Chapter Twelve

Inside his office, Lark carefully finished the map of Blackstone Town and its surrounding regions. Yesterday, he flew towards the sky numerous times and recorded the details of the town, along with a large portion of the Endless Forest that surrounded the north and the east, the Rile River that flowed through the forest, the Kastel Plains that spread through the south, and the Prey River that connects to the Lion City in the west.

Since his mana pool was inadequate, Lark had to repeatedly fly to the sky and record the imagery below. It was a toxic task that took him almost an entire day to finish.

"Finally," he sighed and put his quill down. Spread on the table was a large map of Blackstone Town.

The map was an absolutely necessary existence if he wanted to expand the borders of the town. Upon looking at it, he realized that there was no need to extend the irrigation system from the Rile River until the west. He could just create a second one that connects to the Prey River.

From the door, two knocks were heard.

"Enter," said Lark.

The door opened and the butler entered the room.

"Young Master, the thing you've requested from the Mason has been finished," said the butler.

Lark raised his brows in surprise. "That's fast." He nodded approvingly at the news. "Excellent. Gaston, tell the servants to load the barrels filled with stones to the carts. We shall head immediately to the northern border."

"Understood." The butler bowed and the left the room.

On his way towards the garden, he passed through the hall where the soldiers were training. Just like before, they were repeating the same basic movements over and over again. A few days ago, there had been numerous grunts and complaints regarding this, but it seemed that as days went by, the soldiers eventually became used to this routine. Their stiff postures have relaxed somewhat, and although their movements were still crude, they were starting to resemble the trainee soldiers in the Magic Empire.

After buying large quantities of iron ingots and ormatane dust from the Lion City, Lark had been secretly making magic spears for the soldiers. Along the shaft of each spear, Lark would engrave magic diagrams and formations, enabling even non-magic users to use elemental magic with each strike of the spear.

Lark planned on distributing those items once the soldiers have gained a degree of proficiency with the spear. After all, a weapon that would transform a non-magician to a Magic Soldier would be useless in the hands of those that were unskilled.

Upon seeing the young master, Captain Qarat shouted, "All soldiers — Salute!"

Immediately, the soldiers practicing their piercing skills stood in attention, their spears neatly placed on their right. They clenched their left fist then struck their chest, creating a loud and uniform thud sound.

Lark smiled upon seeing this. This was the same salute used in the Magic Empire. Back in his previous life, tens of thousands of Magic Soldiers would strike their chests when greeting their Commanders, and the impact of that single salute would shake the ground itself. Now that he thought of it, it was indeed an overwhelming and invigorating feeling.

Once the number of soldiers increased, I'll eventually hear that sound again.

Lark looked forward to that day.

"Continue your training."

"Understood!"

It'll probably take a year or two before these guys become worthy of wielding the magic spears. If I gave them those items now, their growth will be hindered in an instant. There's nothing more dangerous than becoming complacent because of magic items. I've seen a lot of soldiers die because they've put too much trust in those things. At the end of the day, one's own skills will be the one that'll save you in the battlefield.

***

Upon arrival at the northern border, Lark saw the thing he asked the Mason to make. It was a structure made of bricks and clay. Its body was like a box, with a long tube at the end that reminded one of a chimney's. Following Lark's design, half of its body was buried in the ground. Beside it, two similar structures were being constructed by the Mason and his men.

"Ah, it's the Young Master," said Silver Claw. He wiped the dirt on his hands then made a bow. "We've finished the thing you've asked. We're currently working on the second one."

Lark inspected the finished product. He knocked on it and nodded. "Good work. With this, it'll be possible to speed up the construction of Blackstone Town."

Silver Claw had discussed this structure with the Young Master before. According to the young master, this thing they've made was called a kiln. A necessary tool in creating cement.

Based on the story of the Young Master, a cement was a substance capable of putting stones together in a short amount of time. Furthermore, it was something really easy to prepare as long as one had the necessary materials. Silver Claw did not fully understand the steps and the details, but the Young Master promised to demonstrate it to him.

Honestly, the Mason have doubts about this. After all, if such a convenient method was available, why didn't the Kingdom and the Empire use it? He had been a Mason for decades, and he knew how arduous and time consuming it was to build things made of stone. He had never heard of such a convenient shortcut before.

"Listen, I want you to prioritize the production of cement from now on. The rate of development of the town is simply too slow," said the Young Master. "We need the cement to speed up the construction process. Understood?"

"Yes, Young Master."

Actually, Silver Claw felt that the development of this town was fast enough already. Even in the Lion City, he had never seen so many projects going on at once. Reclamation of barren lands. Construction of poultry farm. Expansion of the border of the town. Building of residences. Main road construction project. And lastly, the irrigation plan for the northern land. All of those were ambitious projects.

Still, it seemed that the Young Master felt that the speed of development was still slow. Silver Claw smiled wryly at the thought.

The Young Master ordered the servants to unload the barrels from the carts. Upon opening, Silver Claw saw numerous stones inside it.

"Listen. We will create cement from these limestones. Luckily, there's a lot of them of them in area."

Lark had this theory that this land was once submerged underneath the sea, probably thousands of years ago, which explains the presence of these limestones near the Endless Forest. It was truly a stroke of luck, since he would not have to order them from the other cities.

Lark took a pickaxe and struck the stones, creating numerous smaller pieces. "Break the large rocks into smaller pieces. Pulverizing them would take a lot of time at first, but it the long run, it saves us the effort of putting the large pieces back into the kiln if the heat failed to break it." He looked at everyone, making sure that they were listening intently to his instructions. "After this, put them inside this thing here." He pointed at the kiln.

Lark further explained that using firewood or coal, they would heat the kiln. Due to the structure of the kiln, heat would accumulate over time, giving rise to higher temperatures. Once it reached a certain degree of heat, it would decompose the rock, creating quicklime and at the same time liberating a certain gas.

"The finished product is called cement. We'll use it to make concrete," said Lark. The Mason and his men were obviously confused, but he continued speaking regardless. He knew that over time, they would eventually understand everything. "Once the lime has been cooled, mix it with this ratio — one part lime, two parts sand, three parts gravel. After that, slowly add water."

Lark was not really sure about the ratio, but he deemed that it should be a good starting point for now. At the very least, once they have managed to create quicklime, the rest of the steps would be easy. They would just have to perform a trial and error on the proper amount of cement, sand, gravel, and water.

"Everyone should avoid inhaling the dusts produced by the kiln," said Lark. He also warned about the dangers of coming into contact with the quicklime. He vividly described what would happen should they ever touch those things without first cooling it.

After his warnings and demonstrations, Silver Claw and his men started working on the task.

Lark had finally made the first step on introducing cement to this town.