Chapter 123: The Lava Fortress |
Having obtained a new Blank Expansion Card, Qin Ziwen now had a place to put the Lava Fortress.
However, it was too late today, so Qin Ziwen simply chose to go to sleep.
The next morning, after waking up, Qin Ziwen got out of bed and went to the adjacent blank expanded area.
First, he used the Blank Expansion Card (Small).
Connecting directly along the edge of the original area, a 20*40 area was formed.
But in the lower left corner, there was a 2*2 underground cave entrance, which happened to be stuck right in the middle of this otherwise complete area.
Qin Ziwen thought for a moment, then simply pushed his bed back a distance, leaving a space in the master bedroom, and then moved the underground cave entrance into the master bedroom.
After the arrangement was complete, he stood by the bed, admiring the two openings in his master bedroom.
One underground cave, one cellar.
Qin Ziwen looked into the distance, then took out the Advanced Building Card, the Lava Fortress, and chose to use it.
A vast expanse of continuous light enveloped the entire area ahead.
[Lava Fortress merging with underground cave...]
[Merge successful]
What met his eyes was that the originally grayish-white, flat land of the blank expanded area had completely disappeared, transforming into a stretch of dry, cold, open-air black rocky ground.
The black rocky ground maintained a solidified posture, covered entirely in fissures.
Faint white mist slowly drifted out from the cracks in the rocky ground, dispersing quickly upon contact with the air.
The area in contact with his master bedroom had been built into a massive entrance.
Neat, whole blocks of granite were cut with extreme precision, stacked piece by piece to construct a wide staircase about ten meters across, extending downward.
Huge stone pillars were distributed on both sides of the long staircase.
Qin Ziwen walked down, descending nearly ten meters deep. The heat at the end of the steps suddenly intensified, a wave of hot air mixed with a faint smell of sulfur hitting him in the face.
The stone staircase also abruptly ended, leaving only uneven rocky ground.
Then he saw an extremely spectacular sight.
A slowly flowing stream of lava trickled out from the far end, flowing through a central "channel." As it flowed, it made a soft "gurgle, gurgle" sound, with occasional lava bubbles popping open. The rolling waves of heat were emanating from this source.
Qin Ziwen pondered, "This lava is so hot, I wonder if it can be repurposed."
As he approached, he found this lava stream wasn't very wide, only about two meters or so. However, he didn't know what material the pitch-black channel was made of.
This channel confined the lava within it.
Two small tributaries extended from the side of the channel.
The tributaries converged nearby, forming two one-meter-wide "lava pools." Above each lava pool was suspended a black stone pot.
These stone pots were likely made of the same material as the channel.
The lava in these pools wasn't constantly full. Instead, it would "fill up" periodically, then slowly drain away, rising and falling like a tide.
Although spectacular, and even providing him with a lava stream, this place gave Qin Ziwen a feeling of being a "half-finished product."
It was too empty. Many areas still maintained the purely natural structure of an underground cave.
"Hmm? There's a pool of water here too."
Qin Ziwen discovered that on the right side, against the wall on the ground, there was a deep blue, shimmering pool.
The pool wasn't large or deep, and the water was icy cold to the bone.
There weren't many artificial traces in the cave, which seemed somewhat inconsistent with the term "fortress." Apart from the somewhat spectacular stone staircase leading in here, everything else was natural and pristine.
He cast Insight on the Lava Fortress.
[Lava Fortress: Level 2 Metal Refinement, Level 1 Rapid Melting, Level 1 Metal Toughness Enhancement] (Special Effect: Metals purified within the Lava Fortress gain increased hardness while maintaining their original characteristics.)
So this was a metal refinement factory.
Now understanding the building's purpose, Qin Ziwen guessed those two stone pots were probably the places for refining metal?
One Metal Toughness Enhancement, plus the special effect—metals purified within the Lava Fortress gain increased hardness while maintaining their original characteristics.
Simultaneously enhancing both toughness and strength. Metal materials processed here would see their strength increase by more than just one grade.
This was core technology!
Using the same materials, the resulting items would have higher strength.
Qin Ziwen felt that if Li Tieshan knew about this place, he would definitely be very happy.
He looked towards the source of the lava and its end point.
Both emerged from a pitch-black cave. This cave extended beyond the building's boundary, as if generated out of thin air, but he didn't dwell on it, just like how the spring could generate water from nothing.
Returning to the surface, Qin Ziwen found Li Tieshan and informed him of the new building, the Lava Fortress, and its uses.
After listening, Li Tieshan was brimming with enthusiasm. He couldn't wait to return to the Blacksmith, take a shovel-full of crushed iron ore from a basket, and then follow Qin Ziwen to the Lava Fortress to place the iron ore into the black pot.
Upon contact with the black pot, the surface of the iron ore emitted a sizzling blue smoke.
Then it slowly melted, eventually turning into a pool of golden-red liquid.
The scene was very similar to stir-frying rock sugar for caramel color in an iron wok.
As time passed, the lava pool beneath gradually became thinner.
The temperature of the black pot decreased, and the melted iron ore inside gradually solidified, finally turning into an iron cake with a steely sheen, embedded in the bottom of the pot.
Li Tieshan picked up the long-handled shovel beside the black pot and gave the bottom a scoop. The iron cake wasn't stuck to the pot bottom; it was easily scooped up.
Swinging the shovel, he tossed it, flipping the iron cake onto the ground.
Li Tieshan lightly touched the iron cake on the ground with his sleeve cuff. It emitted a sizzling white smoke, and soon a scorching smell wafted over.
"Sir, it's still hot. It needs to be quenched with cold water, that might be better."
He looked around but couldn't find a water bucket.
Qin Ziwen pointed to the pool nearby. "There's a pool over there. You can forge an iron bucket yourself later and fetch water from there."
Li Tieshan quickly nodded, extremely satisfied with this place.
He didn't need to put in much effort at all; the iron ore could automatically be refined into iron cakes. Any helper could do this job, allowing him to focus solely on forging tools. Moreover, this black pot was miraculous. He planned to try later, adding different proportions of carbon powder to see if he could directly refine that high-carbon steel Li Yue had told him about.
After giving some instructions, Qin Ziwen brought the reluctant Li Tieshan back to the living room for breakfast.
During breakfast, Li Tieshan was absent-minded, his thoughts completely occupied by his new workspace.
After breakfast, Qin Ziwen and the others gathered their tools and went up the mountain to set up the site, preparing for the hunt!
The card refreshed on the Altar today was a Small Blank Expansion Card.
Except for Qin Ziwen, everyone else was seeing this card for the first time.
Everyone wanted it, because only with a sufficiently spacious area could they use some of the subsequent cards.
But there was only one card, so it was temporarily left with Qin Ziwen.
After hunting the Giant Toad, it would be distributed based on contribution.
The site and traps were set up in an orderly manner. Simultaneously, everyone deduced the Giant Toad's possible reactions, preparing escape routes and backup plans.
They worked busily until evening, finally completing all preparations.
Everything was ready; all they needed was the east wind.
......