*Thump*
Arriving on the second floor, I was greeted by the pulsating core.
Due to its increased size, it now looked even more imposing.
"The whole construct somehow doesn't seem entirely plausiblen stable," I pondered. "Hmm, maybe the Point of Gravity works differently, or it's because of the floor."
Normally, such a heavy sphere should fall, even if there's a point of gravity inside it.
It certainly felt that way. But I might be mistaken.
"Never mind!" I thought for now, as I wanted to create the planets mantle.
If everything goes according to plan, I'll have 200 EC left at the end, which I can use to start creating the Earth's crust.
I started to form a golden-orange lava around the Earth's core.
The name and abilities of the material that makes up the mantle are quite simple, but when used correctly, it can bring both destruction and support: Slow Rock.
Since the Earth's core emitted enough heat, the Slow Rock slowly melted into a golden-orange lava.
I continued to create it, and now the sphere was surrounded by a slightly yellowish rock.
The diameter of the planet was now 140,000 km wide.
I teleported to the Control Room briefly to give the heat time to melt the rock.
If all went well, the upper mantle would become viscous, allowing me to create continental plates.
"There's quite a lot to do!" I thought.
Ten minutes later, I teleported back. I was greeted by a brightly glowing, hot mass.
"Damn! That wasn't planned, of course!"
The rock was entirely liquid, and it moved slowly only because of its abilities.
However, the problem was the heat it was still emitting. It would melt the continental plates!
"Hmmmmmmmmm, what can I do?" I wondered.
I scanned the materials again, looking for new ones and if I have to change them, but I was quite satisfied with their abilities.
I searched for new rocks and masses.
"Green... blue... glassy... hard... flying... non-melting... non-aging rock," I read aloud.
"Ah, wait!" A few rocks later, "Non-melting rock" caught my attention.
"That's it!" I exclaimed with relief.
I really didn't want to remove everything and start over.
The material was now labeled "Non-Melting Rock." I read through its properties and mumbled, "This is exactly what I need."
The "non-melting" part is a bit exaggerated; it just has an extremely high melting point of 100,000 degrees Celsius.
Moreover, it doesn't conduct much heat, so normal rock above this layer won't be affected by the heat. However, since this rock doesn't possess any of my [CS], it is exceptionally expensive.
It's also one of the rare materials available, even though it doesn't belong to my Dungeon.
Apart from the usual materials like earth, stone, water, iron, and so on, there are only a few materials with abilities, which can be counted on two hands!
"But needs must!" I chuckled.
It was ten times more expensive than Zeitraumium.
Therefore, I had to be frugal with it. I had miscalculated slightly, so I now had about 300 EC left.
With this, I created the first plate.
____
Age: 0 years, 7 months, 0 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours
EC: 0/1,500
—> 2 EC regenerates per hour
---> Tempora: 1.2 EC per hour
---> Second Floor: 0 EC per hour
______
Now, I saw a relatively small plate floating on the golden planet. It was only 500 km thick, feeling like a mere piece of paper on this enormous continent. However, the plate was about ten times the size of Europe, but it still looked quite small.
I watched the plate for a short while and noticed gladly, that it really doesn't meld.
Now, it seemed like waiting again.
"Hmm, what should I do during this time?" I asked myself because being idle for so long gets boring after a while.
Although I had been lying around in my last life as a grandpa, I could watch TV, listen to the radio, or read all day long.
I was quite self-sufficient back then.
After one of my grandchildren gave me a tablet with apps that covered everything, I had access to modern technology.
While such technology existed earlier in my life, I preferred to stay away from it and instead read physical newspapers.
That's why I sometimes found myself bored and a bit lonely here.
I returned to the Control Room.
I would like to go to the first floor, but then it would take even longer for my EC to refill.
I realized that creating things had become a kind of addiction for me. I was never a big builder, but I was starting to enjoy the things a Dungeon does. And now without something to do…
"What do other Dungeons do in their spare time?" I wondered because, without my [CS] of Time, I would probably have to wait 100 years to unlock my second floor.
"Hmmmmm, I could revisit and revise my theories and ideas because I've noticed that some need improvement," I said aloud. "Or I could create a new species!"
Designing the species doesn't cost anything until you actually create the creature, as long as you use the menu for composition. You can tinker freely and only "pay" for the finished creature.
"I think I know what I'll do!" My plan was to go to the first floor and check if the first intruder had reached the second part of the island. If not, I would pause the creation of the second floor to make the Control Room more comfortable.
In the meantime, I would create a new creature that could potentially keep me company. Maybe a dog?
The important thing was that this animal was intelligent enough to communicate with me, possibly through writing.
In that case, a dog was out of the question.
"Besides, I want to use my new [CS]," I said.
I teleported to the first floor to get some fresh air and check things out.
While I could access the map from the Control Room, I wanted to see the floor again.
It was currently nighttime, and I floated in the air, surrounded by clouds.
Despite the clouds, I could see little stars twinkling on the ground below.
I opened the map overview and saw that there were no intruders on the second part of the island. Despite the month that had passed since my awakening after evolution, not much had changed.
I shifted my focus back to the stars on the ground.
I knew these were small flowers that glowed at night. During the day, they were rather hidden.
These flowers grew in savannas and desert regions, where the soil was nutrient-poor. I didn't have a desert, but I did have a part of the savanna. During the day, they closed their petals, saving their mana to glow brightly at night.
If an insect was attracted to the light at night, it would be captured or the plant let the insect pollinate other flowers, depending on the season.
They reminded me of Venus flytraps from my old world, except that the reddish part in this plant glowed white, and the "mouth" was disguised as flowers.
And when they catch and eat an insect, they have enough nutrients to grow, survive or create new seeds.
"Fascinating little plants!" I exclaimed. "Incredible!"
Since everything seemed safe and I hoped that the intruders, who were almost like locals now, wouldn't suddenly skip multiple epochs and gain the ability to reach the exit quickly, I teleported back to the Control Room.
I revisited the Control Room's design and some of the theories I had formulated, which I recorded in my third notebook titled "Theories of the New World"
and the fourth,
"Control Room."
One thing I planned to do was create a cabinet for my notebooks so that I could organize them neatly.
Fifty-eight hours later, my EC was fully replenished, and I could start working.
____
Age: 0 years, 7 months, 1 week, 1 day, 1 hour
EC: 1,500/1,500
______
I expanded the partially constructed floor made of Chronit-Bedrock. Fortunately, the Control Room wasn't too large and had become a room of 200x200x200 meters after evolution.
For a small EC cost, I completed the floor and immediately started creating the layers of earth.
Topsoil, humus and such.
These were the same layers as on Tempora but with stronger options.
This option was unlocked after evolution and allowed plants to grow faster.
Each layer that reached the roots would quadruple their growth rate. Thanks to the Chronit-Bedrock, the plants wouldn't decay as quickly and could maintain a certain state almost indefinitely.
"That's pretty cool!"
After creating that, I had 1,498 EC left.
In the center, I transformed the ground into Chronit-Bedrock within a specific square area, making it level. This area would be where the small house was going to be.
The house was planned to be 35x30x4 meters. However, I realized that I had never built a house before.
"It's a shame there are no pre-made options!"
I knew I wanted large windows for natural light, so I moved and initially placed the foundation in the middle, closer to the wall.
Now, it was less than 10 meters away from the wall. The side facing the room would become a window front.
I tried a bit, but things didn't go as planned. So, I postponed the construction of the house and started working on the garden.
I modified the excavation for the pond to look more like a real lake. It was now located opposite the planned house and had an uneven shore. The water was held in place from the rear and sides, thanks to the wall of the Control Room.
This meant that the hole was adjacent to the wall, forming a cavity.
I slowly deepened the hole until it reached a depth of 11 meters at the deepest point.
This way, my future pet or companion could swim and bathe there.
The bottom was sandy.
I then had the idea to make the Control Room uneven.
I gradually raised it toward the house, planing to creating a small stream flowing past the house into the lake.
The entire floor now had a gentle slope, and I simulated some boulders behind the planned house.
I placed some rocks near the lake and created a 5-meter-high cliff. Even though there was no greenery yet, it already looked much more natural.
I filled the lake with [Crystal Youth Water].
As the name suggests, the water was crystal clear, and nothing could change that.
In the white light of the room, it was almost easy to overlook, but it was incredibly expensive!
Placing the water source behind the planned house in the rocks and the sea water costs together 1,100 EC.
"It's daylight robbery!"
However, it could almost stop the aging process, and if you drank half a liter of it every day, you wouldn't die of old age. But you shouldn't give it to children because they would remain children forever.
"Sometimes that's not so bad!" I chuckled.
I created Fresh Time Grass for a minimum amount of [ECs], covering the ground.
This grass ensured particularly fresh air and could rejuvenate itself.
Even though it was unnecessary since I had [Chronit-Bedrock], I placed great importance on having fresh air.
The atmosphere of the Control Floor was already different.
I planted some willows near the lake, and they were already fully grown. Next to the planned house, I planted a sapling of a [Long-Living Tree].
This tree would grow and serve as an indicator of my presence in this world. With the remaining 300 [ECs], I went hunting for good weather, times of the day, and seasons.
They didn't have to be extravagant but rather simple and beautiful.
Still, they needed to have something special, so I paid a little extra for a better option.
I chose a normal yearly cycle: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. I also purchased the Beautiful Weather Cycle.
These consisted of many weather phenomena.
Additionally, I bought Logical Weather to ensure that the natural events occurred logically.
For the Control Room, it meant that during winter, it mostly snowed, and during summer, the sun mostly shone.
However, there were no natural disasters, and as the name suggested, the weather events looked beautiful and unique.
Every weather is going to be unique, so that it is not getting boring to watch them.
I also created [The Beautiful Night] to ensure that there would be a change between day and night.
In this selection, the word 'beautiful' is once again a key factor, providing beautiful and unique sunrises and sunsets, as well as often a beautiful night.
"Incredible!" I smiled. "I'm looking forward to this."
After the creation was complete, a blue sky immediately stretched overhead.
What surprised me, however, was the design of the walls.
I had never really looked at how they closed in on the huge floors.
Tempora is limited, and what would happen as you approached the walls?
There was a point where it became foggy. It was actually fascinating, as long as you didn't try to look "under" the sky; you would not see this fog.
The fog had a height of only 1 to 2 meters, and the sky above it was designed to make it look like there was more beyond the fog, as if the sky was a dome.
"Incredible!"
I considered whether to leave it as it was or create a fence or wall.
I opted for a simple wooden fence made of logs but in a way that didn't make it feel like you were trapped.
The fence consisted of individual upright logs, about 1.5 meters high, with two logs horizontally offset and mounted between them.
This now ran around the left and right sides of the floor. Behind the house, it was not necessary because there were boulders, and it didn't stand out as much by the lake.
Speaking of the lake, now that natural sunlight shone, it sparkled with a light turquoise color and was still visible all the way to the bottom.
"In the sunlight, the lake, or rather the pond, looks incredibly refreshing!"
It reminded me of ice-cold water on a hot summer day, emitting slight reflections.
"If only..." I floated to the shore, and although I couldn't see my feet, I slowly waded into the pond. As soon as the water touched the contrail that served as my legs, I could feel its light refreshing coolness.
"Hmm, now all that's missing is the little house!"
...
"Yippeeeee!" I had finally done it.
The house was complete!
With a lot of experimenting, I had finally finished it. It might not be perfect, but it is already very idyllic for my first house.
The surplus EC that had accumulated during the week had been used to create the earth plates and the initial layout of the continents.
____
Age: 0 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 0 days, 2 hours
EC: 431.2/1,500
______
"Now, back to the house!"
The sun was setting in the Control Room, making the scene even more picturesque.
The idyllic little house by the lake was now nestled in a scenic backdrop, surrounded by a piece of beautiful nature and a gold-glimmering lake swaying gently in the evening sun.
The house was primarily made of fresh, natural wood, blending perfectly with the natural surroundings.
The decision to use fresh, natural wood as the main building material was obvious.
The large sliding windows facing the lake were a must from the beginning.
They captured the breathtaking view of the lake, provided natural light, and created a connection to nature.
The interior should be as inviting as the environment.
So, I opted for a spacious living area that extended from the windows to the center of the house. Although the fireplace, made of hewn stone, stood in the corner, it was the centerpiece of the room, providing warmth and coziness.
The rustic antlers, out of light stone, above the fireplace, were a personal touch I had added.
The simple sofa in front of the fireplace had been carefully selected to offer maximum comfort.
Above the sofa hung a self-made mural depicting the beauty of the surroundings.
Of course it was not good.
"Better than nothing!"
A fluffy carpet out of dried mosa and a solid wooden table completed the room to make it cozy and inviting.
The open kitchen and dining area were perfect to maintain a sense of space and openness.
The kitchen was equipped with old-fashioned functionality, and the use of rustic wood for cabinets and countertops gave it a natural charm.
The kitchen had no modern appliances because they didn't exist for me to create, and I couldn't build them from scratch.
It had taken me more than a week just to build a simple house with windows and doors!
The bedroom was located on the upper level.
I had decided to make it two stories because there was one thing I really wanted to have.
Now, I had a comfortable bed with a view of the lake through a large panoramic window, ensuring that I would be greeted by the beauty of nature every morning.
The bathroom was also designed with natural materials and featured a spacious shower, though it was made of smooth anthracite stones and white porcelain sinks.
I had managed to build a basic pump, so there were simple showers and sinks, all connected to the Crystal Youth Water source.
The problem with all these things was that I couldn't create manufactured items.
I could only bring about natural things to a certain extent, like carving a thick tree trunk into a basic boat.
Therefore, things like the windows were made from smoothly polished transparent crystals, and many other "normal" things were replaced with something different.
Even though I wasn't a craftsman by profession, I had seen and understood how a few things worked in my long life.
General knowledge, really.
Until now, it had all been a formality because, as a ghost, I wasn't really interested in any of it.
"Slowly but surely, I really wish for a functioning body again," I muttered.
Even as an immobile old guy, I could experience all these things more vividly than as a spirit.
So, the idyllic little house by the lake wasn't just a construction project for me; it was a place where I could fully enjoy the peace of nature, even as a ghost.
It would be my retreat where I could unwind and draw inspiration from the beauty of the surroundings.
"Now, for the best part!" I had recreated the Lizardfolk Altar for my real body, the Core.
Of course, it was larger and more comfortable.
Now that everything was finished, I accessed my status and selected [Core].
Until now, it had been floating unaltered in the middle of the room, almost invisible because it seemed inconspicuous.
I placed the altar next to my bed and put my Core into the hollow of the altar.
„Finished!"
"Ah, but now, a break!" I said aloud with relief.