Chapter 48 - 48

Xiao Chen really wanted to see the process closely, but the heat produced by the ball of fire was too intense and unbearable for him. Rakh'ash'ta tried approaching the kiln, but the intense heat was driving him away.

They just watch as the pulsing ball of fire kept on emitting heat until it finally disappeared like a bubble that was popped.

"Apologies, chief... I can no longer sustain the fire spirit"

The Arkhan shaman muttered as he used his wooden staff for support. He was drained of spiritual energy, his forehead covered with sweat and his breathing ragged.

Xiao Chen nodded as an acknowledgement towards the shaman and approached the kiln where there were ash colored clumps scattered. He wanted to feel it in his hands, but the residual heat was still unbearable and waited for it to cool down.

A few hours of waiting and Xiao Chen finally had some of the ash colored clumps in his hands. He pinched them with his fingers and it shattered into fine powder, easily blown by the winds.

"Is this what you wanted, chief?"

Rakh'ash'ta approached the chieftain as he stared at the materials.

"Looks like it... but we'll need to test it first to be sure that it is what we needed"

Xiao Chen replied as he dusted his hands off the residue of the material.

"Will this bind the stone blocks together, more tightly than clay can?"

A worker orc questioned the chieftain. He can't imagine the fine powder to bind anything together.

"It has plenty of uses, not just for the walls, it can also build other structures like houses, roads, and bridges. It will shatter most common knowledges about structures that we knew of."

Giving orders to the orc workers nearby to ground the clump materials together to fine powder and put them in a container. Xiao Chen hoped it was what he wanted. He mixed the test cement with some river sand that was piled up by taurens under his request.

Xiao Chen then added water and mixed it up throughly, he took two leftover fire bricks and applied the resulting paste in between them.

"Did it work, chief?"

Rakh'ash'ta excitedly asked, as he was more interested in it than anyone else.

"We'll find out tomorrow"

Xiao Chen replied as he set the bricks on a suitable spot near the kiln.

*****

The next morning, Xiao Chen hurried to the fire brick structure and what greeted him made him knit his brows together. All his commanders were there. They were all just waiting for him to unravel whether or not the test was successful.

Looking at the two bricks, the cement appeared solid already, and the bricks seemed tightly stuck with each other. He touched the cement and sure enough; it had solidified overnight.

Now for the actual test, Xiao Chen grabbed each brick in his hands and tried separating them with all his strength, his muscles bulged as veins started emerging on his arms and neck, he was exerting all he can but the two bricks remained stuck together.

Tossing the stuck bricks towards the muscle head, Galum'nor, Xiao Chen, told him to separate them. Galum'nor tried his best in trying to separate the bricks but to no avail. Irritated by his failure, he slammed the bricks hard on the ground.

Under the surprise look of everyone, only the fire brick got damaged as one of it broke into two, but the part that was attached by the cement remained firmly stuck together.

"So this is the effect of the so-called cement"

Sakh'arran muttered and stared at the chieftain, amazement was apparent on his face.

"This is simply incredible! Yesterday it was as soft as clay but just in one night it became as strong as a rock. With this, the city wall that the chief spoke of would be totally possible. We can build a wall quickly with this... Ha! We can now build walls faster than pinkskins"

Rakh'ash'ta exclaimed as he picked up the bricks on his hand, slowly feeling the solidified cement on his hands.

"Not just walls, we can also build magnificent houses with it that can rival the ones built by the pinkskins. We can make our own castles as grand or grander than them"

Xiao Chen smiled. The test was a success and with it, the orcs we'll now leaped from being tribal society into a city.

*****

Real production of the cement went into rapid development. The Arkhan shaman took turns with the troll sages in blasting the raw materials with intense heat. The troll sages volunteered as soon as they have learned that the chieftain was looking for anyone capable of using fire in their magic arts. Hotter the fire, the better.

The Arkhan shaman sighed in relief as there were four troll sages who were proficient in fire arts, but they had to work in twos to produce enough heat for the materials to be done. The time they did it alone, it was a failure as the produced cement was subpar and didn't work as the chieftain wanted.

The orc forgers started forging long and thick iron rods as chieftain requested when the real production of the cement started, the chief said that it would reinforce the durability of the structure.

They forged very long iron rods which were twice and thrice bigger than the iron spears that they were previously tasked to make.

Day after day, the village was busy in producing the materials for the city wall. Xiao Chen was no engineer, but he had knowledge of building defensive structures during his years as a soldier.

The trenches and defensive walls that they built during the wars that he took part in, the walls that saved them from many enemies that lurked in the shadows.

On the blueprint of the city wall, there is a pillar every ten meters of the wall which will be purely made of concrete and the iron rods, making the wall more durable and resilient to impact.