Planning the Territory

As the sun set in the west, darkness once again enveloped the earth, and the mine was no exception; almost instantly, it became pitch black.

Under these circumstances, it is naturally impossible to work.

Even before Anna led her people to take over the mine, the guards here wouldn't make the miners work overnight.

After all, it was late at night, and the guards didn't have enough lighting equipment for the miners, and they also needed to sleep at night.

After Fran occupied the area, there were no exceptions for the time being. So, the miners who had been brought here to work at the machines during the day returned to the mine after collecting all the Ore.

Meanwhile, inside a small hut that had been cleared out, light could be seen emanating from the gaps between the wooden planks, accompanied by sounds of hammering and something like something being heated over a fire.

Anna pushed the door open, wanting to go inside, but she quickly found that once the door was halfway open, it was blocked by something heavy, and she couldn't push it any further, not even a millimeter.

Given her Profession physique, if she used her full strength, she could probably smash the door open and break in.

But when she thought of the compatriots she had sought refuge with inside, who had given her a set of excellent equipment, she abandoned the idea. Instead, she turned sideways, squeezed in a little, and went inside.

As soon as she entered, she was startled, as if she had been hit by a flashbang, and instinctively closed her eyes.

What are you doing?

Anna finally opened her eyes and saw Fran using flames to melt an Iron Ore Molten Iron that she had just mined that morning into molten iron, then attaching the Molten Iron to the side of a broken container.

Then Fran quickly used magic to spray Cold Air onto the container, and in the blink of an eye, a black, Sealed Storage Tank appeared in front of the two of them.

Fran's craftsmanship was quite remarkable, but the use of Fran Dragon Flame to smelt the Ore resulted in a very bright light during the process.

Fran used her Telekinetic Hand to inspect the still-hot container from all sides before answering Anna's question.

"This is Ore Processing Machine; it's still in the design phase..."

Fran offered a brief explanation, but didn't say anything more, because she knew Anna was probably just as confused and wouldn't listen to anything. She continued.

"But that's not important. Just come and help me move all these things down to the mine. I haven't finished the whole process for handling Ore yet."

Anna nodded, and then said:

"That's fine. I'll be careful and make sure your things don't fall apart. But what's the use of all these things? Didn't we come here to build the kind of weapon you mentioned?"

Anna looked around the house. Some of the things she recognized, like two smaller-sized devices in the corner than the one she had just finished that morning. Ultimately, she could tell what they were.

But she couldn't understand the other things inside the house because she had never seen them before.

At the far end of the room, there was something that looked like a vehicle, with something on top that Anna had seen that emitted white steam, and four wheels underneath.

Not far down in the room, there was a hollow structure made of wooden strips and iron plates.

The thing that had blocked the door from fully opening was also a huge container, and the top opening seemed to match what Fran was making.

"I doubt you'd understand what I said, but just know that these things are essential for the development of our Sect."

Fran didn't explain much to Anna; she began directing Anna to sort the items and move them out.

She stared at the various Small Component in the room. If it weren't for the fact that as a mage, her Mental Power could enhance her memory, she probably wouldn't have known what these things were for.

At the same time, she couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

She completed all of these tasks in less than a day after arriving here, a testament to the efficiency brought about by her powerful Mental Power.

However, the slow progress and the sheer amount of work made it impossible for her to remain optimistic.

For the sake of efficiency, many things had to be handcrafted by her at the beginning, and because her ideas were probably incomprehensible to most people, even after the apprentices from the Forge School arrived, she still had to handle the design of most things herself.

After all, these things couldn't be explained to the apprentices in a short time, so for the sake of efficiency, it was better to let her go up and knead them by hand.

Of course, those days of relying entirely on hand-rolling have an end. She's now making various production tools to automate production... so that workers don't have to roll the dough by hand, wouldn't that be automated production?

However, she is still far from that time, because she hasn't even figured out how to process the Ore after it's been mined, and the location she ultimately decided on for the manufacturing plant is still some distance away from the mine.

She also needed to devise methods for transporting the Ore, such as first constructing a short railway line to transport the Ore from here to there, where Ore could then be centrally processed...

Furthermore, Fran plans to make producing one hundred firearms her immediate goal.

Although she could probably complete most of the work in a day, this is ultimately laying the foundation for future production.

When the Ore can be quickly and in large quantities transported from the mine to the factory, and after a series of processing and manufacturing steps, it can be transformed into something that can be called a weapon, then its industrialization will be initially completed.

Furthermore, Fran's Composite Spell spells, designed based on the principles of Steam Engine, can likely be perfected in this way and appear on the Panel. At that time, her Order in the Forge School can be advanced using the Specialized Mage Promotion Method.

"Be careful, it's quite dark on the road."

"Don't worry, I'm Elf, so I have some Darkvision, which is definitely better than yours, a human."

Fran watched Anna carry the equipment to the mine, smiling, without refuting Anna's words, and watched her continue to leave.

Anna was right about some things; Elf do have certain racial advantages over humans, such as the ability to adjust their position in the air and Darkvision.

Ultimately, however, the comparison must be made among individuals of the same Order. Once Elf reaches the First Order of Profession, their racial advantage diminishes considerably.

Especially when the Order increases, such as to the second rank, the strong can fly in the sky, and the competition is about who can fly faster, so the racial Talent of the Elf can be almost ignored.

Moreover, Fran is not an ordinary Tier 2; she possesses multiple Profession, and the special effects produced by the superposition of these Profession make it impossible for her to distinguish which Profession is at work.

Her Profession Monster Hunter allows her to plunder some of the attributes of those Magic Creature, such as their vision in the dark, but this bonus is practically negligible against Fran's extremely high physique.

She even cast [Light Prayer] inside the house, purely out of habit.

Fran watched as Anna put down the device in the darkness, and another idea suddenly popped into her mind.

That is, should we try to help Anna improve her Order?

"Perhaps that's feasible. Once I reach the Floating City, they should have Promotion Method Ranger to the second tier. If Anna can advance to the second tier, she can help me with even more tasks."

Fran firmly believes that the Alliance likely has many other Promotion Method in different Profession, but Fran was previously in the City of Apprentices and has now come to the Northern Territory, both of which are remote areas of the Alliance.

The true heart of the Alliance, those Floating City in the air, might not have Promotion Method to the third tier, but they would likely have quite a complete set of Promotion Method to the second tier.

Advancing Anna to Tier 2 is a good thing no matter how you look at it, but...

Fran recalled Anna's various behaviors and gave a wry smile.

Even after removing the equipment Anna provided, her overall strength didn't fall to the level of a disgrace to a formal Profession. On the contrary, Fran thought Anna was doing quite well in combat, considering she was using the Ranger Profession.

However, Fran also knew that those who could advance to the Second Order Profession User had some outstanding advantages over their Profession.

For example, the chieftain of the Orc Tribe that Fran dealt with had the advantage of leadership, which allowed him to gain the respect of other orcs.

For example, the bishop of the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents was more talented than others, or perhaps more devout to the Goddess of Ocean Currents.

Or perhaps, like Lord Knight, he has a powerful father.

However, it is clear that Anna does not seem to possess the excellent qualities listed by Fran, nor is she as 'hardworking' as Fran.

"Anna also needs to master some powerful Arts. She can forget about Sunflame Arts, but she can practice Gale Swordsman Techniques first..."

Fran then thought of another problem that was giving her a headache: she couldn't help Anna master some Arts as quickly as she could; at most, she could encourage Anna to work harder.

On this continent, being able to quickly master various Arts is an extraordinary Talent.

After all, as long as mages master a few related spells or specialize in one spell, and write a few papers on horizontal Paper based on others' work to obtain Promotion Method, they can advance to the second tier.

This is way too easy!! How can Profession advance to the second tier so easily!

However, it was clear that Fran didn't just randomly see a second-tier mage.

Fran was able to advance so easily because many senior mages paved the way for her, and she happened to be quite good at learning magic.

However, it's not so easy for other Profession to advance further. Often, there are conditions that are simply impossible to replicate. For example, there are many Profession in the Adventurers Guild that even Fran finds difficult to advance to.

"Let's wait until we reach the Floating City and see what happens. Let Anna practice her Combat Technique first."