Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 49 [Underground City Project]

The rumbling of digging echoed across the Takagrass Plain, mingled with the sounds of orderly division of labor and work, so lively that it seemed completely out of place with the surrounding cold and silent Skeleton Heart Plain.

The vegetation in the central area of ​​the high grassland has been cleared away, leaving a wide open space where dozens of temporary tents stand, hidden by the surrounding tall grass walls.

The two slender, rotting corpse demons wore bell-shaped helmets made of dark bronze. Seven or eight twisted limbs of flesh and blood had been artificially attached to their bodies, with long, dark bronze blades welded to the ends of each limb. The cold, sharp blades danced wildly, slashing wildly like a whirlwind. A large patch of tall grass that was blocking the view and getting in the way was instantly cut down, with an efficiency comparable to an industrial lawnmower.

This was inspired by the scythe-wielding necromancer elites of Rahador yesterday, including the Nightmare Tentacles structure, which was also a construct structure scanned during the assassination of his Reaper elite units.

If Rahado knew that his explosive killing weapon was being used by Samael as a lawnmower, he'd probably be so angry his helmet would explode—anyway, thanks to my dear "ally" for the lawnmower technical support.

Clatter! Clatter! An exceptionally large and burly corpse demon, wearing a bronze bell-shaped helmet and loose bronze knight armor, wielded a sword and shield identical to those of Samael.

Its broad breastplate is cast with a small bronze military drum, and two extra bronze limbs on its chest rhythmically strike the drumhead. The drum sound resonates in the bronze cavity and is particularly loud, penetrating, and even inspiring.

To the steady beat of the bronze war drums, the strange-looking undead emerged from the tall grass, carrying broken, rusty bronze trees, cut-down tall grass plants, and excavated soil and stones, slowly moving the resources that were not needed for the time being to the outer perimeter, making room for work.

Clang! Clang! Dozens of skeletal lumberjacks, wielding massive bronze axes, toiled at the edge of the rusted bronze forest bordering the tall grass plain. The bronze axes struck the rusted bronze bark, sparks flying as they left deep cracks. The properties of bronze weapons and tools destined them to be unsuitable for the living, but rather the exclusive domain of the undead.

Amidst the clanging and chopping sounds, the rusted copper tree slowly broke and fell. Dozens of hard-shelled black beetles, driven by the exiles, supported the trunk and carried it across the tall grass plain, bit by bit, to Samael. There, the copper element was enchanted and extracted, and the resulting Nether Copper was used to create more tools and more enhanced undead.

Under Talia's command and control, the two larval demonic insects began digging and expanding their tunnels, starting from the center of the tall grass plains. However, controlling the two larval demonic insects with her psionic signals was still somewhat difficult. They weren't very obedient, and their digging path would occasionally deviate slightly.

The demon exiles were also of no help in this regard—their psionic signals were too weak to control powerful, high-level demonic beasts like the Earth-Eating Demon Worms. Even with their best efforts, they could only slightly soothe the worms' swaying tails.

Samael extracted two more rusted copper trees and crafted a heavy cage of dark copper, using thick, arm-sized dark copper pillars to imprison the remaining two demonic worms. Everyone was busy, and without supervision, the larvae of the demonic worms might wander around, damaging tents, biting tools, or digging haphazardly, collapsing worm tunnels and disrupting the project's progress.

Under normal circumstances, the Nether Bronze Cage might cause numbness and rigor mortis in the prisoners' joints, and they would be corroded by the cold. Samael was initially worried that the Nether Bronze Cage would harm the larvae of the demonic insects, but it turned out that his worries were unnecessary.

The Earth-Eating Demon Worm was indeed a powerful and robust ancient magical beast. The two juveniles, which were not needed for the time being, only felt a little cold between the arm-thick Nether Bronze Cage Pillars. After gnawing at the Nether Bronze Pillars for a long time, they found that they were too thick to chew and then huddled together and began to sleep soundly.

The exiles were fond of these young demonic insects, and to prevent them from freezing in the bronze cages, they wrapped them in two fluffy wool blankets—though these were quickly torn to shreds by the insects' spiraling fangs.

"Good morning, boss." Yaqi and the two demon architects stood at the table by the tent, holding charcoal pencils and discussing among themselves, drawing on paper.

"Good morning, Archie, and Carson and Steven." Samael put down the rusty copper tree beside him, tossed a batch of dark copper tools that had just been converted and cast to the necromancer lumberjack, and greeted the three demon architects—after spending these days together, he had become familiar with most of the exiles.

"Good morning, Sir Samael." The two architects beside Archie nodded in greeting.

"Is this a draft blueprint for the dungeon?" Samael leaned closer. "Wow! Is it that huge?"

The drawings depict the magnificent architecture created by three architects. The clean and crisp perspective lines piece together a deep underground passage, a solid underground dome and tower reinforced by layers of rock, and a massive underground castle complex.

“This is just the most basic core infrastructure, boss.” Archie looked bewildered. “After that, we need to reinforce and expand the underground dome layer by layer, exploring the strata, cultivating and replenishing the ecosystem, and adding more facilities… Even small underground cities have three rings, medium-sized underground cities have at least five rings, and large underground cities can even reach more than ten rings. The Demon Kingdom of the Rondoran Mountains back then had as many as twenty-three rings, which were interconnected by the core infrastructure of more than thirty medium-sized underground cities, the insect network, and the garden ecosystem.”

Samael's UI went black, and the Dark Copper Helmet nearly trembled and fell to the ground.

It turns out that some things are bigger than I imagined. If I really want to rebuild the "new Rondoran", I'm afraid I could spend half my life on it.

“Okay…we…take it one step at a time, start with a small one, and then gradually expand, right? Nothing can be accomplished overnight.” He struggled to adjust his helmet.

“That’s right, let’s start with the foundation. The foundation is extremely important. If the foundation isn’t solid, the underground city will collapse quickly even if it’s built.” Archie nodded. “The foundation and initial construction of the underground city require a lot of melt-plastic stone and lime concrete—other exiles are driving the Rootballs to build the furnace.”

He pointed to the unicorn root balls running around in the open space—they had used the soil and rocks of all sizes that the demonic insects controlled by Talia had dug out from the insect tunnels to build two large earthen and stone forges, made of a mixture of dried hard soil and rocks.

Seven or eight rotten root balls were filling the furnace with tall grass stalks—the tall grass stalks that the necromancer had harvested with Samael's tendril longsword were being used here as fuel.

A dozen or so exiles were carving runic circuits into the furnace walls with chisels. After the circuits were finished, they burned a rusty copper log in a small furnace and poured the semi-molten copper into the runic circuits. After cooling, a ring of copper psionic runic circuits formed on the furnace walls.

“These tall grasses are also a kind of enchanted material, containing psionic energy, and the flames ignited by them are also psionic flames. Rocks, under the reshaping of specific runic circuits and the psionic energy of the demonic forge workers, and after being tempered by psionic flames for a certain period of time, will produce molten stone—which retains the characteristics of the original stone but is harder, more durable, and stronger, and can be shaped and processed multiple times through tempering by psionic flames,” Archie explained the process.

"The art of fused stone is also the secret to creating high-precision stone carvings and magnificent stone buildings—dwarves also use the art of fused stone, but their magnificence is far inferior to that of the demons."

“The dwarves’ control over psionic energy is clumsy. Although their furnace rune circuits are more refined than ours, without the constant psionic adjustments by the demon furnace workers during the forging process, the craftsmanship is inevitably rigid.” Archie seemed quite pleased with himself.

"Gray concrete is a building material used to strengthen the overall structural strength. It can also be poured into cracks by mixing pre-mixed gray concrete slurry. After solidification, the gray concrete will expand to different degrees depending on the material ratio, which can fill cracks, repair damaged buildings, or, like an expanding sponge, forcefully push an unbalanced foundation back to a balanced state. But all of this requires precise proportions and complex calculations of the raw materials for gray concrete slurry, comparable to the preparation of potions. Therefore, it is best to do it right the first time and not always rely on gray concrete." The demon architect Carson chewed on the charcoal pencil tip, looking somewhat anxious.

"Moreover, if a lot of cracks appear in the building, and we have to plaster the cracks with mortar everywhere to repair them, it will look terrible—the responsible architect will be ridiculed as a 'plasterer'," the demon architect Steven added. "In short, after the worm tunnel is excavated, we'll first send in rotten root orbs to purify the environment, reinforce the tunnel with roots, then transport molten stone, slowly lay the dome along the rock layers, reshape it into a single piece, and then pour mortar to bond and strengthen the structure." Archie pointed to the hemispherical arched dome on the drawing.

"Once the structural strength of the underground dome has passed the test, the vertical holes for the dome's support columns and the gaps in the foundation will be created by the demonic insects gnawing downwards. The crustal rocks and the soil compacted by the demonic insects will be used as natural molds, and molten stone and gray concrete slurry will be filled into them. The slurry will then solidify to form a load-bearing tower-like megalithic column and an integrated foundation."

"Then we will reinforce the foundation and strengthen the overall structural stability—but we need to drill a tunnel deep underground in advance to check whether there are any cavities or cracks in the ground and whether it can support the structural stability of the foundation."

“It’s been tested. No problem.” Talia took off her gauntlets and tossed them aside, wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, and sat down to rest in front of the tent, panting. “Actually, the underground rock and soil layers here are incredibly solid, and the strata below are very firm.”

She wasn't wearing a helmet; her cheeks were covered in sweat and mud, her wet gray bangs clung to her forehead, and strands of wet hair clung to her cheeks. Manipulating the magical insects for high-precision excavation was no easy task; it consumed both mental and physical energy.

Two filthy larvae, covered in mud and dirt, emerged from the ground and circled around Talia.

One of the demonic insect larvae opened its spiraling fangs and lunged at the other, but the bronze limbs binding it to its body pried at it twice, and with a snap, sparks flew everywhere, and it missed its target again.

"You've worked hard." Samael subconsciously reached out to wipe the sweat and mud off her face, but when he looked down, he realized that his gauntlets were covered in wood chips from the rusty copper tree.

“Use mine.” Gwyneth, who was manipulating the Rootball, handed over a handkerchief. “Old Duke has also found a clean water source over in the woods. They’ve already taken the Tree Ghost Monkeys and are carrying water buckets over to fetch water.”

"Didn't you find any groundwater?" Samael asked.

He suddenly realized that he and the undead could work like madmen without eating or drinking, without betrayal or mistakes, executing every task perfectly with absolute coldness and precision. But the living couldn't.

"Living people are a bit of a hassle..." he thought subconsciously.

In the game Oxygen Not Included that I played before, the colonists I controlled also had to breathe oxygen, eat and drink, prevent and treat diseases, build entertainment facilities, arrange rest time, prepare more advanced and delicious food, and boost morale.

If not handled carefully, they may break down under pressure, either crying or vomiting, or even become emotional, damaging critical equipment or betraying important orders. They require patient and sincere care, and detailed planning and arrangements.

Crying...vomiting...stress response...

Living people... are such a hassle...

If they're all undead... He paused for a moment, then threw the strange thought off his helmet.

Would you like to visit my grave...?

Tomb, graveyard, whatever you want to say... a place with only the dead, free from the disgusting presence of the living... We kill all the living... Rahador's words echoed faintly within the helmet.

An immortal, pure realm of the dead.

An absolutely accurate...cold void.

No, no, no. What a joke, he thought.

Living people are great! I enjoy taking care of living people; they are flesh and blood, have emotions, have flaws, they cry and laugh, they argue and make a fuss... Living people... need my patient care.

“There’s a stream of groundwater between the shallow rocks, coming from the southeast, but it’s filthy, all mud, stinking, and greenish. Without the garden’s ecological filtration and decomposition, it would absolutely make you want to vomit.” Talia grimaced, taking Gwyneth’s handkerchief. “To the southeast of here, there’s probably a swamp or something, mostly sticky stagnant water, and insect eggs.”

“Where there are root-rot balls, there’s no need to worry about drinking water,” the beastman and gardener Gwyneth chuckled, covering her mouth. “To find clean water, just follow the root tunnels of the root-rot balls. They dig tunnels to guide dirty water between the plant roots for filtration, absorbing the humus and pollutants, and then the filtered water flows into clean, hard water channels.”

“Follow the root tunnels and dig a few meters underground, and you will find stored water that has been filtered and purified by the rotten root balls—purified to the point that it is safe to drink directly.”

"Hmm?...Oh, that's great." Samael replied absentmindedly, shaking off the strange thought from his mind.

“Samael?” Talia asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I’ll go check on Elder Duke and the others…why haven’t they returned yet, and if they need any help.” He turned and left.

Clap clap! Clap clap! Clap clap clap clap! The resounding sound of bronze war drums echoed across the high grasslands.

The rotting, festering eyeballs of the undead and the hollow skeletal remains watched the Lord of the Nether Bronze stride away, remaining silent as they continued to carry out the orders issued by the Nether Bronze war drums, accompanied by their resounding beat.

"It's good that people are alive," he told himself.

(End of this chapter)