A First Look! The Magnificent Saltpeter Mine!

"45 km/h"

"62 km/h"

"23 km/h"

The road to the kobold Saltpeter Mine was difficult to travel, with stumbling rocks making it hard to pick up speed.

After driving for about forty or fifty minutes, Su Mo had only traveled less than thirty kilometers.

The kobold behind them had clearly never seen such a powerful and fast artifact before, and seemed to be lost in thought the whole way.

Seeing that the car had slowed down, the dog-headed man immediately and wisely continued to point out directions.

"Hmm, it seems the kobold camp and Saltpeter Mine are to the west."

Following the direction pointed out by the kobold, the car continued on for more than 20 kilometers before crossing another high hill that blocked the view.

Seeing the kobold's gesture, Su Mo subconsciously raised his head and looked in the direction the kobold was pointing.

His pupils contracted sharply!

In the distance, on the earth, there is a sheet of ice crystals as smooth as silk, spread across the hilltops and stretching for miles.

At this time, when they were still about ten kilometers away from the Saltpeter Mine, Su Mo could see this large, seemingly naturally formed Saltpeter Mine so clearly.

Not to mention, when you get close and stand beneath the mine, the feeling is even more terrifying and shocking!

"How did such a huge Saltpeter Mine form?"

Su Mo looked surprised and quickly got out of the car, took out a five-times telescope from his Storage Space, and began to examine the Saltpeter Mine.

With the aid of a telescope, the entire Saltpeter Mine became clear.

Having a mine in hand means you have nothing to worry about.

Gustav II Adolf, once known as the Nordic Lion, was able to lead the Protestant alliance to defeat the Catholic coalition several times thanks to his muskets and the Saltpeter Mine of his homeland, Sweden.

However, most European countries do not produce saltpeter, and the source of their saltpeter has always been a major problem.

Things are better in peacetime, but once war breaks out, the disruption of trade routes can cause serious problems.

King Charles I of England was constantly troubled by the problem of gunpowder when he was at war with opposition forces at home and abroad.

To this end!

The mighty King of England was forced to turn his gaze to the stinking, filthy place—the latrine.

To ensure gunpowder production, the king specially commissioned officials to dig away the topsoil (nitrate) from the toilets and stables within his territory.

They used saltpeter to refine saltpeter, and even ordered that the floors of toilets and stables throughout the country should not be paved with stone slabs or wooden planks, so as not to affect the collection of saltpeter.

Those who used large quantities of nitrates lost their jobs, including leatherworkers.

At that time, the esteemed priests of each church were given a glorious task: to call on the citizens who came to worship to urinate collectively. From then on, urinating was no longer an embarrassing or filthy thing, but a contribution to the country.

Church chairs were particularly valued because people couldn't leave their seats to relieve themselves while worshipping. However, people have to go to the toilet, so church chairs suffered a lot of damage, and people could scrape high-quality nitrate from them.

The British at the time believed that women's urine contained a particularly high amount of nitrates.

They even shouted the slogan, "Please contribute your strength for your husband who is fighting on the front lines."

But now! Su Mo looked at the huge Saltpeter Mine in front of him and couldn't imagine what could have caused such a massive vein to form.

"If you told me that a towering monster took a dump here and created such a massive Saltpeter Mine, I would believe you!"

"However, the kobolds seem to value the Saltpeter Mine highly, as at least a hundred of them have set up a camp here."

"Huh? What's this??"

"Humans!!"

With the help of a telescope, Su Mo clearly saw an upright creature that was completely different from the kobolds.

Ten kilometers was still too far, and the images presented by the five-fold telescope cast a shadow over Su Mo's mind.

Back in front of the Dune Buggy, Su Mo picked up Oreo, who was still sniffing around on the ground, and restarted the engine and set off again.

This time, he was going to risk advancing to a distance of five kilometers.

The Bouncy wasn't going fast, but after about ten minutes, it successfully reached the location Su Mo had envisioned.

This time, even without the aid of a telescope, Su Mo could clearly see a large area of houses that looked like they were made of wood in the distance.

Even more surprisingly, next to this house, Su Mo saw a house built from the Shelter Core! He got out of the car again, took out his binoculars, and saw what he saw through them.

Su Mo hardened, his fist hardened! On the sprawling mines, dozens of people were working hard to mine.

However, these people are not kobolds!

It's humans!!!

Scattered around the mine were Kobold Warrior, which Su Mo counted in his mind.

At this moment, there were no fewer than two hundred Kobold Warrior in sight.

And what's most terrifying is that there are at least fifty Kobold Warlock sitting in the center of the camp, enjoying themselves! And that's just what we can see right now! If we include those we haven't seen yet, there are probably more than three hundred kobolds in this kobold Saltpeter Mine camp! Three hundred kobolds monitoring a few dozen humans mining? Under the telescope, Su Mo had a sudden realization.

"I thought Huang Biao had taken care of everyone near where I dropped the item, but it seems the rest were captured by the kobolds and brought here to mine."

"Luckily, my shelter is a full sixty kilometers away from here, otherwise I would have had to face this monster in the first two days!"

"I was wondering why the China Shelter was so secretive about extraterrestrial civilizations. I bet countless humans elsewhere have already been enslaved by these monsters. But are their chat channels restricted? Otherwise, why haven't I seen any messages like this on the World Channel!"

Su Mo observed as he made his own guesses.

With so many kobolds, let alone his current full gear, unless we give him Gatling and an unlimited supply of ammo today.

Only then can we try to attack the base and save humanity.

With our current equipment, at least before we have gunpowder, taking over this base will definitely not be an easy task.

"I never expected this Saltpeter Mine to be so troublesome."

"I'm afraid there are far more of these monsters in the kobold camp than here!"

"A full thousand kobolds!"

The thought of having a neighbor just as "enthusiastic" as himself, who would invite him to his house to mine whenever they met, made Su Mo feel a sense of security drop to -10,000!

"No, I have to go and find out what's going on at the kobold camp. If they're more numerous than I thought, then we're in trouble!"

Turning back into the Dune Buggy, Su Mo looked serious, and Oreo quickly jumped in as well.

"Oreo, let him show us the way to their camp."

As soon as he finished speaking, Oreo began to communicate with the dog-headed man.

A moment later, the Dune Buggy sped away, heading north towards the Saltpeter Mine.

The terrain near the Saltpeter Mine consists of stepped hills. Although the speed is limited, the distance between the Saltpeter Mine and the kobold camp is not far by vehicle speed.

They heard the kobold signal that they were almost there.

Su Mo parked the car in the shade of some bushes, pulled the dog-headed man off the seat, and carried him forward.

After walking about five or six hundred meters, and after crossing another high slope, Su Mo finally spotted the kobold camp.

"This..."

"Can this be called a kobold camp? Perhaps 'castle' would be a more fitting name?!"

Standing atop the high slope, Su Mo gazed at the colossal creature before him, his eyes filled with astonishment.

If Saltpeter Mine are a miracle of nature...

Then the Kobold Castle before us is an unparalleled testament to architectural power.

The castle before us, judging by its size, is already over 500 meters in diameter! It has round towers, narrow windows, semi-circular arches, low domed roofs, and progressively projecting door frames, making it look magnificent.

In terms of style, it makes extensive use of columns and arches of various shapes to achieve a solid, heavy, balanced, stable, and powerful aesthetic effect.

The narrow windows contrast sharply with the vast interior space, making the castle dimly lit and extremely deep, giving it a mysterious and gloomy feel.

At the four corners of the castle stood four pointed towers. With the help of a telescope, Su Mo saw the dog-headed men patrolling inside the towers.

Looking further down, besides the warlocks and warriors, Su Mo spotted a kobold wearing a white robe.

"This is the third type of kobold. I wonder what its characteristics are."

The kobold wasn't particularly tall, but as he walked along the city wall, four or five Warlock Kobold followed him with utmost respect and obedience.

The city wall is not very long.

The White Robed Kobold continued talking without stopping.

Gradually, the group of people disappeared at the end of the city wall.

Before Su Mo could continue observing, the small door under the Kobold Castle suddenly opened, and a group of kobolds came out, heading straight for Su Mo.

"Oh no! Could they have found me?"

Thank you so much to all the readers who have given me tips these past two days! I'll remember every single one! Brothers, please keep reading, add this to your favorites, and vote!