Without any delay, the group of people did not bother to collect the loot in the city, and then followed the assassin to the smelting plant further underground.
After going there, Ren and others were immediately stunned by the sight in front of them!
I originally thought that smelting plants in ancient history should be backward scenes of earth stoves, boilers, and anvils.
Unexpectedly, in front of us was a highly mechanized smelting plant.
Even... more so than a modern steelworks.
What comes into view is a variety of equipment that is no worse than the equipment of a modern steelmaking plant, including large steelmaking furnaces, refining furnaces, hot metal tanks, internal combustion boilers, fuel conveyor belts... as well as complete ventilation ducts and smoke removal equipment. There are also some incomprehensible special reaction devices constructed of brass and rivets.
No one expected that the goblin civilization had such an advanced large-scale steelmaking plant countless years ago. The sparks created by the collision of ancient "alchemy" and "engineering" created such a smelting plant underground with the characteristics of goblin civilization.
If the steel mill of the modern Mechanical City is a dark punk style, then this is an alchemical magic style.
This goblin civilization is already flourishing on another branch of the technology tree.
... .
For laymen like Renn, they just look at appearance.
Only professional mechanics can understand the internal structure and subtle operating principles of these devices.
Seeing this, Mr. Tust was shocked again.
"This... this sword is incredible! These smelting equipment are still so well preserved, and these designs... are simply amazing!"
While he was marveling, he carefully touched the mechanical equipment with his hands, as if touching the skin of a peerless beauty, his eyes full of heat.
He probably hadn't expressed the emotion of "shock" in the past thirty years, and today he let it out.
Goblins are inherently short, and their buildings are small.
But the scale of this smelting plant is surprisingly large.
Ren walked into the factory intuitively, as if he were walking into a steel forest, and he was like a blueprint passing by under a big tree. Surrounded by huge iron lumps, people feel a sense of awe from the bottom of their hearts. The awe of technology, the awe of alchemy, the awe of a civilization.
How exaggerated is this goblin civilization's smelting technology
Renn couldn't understand technology, but his eyes could understand other things.
As soon as he glanced at it, he saw mountains of "iron ingots" piled in the open space of the smelting plant!
These black iron lumps looked familiar. Renn took them in his hands and tried them. They were very heavy. They weighed about 700 to 800 kilograms, but they were half the weight of steel of the same volume. It's ice cold, and feels exactly the same as the shield I touched before!
Ren was not sure and asked the professional on the side, "Grandpa Tust, this seems to be the material for forging shields!"
When Tust heard this, he also used his robotic arm to pick up a few pieces and took a look, and he immediately confirmed: "These are all [Angela Black Iron]!"
"Really are?!"
After saying this, Ren suddenly felt that the black iron ingots in front of him were like a mountain of gold in a warehouse, suddenly shining with golden light!
At first glance, there are thousands of cubic meters here!
It can be said that before the mine was discovered, any iron slag dropped on the ground of the smelting plant could become a sought-after commodity on the black market.
No one expected that there would be such an exaggerated amount of "sacred blood mine"!
This goblin civilization is full of treasures for mechanics. It's like a hamster falling into a warehouse full of nuts, and his eyes glow everywhere he looks.
Tust was really surprised today. He said: "Just this pile of smelted finished products is enough for the first phase of the construction of our mechanical airship!"
After a pause, the old man looked at the end of the smelting plant again and said, "Let's go on and have a look! There must be an ore warehouse and a forge ahead, and maybe there will be more surprises for us!"
... ..
Sure enough, there is also an ore warehouse.
A lot of high-purity "sacred blood ore" has accumulated!
Then, in the forge, there were indeed a large number of large finished shields, as well as some metal objects such as armor, axes, and scimitars. This is the standard equipment created by goblin engineers for their army!
Of course, the most important thing is not these finished products and semi-finished products, but the advanced forging equipment in the "forge".
This even allowed Ren to see the feeling of a semi-automatic mechanized assembly line in his previous life!
Furnaces, molds, mechanical forging hammers, quenching... There are specialized mechanical equipment for the entire forging process.
This allows the goblins to mass-produce various standard equipment without much manpower.
"No wonder I always feel that the marks left by those shields are a bit strange... It turns out they were not forged by manpower at all!"
Tust, a professional mechanic, was also shocked.
The forging mechanical hammering of this era could not achieve high precision at all, and could only complete the preliminary melting and forging process at most. Equipment of superior quality and above must be hammered out by hand.
Now I didn't expect that a forging workshop countless years ago would actually have such advanced mechanical forging equipment. Moreover, the quality of mechanically forged equipment is no worse than that of hand-forged "premium grade" equipment!
But the manpower and material resources consumed by the two are not at the same level at all.
Originally, the group wanted to go deeper, but they all stopped in the forging workshop.
The equipment here really impressed everyone.
Tust took a general look at the forging equipment, which was relatively well preserved, and suggested: "I think we can move part of the forging factory in the Machinery City directly to this mine. Then we will save the distance. There is no trouble in transporting ore. Moreover, the equipment here seems to be in good condition. At least the boiler and other things should still be usable... The mine tunnel, exhaust system, and cooling pool are all ready. This is better than if we build a new large-scale smelting The steel mills have to save so much effort.”
After hearing this, Ren thought for a while and agreed with the old man's statement: "I think it is feasible. This mine is underground and will hardly be affected by Warcraft. Even if there is a zombie tide, the mines are thousands of meters deep underground and have been isolated. Most of the smell has been eliminated... This place can be built as our secret base in Black Dragon City."
Ren and the professionals have said this, so Ymir naturally has no objections.
However, now is not the time to discuss this matter in detail.
Because... Captain Rhine and the others once again sent people to urge them to see the ancient machine that was "still usable"!
... .
Ren and the others walked through the forge, and then he saw another piece of black technology—the elevator!
Although it was rough, it looked no different from the elevators at construction sites in Renn's previous life.
This "Goblin Elevator" has an operating console, and Renn understood the words on it, "up", "down" and "pause". It seems to also have a special energy drive method that replaces the power supply. But that device was broken, or had no energy, and had completely lost its function.
Fortunately, the people who came down before had figured out how to operate it manually and checked it. The structure was still stable and solid.
Then there was a click-click hand-crank operation, and the cage of the elevator slowly descended.
The surrounding temperature is getting lower and lower, as if from an icehouse, and the chill is penetrating to the bones.
Fortunately, everyone is extraordinary, so this temperature change has no effect.
Not long after, the elevator dropped to a depth of about one thousand meters and stopped.
And this is a closed space, surrounded by thick metal walls, like a closed laboratory.
As soon as he came in, there was a prompt tone from the system.
[warn! The absorption of 'Abyss Demonic Qi' has exceeded the host's tolerance, please note...]
Renn looked at the system panel in his mind and raised his eyebrows slightly.
Because, the data panel shows that the concentration of "Abyss Demonic Qi" in this laboratory has reached twenty times that on the ground!
Renn has [Thunder Totem], which automatically absorbs and transforms fighting energy at all times. Even if the demonic energy here is so rich that it exceeds the limit that his body can bear, the increase in his fighting energy here is seven to eight times that on the ground!
"A Holy Land for Cultivation"
As soon as his eyes lit up, he felt such emotion in his heart.
Such a rich environment may be "fatal to poison" to others, but for him with [Divine Healing Technique], it is completely bearable!
Of course, this is not the most shocking thing about this laboratory.
The most shocking thing was the piece of black crystal in front of me that almost blinded me!
As soon as the magic light source is measured, the entire size of the crystal clear black crystal slowly enters the eye, reflecting the bright light.
Is this a crystal mine
Obviously not!
The crystals were brought here and cut into a specific diamond shape. And if you look closely, you will see that those crystals are engraved with mysterious alchemy formations.
There seemed to be some tricky skeleton monsters in the laboratory, but the people who came down first had beaten them into white skeletons.
Tust looked at the black crystals, and then at the operating instrument, and immediately understood what was happening, and said in surprise: "Those goblins in the past were actually making 'magic crystals'?!"
"Artificial magic crystal?"
Ren was also shocked. Magic crystals are the kind of energy crystals inside living corpses. Can those things be made artificially
He took a piece and put it in his hand. It was exactly the same as the magic crystal used to kill living corpses outside.
However, the amount of "Abyss Demonic Qi" contained in these brick-sized magic crystals is a hundred times that of ordinary fifth-level magic crystals!
What are you using this for
Practice
Or... is it energy
Faintly, Ren felt that he had guessed something.
... .
At this time, Tust had already walked over and looked at the machine that was still running and infusing the crystal with black energy.
The old man thought about it for a while and said with emotion: "What a genius design! They actually transformed the energy of 'Abyss Demonic Qi' to supply energy to the alchemy formation in real time, so that it can continue to operate until now..."
Ren's eyes also followed the machine. Apart from the gleaming alchemy formations that were incomprehensible, the overall structure of the instrument was not complicated.
A large cylindrical jar ten meters high (probably made of brass), an intermediate machine with several buttons, then connected pipes, and finally a cabin for manufacturing "artificial magic crystals".
"Eh... that's not right!"
Moreover, after confirming that this was the "Abyss Demonic Qi", Renn instantly thought of another very critical question.
Didn't the "Abyss Demonic Qi" erupt only after the [Black Tide]? The presence of this instrument shows that these goblins have already begun to utilize this gas countless years ago.
What is this situation? "
"Also... doesn't the legend of the abyssal demonic energy come from hell? How come this thing was just picked up from an iron tunnel?"
Renn was not only shocked but also filled with questions.
He had witnessed with his own eyes the "Abyss Demonic Qi" spouting out of the "Eye of Hell" in Coleman's Atrium Tribe before, and Marfa also said that it was a hole connecting to hell.
But now
That strange big iron bucket was set up on a steel frame and didn't touch the ground at all!
This means that the "abyss demonic energy" here does not come from the ground at all, but from the jar!
... .
At this moment, Ren suddenly understood that the so-called "abyss demonic energy" might have been misunderstood by them.
"What exactly is in the jar? An energy-generating device similar to a 'nuclear reactor'? Or is it really like a biogas pool, with fermentation like dada?"
Renn immediately thought of "digester".
A lot of technology in front of me looks very high-end, but is it just the design of a biogas digester
A jar was connected to a trachea, and then the crystals engraved with magic patterns were injected into them to create a large number of "artificial magic crystals".
But now it is confirmed that the "Abyss Demonic Gas" is not a gas from hell, but may be created by certain conditions.
Then, another problem arises.
Now the [Black Tide] has broken out in the entire land west of the Alcoron Mountains, and a large amount of "Abyss Demonic Qi" has spewed up from the ground, and it continues to spew out continuously.
But obviously, there would definitely not be such an iron barrel under such a vast land, or there would be some goblin black technology operating.
The most likely possibility is that the "thing" that emits black gas is not a device that requires external intervention like a nuclear reactor, but some natural substance that can continuously release "abyss evil gas".
Moreover, the "things" in this iron bucket and the "things" buried underground should come from the same source!
What could be contained in the iron barrel that would allow it to continue spewing out demonic energy for countless years
But the black air gushing out from under the "Eye of Hell" covered the entire wasteland. Is there a lot of it underground, or is it a big... big "thing" that's all covered in the entire wasteland
At this moment, Ren suddenly realized that the contents of the iron jar might hide a prehistoric secret.
This secret may explain the origin of the fog in this icy ridge wasteland...