Chapter Ninety-Three: Volcano?
The journey was long, and the number of migrants was great.
After four days of wind, snow, and hardship along the way, Mo Fangyuan and the warriors finally brought the survivors of the three villages back to the valley settlement.
With the resources provided by the Block Kingdom, the situation in the valley settlement was still fairly good, with no casualties.
“Your Most Honored Majesty! Your loyal subjects have awaited your arrival!”
To the migrants’ astonished eyes, the village chief of the valley settlement dropped straight to his knees.
Mo Fangyuan had clearly never told these migrants his true identity.
“The mighty king!”
“The kind king!”
“The benevolent king!”
“The wise king!”
“...”
After learning Mo Fangyuan’s true identity, countless words of praise and blessing came raining down on him like emeralds.
Though he knew these were the migrants’ sincere good wishes, hearing them too much still made him feel ill.
“Great Majesty, when shall we set out?” Rong Huang lowered his head and knelt on one knee, iron axe in hand, asking solemnly and respectfully.
“Everyone is exhausted. We need to rest. We’ll set out tomorrow!”
By rights, it was only noon, with still a long stretch of daylight ahead. If they hurried, they could reach the nearest small resting point, and there was no need to worry about danger after dark.
But who was Mo Fangyuan? He was a poor king!
Magma could provide heat, light, fuel... how could he possibly leave such a treasure behind?
“Would the fellow citizens with blacksmith as their profession please step forward...”
Mo Fangyuan called to the chattering crowd.
Among the block people, blacksmiths were the most awkward of all professions, and in many cases they were hardly welcome at all.
Because monsters spawned in proportion to population, most block people lived in villages with low population density.
And villages had few combat professionals, and their fighting strength was pitifully low. In practice, almost no village could conquer a mine and extract iron ore...
So most villages remained in the Stone Age. A few fortunate ones managed to mine surface copper deposits and barely entered the Bronze Age. Only a tiny handful advanced into the Iron Age.
And villages without iron ore simply had no need for blacksmiths.
In other words, if a village produced a blacksmith, then that block person could not only fail to create value, but would actually become a burden.
In this age of scarcity, every grain of food was precious.
“Great Majesty, we are blacksmiths...” As soon as Mo Fangyuan finished speaking, two short, thin, middle-aged bald men stepped out from the crowd.
They were excited.
Because they had heard that the kingdom they were going to could produce iron!
Iron, no less! Why did blacksmiths exist in the first place? Wasn’t it to forge metal?
As long as they reached that Block Kingdom, they could use their professional skills to contribute, earn food and the respect of others, and no longer have to beg humbly for scraps!
More than life itself, what the village blacksmiths desired most was respect!
For they had suffered far too much contempt and humiliation in the past!
“Everyone, the task of making iron buckets will be entrusted to you!”
Mo Fangyuan bowed slightly to them.
Every laborer deserved respect.
Except monsters.
“Yes! We will certainly complete the task!”
Receiving the iron blocks handed over by the field army soldiers, the respected blacksmiths felt a surge of strength.
To be respected by a king—what a glory that was!
The two blacksmiths, hearts pounding with excitement, carried the iron blocks off to find a workbench. Mo Fangyuan then assigned the field army to patrol and protect the village before coming to the edge of the magma pool.
Glug, glug...
Bubbles kept bursting on the surface of the magma pool, releasing heat.
He had been busy before and had not paid much attention to the pool. Now that he had time, Mo Fangyuan naturally examined it more closely.
According to the villagers’ account, there had originally only been a small pit here, with no magma. For reasons unknown, red liquid had begun seeping up from below, enlarging and filling the hollow.
A few months later, it had formed the magma pool they saw now.
“Suddenly emerged?” Mo Fangyuan looked at the sunken little valley and could not help thinking of a volcano.
Equally sunken into the earth, equally producing magma...
“No way. This is the Block World. There can’t be any volcanoes here...” After scattering the ashes of the mutated wanderer, Mo Fangyuan thought to himself.
By rights, the Block World made no scientific sense, so it should not have something like a volcano, a product of crustal movement...
Glug, glug...
Amid the crackling of magma bubbles, time moved on to the next day.
All the iron blocks carried by the field army had been disassembled by the blacksmiths, working overtime, into iron ingots and then crafted into iron buckets.
A total of fifty-one.
Iron buckets, whether in his previous life’s Minecraft or in the present Block World, were always so distinctive.
Fishing, scooping magma—those were all normal uses.
“Move quickly! Once we’ve scooped it all up, we return to the kingdom!”
Mo Fangyuan did not want to waste too much time.
Dozens of burly men, each holding an iron bucket, crowded around the magma pool, eager to begin.
The magma pool looked oddly pitiful, trapped in the midst of all those men.
“Begin!”
He waved his hand, and countless iron buckets plunged into the magma pool.
Glug, glug, glug...
One bucket, two buckets...
The water level of the magma pool dropped rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, it had fallen by three blocks.
Magma pool: Don't come any closer!
“Switch out. Keep going!”
Such liquid-filled iron buckets took up a lot of inventory space. One bucket of magma occupied a full slot, and everyone present already had belongings on them, so each could store only one or two buckets at most.
“Got it!”
The men in front stepped away, and those behind immediately filled the gap with their buckets.
Glug, glug, glug...
Three blocks, four blocks, five blocks...
After emptying seven blocks’ worth of liquid from the magma pool, the fifty-one iron buckets were finally full.
By then, the magma pool was less than a third of what it had been the day before, and no more bubbles appeared. The surface was eerily calm.
Like a girl in bed after her first night, utterly spent...
“Ah, what a pity!”
Magma pools were rare to refresh; one did not encounter them every time.
If not for the shortage of iron, Mo Fangyuan would have liked nothing better than to pack all this magma up and take it back with him.
“Your Majesty! All is ready!”
“Good! Set out!”
They had already stayed in the eastern region long enough, and Mo Fangyuan had nothing more to say.
Everything that could be dismantled in the valley settlement had already been dismantled. As for the things that could not be dismantled, the Block Kingdom did not lack them anyway.
There were the seven field army soldiers, plus Rong Huang and the other local fighters, making ten combat professionals in all.
Following Mo Fangyuan’s arrangement, they spread out to the front, rear, left, and right of the migrant column, protecting the safety of the people in the center.
“At our current marching speed, how long until we reach the rest stop at the small woodland?”
“Your Majesty, at least half a day!”
In the wind and snow, the footprints of the migrant column appeared densely across the white ground. There were so many that even falling snow could not conceal them.
The spell of good weather that had lasted for a week had finally come to an end. Not long after they left the village today, a heavy snow began to fall.
In the wind and snow, Mo Fangyuan, walking at the front, could not make out the situation of the migrants behind him at all...
...
The valley settlement was now deserted.
Some houses had only their foundations left; the best of them were still riddled with holes.
If Mo Fangyuan and the others were still here, they would surely notice something strange in the middle of the valley.
The magma pool that Mo Fangyuan had emptied was emitting an eerie glow...
It was moving again! It had boiled anew!
As it seethed, the liquid level of the magma rose at an unbelievable speed, higher and higher...
As if, after enduring that sort of thing, some special quality had awakened in a girl...
Until it rose above the pool’s original edge and spread onto the ground.
One block, two blocks, three blocks...
The magma kept rising, swallowing houses, burning trees...
There was not the slightest sign of stopping! It seemed determined to fill the hollow entirely with liquid!
Deep beneath the chasm, hundreds of blocks below, a crimson sphere flickered ceaselessly within the sea of magma...
Mo Fangyuan, far away by many miles, had no idea what was about to happen next.