The next day, some time in the middle of the day, a caravan coming from the Iron Mountains arrived.
This was a fairly large caravan comprised of Alterrans who went to Iron Mountains to trade and sell, as well as the locals who wanted to visit the ’master’ territory.
Even after so long, there were still quite a few people who hadn’t been to Alterra. The main reason was the limitations imposed to maintain the population of Alterra below the upgrade level, and another was that there was too much happening even in the Iron Mountains!
The growth of Iron Mountains was very fast, and it had re-established itself as an unbeatable powerhouse in the area, much more powerful than Guia Village had ever been.
They also took in a lot of refugees the past month, mostly aborigines from surrounding villages, and a lot of whom were coming to visit Alterra for the first time.
There were also about a hundred goblins at this party as well! After the improvements in metal processing were made, the workload of the industry had significantly lightened up a lot.
The past couple of months, all territories had seen quite a few innovations. For instance, in the Iron Mountains, although they still had no electricity, they managed to harness the power of the mountain wind to create mechanical tools to help with the mining.
One of the best ones was a mining rail system to increase efficiency. A rail track now traveled all over the tunnels, and they simply had to pull a lever and several carts full of ores would be taken out quickly and without the need for much labor.
Each cart was also strong enough to carry an adult or three goblins at a time, which also doubled as a way to transport people.
At the same time, while this increased the efficiency, the amount that was leaked out to the market was more or less the same as before. That was to say, there was less work to be done overall.
They had always maintained a certain amount of output so as not to exhaust the mines too fast. Although the goblins said it would still last another generation or two, there was no need to saturate the market too much at their own expense.
This allowed the workers, especially the goblins, to have less work than before. At first, they were scared. What if the humans decided they were useless? What would happen to them?
But instead, they were told they now had the time to go on long-term vacation leaves.
This concept was something alien to them. After all, who’d believe that anyone—especially them goblins—would get partially paid for not working?! And they had jobs to come back to after everything was over! It was incomprehensible!
However, after a lot of talks and chit-chat with the Terrans, they came to learn that it was true and was not a trap at all.
And, of course, they chose to go to Alterra after hearing how amazing it was! There was also a batch of about a hundred goblins who’d be permanently assigned to Alterra.
It was a shop catering specifically to goblins, and her products were so cute. It had seasonal wears, underwears, sleepwear, and the like. That said, Lin also made sure to buy several sets of the goblin wear to take to Alterra. She was planning on giving them to some elders so they could use them as rewards for the best-working goblins in Alterra.
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