Above the mage!

Chapter 428 Minister Peter

The "commute" time between Walral Bay and Phoenix is ​​still a day and a half.

This time will not change much until the Valar Tunnel is built or the "transportation" is changed.

The biting cold wind swept ice crystals across the silver-gray Valar Mountains, adding a sense of solemnity to the land.

Only a month and a half had passed. When Goder came to the end of Mount Valar near Phoenix again, he could already see a new, dark and bottomless cave with a faint light coming out of it.

This is the Walar Tunnel that is under construction.

On both sides of the cave entrance, there are piles of ice and rock fragments half a person's height, which are waste generated during the excavation process.

Since he was already here and it was on his way, Gao De immediately stopped and prepared to learn about the current construction progress and specific conditions of the Walar Tunnel.

One is curiosity, and the other is that the Valar Tunnel is one of Phoenix's key projects at the current stage. As the king, it is definitely necessary for him to pay attention to and inspect it.

As soon as they saw Gode coming, the northerner wrapped in thick animal skins at the cave entrance immediately knelt on one knee and saluted, "My King!"

His voice had the unique roughness of the North, and was trembling with excitement.

This was his first face-to-face communication with the new King of the North.

Gao De helped him up with his mage's hand, "No need to be polite."

He pointed to the inside of the tunnel and said, "I happened to be passing by and came to see the current progress of the tunnel project."

"My king, I will notify Minister Bird immediately!" the man said hurriedly, with a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Gao De nodded slightly.

He was not here for a secret visit. If he wanted to know the specific situation of the tunnel project, he would definitely contact the "project manager" directly to know more clearly.

Only Gaode noticed the title of Minister.

When he last left the North, Phoenix had a total of four departments, namely the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, the Public Security Bureau, and the Office.

The Minister of Agriculture is Flora, the Minister of Education is himself, the Public Security Bureau currently has only two deputy directors, and the office director is Aisha.

This new minister, whom he had never heard of before, should be the Minister of the Ministry of Construction that was newly established after he left.

This sparked some interest in Gao De.

In the North, the only person other than him who could directly appoint a department head was War Mother Sunaifa.

Getting Sunaifa's approval is not an easy thing in itself.

While Gao De was daydreaming, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded, coming closer and closer.

Then a sturdy man walked out quickly from the shadow of the tunnel.

This person was unexpectedly young, and seemed to be in his early twenties. He had thick apple muscles on his cheeks, small eyes that were narrowed into two curved slits, and fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, making him look as if he was always smiling.

His brown hair looked extremely messy, with some dust on it, and a few strands of hair hung down in front of his forehead.

He was wearing an animal skin coat covered with gravel and gray dust. He showed his not-so-tidy white teeth to Gode and said with a slight breath, "Bird greets His Highness."

His Highness Gao De was slightly startled.

In the North, the Zhenbing people simply call him the King, and generally only outsiders call him His Highness.

In other words, this man who looks extremely young but is appointed as the Minister of Construction is not actually a member of the Zhenbing tribe?

What kind of outstanding talents does this guy have that allowed Sunaifa to promote him in such an exceptional way?
Gao De became more and more curious.

"Are you the new Minister of Construction?" he asked first.

"No, no," Peter shook his head quickly and said with a simple smile, "It's just temporary."

"It's difficult to select people, but the Ministry of Construction is very urgent, so they let me take over first. I used to do this and built a lot of houses, so I have some experience."

"Oh?" Goder raised his eyebrows, and without further questioning, he signaled with his eyes: "Take me to see the situation of the Valar Tunnel first."

"Okay, Your Highness, please follow me." Peter was not shy and led God into the tunnel.

As soon as you enter the tunnel, a cold wind carrying ice chips blows in your face, as if countless tiny silver needles are pricking your face.

At regular intervals, there would be a flash of light, like a light bulb, illuminating the environment inside the tunnel and stretching the shadows of the two people on the ice wall.

It’s not some black technology, it’s just a simple magic trick called “light magic”.

Purely natural and pollution-free.

As they walked, Peter explained the details to Godd: "The construction of the Walar Tunnel has been underway for 29 days, and the tunnel that has been completed is about 250 meters.

But this was because we were not familiar with it in the early stage and encountered many problems that needed to be solved. Now that we are proficient, the construction speed is gradually increasing."

Tunnels are usually built while being excavated. Timely support can ensure safety and avoid soil weathering and loosening caused by long-term exposure of the tunnel after it is excavated.

Of course, Gao De didn't know much about these people. In his previous life, he was just a senior in the mathematics department and had nothing to do with civil engineering.

Gaode opened the Mandorla Magic Eye, took a quick glance, and got another accurate data.

The tunnel is 12.5 meters wide and 6 meters high, which in the past could barely be considered a three-lane tunnel.

But in the north, it can only be used as a dual carriageway.

The reason is very simple. The carriages here are larger.

The technical content of the tunnel construction process is actually quite high. At least with the almost primitive tribes in the North, it is not enough to complete such a high-tech project.

But fortunately, this is a world with extraordinary powers.

Therefore, many technical difficulties can be completely overcome with the help of extraordinary strength.

For example, in environmental survey, although the North does not have high-precision geological survey instruments, it has detection magic. During the excavation stage, [Rapid Excavation] can completely replace sophisticated excavation equipment and blasting technology.

"what is that?"

Gode ​​looked up and noticed that the top and surrounding areas of the rock wall were covered with a layer of grayish-white vines.

Those vines were entwined in the cracks of the ice and rocks like living things. The ice crystals condensed on the surface reflected a cold light, and at regular intervals, there were light blue spots flowing in the veins of the vines.

"The everlasting frost vines are used for reinforcement and support." Peter rubbed his hands and said, "After the tunnel is dug, the biggest problem is how to support and reinforce the tunnel rock wall to prevent deformation and collapse in the later stage.
My first thought was to lay a layer of extreme ice. But the disadvantages are also obvious. As long as someone casts a fire spell in the tunnel to melt the extreme ice, it will cause great damage to the tunnel." "Let's use wood. First, the North does not produce wood resources. Another point is that ordinary wood will easily become brittle in such extreme cold conditions and will not be able to withstand it for too long. Using special wood will be too expensive."

Bird seemed to be a chatterbox. When he heard Gaode's question, he started to talk and tell the whole construction process in detail.

"Finally, I thought of the Everfrost Ivy. In cold environments, it secretes a kind of sticky ice crystals that are very annoying, but the main body is very tough, so we have always used it as waste to bundle firewood or weave baskets. However, every time it sticks to our hands, it hurts, so it is often disliked."

"But these characteristics are rigid requirements for tunnels."

"The sticky ice crystals allow it to stick together rocks. Even better, the colder it gets, the stronger it becomes, and it has extremely strong vitality. If we plant it, the entire tunnel will only become stronger and stronger over time.

Even if someone attacks with a fire spell, the ice crystals on the surface of the vines will block most of the heat, at most scorching the outer layer, but will not affect the internal structure at all, and will not cause any damage to the tunnel. "

"All we need to do is to regularly clear the overgrown Everfrost vines."

"Now, every five meters of excavation, I will have people plant the Everfrost Ivy, and then have the wizard who masters the art of nature to promote its growth. Within a few days, it will grow into a natural reinforcement network."

Peter walked to a rock wall and pulled the vines hard. The ice crystals collided with each other and made a crisp sound. "Look, this Everfrost vine was planted only half a month ago, and now it has grown together with the rock wall."

Gao De's heart moved.

He noticed that when Peter introduced the progress of the tunnel, he used "meters" as the unit.

Putting aside other things, the fact that Peter, as a foreigner, could accept and apply the measurement standards he set so quickly is enough to show that he is a person with strong learning ability and adaptability.

And this is not his greatest advantage.

"Did you come up with the idea of ​​using this Everfrost vine to reinforce the tunnel yourself? And, did you also design this tunnel?" Gao De further confirmed.

His eyes swept across the crisscrossing vine network on the top of the tunnel and fell on the trenches dug down on both sides of the ground road.

The ditches had neat edges and stones at the bottom.

With his experience, he could naturally tell that this was a drainage facility.

The problem is that this is the northern border of an extremely cold land, and most people don't even think about the necessity of drainage pipes.

Bild scratched his hair, which was still stained with tiny icicles. He took out a curled parchment from his bosom, on which was copied the road grid map of Phoenix, and said honestly:
"Not really. The design of the tunnel was based on the Phoenix expansion map you drew. It has a detailed road design structure. I think it can be moved here for use."

"What do you think about these ditches?" Gao De pointed to the ditches on the rock wall and next to the drainage pipes that were much smaller.

"There are some strange lines in the Phoenix expansion map drawn by His Highness. I asked the War Mother for advice. The War Mother said that these are some necessary designs that His Highness envisioned, but the conditions are not yet ripe, so they cannot be implemented for the time being."

Beard traced his finger along the ditch: "I looked around and found these lines on all the roads."

"Although we don't know the purpose of these lines yet, I think the tunnel, as an important thoroughfare between the two places, must also need these lines, so we reserved the corresponding ditches."

Gao De's eyes lit up as he listened.

He finally understood why Sunaifa chose such a young-looking foreigner to temporarily serve as the Minister of Construction.

Whether he is willing to follow the construction team to personally carry out the construction, or is familiar with the project, or makes responses and plans based on actual conditions during the construction process without any experience to refer to, it shows that this is a compound talent who can think and has tight logic.

Especially the insight to transform abstract concepts on blueprints into actual projects, as well as the ability of logical reasoning. Not to mention in the North, even in the entire Nolan continent, there are only a handful of such people.

This is really a treasure!
As they were talking, the two had already reached the innermost part of the tunnel.

Here, twenty Iceborn mages who have mastered the [Quick Digging] spell are working hard to dig a tunnel.

Naturally, they are now the backbone of the Ministry of Construction.

Seeing Gao De coming, they quickly turned around and saluted.

Gao De waved his hand, indicating that they were welcome, and then began to encourage everyone.

Digging a tunnel is a very hard job.

After reading all this, Gaode feels much more at ease.

This peace of mind mainly comes from the abilities demonstrated by Peter.

After the inspection, he rode on the snow wolf again and headed towards Phoenix again.

Peter watched God leave from the cave entrance until his figure completely disappeared from his sight. Then he turned around and said to his trusted men selected from his tribe, "Help me clean up these dirty things!"

The subordinate hurried forward to help brush off the dust and debris on the Bilder's leather coat, and while cleaning, he complained: "Young Patriarch, we northerners are not as particular as you!"

Peter patted his confidant's head and said, "You are the only one who talks too much."

"Your Highness's arrival was too unexpected, and I didn't have much time to prepare. I should have looked okay when I first came out, right?" He thought for a moment and confirmed with his confidant.

"That's great, young clan leader. You look dusty and dirty, and you can tell from the looks of it that you work so hard that you forget to eat and sleep." The confidant nodded repeatedly in affirmation.

"That's good." Peter gave his signature "silly smile".

"But Young Clan Leader, you have the ability and you do your job conscientiously. It's just that you like to be clean. Is it necessary for you to do all this extra work?"

"Ability is one thing, attitude is another. Your Highness didn't know me before and didn't understand me well. If you see me clean, you will inevitably think that I am just talking but not doing anything."

"Your Highness can become the new King of the North, so he must be extremely capable and well-mannered. Even if he thinks so in his heart, he will definitely not say it out loud. After all, I was appointed by the War Mother, and he has to give her face."

"Under this circumstance, I have no way to explain myself, and I have left a bad impression on His Highness for nothing."

He patted his confidant's shoulder, still with a simple and honest expression, and said earnestly: "If you want to get involved in the underworld, it won't work if you have the ability but no appearance."

After a day and a half of traveling, before sunrise on the second day, when the distant sky was turning pale, Gode finally saw the vague outline of the Phoenix under the morning glow, lying across the flat snowfield like a sleeping beast.

The wheat fields on the snowfield have expanded much larger than they were a month and a half ago, and are endless.

The wind blows the wheat waves, and the surging wheat waves seem like the breath of the earth.

The fresh wheat aroma with a hint of coolness hits you in the face, making you feel happy.

Gode ​​rode the snow wolf into the city, passed through the quiet streets, and headed straight for his residence, which was also the core spiritual place of Phoenix.

Stepping into the residence, Gao De took a deep breath, feeling the mellow and majestic magic in the high-level spiritual land. He did not stop at all and walked into the training room impatiently.

Gao De sat down cross-legged and took out the wooden box containing the Dragon Bird Blood Fungus from his arms.

He wants to take the Dragon Bird Blood Fungus and break through to the first level first.

(End of this chapter)