The sky to the east was showing the pale light of dawn, a sliver of morning light seeping through, signifying that daybreak was imminent.
The night’s conversation drew to a close, and Sherlock, standing up, did not appear overly exhausted. He wrapped up the last topic with Richard, waved goodbye, and, lifting the still sleeping maid Lucia, walked toward the wagons downhill.
Before long, Sherlock led the caravan on their way once more, heading toward a distant special port, preparing to board a ship to the Main Continent.
Standing atop the Rocky Mountains, Richard watched Sherlock’s caravan disappearing in the distance, deep in thought about the content of their nocturnal discussion.
He had to admit, according to what Sherlock had said, the Main Continent was attractive and a great destination, but... he could not go there just yet.
After all, he had very important matters to attend to and time was of the essence.
The next moment, Richard turned and looked toward the tents pitched on the mountain.
Inside the tents, many soldiers and four wizards — including Teddy — were exhausted from yesterday’s excavation work and were now sound asleep.
Richard looked and looked, then considerately raised his voice, "Commander Wu Long, the dawn has arrived. Notify everyone to get up and start working."
Not much later, the Rocky Mountains bustled with activity, another day of excavation work began.
Ultimately, after another busy day, they completed the designated excavation area on the Rocky Mountains, yet they did not discover Yadisi Village’s remains.
Without hesitation, leaving behind a small force to maintain control over Auburn City, Richard led the rest eastward, following the planned route. They continued to conquer city after city, undertaking excavations time and time again, getting increasingly closer to Deep Blue Castle.
In other directions, other groups were quite similar. Under the absolute advantage of military force and sheer wizard numbers, various wizard organizations quickly seized city after city, took over one resource site after another, forming an encirclement heading toward Deep Blue Castle.
Hawks Kingdom, Grey Stone City.
After a not-so-fierce battle, Grey Stone City fell. After its capture, only a few soldiers stayed behind to maintain order within the city, while the rest went to a nearby mine.
Inside the mine’s huge warehouse,
a wizard from White Mist City walked around, observing the boxes stored within, lips slightly pursed. The surrendering deputy city lord of Grey Stone City, with an obsequious face, followed behind, persistently introducing, "Master Wizard, you see, all the outputs from the mine are here. This side has iron ore, that side has copper ore, and in the corner, silver ore. Of course, most importantly, this row of boxes contains nothing but top-quality gold ore."
After hearing the deputy city lord’s words, the wizard’s eyebrows twitched, and he stopped to open one of the crates filled with gold ore, which revealed irregularly shaped stones glowing with bright gold. Casually picking one up, he inspected it, and despite its unprocessed, rough appearance, its value was still very high.
As long as they maintained control over this mining area, they could continue acquiring such high-value gold ore.
Though wizard organizations do not typically value money, favoring resources related to Spell casting, such as casting materials and parts of demonized creatures’ bodies, it doesn’t mean money is meaningless to a wizard organization. On the contrary, money has a significant importance to a wizard organization.
For one thing, wizard organizations, aside from the wizards and wizard apprentices themselves, consist of many ordinary people as members. To ensure the entire organizational system operates and functions efficiently, it’s impossible without money.
After all, however powerful a wizard might be, they cannot use life-and-death control to make everyone work without the need for rewards. Even if they could, and made a coachman work tirelessly without seeking anything in return, it wouldn’t take more than three days for the coachman to die — starve to death.
Therefore, wizard organizations might disregard a small fortune, but they place great importance on an entire mine — very great importance.
The wizard from White Mist City dropped the piece of ore back into the crate, producing a light sound, and slowly turned to face behind him.
The deputy city lord of Grey Stone City bowed and scraped, waiting for orders.
However, the gaze of the White Mist City wizard passed over him to a man in iron armor behind, commanding, "General Olic, send a team to take the gold ore and silver ore in this warehouse to Dusk City. Hand it over to General Hawke there; he knows what to do. Besides, arrange your men to guard the entire mine. Don’t let any strangers in. If someone tries to force entry, don’t hesitate, attack directly. And don’t worry if they possess extraordinary power; I will have several wizards from the organization assist you shortly."
"Yes." The man in iron armor nodded gravely without a smile, seriously accepting the command.
Only then did the White Mist City wizard turn to the vice-city lord of Grey Stone City who had surrendered, saying, "Lord Mars, there is also something I need you to take care of."
"Master Wizard, please tell me." The vice-city lord bowed.
"That is, you need to find the escaped miners and restore production in the mine."
"Yes, Master Wizard, I will do my best to complete the task."
"Not ’do your best,’ but ’must.’" The White Mist City wizard corrected, "I am giving you three days. If you can’t manage that, then you will become a miner here."
After speaking, the White Mist City wizard patted the vice-city lord’s shoulder and turned to walk away.
The vice-city lord named Mars stood rigid, his expression uglier than tears: "Three... three days?"
Dora Kingdom, Karo City.
Inside the warehouse.
The Rose City witch, clad in a red rose robe, squinted at the large chunks of crystal placed in boxes throughout the warehouse, her brows slightly furrowed. After looking for a while, she turned to the trembling young man beside her.
The man appeared to be in his twenties, very young and handsome. He was said to be the fifth in the succession line for the prince of the Dora Kingdom. Hence, even with no significant capability, he could become a city lord at a young age.
The witch glanced at him and asked, "The number of crystals in this warehouse seems low, especially those of higher quality suitable for casting spells, which are very few. I remember that the crystal mines of Karo City are quite famous; it shouldn’t be so poor."
"Witch... Master Witch, you are correct; it should not be this bad," the young prince stammered. "It was... a few days ago, the Royal Capital issued an order, stating that the front was unstable, and thus all the good crystals in this warehouse were transported to the Royal Capital. However... the veins outside the city are still there, and the miners have not dispersed. We can resume production quickly, and in three months, we can produce a new batch of high-quality crystals."
"Three months?" The witch shook her head, "I can’t wait that long. Aren’t you some prince? Write a letter to your king father, tell him that he needs to use crystals to ransom you. Return as many crystals as were taken from Karo City, or else your life is forfeit. Hmm, give him two days to consider."
"Two... two days?" The prince swallowed, his face a picture of woe.
Holy Alliance, Holy Lake City.
Around noon, a wizard from Death Valley clad in a blue robe with skulls walked outside the city, eyes narrowing as he looked at the fields of short, thick-stalked plants that were turning slightly yellow and withering.
The short, thick-stalked plants were a specialty near Holy Lake City, serving multiple magical purposes. They could act as excellent casting materials, as well as ingredients for mana recovery potions. In comparison, their use as food for staving off hunger was not so important.
A portly middle-aged man followed closely behind the Death Valley wizard. His name was Moke; before the wizard’s arrival, he was a fringe figure in Holy Lake City, merely responsible for wall repairs and tilling the fields outside. Yet now, he was the city’s nominal highest ruler.
No other reason but that everyone of higher status than him had been killed by the wizard before him. In fact, he too should have been killed but cried out right before his death, "I only take care of the walls and planting; I’ve done no wrong, please spare me!" To his surprise, he was indeed spared, gaining control of the entire city and now accompanying the wizard to these fields outside the city.
How else to put it? Fate was truly wondrous.
Seeing the Death Valley wizard constantly eyeing the short-stalked plants in the field, Moke figured he should guess what the wizard was thinking and sidled up to curry favor, saying, "Master Wizard, look, these are the unique Shirley Luo Flowers only found near Holy Lake City. The flowers have withered and matured; you’ve come at just the right time. If you need these Shirley Luo Flowers, it would take just one full day for my men to harvest them all."
"One full day?" The wizard from Death Valley glanced at Moke as if looking at an idiot, his voice hoarse, "Fool, do you think I have that much time to wait for you? I have to leave here tomorrow morning to continue the attack, so you must get it done by dusk today, then I can have it transported. Understand? You have half a day, fail to do it, and you might as well end yourself, save me the trouble."
"Half... half a day?!" Moke swallowed hard.