Chapter 161: Who does Layn trust the most (1/2)

”No. It needs to be at least twice as big,” Layn commented on the makeshift maquette of the hunter's guild constructed from the few wooden blocks and sticks that were still around the camp. ”This will be the central spot of the local community. We need to make it big enough to fit everyone,” he explained before grabbing a stick himself and reaching the corner of the drawing.

There were only so many materials that could be used to make the maquette. That's why, while its width and length were kept in the realistic scale, the height of the building was symbolized with various items stacked on top of each other.

”Isn't this a bit of overkill?” Irea asked when Layn finished his drawing.

From the initial square that outlined the outer borders of the building, Layn doubled both its width and its length, quadrupling the indented size of the building.

”It's better to have more space than necessary than even a little too little,” Layn countered before grabbing his stick and drawing in the mud once again.

With how the camp was devoid of any useful materials of low tier, rather than wasting their materials at creating plans on something, Layn's mercenary would simply clear out the intended construction site from all the grass. With just the dry ground left, they would then pour buckets upon buckets of water on it, turning the entire site into a shallow pond of mud.

While the earth was still thick enough to keep the shape someone would draw in it, after just a few hours in the sun, most of the water would evaporate and turn the soft picture into a stable carving in the ground.

'While the idea for this kind of planning is great, it's not that fun to walk around in the mud,' Layn thought as he cast a glance at his dirty feet.

”Well, our job here is done. Let's move over to the other projects,” Layn said and clapped his hands together to get Irea's attention.

Just a few days ago, Layn was too troubled with the potential future look of the city to do anything with the current camp. But only a single day had to pass for the archmage to realize a certain problem. Or rather than realizing it himself, he was informed about it by one of the mercenaries that allegedly decided to drop the path of cultivation and specialize in brick-making.

”Boss... I don't know why, but the bricks we stored for longer than a week are all starting to crumble. The man reported right when Layn was fighting off his depression caused by the lack of activity.

”Huh? Something happened to them? Or don't tell me you stored them before...” Layn attempted to guess the crux of the situation, but he held his words back when he saw the changes on the man's face.

'No, I shouldn't ask if they burned it before. That would be insulting,' he realized, biting on his tongue to prevent it from running loose.

”Sir, we didn't slack with them. This is the first time we have encountered such a situation... But it's also the first time for our bricks to be left unused for such a long time,” the craftsman added, clearly troubled by the situation.

”Okay then, let's me check it out,” Layn nodded his head before standing up and following the man to the stockpile of this primitive yet durable building material.

'To think there was something like that.' Layn thought, recalling the memories of the moment when he discovered the reason for the strange behavior of the bricks.

”We cannot leave them unused,” Layn said after nearly an entire day of walking around the place and inspecting the bricks in all stages of their formation. ”For some reason, the magic inside them isn't stable if they are not a part of a greater structure,” Layn concluded.

As bad as this sounded, this very discovery was the impetus Layn needed to break free from the prison of his own hesitations. Unable to just stay put and store the bricks for the latter constructions, he quickly came to a realization that the only thing they could do while waiting for Sitra to return... Was to expand the town without bothering how bad it could be later on.

Ultimately, there was a huge chance they would have to tear down all the buildings they would construct in the current period. But there was nothing stopping Layn or his people from using said buildings in the period between their construction and inevitable death!

”At least the canals are going as planned,” Layn muttered when he arrived at the next construction site. But to be precise, rather than construction, the entire thing appeared like an excavation in process.