded them into the four-wheeled carriage.

  The faces of Charlie and the other two young people were baked until their skin exploded, and the new skin exposed inside became obviously much redder.

In just one month, Charlie became dark and thin. Suldak asked Charlie: "Is this period of time very hard? Not only do you have to manage two hundred kobold slaves, but you also have to ride around on horses. Running around looking for sulfur mines."

  Charlie smiled, showing a row of neat white teeth, and replied to Suldak: "Actually, it's not bad. It's just walking up the river of lava. It's more scorching than the vicious scorching sun."

   Then he looked at the pile of sulfur mines on the side, and added: "As long as there is a harvest, any effort is worth it."

   "How's the situation in the village? Counting the days, it's almost time to rain!" Charlie asked Luke who was coming.

   "We didn't download it before we set off. This time Duck..." Luke told Charlie about Suldak's establishment of a children's home in Wall Village.

   Regarding this, Charlie was even more farsighted than the old village chief.

   Two hundred kobold slaves lined up in a neat line and marched towards the new mining area.

  Three four-wheeled carriages filled with supplies followed behind the team, and all the mined sulfur mines were left here, only waiting for the four-wheeled carriages to return, and then returned here to load the carriages.

  Charlie rode a horse and followed behind Suldak, before saying for a long time:

   "It's okay for us to live a little bit harder. Life has always been like this, and we still survived."

"But our children must not live in such a difficult life in the future. I have been thinking about how to get them into Zhanzheng College before they are sixteen years old. Now this goal seems to have been achieved suddenly. And we can do better than that, it's a really good day."

  Hearing what Charlie said, Luke and the other young people also showed expectations for the future.

The mining conditions in the new mining area are even harsher than those in the sulfur mines in the rocky area. The entire new mining area is located on the hillside of the pustule mountain. The river, the sulfur is on the stone walls on both sides of the lava river. If you want to mine these sulfur mines, you have to be close to the hot lava river. It looks very dangerous. Fortunately, there are kobold slaves...

  According to Luke's plan, the mining camp was originally planned to be built on the mountainside, but this matter was vetoed by Suldak.

Suldak set up the mine camp at the foot of the mountain, and every time he entered the open-pit mine, he had to walk for at least an hour on the mountain road. In addition, Suldak also asked Luke to ride a horse every time he went out. An eruption of a restless lava river will swallow up a large area of ​​the surrounding mountains. The bed of this lava river is too high, two or three meters higher than other places. When the magma in a river overflows, it will Spread out along the high **** to all around.

   To everyone's surprise, kobold slaves can walk like flying on the hot rocks. They don't seem to be afraid of the heat.

When Suldak, Charlie, and Luke were standing on the edge of the cliff of the lava river halfway up the mountain to explore the reserves of sulfur ore, a salamander just happened to show its head in the lava river below, and its red body was completely soaked in it. In the magma, and actually able to swim in the lava, this rare scene made the three of them a little dumbfounded.

The ogre Gullitum also noticed the abnormality in the distance. He rushed over and found that Suldak was not in any danger. Instead, in the river of lava under his feet, a salamander was swaying. Big tail, swimming in the river, spouting hot lava from time to time...

  Gulitham's eyes lit up instantly.

  (end of this chapter)