Chapter 110: Godless brick (1/2)

Layn focused all the efforts of everyone in their small group on laying down the brick-making factory first. For four days straight, everyone lived off their supplies alone. Not a single soul went hunting, not a single man went fishing.

For four, long days, everyone focused all their efforts on perfecting the chain of command and sequence of work, allowing them to reach the optimized results.

The first part of the process started at the mine. Here, a group of four mercenaries would dig all the clay they could find. Additionally, one of them would spend half of their work-day scouring the place for the further presence of clay.

Once the clay would be unearthed, it would be transported to a pit. It was a structure that took two entire days of everyone's concentrated efforts to make. Yet, despite how much effort went into making it, it was a fairly simple structure.

Roughly ten meters away from the furthest point that the waves washed, a huge basin was dug out. At two men's height and four men's width, this circular hole was connected to the shore with a simple, small canal.

Once the clay and the water would reach the optimal ratio, two further operators would turn the swampy content of the basin into a regular mass. What the mercenaries didn't know, though, was that their task of beating the basin's content with all the strength they could muster was also aimed at improving their own capabilities.

In fact, once one would look closer, every single profession that Layn created in the middle of what was supposed to be a desert, consisted of pretty repetitive tasks. What's more, each of those tasks required one to constantly push himself or herself to the limits.

'In other words, it's something like a mandatory gym for everyone,' Layn thought, watching over the proceedings of the simple chair of production. He was the only one who didn't employ his muscles in the shared efforts of the group. Rather than that, he oversaw every single spot and added his input across the entire chain rather than its single part.

Layn moved his eyes towards the basin. 'They are about to finish the mixing,' he noticed, before sending a surge of power towards the revolving, thick mass. Walking over to the basin, he pulled out a mana stone from one of his sacks before squeezing the pasta a little bit with the magic he infused in it.

In an instant, the mercenaries threw themselves inside to shovel away the excess water. Then, Layn focused on the stone in his hand before crushing it into a powder. Sprinkling roughly half of the dust into the mass, Layn gave the signal. For a few more moments, the mercenaries continued to stir the mixture.

”Okay, it's ready. Go,” Layn ordered, moving his eyes towards the next station. There, Irea and Pavrien would make sure the two mercenaries responsible for preparing the clay paste would properly fill the formation ditches.

Because the process was fairly more complicated than it normally would be.

Each of the ditches had exactly the same shape as the desired bricks. Once a single shovel of clay paste would enter the ditch, Pavrien would place a simple, wooden plank on it, leveling the surface and making way for another portion of the clay.

Once the entire ditch was filled, Irea conjured a small spark of fire before setting all the ditches alight.

'I hope it will work,' Layn thought to himself, watching the color of the flames. And sure enough, they soon turned green!

”What the hell?!”

”What is this?!”

In an instant, the vast sea of grass turned noisy with all the mercenaries shouting in unison. In fact, even Irea gave away the signs of awe and shock.

”This is a part of today's lesson.” Layn suddenly announced, allowing the flame to take their course of action. 'Gosh, that was so nerve-wracking!' Layn breathed a sigh of relief in his thoughts, not allowing anyone to see just how tense he was.

Because while each part of the process already went through an extensive process of testing and trying… It was the very first time when the process worked in a complete chain.

And despite his excitement, Layn didn't allow his mercenaries to just rest easy now.

”Do anyone have any idea why the flames turned green?” Layn asked, deciding to make his lecture a little more proactive.