On the third day of Murphy's assassination and disappearance, the situation at the Black Flame Pass position could not have been worse.

The Splittals didn't launch a reckless general attack, but the scouting results of both the players and the Elven Ranger showed that the Gnoll's army was in place.

More than 150,000 gnolls and an untold number of kobolds cannon fodder have blocked the Black Flame Pass in all directions, isolating it as a real battlefield island, and even the non-frontal battlefield on the side of Fort Courage has a gnoll army carrying out siege tactics.

Lord Heather and her commanders don't know why the gnolls haven't started attacking yet, but it's certain that the initiative in the war isn't on the Black Flame Pass at the moment.

The lord has been under a lot of pressure these days.

Because while besieging the Black Flame Pass, the Claw Clan also sent kobolds to carry out excavation tactics in other passable directions of the Black Flame Pass.

It was difficult for them to find a tunnel that could be used by a large army, but it was still possible to dig out some sheep intestine paths for infiltration, so small groups of gnolls were already infesting the barren mountain area behind the Black Flame Pass.

There were already some roaming native gnolls here, and as soon as the two sides merged, they became a new threat.

Lord Heather was now glad that there was a troop of Transians on the other side of the Dark Valley who could be mobilized, so she didn't have to worry about the Vanguard being sent to do things from behind the position.

Thankfully, the Warriors of Translancia are as active as ever on the ground.

They still held the first three positions, and were willing to help the warriors in need of help in other positions, and this enthusiasm led many of the retainers to see the Transans as reliable allies.

In addition to being a little greedy and active, these guys are almost perfect battlefield partners, and there are even Hu Congjun who have taken the initiative to ask the player team to temporarily join them for daily patrol work.

As the war becomes more and more dangerous, patrols become more dangerous, and who knows if a group of vicious gnolls will suddenly jump out of a safe place, in this case, there are a few fighters in the team who will go crazy when they see the battle, and their morale will always be locked can put everyone at ease.

At the most critical time, these Transians were able to win the evacuation and call for reinforcements for the warriors.

The best thing is that the war heroes of Translancia are not afraid of death, and as long as they can come up with a good enough reward, the Translancians are even willing to die on their own initiative.

But as their strength continues to improve, the rewards for wanting to hire Transians to die on their own initiative are also rising, but thanks to the steady stream of new warriors who have just passed the Black Iron Trial in the rear, these guys are much cheaper.

In short, everyone on the battlefield knew that a big war was coming, but they didn't really have much to do but rearm and reinforce their positions every day until the boots hit the ground.

You can't leave your defensive position behind and follow the Transians full of explosives to charge the enemy's formation, right?

, what's the difference between that and sending to death?

It was under this oppressive and solemn circumstance that Chen Tou, the honorary president of the Brotherhood of Stonemasons of Translasia, and his two students were invited to the Black Flame Pass, along with the Silver Dwarf Master Builder Ilyich um Warheart.

They came very low-key, but their task at this time was important.

Lord Murphy, who was recuperating from his injuries in a mysterious place, felt that there might be some hidden dangers hidden in the defense system of the Black Flame Pass that had not yet been discovered, so he asked them professionals to conduct a final inspection of the mountain pass's position.

To be honest, Lao Chen Tou felt that this task issued by Mrs. Adele was somewhat strange.

"I've heard that the Black Flame Pass began to be rebuilt after the end of the Fourth Black Plague, and that the Blood Alliance Clan commissioned the digger-skilled brass dwarves to spend almost fifty years building it to its current form, and that someone would repair and strengthen it every few years.

If there is really a problem on the position, it makes no sense that no one has found out for so many years, right? ”

Dressed in an architect's robe, wearing a blade of cold fangs, Lao Chen, with a cane dedicated to measurement, said to his silver dwarf friend who was secretly drinking with a small wine bottle beside him:

"The blueprint of the position was made by your Gaia Temple, and the subsequent inspections were also carried out by Gaia's priests, with the dwarves' keen perception of the power of the earth and your high requirements for the quality of the building, you will not be derelict in your duties every time, right?"

"I've never been here."

Master Ilyich took a sip of wine, and the old fellow, who had been drinking heavily since the morning, said with a big grin:

"But I've heard about the Black Flame Pass, and several of my students regard it as the masterpiece of their careers as architects, and when the Black Flame Pass's twelve-fold positions and various permanent fortifications were completed, the temple did send people to inspect it.

The result was perfect.

My colleagues believe that this line of defense has been used to the fullest extent on the terrain of this mountain pass position, and I also think that it cannot be a quality problem, as the Earth Priests have reinvigorated the position several times.

More than two-thirds of the forts here cannot be destroyed by fossilized mud spells.

Because the gnolls used meteorite magic to attack here in the fourth black plague, the construction requirement given to us by the Blood Alliance Knights is that the defense system of important nodes must be able to withstand the bombardment of meteorites.

That's why our architects connected all the important forts to the mountain, which is what we did when we designed the brass fortress.

But we're all here, right?

By the way, take a look, it should be regarded as a reassuring pill for the brave soldiers on the battlefield. ”

"Well, let's go."

Old Chen Tou glanced at his dwarven friend.

He had to admit that the Silver Dwarf's nearly thousand-year-old construction system on the continent had given him a lot of shocks as an Otherworldly.

While most fantasy-style buildings are difficult to replicate in the real world, certain rules of architecture are completely common to both worlds.

For a man who has been doing this all his life, the opportunity to look at architecture from a different perspective is really precious, so he and Master Ilyich have become true friends, and this friendship is based on the sympathy of the masters.

In addition to being an alcoholic, Ilyich was also very fond of the architectural theories of the Gentiles.

In particular, there are hundreds of storeys of high-rise buildings, whimsical buildings, man-made wonders that are as close as a kilometer to the Tower of Babel, and bridges across the sea made entirely of steel.

I have to say that these things that exist in fantasy in the eyes of the dwarves in the other world, it's not that they can't do it, the main reason is that the technological level of the mainland is stuck in their inability to build similar buildings, and it is difficult to solve the cement problem alone, so you can't use stones to build a Burj Khalifa, right?

The four architects soon arrived at Lord Heather's command post.

According to the agreement between Heather and Murphy, the architectural drawings of the entire Black Flame Pass were taken out, and the stacking of drawings alone was half a person high.

The functions of the twelve positions varied, especially the six positions in the rear and the complex underground structure, and there were basically no duplicate designs, and the four architects had to go through the design drawings of each position to find the problem.

"Just the four of us looking at these pictures, we have to see next year!"

The Chosen Grey Man complained:

"Maybe we should bring an apprentice?"

"You're making trouble! This is a military secret, and if we are allowed to see it, it is already a big face for Lord Murphy. ”

The brick mover next to him was not annoyed, and the chubby architect rationally analyzed:

"The front eight positions don't have any underground structures, just pure ground positions and various fortresses connected to the mountain, and there is no way to make small moves in these places, especially the front five defense lines that have faced the attack of the jackals before.

The fact that the gnolls failed to crush them with meteorite magic shows that the quality of the positions there is excellent.

So, I think we just need to search the underground structure of the rear sixfold position if we want to find a problem.

Teacher, what do you say? ”

"Well, that makes sense."

Old Chen nodded and said:

"Just do it, get this done as soon as possible.

The Midnight Tower is about to be built at the core of one of the main towers and three secondary towers, and this is the first time we have dealt with the problems related to the Mage Tower, and we must rush back as soon as possible to learn this special construction technique.

Can't afford to waste too much time on this matter.

One person is in charge of one position, and Ilyich and I are in charge of two, and we will try to complete the inspection by tomorrow evening. ”

They quickly assigned the task and started with the drawings, but after two hours, let alone Ilyich, even Lao Chen Tou and his students had to admit that the design and construction of these positions were perfect only at the level of drawings.

The architects of the Silver Dwarves designed a fairly simple underground functional structure for the rear position of the Black Flame Pass, and in order to maximize the effectiveness of the reinforcement of the position to hold out during the attack, they not only designed enough underground caves, but also the storage of various warehouses and underground water sources that were extremely important.

The underground water sources are marked as tributaries of the Huma River, the largest river in the Barren Mountains region, and each of them has been filtered by the dwarves to purify the earth, enough to ensure that the gnolls cannot poison the defenders.

According to the various parameters on the drawings, if Lord Heather prepared for battle in full accordance with the requirements of the drawings, the food, supplies and weapons stored in the last six positions alone would be enough for the Blood Alliance Knights and their servants to continue to hold out for more than two years after losing the first eight positions.

Moreover, there are underground passages connecting the six positions to each other, so that when the situation is at worst, the soldiers can quickly transfer through the underground tunnels that extend in all directions.

"I don't see any problems."

The gray man rubbed his aching brows and said to his mentor:

"Aside from the fact that these underground tunnels crisscross like cobwebs, these positions are comparable to 'miniature maquinots' in terms of design alone. It's no wonder it took them fifty years to fully build the position, and given the complexity of the design, I don't think the brass dwarves in charge of the construction were fishing.

They've built a six-fold 'dungeon' in an area of less than seventeen kilometers!

It's no wonder that Lord Heather has such confidence in defending the Black Flame Pass."

"Indeed, the people who designed this defense system are absolute masters, and they have made perfect use of space under limited conditions."

The brick mover also put down the drawings and said to Lao Chen:

"In this complicated situation, mentor, we can't see the problem just by looking at the drawings, I think we should go down to the field and take a look."

"I'll take you there."

Master Ilyich snorted, took out a bottle of flying wine from his psionic bag, poured most of it into his small flask, licked the rest of the wine in the bottle with taste, and then reached out his architect's cane, and said:

"With the Earth Mother Mother Goddess's Earth ritual, I can take you through the underground structures of these positions quickly, but with all due respect, it will take a long time for the four of us to go around all the structural rooms of these positions.

The underground structure includes thousands of rooms, so we can't look at every single one, right? ”

"That being said, but since you've been tasked with it, you have to work hard."

Old Chen Tou laughed and said:

"Let's go, let's go, don't complain. If there is a problem, our fatigue may be able to save more people, which is a good thing to save people, and we can't complain about it.

Ilyich, please go to Fort Courage first, and bring my other student, Samoyalia, with you.

He is different from these two boys who don't have much experience, he has really done big projects, and with his experience, it will be much easier for us to investigate. ”

"Oh, the famous 'Devil's Overseer', I know that the boy trained the foremen of the Maginot Line to be the same as his grandson, and made them both respectful and afraid. That guy is a talent, he will definitely be able to enter the Gaia Temple. ”

The silver dwarf drunkard laughed, waved his cane and jumped forward, and the whole person disappeared into the earth like a native sun, and then jumped out five minutes later and brought it back to Samoyalia.

The big brother of civil engineering and construction was still holding his sleeves when he jumped out, and he looked like he was directing the work on the Fort Courage construction site, but he was pulled by his own teacher.

"Hurry up!"

Samoyed was a respectful man who could not speak rudely to his teacher, but he turned his head and shouted to the two junior brothers:

"After this is done, Lao Tzu has to go back to Fort Courage to continue to build a house with ashes, those gnolls and dogs are simply crazy, and they have surrounded the position in all directions, if we haven't taken care of the main body of the fortress, they can send us back to Valhalla in a wave of charge."

But the fort was built but there weren't enough soldiers to guard it, and it was hell off.

The position I designed could hold at least 5,000 men, but the defenders there didn't even have a thousand, alas, I knew it wouldn't be that big. ”

"You're a spectacle, we civil engineering guys all have such problems, don't care."

The gray man smiled and patted his senior brother on the shoulder, and then several people led by Ilyich used their magic to enter the underground structure of the rear position of the Black Flame Pass.

They didn't look around, but carefully examined the underground structures that seemed to have no problems, and they were fine at first, but as they gradually went deeper into the ground, the expressions of Old Chen Tou and Samoyed did not look very good.

"Stop! Problematic! ”

In the granary on the third basement floor of the ninth position, Samoyed called out to Master Ilyich, who was about to continue his journey, and he whispered a few words to Lao Chen, and then commanded the gray beaters and brick movers to begin measuring the height of the granary and several other buildings.

Ash Man was a little surprised, but he quickly brought back the data.

"It's about 0.2-0.3 meters lower than the height of the drawing."

The young civil engineering brother scratched his head and said:

"This error is still within the acceptable range for such a complex underground project, right? After all, brass dwarves dig down from the ground, and there is no such equipment as an excavator, and it is all up to the dwarves themselves to control according to their feelings.

It's understandable that something went wrong. ”

"It's really within the acceptable range, but it's okay to have an error in one or two rooms, but haven't you noticed that there are basically errors in every room we came all the way from just now?

I didn't say you!

The field experience of the two of you is so poor!

I've been working in civil engineering for so many years, and this house doesn't meet the standards, I can see at a glance, and all the rooms we looked at just now have such errors! ”

Samoyed snapped:

"Even if each room is only 20 centimeters incorrect, the seven-story underground building can be left several meters empty! If you think about it carefully, if the six positions behind you have this problem, then somewhere under this position, there will be an irregular giant hollow that is 7 kilometers long, more than 10 kilometers wide, and several meters high!

It stands to reason that such a cavity would directly lead to land subsidence, but there is psionic energy on this continent that may be able to avoid this extreme outcome, but the underground structure that is hidden in the drawings 'non-existent' is still very dangerous!

You have to find it now!

If you think about it, even if you only use home-made explosives to fill this hollow, once it explodes underground, it will be powerful enough to blow up the entire position into the sky in an instant.

Mistress Murphy is right!

There's a problem with the Black Flame Pass, and it's a big problem!

How has the Gaia Temple been supervised over the years! It's a joke on human life! To be honest, I'm beginning to doubt the value of your so-called 'architectural sanctuary of the mainland'. ”

Old Chen Tou also turned his head to look at Master Ilyich, who had blushed with a serious face, and said in a deep voice:

"Hurry up and send a message to the Gaia Temple! Find the architect of the year and ask him to come over immediately! The gnolls are ready to come at any moment, and we don't have time to fix this terrible hole, but we should at least find out where it is and what's in it so that the commander can be prepared. ”

"I'm looking for someone right away! Wait for me! ”

Ilyich also knew that the problem was big.

He swooped into the ground to find the Earth Priests on the battlefield to perform teleportation spells, but thankfully they were the most favored dwarven branch of Gaia, and could summon their people to their predetermined positions at critical moments, regardless of distance.

This is much safer than astral teleportation, but unfortunately only the Silver Dwarves can use it.

"We have to figure out a way."

As soon as Lao Chen Tou opened his mouth, he heard a loud bang, as if something heavy had hit the ground.

"Not good! The gnolls attacked. ”

A stirring spirit in Samoyed, he shouted:

"Let's move right now, at least figure out what's hiding under this position, hell! Is this the world's undefeated line of defense against the Black Plague? ! It's leaking on all sides! ”

(End of chapter)