Chapter 747 The First Treasure
“Impossible.” Jihalin shook his head firmly and said, “The vein sealing technique is mainly for mineral veins. It only makes the state of objects constant, and it does not mean that time is real. The passage of time has been stagnated, and the creatures sealed within it will remain unchanged while the seal lasts. However, when the seal is lifted, time will change in an instant.
The moment the seal was lifted was also the moment they died.
During the seal, they were still and even unconscious, so there was no sense in doing so. The meaning of time.
Whether it is the past or the future, time is the most difficult to span.
Not the craziest person would dare to attempt this easily. "
Gavin nodded involuntarily. He understood this deeply, because he was the madman who tried to travel through time. Even with the protection of the Tears of Selun and the Starry Sky Gate as the road, he was still After many twists and turns, I almost failed.
"It's useless to guess. Just go and take a look. Maybe it's an automatic mining equipment made by the dwarves here. When the seal here is lifted, it automatically enters operation. "Yuriu, the leader of the gray dwarves, is a practical man and took the lead to walk deeper into the passage.
"It's not impossible. "Everyone nodded involuntarily. If it were purely mechanical equipment, it would make sense.
If there is no corrosion, oxidation, etc., even if time comes to knock on the door, steel and other materials will not Will be affected by anything, only those flesh and blood cannot withstand the pure blow of time
"Stone thorns? So many stone thorns!"
"Can stone thorns grow so big?"
"Ordinary stone thorns definitely cannot grow so big, but don't forget this. Where is it? The law of enlargement on the Giant Plains can also be enveloped here. If it becomes huge, wouldn't it be super? It's huge!"
"The reason why the passage here is so huge is not just for the giants, but it was left over from their mining process."
"That's not right. , Stone Thorns are elemental creatures, not bloodline creatures, can enlargement also take effect on them? ”
"This comes from the level of laws and is not from blood. It is not surprising that it can take effect on elemental creatures."
"I didn't expect that our dwarf mining's use of stone thorns can be reversed. The era of High Shanatar."
"The High Shanatar is known as the most glorious era of the Northland dwarves, not without reason."
"Congratulations, Lord, this is what you dug. The first treasure of the Supreme Shanatar Kingdom has been excavated. You have a group of the best ore diggers who can work tirelessly to mine for you, and what you need to pay is what is produced during the smelting process. Residues and air mixed with metal dust are their favorite food, but you need a group of dwarves to help manage them."
"Can gray dwarves do it too?"
"You need to ask Chief Yuriu about this."
"I don't know about this, because our clan has never used stone thorns. Wait a minute, I can try it."
The crowd didn’t go far before they found the maker of the sound.
That is a very unique creature.
Its main body is like a rough black stone pillar covered with blunt thorns, with varying numbers of hammer-shaped tentacle arms. The least is four, and as many as seven or eight. This is similar to related to their body shape.
These hammer-like tentacle arms are both their arms and their feet, dragging them forward.
They have only one organ, which is shaped like a big empty mouth, occupying the entire front. When it turns around, it is discovered that it is not a mouth at all, but an extremely deep eye, blooming in the depths. The earthy yellow light is even surrounded by tiny blunt thorns that look like eyelashes.
When it stares at you, not only does it not feel cruel, but it feels silly.
The sound Gavin and the others heard earlier was not the roar of this creature called Stone Thorn, but the sound of their hammer-like tentacle arms hitting the wall or ore.
This is not a matter of striking an egg against a stone.
It's the iron ore that's flying around, not the hammer-shaped tentacle arms.
Because their owners are not flesh and blood, at least what is exposed is hard rock, especially the hammer heads of their hammer-shaped tentacle arms, which are extremely hard and sparkle with the green color of steel. grey.
The stone thorns also have different body shapes. They have a columnar body squatting there, about the same height as a dwarf. After the four hammer-shaped tentacle arms are stretched out, they have a medium-sized body that is as tall as an adult.
There is also a body as tall as a hobgoblin, with hammer-like tentacle arms spread out, but over four meters tall.
There are also behemoths as tall as the hobgoblin giants, with wingspans exceeding seven meters.
Their movements are very slow. Even those with as many as eight hammer-like tentacle arms rarely use two to hit iron ore at the same time. However, their power is quite amazing. Even those with relatively inconspicuous medium-sized bodies can It can easily smash down a small piece of iron ore, not to mention those of large size and super large size. Every time it smashes down into pieces.
As if they were unaware of fatigue, they slowly but firmly waved their hammer-like tentacle arms, hammering the surrounding iron ore rock formations.
This is a type of elemental creature called Stone Thorn. Their properties are very similar to those of the earth element. They were born from the earth element plane and have immortal life. Naturally, they will not be negatively affected by the mineral vein sealing technique.
They are often summoned by dwarf spellcasters and bound to the material plane as their own guards or miners. Their temperaments are also very similar to dwarves. They are also hard-working, rough, straightforward, and indomitable. Usually very willing to serve dwarves.
This is basically the biological version of the breaker, and it is a perfect match with the kobold's flutter bomb for blasting and mining.
The deep-buried blasting of Kobold flutter bombs can split large sections of iron ore directly from the rock mass. However, due to the difficulty of crushing and problems with loading and transportation, many times they have to sacrifice the number of blasts at one time and instead Spend more blasting energy crushing iron ore.
With this group of stone thorns of different models, there is no need to worry about this.
The blasting ability of the flutter bomb can be brought into full play. Large pieces of iron ore can be broken to a satisfactory level by using large stone thorns and small pieces by small ones. .
Compared to smashing iron ore directly from the iron ore mine wall, the shape of the stone spines is better at crushing the mined ore.
If coupled with multi-section rail cars and large forklifts, a modern underground iron ore mining system will be complete.
At that time, the annual output will not be one million tons, but the monthly output will be one million tons.
Gavin couldn't help but launch Dragon Vision on the super large stone thorn closest to him.
Hit Dice: 160 (12D8+108)
Size: Extra Large
Moving Speed: 4 km/h (running 12 km/h, sprinting 20 km/h) hours)
Attributes: Strength 28, Agility 6, Constitution 28, Intelligence 6, Perception 13, Charisma 13
Elemental Creature Trait (Special Ability) - Stone Thorn is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis and stunning effects, it will not If it is hit hard or flanked, it can neither be resurrected nor resurrected. It has dark vision of 18 meters.
Incoordination (Special Ability) - Stone Thorn has extremely poor body coordination and uneven distribution of tentacle arms. It cannot use more than 50% of its body's arms to attack at the same time, but it can attack at different times. While moving, launch attacks in multiple directions.
Shocking and Shattering (Special Ability) - Extraordinary strength reward. The stone thorn's hammer hits with a strange tremor, which can crush and disintegrate the target from the inside. If it hits a creature, it will easily cause broken bones and internal organs. Ruptured internal injuries, hit objects, especially stone objects, they will be more likely to break apart from the inside, all damage is maximized.
Stone Body (Special Ability) - Extraordinary physical reward. The essence of stone thorns is connected to the earth. When you are on the earth, you will have five points of regeneration ability. Rock collapse will not be fatal to them. Injuries and stone thorns will only be buried, but will not die.
The ability of Long Vision Glasses is not static, but increases with the user's intelligence and will.
When scanning each other, the two sides will engage in a confrontation of wills.
If the enemy has crushing strength, just like when Gavin tried to spy on the six-armed snake demon, he will be directly blocked.
If it is evenly matched, or slightly inferior, you will only get superficial data, which is the case in most cases. If you have a crushing advantage over the enemy, you can get its detailed data. This is the case with Gavin now against these stone thorns.
The oversized Stone Thorn has eight hammer-like arms and a Hit Dice between 11 and 15.
There are six large stone thorns, and the hit dice are between 5-10.
Medium-sized stone thorns have four, and the hit dice are less than five.
Their abilities are simply designed to break rocks and mine, especially the large and super large ones, which all have extraordinary strength and physique. They are all shaken, broken and stony bodies, which makes them There is no fear of the mine collapsing. As long as there is a gap, they can use their own abilities to dig it out bit by bit.
Given the characteristics of their earth elemental plane creatures, it is only normal to have such abilities.
Because the earth elemental plane is an endless world of earth and stone, there is no distinction between up and down, and there is no earth pressure. All states are constant. The creatures living there either have the ability to dig rocks, or they live in various places. In the cave.
Stone thorns are obviously cave creatures.
The inability to be resurrected and resurrected as described by the special elemental creature system does not mean that once the stone thorns are killed, they will die completely. Their soul consciousness is only affected by their original plane (that is, the place of birth). ) picked him up and resurrected him there.
On the material plane, there is naturally no way to resurrect or resurrect (after all, a creature cannot be resurrected twice), but you can use summoning spells, interdimensional teleportation, etc. to remove them from the earth element again. Plane summon or teleport here.
This characteristic is not unique to elemental creatures. All alien creatures, whether they are upper-level, lower-level or elemental plane creatures, have this characteristic. If you want to completely destroy them, you must Their original planes, such as killing demons in the Abyss and killing demons in hell, will only truly die when their life essence is reabsorbed by the plane.
But if someone uses magic or magic to pull them back, they can still be resurrected again, unless they are prevented by special methods, die of natural old age, or they themselves are unwilling to be resurrected.
The speed disadvantage and uncoordinated nature of Stone Thorns destined them to be much more useful in mines than on the battlefield.
Gavin's behavior of using the Dragon Vision Glasses to peek was like poking a hornet's nest. All the stone thorns stopped mining, and all turned around, using their huge, but a little cute His single eye looked at Gavin and the group of uninvited people.
In their gazes, Gavin felt neither hostility nor welcome, but more indifference.
This is perfectly normal. Things like feelings are not simply intellectual behaviors, but are also inseparable from the physical body.
Many times, various emotions in the brain are caused by physical stimulation, such as rage caused by pain, excitement caused by massive adrenal gland secretion, estrus caused by the secretion of male hormones, etc.
Those undead whose bodies have been transformed by negative energy, even if they have their own wisdom, have no emotions. This is especially obvious in people like Estelle and Daphne who have the ability to transform soul into flesh. .
Even if the undead have emotions, they are negative emotions dominated and amplified by negative energy.
Most elemental creatures are composed of various elements, and their emotions are naturally indifferent.
When all the stone thorns fell on Jihalin and the Heart of Regeneration in his hand, the earth-yellow eyes involuntarily softened a lot, then turned around and continued to bombard the mineral layer, no longer paying attention to Gavin and his party. .
Obviously, Jihalin's dwarf identity and holding the Heart of Regeneration were recognized by them, and they regarded him as the new owner of this mine.
Gavin and the others are not yet ready to officially take over the entire mine. Since these stone thorns have no intention of attacking them, they will naturally ignore them and let them mine here on their own.
As for whether their bombardment will cause landslides or other problems, even a layman like Gavin has no worries.
Let’s not talk about the original owner of this mine, but how abnormally the dwarves of Supreme Shanatar reinforced this place - in many places, fine steel is used as load-bearing pillars, not to mention Gavin was stunned to see it. Even the dwarves Jihalin and the gray dwarf Yuriu were stunned.
It is understandable that the cage shaft and high-pressure steam pipes, including those steel gates, are cast in fine steel.
Especially cage shafts and high-pressure steam pipelines, which involve safety issues, so we cannot be too careful and cautious.
But as a load-bearing column in a mining area, it is a bit too luxurious to use fine steel structure.
There is only one such situation, and that is the dwarf mine, which had a serious overproduction. The dwarves would rather use the excess steel as safety expenses for the mine than sell it in large quantities at low prices.
"Damn... a multi-section minecart!"
Turning a passage, Gavin couldn't help but curse.
Because the scene in front of us is no longer modern, but super modern.
This passage is a pure transportation passage, with huge railroad tracks and huge steampunk-style carriages, and you can't even see the end at a glance.
These iron ore carriages are obviously not prepared for dwarves or humans. They are so tall and scary. Next to the carriages, there are tools such as oversized fine steel shovels and fine steel picks thrown in. You can tell by looking at it that it is prepared for giants who are seven or eight meters tall.
Just by seeing the scene in front of them, everyone has already imagined the operation of this iron mine at its peak.
The stone thorns in the mines are responsible for mining and crushing.
Those giant slaves were then responsible for loading the ore onto steam multi-section rail mine cars.
It is transported to the feed port above the Colossus dungeon by these steam multi-section rail minecarts.
The Colossus Dungeon uses the thermal energy of dry hot rock for smelting and forging. The high-pressure steam generated in this process is transported to the mine to assist in production - this multi-section rail mine car obviously uses high-pressure steam as transportation kinetic energy. , those stone thorns also seem to like to use the produce there as food.
Theoretically, elemental creatures do not need food. They can directly draw energy from the earth elemental plane for their own consumption.
However, most elemental creatures have their own food habits, and each creature is different. Some feed on rocks, and some feed on ores or gems, such as the Thor Stone Monster. Typical among them.
All in all, this is a modern mining area that integrates mining, smelting, and forging. At its peak, the output was so high that it was probably ranked among the top ten in Faerûn, if not No. 1.
It is not difficult to understand that those dwarves use fine steel as load-bearing columns.
They can make a lot of money just by selling those batch-forged armor equipment. How can they sell steel?
This kind of steel output is seriously disconnected and unequal to other outputs in the world. Even if they want to sell it, other forces are unable to digest it.
“How do these steam multi-section rail minecarts use steam? You can’t just drag the pipes out from these steam pipes, right? Or is it that the dwarves of Supreme Shanatar forged super large A high-pressure steam gas tank?" Gavin ran towards the front of the mine car hidden in the darkness.
This is what interests him most.
If it is only the former, in a short period of time, its role will be limited to mining in Colossus City.
If it is the latter, its use will be exhausted. It will become an effective power source and push many things into the modernization process, such as steam trucks, steam boosters, etc., even if they Limited by the generation of high-pressure steam, it can only be used for short distances. This kind of transcendental thing will also quickly promote the development of a place.
No one can answer Gavin, because this kind of thing is new to them, including the gray dwarf leader Yuriu.
When they took over the Dungeon of the Colossus, it had been idle for hundreds of years and many things had been destroyed. They did not see this kind of cargo-carrying minecart.
In the past thousand years, although Colossus Dungeon has produced a lot of money, most of the profits have been stolen by the Death Chiefs Council. The dungeon has been barely maintained without much development or change.
As slaves, gray dwarves also lack the passion for creation and innovation, and have continued to do so for thousands of years.
Everyone couldn't help but follow Gavin's footsteps, wanting to see the true face of this behemoth.
(End of this chapter)