My Magic Age

Beigou Valley Mining Site is an open-pit iron mine. The entire iron ore mine is located at the northernmost end of Beigou Valley. The orc tribe's catastrophic famine has continued since last autumn and is still not getting better. Everyone is looking forward to the spring hunting time, when hunters can bring back enough prey from the depths of the wilderness. However, in such an environment of the Great Depression, Horsens, the owner of the quarry in the North Valley, was in trouble.

A large number of fine iron ingots transported from the dwarf kingdom have greatly impacted the original mining industry on the plateau. Although it has greatly improved the sophistication of the orc tribe's iron tools, countless metallurgical workshops have been under the impact of foreign fine iron ingots. went bankrupt, but the Beigou Valley Mining Site was an exception. In addition, there is a rich iron ore here, and it is a very rare open-pit mine. This inherent advantage greatly reduces the mining cost to a minimum. Therefore, the Beigou Valley Mining Site is the best place for the orc tribe to survive in the western wilderness. It is one of the few mining industries that integrates mining and metallurgy.

However, the severe famine not long ago made the quarry, which was already not prosperous, even worse. During this period, the owner of Horsens made a very bold decision. He proposed to the Elders Council of Gurudin Town. An application to purchase slaves is to buy the gray dwarf prisoners of war who survived the war as slaves back to the mines to work as coolies.

This matter was originally a very sensational move by the Elders of Gurudin at the time, and it was supported by the blood wolf clan of Gurudin Town. A total of nearly a thousand gray dwarf prisoners of war were sold as slaves to Horsens. Soon after, the great famine spread to the entire orc tribe. As a result, many tribes gave up their plans to purchase iron tools. It was under this premise that the mines in Horsens gradually declined.

The long winter is finally over. This place is close to the Death Swamp. Hawkins can barely buy some potatoes to survive in the winter. When the entire famine comes, the orc tribe on the edge of the Death Swamp is considered the happiest. In that swamp full of unknown dangers, there are a large number of cheap potatoes buried, and as long as the orcs are diligent enough, they will not starve to death.

But this good thing turns into a nightmare after the arrival of spring. The strongest corpse wave in the past ten years broke out in the Death Swamp. The corpse wave swept across the entire edge of the Death Swamp. Originally, each tribe sent their best hunters to the depths of the wilderness to hunt the devil antelope. It was at this juncture that , the corpse tide is coming.

These tribes on the edge of the swamp were originally very experienced in fighting these undead creatures. However, the huge group of corpses caused the teams of many tribes to unite to eliminate the zombies to fail. Smaller tribes were directly occupied by their homes and were forced to leave the edge of the swamp. For example, the Laitu tribe was a tribe that was forced to migrate. one.

For the Beigou Valley quarry, under the attack of the corpse tide, the survival of various tribes on the edge of the swamp is in crisis. Horsens has no source of food. There are more than 300 strong orcs and more than 1,500 orcs in the quarry. The gray dwarf slaves consumed a huge amount of food every day. For this reason, Horsens almost drained his family's wealth and transported all the boxes of magic iron ore he had accumulated to Gurudin Town to sell them in exchange for a large amount of black iron ore. flour.

Soon, the scope of the zombie invasion spread to the surroundings of the quarry. What's more serious is that the only way to the town of Gurudin is full of swamp zombies. These zombies block the road from the Beigou Valley quarry to Gurudin. Town road, inside Hawkins Quarry Although there are nearly 300 strong orcs, a large part of the orcs have to guard the 1,500 gray dwarves. There is no problem in guarding the quarry from being captured by the zombie tide, but we want to open up the road from the quarry to Gurudin. passage, but it is beyond its capabilities.

Before Kuz led the Laitu tribe to the Beigou Valley quarry, Horsens had sent three groups of orcs into the Yelian Mountains to find something to eat, and the coke in the quarry had been used up, and the metallurgical workshop had completely stopped working. . It is also the task of these orc teams to enter Yelian Mountain to cut down trees and make coke, but these orc teams have not returned yet.

In recent times, gray dwarf slaves have begun to fall ill and die one after another because they have been in an extremely weak state for a long time.

When Horsens heard that Kurtz had brought the orc female warriors to clean up the zombies in the swamp, they came from Gurudin. And the purpose of Kurtz's visit this time is to disperse the tide of corpses at the edge of the swamp and build a new home for the Laitu tribe in Drowning Pond. The purpose of coming to Beigougu Quarry is to customize ten large iron pots and a set of special tools.

Horsens sat on the wooden box and finally saw a glimmer of hope in the quarry. He proposed that before Kurtz regained the drowning, he could settle the tribe's old and young in the quarry, and the quarry could ensure their safety. , allowing Kurtz to lead the beast warriors to eliminate zombies without any worries. But one thing is that the current situation is special and you need to prepare your own food, because the mining site itself has run out of food.

Kuz and I both looked at each other with surprises on our faces, and communicated with our eyes: This trip to the Beigou Valley is really the right time. It is safe to settle these tribesmen, old and young, who have no fighting ability here. Problems will arise. The Death Scythe incident has made Kurtz and I clearly realize the horror of undead creatures. For the orcs, old and young, in these tribes, there is really no need to follow our team in fear every day. Once a terrifying ghost creature like the Death Scythe appears again. , if they want to kill a few orcs in the dark, we have no ability to stop them.

"If you warriors want to go to the drowning area to clear out the swamp zombies, I have a gracious request." Horsens said while sitting on the wooden box. At this time, his eyes looked unnaturally towards the center of the cave. In the past, Kuz's maid Asakusa was squatting on the ground in a linen robe, holding up an iron pot, and casually laid the fire-gathering scroll in her arms under the pot, and raging flames suddenly shot out from under the pot. come out.

During this period of time, the beast girls have already become accustomed to using magic scrolls, and they are extremely skilled in using them. Horsens is probably not used to our luxury!

Kurtz coughed lightly, and then asked calmly: "If you have anything to do, owner of Horsens, just say it. As long as our Laitu tribe can do it, we will not postpone it. We can allow the old and young in the tribe to temporarily settle in Here, we are very grateful to the owners of Horsens for this friendship, and the Laitu tribe knows how to be grateful.”

Horsens soon realized that everyone was looking at him. He looked back with some embarrassment and then said to Kurtz: "I want to send a small team to follow leader Kurtz into the drowning pool. Now there is everything that can be eaten in the quarry." The food has been eaten, and I thought that if I could follow you tribal warriors into the drowning pond, I might be able to dig some potatoes in the swamp and bring them back."

"As a reward for this, I will give those ten large iron pots to Leader Kuz!" Horsens finally added.

Kurz soon agreed straightforwardly, and then invited Horsens to dine in the cave. Originally, Horsens refused at all costs. Originally! As the host, Horsens was very embarrassed when he failed to entertain Kurtz properly. At this time, it was even more embarrassing for Kurtz to invite him to dinner.

But soon Kurtz noticed Horsens' embarrassment, so he added: "It's not just about eating, our brothers have other things to discuss with the owner!"

Only then did Horsens notice me, who had been sitting next to Kurtz. However, at this time, the water in the soup pot in the center of the cave had already boiled, and Asakusa actually threw pieces of grilled sausage into it. I boiled some black flour into a large pot of thick porridge, and finally added some meat floss. I also poured all the sweet potatoes brought by Horsens into the pot. My head suddenly grew a few times.

I have always been very critical of Asakusa's cooking skills. This girl is good at everything. She is above average in appearance, but has a great figure. I can accept her silent personality. I am used to Leng's poker face, but for her I was absolutely intimidated by my cooking skills. I really don’t know how Kuz survived this period of time. When I saw the big pot of pig food-like batter porridge in the center of the cave, I didn’t even have the courage to take a bite.

Instead, the orcs from the quarry beside Horsens stared at the iron pot with the smell of meat, and kept swallowing saliva from their stomachs.

"Just in time, I asked the owner to eat some. We still have black flour with us. Although it is not much, it is enough to eat. We can give some to the owner. Our brothers also want to ask the owner to help make some. Set the tools and let Jia tell you later." Kuz was the first to take the big wooden bowl handed over by Asakusa. When I saw the bowl full of dark batter, my face turned green.

I quickly stood up and said to Kurtz: "I'm going to get the drawings!"

Without waiting for Kurtz to reply, he ran out of the cave in a hurry. After deliberately dilly-dallying for a long time, I returned to Kuz with a roll of parchment. Sure enough, this terrifying dark meal was over. Seeing that all the batter and porridge in the iron pot had been eaten, I secretly thought Fortunately I escaped this disaster.

At this time, the orcs around Horsens seemed to be sitting there so much that they could not even speak. They were licking their bellies and did not dare to bend down. Horsens was scolding these orcs in anger when he saw me walking in. I felt quite embarrassed.

Kuz quickly said to Horsens: "Jia has got the drawings back, so let's talk to Horsens about our ideas first!"

Horsens said with some embarrassment: "Although there are some gray dwarf forging craftsmen in our workshop, they are not willing to work with their real skills. These stubborn dwarves would rather dig stones in the mines than Making iron in the workshop. It is not possible to carve patterns on ironware in the workshop at the moment!”

At this time, I have unfolded the drawing to show the sieve-like object drawn inside. It roughly looks like a large iron pot below. Above the iron pot is an iron bracket, and a round funnel is hung on the iron bracket. The bottom part is covered with round holes, and there is a funnel with flat holes on the side. In fact, the tools for making vermicelli are very simple. I just want to customize a large set. Making vermicelli is very simple. You only need to break the sweet potatoes, filter out the starch slurry, boil the starch slurry into a paste and put it into a funnel. The starch paste will flow into the hot water pot below in strips along the holes of the funnel. Take these vermicelli out and dry them, that's it.

The reason why they want to make vermicelli is because the people of the Green Empire have always believed that sweet potato is a food eaten by slaves. This concept is deeply rooted in everyone's heart and is difficult to change. However, there are a large number of sweet potatoes growing on the Pai Plateau, and the tribal orcs in some places will only grow this simple crop. In addition, there are large areas of wild sweet potato growing naturally on the edge of the death swamp. These resources can be used. But it is difficult to turn these sweet potatoes into golden coins.

I was a little greedy at the beginning. During those days when I was freezing in the mountains of New West Asia, I missed the hot potato noodles very much for a while. I remember that in my previous life, I randomly found a small shop and ordered a casserole. In it, a pot of potato flour was boiled with prepared stock. The owner of the shop would put some vegetables, kelp, fish balls, quail eggs, and luncheon meat slices in it. , if you like spicy food, you can also add a spoonful of red chili pepper. The delicious taste is unforgettable for me.

I have never heard of potatoes in this world, but I discovered sweet potato. Although this food is very unpalatable when cooked, it is very astringent. If you eat too much, you will be numb and speechless. But after beating, the starch is filtered out, and the vermicelli made into vermicelli has no astringent taste at all. Moreover, I found that the Green Empire people in Steward Leipaz's caravan particularly loved these vermicelli.

Officially, Kuz and I came up with the idea of ​​making vermicelli. It is in order to realize this idea that we come to drowning.

"This is not difficult! It can be done very quickly." Horsens took a rough look at the drawings I drew. He originally thought that the drawings on the parchment were some magic patterns or other patterns, but unexpectedly it turned out to be strange. Ground cauldron. Although I don't understand the function of this pot, I know that it is not difficult to make.

I unfolded the second picture, which actually shows a round oil drum with a capacity of about twenty liters. The only difficulty is to have a seal and buckle cap, and the oil drum should be made as light and thin as possible.

Seeing the round oil drum, Horsens hesitated and didn't speak for a long time.

Kurtz said directly: "It doesn't matter if you can't do this, Gurudin's blacksmith workshop should be able to do it!"

Horsens raised his eyebrows and hesitated before saying, "It's not that our workshop can't make it. On the contrary, I've done this before."

Kurtz and I looked at each other in surprise, thinking: Could it be that some orcs thought of using this method to hide corpses in fire oil before?

"This bucket is used to hold water!" Horsens continued. "The original idea was to use it to replace the water bag, just like the clay pot. This thing is more convenient than the clay pot. It can It can be burned on the fire. But after making it, I discovered that there was a very serious problem. The problem is that these iron tubes will rust. As long as the water is filled, the bucket will rust and leak in a short time. Later, we also thought about using paint to prevent rust, but in that case, the bucket will be the same as the wooden bucket. There is no difference in the clay pot, but it smells like lacquer."

Listening to Horsens say this, you know that he is a very smart businessman, but he was a little unlucky and did not come up with a way to prevent rust. Otherwise, I guess Horsens' iron barrels would have been all over the Pai Plateau. Every corner.

Kurtz quickly asked: "How much does it cost to build a barrel like this?"

"One hundred and eighty coppers each!" Horsens blurted out without thinking. It seemed that he was right, he must have done it.

Kurtz and I exchanged glances and wanted to discuss how many oil barrels we need to customize when we first start making corpse fire oil.

When Horsens saw the two of us silent, he thought we were too expensive, so he explained: "To make this iron barrel thin, we need to use good mild steel. It will take at least half a day for the blacksmith to knock off one piece..."

"I'm going to make five hundred!" Kurtz stretched out his hand and spread his fingers.

"Uh? What..." Horsens was stunned for a moment and asked in confusion.

I added on the side: "What he means is that he wants to order five hundred iron buckets like this, but he must remember to match the lids. There are also these tools, materials and small parts. I wonder if you have them..."

Then, I handed a list of materials to the owner of Horsens. There were various things in it, including nails, steel bars, shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows, hinges, I-beams, etc., together with the thick stack of drawings. The owner of Horsens was dizzy. Many of these things had never been done before, so it was difficult to price them. The owner of Horsens frowned.

Finally, Horsens really couldn't answer, so he asked tentatively: "Do you want to build a castle?"

"We plan to rebuild the Laitu tribe. Since we are rebuilding, we should simply build it stronger." I replied. Looking at Horsens's hesitation, I thought he was worried about money, so I opened the money bag. He opened his mouth, revealing the yellow and orange gold coins inside, and said with a smile: "We have brought enough gold coins."

Horsens waved his hands repeatedly and said with some embarrassment: "If it is to rebuild the tribal manor, I actually have a more affordable way!"

We both stared at Horsens curiously. The embarrassed quarry owner finally hesitated for a long time before saying: "If you want to build a house, it will definitely require a lot of labor. Why not buy some strong slaves to do such hard work?" , I have a group of gray dwarf slaves idle here. They are very good at building masonry structures. Of course, they are better at mining and forging. If you buy a group of such slaves and go back, you only need to buy iron ore from me. stone……"

As a result, the transaction list with Horsens became 1,300 gray dwarf slaves, blue vitriol crystal sand, the main catalyst material needed to refine corpse fire oil, 500 oil barrels, and a set of pots for making vermicelli. .

Each strong gray dwarf slave is probably sold for more than one gold coin at the trading ground in Gurudin Town. Gray dwarf slaves with blacksmithing skills are worth even more, at least three gold coins. Horsens was probably disheartened. In addition, the quarry was so depressed that he had long thought of selling these gray dwarf slaves. But in such a time of great famine, who would be willing to buy it?

Hosens really can't afford to support these gray dwarf slaves who can eat and sleep. Even if they don't go down the mine to mine, they have to eat at least one mine cart of potatoes every day. But now the orcs in the mining field can't eat potatoes, and these gray dwarves have naturally been out of food for several days.

If Hosens can't find a way to solve the food problem, these gray dwarves will starve to death in the shed soon. This is one of the main reasons why Hosens decided to sell the gray dwarf slaves. Another reason is that the mining field is not doing well. The ore in the open-air area of ​​the mining field is piled up into a mountain.

Kuz and I want to buy some gray dwarf slaves. Now the Laitu tribe is basically composed of beast girls and children. Even if the beast girls in the tribe are strong, they can't replace strong men to work. Rebuilding the Laitu tribe requires a lot of manpower and material resources. It is a good idea to buy some slaves.

Finally, talking about the price of slaves, Hosens stretched out a hand and opened five fingers.

"Ten silver coins each!"

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The cheap price made Kuz finally decide to buy these slaves.

In addition, Hosens promised to arrange for the orcs in the mine to send these gray dwarf slaves to the Drowning Pond, and also gave Kuz some building materials for free, such as the poor iron ore on the roadside of the mining site. Of course, on the way to the Drowning Pond to escort the gray dwarf slaves, we need to be responsible for the food of the orcs in the mine. It must be said that Hosens is really a very calculating businessman.