Free Web NovelAfter the Geo-Pulse Sonar Mapper completed its initial mapping, Lord Louis finally decided on the location for the trial mining.
It was a stable rock depression on the west side of the Seventh Mining Ring, with clear sonar echoes.
Compared to the crisscrossing abandoned mine shafts all over the mountain, this area was a pristine land yet to be exploited.
Trial mining commenced immediately, with the process rigorously divided into several stages. Everyone was systematically following the “Operation Deployment Brief” from the Red Tide Lord’s Office.
During the first few days of the construction phase, the entire Seventh Mining Ring was immersed in a tense yet orderly atmosphere.
What moved first were not hoes and picks, but the heavy thud of the Geo-Pulse Sonar.
“Thump—thump—” Low-frequency vibrations spread in circles within the mountain belly. Technicians knelt on the rock, gently touching the animal hide vibration plates, recording each pulsation.
The geological survey team, led by Valentine, took their blueprints and copper wires to re-map the entire mining area.
The old mine maps were long inaccurate. Lord Louis clearly demanded that the mining lines be determined first to ensure basic safety.
Soon, a brand new “Ore Vein Map” appeared on their canvas. Red lines indicated active veins, black lines marked collapse ruins, and blue lines represented areas where water flow, marsh layers, or voids might exist.
“Drawing this map made me realize how blindly those old nobles mined,” Valentine remarked, looking at the blueprint. “This isn’t a mine vein; it’s a trap.”
Kyle looked at Lord Louis, who stood nearby, and couldn’t help but ask in a low voice:
“Lord, this map—” “I know the reason for their failure,” Lord Louis said calmly. “So I must ensure our success.”
Next was clearance. The entrances to the old mine shafts were choked with snow like bone, and collapsed debris mixed with frozen soil, making direct entry impossible.
The artisan team and a group of trained refugees worked in shifts, using rollers, pry hooks, and warming lamps to re-excavate the main tunnel that had collapsed decades ago.
A few young miners tried to pry the frozen rock by force but failed and were soon replaced by experienced artisans who carefully handled the fault lines.
Valentine stood at a high vantage point, directing, sometimes scolding, sometimes nodding, using his seasoned experience to command the scene.
While the mine shaft clearing was underway, infrastructure planning simultaneously unfolded.
Temporary support workshops, miner rest areas, and material warehouses were set up on the ground. Bellows and blowers connecting to ventilation shafts and wellheads were also progressively installed.
Water supply pipelines were reconstructed along the mountain terrain, diverting water to collection wells established in the low-lying areas of the mine, and artisans installed manual pumps for regular drainage.
“Ventilation first, then drainage; only then can we talk about safety.” This was Valentine’s repeated mantra.
The reconstruction of the shaft structure was even more complex.
The old main vertical shaft was chosen as the primary vertical transport channel. Its interior was reinforced with wooden stakes and metal support rings, and a small headframe was erected at the top, equipped with a “hand-cranked pulley lifting device.”
Though not as convenient as large machinery, it was stable and safe enough, perfectly suited for initial operations. Lighting was not overlooked either; oil lamps, phosphorus lamps, and other fixed mine lights were systematically placed along both sides of the mine shaft, bright and durable.
Each miner carried a whistle, signal stick, and handbell for emergencies like sudden collapses or gas leaks.
“Ore is life, wind is lungs, water is disaster, light is eyes,” Lord Louis said at the first internal briefing. “If you can’t secure these four, don’t go down the well.”
Next was the laying of the rail-wheel slide system, which Lord Louis specifically emphasized.
This was not traditional wooden rails or beast-drawn transport, but a new type of “embedded rail slide” module forged by the Red Tide Blacksmiths.
Each section of the metal guide trough could be pre-assembled. Once assembled, only a dozen people were needed to push the cart forward.
Anti-vibration copper pads were embedded between the rail wheels, ensuring almost no noise or jolting during ore transport, making it astonishingly stable.
“This is for the future, not temporary stacking,” Lord Louis had once said.
Kyle once asked, puzzled, “The future?”
“Ten, twenty years from now, it can still transport without manpower,” Lord Louis looked back at him.
As for safety protection, Lord Louis proposed a rare “Artisan-Knight Collaboration System.”
Each mining team was assigned a Knight to wait outside the wellhead. He would not enter the well but would control the bell-rope mechanism.
Upon detecting any anomaly, such as collapse, tremors, magical beasts, or gas abnormalities, he would ring the bell-rope, immediately activating the “Well Evacuation Mechanism,” which would trigger the Knight team’s response and blockade.
Kyle was silent for a long time after hearing this, finally sighing, “Lord, you—you’ve thought of everything for everyone.”
Valentine was more direct: “What kind of Lord is this—he’s treating us like his own sons.”
This entire set of preliminary designs, from geological survey to the slide rail system, from support iron trusses to escape routes, was all personally drawn by Lord Louis and implemented by Valentine and his team.
The two of them almost stayed up all night, poring over the blueprints, unlike other nobles who were high and mighty. They truly used their minds and worked alongside the laborers.
This earned the deep admiration of Valentine, Kyle, and other Starforge Territory management.
Thanks to this, the “skeleton” of this mine was already built before the mine shafts were even excavated.
It was not a temporary labor site but an industrial artery leading from the wellhead to the future of Red Tide.
Once all preliminary construction work was completed, the next step was to attempt mining.
Valentine, leading several core technicians, personally delivered two different types of blasting devices to the front of the mine shaft.
“This is a Tremor Magic Bomb,” he explained to Kyle, patting the metal casing.
“It’s mainly used to ‘shatter’ the rock structure. The principle is similar to old-era explosives, but ours uses magma essence oil combined with a compressed tremor energy core. The shockwave after explosion is precisely controlled, reaching a maximum of three zhang without collapsing the echo well.”
Kyle nodded, his gaze still lingering on another oddly shaped cylinder.
“What about this one?”
“This one is even trickier, a Rock-Piercing Agent Bomb,” Valentine chuckled. “It has a ceramic shell, filled with Fire Scale paste and finely refined cinder iron powder. When activated, the temperature can melt iron sheets into liquid.”
He made a gesture of burning his fingers and then added, “It’s used to deal with hard rock core layers that can’t be blasted through no matter what, or rock sections that need a ‘non-collapsing opening,’ such as near ore veins or at tunnel intersections.”
After a pause, Valentine praised without reservation: “These things are all inventions of Lord and Silco! I think, you didn’t come here to mine; you came to teach the world what a new era is.”
“Stop flattering, hurry up and deploy,” Lord Louis replied calmly, though he didn’t hide the confidence in his eyes.
Before the official blast, the artisan team had already completed the development of the target ore layer’s exploratory tunnels, meaning the horizontal working tunnels.
The already laid rail-wheel slide system in the tunnels silently awaited. The walls on both sides were reinforced with supports, drainage ditches extended to the wellhead behind, and oil lamps lit up one by one along the walls, revealing colors mixed with dampness and rust.
Technicians used red powder to mark clear blasting areas on the rock face, separating the ore-bearing layers from the barren ones.
Valentine and several artisans explained the blast point numbers and ignition sequence.
Blasting officially began.
Tremor Magic Bombs were placed in the disintegration zones, areas with many natural fissures and signs of loose rock layers.
After the devices were embedded in the rock, they were gently tightened with a handheld rock drill, and then the wires were led to a safe point.
Rock-Piercing Agent Bombs were used in hard rock layers and near the main ore vein, combined with stable stakes and gypsum padding to ensure a smooth, non-collapsing cut.
“Multiple points, small amounts, batch blasting, advancing no more than five meters.” This was Lord Louis’s strict rule.
Several artisans nodded to each other and quickly retreated to the rear.
Lord Louis stood at the front of the mine shaft, waving his hand to give the order.
The ignition lines were slowly pulled, followed by a series of low, muffled thuds.
Boom! Boom!
The Tremor Magic Bombs detonated first, shaking out spiderweb-like cracks. The rock layer trembled violently but did not collapse.
A few seconds later, the Rock-Piercing Agent Bombs activated, red light snaking and crawling along the rock face, scorching through hard stone, burning out smooth, mirror-like cuts.
The entire mountain belly seemed to be simultaneously split open by a sharp blade and fierce flames.
After the blasting, before the dust and smoke had cleared, Valentine rushed forward to check the results.
His gaze swept over the four walls: the supports were intact, the rock layers were even, and some rock surfaces even revealed faintly sparkling mineral traces.
“The entire section of the mine shaft is open!” he shouted excitedly. “No collapse, no deviation, the ore vein is exposed!”
Kyle watched, dumbfounded. He stared at that shining line of rock, as if seeing gems opening their eyes from beneath the earth.
“This is our mining process? This is too—” he whispered, unsure how to describe it.
“This is just the beginning,” Lord Louis said calmly. “When the next generation of Magic Bombs is complete, workers won’t need to drill. They’ll only need to recover the ore.”
Valentine grinned from ear to ear, turning directly to the artisans and technicians and shouting, “Did you all see that? This is what civilized blasting looks like! Learn it and engrave it into your bones!”
Applause and cheers erupted like a landslide.
And amidst these deafening cheers, the first batch of crushed ore was carefully loaded into the slide rail cart.
The pulley slowly rotated, and the cart, carrying the newly blasted ore, glided smoothly along the silent track, like a silver dragon heading towards the future, passing through the darkness of the mine shaft and moving towards the initial screening area on the surface.
There, technicians deftly sorted the ore, and waste rock was quickly removed.
And those pieces of ore, glowing with a faint blue luminescence, like the brightest stars in the night sky, were carefully stacked into the “ore separation zone.”
“Look! It’s ore! It’s a real treasure!” A young ore-screening technician’s voice trembled with excitement as he held the ore in his hands, almost jumping for joy.
Kyle rushed over, gazing at the shining ore core, his Adam’s apple bobbing repeatedly, his voice trembling: “We’re rich! We’re really rich!”
At this moment, the entire mining area fell into a brief silence, followed by a burst of fervent cheers; applause, shouts, and laughter intertwined, almost shaking the sky.
They seemed to see mountains of gold and silver in the future, and a bright future belonging to the Red Tide Territory.
This was no ordinary ore; this was a strategic treasure, a fuel countless magic craftsmen dreamed of!
When the raw ore was neatly loaded onto the carts pulled by snowhorn oxen and slowly slid down from the mine entrance towards the transfer shed at the foot of the mountain, the miners and technicians almost jumped up, spontaneously applauding and cheering.
“This is the real miracle!” someone shouted, “We really dug out hope from this abandoned mine!”
In fact, before the trial mining, many people, including some technicians and old miners, had secretly doubted Louis’s decision.
They didn't dare to say it openly, but they whispered:
“Why choose this mine? This place was mined before, but nothing good was found, so it was abandoned.”
“This seam is too deep and too cold; the rocks are harder than iron from the freezing. Even if there was a vein, it might have been frozen away long ago.”
“Does Lord Louis really know what he is doing?”
Some even speculated that this was merely a show by those in power, choosing a seemingly difficult mine to establish authority, and if no ore was found, it would ultimately be the bottom-level workers who suffered.
But now, that piece of dark blue ore lay before everyone’s eyes.
It emitted a soft yet dazzling light, like a silent slap, shattering all past doubts and contempt.
Those technicians who had inwardly shaken their heads now stood silently, their faces red, not daring to speak, just clutching their clipboards tightly, unsure whether it was guilt or shock.
“...It’s actually real.”
“In this abandoned mine, frozen for over a decade—we can actually dig out magma essence.”
Their conviction was not due to orders but because of that piece of ore; it was like a beating heart, vibrant, fervent, undeniable.
At this moment, all doubts vanished.
They finally understood that the young lord, who seemed calmly detached in blueprints and regulations, had already seen a future they could not perceive from the very beginning.
And Louis stood on the distant rock hill, his gaze calm and resolute.
He did not get excited with the cheers of the crowd, nor did he show any surprise.
This was already within his expectations; after all, he held the Daily Intelligence System and knew that the resources of this mine were not limited to this.
For this, he had already made many preparations.
Therefore, what he held in his hand was no longer just a mining pickaxe, but an entire standardized, replicable industrial system.
Louis quietly watched as the magma essence was held high by the technician, and the miners danced with excitement; some even knelt in the snow and kissed the ground.
The pulse of the Starforge Territory finally throbbed with a roar, vigorous and enduring.
And with the successful completion of the first trial mining, the mine tunnel model and blasting process formulated under Louis’s supervision were officially confirmed as feasible.
Not only was the mine vein confirmed, but all parameters such as rock layer stability, blasting model, transportation system, and terrain impact also met the estimated targets.
Kyle excitedly clapped the mine map and shouted like a child: “We can work this for thirty years without changing the pit entrance! This location is simply tailor-made for you, Lord!”
Valentine even directly stated: “If this gets out, those old dogs in the Imperial Capital will have to come to us to learn how to blast mines.”
But Louis was not agitated by this and quickly extended the entire system to multiple sub-shafts of the Seventh Mining Ring.
Of course, after the successful trial mining, the mine tunnels of the Starforge Territory were no longer a bunch of “man-packed” temporary excavations, but officially entered an organized, disciplined, and future-oriented industrial mining phase.
And the first step was the mining area operation system formulated by Louis.
He did not simply copy the common slave system of the world but established a more stable “three-shift, eight-hour rotation system.”
The entire twenty-four hours were divided into three segments, with each shift working eight hours and two hours for handover and record-keeping, ensuring the mine tunnel operated continuously while minimizing human overload and accident risk.
From 6 AM to 2 PM was the “Morning Shift,” 2 PM to 10 PM was the “Middle Shift,” and 10 PM to 6 AM the next day was the “Night Shift.”
Each team was given a fixed composition and temporary changes were not allowed.
Miners had to sign in daily, and those who did not complete their hours would have corresponding wages and food deducted.
Each shift was led by an operations technician team, including one duty technician, one safety supervisor, and two support structure inspectors.
“Won’t this shift system slow down progress?” Kyle frowned slightly when he first learned of the regulations.
Valentine did not answer immediately but looked at the mining teams lining up.
“What if it’s a bit slower?” he said with uncharacteristic calm. “Do you know how mining is done elsewhere? Other mining territories work all day, no rest, no holidays, whipped until their bones show, and still have to go down the shaft.”
He paused, then raised a hand to point at a young miner who was loading tools: “They are young and strong, but can only last five years at most. After five years, they either die from mine fever, get buried in a collapse, or go blind and are thrown into the snow forest as bait.”
Kyle was stunned and said nothing.
Valentine sighed, but his tone conveyed respect:
“But look here, there’s hot water, handovers, and records. Three shifts, eight hours each, not because we have many people, but because—” He looked towards the distant, blasted mine entrance.
“It’s because Lord Louis said, ‘Miners are not consumables, they are people.’”
At this point, he suddenly laughed: “Don’t think these rules are just for show. We’re not just plundering a mine; we’re working for ten, twenty years. If you’re still thinking about digging desperately to go back to the city for a drink—then I’m sorry, you’re mistaken.”
He patted Kyle’s shoulder: “We are building a mining area here, not digging a graveyard.”
And at first, few of those miners believed things would be good here.
Most of them were refugees who fled to the Red Tide Territory in winter. When they heard they were being sent to the Starforge Territory to mine, their first reaction was: “It’s over, it’s slave labor, digging until we die, and no one will care.”
Their previous lives were like living in hell.
They were constantly hungry, their clothes were tattered, and the biting cold wind seeped into their bones.
Their living conditions were even worse: dilapidated shacks made of a few broken wooden planks, leaky roofs, and wind whistling through wall ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ cracks, leaving them shivering with cold at night.
Even so, few were willing to mine, because many had been to mines before and knew that was true slave labor. freewebnøvel.com
There were almost no safety measures, they were so exhausted their bones felt like they would fall apart, no one collected their bodies if they died, and even their cries were swallowed by the wind and snow.
“There, our lives were like grass, trampled upon at will,” a former miner from another territory in the Northern Realm said through gritted teeth.
However, when they arrived at the Starforge Territory, they slowly began to see a difference.
Here, there were people who regularly supervised safety underground, and blasting was carefully calculated, not just random explosions.
The food was much better than what they used to have; they could even eat fragrant, rich meat soup.
The surface dormitories were also very warm, with neat and clean beds, allowing them to sleep soundly even in the cold winter.
Valentine and the technicians often said that Lord Louis himself had ordered to ensure the safety and dignity of the miners.
“This Lord Louis is not like other nobles who only know how to exploit and oppress,” an older miner said, patting his chest, “He truly treats us as people.”
“I never expected,” a young man said in surprise, “I thought this would be an iron cage, but it’s a thousand times better than our old shacks.”
Finally, one day, a miner stood at the ventilation shaft entrance, looking at the snowfield swept by the cold wind in the distance, and murmured: “I really shouldn’t have doubted Lord Louis. At least here, he has given us new hope.”
They had already understood that this was not a slave camp, but their heaven amidst suffering.
