After giving Ginya detailed instructions, Carlos continued handing out the completed monster collars.

The Psionics quickly learned how to operate the monster collars to keep the Lulu monsters in line.

Next, they needed to make them understand what they should and shouldn't do.

Training monsters was definitely a new experience, and the Psionics were pumped about it.

Within just a few days, under the painful kick of the agony toxin, after weeding out some Lulu monsters, the remaining Lulus learned how to swing iron pickaxes and dig and haul ore.

Carlos nodded approvingly. The mine slave plan was going smooth as silk. Now at the eastern open-pit mine,

One hundred Psionics supervised and trained massive numbers of Lulu monsters, officially mining Ice Solid Stone, while several Black Knights patrolled the perimeter, handling the mine's security.

After nailing the initial success, Carlos kept summoning Black Knights to constantly capture Lulu monsters from the ice plains, having the Psionics handle their training.

In less than a week, the Ice Solid Stone mine was crawling with thousands of Lulu monsters working day and night to desperately dig Ice Solid Stone.

The Psionics acting as overseers would occasionally crack whips and activate monster collars to punish Lulu monsters that tried to slack off.

As long as they weren't dead, work them to death—this was Carlos's first standing order.

Every day, dozens of Lulu monsters couldn't handle this brutal mining work and either tried to bail or collapsed from exhaustion.

There was only one outcome for stopping work—getting casually disposed of by the overseers.

On the vast ice plains, everything was scarce except Lulu monsters.

As the Black Knights brought more and more Lulu monsters, Carlos redistributed them.

Some mined, some were responsible for roughly polishing raw Ice Solid Stone into regular massive stones, and others used these giant Ice Solid Stones to extend walls north and south from the ice valley as the center.

From initial clumsiness to getting damn good at it.

With such massive numbers, the surviving Lulu monsters saw their mining techniques, polishing abilities, and even wall-building skills improve at a crazy fast pace.

The Psionics were blown away—these monsters' performance surprised the hell out of them. Their efficiency was way better than ordinary citizens in Material Realm city-states!

"Holy crap!"

Just like that, under the Lulu monsters' round-the-clock labor, the ice valley castle was quickly completed, with tall Ice Solid Stone walls extending north and south, daily progress flying by.

Of course, behind such efficiency lay massive piles of Lulu monster corpses.

The sensitive Yolanda couldn't help worrying:

"Young master, the monsters' casualties are getting pretty brutal.

Should we let them take shifts and rest?"

Yolanda's rotation suggestion was, unsurprisingly, shot down by Carlos.

He shook his head and said calmly:

"In the first dark mist layer, Lulu monsters reproduce like rabbits.

Compared to letting them rest, having the Black Knights capture a fresh batch of Lulus would be way more efficient."

Carlos only explained this much. Actually, there was another angle—when Psionics killed Lulus that could no longer work, though most of the Spiritual Essence went to him, a tiny bit still went to them.

This was one of the reasons why the Psionics were so gung-ho about their overseer work.

Carlos naturally wouldn't go against human nature by kindly letting the monsters rest.

"Young master, how far should this wall be built? The people below want to know their mission objectives so they can plan accordingly."

Sara, after reporting the day's progress, asked about everyone's long-buried confusion.

A map appeared in Carlos's hands—one he'd drawn from his previous life's memories, depicting the ice plains of the first dark mist layer.

"We're here right now, and this line shows the current construction progress of the ice plains wall.

My target goal is from here to here, until we cut off the entire vast ice plains."

Sara and Yolanda's mouths dropped open. They had no time to think about how this map came to be—they only saw that the short line representing current progress was less than one-thousandth of the entire route.

You could imagine just how massive Carlos's envisioned ice plains wall would be—definitely not something that could be wrapped up in the short term.

"Young... young master, at the current pace, it would probably take 5 years to build..."

Yolanda did some quick math and easily figured out the timeline.

Five years—that was way too damn long. She'd never seen a mission with a five-year timeline.

"No, it's gotta be done within a year.

When the next batch of Psionics shows up, I'll lead them to establish new castles, just like now."

Only this way, with multiple sections under construction at the same time, could they complete the build on schedule.

With that, Carlos tossed several recording stones and a scroll of parchment to Red Spirit.

"Red Spirit, these contain actual footage of our recent ice valley castle and ice plains wall construction.

Take them to the Valois mansion immediately and bring back the second batch of Psionics."

After his sister saw these recording stones, she could probably stop worrying about whether the ice plains wall construction could actually work.

Moreover, with the recording stones' content as proof, the High Priest would probably be more willing to try and amp up support.

Even without future crises, an ice plains wall centered on several easily defended castles would seriously improve safety for Psionics dropping into the first dark mist layer.

'Using this reason as the purpose for building the ice plains wall would actually make those nobles way more likely to buy it.'

"Caw!"

Red Spirit responded, flashed red, and vanished...

...

Outside, sudden cheers erupted:

"Hell yeah, we finally broke through!"

Carlos walked out of the lord's mansion to find that the road inside the outer-extending wall had finally connected to the ice valley interior.

This way, Psionics in the ice valley castle could travel through the ice plains wall without a hitch and safely reach areas where the ice plains wall extended—serving as both a defensive wall and a quick transit passage.

In his design, the passage was divided into upper, middle, and lower levels.

The top level was obviously where warriors patrolled. Once monsters approached, they'd rely on the high ice walls for ranged attacks.

The middle level would be roads for daily use by personnel from various fortresses, without too many restrictions.

For the lower level, Carlos planned to build a rapid transport passage with ice rails to make moving bulk goods easier.

Psionics were a minority after all—they could only garrison the core castles of the wall spanning the vast ice plains. Other areas would inevitably need ordinary soldiers for defense.

Once the initial monster waves chilled out, Carlos would inevitably need to bring in tons of ordinary humans to live in the various castles along the ice plains wall.

Only this way could they be self-sufficient. Otherwise, relying purely on external transport, if external supplies went to hell, the ice plains wall's defenders would inevitably get screwed hard.

Spreading his crimson-gold feathered serpent wings, Carlos shot into the sky, stopping less than thirty feet above the ice wall's top.

The higher up, the more brutal the raging ice storms became, shredding any creature that dared attempt passage.