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Fortress No. 2 Black Iron was buzzing with facility construction.
Various ores carried in from a large inland deposit, along with iron ore sent from Iron Town.
Crude oil transported from Oil Port.
Seaweeds whose production had begun in the surrounding waters.
They were rapidly expanding resource-production facilities that refined and formed these massive quantities of resources.
With metal, petroleum, and organic materials all available, it was an outstanding location as a production base.
And when resources were available, that also meant an advantage for producing equipment.
Not only various construction materials, but also huge quantities of weapons and machinery were being manufactured here.
Incidentally, the name Black Iron came from its appearance. Carbon nanotube fibers mixed into the concrete during construction of the fortress itself made the foundation’s exterior pitch-black.
Furthermore, the fact that iron had been in short supply at the time, and there had been a strong fixation on iron, was also a major factor.
Iron mattered.
Well, for those reasons, Fortress No. 2 Black Iron continued to expand.
As an advance base on the Northern Continent, it steadily enriched its facilities.
It still did not compare to <The Core>, the super-brain supercomputer inside <The Tree>, but a supercomputer with decent performance had already been installed.
Thanks to that, it had become possible to give it sufficient command functionality.
At present, they were building a pyramid-tier command functional structure, with Ichigo of <The Tree> as commander, Akane of <The Tree> as deputy commander, and other AIs placed beneath them.
After these AI groups accumulated enough experience, they planned to sever the direct connection from <The Tree> and make it independent. That said, it would probably be a matter of years.
Black Iron also had large forces permanently stationed there.
The biggest reason for this was the break-in operation for newly manufactured Brain Units.
A Brain Unit was an excellent computational device, but it could not demonstrate its full power immediately after manufacturing. It needed repeated operation to strengthen synaptic connections through a chemical approach.
Otherwise, a minor shock could reset the entire brain.
They were now shifting toward non–Brain Unit computational devices, which had been passed over due to cost, but for the time being, at least machines with command functions would continue to mount Brain Units.
While not immediately combat-ready, roughly half of <The Tree>’s combat machines were currently stationed at Black Iron.
And once they were brought up to fighting strength, they were transported to bases across the region.
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Iron Town no longer retained any trace of its former self.
That town, once a small provincial iron mine, had now been drastically transformed by the hand of <Paraiso>—<The Tree>.
The men who once dug holes in the mine and hauled out iron ore were no longer there.
Now they used those trained bodies to till fields.
No—more precisely, they pressed those trained bodies into the operator seats of farming machines and tilled the ground.
Iron ore that had once been carried by human hands was being excavated in huge volumes by massive bucket-wheel excavators that looked like monstrous ferris wheels.
Steelmaking facilities that reduced iron using hydrogen transported from Fortress No. 2 Black Iron were also steadily increasing in number, and steel production had improved dramatically.
But the steelmaking work was all handled by automated machines, leaving the residents with no opening to intervene.
So the work <Paraiso> prepared for them was food production.
Since doing everything by human labor would be harsh, primitive-by-<The Tree>-standards farming machines had been prepared.
Using the loaned farming machines, the residents of Iron Town produced sufficient food.
Incidentally, the farming machines were battery-powered electric drives, and the power generation for charging used steam engines.
All of these operating principles and blueprints were fully published and could be viewed by anyone. If you asked an Android Communicator dispatched by <Paraiso>, it would even explain them.
This was an attempt to educate Iron Town’s residents and improve their foundational capabilities.
<The Tree> faction was a non-biological civilization that possessed numerous superhuman AIs and did not need humanity to survive—aside from the sole exception that Commander Eve reigned as the absolute ruler.
However, it was simply at that ruler Eve’s will that they continued friendly contact with humanity.
But if they merely ruled and kept people penned in, it would only increase pointless maintenance costs. Therefore, <The Tree> ultimately wanted the local humans to become independent.
There was also a proverb: those who do not work shall not eat.
Naturally.
Not only Iron Town, but across the entire United Kingdom of Aphrasia—now placed under their control—various policies were being carried out under those <The Tree> intentions.
In Iron Town, beyond agriculture, various production tasks were also prepared as jobs.
Traveling between other towns to buy, sell, and transport goods was also currently one of the popular occupations.
In particular, Iron Town had become a junction point for road and rail connections.
From Telek Port City, it connected through Iron Town to Fratara City, and extensions toward other towns were also in progress.
If the roads were connected, all that remained was to follow them and move.
Fortunately, horses were readily available within the United Kingdom of Aphrasia, and carriage bodies made by <Paraiso> were in circulation.
The United Kingdom of Aphrasia had begun restarting logistics, using Iron Town as the relay hub.
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Oil Port and the oil fields were steadily increasing crude oil production.
The number of wells to pump crude oil increased day by day, and transport pipelines continued to be reinforced.
The threat in this area was Serqet, the giant scorpion, but at least up to this point, it had not approached their sphere of influence.
It seemed to have a non-interference nature so long as they did not infringe on each other’s territory.
Oil Port was a transport port, but its defensive forces were also well developed.
If they ever had to fight Serqet again, being unprepared with counterforces would be beyond sloppy.
Therefore, ground forces set Serqet as the primary target, and prepared capabilities that could respond to the estimated forces inferred from its known abilities.
Air power, fixed emplacements, and ground forces.
For ground forces, they prepared multi-legged tanks and multi-wheeled tanks. The multi-wheeled tanks were selected with deployment speed prioritized, to defend pipelines and other facilities.
Meanwhile, the multi-legged tanks prioritized deployment over unimproved terrain. Compared to multi-wheeled tanks, their movement speed was slower, but they could operate without worrying about footing.
Incidentally, although this effectively constituted a form of territorial encroachment, there were no signs so far that the Forest Kingdom of Levresta had noticed.
The multiple Serqet apparently served, conveniently, as a defensive wall.
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The base under construction on the outskirts of Fratara City was developing around the airport.
Since the railway was still under construction, the main means of logistics was air transport.
The sight of large transport aircraft going back and forth without pause had become one of Fratara City’s famous features.
Because of its location, surrounded on all sides by other cities and bases, its defensive strength was small.
And because it sat at the center among the other bases, development was proceeding as a logistics hub.
Massive °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° clusters of warehouses appearing suddenly in the wilderness would make anyone who saw them feel an indescribable awe.
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The Royal Capital base in Aphrasia was a small garrison base.
At present, it was being used as a relay base for sending forces toward Northend City.
Going forward, as exchanges with other countries increased, they would likely give it some kind of function.
But for now, only a runway, hangars, and warehouses had been built.
Because it was physically far from <The Tree>, they were still considering how it should be used.
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Northend City was currently the hottest city within <The Tree>.
Because it served as the investigation base for the <Demon Forest>, which was thought to be closest to unraveling the mysteries of this unreasonable fantasy world.
As a foremost-frontline base, a runway, hangars, and huge warehouses had been constructed.
With monster attacks in mind, fixed emplacements were also being expanded at full speed.
Since there was a lot of unimproved terrain around it, multi-legged tanks were also being airlifted in one after another.
In addition, air defense was covered by fighters held on scramble standby at the Royal Capital base, and by the Gigantia force that continued flying over the United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
If anything happened, the scramble unit would buy time, and while it did, the Gigantia force would rush in.
And built at the center of that defensive force was a massive research facility.
As a base for analyzing the unknown phenomenon called magic, it would develop greatly.
