The next day, Thrain woke up with a splitting headache.
He could hardly believe what he heard yesterday. If he wasn’t as clear-headed as he was now, then he would have thought that he dreamed the whole conversation he had with Michael and the others.
Making a stone wall in a matter of a few days? Thrain knew this was impossible. Yet, Michael was sure that they could do it. So sure, in fact, that they invited him and the other dwarves to witness the creation of ‘concrete’ with their own eyes.
As the sun slowly rose in the air, the dwarves all gathered near the outskirts of the village, where everything was still under construction.
As more and more Mankeys found their way to this village, they had to constantly expand their territory to accommodate the half a thousand HobMankeys living in their village.
Michael, Kong, Lolo, and the rest of the engineer HobMankeys gathered at the boundary between concrete flooring and the natural soil flooring of the Parched Lands.
There were metal rods inserted on the next part of the land they were going to turn into concrete flooring, making it much more stabler.
There was a strange metal contraption in the middle of the construction zone, with its shape like a barrel with its top open. And through electricity, it was constantly rotating at a fixed speed.
“Is the concrete inside that metal?” Thrain asked.
Michael nodded his head.
“What is that for? Is that needed for the process?” the dwarves asked.
“No,” Kong answered. “As taught to us by our Boss, we need to constantly move the concrete, or else it will harden too fast.”
Thrain and the dwarves showed a look of disbelief and doubt. Concrete dried so fast that they need that contraption to keep it in a liquid state? It sounded absurd.
“If you have any questions, you can just ask me. Kong and the others will start the construction,” Michael said, signaling for them to start the demonstration.
Upon Michael’s instruction, the engineers began their work. They began pouring the concrete mixture onto its designated dent on the ground.
Kong used his skill which allowed him to project a visual image of the plan into reality. A finished project overlaid onto the empty space, allowing the workers to implement the design much easier than before.
With the combination of a few other skills from the engineers, they were able to pour the concrete on the ground and create a very flat surface, with designs and flourishes that represented the village’s customs the best.
The dwarves watched on, unable to even utter a word as the HobMankeys worked with speed and efficiency they had never seen before. They didn’t even have to talk to know what each other’s work was supposed to be. They just knew it intuitively.
After an hour, this section of the village finally had concrete flooring. They just needed to construct houses next, and they could be inhabited by other HobMankeys.
“How are they working so fast?”
“And their magic…it perfectly fits their job so well.”
“This kind of fine craft would take at least more than a day for a dwarven craftsman to replicate. I can see now how they are confident in their speed of construction.”
Thrain approached Michael and admitted his mistake.
“You are right, Michael. The speed in which you create these roads is unprecedented,” he said genuinely.
Michael shook his head. “The real magic hasn’t even started yet. Now, it’s time for the concrete to set and dry.”
Thrain looked at Michael, a bit confused. “What do you mean? That would take a long time, no?”
From what he could see, the concrete was still wet and malleable. From his estimation, it would take at least a day for it to completely harden, which was still very impressive.
“No, we don’t have to wait that long,” Michael said. “A little spell is all we need.”
He raised his hand, with the elemental mana flowing around his body. His Supreme Skill: Mana Gathering allowed him to see the individual chemical reactions taking place inside the very concrete itself.
Using a simple spell, Michael manipulated the mana in his surroundings to slowly harden the concrete in the ground.
After a few seconds, it was done.
Michael walked to the newly set ground and found himself on solid footing. He stomped, feeling the ground resist the force with a degree of hardness that satisfied his standards.
“It’s done,” he said to Thrain.
Thrain, partly believing and disbelieving what happened, slowly walked towards Michael before his boots stepped foot onto the concrete ground.
He half-expected his foot to set an indent on the concrete, but it didn’t. It was as hard as stone.
Finally, he put his entire body weight on the concrete.
“It’s true…,” he muttered to himself. “In just one day—no—in just a few hours, they were able to make something even harder than stone…”
The other dwarves couldn’t reign in their curiosities and stepped onto the concrete as well.
Finally, they believed Michael’s claims of creating a wall in a matter of a few days. It was no exaggeration and was probably even a conservative estimate. They could probably create the wall in less than two days!
They couldn’t believe it. This material called concrete completely transformed everything they knew about construction.
With this concrete, the entire Dwarven Kingdom could recover from the aftermath of the landslide in less than a month!
Thrain faced Michael with a pleading expression. “Help us construct the wall!” he said.
Michael smiled. That was no question.
…
…
…
A group of ten HobMankey engineers readied themselves for the journey back to the Dwarven Kingdom. Michael, Thrain, and a few other dwarves accompanied them on a separate wagon. Behind them were a couple more automobiles each carrying a large stock of concrete for the job.
After a few days of traveling, they finally reached the remnants of Thrain’s village. It was still devastated by the landslide, but at least the muddy water had subsided for now.
Michael floated above the entire territory, surveying everything in his surroundings.
Below him were his engineers and the dwarves.
Finally, he nodded. “Let’s start!”