Chapter 45

Yuki's Ambition: The Creation of a Model

Leila's gaze stung . It was so cold that both Lefi and I felt like it'd pierce right through us if we allowed her to continue staring at us . Unable to bear it, we excused ourselves . The dragon girl claimed to be tired and quickly retreated to take a nap, whereas I chose to head to the dungeon's field floor under the pretense of wanting to practice magic .

I took a deep breath as soon as I arrived, allowing fresh air to fill my lungs . As soon as they were filled, I sighed . I wasn't too sure how I was supposed to bring myself to face Lefi . Things were sure to be awkward between us .

There was no denying that I'd lost control of myself . Her wings had been so fascinating that I'd forgotten my self-restraint . Frankly put, touching them was addicting . All super high quality things had the ability to draw people to them, to retain attention for far longer than was reasonable . And Lefi's wings were no exception . Even just running my fingers across them had totally blown my mind . The soft and silky sensation was so wonderfully addicting that I felt it deserved to be classified a dangerous narcotic .

Still, it was my fault I lost control .

You know, I think the best way for me to deal with this whole dilemma is just to pretend it never happened . Everything'll be fine as long as I don't make a big deal out of it . I mean, that's what I did with the whole Illuna bloodsucking incident, and that's turned out fine so far . In fact, I'd even go as far as to say it couldn't have possibly turned out any better . Y-Yeah, you know what? Lefi's probably thinking the same thing anyway . Things would start getting really awkward really fast if we started getting all conscious of each other, especially since we live together . Yup . You know what? That's right . Nothing happened . Nothing at all .

I was all but certain that, if I ended up becoming a politician back in Japan, I would have been known as "the asshole that never shut up about not making a big deal out of everything . "

***

It took a while, but I eventually switched gears and directed my mind towards a task that was a bit more productive: thinking about the dungeon's abilities . I'd spotted an interesting function earlier, but I hadn't the chance to test it . It, Creative Construction, provided me the ability to engineer any facility I wished, exactly as I imagined it . The only thing that limited the ability was its caster, which, in this case, was me .

I had no idea as to exactly how it worked . All I knew was that it was what I liked to call a dungeon skill, an ability that functioned based off of the dungeon's mysterious powers .

The skill was user friendly and convenient, but naturally came with its own set of drawbacks . There was no such thing as a free lunch, after all .

Its first major drawback was that it consumed a ridiculous amount of DP . A single cast of it would eat up everything I'd gotten from last night's massacre, and then some . That said, its cost was still a mere tenth of what was needed to purchase the cheapest castle listed in the dungeon's catalogue . Fortunately, the cost was static . It didn't matter if I wanted to make a castle or a doghouse . They both cost exactly the same .

The second major downside was that it was extremely unforgiving . Like with primordial magic, I needed to picture what I wanted to make, down to the finest detail . If the image I had in my head wasn't clear enough, then the spell would end up failing to create what I desired . That is, my castle would just end up as a castle sized chunk of turd if I didn't know exactly how I wanted it to look .

My new dungeon skill's final major issue came with the fact that it required mana to function . The amount of magical energy it needed scaled with the size of the final output . A doghouse wouldn't have required too much mana, but a castle was a whole different story . I couldn't even begin to fathom its requirements .

Though Creative Construction had a tonne of restrictions and stipulations, I still thought it was well worth using . Its cost was one whole order of magnitude less than the cheapest castle listed in the dungeon catalogue, and three whole orders of magnitude less than the most expensive .

It would literally take me decades to save up enough DP to purchase the most costly product . It wasn't impossible for me to wait that long given that my lifespan was now well over a thousand years in length, but I didn't want to . I just didn't have the patience for it . There was no reason for me to consider buying anything that expensive without first giving Creative Construction a chance .

More importantly, the dungeon skill allowed me to customize the castle to my liking—an opportunity I could hardly turn down . I wasn't sure whether or not I would be able to make anything tasteful, but I knew I would prefer my own creation to the cookie cutter castle listed in the dungeon's catalogue .

Personally, I lacked the brain power to picture both the interior and exterior simultaneously . I was far too much of an amateur . Fortunately, Creative Construction was flexible enough to allow me to design the exterior on my first pass and renovate the interior thereafter, albeit at the cost of extra DP . As far as I was concerned, that was perfect . Being a M*necrafter, I knew that I could pull off tweaking the interior so long as I had the exterior crafted ahead of time . [1]

All minecr*fters are basically wizards that excel in spatial magic, after all .

I didn't have any specific final design in mind, so I started making random miniature models using earth magic as I got my thoughts in order . Of course, I didn't start constructing immediately . My first step was to do research by getting myself a few reference materials using DP . Specifically, I procured 100 pictures of castles from my previous world .

My goal was to create something extravagant, so I tried finding screenshots from games, but alas, there weren't any available . Regardless, I managed to psych myself up and get started .

***

"Heya Master, whatcha up to?"

Lyuu approached from behind and curiously peered at the many dirt castles sitting at my feet . She was holding a large basket filled with wet clothes . It seemed that she was getting ready to hang the laundry out to dry .

"Oh, hey Lyuu . "

"Wait, woah! Did you make all those, Master?"

"Yeah," I replied despondent as I slowly raised the upper half of my body off the patch of grass I'd been lying down on .

"Wow! Y'sure are good at crafts ‘n stuff! They look real good!"

"Thanks… Hearing that makes me feel a lot better . "

"I-Is somethin' wrong? You're soundin' kinda down . "

"Eh, you know…" I frowned .

I had all the research and skills I needed in order to create a magnificent castle . In fact, I'd even taken quite a liking to some of the miniatures I'd created . But by no means was I truly satisfied . None of the castles I'd created were up to par; I wanted to at least make something on the tier of An*r L*ndo . [2] But I couldn't . No matter what I did, I found myself unable to create anything that solemn and majestic . Fr*m Software's designers were simply out of my league . [3]

Wait, why the hell have I already given up? I've only been at this for two goddamn hours!

The wizards at F*om Software were sure to scoff at me if they heard me complain . They'd probably continued slaving away in front of their monitors, building and modeling until they started shedding tears of blood . My inability to emulate their work was a given . I'd only invested two hours to their thousands .

Expecting to achieve their standard had been nothing short of stupid on my part .

That said, I knew it wasn't going to take me much longer . Unlike them, I didn't have to use a game engine or 3D modeling tool . All I had to do was forge myself a mental image of the castle .

And, as the Demon Lord of Creativity [4], I was sure to succeed so long as I continued to push myself forward .

"Alright! One more time!"

Again, I hyped myself up before closing my eyes and focusing on the castle I wished to construct .

Imagine it . Come on Yuki, you can do this . All you have to do is imagine it .

The citadel that manifested within my mind was dyed in black . It was covered from head to toe in the very same shade of black that filled the night around it . It was impenetrable . Its pitch black ramparts loomed over all that dared to challenge it, overpowering them with its imposing presence . Strong and sturdy was its gate . It was so thick that it could tank a dragon's assault without budging the slightest bit . And so tall it stood that it could fit a giant with room to spare . Its walls were lined with towers adorned with sharp, pointed tips, and its residential area was made entirely out of jet-black mansions that extended as far as the eye could see .

The sheer size of the property was abnormal . And at its center lay the palace, solemn as a chapel and large enough to dwarf its surroundings . Dull lights shined out from within the structure's windows, illuminating it just enough for its outline to be seen in the darkness of the night . It was so stunning to see that it could only be described as phantasmagorical . And though it was ominous, it still tugged at the hearts of all that looked upon it .

That was what I wanted to create: an intimidating fortress that inspired fear, dread, and passion in those that saw it . I wanted it to make its beholders feel not only tiny and insignificant, but also stupefied by its majesty .

An ideal that no true man could deny .

Once I solidified the image, I activated my primordial magic and forced the earth itself to move . The soil around me warped, obeying my commands .

Creating a miniaturized model of something was normally quite difficult . There was a complicated and detailed manufacturing process, involving many steps that I failed to understand . Primordial magic, however, allowed me to circumvent the more complicated steps and skip to materializing the result exactly as I wished for it, so long as I could picture it clearly in my head .

It didn't take long for the fortress to finish coming together .

"Oh, this one's actually not too bad . "

Though tiny, the castle I created held a majestic sense of presence . It was beautiful; I could feel it drawing me in already . Unfortunately, it was only made of dirt, so it was brown as opposed to the deep black I'd had in mind, but still, it looked quite impressive . I almost couldn't bring myself to tear my eyes off it .

"Wow Master! The one you just made is lookin' super awesome!"

"Yeah . It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself . "

Finally satisfied, I nodded . It wasn't exactly what I wanted . A few of the finer details were still off, but it was good enough for me to work off of . I no longer needed to draft another concept from scratch .

A sense of motivation assailed me; I felt the urge to continue practicing so I could use Creative Construction to complete the real deal on my first attempt .

"Alright Lyuu, watch this! I'm going to make it even better!"

"E-Even better!? It ain't good 'nuff already!?" Her eyes sparkled . "Wow! I can't wait!"

"Heh . They don't call me the Demon Lord of Creation for nothing . Just watch! I'll open your eyes to my glory!"

And so, Lyuu ended up getting so caught up in watching me practice that she forgot to do the laundry .

[1] Should be obvious, but this is "minecrafter . " Apparently some of the people that play the game actually call themselves this . `-`

[2] Anor Londo, beautiful large castle in Dark Souls .

[3] From Software . The people that made Dark Souls, Armored Core, and some other famous stuff . In the raw, they were called by a nickname, but apparently the English speaking fanbase doesn't have anything similar . Oh well .

[4] He dubs himself this in chapter 20 or 21 .