Base Construction

“Hurry up, we must get the supplies to the destination before dark.”

In Shining City, a convoy of transport wagons moved slowly along the bluestone road, the rumbling sound of wheels echoing in unison.

Residents along the way consciously stepped aside as a fully armed team of soldiers accompanied the convoy.

The leaders, clad in full armor, were clearly the knights.

“Shining City is indeed better. Blackstone City is ultimately a bit too remote,” Jodun remarked, grinning as he observed the scenery on both sides of the street.

The architectural style of Shining City leans towards Romanesque, giving a sense of grandeur and solemnity.

The roads are smooth bluestone paths, with flowers and trees planted on both sides. The ground is clean and tidy, and there’s a complete sewage system. Even the houses are more exquisite and orderly compared to Blackstone City.

When compared to Shining City, Blackstone City seems rural.

“Who would have thought that after initially following Brother Ke Yi to Blackstone City, we’d return so quickly to the Shining Lands,” a knight sighed.

The others also expressed similar sentiments.

“Indeed, I thought I would be stuck in Blackstone City for a lifetime.”

“Yeah, I sometimes still suspect I’m dreaming.”

“All thanks to the lord and Sir Su Nan, but speaking of which, why did Sir Su Nan move outside the city, isn’t it…”

The speaking knight was interrupted by a kick from Jodun.

“Nonsense, watch your tongue or I’ll strike you!”

“The Baron and his brother get along very well, besides, Sir Su Nan clearly has no interest in nobility titles. He intends to become a wizard!”

“But why wouldn’t Sir Su Nan stay in the city? Living outside is nowhere near as comfortable as the inner castle,” a knight questioned in confusion.

Jodun shrugged and said, “I heard Sir Su Nan wants to build a base outside the city. He plans to construct a magic plantation and a golem factory, which requires a considerable amount of land. That’s why he chose to be outside the city. This time we’re transporting materials for the base construction.”

Noticing the group seemed to understand incompletely, Jodun impatiently waved them off.

“Anyway, we just need to follow Sir Su Nan’s instructions.”

Everyone agreed.

The plans of someone as powerful as Sir Su Nan were not for them to guess; they just needed to carry them out.

The convoy passed through the city and traveled four to five kilometers north after leaving the city gates, finally reaching a flat expanse of land.

Many workers were busily engaged, the crisp clinking of picks against rocks continuous.

Jodun quickly located Su Nan, who was roaming about the hillside, appearing to search for something.

“Sir Su Nan, the lord sent me to deliver these.”

Su Nan nodded, gestured for a manager to handle the delivery, then handed a list to Jodun.

“This is the next batch of items required. Please give it to my brother.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jodun responded solemnly, sneaking a peek at the list. Crystals, brass, silver, clay… the first few make sense, but what’s the clay for?

Ceramics?

Jodun wondered silently but wisely didn’t ask further, taking the list to bid farewell to Su Nan before leaving.

After he left, Su Nan continued to survey the surroundings.

After taking Shining City, he began his plant cultivation project as planned, promptly securing land near the city in cooperation with Brother Ke Yi for his base.

A qualified wizard must possess a territory to cultivate and study in peace while developing.

Hence, many wizards build their own wizard towers.

A few powerful true spirit wizards even expend vast resources to construct floating cities.

Unfortunately, neither floating cities nor wizard towers are within Su Nan’s reach.

He could only settle for constructing a basic base.

A complete base must include meditation areas, spell training zones, experimental facilities, residential quarters, pharmaceutical zones, magic plantations, magical item workshops, golem factories, warehouses, and other necessary facilities.

With so many facilities, the base’s area would be larger than a typical village.

The costs were counted in tens of thousands of gold coins.

Fortunately, Su Nan had recently made a batch of potions, selling them through the Fire Fox Commerce Association. The advance payment was just enough to kickstart the base’s construction.

He was currently surveying the locations of ley-line nodes.

In every world, subterranean regions hold primordial magical veins.

These veins are called ley-line nodes or elemental branches, magic nodes, etc.

Names are just labels.

Essentially, ley-line nodes are intersections of natural energy. By setting magic supply channels with large formations at these nodes, stable magical energy transmission can be achieved, significantly conserving energy.

Otherwise, merely relying on magic stones to support facilities like the magic plantation, magical item workshop, and golem factory would consume more than the entire Shining Lands’ income.

The only issue is that the Starlight Continent currently suffers from elemental scarcity, which greatly reduces the elemental magic ley-line nodes can provide.

Solely relying on ley-line nodes might only sustain the base’s daily operation and maintenance. To use equipment like a magical energy crystal furnace, magic stones must be added as supplementary energy.

Therefore, before finishing the base construction, a batch of magic stones must also be reserved.

After confirming the ley-line nodes, Su Nan exhaled a long breath, turning to look at the bustling crowd below.

“Relying solely on manual labor for the base construction makes efficiency a bit low. It’s best to produce a batch of clay golems for labor.”

Clay golems possess nearly a ton of strength and are highly efficient laborers.

In many large-scale projects, a single clay golem can handle work equivalent to hundreds of humans.

Importantly, clay golems require no rest or food, and with adequate energy supply and maintenance, they can be continually used.

For these reasons, many wizards favor using clay golems as labor or servants.

“Clay golems require simple materials, consume little energy, and are easy to maintain, making them the best choice for labor.”

“With just ten clay golems, the construction efficiency of the base could increase several times over, saving a significant amount of manpower costs.”

“In addition, places like the magic plantation and magical item workshop also require dedicated personnel for maintenance, who, besides literacy, must master certain knowledge of magic botany or enchanting. These skills need training from scratch.”

Cultivation, learning spells, building the base, potion-making, golem crafting, training personnel…

Su Nan suddenly realized there were still many tasks ahead.

“I’m going to be busy from now on.”