“Look, you can see it, can’t you? We’ve spent all our time on that
frustrating platinum oak since yesterday morning, but this
pathetic amount is how much progress was made even with ten
adult men swinging their axes at it.”

The index finger and thumb on his right hand formed a smallish
semicircle.

The large white and brown tree with a trunk of a mel and a half
across had spread its roots deep into the earth, stubbornly
rejecting the laborers. Two men swung their large axes in turn
even now, but the notch carved in its trunk was shallow indeed, at
less than even ten cen.

Sweat poured down the men’s bare upper bodies like waterfalls.
Their chests and arm muscles were developed well enough, but
their handling were rather stiff, perhaps due to the lack of need to
wield an axe in their daily activities.

One of the men had his right leg slip as she watched and struck a
wrong spot at an angle. The axe snapped at the middle of its
handle and unrestrained laughter from the man’s co-workers
immersed him as he fell hard on his buttocks.

(Alicization Invading, 54)