Redd stood up, opened the door curtain and walked out.
He saw the first batch of Demon Dragon landing towards the edge of the camp. Their posture was more tired than when they set off in the morning, and their wings were folded slower than usual.
Half of the Demon Dragons spread their bodies flat on the ground the moment they landed, causing more dust to be raised than usual when landing, and the edges were carrying a temperature that had not completely dissipated.
The Demon Dragon that landed last did not eat immediately after landing. Instead, they walked to the sink first, put their mouths into the water, and swallowed several times before turning to the food storage area.
Douglas was directing the soldiers on the north side of the camp to transport away the new batch of collected debris. When he saw Redd coming out of the tent, he strode towards him.
When he got closer, he stopped, turned sideways, and pointed to the cleared area in front of the camp. "Your Highness, the area from the camp to the mine has been cleared.
I scanned several fringe areas this morning and found no new traces of activity.
There are no living creatures on the ground, and the black fog is also receding - at least in the two directions on the west and north sides, the fog has become significantly thinner than in the past few days, and is no longer billowing against the ground."
He paused, as if he had not finished speaking some words and needed silence to confirm whether it was the right time to say them.
Redd did not answer, but nodded to indicate for him to continue.
Douglas then lowered his voice and became more concise. "Our people did not approach that deep mine today.
I have only confirmed it at the edge, and there are no new footprints extending from the entrance of the cave."
Redd stood on the slope at the entrance of the tent, looking beyond the row of walls that were being filled in outside the camp and looking in the direction of the dark ground the Rift further away.
The pit remained open like an old wound that had been hastily sutured and reopened.
He really doesn't plan to go down now.
The maze-like network of underground mines and the altars and transmission passages that have not yet been fully revealed are not something he can completely clean up at the moment.
The cursed creatures on the ground have taken up the main energy he needs to invest at the current stage. If he divides his troops to deal with the underground, the manpower and material resources on his hands will not be enough to support two lines of advancement at the same time.
His current strategy is simple - first remove the curse on the surface and make the land suitable for ordinary people to live again, and then go back to deal with the things hidden deep in the mines.
As long as he does not take the initiative to approach the entrances of the mines, focus more on cleaning up the ground, wait until the conditions are ripe, and then organize a special team to go deep underground to completely eliminate the threats inside the mines, but before that, he does not need to rush for success.
"Then let's do this first," Redd said, "First finish everything that can be done on the ground. Leave those mines alone and don't let anyone get close to them.
After the creatures on the ground are cleared and reinforcements arrive, we can then deal with the underground matters."
Douglas nodded, turned around and walked back to the north side of the camp.
In the evening, the last batch of Demon Dragon returned home.
Redd walked around the perimeter of the camp alone, passing through the earthen walls and wooden fences that were being dyed crimson by the sunset, and observed the progress of the camp's expansion.
The outline of the wall has expanded a lot compared to when we first landed. The south and west sides each extend outward, and new walls are built with stones and rammed earth. Although the height is still limited, it is enough to form a continuous light isolation zone at night.
He walked back to the center of the camp. The area where the mine was located in the distance remained silent. The outline of the Rift on the surface became blurred in the dusk, and the edges blended into the surrounding terrain.
There was no sound, no smoke, no light in that direction, like a chess piece that had been forgotten in the corner of the chessboard.
There is no sign of movement or possibility of being taken away. It just continues to stay in its original position, waiting for an uncertain future.
Several days passed by at a steady pace.
The process every day is almost the same - Demon Dragon takes off in the early morning, the cleanup team sets off, the ground is repeatedly burned and turned over, Demon Dragon returns home in the evening, the fire is rekindled, and the camp spends the night quietly in the light of the fire.
The orcs never came out of the mine, and the concentration of the black mist continued to decrease.
The campground is changing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The wall was changed from the original single-layer earth wall to two layers. There was a gap between the inner wall and the outer wall for patrols to pass. A layer of reinforced wooden beams was installed at regular intervals on the wall.
The frames of several wooden houses have been erected, the roofs are covered with waterproof canvas removed from fleet supplies, and the wall gaps are filled inside with a mixture of mud and gravel.
A high tower has also been built. Although it is only two stories high, the view from the top platform can already cover most of the surrounding open area beyond the wall.
The camp already has the prototype of a village. There are clear passages between houses, the boundaries between the material area and the living area are clearly identifiable, and the location of the fire has been readjusted according to the wind direction and ventilation conditions.
The soldiers are adapting to this semi-permanent stationed state. Some have begun to use excess wooden boards to make simple furniture, while others have spread a layer of gravel on the mud floor at the entrance of the tent to prevent water accumulation when it rains.
Redd stood at the edge of the camp, looking at the gradually fading clouds. The clouds were slowly dissipating. The process was slow but continuous. Every morning the sky was brighter than the previous day.
Demon Dragon Legion still maintains a high-intensity cleaning rhythm.
They hover at low altitude, covering the marked areas with Dragonfire, clearing away the creatures on the surface as well as the vegetation and caves where they hide.
Whenever a new area is marked as "cleaned", Redd will draw a new marking line on the map, and use red ink to click a dot at the end of the line to mark the current cleaning progress.
Those marking lines are slowly extending into the distance, advancing from the outside of the camp to the ground farther away, covering the land that was once occupied by black fog and cursed creatures.
The black fog at night has obviously faded, spreading more slowly around the camp, no longer clinging to the ground as it did initially.
Instead, it is suspended near the surface in a lazy and lack of motivation, as if waiting for some kind of replenishment that will never come again.
King Ghidorah has been assigned another task.
It is not the main force of the cleanup, but is arranged by Redd to hover in the sky, overlooking the terrain and activities of the entire area. Once it discovers Sandworm underground or orcs break out of the ground, it will be killed immediately.
Its Gravity Beam can cover a large area within a few breaths. Once underground threats that have not yet been eliminated on the ground surface, they will be quickly eliminated within its coverage area.
King Ghidorah also uses its flying height and continuous hovering to disperse the clouds in the sky little by little with the energy field it emits.