Carlos didn't plan to explain too much—too much explanation might cause panic. He just needed them to follow orders.

"There won't be any problems. The Black Knights will protect you and take out any attacking monsters."

In the past, human leadership had thought about building fortresses in the first dark mist layer or dark mist regions, but they simply couldn't hold the line against the surging monster hordes.

Seeing the two women's confusion, Carlos continued:

"You've already seen one at the valley entrance."

Sara and Yolanda's minds immediately conjured the image of that powerful figure effortlessly butchering monsters.

While feeling reassured, they were puzzled about where Young Master Carlos had recruited such powerful subordinates who could kill mid-tier monsters like slaughtering sheep.

"Get them organized and give them the heads-up. We'll head out shortly."

The location for building the castle couldn't be picked randomly. Carlos's goal was to build the core castle of the Northern Wall, using this castle as a starting point to expand to both sides until the ice plains were completely blocked off.

So they had to choose a strategically important location with nasty terrain. Once completed, this would be where supplies were stored and where Psionics would live.

Fortunately, after mulling it over, Carlos had already pinpointed a suitable location.

"Yes."

As Carlos's vassals, the two women wouldn't question too much and immediately went out to notify everyone.

Carlos sensed the positions of his Black Knights—the Tulip Black Knights that had gone out were about to return. They would be responsible for this operation.

Deploying a third of his forces at once was kind of wasteful, but it would ensure nothing could go sideways.

.....

At the ice valley entrance, it was dead silent. The Psionics stood in orderly formation, and around them, eleven Tulip Black Knights rode their Phantom Dark Horses, cold aura spreading, the atmosphere heavy and murderous.

At the front of the group, several Silver Sword Orchid Guards carried a white palanquin, from which an authoritative voice emerged:

"Move out!"

Clank clank. This force escorted by Black Knights headed toward a certain part of the ice plains...

.....

After some travel, Carlos's group arrived at a circular ice valley.

This was the biggest circular ice valley in the vast ice plains, and its location was perfect for Carlos's envisioned Northern Wall route.

The valley was surrounded by mountains on all sides, with extremely steep inner and outer cliff faces—just like naturally formed solid ice walls.

Only the south face of the valley had a gap for entry and exit. They only needed to guard this one entrance well, and the entire valley would be safe from monster attacks—truly a kick-ass place to build a castle.

Carlos waved slightly, and the accompanying Black Knights spurred their Phantom Dark Horses, turning into streaks of black light as they charged into the valley entrance.

Soon, a series of monster roars and crashing sounds arose...

Before long, the sounds faded. The sword guards carried the warm palanquin step by step into the valley, with the Psionics following behind.

Inside the circular ice valley, the Black Knights who had just finished their slaughter put away their lances and stood in grim formation. At their feet, various monster corpses lay scattered, cold blood flowing and freezing into ice crystals in a heartbeat. The monsters in the valley had been completely wiped out.

Carlos spoke calmly to his vassals beside him:

"Sara, Yolanda,

This will be our future castle.

First get the monster corpses cleared away, then build a gate at the gap, and finally construct buildings along the ice mountain walls."

"Yes."

Sara and Yolanda responded and began dividing the work among the Psionics—those good at cleaning would handle the corpses, those good at construction would build.

It had to be said that although most people had never done construction work, as Psionics, their physical abilities far exceeded ordinary people, plus with the teamwork of their spirit skills.

Soon a tall gate blocked the valley's only entrance, and inside the valley, buildings rose from the ground—residential houses, storage rooms, and most importantly, the lord's mansion. The basic frameworks had all been constructed.

As for where the stone and timber for construction came from, it had all been prepped in advance by the Valois vassals—otherwise they couldn't have built so quickly.

Carlos observed everything. The supplies from external support could currently only rely on Psionics' storage spaces, which were limited in quantity. Building the ice valley castle would probably burn through most of it.

The massive amount of materials needed for the Northern Wall was way beyond what this little transport capacity could provide—they'd have to be self-sufficient in the first dark mist layer.

Moreover, relying solely on Psionics, even with several times more people, at this construction speed, it would be impossible to complete Carlos's planned goals within a year.

Carlos had long had a plan for this—capture local 'servants'!

The types of monsters in the first dark mist layer were countless. Though their souls' fundamental nature was all bloody slaughter, their responses to threats varied big time.

Most were driven batshit crazy by bloodlust, ignoring the threat of death, preferring to die rather than not bite off a chunk of flesh.

But a small minority had considerable intelligence, understanding how to play it smart, with the concept of fear born in their minds, along with greed for life.

This portion of monsters' fear of death, if it overcame their thirst for slaughter, would make their behavior patterns totally different from ordinary monsters.

Understanding fear meant they would bail in moments of crisis, and created the possibility of being forced to work by stronger beings—becoming 'servants.'

Carlos's target was a type of monster called 'Lulu'—not very tall, usually reaching about half a person's height, with short limbs and big heads.

They were extremely rare 'high intelligence' (relative to other monsters) life forms among low-tier creatures, with the possibility of being tamed by powerful beings.

In his previous life, players had successfully tamed these monsters called Lulu, driving them to work their asses off in alchemical factories, producing massive quantities of goods and making huge profits.

This sparked a wave of 'alchemical factory fever,' and to rake in high profits, alchemical factories needed workers with no human rights who worked for no pay—the monster Lulus were hands down the best choice.

Where there's demand, there's a market. Greedy players began a massive campaign to capture these Lulu monsters, historically known as the 'Lulu Capture Movement.'

Carlos's initial plan was to capture tons of Lulu monsters, then have the Psionics act as overseers, forcing these Lulus to become slaves and mine open-pit ore in large quantities to meet the Northern Wall's construction needs.

Moreover, though the Lulus couldn't do delicate work like inscribing wall formations, under overseers' direction, they could haul ore and build foundations without major screw-ups.

While the Psionics were enthusiastically building the ice valley castle, Carlos left Red Spirit to guard the gate and led six Black Knights toward a nearby Lulu gathering area...

...

Lulu monsters were pretty common on the ice plains. Due to their weak strength, they usually lived together in tribal form for survival.

When the Black Knights swept through ice plain monsters, they often encountered terrified Lulu tribes.

However, based on Carlos's orders, they usually ignored the Lulus and butchered all other types of monsters.