Day 8. Night.

In the periphery of the river.

A throng of workers, consisting mostly of womenfolk from the town, trudged around busily. Their faces were covered with exhaustion while their bodies were plastered with mud, leaves, and other debris. Their arms, tired and aching from a full day's workload, carried the final pieces of lumber that would complete the dam.

“Oi, Douglas! Where’d ya want me to put this?” A woman in her late thirties arrived near Douglas who was busy coordinating the other workers and yelled.

“Hmm?” Turning around, Douglas saw the bundle of short, cylindrical poles that the woman carried on her waist, and asked, “Are these the final ‘locks’?”

“That’s what they told me.” The woman nodded her head.

“Great! Give ‘em to Martha’s group over there. She’ll put those in,” Douglas instructed, pointing in the direction of the distant group. The woman with the load nodded her head and quickly proceeded in that direction.

Seeing her walk away, Douglas realized that their ambitious project was almost complete. They had built a revolutionary and ingenious –as far as Douglas was aware that is– contraption in record time!

‘So, this is a dam!’ Douglas inwardly exclaimed as he saw the wall of lumber in the distance. Logs of lumber were used to construct tall walls, almost double his height, that hindered and blocked the flow of the river, altering its direction. It was a construction that was unlike anything that Douglas had ever seen or heard before.

‘If the direction of rivers could be freely altered like this, then we’ll be able to create fertile lands even in barren lands!’ The significance of this idea was especially important in the lands of the three kingdoms. It would mean an end to wars fought for the sake of fertile lands!

‘If we could add a gate-like contraption to the walls, something that can be opened and closed at will, then we’ll even be able to regulate the flow of water!’ Douglas’ eyes shined at the explosion of ideas and the endless possibilities that they represented in his mind.

Sure, the dam that they’d constructed was extremely basic and only served the purpose of blocking the river. But that didn’t mean that it had to stay that way! With the right innovation, resources, and manpower, they could bring the idea to new heights.

‘What if we used metal to construct it? Hmm, no. That wouldn’t work. Metal rots in water if it isn’t processed and maintained properly. What if we use clay?’ A flash of lightning struck Douglas as he yelled, “BRICKS!”

His shout drew the attention of the workers around him, most of whom looked at him with disdain.

“If ya got that much strength left? Why don’t ya help us carry this stuff?” A middle-aged woman asked.

“Cough, cough, Get to work,” Coughing away the embarrassment, Douglas buried his mind into his thoughts. ‘The bricks produced in the kiln can be used to improve the dam!’

The kiln was almost complete in its construction and could start producing bricks at a moment’s notice. Were it not for the two days of unexpected downpour that halted all operations, it [kiln] would already be doing so.

‘First the bricks, and now the dam. His Highness truly is a blessed son of the heavens,’ Douglas thought with pride, but then immediately turned depressed. ‘Still…’ The order forcing the children to work caused Douglas to feel uncomfortable.

He soon shook his head. ‘It isn't my place to judge milord. I should just stick to doing what’s asked of me.’ Douglas exited from his ponders and continued with his duty.

The dam construction was mostly over. Walls of lumber were bound together and erected along the path of the river, effectively altering the river’s direction. The surging waters no longer flooded towards the town but instead crashed against the walls and were redirected to the opposite side. Of course, this meant that the area on the opposite bank of the river would get submerged in the water. This, however, wasn’t really an issue as no settlements or important resource points were located on the other bank.

That being said, it still meant that the terrain of the forest would be affected to a certain extent. The river’s changed course would affect the natural environment, bringing about uncertain changes to the Brooding Dark Forest. Changes small or less were changes nonetheless.

In any case, it was cause for concern for the future. For now, the town had been saved from disaster. The dam also represented opportunities to exploit in the near future.

Time continued to pass and soon it was midnight. The female workers and their minority male counterparts had worked uninterrupted for nearly fourteen hours, the longest in recent times. They received neither breaks to rest nor rations to eat during this period; not due to the lack of availability but due to the lack of opportunity. It went without saying that they were beyond exhausted.

“Fuu~ I’m about to pass out.”

“Don’t go passing out here. I ain’t carrying you back to the town.”

“Gods, my hunger’s killing me. Say, do ye think that the children would’ve eaten?”

“They have. I noticed my brat spillin’ his soup all over himself when I had returned to haul a load of the lumber. Wastin’ food like that, I’m gonna beat his arse until it bleeds when I get back!”

“Yer’ poor boy’s in for it, huh? Just be careful to not be too heavy-handed, lest he bleeds too much.”

“It’ll be fine. That fancy Medical Center can stitch him back up.”

“By the heavens, it’s already midnight, huh? Does anybody know if the miners have returned?”

“They must’ve, right? It’s already been a full day since the rescue party left.”

“What if somethin’ has happened to ‘em?”

“For heavens sake, woman! Wash that mouth of yers! Do ya want somethin’ to happen to ‘em?”

“My bad! My bad! I’m startin’ to go mad from hunger.”

Conversation continued to flow as the group of tired women gathered around and gossiped. They were waiting for the final word of confirmation from Douglas confirming that their work here was done. It was only after his approval that they would be able to return to the town.

Meanwhile, Douglas checked and rechecked every inch of the walled construct. He patched the areas that required patching, locked the locks that required locking, hammered the nails that required hammering, and so on and so forth. It took him a whole forty minutes to go through the entire structure before he stopped.

‘It’s done.’ The dam was finally done. Of course, it wasn’t perfect or complete by any means, but it was sufficient. It would hold until the river calmed down and would protect the town from the danger of flooding.

In its final form, the dam was a two-meter tall wall-like construct held together firmly by ropes, nails, and an igneous system of ‘interlocking beams’ native to this world; as far as Atlas was concerned that was. Dykes ran at uniform intervals perpendicular to the lumber walls, dispersing and draining the surging water from the other side. Additionally, gullies and smaller ‘check dams’ were also constructed at routine points in order to guard against any unexpected events.

The finished dam marked the completion of the first large-scale public works project that concerned and affected the unnamed town as a whole. It also marked the first successful fusion of ideas borne from Atlas’ previous world, this world, and the ingenuity of the local’s talents.

And with one successful precedent, it was only time before more such successes followed.

Walking over to the area where the tired workers had gathered, Douglas took a deep breath before yelling, “A’right, ladies! Work’s done! It’s time to go home!”

“Fu*king finally.” With that shared emotion, the workers began their return to the town.

---

Arriving at the town’s eastern end after a ten-minute journey, the exhausted workers found themselves at a loss.

“Where’s everyone?” Their surroundings were eerily quiet and strangely abandoned.

Douglas scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze. His greying eyebrows scrunched up together as he thought to himself, ‘Where’s milord? Didn’t he say that he’d be here?’ Douglas had resolved himself to investigate further when…

“What’s that smell?” One of the women sniffed at the air and asked with a perplexed voice. At her prompt, the other workers and Douglas also joined her in sniffing the air.

A strange, enticing smell hung in the air.

“This is… meat?” Douglas guessed, hesitantly.