Craig, under Li De's command, returned to the Dwarven Valley carrying countless supplies.
To rebuild the Lionmane Tribe, this was the mission bestowed upon him by the great Lord Progenitor.
Craig knew well the rules of survival on the Barren Plains. The original Lionmane Tribe had survived by relying on their overwhelming strength.
But after the last war, the tribe had lost that former spirit. He had to come up with another way.
Rebuilding the Lionmane Tribe was no easy task, but no matter the cost, he would see it done, absolutely.
On the third day after Craig returned to the Barren Plains, Li De, having handled the backlog of political affairs, came again to the Dwarven Valley.
It was already mid-September. He had to get the Dwarven Valley onto the right track.
Because once October arrived, there was no telling when the beastmen would launch their invasion.
By then, Dawn City would have no energy left to deal with matters in the Dwarven Valley.
He wouldn't even allocate much strength to guard the Mithril Vein, because the new wave of population plundering would be the most critical operation this winter, nothing else came close.
Everything in Dawn City was built on the foundation of population.
Not to mention anything else, even the faith energy he so desperately lacked would require a massive population to resolve. Otherwise, he would be left guarding a mountain of gold with no way to mine it.
After a month of work, the Dwarven Valley had been transformed beyond recognition under Dawn City's development.
The dwarven city that had once collapsed in the war had now been nearly flattened.
More than a dozen gigantic cyclopes rampaged without obstruction, demolishing the remnants of those structures and excavating huge mining pits, successfully uncovering the Mithril Vein buried below.
At present, the Dwarven Valley had become nothing more than a pure construction site. The cyclopes were unquestionably the main force here, accompanied by over two hundred human miners and several dozen vampires laboring among them.
Bare gray boulders, yellow clay, enormous footprints, it was no different from any work site, except there were no modern machines here.
The Dwarven Valley now showed almost no traces of the dwarven city. Only in the piles of rubble could one vaguely glimpse broken beams and fragments of architecture, hinting that civilization had once existed here.
The city the dwarves had been so reluctant to dismantle had been leveled by cyclopes in their stead.
"Lord Progenitor." Dressed in a black priest's robe, Stanley quickly stepped forward to greet Li De as soon as he saw him standing on the grassy ground outside the site, quietly observing.
After the dwarves and beastmen had been settled, Stanley returned to the Dwarven Valley to oversee everything.
Because of the constant threat that beastmen and dwarves might launch an attack at any time, there had to be someone of sufficient stature and wisdom to hold control over the situation.
Stanley, brilliant of mind, formidable in strength, and a subordinate Li De greatly appreciated, was undoubtedly an excellent choice.
"How goes the development of the Mithril Vein now?"
Li De, clad in a deep blue mage's robe, stood at the edge of the valley, a trace of curiosity in his eyes as he watched the mining teams lined up in long ranks, pushing wooden carts and methodically transporting dirt and rubble outside, like orderly ants.
A look of embarrassment crossed Stanley's face, and his tone dropped a little.
"My lord, the difficulty of excavating the Mithril Vein has far exceeded our expectations. Up until now, the daily yield is still less than ten tons of ore. We've only managed to refine three pounds of mithril."
Li De turned his head, somewhat startled. Three pounds of mithril? A pound weighed about the same as one kilogram on Earth.
After a month, with Dawn City's massive support, they'd only refined three pounds of mithril??
Though mithril was unimaginably precious and scarce, this yield was utterly disproportionate to their investment.
Thirty pounds, now that would be more acceptable.
"Have you encountered any specific obstacles?"
"Our manpower is far too limited, and the Mithril Vein itself is extremely hard. Ordinary human miners simply can't dig into the ore. We can only rely on the cyclopes' great strength.
And the vein is buried deep underground. We must first clear away enormous quantities of dirt and rubble before we can even begin mining the ore.
At present, the human miners can only clear the soil and rock. Only the cyclopes can perform the actual mining.
And because the excavated pit is too small, there's only room for two cyclopes to work inside at a time."
Hearing this, Li De's expression darkened. Of all the variables he'd considered, he hadn't accounted for the problem being simply that the ore was too hard to dig.
You've got to be kidding me, reality truly is the master playwright.
The absurdity of this cause made his eyelid twitch.
"Have you thought of any solutions?"
Stanley looked even more awkward.
"Unless we deploy a large number of professionals, at least Level 5 warriors, to mine, even if all the cyclopes could dig, it would still be nearly impossible to increase the efficiency."
Li De shook his head.
At present, Dawn City did not lack high-end combat strength, he even had an 18th-level bone dragon and wouldn't flinch from a battle.
But Dawn City's foundation was extremely fragile. A normal power should grow in a pyramid shape.
The lower tiers should far outnumber the upper.
But because he'd expanded so quickly, the base combat strength of Dawn City was pitifully few. Only the few hundred vampires and the newly-formed Blade of Kings force of six hundred humans could be counted as the baseline troops.
But these basic forces were in extreme imbalance with the high-end power he commanded.
If Li De had to engage the enemy in a clash of elites, he would not be afraid in the slightest. But when it came to things that required a deep foundation like this, he was thoroughly vexed.
Where was he supposed to find several hundred Level 5 or higher professionals to mine here?
Dark Pact did have some, but there was no way he would let those uncontrollable forces anywhere near the Mithril Vein. And unless those underground organizations were insane, none of them would agree to do manual mining labor anyway.