"What is this? Why is time not moving?"
Ice Dragon Tyrannus was shocked. He was enjoying his nap, feeling cozy surrounded by the cool air of the cave, when time suddenly stopped around him without affecting him.
What happened? Tyrannus rose.
Grrrr... Rumble!
He dragged his 885-foot-long body, which weighed approximately 10,000 tons, out of the cave.
“...”
The world was at a standstill. The snow falling from the sky hung like a permanent fixture in the air. A deep wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. At last, he sensed it.
Someone must have used the Heart of Winter.
Indeed, there was something unusual about the frigid air that had spread across the world. He was much too familiar with the mana surrounding him. It belonged to the Heart of Winter.
It must be the Heart of Winter. It's the only reason I'm unaffected, as I'm the one who created it.
Tyrannus's furrow deepened.
It must be the doing of that human who absorbed the Heart of Winter.
Tyrannus was upset that the human was carelessly using something that didn't belong to him.
It's mine, after all. I made it as a gift for Mikael and his descendants.
The Heart of Winter had been a celebratory gift to the founding king Mikael of the Magentano kingdom. Tyrannus could still remember the overwhelming joy on Mikael's face, as well as his promise of putting the Heart of Winter to good use and his hope that it would strengthen his descendants. Tyrannus had been pleased that he had chosen the right gift.
A stranger who is not Mikael nor one of his descendants absorbed the Heart of Winter, and is using it on his whims?
Tyrannus didn't like what was happening at all. He had to take action.
I should confiscate it.
The moment he decided so...
Boooom! His two legs kicked off from the ground, and two giant wings fluttered against the wind. But he wasn't able to speed up.
Arggh! This must be because time has stopped. I'm slower than usual.
Even though Tyrannus was immune to the frozen state of time since he created the Heart of Winter, he was still subject to some side effects. His movement had slowed down dozens, no, hundreds of times more than usual. His wings were heavier, and his speed of flight was frustratingly slow.
Tsk. I wish I could teleport, but I can't since time has stopped flowing.
The flow of mana in the world had changed with the freezing of time. The coordinate time scale had been bypassed, preventing Tyrannus from teleporting. He had no choice but to fly at a snail's pace.
At this rate, it's going to take a few months to get there.
Tyrannus grumbled again, resolving with hostile determination to teach that human a lesson. He continued to fly in slow motion toward the northwest plain of the Lorasian Continent.
♣️
Meanwhile, construction was taking place to build a circuit coliseum at the center of the Klamath Plain, which was the only region unaffected by the frozen state of time.
"Okay, Yong Yong," called Lloyd.
Yong Yong cocked its head to the side.
"Do you see the glowing blue lines?"
Creak! Yong Yong nodded its head again. It saw the glowing bluish lines and surfaces surrounding the area.
"Good," Lloyd said. "You just have to dig along those lines and surfaces to flatten them up. What do you think? Do you think you can do it?"
Crack! Yong Yong nodded once again. It could do the job without a doubt. Though the total area was several square miles of square feet, it was a no-brainer to Yong Yong.
Boooom! Three or four times wielding its tail did the job. In no time, the ground was swept away by its destructive tail, the sight being much like sweeping the ground with a broom.
"Urk! Ahem, excellent," observed Lloyd.
When the thick cloud of dust cleared, Lloyd nodded with satisfaction and saw that the land was flattened exactly the way the Construction Guideline had outlined. And on top of that, the dense shrubs of grass had all been pulled out.
Haha. There's a shocking sight for the elves.
Lloyd chuckled as he remembered those groups of plant lovers. Yong Yong's extraordinary feat allowed the groundwork of the coliseum to be swiftly completed.
"Next up! Ppodong. Javier," called Lloyd.
"Ppodong!"
"Yes..." Javier replied with a crestfallen look on his face.
"Off you go!" urged Lloyd as he pointed his finger upward.
"Ppo-do-dong!"
"Whew..."
Ppodong darted across the site while Javier went around with an evident look of self-depreciation, the two of them flattening the areas Yong Yong had missed and filling in the dented areas of land. They carefully completed their task. Next, it was Hamang's turn.
"All right, Hamang," said Lloyd with a clap.
"Hamang!" replied Hamang, who inflated himself to a height of 98 feet after absorbing water from nearby creeks.
"Make good use of all the water you took in to grow. You know what I mean, right? Let's get on with it."
"Hamamang!"
Rollll! Hamang rolled around the land, which Yong Yong swept and Ppodong as well as Javier meticulously tidied up, with his weight. All of these tasks took them ten days to complete. Once it was done, it was time for Bangul to work.
"Okay! Bangul. Push!"
"Bangul!"
Jingle! Bangul dutifully ate the dirt on the ground and produced metal rebars. Lloyd and Javier then organized and cut them into equal sizes and laid them out around the racetrack. The purpose of the rebars was to support the concrete that would become a sturdy layer of ground for the racetrack.
The Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP) method will be used for the grounds of the coliseum's racetrack.
Lloyd had already finished creating the design for this project in advance. The CRCP method boasted a longer service life than any other alternative for it. This meant it was easier and less effort to maintain while also being more cost-effective.
That's why it's widely used on hot, dry, and large pieces of land in places like Texas. It's perfect for a plain such as this one.
There was more. One of the express highways in Korea was built using this same method. It was the Jungbu Expressway.
People really don't know that rebars are placed under the roads they drive on. However, problems arise if a concrete pavement is not reinforced with rebars. That's how important metal rebars are.
The rebars in the concrete pavement were sort of like a frame. It was the best way to prevent small cracks from forming on roads due to temperature and humidity changes in the environment or pressure from driving vehicles.
And that's why I have to be so cautious and careful when I'm installing rebars.
Lloyd installed the cut-out rebars following the direction of the pavement. Of course, this wasn't an easy job, and it was particularly more tedious because he didn't have enough helping hands.
Tsk! I wish the Skeleton Corps was here with me!
Laying the rebars required a special skill set. An advanced one, even.
Of course. The measurement has to be precise. Everything has to be perfectly leveled, and the binding connectors have to be sturdy.
That was the reason why Lloyd couldn't pass the job to the centaurs, whose physiques weren't compatible with this sort of job.
They can't even scratch their bellies with their arms!
Their physique was perfect for running and running only. Due to their extreme physical features, centaurs couldn't so much as scratch their bellies or buttocks without the help of a tool. The same problem applied when they needed to pick something up. Their arms were extremely short even when they bent their knees. In other words, they were completely, utterly, and indisputably useless on construction sites. That was why Lloyd couldn't entrust them to precisely place and bind the rebars together on the ground. It was also why the job fell on him and Javier.
"Whew... after this, I'm going to stop by the Frontera County. I'll bring the entire Skeleton Corps here on Yong Yong's back. With that, I'll be able to employ a tireless group of laborers without needing to provide them with meals or wages. That would be amazing."
The Skeleton Corps was the dream team that every evil employer in the world would die to have. They could be put to endless hours of grueling labor without needing to be fed or paid. The thought of exploiting the skeletons brought a smile to his face.
But for now, Javier and I are doomed to do this job.
Just like that, they sweated through the entire day. One day, two days, three days, ten days, fifteen days, thirty days, sixty days, and then ninety days passed. After three months of work, the rebar installation came to an end.
But since the world is at a standstill, I technically didn't spend a single second on this job.
That was the best part. Next, Lloyd moved on to the next job, which was mixing the aggregates with the cement Lloyd produced during the last three months with the help of Bangul's Volcanic Explosion. As for the mix proportion, Lloyd looked toward the Jungbu Expressway in South Korea as his point of reference.
The thickest aggregate should be less than 1.2 inches. The slump should be 4.5. The oxygen rate should be 4.5%. The proportion between water and cement should be 42.3%. The fine aggregate percentage should be close to 37.7%.
Lloyd strove to keep the proportion the same. He then combined everything together, dug a pool-sized hole in the ground, poured his mixture, and whisked it with Yong Yong's tail. Afterward, he paved the road with concrete and flattened it down with the help of Ppodong.
"Hey, Ppodong. Roll!"
"Ppodong!"
Ppodong was fully wrapped in an oiled piece of paper. He then rolled all over the wet concrete road like a paving machine from South Korea. Thanks to his chubby belly that sent enough weight and vibration to the ground, Lloyd could proceed to the next process of construction after the concrete was perfectly flattened. Curing the concrete. The centaurs joined in and showed their capabilities for this task.
"Excuse me," Lloyd gently said, "Did you finish what I asked you to work on the last time?"
"Of course! Here you go." A centaur woman flashed a big smile at Lloyd before leading him to the backyard of the stable. When he arrived, the area in front of him was filled with dozens of rolled-up straw mats with each being about 16 feet in width and 160 feet in length.
"My," the centaur woman said with mild disgust on her face, "The women in the tribe haven't been able to go on a proper run for the past three months because we were so busy weaving these mats. Our fingers are also all swollen."
"Yikes. Thank you so much for your hard work," expressed Lloyd as he bowed.
"No need to. We're doing this for our kids to race in a safe environment."
"I am glad you understand. I will make sure to build a good coliseum for your children."
"I like the sound of that. Make sure to keep your promise."
"Yes, I will."
Lloyd then took the mats and threw them on the wet concrete to cover them. This was to prevent the roads from direct exposure to sunlight.
This is how I can prevent the moisture from evaporating from the concrete too quickly. Otherwise, cracks will develop across the entire pavement and cause a disaster.
While the pavement was drying under its cover, Lloyd waited and used this period of time to rest for the first time in a while. Fifteen days later, the mats were ready to be removed. Once they were removed, a sleek and smooth pavement was revealed. Lloyd then threw two inches of sand on top of the track to protect the centaurs' hooves from getting damaged by the hard ground.
Some might argue that I could have created the track entirely from sand. But the thing is, a race track with a layer of concrete pavement is completely different than one with just sand.
Once the tracks had a sturdy foundation made of rebars and concrete, there was no need to worry about the ground sinking or shifting. It would remain solid for several decades. Moreover, since he added an additional layer of sand, there would be even less damage from sunlight and temperature changes.
Similarly, a track will last longer and be easier to maintain when it is made with concrete. The only thing that will need to get done after each race is flattening the sand on the track again.
With that, the race track was finished. However, there were more tasks that needed to be done. Lloyd installed fences to separate different tracks and furnished the viewing area for spectators. A stable was also constructed as a waiting and resting area for athletes. These finishing touches took up two more months of construction.
And at last, after about seven months since the time was frozen, a coliseum was built for the first time in Lorasian history. One side was furnished with straight tracks, each extending to 330, 875, and 1640 yards. Beside them was a huge track that ran 2,818 yards north and 1,421 yards south with 19 corners.
I did it...
Lloyd wiped the tears as he looked at the finished coliseum. But he wasn't crying because he was moved.
I'm free now!
Lloyd had to physically participate in this construction throughout all of its processes. He had rolled up his sleeves, dug, flattened, and installed whatever was necessary, sweating buckets every day because the Skeleton Corps wasn't there to help him and the centaurs were useless. Javier, Yong Yong, and the fantastical creatures were the only sources of help he could rely on. As such, Lloyd sometimes had panic attacks over whether he could finish the construction within a year.
But I did it! In just seven months! I've finished the construction!
This was the last time he'd put himself through a nightmare like this. Next time, he'd make sure to bring the Skeleton Corps. Lloyd suppressed his overwhelming emotions with such a resolution.
As such, he was absolutely clueless that Tyrannus, who departed from his ice cave seven months ago, was about to arrive.
