"That's fine. I'll just search for other places," Caesar said casually.
But despite Caesar's assurance, Erica felt like she was a disappointment in her work. She had never failed in satisfying her customers with their dream houses, so she was extra motivated to find something for Caesar.
Caesar and Erica were both sitting in the carriage on their way back to Caesar's house. Erica was busy looking at her office paperwork to try and find any place that would suit Caesar's taste while Caesar was just looking out the window.
"Hm?" Caesar uttered as he saw a tiny shack that was hidden among a large area of grass. If he wasn't paying attention, he would have missed it.
"Stop here," Caesar said, and Silas pulled in the reins. A few of Erica's papers fell to the floor.
"What? What happened?" Erica asked as she bent down and hid under the windows. She was worried that this was one of the gang wars she had heard about.
Caesar didn't answer Erica as he opened the door and walked out to inspect this small shack. It was made of concrete with no decorations nor paint. There weren't even any windows and only had one wooden door that was weathered down.
"What is this place?" Caesar asked.
While looking left and right, Erica got down the carriage and inspected what Caesar was asking about. She quickly looked at her paperwork and got some information.
"There was supposed to be a house here, but the owners stopped their production after the construction of the basement. That shack right there is the entrance to the basement."
Caesar inspected his surroundings. There were no houses around, and no people walking around the streets even though it was supposed to be the busiest time of the day.
"The owners couldn't pay for the construction of the rest of the house, so they just left the grass to grow," she said with a little bit of disgust. As a real estate agent, she knew that this property had little to no value.
But for Caesar, this grass was one of the most promising things about this property. It allowed privacy for the basement, with only a few people even knowing its existence. The people will not see the shack among the grasses.
"Let's check inside," Caesar said as he opened the door and went inside.
"Wait, no one has cleaned that place in years. What if there are…rats?!?!?"
Erica prottested, but Caesar continued to venture down staircase into the basement. She didn't want to follow, but she couldn't just leave him alone.
She followed Caesar down, and the first thing she noticed was the wave of heat as soon as she opened the door. "Ah! That's hot!" Her forehead immediately produced sweat.
As she went down, the heat only became more and more hotter. The construction of this basement was rushed, so they haven't properly added a ventilation system. That was why heat was trapped in here without any release.
"I take it back. Even rats won't survive here for 30 minutes," Erica said as she panted and opened some buttons on her shirt.
Caesar saw the empty basement, which was large enough to fit all of his lab equipment. Aside from a few cobwebs, this place was completely empty.
"I like it."
"Yeah, but don't worry, I'll find you someplace better–wait! You like this?!"
Caesar nodded. This place was perfect for his lab where his Joy would be produced. It checked every requirement Caesar had, and for a plus, it was only a few minutes of carriage travel from Caesar's house.
"But you won't survive here for 10 minutes! How will you produce your pure Joy here?!"
Erica was right. This was no proper workplace for anyone. The heat and the lack of oxygen would slowly kill any worker that dared produce Joy here, which also produced toxic byproducts as steam.
But the workers don't necessarily have to be human. His automatons are not bothered by heat and the lack of oxygen. They would produce Joy even if their bodies were being burned by lava.
"I'll buy this place," Caesar said as he walked up the stairs. Erica was left in the basement wondering if the lack of oxygen made her delusional.
How could Caesar want this hellish place, she thought. Even if he planned to renovate it, it would be much cheaper just to buy a better place.
Back at the carriage, Erica's face was full of questions. "It would be easy to buy this place, but are you sure?"
"Yes. It's the place that I just need."
Erica still looked doubtful, but after some thought, she just sighed. After a few conversations with Caesar, she had come to realize that although his actions may seem crazy, he always had a reason for it.
"Argh, fine. I'll contact the owners and negotiate a fair price. I reckon I could get it for free considering the state of the property. They would probably be grateful to have it away from their hands."
"Then, I'm counting on you."
Caesar dropped Erica off at her office a few minutes away from Caesar's house. After they agreed with the property, Caesar also requested for her to buy some lab equipment and for it to be directly delivered to the basement.
"I can ask around for them and I'll probably have it delivered to the basement by evening."
"Thanks."
"No problem. The faster I deliver it, the faster you will be able to produce Joy, right?"
"Yes."
"Then that's good. The payment for the property and the equipment would be through your product. I'll be expecting it," Erica said as she waved goodbye as Caesar disappeared with the carriage.
Caesar waited at his house for a few hours and got some sleep until the sun set and the moon appeared up in the sky. He was now waiting patiently at his door for the knock.
After a few minutes, he heard a slight knock.
Caesar opened it and saw his loyal driver, Silas. Silas had a slight smile on his face, as if he had completed his mission perfectly without any problems.
"I have it in the carriage, sir."
Silas bowed and moved aside to show Caesar the carriage with boxes peeking out the window. Caesar had tasked Silas in delivering the ingredients from Boban's place.
"You didn't have much trouble, did you?" Caesar said as he opened the carriage and the scent of freshly cut grass immediately hit his nose.
"No, sir. Boban was strangely docile, and he even smiled at me as he handed me the ingredients," Silas said. Although Boban was full of smiles, Silas had a feeling that he was planning something big.
"Don't worry about him. He's an idiot."
"Yes, sir."
Caesar nodded as he inspected the items delivered to him. He was sure that Boban would not try to trick him with defective products, that's why he didn't personally come to his door to get it. Boban wouldn't risk Caesar seeing his house.
"Help me move this inside," Caesar said, but Silas was already halfway to the door carrying a box in his hand.
Once all the ingredients had been safely handled, Silas bowed towards Caesar and left through the door. He already sensed that Caesar needed his privacy.
Caesar went over the ingredients and recalled the instructions needed to conduct the automaton.
[Method to concoct]
[Slather the Homunculus skeleton with the Immortal Jellyfish blood for 2 hours and let it solidify. Once hardened, use elf powder to melt the excess blood and create the automaton body. Insert Dark Slime nucleus into the brain, and use own blood to activate it. Feed the water of life into the mouth.....]
The instructions were fairly simple. He quickly opened the wooden casket of the Homunculus skeleton and transferred it to the sealed bathtub. Next, he carried the transparent bag containing the Immortal Jellyfish blood and ripped it open, letting the blood flood the bathtub. The smell was horrendous, like opening a rotting garbage bag.
Despite the smell, Caesar continued on. He had two hours to wait, so he prepared the other ingredients. The Elf powder was in the form of a crystallized white rock with red streaks, so Caesar had to crush it into fine power. The result was a pinkish hue.
After two hours, he poured the pink Elf powder into the hardened blood. The reaction was instant, and the blood immediately started to boil and evaporate.
Little by little, the blood was chipped away until there was only a humanoid shape that was the same as the skeleton, except there was a layer of solidified blood around it that wasn't evaporated by the powder.
Without Caesar's intervention, a crevice appeared on top of the humanoid. Caesar looked at the violet Dark Slime nucleus and inserted it carefully into the empty skull.
As soon as the nucleus left his hands, it firmly stuck onto the skull like a magnet. Caesar then casually cut his own palm and let the blood flow into the nucleus brain. Caesar didn't see it, but the nucleus lit up on the inside as if it was booting up.
With the brain complete, a change started to happen on the humanoid. The body became more and more slender, fully imitating that of a human body. There were no joints, just a full body.
The face started to change as well as a small slit appeared near the jaw. This was the mouth where Caesar would insert the Water of Life.
Without waiting for another second, Caesar poured one liter of the Water of Life into the automaton. After the water was consumed, nothing happened for a few seconds.
Caesar waited for a few more seconds until the second turned into minutes. Did Caesar make some kind of mistake? Thankfully, after 10 minutes had passed, he heard a voice.
[Automaton created!]
[Code: *input orders here…*]