Early February of the year 3471 of the Holy Light Calendar.
The grasslands in early spring are not lush, and the vitality of the newly reborn earth has not yet fully manifested itself.
A team of several dozen people is marching forward across the land in early spring.
The exploration of the territory, which had been delayed by various matters, finally began, with Linde leading an elite squad to begin their exploration.
This squad, consisting of Astaire, Alice, and 30 Bronze Warriors, is undoubtedly formidable.
As for the safety of the territory, there's no need to worry. No fool would dare to mess with a small village guarded by more than 400 people.
To be honest, although Linde had a lot of confidence in his soldiers, their cautious nature always made him a little uneasy.
Before leaving, Lind found the 20 bronze warriors who stayed behind to guard the camp and gave each of them a signal arrow.
These signal arrows are made using alchemical magic and explode with a dazzling light when launched, thus transmitting information.
It is intended for use in requesting assistance when a major situation arises at the camp.
Linde also ordered his men to temporarily store the food and supplies in the military camp, which was located between the two rivers and faced little defensive pressure. If they were to be overwhelmed, they could retreat directly to the fortress, where the current amount of food would allow them to hold out for a long time.
Only after doing all this could Lin De finally relax; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get a good night's sleep.
At this moment, a soldier ran up and said:
"Sir, we found a path in the distance, which seems to have been left by someone before."
Upon hearing this, Linde opened the map and looked at it, basically confirming the direction of the path.
Linde and his group are currently in the north of the territory, heading upstream against the river. If the previous map is correct, this path should lead to a black stone mine that the lord discovered earlier.
The previous lord relied on the unique advantages of this black stone mine to quickly build a small fortress.
This black stone has a texture somewhat like marble, but it is completely black, with only some impurities and patterns remaining in it.
When Linde first saw the fortress, he noticed that the stones used to build it were all intact, and at least not a junk made of rubble.
This means there must be a mine in the territory, and the output of this mine must be quite high.
Combined with the previously obtained map, this confirmed Lind's thoughts.
Linde and his group followed the path and soon found the black stone mine.
A small hill came into view, with a few abandoned wooden houses scattered around it.
The mine is quite large, with no fewer than 20 buildings. From the outside, it appears that the black stone mine has a large reserve. If I'm not mistaken, the entire hill should be composed of black stone.
After the soldiers searched the entire mine, they found that most of the mining tools had been taken away, leaving only some damaged tools.
Linde even imagined that this place, like the castle, would be occupied by other creatures, and a battle would ensue.
Unfortunately, apart from the animals that had been frightened away, there were no other living creatures in the entire mine.
Linde drew the Blackstone Mine on his newly created map, so that he would no longer have to worry about the stone in his territory, and could even do stone business in the future.
However, these are all matters for later. The most pressing task now is to strengthen the overall power of the territory in order to deal with any potential crises.
Linde glanced at the still-dark sky and gave the order:
"We'll set up barracks at the mine and make this our new base. We'll probably be spending the night here."
"yes!"
Today, we spent a lot of time just traveling, plus inspecting the mine, and soon it was already dusk.
Linde watched the busy crowd and then used the sensory abilities of the activated aura to check the surrounding situation again.
After a round of inspections, nothing was found to be wrong; the startled wild animals and the busy soldiers all seemed normal.
Lin De breathed a sigh of relief; the kind of plot that usually appears in online novels, where mines are always accompanied by wild beasts and undead, did not occur.
Just kidding, this is an open-pit mine, not the kind of deep underground mine where you have to go down to the bottom.
As the soldiers busied themselves, night quickly fell.
Numerous torches illuminated the surroundings, brightly lighting up the entire Blackstone Mine, while the campfire in the center burned brightly.
After arranging the soldiers for the night patrol, Lind returned to his tent.
The makeshift houses at the mine have been in disrepair for years and are on the verge of collapse; they are no longer suitable for habitation.
Linde ordered several buildings to be dismantled and used as fuel and materials for building the camp, which greatly reduced the time required to construct the camp.
Lind cast a cleanse spell on himself, then lay down while still wearing his chainmail.
After a bumpy journey, Lin De was exhausted and quickly fell asleep.
...
In the middle of the night, a thin, dark figure skillfully slipped out of Linde's shadow and quietly came outside the tent, ready to eat the sweet treat he had been craving recently.
Upon reaching the tent entrance, the dark figure looked at the unfamiliar surroundings outside, somewhat bewildered.
"Hmm...meow?"
A cold wind blew through the night, and the unfamiliar scent of the wilderness mixed with the strange smell of earth filled her nostrils, causing the dark figure to shiver.
She circled the tent once, but couldn't smell the sweet scent, so she disappointedly crawled back into Lind's shadow.
It stretched in the shadows, meowed, and then, mimicking Lind's posture, fell asleep.
...
The next morning, Linde got up early, ate breakfast, and went to the place where the horses were tied up in the camp.
As soon as Copperlight saw Linde, it neighed and shook its huge head, as if greeting Linde.
Linde took the feed bucket from the soldier, placed it at the feet of Tongguang, and then took a brush and began to brush Tongguang's fur.
Horse maintenance is one of the basic lessons for nobles; it may not be done, but one must know how to do it, and Linde is quite familiar with it.
After tending to the horses, Lind gathered the soldiers and set off again. Today they were to cross a shallow area to the west side of the river, and then bypass the mountain behind a quarry.
Then continue heading north, trying to find the ancient ruins that might resemble a mage's tower.
Yesterday, while on the road, I had already confirmed through Alice's senses that this ancient ruin was located in the north of the territory, or at least the general direction was correct.
Not long after the group left, they soon discovered a small ferry crossing in the shallows to the west, which appeared to be the ferry crossing the lord had previously used to transport black stone ore.
No wonder the road from the territory to the mine was so narrow and small; it turns out we used to travel by water.
Now Lind understood what the huge open space in front of the castle was for; it looked like the place where stones had been unloaded and processed before.
Unfortunately, the boats at the ferry crossing are gone, and a new one needs to be built to resume transporting stones.
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