Chapter 575 — Forward Base
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
High-powered mana crystal lamps flooded the vast cavern with light as bright as day, and the whirring of mixers, hoists, and the various magical matrices intertwined into a single din, while construction crews and technicians in matching uniforms wove busily among the machines and scaffolding — the South Gate Fortress construction site was a scene of feverish activity.
Gao Yang, Hetty, and Amber walked into what had once been the Shadow laboratory, and at the center of the cavern they found Gordon, the man in charge of the site.
"My lord, the support structure and foundation base have been laid, the main wall construction is over halfway done, and the southern gate, ramparts, outer wall armor, and extended fire platforms are sixty percent complete," Gordon reported on the fortress's construction. "The barracks station and power station are operational; as of yesterday, this site has attained a basic defensive capability."
"Good — very good." Gao Yang surveyed with satisfaction the progress achieved by the engineering corps under Gordon's leadership. He saw workers reinforcing the walls along the cavern boundary, and between the southern gate and the inner cavern an extra layer of cement-steel armor was already taking shape; enormous support frames spanned the cavern, hoisting devices driven by mana engines were mounted atop the frames, and winches drew cables to lift huge cargo pallets to the fortress's second level, while around each pallet a faint runic glow could be seen — the weight-reduction runic matrices at work.
At the present stage, weight-reduction magic remained a spell whose principles had yet to be fully unraveled; the runesmiths had not solved the interference problem that arose when several weight-reduction effects acted on a single target, and so it was difficult to apply to larger objects (large vehicles, for instance) — but when it came to smaller cargo, weight-reduction magic had always been a peerless tool for hauling.
Along the cavern's edge, one could also see technicians carrying arcane terminals rapidly adjusting the rock face with "Mud to Stone" and "Stone to Mud" spells, preparing the surface for the subsequent installation of wall cladding panels; not far off, another engineering crew was setting mana-net units into the cladding already mounted, the flash of plasma welding beams (thermal fusion welding guns) glittering without pause — a display of each crew's efficiency and coordination.
To treat supernatural power as productive force — rather than merely "a weapon for strong men to brawl with" — yielded precisely this astonishing efficiency.
Of course, Gordon's capable direction was also a vital factor in the project's rapid advance.
Gao Yang withdrew his gaze and looked at the circular pit in the cavern floor, at the ancient, arcane runic array at its bottom and the ancient devices arranged in a ring, and asked casually, "Has this shadow portal shown any abnormal reactions lately?"
Gordon shook his head. "None — we've set up mana-sensing devices around it, and found no sign of the magic gate activating."
"Very good," Gao Yang nodded, then looked toward the brand-new sluice gate at the far end of the cavern. "Open the gate. I want to go have a look at the forward base."
"Yes — open the gate!"
The runic array hummed, gears and winch heads alike squealed and groaned, and iron chains and bearings drew the heavy steel gate; with a tremor that set even the ground faintly quaking, the sluice gate of the South Gate Fortress slowly opened before Gao Yang...
To reach the wasteland border and begin the wall-building project, one first had to open a road from the civilized world to the wasteland — and that road was blocked by the whole of the Black Forest, a forest no human had set foot in for centuries.