Under Morgen’s command, Kreg brought back countless supplies to the Dwarf Valley.
Rebuilding the Lion Tribe was the grand mission given to him by His Highness.
Kreg knew well the rules of survival on the barren wasteland; the original Lion Tribe had survived based on its formidable strength.
But after the last war, the Lion Tribe had lost its former vigor, and he had to find another way.
Rebuilding the Lion Tribe was not an easy task, but no matter the cost, he would complete it, absolutely.
Three days after Kreg returned to the barren wasteland, Morgen, having dealt with the backlog of political affairs, also returned to the Dwarf Valley.
It was now mid-September, and he had to get the Dwarf Valley back on track.
Because once October came, the orcs could start invading at any time.
At that time, the City of Dawn would not have much energy to deal with the affairs of the Dwarf Valley.
Even the mithril vein would not be guarded with too much force, because a new round of population plundering would be the most important work of this winter, without a doubt.
Everything in the City of Dawn was built on the foundation of the population.
Not to mention anything else, even the faith power he urgently needed must be solved by obtaining a large population; otherwise, he could only guard a gold mine without the power to excavate.
After a month, the Dwarf Valley had undergone a major transformation under the development of the City of Dawn.
The dwarf city, which had collapsed due to the war, had almost been leveled to the ground.
More than a dozen huge cyclopes rampaged, overturning these building ruins, and dug out huge mining pits, successfully reaching the mithril vein below.
Now the Dwarf Valley was purely a construction site, with the cyclopes acting as the absolute main force, accompanied by more than two hundred human miners and dozens of blood clan members busy in the middle.
Exposed gray boulders, yellow mud, and huge footprints were no different from a construction site, the only difference being the absence of modern machinery.
The Dwarf Valley could hardly see any traces of the dwarf city, only the beams and building debris faintly revealed in the rubble pile still indicated that there had once been a civilization here.
The city that the dwarves were reluctant to dismantle was done by the cyclopes.
“Progenitor His Highness,” Stanley, wearing a black priest’s robe, immediately greeted Morgen, who was standing on the grass outside the construction site.
After the dwarves and orcs were properly arranged, Stanley returned to the Dwarf Valley to take charge.
Because of the threat of orcs and dwarves possibly launching an attack at any time, there must be a sufficiently weighty and wise upper-class person to control the overall situation here.
Stanley, who was exceptionally intelligent, powerful, and highly appreciated by Morgen, was undoubtedly a great choice.
“How is the development of the mithril vein now?”
Morgen, wearing a deep blue mage’s robe, stood on the open ground next to the valley, curiously watching the mining team that lined up in long queues, pushing wooden carts, and transporting soil and rubble out like ants.
Stanley’s expression suddenly showed shame, and his tone became a bit low.
“Your Highness, the difficulty of excavating the mithril vein has exceeded our imagination. So far, the daily output of ore is less than 10 tons, and we have only refined 3 pounds of mithril…”
Morgen turned his head in surprise, 3 pounds of mithril? A pound is not much different from a jin on Earth.
In this month, under such strong support from the City of Dawn, only 3 pounds of mithril were refined?
Although mithril is incredibly precious and rare, this is still disproportionate to the investment.
If it were 30 pounds, it would be more reasonable.
“Are there any difficulties?”
"Our numbers are too few… and the mithril vein is extremely hard, ordinary human miners simply can’t move the ore, we can only rely on the powerful cyclopes to mine.
Moreover, the vein is buried deep underground, and a large amount of soil and rubble needs to be cleared before we can get to it.
Now, ordinary human miners can only clear soil and rubble, only the cyclopes are truly mining.
And because the developed mining pits are too small, currently only two cyclopes can work in them."
Hearing this, Morgen’s face was lined with frustration, he hadn’t anticipated that the efficiency would be affected because the ore was too hard to dig…
Life is truly the master of drama.
This unfortunate reason made him twitch.
“Have you thought of any solutions?”
Stanley’s face became even more embarrassed.
“Unless we mobilize a large number of professionals, at least warriors above level alpha to mine, otherwise, even if all the cyclopes could dig, it would be very difficult to improve efficiency.”
Morgen shook his head.
The City of Dawn does not lack high-end combat power, he even has level beta plus bone dragons, and he’s not afraid to fight.
But now the foundation of the City of Dawn is extremely weak, the normal development of a power should be in a pyramid model.
The number at the bottom should be much more than at the top.
But because of his rapid development, the City of Dawn’s lower-level combat power is actually scarce, only a few hundred blood clan and the newly formed King’s Blade’s 600 human army can be considered as the bottom combat power.
But these lower forces are extremely mismatched with the high-end power he possesses.
Morgen is not afraid to engage in a high-end power duel with the enemy, but when it comes to things that require a foundation to achieve, it’s frustrating.
Where can he get hundreds of professionals above level alpha to mine here?
The Covenant of Darkness does have them, but he can’t possibly let these uncontrollable forces come to the mithril vein, and people from these underground forces would be crazy to go mining.
Morgen was about to speak when he suddenly slapped his forehead and shook his head with a bit of amusement, what did he come to the Dwarf Valley for?
To supervise the progress of the mithril vein, and also to have Kreg rebuild the Lion Tribe.
Aren’t the orcs of the Lion Tribe ready-made miners? He was originally planning to have the orcs mine… almost forgot the main task.
These towering, immensely strong orcs are definitely the best miners.
The Dwarf Valley is located in the barren wasteland, there’s not much here, but there are many orcs.
After finding the key point of the problem, Morgen relaxed, waved his hand nonchalantly and said.
"Stanley, prepare to withdraw the humans, we can leave only the cyclopes here.
For the mining of the ore, we can use the orcs."
“Orcs?” Stanley was startled.
“Do you mean to directly enslave the orcs?”
“Enslave? No, I’m not interested in enslaving orcs, what I want is… to rebuild the Lion Tribe!”
Morgen spoke with a hint of playfulness, “Have you seen Kreg?”
Stanley nodded, "Of course, three days ago, Dylan brought a large amount of supplies, and also brought Kreg and over a hundred orcs.
At that time, the cyclops almost had a conflict with his orcs."
After saying this, he frowned slightly.
"However, he did not stay in the Dwarf Valley. After coming down from the demonic bats, he directly led the orcs out of the valley, and their whereabouts are unknown.
Because of the message you sent, I did not inquire further."
Although he was once an enemy, after Morgen announced that this level elementary beta plus werewolf was now one of their own, Stanley didn’t pay much attention.
Moreover, from Kreg’s actions, it was clear that he was on a mission, and Stanley did not dare to inquire about Morgen’s orders casually.
"Yes, Kreg is my arrangement.
I want to rebuild the Lion Tribe, to make the orcs the masters of the Dwarf Valley again.
Then we won’t need to invest too much effort here, the orcs will work for us."
“Your Highness, a tribe controlled by just one orc like Kreg might not be too large,” Stanley shook his head, “Kreg’s strength is not enough to support a large tribe.”
Stanley, although not looking down on this level elementary beta plus werewolf who was defeated instantly, did not hold much expectation either.
If it were Kapu, the orc king, he wouldn’t say a word; the combat power that level beta plus Kapu could unleash was impressive to him, Kreg was far behind, they were not on the same level.
Morgen’s expression was somewhat playful, “Of course, it’s not just Kreg. In at most half a year, the king of the Lion Tribe, Kapu, will also arrive.”
Stanley’s expression relaxed, and he was immediately reassured.
“With this, the reconstruction of the Lion Tribe will not be a problem.”
Morgen’s gaze was profound.
“The Dwarf Valley will be our stake in the barren wasteland, and the Lion Tribe will also become a sharp blade in the hands of the City of Dawn.”
In the short term, the orcs will not pose any harm to the City of Dawn, but Morgen always likes to keep the initiative in his own hands.
The Far Mountains are not far from the human empire and the orc empire. He already has the Crimson Mage Tower and the Covenant of Darkness for the human empire, but for the orcs, who are not weak, he has no influence, which does not match his character.
The layout is always for the distant future…
————
On the barren wasteland, Kreg looked at the small tribe a few hundred blades away, with their simple tents and a population of just over a hundred, his expression very cold.
Stolen story; please report.
“Bron, take people to surround them, this tribe now belongs to the Lion Tribe!”
A werewolf warrior with a huge wolf head stood out from behind him, nodding with a somewhat cruel expression.
“Yes, Lord Kreg,”
After speaking, 120 orc warriors wearing full sets of armor, each of rare quality, stepped out proudly, their long knives flashing with a cold light.
The battle began so suddenly.
Faced with a pack of vicious wolves, the small tribe of over a hundred people fell in just ten minutes.
By the time Kreg left, his following had grown to 200 people.
On the barren wasteland, strength has always been the guarantee of survival.
Without strength, all are lambs.
Five days later, which was also two days after Morgen arrived at the Dwarf Valley.
Kreg returned to the Dwarf Valley.
At the same time, more than 600 orcs followed him.
This was the harvest of this level elementary beta plus werewolf warrior over the past few days.
Kreg’s expansion was full of the unique traces of orcs, barbaric and brutal, primitive and direct.
When Morgen saw Kreg, especially when he looked at the hundreds of orcs behind him, his face was very expressive.
In just a few days, he had brought back hundreds of orcs, and all these orcs were warriors of levels 4 to 8, with fierce and ruthless auras, each obviously a battle-hardened orc soldier.
The beast skin clothes on these orcs could not cover the scars on their bodies, their muscles bulging the rough clothes, their attire primitive and ancient.
“Kreg, are these subordinates all gathered by you in the past few days?”
Seeing the surprise on Morgen’s face, Kreg looked somewhat proud, "Your Highness, these are the tribes I have conquered.
Now, they all belong to the Lion Tribe!!"
Then Kreg recounted how he led his troops to conquer other orc tribes over the past few days, and how he quickly expanded to the current scale.
After hearing Kreg’s excited words, Morgen did not praise him but was silent for a long time.
Looking at Kreg, who seemed to think this was nothing more than normal, Morgen felt somewhat of a headache.
He knew that orcs were straightforward by nature, or rather, not very bright.
But he didn’t expect… the other party was more exaggerated than he imagined.
He actually led troops to the door, killing those who resisted and incorporating those who surrendered… Damn it , is this rebuilding a tribe? Isn’t this raiding and slaughtering?
Stanley, who was standing by, also had a strange expression on his face.
He felt a great sense of emotion in his heart, worthy of being an orc, to be able to develop power to such a barbaric extent and still not take it seriously.
Such things could only happen in the barren wasteland.
“Kreg, there are many ways to recruit personnel…”
Morgen looked at his level elementary beta plus temple warrior, feeling for the first time that reasoning with his subordinates seemed a bit of a headache.
“By doing this, not only is the efficiency low, but it also easily breeds resentment among your subordinates, which is not conducive to the formation of the tribe.”
Kreg looked at Morgen somewhat blankly, "Your Highness, on the barren wasteland, this has always been the way to annex tribes… Whoever has the greatest strength owns the most clansmen and the widest land.
The Lion Tribe also developed to the scale of tens of thousands of troops under the absolute power of Chief Kapu…"
Morgen suddenly didn’t know how to start. Although he disdained such primitive and wild methods, this was the survival mode of the barren wasteland.
He couldn’t deny whether it was right or wrong, after all, the poor living environment created the rule of survival of the fittest, and a powerful leader was more capable of leading the tribe’s people to survive.
However, now that he was here, naturally, he wouldn’t let Kreg continue to do such foolish, crude, and unproductive things.
“No, Kreg, we have many other methods.”
Morgen looked at Kreg’s puzzled eyes and slowly began to speak,
“What is most lacking in the barren wasteland? What do orcs want the most?”
Kreg’s eyes lit up, “What’s most lacking is food, and what’s most wanted is food and armor!”
Morgen nodded, glad that this guy wasn’t stupid.
“Right, is food especially scarce this year?”
“Yes, if it weren’t for the extreme shortage of food this year, Chief Kapu wouldn’t have easily ordered an attack on the dwarf tribe.”
Kreg nodded earnestly, the huge wolf head somehow looking a bit simple at the moment.
“So now, with 2000 sets of armor and weapons in your hands, and enough food for 5000 people for half a year, what can you do?”
“Your Highness… I…” Kreg was stunned, then looked at Morgen somewhat blankly.
Of course, you store the food, and naturally, you equip your clansmen with weapons and armor.
But he felt that his thoughts were not what Morgen wanted, so he stuttered for a long time and didn’t dare to speak.
Seeing this, Morgen shook his head with a wry smile, not wanting to keep him guessing any longer, he explained directly.
"You can choose a group of smarter subordinates, let them spread the news to the surrounding tribes, the Lion Tribe is recruiting clansmen…
As long as they pass the test of the Lion Tribe, the entire tribe can be merged into the Lion Tribe, and each warrior can receive a set of armor…
The Lion Tribe has enough food to get through this winter. As long as the orcs join the Lion Tribe, food supply is guaranteed this winter, and no one will starve to death again.
And our Lion Tribe is only recruiting 5000 orcs, and we have already recruited two thousand. Once we reach full capacity, we will not recruit anymore this year."
Compared to the primitive and brutal method of using force, Morgen prefers to take a more efficient approach.
How much time would it take to fight one by one? How much strength would he lose? It’s not worth it.
Kreg had already reported to him about the scarcity of food this year. Even the powerful Lion Tribe lacked food, so one can imagine how those small tribes were faring.
Most orcs are probably despairing over the upcoming winter months.
After all, not every orc can go to the human borders to plunder food when winter comes, and more orcs rely on their usual reserves to get through the cold winter.
At this moment, when these orcs faced despair, would the small tribes be tempted by a powerful tribe that could provide food and armor and was willing to accept them?
Near the Dwarf Valley, on this land spanning hundreds of miles, at least two hundred thousand orcs live. Only a small portion of them need to come over for it to be enough.
Morgen doesn’t need many, just a few thousand people would be enough to restart the Dwarf Valley.
And after this message is released, if orcs hear the news and prepare to wage war to plunder food, that would be even more to his liking.
An beta plus-level Bone Dragon, a elementary beta plus-level Bronze Cyclops named Koso, and a beta-level Dawn Bat King named Castro, these three terrifying beasts are now in the Dwarf Valley.
At that time, they can directly experience the orc way of expanding power.
As long as a powerful orc king like Kapu doesn’t appear, Morgen won’t care at all.
According to Kreg’s information, the area within hundreds of kilometers around the Dwarf Valley is the territory of the Lion Tribe, and there are no other large tribes here.
So he has nothing to worry about.
Hearing Morgen’s words, Kreg’s mind turned, and he nodded with a surprised expression, “Your Highness, your wisdom is comparable to the Creator God!”
That wolf head somehow made Morgen feel a bit amused at the moment, very much like… a silly dog?
This elementary beta plus-level werewolf, although straightforward, is not stupid. It’s just that the rules of the barren wasteland almost made him unable to think of this method.
Here, fists are the only way of communication.
"Arrange for people to do it, and also, make sure to emphasize that we are recruiting few people, and that we are about to finish recruiting soon, to create a sense of urgency.
And…"
Morgen patiently explained to Kreg how to spread the news, and finally, the werewolf excitedly summoned his subordinates and passed on what Morgen had taught him.
Then hundreds of orcs left the Dwarf Valley with Kreg’s mission.
Morgen, watching the orcs resting on the turf, keenly noticed that these orcs did not include the group brought from the City of Dawn.
Because these orcs did not show fear when they saw him.
He didn’t believe that those captured orcs had never seen him commanding the Bone Dragon on the battlefield.
After asking Kreg about this doubt, the werewolf’s words made Morgen look at him deeply.
“Your Highness. The orcs I brought out knew about the City of Dawn, and I was afraid they would leak information, so I let them charge at the forefront in every battle. These past few days, they have all gone to meet the Grim Reaper.”
Kreg spoke very calmly, as if he was talking about something perfectly normal.
Morgen couldn’t help but nod slightly, indeed a temple warrior absolutely loyal to him, acting entirely in his interest.
Actually, he didn’t care either, those orcs were all brought in and out with hoods on, and it was impossible for them to know the location of the City of Dawn.
The Far Mountains stretch nearly a hundred thousand miles, spanning several empires. To find the City of Dawn in such a vast mountain range without any clues would be a dream that would take decades.
And no brainless force would do such a thankless task.
After arranging this matter, Morgen’s mood improved a lot.
"Your Highness, all the human miners have been called back to the City of Dawn, now only the cyclopes are left.
Do we need to keep them here?"
Morgen shook his head, the cyclopes’ huge size has many advantages in production that humans can’t compare with, and they are also important production tools for the City of Dawn, keeping them in the Dwarf Valley would undoubtedly be a bit of a waste.
Especially since he plans to build running water in the City of Dawn.
"Leave 5 here, take the rest of the cyclopes back.
Also, notify Harrison to bring a few dwarves skilled in mining from the construction department to guide how to mine the mithril vein.
Our efficiency is too low right now."
The current mining speed is simply unbearable to witness. Morgen estimates that at this rate of mining, not to mention equipping the entire population with mithril-forged gear,
even his own top combat forces above level beta won’t be able to wear mithril equipment.
Especially for the likes of Koso, Castro, and the Bone Dragon, these big guys, to forge weapons for them would require a massive amount of mithril.
Professional tasks should still be left to professionals. Previously, the dwarves were not trusted, so they were completely excluded from the mining of the vein.
Now, although the dwarves have not fully integrated into the City of Dawn, at least they are no longer thinking of rebelling every day, and it’s time for them to contribute to the City of Dawn.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Go ahead.”
Morgen waved his hand casually.
——————
In the following days, Morgen was always in the Dwarf Valley supervising the progress of Kreg’s reorganization of the Lion Tribe. This was a project he focused on and needed to see progress in a short time.
After arriving in the Dwarf Valley for ten days, in late September, just a few days away from October.
Morgen met an old acquaintance.
Valen Hammerfist.
This dwarf, captured by him, gained a great deal of freedom because he forged perfect-level armor for Koso and Castro and lived very comfortably in the City of Dawn during this time.
At least that’s what Morgen thought.
And indeed it was so, even Valen had to admit that the City of Dawn, a city ruled by vampires, was the most comfortable city he had lived in over three hundred years.
The city here is clean and tidy, without any dirt or mess.
There are no people urinating or even littering on the streets, and the sewers never emit disgusting stench.
After nightfall, there are no underground forces extorting on the streets, and one can still feel incredibly safe in the city at midnight, without worrying about evil creatures suddenly appearing in front of them.
Here, every resident is kind and enthusiastic, never discriminating against dwarves, and even Valen has become good friends with several neighbors because of the fine wine.
Basically, after work every day, he would gather with a few human friends for a few drinks.
Valen has grown to love living in this city.
Here, he could feel that he was truly alive, not just a dwarf master fighting crazily for the tribe.
So when the city hall was recruiting people who knew how to mine mithril veins, Valen volunteered.
This was also thanks to his love for going to the square to enjoy the cool air and chat… In this process, he inevitably attended many, many ideological education classes.
Every resident of the City of Dawn should contribute to our common home.
Regardless of race, age, gender, or strength.
As long as you are a resident of the City of Dawn, you can contribute your strength.
This sentence always echoed in his mind, Valen didn’t know why he had changed like this, but he indeed found a sense of belonging in this city.
This was a completely different sense of belonging from the Hammerfist tribe.
In the Hammerfist tribe, it was more about responsibility; he had to work hard for the survival of all his clansmen.
But in the City of Dawn, he didn’t need to; he just had to complete a certain amount of work each day, then he could receive a generous salary, and every day he could happily enjoy fine wine and food with friends.
He had never been so relaxed.
“Good day, Lord Kachar,” Valen greeted Morgen with a chest thump, his expression respectful.
The current image of the dwarf forge master was a world away from the uncompromising dwarf image at the beginning.
Morgen keenly noticed Valen’s change and smiled slightly.
"Good day, Master Valen, the mining of the mithril vein will trouble you.
This place will be the most important vein output for the City of Dawn in the future, and only you have the ability to design a more efficient mining method…"
Valen nodded, his expression carrying the pride of a dwarf, “No problem, Lord Kachar, how many miners can I use?”
Speaking of this, Morgen turned his head to look at the tents stationed in the valley.
He said faintly.
“Five thousand orcs…”
Five thousand orcs?
Valen was shocked, looking at Morgen somewhat incredulously, “You have enslaved five thousand orcs?”
That’s quite a large scale.
The entire dwarf tribe at its peak had just over a thousand members, and now he casually deployed five times the power of the dwarf tribe.
Although he knew Morgen was strong, every move of his brought an exceptionally strong shock to him.
The number of 5000 orcs was thanks to Morgen’s plan going unimaginably smoothly during this time.
Due to the lack of food, with the winter months approaching, many orc tribes fell into indescribable despair.
And then, the powerful Lion Tribe sent out a message; they were preparing to recruit a group of clansmen and could provide sufficient food for the winter, even sturdy armor and warm winter clothes…
This moved many not-so-powerful orc tribes struggling just to survive.
Being under the protection of a strong tribe was much better than these small tribes struggling to survive in the barren wasteland.
With the Lion Tribe’s declaration out there, it immediately attracted a large number of small tribes to join, some with hundreds of people, some with just a dozen.
But little by little, in just ten days, the Dwarf Valley gathered more than five thousand orcs.
"If it weren’t for Morgen raising the bar at the last moment, there would be even more people now.
Craig, the level elementary beta plus werewolf warrior, also admired Morgen’s operation.
According to his way of thinking, he would have conquered in the most direct way, but this efficiency is countless times worse compared to Morgen’s.
To grow to 5,000 tribe members, it would be impossible without two or three months.
Because the forcibly conscripted orcs could still be managed at the beginning, but it’s different when the numbers increase later on, those orcs who were originally dissatisfied or harbored resentment would become increasingly difficult to manage.
There might even be rebellions, escapes, and other such incidents.
But now that the other side has surrendered on their own, there’s almost no need to worry about these phenomena.
Ample food, sturdy armor, warm winter clothes, such high-level treatment has directly tied the hearts of the orcs.
And with Craig’s strength, all the orcs are very convinced, all of this has made this newly rebuilt tribe truly become a tribe.
The now-rebuilt Lion Tribe may not be as strong as when Kapu was there, but it already has a certain strength.
'Aside from the thousand troops, all the other people will be under your command.
I only have one request, that is to mine mithril ore at the fastest speed. The Winter Moon is about to come, and our army needs stronger armor.’
Valen nodded solemnly.
‘As you wish, Lord Kachar, I will do my utmost!’
'This place will be left to you and Stanley. I will leave five cyclops for you to use, and the rest will be brought back to Dawn City.
Additionally, you can report any difficulties at any time.
Before the Winter Moon arrives, the mithril vein is the most important thing for Dawn City.’
After saying this, Morgen called Stanley and Craig and officially handed over the construction of the Dwarf Valley to Valen, both of whom would follow Valen’s command in terms of mining and rebuilding the city.
As a blood descendant, Stanley, and a temple knight, Craig, their loyalty has seeped into their souls, flowing in their veins, and they naturally obey Morgen’s orders absolutely.
After dealing with these trivial matters, Morgen prepared to return to Dawn City."