Under his control, the bio-field protected not only himself but also extended to the surrounding soil and rock formations.
The structure was stabilized at the moment of excavation, absorbing all changes in vibration and stress.
The excavation process was silent, not even the slightest tremor occurred, and the underground structure was naturally as stable as a rock.
After about two minutes, a bottomless vertical passage, widened to nearly several meters in diameter, appeared on the originally flat ground.
At the end of the passage, he was already hundreds of meters deep underground and had directly reached the location of the rich iron ore.
Karl stood at the bottom of the passage, surrounded by dark and damp rock walls.
But under his clairvoyance, everything was as clear as day.
He saw the dark red or blackish-brown iron ore exposed on the rock wall, densely embedded in the stone.
Without stopping, he began to expand the small area below with his bare hands.
The hard rock was like a crunchy cookie in his hand, which he easily broke and crushed.
He focused on the ores with high iron content, easily distinguishing the boundary between the ore and waste rock.
Then, pieces of iron ore of various sizes were "torn" from the rock wall and piled at his feet.
His movements were extremely efficient, and soon the iron ore around him accumulated like a mountain.
Having collected enough ore for current use, Karl looked up at the top, which was as bright as the mouth of a well.
He bent down, hugged the base of the mountain of ore with both hands, and with a slight force, easily lifted the mountain of ore above his head.
Then he slightly bent his legs, suddenly launched, and soared upward, rushing towards the surface through the vertical channel he had dug.
After a few seconds, he flew out of the earth from hundreds of meters deep with the ore and landed at the entrance of the passage.
He didn't stop; his figure rose into the air again, and his mind moved slightly.
The bio-field began to work in a peculiar pattern: it began to refract and deflect the surrounding light.
In an instant, he and the huge pile of ore he was holding gradually became translucent, until they became completely transparent and blended into the background, creating an effect similar to optical invisibility.
This was a technique he had figured out for his bio-field during the process of getting to know his powers.
Thanks to his invisibility, he flew across the sky without attracting anyone's attention.
Soon, Karl returned to the manor and landed by the forge shed in the courtyard.
He deposited the ore he was carrying in an empty corner of the shed, and the ore made no sound as it landed.
Only then did he cancel the optical invisibility effect.
Karl's figure and the iron ore, accumulated into a mound with the damp smell of earth, suddenly appeared in the shed.
The guard who was competing with the iron ingots and hammers in the shed subconsciously looked up to wipe his sweat, and his gaze involuntarily swept to the corner of the shed.
"Damn!" The forging hammer in his hand fell straight to the ground, making a crisp sound.
He opened his mouth wide, his eyes wide, staring directly at the pile of ore that hadn't been there before.
He made a "ho-ho" sound in his throat, but couldn't utter a word; his entire figure was frozen as if under a spell.
"Hey! Are you slacking off? What are you doing? Are you stupid?" A companion, busy heating up another piece of iron billet nearby, urged without looking back.
Seeing that he didn't respond for a long time, he turned his head and looked at him suspiciously, following his companion's dull gaze.
This man also instantly turned to stone, his expression identical to the first, and he almost couldn't hold the tongs in his hand.
Karl looked at them like this, a slight smile on the corner of his mouth, and walked slowly ahead.
He patted one of them on the shoulder, and the guard suddenly started, came to, and stammered a salute.
"No need for formalities." Karl waved his hand.
He pointed to the pile of ore and said calmly: "See? Even if you waste it, there's more than enough iron ore here to use. From now on, your training materials will be plentiful."
"Besides forging and shaping, you can also learn to identify ore, build blast furnaces, smelt pig iron, and cast standard iron ingots."
He looked at the faces of the few men, which instantly turned pale, and added with a smile: "Don't worry about failures or worry about wasting materials."
"Even if you smelt the iron poorly, or forge things that are completely useless,"
"I can melt them down later and return them to the furnace for recovery. There will be no shortage of materials in the future."
"If you're tired, rest. Pay attention to balancing work and rest. You don't need me to remind you of that, do you?"
Phillip and the three other young guards exchanged glances, and the smiles on their faces were uglier than tears.
Having the opportunity to learn this valuable craft, enough to make a living and even become a family heirloom for free,
was a good thing they hadn't even dreamed of.
But they didn't know why, looking at Master Karl's "tender" smile and the seemingly endless pile of ore in the corner,
thinking about the terrifyingly heavy training and the extremely high requirements for fault tolerance, their hearts were now filled with a "heavy" happiness, and they couldn't be happy at all.
But they didn't dare to object, so they could only nod vigorously and answer in unison with dry voices: "Yes! Lord Karl! We... we will definitely study hard!"
......
A week flew by amidst combat preparations and forging training.
Karl's original plan was to take the initiative to attack,
to teach a lesson to the surrounding lords who dared to arbitrarily raise prices and exploit his people with the prices of other materials and horses.
However, before he could take the lead, Foltest's will arrived in Terra with greater speed.
Holding a parchment document with the royal seal, Dalton quickly walked up to Karl, who was supervising the training of the recruits, and handed over the document with a solemn expression.
"Lord Karl, a summons from the king."
Karl took the document and quickly scanned the contents.
His eyebrows slightly raised, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, and then he fell into thought.
He whispered the key message: "The border between Ellander, a vassal duchy of Temeria, and the Kingdom of Kaedwen is in conflict over border demarcation and resource ownership."
"The situation is tense; there is a risk of localized war..."
"Now, according to their obligation, all vassal knights loyal to the royal family are being conscripted and must immediately assemble on the Ellander border for national service..."
Karl carefully put down the document, his face showing neither joy nor anger.
Dalton, beside him, pondered Karl's thoughts and cautiously suggested: "Lord Karl, if you do not wish to personally participate in this border conflict..."
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