Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree-Chapter 416: 1,000 Tons
Duke maintained this state, like a tireless combination of a tunneling machine and a refinery, moving along the richest main artery of the Sea Heart Iron vein, consuming everything in its path.
Vivian stayed inside this mobile golden sphere, watching the scene in awe. ๐ป๐โฏโฏ๐ค๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐.๐ธ๐๐ฎ
She could see the blue ore walls around them disappearing rapidly like they were being devoured by an invisible giant beast, replaced by solidified ordinary rock walls.
They were deep underground, frantically plundering the vein in an inconceivable way.
This process was extremely efficient, far surpassing any mining method by a thousandfold.
Deep underground, wrapped in yellow sand, Duke and Vivian were like an efficient and greedy devouring beast, crazily advancing along the richest main artery of the Sea Heart Iron vein.
This process also caused devastating damage to the surrounding geological structure.
The originally dense vein, woven with Sea Heart Iron ore and rock, turned instantly into loose, fragile powder residue after its essence was extracted.
This residue couldnโt possibly support the immense pressure of the hundreds of meters thick rock layers above and around it.
Initially, only the area they passed through quietly collapsed and compacted.
But as their absorption range widened and speed increased, the hollow mine vein area grew larger.
Starting from far behind them, the severely hollowed underground rock layers let out groans under the unbearable pressure, leading to massive chain collapses.
The collapse spread rapidly like a domino along the destroyed veinโs main artery.
Soon, the rock layers above and around them began to fracture and sink on a large scale.
Behind and around Duke were the overwhelming sounds of rock layer collapses, as though the entire underground world was disintegrating.
He didnโt care anyway, as they wouldnโt be affected, and continued absorbing the vein here without restraint.
Leonardโs information was most likely accurate, and this mining area would probably belong to the Silver Hand in the future.
In that case, thereโs no need to be polite, just absorb as much of the vein as possible.
...
Some time later, at the surface mining area.
Leonard and Ella were at the mining area, directing slave creatures to find and transport ores, when the ground beneath them suddenly shook violently.
"Whatโs happening?!" Leonardโs face changed, grabbing Ella who almost fell.
Immediately, a series of dull sounds, seemingly coming from deep underground, rang out densely.
At the center of the mine entrance, the ground within a few kilometers radius collapsed like a fragile eggshell, instantly forming a massive, bottomless pit.
The stacked ores, the slave creatures searching near the mine entrance, several slow-reacting Hill Giants were swallowed instantly, unable to even scream, plunging into endless darkness and dust.
Leonard and Ella hurriedly flew up, and escaped dangerously from the edge of the collapse area as they retreated madly into the air.
This was no ordinary mine collapse; it was a devastating large area land sink, with the entire mining areaโs underground structure seemingly completely hollowed out.
This absorption lasted for several hours, with Duke and Vivian roaming deep underground, absorbing a large amount of vein here.
During this process, they inflicted substantial destruction on the terrain of this mining area, leading to many sunken pits.
Duke absorbed almost all the major veins here, finally satisfied to drill out from the collapsed mining area.
His Yellow Sand Crystal now contained a full 1,300 tons of yellow sand, reinforced by magic metal, in a substantial feast.
This time they absorbed about 1,200 tons of Sea Heart Iron from the vein, and itโs not completely absorbed cleanly; there should be some vein distribution deeper inside, but itโs very time-consuming and requires deeper exploration.
Subsequent mining here will be extremely difficult, as the shallow veins have been substantially plundered.
To continue excavating veins, one must dig deeper underground, where the difficulty increases the further down one goes.
But this has nothing to do with Duke, as heโs already had his fill.
Just after Duke and Vivian emerged from the mining area, Leonard and Ella also flew over.
"Duke! What did you do?" Leonard stared tightly at Duke and questioned.
Though he didnโt know what happened, his intuition told him this was Dukeโs doing.
Duke looked clueless, shrugging, "I donโt know, we were searching for ores down there, and suddenly it collapsed. Luckily I reacted quickly or I wouldโve been buried."
Leonard saw Dukeโs expression didnโt seem fake, and hesitated.
Vivian saw Dukeโs expression and was secretly laughing inside, but outwardly remained serious, saying, "Probably something powerful is moving around underground, we should leave first."
Leonard glanced at the sunken mining area below, not sensing any energy fluctuations, and it didnโt look like the collapse was caused by magic power.
Considering this, it might really have nothing to do with Duke and Vivian.
The mining areaโs collapse seemed more like physical force damage, indeed not a Wizardโs handiwork.
However, Leonard hadnโt completely dismissed his suspicion, and just noted it down for investigation after reporting it.
Except it would be after the war ends, and even if there was an issue, they couldnโt trouble Duke.
After all, by the rules, Dukeโs presence here meant the ownership wasnโt determined yet.
The four of them then flew away from the mining area, followed by slave creatures, heading to Black Oak Town to settle temporarily.
According to Catherineโs task instructions, after clearing Black Oak Town, they were to head north to a city called Greenfield.
There are certain defenses there, so the Seventh Squadron wasnโt arranged to go there first; instead, they were to clear surrounding areas like Black Oak Town.
Duke and his team needed to stay overnight in Black Oak Town, and depart early the next morning.
Right now, itโs late, unsuitable for night marching, prioritizing safety more.
Even though the Leonard siblings had some opinions about Dukeโs team, and there was some mutual disagreement, they stayed in Black Oak Town cooperatively.
They allocated their slave creature forces around, each responsible for a direction in defense.
Duke and the others understood well that this was the Other Plane, and unexpected events could happen anytime.
Gathering forces together for mutual support is clearly a wiser choice in such situations, so neither side took their soldiers away alone.
