"So Kanepali took Arthurs to Homecoming Bay to dig for gold?" Xia Lan asked with a dark face, staring at the somewhat bewildered Maidan.

"That's what Lord Arthurs said." Mai Dan, who was still a child, was obviously a little restrained, and his body unconsciously leaned towards the calmer Soler.

"This old guy is getting wilder and wilder." Xia Lan couldn't help but sigh when she recalled Kan Nepal crying and snotting when she first met everyone.

"Forget it, you two go play first. Remember not to leave the camp." Xia Lan sent the two children away, and trying hard to suppress the sleepiness from not sleeping last night, Xia Lan called Wodek.

"We must have enough ironware. There is an iron mine not far from here. Good and I will explore it. You take care of the camp." After Xia Lan gave Wodek instructions, he called Good and others to prepare to set off.

Now the entire estuary valley is like a small construction site. Tall trees have been cut down one after another, and rows of wooden walls have been erected on the cleared land. However, the progress is still too slow. The main reason is that the tools are all weapons confiscated from pirates. Except for a set of boatman's ship repair tools and a few axes from Kannipal, many people's tools are not suitable for their hands.

Soon, Good came with several fully armed warriors. The battle axe he carried last night had been requisitioned to cut trees, so he had to replace it with a dagger which was quite uncomfortable for him to use.

Also in the team was Arnold's young apprentice Arsen, who was carrying two daggers on his back and asking people to organize the things they needed. He looked much more reliable than his teacher. The old guy was slacking off under the pretext of watching the ship.

Although he is half a wizard, if someone really encounters someone trying to seize the ship, it would be a waste of manpower to protect him.

Following the map left by Kanepal, they crossed a jungle and followed a dry, rocky riverbed, arriving at their destination peacefully.

No wonder Kan Nepal was so eager to build a city here. Not only is the Dolon Mountain rich in resources, but there is also an open-pit iron mine nearby.

After Xia Lan looked around the map, she found that the mine was quite large and the ore quality was very high.

Pulling out the Wind's Call on his back, Xia Lan personally took the lead in digging, and the people around him also started working with pickaxes borrowed from Kan Nepal.

After filling the backpacks with ore, everyone started their return journey under the scorching sun. Halfway through the journey, Xia Lan and Good looked up at the sky at the same time. Arsen, a high-level black iron player, was a beat slower, but also followed their gaze and looked at a big bird in the sky.

"Your Majesty, is that a monster?" Good asked in surprise as he watched the big bird circle around them a few times in the sky and then fly away.

"It should be, but the map Nepal gave me doesn't indicate any monster nests nearby." Xia Lan could only order people to speed up and return to the camp safely.

At this moment, a circle of wooden walls has been built in the camp, equipped with several watchtowers, and several wooden houses are protected inside the walls. The addition of extraordinary people has made the project progress very quickly. For example, a huge tree that requires several people to lift can now be carried by He Li alone.

Entering, a clay blast furnace had been completed, and the master and servant, who didn't like to communicate with others, was instructing Wodek and others to make charcoal.

Seeing Xia Lan coming back, Kahneman went up to him enthusiastically and took the backpack filled with iron ore from him. Varian also led Will forward to pay his respects.

"Your Majesty, Varyan knew that you were going to mine ore, so he built the iron smelting furnace in advance. However, the technical threshold of this blast furnace is very high, so I didn't let anyone get close to it." Wodek saw that Xia Lan's eyes were always on the earthen blast furnace, so he explained.

Xia Lan felt that Wodek was being overly cautious, but then he thought that this blast furnace should be the knowledge of the Varian family, so it should be kept secret.

"Well done."

Although in Xia Lan's eyes this blast furnace was very backward and had no special features except for the well-designed ventilation system, she still had to encourage her subordinates for their active work.

"Your Majesty, this is the best blast furnace designed by our family. Compared with other families, it consumes less charcoal..."

Listening to Varean's introduction, Ciaran just nodded continuously with a look of satisfaction on his face. Everyone thought he was happy for the blast furnace, but Ciaran was simply happy that Varean could do something for him. After all, a person with an aristocratic education was very precious among a group of illiterate people.

"Very good. The Kingdom of Faox thanks you for your efforts." Shaking Varean's hand, Shallan tried his best to imitate the way his former leader acted.

This was very helpful to Varean, and even the old servant Will behind him straightened his back unconsciously.

But what happened next caught them off guard. Xia Lan ordered people to use molds to make rectangular blocks of the remaining mud from repairing the blast furnace and hang them up to dry.

Seeing this, Varean asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, are you making bricks?"

Xia Lan smiled and nodded in agreement. There were bricks in the Atrium World as well, but most people in the Atrium lived in stone houses, so they were rarely seen.

The soil that Varyan found to build the blast furnace was just right for making bricks for building the new blast furnace. With everyone working together, the bricks that would be used in a moment were ready.

But then, when Varyan saw that the blast furnace he had worked so hard to prepare for casting iron was being used by Xia Lan to make bricks, he suddenly became furious. He felt that he had lowered his noble status and surrendered to the other party, but was looked down upon by the other party.

He clenched his fists, waiting to see how Xia Lan would end up if she couldn't make iron.

Time flies, bricks are fired one by one and Xia Lan builds a new blast furnace.

The new blast furnace looks different from the previous one. It is like a chimney with a small head and a big belly. There are two openings in the furnace wall near the bottom, and there are several air vents on the top.

Seeing that the new furnace was completed, Xia Lan prepared to make steel. He ordered people to crush the ore, add lime and water to sinter it, and then put a layer of ore and charcoal into the charging port to heat it.

When the molten iron flowed out, Xia Lan immediately stirred it with a group of extraordinary people, using the steel-stirring method to allow air to enter the molten iron and reduce the carbon content...

The fervent steelmaking activity did not end after dark. Under Xia Lan's command, everyone in the camp had a clear division of labor around the bonfires.

All the steel was made into axes, hammers and other tools. It was already midnight when Xia Lan had used up all the iron ore she brought back during the day.

Varyan's mood also changed from watching the show at the beginning to being shocked, then to being busy, and finally to being exhausted.

Looking at the person who was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he walked into the house, Xia Lan was full of resentment towards Arthurs for leaving without saying goodbye. After all, this could be solved by a dragon magic.

Although he didn't want to rely too much on these things, because everything was built on a dragon, just like building a home on a tree. If the tree fell, everything would disappear.

But it would be too tempting to do so in the stage of primitive accumulation. The more you think about it, the heavier your head becomes, and finally you fall asleep.