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nOnce Layn finally picked a spot where his future academy would be, things started to quicken.

nLayn himself no longer looked like an archmage, but more like a foreman of a shift in some kind of shady construction company, pushing all the few people who were unlucky enough to get coaxed into this work well beyond their limits.

nBut that was how the situation would look to someone who wasn't aware of all the details of what transpired here and who was working on this strange project.

n

"Hey, put those logs on the secondary stockpile,

" Layn shouted when he noticed a small mistake on Antion's part.

"The main one is already full!

"

nNot daring to protest or even whine, Antion only nodded his head before obediently carrying a huge log away.

n

"The first area is full?

" alerted by Layn's words, Irea asked after rushing to his side.

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"According to my calculation, yes,

" Layn replied, not daring to move his eyes away from the small group of ants that diligently pushed his plans forward.

"The first batch was already taken for the burning, the second one is already distributed for the construction. The second batch for burning is already prepared in the stockpile, so I can't allow the construction to stall by mixing the two.

"

nWood was wood. Given how all the wood that Layn's small group managed to obtain was coming from exactly the same place, there shouldn't be any problems if two different batches were to be mixed.

nAnd in all honestly, there wouldn't be. That's it, if not for a serious lack of manpower that Layn's group had to face.

nWhile five out of seven mercenaries were tasked with bringing more and more logs from the forest, one of them would collect them before burning them down, while the other would carve each of them into planks and then into the exact same shapes as what Layn requested.

nIn terms of construction itself, it was all done with Layn's magic.

nWithout any discovered sources of iron or other useful elements, Layn had no way to create nails and proceed with building in the more traditional way. In fact, even creating mortar would be quite hard, even in its primitive form, due to the lack of people he could assign to mining the stone around the place. As such, only by carving the planks into specific shapes and then perfectly fitting them together with just a slight use of force, Layn could hope to create a single place for everyone to sleep in a single day.

n

"Great, then I will poach five logs from it, okay?

" Irea took a moment to ask, simply staring at Layn's perfectly focused face in the meantime.

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"Sure, off you go,

" Layn nodded his head and replied.

nIn the entire group, Irea was the only woman. The natural instinct initially pushed Layn into finding some easy, auxiliary jobs for her, just so that she wouldn't feel forced out of the picture…

nYet, she disagreed. In spite of all Layn's efforts, Irea decided to take the same if not greater burden than everyone else, not only doing the same work as one of the mercenaries in cutting the logs into correct shapes, but she took it one step further.

nShe was making furniture.

nAs basic as it was, there was an urgent need for all sorts of things to be made. From doors, through window-shutters, through chairs, and even simple, plank beds for people to sleep at. And Irea quickly proved that for some reason, she was quite efficient at quick with the work she chose.

nBefore Layn could even dream about finishing the first, simple hut for both their remaining supplies and the people themselves, Irea already created a huge pile of all kinds of applicancies. Yet, it wasn't her insane productivity that gave her the right to occupy the most central point in the entire ongoing mess.

nIt was her insane power.

nIrea was slightly lagging behind Layn in terms of cultivation. Even though she had access to an endless amount of energy, the pool of which she could replenish whenever she liked it, she still slightly lagged behind Layn.

nIt was all because of a small bottleneck she faced when she finally reached the barrier between the first and the second dimension of her cultivation. The barrier that separated body cultivators from the mind cultivators. While she managed to easily overcome it after Layn's extensive explanation, that single moment of the stall was enough to put her behind Layn's progress.

nBut that didn't mean she was weak. Not at all.

nBefore the construction started, Irea forced Layn to allow her a small showcase. Even though it was perfectly in line with Layn's wishes, the archmage felt pretty bad about using even his girlfriend for something like convincing others.

nIt was back when he first asked the mercenaries whether they wanted to follow him or not. Back then, Irea forcefully made her way forward and challenged every single member of the mercenary group for a duel.

nBack then, Layn still had some doubts. In the end, not all of the mercenaries that he hired were absolute weaklings, nor all of the strong ones decided to leave prematurely. Yet, in spite of what Layn expected, Irea ended up mopping the floor with every challenger, not even bothering to take a single moment of rest between the fights. Then, the most important part of her showcase came.

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"Everyone. Drop your doubts and hesitations for a moment. I know losing to a fragile woman like me feels awful, but there is one thing you should all realize beforehand.

" Irea said back then, right after she finished the last of her challengers.

"Just a few months ago, back when I returned from the last season of desert hunting, I was weaker than every single one of you!

"

nHer announcement initially didn't stir any reaction. The defeated men looked at her without any real interest, before moving their attention back to the blunt wounds they received during each of their fights. It was her next sentence that made the world of difference.

n

"I know it might be hard to believe, but before I left the city to follow this man, I was a simple quasi-teacher at the academy!

"

nThis statement by itself wasn't that important. What it achieved though, was letting those few who knew about both the city and the academy to see how powerful she was… but not when compared to them. They could understand how powerful she became when compared to how she was just a few months in the past.

nObviously, not everyone had the knowledge required to understand the situation. In fact, outside of Pavrien, Antion, and another mercenary who apparently visited the city beforehand, the remaining four men had no idea what she was talking about.

nBut the reaction of shock visible on the faces of those who knew, was enough to pique their interest. And a few moments later, when those who knew passed their knowledge to those who didn't, the small group of Layn's underlings proved that to create chaos, one didn't need many people at all.

nAnd from this chaos, one thing emerged.

nA row of men, kowtowing on the ground in the direction where Layn stood, all begging for his guidance and approval of them as his disciples.

n

"We should be able to finish most of the work before nightfall,

" Layn muttered to himself while watching the progress of the work. As pleasant as recalling those moments from the past was, it didn't contribute to his project by any means.

nThe archmage raised his eyes. Outside of Irea, two more mercenaries and himself who worked right in the future academy area, everyone else was tasked with bringing more and more wood.

nBut given the somewhat weak cultivation of some of the mercenaries, carrying the logs with just the use of their muscles was way too inefficient. And Layn wasn't naive enough to order his people to do it like that.

nInstead of using their muscles alone, after cleaning the bark and all the protruding parts from the fallen tree trunks, Layn's mercenaries would wrap the logs with a simple rope, before binding them together and dropping them into the waters of the massive lake. With most of the burden of carrying the wood lifted by the usage of water, the only problem that remained was about keeping the logs from crashing into the shore.

nBut it wasn't something that a small gust of one's energy couldn't fix.

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"HEY!

" Irea suddenly shouted right into Layn's ear. Startled, Layn almost jumped back, managing to keep hold of his work only with the utmost effort. Yet, as he looked at the girl's face, it was clear that she was trying to tell him something for a while already.

n

"What?!

" Still agitated by the shout, Layn added a little bit more energy into his response than what he intended.

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"I know you wanted to do plank-roof, but there is no need for that,

" Irea said, pointing her hand at the nearly finished shack. With each of the wooden parts tightly fitting into the others, all that was left now was resting the planks on specially prepared protrusions carved into the beams that made up the roof structure.

"Look what I made in my free time,

" she then pointed her hand to a huge piece of cloth, far greater than anything Layn or his people took with them for this journey.

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"I used most of the stuff that the defectors left, along with some backpacks and a few of my clothes. I then covered it with moss, sand, and clay,

" she explained before pointing her hand at the nearly finished shack.

"How about using it for a roof instead?

"

nLayn shook. For a moment, Irea couldn't tell whether he was happy with the suggestion or disappointed that his own idea wouldn't turn into reality. But when he turned his head towards the girl, Irea understood that neither of her initial guesses was correct.

nLayn grabbed Irea by her arms, looking intently into her eyes.

n

"Clay? Where did you find it?!

"

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