Global Lords: Building the Strongest Civilization with SSS Rank Talent-Chapter 87: THE FOSSILIZED LEVIATHAN

[RESOURCE NODE DETECTED: THE FOSSILIZED LEVIATHAN]

It was the colossal, petrified skeleton of an ancient wasteland predator, half-buried in the ash. The spine alone stretched for miles, composed of millions of tons of hyper-dense, calcified bone and stone. It wasn’t enough raw material to pave a highway across the entire alliance territory, but it covered more than half.

Extracting and processing the unbreakable fossil would require an immense amount of brutal labor and high-heat smelting, but that was a logistical problem for later. Right now, he just needed it dug out.

Red checked the territorial borders overlaying the map. The fossil rested inside the domain of Oros, a minor deity of the crags who had signed the Vassalage Contract.

Red tapped Oros’s digital marker on the screen.

[DIRECT UPLINK ESTABLISHED: OROS (VASSAL)] 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

A secondary window snapped open on Red’s terminal. It displayed Oros sitting in his own dark, isolated pocket of the Void. The minor god’s avatar looked haggard, his eyes glued to his own glowing screens as he managed his starving territory.

He flinched visibly when Red’s projection forced its way onto his main monitor.

"Listen closely," Red commanded from his throne. "There is a fossilized leviathan buried in your western valley. Look at your map. I am pinging the coordinates now. Mobilize your Crag-Goliaths. I want that skeleton excavated and broken down into transportable chunks immediately."

Oros stared at the blinking coordinates on his own terminal. "It... it will be done, Lord. My Goliaths possess the physical strength and the stone-calloused hands for the heavy lifting, but the fossilized bone is too hard for our crude tools. We cannot fracture the massive joints."

"You only need to haul the pieces," Red replied. "I am providing the specialized machinery."

Red opened the garrison menu on his interface. He deployed a heavy labor detachment from the City of Spiral and Bastion, sending the marching orders down to the physical realm.

He dispatched massive Shell-Kin to act as living transport sleds, Troglodytes to operate the heavy pulley systems, mutated Kobolds to mine the dense bone with star-iron picks, and Grey-fins to manage the pressurized water-drills to crack the toughest joints.

The combined racial traits of Oros’s heavy lifters and Red’s specialized miners would tear the skeleton apart in weeks.

They would act as both muscle and overseers, ensuring Oros’s followers kept the pace.

While the mining operation commenced on the ground, Red minimized Oros’s feed and shifted his focus to the natural geographical bottlenecks across the continent.

[LOGISTICAL HAZARD DETECTED: RAPIDS & TOXIC RIVERS]

Several massive, raging rivers sliced through the continent, completely severing the planned trade routes. To connect the grid, they needed reinforced bridges capable of supporting the massive Shell-Kin convoys.

Red traced the rivers to the territories of three different minor water and forest deities. He highlighted all three of their markers in the Void and opened a synchronized broadcast.

[MULTI-CHANNEL UPLINK INITIATED]

Three new windows popped up on Red’s terminal, showing the startled avatars of the minor gods in their respective Void spaces.

"The trade routes require bridges over your waters," Red told them simultaneously. "Command your followers to gather at the designated crossing points. Begin laying the stone foundations on the riverbanks immediately."

"My River-Trolls can haul the timber and lay the surface stone," one of the aquatic deities chimed in quickly, eager to prove his worth. "Their regenerative tissue prevents the toxic water from burning their skin, but the undercurrents are too violent. They will be swept away if they try to anchor the pillars into the deep riverbed."

"Your Trolls will stay on the banks and handle the surface architecture," Red instructed, cutting off any further complaints. "I am dropping my Mud-Skippers at your coordinates."

He authorized the deployment from his console. Down in the physical realm, the amphibious Mud-Skippers were perfectly suited for the deepest, most hazardous aquatic environments. They could dive straight into the toxic, raging rapids to anchor the heavy star-iron pillars directly into the bedrock, while the massive River-Trolls safely constructed the bridge surface above them.

Red leaned back in his chair in the dark expanse of the Void. He watched the massive holographic map light up with dozens of moving icons. The entire continent was waking up. By utilizing the unique biological traits of his vassals’ diverse followers alongside his own elite monsters, he had successfully turned a dead wasteland into a single, synchronized assembly line.

At the City of Spiral, the southern gates ground open. Iron-Scale slithered at the head of a massive, heavily armed logistics convoy. The Inquisitor didn’t hesitate to pull a large detachment of elite monsters from the city’s garrison, leaving only a skeleton crew of evolved Troglodytes to govern the human workforce.

It didn’t matter. Red’s systemic laws and the threat of the Inquisition were burned into the citizens’ minds, and the city would run perfectly in their absence.

Behind Iron-Scale, massive Shell-Kin hauled empty iron sleds, accompanied by squads of mutated Kobolds and amphibious Grey-fins, all marching toward the southern territories.

A week prior, Gorak had already made the journey south. However, the Warlord wasn’t waiting idly at the Bastion. He was at Onyx Hall.

Inside the cavernous depths of Onyx Hall, the heat was suffocating. Gorak stood over a massive star-iron anvil, the glow of the furnace reflecting off his bone-plated armor.

Krug had received Red’s orders perfectly and had already organized a specialized team of Bastion workers to assist the Warlord. Together, they were mass-producing industrial marvels. Heavy-duty star-iron rock saws, reinforced hauling chains, and massive, hydraulic-pressure spikes designed by the System were being hammered into shape to crack the fossilized leviathan.

Soon, Iron-Scale’s massive convoy finally reached the Bastion.

Krug was there to greet him, having hauled the first batch of specialized mining gear down from Onyx Hall. The monsters secured the heavy transport beasts, loaded the sleds with Gorak’s custom tools, and settled in to rest. The entire expeditionary force was scheduled to march out at first light to link up with the vassal gods.

However, the next morning didn’t go according to schedule.