Chương 160: The Perimeter Wall and the Mage Tower

Every project had its own level of urgency. Li Qinwu felt that the most important task at hand was to finish constructing the perimeter wall of the Iron-City Industrial Zone, thereby allowing the highly sought-after iron products to be loaded with the double buff. Li Qinwu directly spearheaded this project; he wanted to grind his engineering skill proficiency points to unlock more architectural effects.

The construction of the perimeter wall was exceptionally simple: it merely required people to dig holes in the ground and then insert large wooden stakes. For the time being, Li Qinwu had no intentions of constructing a permanent fortress-grade city wall; that kind of thing consumed far too much manpower, and the construction time would be measured in units of years.

Expending such an immense amount of manpower and material resources on that would be far inferior to reclaiming more wasteland and establishing a few more hundred-goblin villages to ramp up the population's output capacity. Li Qinwu reasoned that given his current situation, it was highly improbable for the enemy to fight their way to Iron-City. If the enemy actually managed to strike here, it would mean the Alliance's main force units had already been completely annihilated.

At that point, even if they possessed city walls, they wouldn't be able to hold them anyway. Therefore, there was no need to build a permanent city wall; creating a simple one just to cheat the system would suffice. Under the guidance of this slipshod mentality, the city wall was constructed very rapidly. Li Qinwu mobilized all the ogres and the Crimson Queen, tasking them with digging holes around the industrial zone, which spanned roughly 500 mu of land.

Due to the inclusion of heavy units like the Crimson Queen and the ogres, the engineering speed was lightning-fast. Take digging holes as an example—if this work were left to the goblins, it would take thousands of them several days to complete, but the Crimson Queen accomplished it in a single day. Her gargantuan body contained surging, boundless strength. Stamping her rigid, massive foot casually into the earth and dragging it forward, she could effortlessly tear open the soil to a depth of two or three meters!

Li Qinwu went ahead scattering a perimeter of white lime along the industrial zone, and the Crimson Queen followed closely behind, plowing the earth with her giant feet. In precisely one day, the holes for inserting the wooden stakes were completely prepared. Following that, the logs cut down from reclaiming wasteland were debarked and straightened. The ogres cooperated to insert the large wooden stakes into the holes, while the goblins utilized shovels to backfill the soil and pack it down tight.

In this manner, a small section of the wall was constructed. Under Li Qinwu's supervision, this labor was carried out for a month and a half. A row of pure wooden perimeter walls was completely built, enclosing the Iron-City Industrial Zone with wooden stakes that stood 10 meters tall. The exact moment the final wooden stake was driven into place, the Mount & Blade system popped up a notification. Ding! You have constructed a castle. Please bestow a name upon your castle.

Utilizing his consciousness, Li Qinwu inputted: Iron-City Industrial Zone. Ding! Your castle has been named Iron-City Industrial Zone. Population: 2, 700 individuals. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Housing: 434. Possessed Facilities: Blast Furnace × 7, Musket Workshop × 1, Artillery Workshop × 1, Blacksmith Shop × 1, Level 4 Warehouse × 1, Level 1 City Wall × 1. Special Facilities: High-Altitude Ground-Drop Forging Hammer × 1.

Standing in front of the newly completed industrial zone, Li Qinwu laughed heartily with immense satisfaction. With the double output capacity, the Alliance would not lack iron tools for a very long time to come. In addition, the warehouse of the industrial zone was recognized by the system as a Level 4 Warehouse. A Level 4 Warehouse could store 4, 000 units of resources. Calculating by weapons, a sword or a musket each counted as one unit. In terms of food, every 5 kilograms counted as one unit.

In the future, Li Qinwu would bound to have hundreds or even thousands of fortresses under his command. It was impossible for him to run around every single day to "harvest the crops"; he could only make scheduled trips at specific times, which made the size of the warehouses crucial. If they were too small, the system's output would hoard the warehouses to maximum capacity, and if he couldn't make it in time to harvest them, the resources would vanish.

With a Level 4 Warehouse, making a harvest trip once every half a year wouldn't be an issue at all! Li Qinwu granted the engineering crew a one-week holiday, allowing them to consume liquor and food completely free of charge, and then began checking his own engineering proficiency. After completing the wall, his engineering proficiency points had advanced from 28 to 51, unlocking yet another skill: Towering Skyscrapers.

(Brothers, from now on when unlocking skills, I won't mention the 'choose 1 out of 2' skill options anymore. That setting was originally just meant to conform to the original Mount & Blade II game, but looking at it now, since only one is ever chosen, there's no point in writing the other. Given the limited number of brain cells I have, having to come up with an unused skill is truly unnecessary.) Towering Skyscrapers: You will possess the experience and technique to construct buildings exceeding 50 meters in height. The high-rise structures you construct will generate special bonuses based on their intended utilization. Do wonders ruin a nation? No! Wonders rejuvenate a nation! Li Qinwu felt an immense volume of architecture-related knowledge flood into his mind, stretching his brain until it felt bloated with information!

All sorts of exquisitely ingenious architectural structures, construction material performances, and how to apply them—the sheer variety of knowledge left him dazzled, and he immediately felt the urge to build something! Whatever he wished for materialized; after a month and a half of surveying, West-Hayden had discovered a site suitable for constructing a mage tower.

Li Qinwu immediately mobilized, reassembling the engineering crew that had just completed their holiday, and rushed fires of urgency to the construction site. He intended to personally forge a 50-meter-tall mage tower! The location selected by West-Hayden was a high mountain situated roughly 15 li west of Iron-City. It was the tallest mountain within a hundred-li radius excluding the mining mountains; constructing the magical tower here would position the mana tide observatory much closer to the sky.

Li Qinwu first had the engineering crew pave a road extending from Iron-City to the magical tower to facilitate the transport of personnel and resources. This task was not difficult; they simply had the Crimson Queen go ahead to crush down trees, while the ogres and goblins slightly leveled the ground, constructing a rudimentary road surface. Possessing this foundational transport artery, the engineering crews subsequently ascended to the mountain peak.

The Crimson Queen once again pushed down trees, excavated tree roots, and leveled the terrain, after which the goblins excavated a foundation reaching deep into the ground. Li Qinwu intended to construct a 50-meter-tall magical tower, which required excavating a 15-meter-deep foundation. Of course, if one didn't wish to dig that deep, it was also acceptable to make the base larger, forming a structure similar to a pyramid.

With the gravitational weight distributed to the surrounding earth, the foundation could afford to be shallower, and this was precisely the structure Li Qinwu utilized. To rush the engineering schedule, Li Qinwu concentrated over 50 Earth Dragons to organize a transport convoy, traveling back and forth between Gob-Fort and Iron-City to transport the lime from Gob-Fort to the construction site.

Expending roughly a month of time, utilizing red bricks, concrete, and hand-forged rebar, the pyramid-like foundation of the magical tower was completely constructed. Moving forward, they only needed to gradually stack bricks upward to build a lighthouse-like mage tower, and then install the mana tide observatory. With that, the Alliance would possess its very own mana tide observation equipment.

In the future, with the magical tower serving as the core center, they could construct a whole cluster of magical facilities and a magical academy across the surrounding mountains, allowing the Alliance's magical enterprise to officially take flight!