109. The Vein of Ore

“Really?” Mo Fei was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected everything to go so smoothly. From Magic Realm City to now, it seemed he hadn’t truly encountered any difficult challenges. If there really were diamonds or platinum underground, things would be far too easy.

What Mo Fei didn’t know was that their current voyage had deviated slightly from the original planned route. They were supposed to arrive at the other end of this continent, where the mountains were taller and the forests denser. Instead, they ended up in a plain—the poorest region on the continent. Struggles were fewer here; most conflicts were concentrated on the diamond and platinum-rich side. This explained why, after three months of work, no one had come to bother them.

“Elder, do you know what kind of ore is underground?” Mo Fei asked eagerly.

“We haven’t dug down yet, and I haven’t collected any samples to examine. How would I know what’s beneath? But judging by the color of these trees, it’s probably mostly iron ore.”

“Iron ore?” Mo Fei was greatly disappointed. After all that effort, it turned out to be iron.

“Not entirely iron. I can’t say for sure. I said mostly iron because the trees here are mostly dark black in color, but not all trees are like this. Look at the other side of this tree, the sun-facing side—it’s different, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.” Mo Fei turned to the other side of the tree. Compared to Elder Ouf, who was so perceptive, Mo Fei had to look closely to tell the difference.

“Once our dock base is built, we’ll dig in from the mountain’s far side. It’s more concealed there and less likely to be discovered. If there’s something valuable, we can dig a secret passage from the mountain to the sea, then ship things out by boat. It’s not far, and dredging a waterway won’t take long. But then, we can’t use just anyone; we’ll bring in the Empire’s dwarf miners. Elder Worton mentioned recently that the dwarf population in our Empire has grown a lot. This will give them something to do instead of scrambling for food in one place.”

The dwarves had once been scattered too widely, and now too many had congregated together. Their craftsmanship was similar, producing little variation in their goods, which made life harder for many. With Stormwind now established, some struggling dwarves could relocate here to develop the area. With the discovery of this ore deposit, Elder Ouf couldn’t help but laugh aloud. Helping his people brought him great joy.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll send dwarf miners from the Empire. That way, we can rest assured. Also, inform the bear tribe’s chief that half of the profits here belong to them, so they can’t shirk their initial investment. Our front line is stretched too thin. The bears will be responsible for guarding this area. We’ll select an elite group of their warriors to defend the mountain. Their fighters are well suited for mountain warfare.” Mo Fei chuckled as he spoke.

The ten mages present were deeply moved by Mo Fei’s decision to entrust such an important location to the bear tribe warriors. Most would have guarded the profits tightly for themselves, but not Mo Fei. His words made them even more determined to get along well with him during their time together.

Returning to the nearly completed dock, the wooden walls were already up. A group of master dwarf carpenters were gathered, loudly arguing about something.

“What are you discussing with such excitement?” Mo Fei asked and joined in.

“Your Majesty, we’re debating how to retract this bridge when not in use…”

“Oh, that’s simple,” Mo Fei said. “Build two towers at the entrance, about twice the height of the bridge. Using pulleys and ropes, make one side of the bridge movable. Tie a rope to the other end, and with a few people pulling, the bridge can be raised.”

“Ah, how did we not think of that…”

“Is that the best you could come up with? I thought you were brainstorming something more complex.” Mo Fei was puzzled that master dwarven carpenters hadn’t considered this straightforward solution.

“Not everyone’s like you, always coming up with strange ideas. We dwarves haven’t built a movable bridge before, so we didn’t know what tricks there might be,” Elder Ouf said, a bit frustrated.

“Oh, well…” Mo Fei laughed heartily and walked away, pleased to see Elder Ouf humbled for once. It was hard not to be happy.

Now, the task was to finish constructing the dwellings and bring in the bear tribe warriors. Negotiations with the bears were simple; Udoss Napin also knew it would be impolite not to invest and share profits with Mo Fei. Yet, transferring forty thousand elite soldiers to Mo Fei pained him deeply. He muttered incessantly as Mo Fei and his men left.

When Mo Fei met Udoss, he cut him off with a sharp warning: “I’ve found the location and built the base. If my soldiers guard it, I won’t give you anything. Take it or leave it.”

When Udoss tried to transfer other troops to Mo Fei, he quickly interrupted, “Don’t send me random soldiers. The troops there are fierce. I only want the forty thousand warriors you brought last time who besieged my city. Otherwise, the area is too large for me to defend.”

Thus, Mo Fei couldn’t be selective among the elite troops. Entering the camp, he pointed firmly, and the four vanguard bear battalions were disbanded. Udoss felt the sting deeply, lamenting Mo Fei’s ruthless gaze. He had never dealt closely with his army before, but with one wave of the hand, the vanguard bear battalions were wiped out.

With these forty thousand bear warriors, Mo Fei found it much easier to manage. Three of the four vanguard battalions, totaling thirty thousand men, built defensive works on the mountain. Over twenty thousand heavily armored death knights who had come from Stormwind left five thousand to infiltrate the forest. The dock now held only one battalion of ten thousand bear vanguard soldiers and a five-thousand-strong berserker infantry company. The rest of the troops Cain brought had been reassigned to guard other locations.

Since the bear tribe’s ranged weapons were javelins, which weren’t very effective for city defense, their formation was disrupted. They were integrated into the berserker guard units, each group led by a squad captain. For city defense, the berserkers coordinated command; for offensive missions, a dwarf general appointed by Mo Fei took unified command.

Elder Ouf returned to the Death Empire to gather more dwarf miners. Such a large ore deposit required at least forty to fifty thousand miners. To expedite their arrival through the magic portal, Mo Fei also returned to the Death Empire to reset the spatial magic teleportation array. This new array was even larger than the massive one at the dock and was built as a fixed installation in the capital. This gigantic magic teleportation array was the largest Mo Fei could manage.

Over more than ten days, Mo Fei coordinated the transfer of miners. With Elder Ouf’s cooperation, the miners were organized well. The rest was left to Elder Hans to arrange the mountain excavation. Thirty thousand bear warriors protected the miners on the mountain, with five thousand heavily armored death knights guarding the foothills. Elder Ouf safely directed the dwarf miners’ operations.

Mo Fei and Elder Ouf had not left the mining site these days. They waited eagerly to see if the mine held anything beyond iron ore.

Finally, the mine was uncovered, and as Elder Ouf predicted, it was all iron ore. However, these iron ores contained a higher percentage of iron than any he had previously mined, which delighted Elder Ouf. He sighed that even just iron ore was worthwhile, much to Mo Fei’s chagrin. Mo Fei didn’t care about iron content; he only wanted to see if the diamonds he vaguely remembered were truly like those in his memory.

The mine had been worked for over ten days. As a large iron mine, its yield was remarkably high. Elder Ouf even dispatched workers to dig a passage connecting to the outer sea. This meant Mo Fei would have to wait longer if he hoped for surprises.

But at last, Mo Fei’s moment had come.