Comprehensive network wizard, magic emperor.

Chapter 326 Reshaping the Earth, Magma Engine

At night, the Fungal Forest continues to expand slowly. The Fungal Lord still has 30% of its accumulated magical energy resources available for repairing damage, propagating mycelium, or cultivating fungal people.

Lin Bo has little mushroom oil left and has not yet established a new farm, which has seriously hampered the camp's development speed.

At this time, players in the world channel have all made progress. After all, there are less than 24 hours left before the Chaos invasion. Whether it is relying on powerful local forces, recruiting and buying land and raising troops, or cultivating their own troops, no one is idle.

Many players actively marked their territories on the world map drawn by Lin Bo, making it more intuitive and convenient for them to fight each other or form alliances.

Lin Bo checked the map information and found that there were fewer than ten players in the entire equatorial region who had marked their locations. The nearest unfamiliar player group was more than 1,600 kilometers away.

Ninety-nine players are scattered across the globe, appearing as mere grains of rice on a map. The player numbers are relatively evenly distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with a portion residing in the oceans, supposedly having joined the ranks of a deep-sea civilization.

Before dawn, Lin Bo went to the volcano to collect resources.

The raw materials needed for refining mushroom oil are plentiful in this area, and the light and heat conditions are also quite abundant.

The radiant light received by the forest canopy can provide the high-energy environment required for refining mushroom oil. In fact, this miraculous light energy is even more efficient than ordinary heat energy in converting mushroom oil.

The closer you get to the crater, the stronger the pungent, scorching heat becomes. Thick, orange-red blood flows from the sores on the earth. This blood accumulates, cools, and solidifies beside the lava lake, forming a thick rock shell that rises into a broad mountain. Simply collect it, crush it, and spread it on the fungal carpet to make it a raw material for mushroom oil.

A dozen greenskins followed the mage, carrying pickaxes and baskets on their backs. They fought and broke several teeth along the way.

Collecting igneous rocks doesn't require venturing deep into the crater, as the mountain itself is suitable material. Linbo taught the green skins how to identify the types of rocks needed, and then had them wield pickaxes to dig and transport the rocks back to the Fungus Forest, two kilometers away.

The rudiments of a quarry had already taken shape.

These restless greens weren't exactly excellent laborers, but they were undeniably strong, comparable to industrial machines. Muttering to themselves, "I'll beat you up, Mountain, hehe, beat up Mountain!" they swung their pickaxes with incredible speed.

Despite their mischievous nature, the greenskins are submissive; they'll obey whatever their stronger leader says. The mage is undoubtedly the leader of all the greenskins.

The collected and transported igneous rocks still need to be physically crushed.

After the mechanic listened to the customer's explanation of their needs, he waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need the noisy stone crusher, and said, "Just leave it to the slime monster."

The slimes she cultivated weren't limited to the Mudgold family. As a highly adaptable magical race, slimes possessed exceptional environmental adaptability, leading to the emergence of various variants. The intelligent and resourceful mechanics like the Mudgold family were the product of painstaking effort. Most of the slimes she nurtured were ordinary, clumsy, and clueless creatures.

The mechanic took out a mud monster resembling a gray rock from the interdimensional incubator. It was born with the magical ability to turn fossils into mud, and used the mud to crush rocks into small particles as food reserves.

These slimes and their hosts can form a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, with the former providing the latter with volcanic ash and the latter providing the former with the magical energy needed for reproduction and division.

Thus, the final link in the expansion of the faction was completed. Now a virtuous cycle has been formed: the Fungia Master breeds Greenskin, Greenskin mines, Ooze processes, the Fungia Master feeds back to the Ooze, expands the creep, collects biomass, and breeds even more Greenskin.

The rate of material growth in this biosphere is determined by the availability of light and heat energy.

In the latter half of the night, the exhausted barbarians returned to their boathouse to rest. The mechanics were still busy establishing an aerial reconnaissance system. One after another, communication balloons rose into the sky, carrying remote sensing equipment and small signal stations, patrolling the troposphere and constantly collecting information from the surface.

Lin Bo sat cross-legged under the tree while keeping watch over the green sapling.

He wasn't satisfied with the sunlight he received during the day; since he was in a volcanic zone, he shouldn't let go of geothermal resources.

The fungus's roots have already penetrated the groundwater layer and are gradually drilling through the rock, continuing to penetrate deeper into the earth's crust.

Beneath the volcano lies lava flow that has penetrated the Earth's crust. The closer you are to the mountain, the easier it is to come into contact with the magma, which is extremely hot and full of nutrients.

What the mage needs to do is to divert the magma to the underground of the Fungal Forest, using the groundwater layer as a buffer zone, so that the volcanic ash components rich in minerals can be mixed with the high-temperature hot springs, continuously providing the mycelium with substances and energy.

He conceived the feasibility of the plan in his mind and then began to survey the geology.

"(Mantra) Earth."

Beneath the tree, the giant sat cross-legged, eyes closed and silent, his hands forming a sword-finger seal. He projected his perception downwards, deeper than the soft soil, deeper than the roots and mycelium. Layers of ancient rocks transformed into his muscles, and scalding blood flowed deep within.

At that time, the earth was calm, and the mage's perception continued to extend, as silently as mist passing through water. The entire world, the rocks beneath the ocean, were connected as one, from the poles to the equator, as round as a chicken egg. Deeper inside was a hot and dense heart, with scalding blood flowing between muscles and skin.

Lin Bo resonated with the bones of the earth, and the growth and death of planetary plates felt like the aches and pains of friction and collisions between the joints of his entire body.

He focused his mind; he didn't need to sense the entire earth, just this small area around him. Concentrating his attention, the six volcanoes resembled six throbbing pimples, with blood slowly seeping out. Lin Bo needed to redirect this blood, no longer directing it straight out of the ground, but moving it horizontally, like underground runoff.

Different things have vastly different degrees of compatibility with the art of control.

The earth is compatible with the techniques of solidity, absoluteness, and intensity.

Although the earth's bones are heavy and unsuitable for the lightness and speed of the Flowing Technique, its complex and ever-changing internal forces can be utilized by the Flowing Technique.

The earth itself is also unsuitable for shaping by the art of life, but the folds and fractures of rock strata can be used by the art of life.

Every technique has two sides; ultimately, nothing can escape its control.

Lin Bo knew he was going to do something very difficult, but it was only difficult, not impossible.

He had a clear idea of ​​the construction plan in his mind: using lava as a furnace, groundwater as a medium, and rock fissures as pipelines, he would shape the natural patterns of the rock strata into ancient Dorre runes, and transform the crust of the surrounding thousands of kilometers into a giant steam engine, a massive ceremony.

Doing so would cut off the source of the six volcanoes, which would inevitably affect the magical life forms that inhabit the lava lakes, such as lava bats and fire lizards. However, they could also migrate to the depths underground, as the surface world is not suitable for their survival.

Once his mind was made up, Lin Bo had no more hesitation.

it has started.

In the latter half of the night, the rainforest began to shake, waking the savage in the boathouse. She pressed herself against the floor, feeling as if a trembling giant elephant was beneath her feet, and she herself was like a flea on its quivering skin. The cracking and disintegration of the deep rock transmitted in the form of powerful infrasound waves, terrifying the beasts and killing the crouching tigers and leopards.

A muffled thud resounded, like thunder, but not thunder from the clouds above, but thunder beneath the feet of all living beings.

"Earthquake! Earthquake!" the Mechanist shouted in a panic.

She saw that the mage was still sitting cross-legged peacefully, and the ground around him was completely still. The frenzied greenskins surrounded the giant like chicks in a thunderstorm, some squatting, some sitting, and some lying down fast asleep.

The enormous beasts that dwell deep in the rainforest were agitated by the earthquake. They do not like the night, but they had no choice but to leave their burrows or caves and run around, breaking old trees.

The dust, like dandruff, rose up from the earth, while the night clouds condensed low in the sky, and electric charges piled up into streaks of lightning. An unexpected downpour then began.

The dense canopy of the Fungus Tree above Linbo's head lowered, shielding the monk from the pouring rain. Green-skinned monks dozed peacefully in the rain.

In the shadows cast by the void, the azure light emanating from the giant's body shone as brightly as a Fresnel lens.

The continuous earthquakes lasted from the latter half of the night until dawn.

After the first rays of sunlight fell, the teammates who had been hiding next to the mage all night noticed that the radiance on his body had dimmed considerably.

"The earthquake last night was quite frightening. It must have been the mage who suppressed the surrounding ground, otherwise the damage might have been even more severe," the mechanic speculated.

"I've never experienced an earthquake. Are these kinds of disasters always this long?" the female orc asked curiously.

"Not really. Generally speaking, tremors don't last too long, and there will be a few aftershocks afterward. What happened last night is very unusual."

They whispered to each other.

Lin Bo had already opened his eyes and greeted him with a smile: "Good morning."

"Thank you for your hard work, Master Mage," the Mechanist praised.

"It's alright. The main problem is that engraving runes is quite laborious. The rest can be mastered with practice."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" a teammate asked, puzzled. "What runes?"

"Hmm." The mage saw through the mechanic's misunderstanding but didn't explain anything. He simply asked her not to dig deeper into the ground in the future, lest it disrupt the ritual.

"What? That's hard to understand." The mechanic reluctantly agreed. "You mages are all a bit of a riddle-maker, aren't you?"

A few hours later, the Fungal Forest began a new round of expansion. Every mycelium was bright and beautiful, and the greenskins were constantly fighting, killing, learning, dying, and being reborn. The population of the [Sanctuary] territory entered a period of explosive growth.

(End of this chapter)