Chapter 1498 – The Outer Shell

One of the most important and fundamental features of the fortress is that the entire structure has been peeled of mana veins. Naturally, allowing of the native mana of the fifth to be released within the walls would defeat the entire purpose of the fortress and weaken the strength of the cleansed mana inside. Removing Dungeon Veins from such a large area was in and of itself, a monumental undertaking, and one that is often overlooked.

– Excerpt from ‘The Impossible Fortress’ by Antitect.

Tungstant sighed heavily, feeling exhausted. Despite taking her mandatory rest period, something Solant insisted upon, she still felt tired. There was just so much to do. The work itself was invigorating, naturally–Tungstant was a carver, after all–yet she felt as though her brain was on the verge of catching fire.

So many problems, all needing solutions. For weeks and weeks on end, she and Cobalt had been planning, designing, re-designing, fixing issues as they arose and, as often as she could, doing the construction work herself.

“You smell as tired as I feel,” Cobalt noted from nearby.

“You too?” Tungstant asked.

“Of course. Everything you’ve been doing, I’ve been doing.”

“At least there’s only one job left.”

“I’m not sure if only is quite the right word,” Cobalt said wryly. “It may be one job, but it’s rather large.”

Rather large was quite the understatement. After months of planning, pre-building components and weeks of relentless work, the interior of the fortress was finally done. The inner vaults, the mana channels, the wuffer platforms, the barracks, hospitals, workshops, resting chambers, storage, Biomass containers, elevators, rail network, all of it was finally done. Solant’s precious logistics hubs were completed, the tunnels and thoroughfares were complete, everything was finished, except for the outer shell of the fortress.

“All we have to do is build a wall,” Tungstant joked, “how hard can it be?”

Cobalt clacked her mandibles together derisively.

“If it were just a wall, then I wouldn’t be worried,” she said.

The two Council members were moving through the tunnels, heading towards the first stockpile in the upper third of the fortress. Construction on the outer shell would begin from the top and work its way down, since the upper levels were the least contested.

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