Chapter 1376: Mining

There was no way that all the rewards would be given to the elite groups just because they performed well. Lu Li had no intentions from the beginning to distribute all 1000 sets. In his way of thinking, only a hungry dog knew how to bite. If he fed his members too well, they would lose their fangs.

What he considered the most was this first piece of land.

The bait had to be temping, so tempting that it would have the other guild members fighting hard for it. Those who had obtained houses were a good example to show that as long as the members performed well, they would still have an opportunity to be granted a house in the future.

At this point, their Stronghold was only a basic one. As it continued to level up, they would be able to expand the land and have more civilians inside.

There was no way that Lu Li would be satisfied with one piece of land either. At the time before his reincarnation, the major clubs all had more than one piece of land and they gained a lot of profit from their Strongholds.

The elites were capable of making miracles happen, but it was always the normal civilians that revealed the value of things. Most forms of money-making were from services and it was these ordinary players that impacted the gain or loss of the clubs.

After they had briefly settled on the formation, Lu Li found that he had time to spare.

Square Root 3, Shen Wansan, Cat Dad, White Bread and even Wandering, who was always slack, had thoroughly dealt with the management issues. The guidelines and regulations that they had laid out were so detailed and well-written that even Lu Li was impressed.

He had heard of the concept of running a Stronghold, but he understood things at a superficial level. He had no clue about how things actually ran.

Now that everyone had their minds on the Stronghold, no one else really paid attention to the dungeon. The time left wasn’t enough for them to take down the next boss either. Even Lu Li couldn’t really contain his excitement. If he was to go out and level up now, he wouldn’t be in the mood for it either.

There was no need for too much hesitation; what the guild lacked the most at this point were rocks.

Lu Li had found a recipe for a decent pickaxe and managed to create a batch of exquisite pickaxes.

It was the first time that something like rocks were sought after by the players, because they were a concomitant of minerals. They were the sort of thing that weaker players would bring back to gain some copper coins. Most players would toss them right out of their backpacks.

These rocks could only be used to build roads; they were far too small.

Lu Li needed rocks of a bigger size and of a harder quality. That way, enemies wouldn’t be able to do too much damage to the walls with their battle tanks.

Lu Li had seen the giant rock wall from Blood Red War Flag in the past. The size of the rocks that formed the wall was shockingly large. When enemies attacked with their tanks, only small bits or dust would chip off from the wall, and even after two hours, they wouldn’t be able to break through.

The building process was troublesome, but the reward would be great in the future.

Unfortunately, Ruling Sword was still too weak and they weren’t capable of building a wall of giant rocks like Blood Red War Flag. At the same time, Grey Valley had limited resources; the rocks that matched the standard for the wall were scarce.

The giant rock wall by Blood Red War Flag was apparently the result of their guild stocking up their usual rock supplies for half a year.

These large rocks could not be placed into bags. If they wanted to bring them back, they would have to do so manually, either with manpower or vehicles. Vehicles could be constructed through Engineering and the shops in the cities also provided rentals.

Astrana provided similar services, but the prices definitely weren’t cheap.

Lu Li wasn’t aiming for something as extravagant as the giant rock wall, but he at least wanted the wall to be able to withstand a few rounds of damage. The concomitant rocks that came with the minerals couldn’t be used; they had to conduct this mining business through professional methods.

After some research and discussion, the executives of Ruling Sword decided to split the process into two parts.

One group would be digging for rocks in Grey Valley, while the other would be exporting rocks from across the map at Stonetalon Pass. Stonetalon Pass was located at the western shore of Kalimdor, south to Grey Valley and Desolace, and north to Mulgore. This was the closest and best possible solution to Night Song Forest.

This place was once a flourishing forest, but the risk investment company began to investigate into it, exploring and mining while they were at it. Their activities changed the scene of the forest greatly; dust now hung in the air and there were dry valleys on either side.

It soon became like its neighbouring location – the Desolace and the Barrenlands.

The Goblins that worked in the Stonetalon Mountains were the best engineers of their race. The inventions allowed them to take down great number of trees within a few months, which drew the fury of Night Elves and Tauren towards them.

Night Elves built camps on the peaks of Stonetalon for little Elves and Forest Protectors to stay.

Most Taurens played the same role; they were being defensive. The Grimtotem tribe had already begun to counterattack these goblins. Some believed that the Grimtotem tribe had used extreme methods to drive out the goblins from their lands, including poison made by the Forgotten Ones.

Of course, if this poison was to be used, it would cause great damage to the goblins.

If Ruling Sword wanted to mine from this place, they would have to pay tax to the goblins. Shen Wansan had used some shiny gems and gold coins to bribe one of the princes of the goblins. This prince provided their exporting carts protection.

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The forces under this prince also joined in with them.

Lu Li promised some stores to this risk investment company – about five or six – but the final number would be settled depending on the location of the stores. Overall, both parties had already agreed to most of the contract.

Besides the permission and protection, this prince would also export unwanted stones from the mine to Lu Li.

Rather than store it up in their mine and take up space, which also would cost them time to bury the rocks again, someone was willing to pay for them with gold coins. The Prince was more than happy to give these rocks out; he could earn at least 2000 gold coins from these useless rocks, and gain stores on top too.

What Lu Li valued the most from this prince was actually the engineers that he had sent out as well.

These greedy but knowledgeable goblin engineers were about to join the construction of the Stronghold and the design of the city. Lu Li hoped that their existence would be of some use to the designing group of the guild.

The players in the guild weren’t all unemployed people in real life. A great portion of them were hired in all sorts of job positions in real life.

Some of them were civil engineers and town planners. Lu Li gathered them and handed the task of building the first Stronghold of Ruling Sword to them. He believed that this was best handled by the professional; he didn’t need to stick around and tell people what to do. Instead, he should do his best to satisfy the request of this team.

Lu Li dug out a few rocks from Grey Valley and brought it back with a few other trading skill players.

The digging wasn’t the hard part – it was the exporting that was troublesome. Roads in the forest weren’t that clear and easy to travel through, and the poor quality of the vehicles rented from the city stores made the situation even worse.

Lu Li really admired those players who persisted without complaining.

It was not hard to tell how passionate they were about the Stronghold. It was as if they didn’t think they were playing a game anymore, but were instead building their own home.

“Lu Li, we’ve got some trouble. There are some unfamiliar faces in Grey Valley who are disrupting our word. Are they sent out by other clubs?”

Rain Like Wanderer and his group of Paladins were patrolling around Grey Valley to protect the players of Ruling Sword.

Usually, Trading Skills players could be attacked.

However, some of the players from Ruling Sword who were bringing in the rocks were also combat players as well. They weren’t protected by the laws of the system and they became the targets of the enemy forces.

“Of course it would be them, without a doubt,” Lu Li said coldly.

“Maybe it’s some small guilds or mercenary groups who are taking their chances to gain some profit,” Rain Like Wanderer suggested.

“In order to bring back more rocks, mining players all cleared out their bags to reduce weight. Even if they died, they wouldn’t drop anything good. What good would it bring for normal players to attack them? They would have to risk suffering our revenge as well,” Lu Li said, then paused and added, “Wanderer, why aren’t you sure? Is it because subconsciously, you’re afraid of them, and you’re afraid that we’ll be up against multiple clubs?”

“Boss, maybe you’re right, but in that case, what do we do?” Rain Like Wanderer asked.

“What else can we do? Don’t worry about it. They’re already behind, and even if they take action, it won’t be of much help for them. They don’t have courage to start a real war with use either, especially if they want to fight near our Stronghold. They would suffer a great loss…”

The leader’s calmness seemed to have settled Rain Like Wanderer.

“What now?”

“We take out their scouts. I’ll have some combat players on guard in Grey Valley and anyone who takes an offensive stance to us will be taken out. We can’t have any threats on our passage of exportation,” Lu Li said, sounding very confident.

He had grown up in a harsh and merciless environment.

Enemies would never give up trying to hurt you just because you backed away. If you wanted others to fear you, you would have to stand up for yourself. He too, was worried about a big war. Everyone was just about to hit level 60, and they were at a great time for development. It would be best for them not to go into war at all during this time. When two major guilds clashed, only the other guilds would benefit from it and surpass them if they fell behind.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of these fleas quickly.”

Rain Like Wanderer wasn’t the type to hesitate too much either.

“If the situation gets worse, ask for assistance from Water Fairy. I’ll let her know about the situation.”

Lu Li believed that no clubs out there would be willing to stand up to three parties alone, not even Glory Capital. Sorrowless was also a rational person.

After he hung up, Lu Li suddenly rose his hands and had his comrades stay put.

“Gather around and stay alert. I feel like something is a little off.”

As he spoke, he entered Stealth, which made his Detection abilities stronger.