Bunker 76

  The moon replaced the sun once again, and nothing out of the ordinary happened at the official residence in Xilun Town. Several red-robed officials were quietly strange, and occasionally, only the sound of the eighteen gray dwarves digging holes could be heard.

  When it was a month before the arrival of Hong Pao, even the sound of digging holes stopped for half a month. The mansion remained still and quiet, leaving the group of officials who were closely watching Hong Pao's movements puzzled.

  The actual rulers of these towns are now gathered in a dark room discussing:

  "The movements of these red robes are too strange."

  If Penny were to appear here, she could identify the discussants through the information provided by the traitor. This old man named Langtuo has a large piece of land in the town and, of course, his right to speak was close to zero in the past towns, but after those who had the right to speak died in the Red Robe Society's purge, he became the number one person in the town.

  The stance of being close to or far from Serzh has become a tradition in the town of Hiler, where people's bloodlines are mixed and tribes are numerous, often receiving different treatment from Serzh, so people in this region have a strong sense of autonomy.

  Would rather collude with mountain bandits than sincerely surrender to Sel.

  When the Chironians first used this tactic and got results - months of guerrilla warfare in the hills until they attracted Mulholland's attention and drove off the interfering Selonian army. Later Chironians stuck to it because they knew that the sensitive location and complex terrain gave them a strong bargaining position.

  Of course, they did not have enough capital to stand alone, because the relationship between the bandits on the mountain was always chaotic and difficult to form a stable ruling force.

  "Strange? Indeed, it's strange. They're too quiet, are they up to something?" As the older gentlemen who had dealt with Red Cloak before, the others also seemed puzzled by his calmness.

  "Oh...... it's indeed suspicious, to know that even the red-robed Taoist who knows the affairs of the world wouldn't be indifferent to us. I'm still waiting for them to make a move so I can give them some sweet treats to ease the conflict, after all, in a few days it'll be time to collect the tolls, and we need to give them a heads up......" Langtuo stroked his beard, furrowing his brow into a knot: "But they really didn't do anything."

  "We should snoop on their actions. If they are indeed doing something detrimental to us, we must think of a countermeasure." said a middle-aged man.

  "Not bad." Langtuo nodded and closed his eyes to think deeply.

  If Red Cloak Scholar is indeed researching some counter-strategies against them, although it's not necessarily to tear off the facade and trigger a new round of purging, being prepared for defense is a must.

  At least there is an opportunity to dissolve it before the crisis occurs.

  ……

  In the afternoon, Penny happily accepted those mixed servants sent by Salento, and then hid in the underground bunker to study on her own.

  Under Panni's proposal, the dwarves excavated five underground forts on the riverbank next to the mansion - far exceeding their living needs. A three-story main fort was located in the center, and four small secondary forts were built at the four corners, each with two layers, connected by tunnels. It is undeniable that the gray dwarves are indeed a race skilled in dealing with rocks, able to complete such a magnificent project in just over a dozen days.

  Although it was rough due to rushing, no one minded after all these earth-sheltered buildings were not built for viewing.

  Penny Sien was on the lowest level of the main fortress, constantly hand-drawing intricate blueprints, while in the upper levels of the fortresses, those grey dwarves were assembling various machinery.

  After another divine favor, Penny's thinking was much quicker than before. Designing some not-so-complex mechanical devices based on the knowledge in his mind was no longer difficult for him.

  His mental abilities in terms of Arcane had reached an astonishing level.

  He had also been studying magic these days and found that the difficulties of the past were now mere child's play for him - extremely abnormal analytical calculation speed effortlessly flattened all obstacles to learning magic - as if there was a smart computer in his brain, now he wanted to learn a spell, just need to ponder a small segment of time against a scroll of spells, the magical texts that used to be like heavenly books can now be easily deciphered.

  Now Penny finally experienced the thrill of those high-IQ characters learning magic.

  He finished the last drawing, handed it to the dwarf elder beside him. The elder looked at it for a while, furrowed his brow: "Oh, sir, I don't know if we have the luck to record these designs, such an underground fortress is very instructive for our Grey Dwarf clan."

  "Are there also times when you deal with aerial enemies underground?"

  "This is not it, sir, but I hope more of our kin can come to the surface to live." The dwarf elder put away the map and raised his head.

  "Are there dwarves on the surface like Zorvath's clan?" Parni raised an eyebrow.

  "It's actually just a yearning, in fact since we got rid of the Spirit Devourer's enslavement, our race has been trying to return to the surface, but most of our people can't suppress their impulsive nature, so they were rejected by the surface." The old grey dwarf sighed: "We believed in Duma Song, hoping he could guide us back on a path home, didn't expect to be seen as a traitor by our own kind."

  "Oh...... Actually, just like those who believe in the dark maiden Zorvath, huh?"

  "It's not all, but to live on the surface, the gray dwarves indeed need to change their ways." The old gray dwarf stroked his beard: "We can stop plundering, but we also hope to get a tolerant enough environment to survive."

  "Is that so." Panni suddenly nodded: "No matter what other places are like, as long as the power of this place still belongs to me, I will welcome your fellow clansmen to stay at any time."

  "That's really good." The dwarf stroked his beard, a stony smile spreading across his face, somewhat silly but also with some inexplicable meaning: "Should I believe the promise of a red-robed person?"

  "You can believe what you see and hear." Penny spread her hands.

  "Oh! Then let's hope we can get along well, maybe you can become a friend of our clan." The dwarf elder laughed loudly.

  "If there's a chance, I'd be more than honored." Penny smiled and turned away from the lowest level of the bunker.

  "It succeeded!"

  The topmost layer of the underground fortress, with a crowd of dwarves shouting in unison, a large number of metal beams and pillars were connected to the metal frame that made up the ceiling and the transmission machinery on the ground under the operation of the dwarves. The gears emitted a rattling sound, and the crowd of dwarves erupted into waves of cheers.

  Luckily, thanks to Lycoris' magic covering it up, otherwise such a loud shout would have easily raised suspicions.

  Pan Ni gazed at the top layer of the well-built earthwork, and suddenly had a feeling of crossing again. This has simply become a tactical fortress.

  The longbow had already been replaced by the more powerful crossbow. Dozens of these crossbows could be mounted on a frame called a ballista, which could shoot hundreds of arrows in a short time.

  These arrows were engraved with special armor-piercing inverted spikes and soaked in a simple plant toxin. If they hit the Griffin, the effect was predictable.

  When the machinery on the ground operates, it can lift up the top plate and reveal a dense array of shooting holes, looking like rocket launchers from another world.

  "Not bad, everyone has worked hard." Penny clapped her hands.

  "Adults, this month has been really suffocating." Rourick looked at the trebuchet frame on the shed roof with excitement: "When can we shoot those birdmen into sieves?"

  "That day is coming soon." Panni said, taking out ten simple armor and handing them to a group of gray dwarves. The patterns on the armor showed that they were magical items, and he had also pulled in two other red robes to make these things.

  The material of this armor is just ordinary leather and crude iron plate, forged extremely rough, the style is also very crude, but the "beast power" and "mage shield" attached to it can make the person wearing this armor have stronger combat effectiveness.

  In this generally barren era, mercenaries wearing leather armor are already considered well-equipped. Being able to wear such magical armor is already a luxury.

  The spellcasters from the Red Robe Society are generally skilled at crafting magical items, especially Lijitaka who was born into a poor family and had worked as an apprentice in a magic workshop during her apprenticeship period, so the production process of these armors went very smoothly.

  In these processes, Penny carefully concealed her special abilities and stayed with the dwarves as much as possible. When molding parts, she also tried to use the dwarves' forging techniques, but it was inevitable that her skills in making magical items and transcending ideas of the era would be revealed, causing her two red-robed colleagues to look at her with new eyes.

  "What exactly did he learn at Red Robe Academy?"

  This idea often appears in their minds.

  "Xien, I have to say, you're still quite capable." Lijita walked down the fort, her eyes behind thick glasses fixed on the massive machinery on the ceiling: "This thing is perfect for shooting birds, and I'm starting to admire you a bit."

  "It's still too early to say for sure, but at least we're no longer completely hopeless now, are we?" Xien said with a smile as he looked around the facilities of the underground bunker.

  "But have you thought of how to get those birds to fly over so we can hit them?" Lijita suddenly raised an eyebrow: "Those 'big shots' in the town seem not to want to provoke us too much either."

  When it comes to "big shots", the woman in red robe's tone is clearly filled with disdain and sarcasm.

  "It's actually quite simple." Hughes walked over, his face ashen: "Just arrest those people."

  As a noble son, he still harbored resentment towards the encounter when they entered the town that day.

  "Not now, not now, this isn't the best time to directly confront them. Acting rashly will only make the townspeople more resistant." Penny spread her hands: "We need to think of a way to minimize the townspeople's resistance."

  "Why bother considering the wishes of those inferior people? Don't you think it's a waste of time and life to try to please them?" Lijita said with a sneer.

  "Uh... dear Lygita, I think you need to change your attitude towards the people." Xien furrowed his brow.

  "Not to strive through struggle to change one's own destiny, but to resign oneself and beg for the protection of evil tyrants and mountain bandits, like a slave - is this something worthy of my respect?"

  Hues glanced at his two colleagues, sighed and shook his head silently.

  "You really are a pure Red Cloak," Penny said with an unclear attitude.

  "Thank you for the compliment." A smile appeared on Lijita's face.

  "But I still think my idea is correct," Penny said firmly.

  "Suit yourself, anyway you're in charge now, just don't mess things up." Lijita shook her head and stopped arguing.

  "...I'm saying, you two have been arguing for a while now and still haven't come up with a solution. How are we going to get those lions to visit again..." Hughes spoke up.

  "Isn't this a very simple matter?" Penny raised an eyebrow: "Now is a good opportunity."