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Clip-clop, clip-clop.

Horse hooves crunched over the gravel path, the Li Dragon Horse arching its neck, its black mane fluttering in the wind.

This main road had been under construction for over two months, with an average of 180 civilian workers maintaining it daily, each paid a copper coin a day. Meaning, this road cost 180 copper coins every day, amounting to over ten thousand copper coins, roughly 1 Gold Coin in two months.

Sometimes, the cost of manpower is astonishingly cheap.

Rocks brought in from various places were smashed into pieces the size of fingernails, neatly spread over the ground, mixed with the sands from the East Coast, giving the whole road a clean and tidy appearance.

Without cement, stepping on gravel and sand, one would invariably get them unknowingly into their shoes.

“It’s a pity that Thorn Ridge is just a hillock with plenty of small stones; they are too small to even cut into slabs. Otherwise, building the main road with stone slabs would be more beautiful,” thought Liszt with some regret. The town was truly barren, with its surrounding resources extremely scarce.

He had now sold Black Pearls twice, his purse bulging with over five hundred Gold Coins.

But he couldn’t immediately convert it into resources—livestock couldn’t be bought in large numbers due to the lack of pasture; too few hands for more construction; roads couldn’t be repaired often due to a shortage of stone; and not enough tools to cultivate barren fields.

Just like today, the whole town was busy refurbishing wooden houses.

Thus, there were no workers for the road.

Under the supervision of the Patrol Team and Clerks, the commoners began inspecting their own wooden houses for soundness. Those with cracked beams were to report for replacement, those with holes in the roof were to report for patching, those with loose windows were to report to have them secured, and those with decaying corners were to report for repair—the commoners were very enthusiastic.

Because Lord Landlord provided the repair materials.

This made the commoners feel like they had gotten a great deal, and not reporting it would be a huge loss!

“Perhaps, I should start making bricks. If stone is insufficient, bricks will suffice,” Liszt mused as he witnessed the fervent renovation battle of wooden houses.

Stonemasons and carpenters are the construction workers of the Different World—commoners live in wooden houses, nobles in stone castles.

In Fresh Flower Town, only Liszt’s castle was constructed with rock masonry and glued with glutinous rice. The value of glutinous rice was very precious; the Elf born from glutinous rice was called “Wall Elf.” Its value lay not in its edibility but its strong adhesive quality.

Without cement, walls were bound either with mud or glutinous rice.

Fortunately, the Tulip Family had a Glutinous Rice Minor Elf, so the castles built by the Earl were extravagantly bonded with glutinous rice.

Such castles, much stronger than those bonded with mud, could also be built very tall.

Take Liszt’s castle, for instance.

Removing its pointed rooftop, it could continue to be extended several floors higher.

“The turning process of brick making has almost no technical content. Once suitable clay is found, qualified bricks can be made… However, you need to build a brick kiln for firing bricks and that requires coal, or at least charcoal. Without experimentation, it’s hard to produce qualified bricks.”

Liszt, who enjoyed reading and pondering in his free time, knew quite a lot.

He understood the production of ice from saltpetre, clay brick firing, handmade papermaking, black gunpowder formulas, primitive concrete, distilling spirits, pancreas formulas, telescopes, glass firing, and even grenade-making once black gunpowder was successfully mixed. Additionally, things like waterwheels, plows, windmills—he could explain the basic principles after a bit of tinkering.

But to turn knowledge into physical objects is no simple feat.

The biggest constraints were materials and manpower.

Ice making with saltpetre required saltpetre; had he not found a Miniature Saltpeter Mine, ice making would remain an idle boast; the same went for glass firing, which needed quartz sand and soda ash. Quartz sand likely required finding a quartz vein, which he remembered as somewhat translucent rock.

But what exactly is soda ash, is it soda?

He remembered that a bit of alkali was needed when making porridge, and there might be a small amount of alkali in wood ash, but where could he obtain the pure soda for glass firing?

Black gunpowder, besides saltpeter, also requires sulfur.

Cement needs limestone.

“Strictly speaking, I seem to still not know what sulfur and limestone look like, right?” Liszt suddenly realized a very serious problem.

He only knew saltpeter could produce ice, quartz could burn glass, limestone could make cement, and sulfur could make explosives.

But what do limestone and sulfur look like?

He only knew before that saltpeter was white, mentioned in many books, found in toilets and corners, and it was only after the Smoke Mission hinted about a Miniature Saltpeter Mine that he was able to find saltpeter.

If he were to look for a saltpeter mine himself, he feared he might go grey-haired without finding any.

“Limestone sounds like a common type of rock, maybe related to marble or granite? As for sulfur, should I try looking around a volcano crater? They say that volcano craters smell of sulfur.”

At this moment, Liszt felt that.

The real him was far more ignorant than he imagined: “This is somewhat embarrassing… but I’m definitely sure where to find the soil for making bricks!”

Theoretically, brick-making requires clay, the kind that can be fired into red bricks.

But if one doesn’t aim for very high quality, most soils can be used to make bricks, with any slightly sticky soil being quite decent material.

There’s plenty of such soil in Fresh Flower Town.

“Once the mission is completed, I’ll gather a bunch of serfs to make bricks for me. I want them to build houses for me.” He intended to build greenhouses for Flame Mushrooms, toilet facilities, pens for pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, and factory buildings. Then, perhaps, a soccer field, a basketball court, and recruit a team of professional players to come over for matches.

“Still, I’ll need to take time to find quartz, limestone, and soda ash. The uses of cement and glass are very extensive.”

Then he suddenly thought, “Actually, I am a noble. Enjoying life should be what I’m supposed to do. Why am I always thinking about inventing things and conducting research?”

He was once a liberal arts student.

Not a science student.

He studied Information Management at college.

“Life is so beautiful, I don’t want to become a magician.”

As he rode his horse, lost in his thoughts.

On a nearby street, a loud crash was heard as a wooden house unexpectedly collapsed.

Liszt raised his hand to block the sunlight, looking in that direction, a crowd buzzing with excitement. He then commanded the Retainer Knights, “What happened there? Go and ask.”

The Retainer Knight quickly brought over a Patrol Member who was supervising the scene.

The Patrol Member knelt on the ground and answered Liszt’s question, “Lord Landlord, it was the loud-voiced Hunte who tore down his own wooden house.”

“He tore down his own wooden house?”

“Yes, we saw Hunte with a stick, striking his own house forcefully, breaking several supporting pillars, and then the house collapsed, burying Hunte inside. However, he wasn’t crushed to death but merely broke an arm.”

“Why did he tear down his own wooden house?”

“Uh, Hunte heard that Lord Landlord’s castle would provide materials for house repairs, so he wanted to replace his wooden house…”