The stone walls were quickly dismantled, and some of the raw materials were piled up into stone bricks, while the other part was reduced to gravel and piled up next to the storage area.

This was followed by the Colonial Square in the construction queue, where part of the nanodrones flew to the storage area to replenish materials, and the other part began to excavate the foundations.

Jiang Feng connected to the server of the drone hive through the wisdom brain, and according to the data estimated by the server terminal, it would take about a day to complete the construction of the colonial square in the blueprint, so he took the prospector and began to explore along the map to the edge of the forest.

As far back as he could remember, there was a mountain range between the forest and the swamp of the dead, and that mountain range contained a lot of minerals. It's just that because he was in a hurry to escape from the "crime scene" at that time, and the secret feast was only seven days, he didn't carefully explore the types and reserves of minerals in that area. However, through a rough assessment of the data transmitted by gravitational waves, there should be a lot of high-value minerals.

The construction of the colony requires a huge amount of mineral resources, which if they can be mined on the spot, are naturally much easier than he can carry them from the thorny wasteland bit by bit.

……

"The nest of man-eating wasps...... Can produce man-eating bee honey, danger level 2, recommended to stay away from wizard apprentices below average. ”

Marked on the holographic map with a red circle, Jiang Feng, who was already far away from the portal, continued to move forward.

Along the way, whether it was the nest of monsters or the place where medicinal herbs grow, he marked them on the map, and graded them according to the degree of danger.

In this way, the survival rate of those apprentices exploring secret realms and gathering resources can be effectively improved.

"This time the tide of magic is over, and if nothing else, twenty apprentices should be able to successfully advance to the rank of inferior apprentice. It seems that at the beginning of next year, the second round of enrollment will begin. ”

Not only β colleges, but also α colleges. The colonies in the Garden of Thorns need not only wizards to explore the secret realm, but also personnel in charge of production and logistics, and apprentices from α colleges who have received basic education in natural sciences and can take up their posts with only simple training.

And, when those exoskeletons and automated weapon production lines are built, even the apprentices of the α Academy will be able to come in handy in combat and exploration.

Crossing the border of the forest, Jiang Feng searched along the edge of the mountain range, and soon found the ejecta, and found a sloping downward iron ore vein under the thick vein.

Reaching out and touching the reddish-brown rock wall, Jiang Feng gave an order to Zhizhi in his heart.

"Smart brain, connect the mineral detector, scan the ore vein reserves."

【Scanning......】

Soon, the three-dimensional model of the entire iron ore vein in the layer was presented to Jiang Feng by Zhi Brain.

Not only that, but at the end of the erupting, there was a fissure that was not lithified. It's like a reservoir of groundwater, except that the water has been drained.

From the closed void of the rock formation, Jiang Feng actually discovered the fluctuation of the life signal, and the most surprising thing was that the frequency of the fluctuation was not weak!

"What kind of creature would live underground without oxygen?"

Jiang Feng's brows furrowed slightly, and after pondering for a while, his eyes suddenly widened.

He suddenly remembered that in the library of the Valland Alchemist Guild, he had read a document. There is a creature called a fire crystal worm that lives at the base of an active volcano and grows along with a sulphur mine......

"Could it be ......" A hint of surprise gradually appeared in Jiang Feng's eyes.

Fire Crystal Worm Lair!

As a special kind of insect, the adult of the fire crystal insect has the length and thickness of an adult's forearm, feeds on obsidian and sulfur ore all day long, and uses lava as water.

This red crystal, often referred to by wizards as the Flame Crystal, is not only a great elemental elixir, but can also be used as a forged fire-based alchemy item.

Normally, this kind of flame crystal can only be seen in the underworld, because the formation of this kind of crystal under natural conditions not only requires a high temperature of thousands of degrees, but also requires an enriched fire type magic element, which has been conceived over hundreds or even thousands of years.

The naturally formed flame crystal is regarded as a treasure by the wizards on the wizarding continent, especially the kind of flame crystal with bright color, pure surface, obvious glass luster, and large volume, which is even more fanatically sought after by wizards who are proficient in alchemy.

In the library of the Vallan Alchemist Society, Jiang Feng once saw from a travelogue that a two-person tall eye once appeared on the wizard continent, and even caused a scuffle between the four wizard towers. After all, with such a volume of flame crystals, it is a waste to use them to create alchemy props, and in the hands of wizards who are proficient in enchantment, it is even enough to build an independent small secret realm of fire-based magic elements.

Looking at how much importance the wizards of this world attach to the feast of the arcane, it is not difficult to guess what a small secret realm means to the wizard.

"Although the flame crystals bred by the fire crystal insects are not as good as the flame crystals grown on the natural veins in terms of quality and volume, they are better than those that can be mass-produced, and they are ...... in conjunction with scientific breeding methods" Thinking of this, Jiang Feng's mind couldn't help but heat up.

In the nano drone building module, there will naturally be no shortage of basic buildings such as xenomorph pastures. Although this kind of thing is generally used to breed and extract protein, it is not a big problem to use it to breed fire crystal insects with a little improvement.

For example, the sink can be converted into a magma channel with heat-resistant materials, and it can even be installed with geothermal wells to use excess heat waste to power colonies and mining stations.

As for where the magma is.

Even the fire crystal insects have been found, will the "water source" that these insects rely on be far away?

In the location of the ore vein recorded on the holographic map, Jiang Feng connected to the server of the nano drone hive, transmitted the map of the entire ore vein, and then selected the two facilities of vertical mine and geothermal energy generator in the list of building blueprints, and after simple adjustments in details, they were compiled into the construction queue.

In order to avoid affecting those fragile fire crystal insects, Jiang Feng carefully set the depth of the mine and the angle at which the geothermal well drilled the heat source.

With the current resource reserves of the colony, it is not enough to build xenomorph pastures, and the top priority is to solve the problem of resources and energy, and then artificially breed fire crystal insects to produce flame crystals. When his apprentices break through the level of superior apprentices, the cultivation of fire crystal insects and the collection of fire crystals can be handed over to them in the form of tasks, and there is no hurry for the time being.

After dealing with these things, Jiang Feng continued to move forward, and after marking all the mineral resources in this area on the map, he returned to the shelter.

At the same time, the good news of victory came from the front line, and after a day of fighting, John led his soldiers to capture the half-elf village occupied by the barbarian tribes, and took control of the portal located in the center of the village.

Now that the entire half-elf village is under the control of the mercenary group, John has someone send a letter to inform Jiang Feng of the news, hoping that he will come to the half-elf village as soon as possible to deal with post-war matters.