After creating the teleportation crystal, Gale felt a sudden enlightenment.
He could completely conceal the eight open-pit mines, then mark spatial beacons at the mines and open portals connecting to Gale's Tower. This way, after collecting the ore, it could be transported to Gale's Tower for hidden storage.
The only problem with this method was finding an energy source that could sustain the portal. Opening a portal for a short time required a lot of energy, and maintaining it long-term would require an unimaginable amount of energy.
However, this was not an issue for Gale; he had already solved it in advance.
He rode a Proto-Dragon to the eight open-pit mines and buried many Runestones around the ore veins. Once the Runestones were activated, a mist enveloped the ore veins. As long as one didn't enter the range of the Runestones, these open-pit mines would be completely undetectable.
Gale marked the spatial beacons of the ore veins and recorded them in the Asunite Eye Stone. This yellow crystal was produced in Aszuna; although precious, it wasn't particularly rare. The Forging Factory could acquire hundreds of them annually, which was why Gale used it to create Asunite Eye Stone.
Now that Asunite Eye Stone could be used to make teleportation crystals, the Forging Factory needed to increase its acquisition efforts.
Soon, all eight open-pit mines were hidden by mist.
Gale returned to the Mage Tower and began constructing the portal.
He summoned a large number of Earth Elements to dig a basement below Gale's Tower. On the south side of the basement was a stone well with eight empty holes for eight teleportation crystals. Gale would pour Well of Eternity water into the stone well to serve as the energy source for the portals.
On the north side of the basement was a ramp leading to a lower-level warehouse. On the south side of the warehouse was a smelting room, where a large number of magic furnaces would be installed. The two adjacent side rooms connected to the smelting room were warehouses for storing metal ingots.
The basement and underground warehouse took a full month to excavate, and Gale also spent a month in the warehouse.
He set up many isolation runes in the basement and warehouse to prevent the Well of Eternity water's energy from overflowing the basement. After setting up the basement, Gale poured the Well of Eternity water into the stone platform and then opened a portal to the krypton ore mine.
The krypton ore mine was the smallest of the eight ore veins; the sooner it was collected, the sooner the next one could be mined. Gale called Metri and had him go through the portal to direct the Earth Elements in excavating the ore. Across the portal, the effect of the contract was greatly reduced, so someone had to be sent over.
There was still very little Well of Eternity water in the stone well, and the Holy Grail also needed time to recover. Gale was not in a hurry; he would pour water into the stone well once the Holy Grail was full. As the water in the stone well gradually increased, more and more portals were opened.
He successively sent Meijia, Luden, and Antalia out to mine four mines together. He had no extra manpower left. If he wasn't afraid of Yue Nu becoming suspicious, he would very much want to call Sethonis back.
Compared to the few percent of shares, he valued these eight mines more.
Thus, the portal "loot" mining tactic officially began.
Gale remained in the underground warehouse to oversee the situation, while also smelting the ore transported back by the Earth Elements. Rare metals like kryptonite and nether iron smelted very slowly. Gale had no choice but to install an energy device on the ceiling to draw the Well of Eternity energy from the stone well above and connect it to the magic furnaces.
As a result, the smelting speed of the magic furnaces increased significantly.
If there were no external interference, this tactic could be maintained until the minerals were completely extracted.
Unfortunately, after autumn arrived, Yue Nu sent Gale a message, asking him to return to Zul'Saroth for a military meeting.
Gale could only hand over the mining matters to Metri to preside over, reducing the collection of nether iron and krypton ore. These two minerals were valuable but not very useful at this stage.
arcane crystal and thorium ore continued to be collected, as these two metals were the most precious magical metals of the time.
Newly added obsidian ore mining. This metal was rare, and Gale had only seen some among the spoils of war in Zul'Saroth. However, he knew that obsidian was the material the Titans used to create the Anubisath giants, and also the forging material for the Windfury weapon. Both the Titans and Wind Prince Thunderaan were mythical existences, and what they created were also artifact-level puppets and weapons.
Gale would definitely come into contact with the methods for making puppets and obsidian weapons in the future, so he needed to stock up on some obsidian now.
After arranging the mining matters, Gale placed the Sin'dorei Mage Tower's teleportation crystal on the stone well and opened the portal. Lu'anna and Salador needed to frequently purchase items, and with this portal, the two could return to Sin'dorei for shopping.
Previously, they had always ridden Proto-Dragons to Zul'Saroth, but now Gale needed to take the Proto-Dragon with him. This big fellow had been very well taken care of by Lu'anna during this time. Mages worked day and night, making magic bread when hungry and summoning water or fruit wine when thirsty. Therefore, Lu'anna and Salador had always been quite idle.
Salador often used the Arcane Eye to scout from the topmost room of the Mage Tower. This was mainly to prevent Kaldorei troops from entering the mountains and discovering the open-pit mines hidden by the mist.
Lu'anna, having nothing else to do, took the initiative to care for the Proto-Dragon. Lu'anna bathed it every day and then roasted meat for it to eat. Lu'anna's cooking skills weren't great, and the Mage Tower also lacked seasonings, but it surprisingly suited the Proto-Dragon's taste. This fellow was large and not very sensitive to taste, so it preferred strong flavors, requiring at least a few pounds of salt for a single wild boar.
If the Proto-Dragon could choose, it would choose to stay at Gale's Tower. But unfortunately, when Gale glared at it, it cowered.
Over these past few months, some of Zul'Saroth's buildings had been updated. With the help of Sethonis's large-scale mining machinery, the mining operations of the eight open-pit mines were all on track.
Yue Nu had built a small town in the southern Saro Basin and set up a large number of magic furnaces for centralized processing of minerals. Each cart of metal ingots smelted was transported to the river and then shipped by water to Duskwood Forest. Roads had also been built in Duskwood Forest, allowing the metal ingots to be transported to Sin'dorei as quickly as possible.
Sin'dorei first minted gold, silver, and copper ingots into coins, then paid the cost of the metal ingots or circulated them in the market. Previously, there were few coins, and everyone preferred bartering. Now, with a large number of coins entering the market, the monetary function of coins could operate normally.
The mining profits quickly fed back to Zul'Saroth. After receiving the money, Yue Nu immediately began renovation work. At the current pace, it is estimated that in another year, no troll-style buildings will be seen in Zul'Saroth.
Perhaps, its name would also need to be changed.
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