Chapter 241: The Transformation of Stone and Cement
At first light, the Overlord tribe’s village awoke to an stir. Under Mentz’s orders, hundreds of workers—both natives and refugees—divided into squads along the settlement’s main arteries. The days of mud, frozen puddles, and sludgy snow were about to become a thing of the past.
"Maintain the slope according to Kellar’s markers!" barked Mentz, holding a wooden string level as he inspected the central channel trenches. "The runoff from the Great Snowfall must flow straight to the river without pooling near the homes!"
Excavation crews carved channels lined with firebrick and sealed with the first coat of the new hydraulic cement. Unlike ordinary mortar, the compound set at speed despite the ambient cold, creating underground conduits as solid as bedrock.
Shortly after, surface paving operations began. Over a compacted bed of crushed stone, masons poured layers of cement mortar, smoothing it with wooden floats to construct wide, even streets raised above the natural ground level.
Kellar strolled down the main avenue, watching the progress with satisfaction. Beside him, the White Tiger King stared as the humans molded liquid stone with their hands, awestruck by an engineering feat he had never witnessed within the deep forest.
"In a matter of days, neither rain nor thaw will ruin our roads," remarked Kellar, gazing at the rows of homes connected by clean, gray thoroughfares. "A strong tribe is not measured solely by its weapons, but by the infrastructure that sustains it."
By dusk, more than half of the village’s primary thoroughfares were paved and the underground drainage network was operational, converting the former timber-and-mud camp into a stone-paved city.
While the majority of the population dedicated themselves to paving the main streets and reinforcing transport routes, at the northern edge of the territory, the atmosphere was different.
In the area surrounding the Mountain Fortress and the borders of the Ash Valley, the recon team maintained a watch. Fenrir, who was loping along the rocky ridges scouting for anomalies, froze in his tracks. The wolf’s nostrils flared as a freezing breeze carried a reek of fresh blood.
Curious and on high alert, Fenrir bounded through the crags toward the fortress ruins. However, as he drew closer, his instincts began blaring alarms of danger. The structure didn’t just smell of death; it emanated a suffocating presence. Realizing that the threat was beyond any ordinary patrol, the wolf wheeled around to retreat.
At that second, a whistle sliced through the air.
An arrow enveloped in a lethal aura zipped millimeters past his head and slammed with force into the stone wall behind him, instantly pulverizing the rock face in a shockwave of debris.
"Let it go, Deathshot. It’s just a wolf," echoed a cold voice from the shadows of the ruins. "We have a far more important mission than hunting local beasts."
"Tch... He’s the first one to ever dodge one of my arrows," grumbled the archer, adjusting the string of his heavy composite bow as he watched Fenrir vanish among the rocks. "Let me play a little longer."
The figure in command turned his head, locking a frigid glare onto the marksman. Feeling the pressure from his superior, the archer bowed his head and took a step back.
"Alright, alright, Captain... Let’s keep scouting the area," muttered he hastily.
"Expand the search perimeter," commanded the Captain, eyeing the leather map in his hands. "According to intelligence, this place was the primary entry fortress, but it is completely abandoned. Check the surroundings; I will wait for the main army to arrive and inspect this location."
"Fine, I’ll take a look around," replied Deathshot, vanishing into the shadows of the stone ramparts.
Meanwhile, Fenrir sprinted through the snow toward the village, desperate to warn Kellar that an unknown armed force had just invaded the valley’s borders.
From the upper plateau overlooking the pass into the Ash Valley, the Captain watched as the frozen horizon began to tremble beneath the march of thousands of armored boots.
A sea of golden silk banners bearing the emblem of a blooming rose upon a heraldic shield emerged through the winter fog. It was the vanguard of the Golden Rose Realm, a powerful expeditionary force dispatched directly by order of the King. Their mission was no mere territorial expansion: the monarch had commanded the total annihilation of the tribe that had dared insult his son, Prince Caelen, as well as the seizure of the mysterious, advanced weaponry the young prince so desperately coveted.
Riding at the head of the contingent was General Valerius, accompanied by Prince Caelen himself and his advisor, Varis.
"Report, Captain," commanded Valerius, reining in his steed before the entry.
"The fortress is deserted, General," replied the Captain, bowing his head. "There is no sign of the savages who once occupied it. However, we detected recent tracks and were spotted by a wolf."
The General turned his head toward Prince Caelen and his advisor.
"Prince Caelen, Lord Varis, what do you know of this structure?"
"This fortress is the main source of steel for those savages," explained Varis, adjusting his robes as he examined the stone walls. "All the high-grade steel my lord Caelen brought back from our initial encounter originated from the storehouses in this place. If they have abandoned it, it means their main forces have pulled back to their central settlement."
"Excellent," declared Prince Caelen with a smirk. "My father was clear: the tribe will be wiped out for their insolence, and those firearms will be mine. General Valerius, secure the fortress, seize all the steel in the storehouses, and prepare the legion to march upon their main village."
"As you command, Your Highness," nodded Valerius, raising his hand to issue orders to his officers. "Establish our base of operations right here. The Golden Rose Realm’s legion will leave no survivors."
𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
As the Realm’s war horns echoed through the newly occupied ruins, Deathshot watched from atop a rock spire along the path where the giant wolf had fled, smirking with anticipation.
"What a coincidence—the little wolf is running toward the main village... could it be just a coincidence?".