Chương 88: Chapter 87 Lessons Beside the Huge River

Thanks to the efforts of fifty warriors, the expedition reached the Huge River without suffering any significant injuries. They had travelled for more than four hours, so Karath ordered everyone to stop for a meal. There had been no need to carry food from the settlement. The monsters hunted along the way provided more than enough meat. While Gerina and the other women prepared the meal, Parker approached Karath.

"Grand Chief! Parker has a question!"

"What do you wish to know?"

"Parker hunted more than thirty monsters on the way here today!"

"Ahem. You performed admirably."

"However, there is a problem!"

"What problem?" Did he merely want more praise?

"Parker cannot count beyond thirty! The contest with Brother Kaden can no longer continue!"

"Ah..." Karath had not taught numbers to the other tribes yet. Events had progressed so quickly that the issue had escaped his attention.

"Kaden! Krog!" Rather than answering Parker directly, Karath called the two over.

"Did you summon us, Grand Chief?"

"Karath has a task for each of you."

"Give Kaden any command, Grand Chief! Krahahaha!"

"What would you have Krog do?" The contrast between them was remarkable. Kaden eagerly accepted without even knowing the task, while Krog first asked what it involved.

"Kaden, teach Chief Parker how to count beyond thirty. Use the same method Karath used when teaching Bloodclaw. He can no longer count how many monsters he has killed."

"Krahahaha! Understood, Grand Chief!"

"Krog, teach numbers to the warriors from the other tribes."

"There are too many for Krog to teach alone. May he use the Bloodclaw warriors to help?"

"Yes. Divide the others into suitable groups and supervise the lessons." Everything moved quickly after that. Krog immediately relayed Karath's instructions to the warriors of the five tribes. Before long, the Bloodclaw warriors had been matched with the others in groups of three students to one instructor.

"Look carefully! There are twenty leaves here. If one more is added, how many will there be?"

"Imagine these ten stones form a single group, Brother! If there are three groups of ten, how many stones are there in total? Count them!" They used every available teaching tool. Fingers, toes, stones, leaves, and fallen branches all became part of the lesson. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It was convenient to have taught the Bloodclaw warriors beforehand. Karath no longer needed to educate everyone personally.

Those he had instructed could now teach other orcs. Amid that atmosphere of intense learning, Kaden and Parker held a private lesson of their own.

"Look, Chief Parker! After ten comes eleven, then twelve. Numbers beyond thirty work the same way. Thirty-one, thirty-two, and so on!" Kaden was teaching with unexpected patience.

"Now think carefully! If you kill thirty Horn Boars and then crush the heads of three trolls, how many monsters have you killed altogether?" Why were they the only ones using crushed monster skulls instead of stones or leaves? Examples were supposed to involve objects the student could see.

"Krahahaha! Brother Kaden's explanation is remarkably clear! Parker can immediately imagine himself breaking the heads of a Horn Boar herd and three trolls!" Karath fell silent. Perhaps he should have used monster skulls when first teaching numbers. After everyone finished eating and studying, they began clearing the land that would become the new settlement. They felled trees, dug into the earth, and pulled out enormous stones. The flowing river and constant noise attracted monsters throughout the day.

"Krahahaha! Now that Parker can count beyond thirty, every monster may come at once!"

"Krahahaha! None shall pass without defeating Kaden first!" Each time something appeared, the two insane orcs charged forward with delight.

"Do not rush out! The women behind us must be protected!" Fortunately, Krog and Dagon kept the remaining warriors under control. Karath also guarded the work site by assisting with commands and using magic to protect anyone who fell into danger. The warriors continued hunting the monsters drawn to the river while the women felled trees, dug through the ground, and prepared the land. After three or four hours of work, the expedition returned to the settlement before sunset.

They repeated the process for more than ten days. Eventually, they cleared an area slightly smaller than the original Bloodclaw settlement. The open ground was filled with boulders and stones unearthed during excavation, as well as the trunks of the trees they had cut down.

"From today onward, we use these materials to construct the stone wall!" Construction began under the guidance of the Bloodclaw women, who had already built dozens of earthen houses and worked on the original settlement's defences. Whenever monsters were not attacking, the warriors also helped move and stack stones. One hundred workers possessing strength and endurance far beyond ordinary construction labourers built at astonishing speed.

"Raise the wall! Find stones with matching shapes and fit them into the gaps!" The scene resembled children playing with building blocks. The only difference was that the blocks were large enough to crush a human child. There was another similarity. Some children were good at stacking blocks. Others were not.

"Kaden. Chief Parker. Do you truly believe that stone will fit there?"

"Krahahaha! Nothing is impossible with determination, Grand Chief!"

"Chief Parker speaks the truth!"

"Let us combine our strength, Brother Kaden!"

"Gladly, Chief Parker!" The two warriors who had initially competed over everything had somehow become perfectly compatible. More absurdly, they were genuinely forcing a stone of the wrong size into the gap through strength alone. Its sides scraped and fractured against the surrounding rocks until it was crushed into a shape that fit. Karath shook his head. Perhaps he was the fool for wasting so much time thinking. He left the pair to their work and examined the other sections of the construction site.

Then he noticed something interesting. Orga Bearclaw, the warrior who had represented the Bearclaw refugees, was building part of the wall. His method differed strangely from everyone else's. Orcs with no experience in stone construction simply stacked rocks upward without thought. Some even placed heavier and thicker stones near the top. Those with a little sense, or previous experience, built wide foundations that narrowed toward the top, creating walls shaped roughly like triangles.

Orga's wall was also triangular. However, it formed the shape of a right triangle.

"Orga, why are you building it that way?"

"Ah, Grand Chief." Orga looked startled. He had been concentrating so deeply that he had not noticed Karath approaching.

"The bottom must be thick so it can support the weight of the stones above and maintain balance. Otherwise, even a small impact could cause the wall to collapse."

"That is correct. But why are you placing the entire slope on only one side?" Karath pointed toward the right-triangular section of wall.

"If the outer face slopes, monsters may be able to climb it. If that happened, making the wall stronger would have no meaning." Karath's eyes widened. An orc had reasoned that out by himself? And it was not even Krog. Karath had never studied architecture. Everything he built came from little more than practical deduction and repeated experimentation. The original Bloodclaw stone wall had also been his first attempt and possessed a sloped exterior.

He only recognised the problem later and compensated by driving sharpened stakes into different sections. Yet Orga had noticed the flaw during his first wall-building project.

"How did you learn such things?"

"There was a rocky mountain near the old Bearclaw settlement. Like Bloodclaw, Bearclaw also built a stone wall."

"Oh. Karath did not know that."

"It is not something worthy of pride, Grand Chief. Orga only thought of this method after seeing Bloodclaw's wall. The wall at our settlement was built merely by fitting stones together according to their shapes. A charge from a herd of Horn Boars was enough to bring it down." Karath remembered how the Bearclaw settlement had fallen beneath attacks from Horn Boars and an ogre.