Chapter 524

Darius remained unchanged physically. He was aware that even if he could grow older in this realm, it meant nothing. After obtaining the bloodline of the Dragon Ancestor, his lifespan was so plentiful that he had a feeling that Faust would cease to exist before he met a natural end.

Darius woke up today on his comfortable bed and walked into his manor's bath. In this past year, he had constantly made small changes to his living area to enhance and optimize everything, and his small cottage had turned into a seasoned Lord's manor.

The reason he didn't do this all at once was previously because he didn't know how. He had needed to rely on his perfect memory to remember how things were like and how he saw things done, before experimenting himself until he could replicate it.

Darius bathed in his makeshift jacuzzi that worked using electricity and various pumps, relaxing in the soapy water. How did he get soap? Well, it was actually one of the easiest DIY products to make.

He extracted Sodium Hydroxide from brine and turned it into lye water. He then mixed various oils and fats with it to make some basic soap. The initial types were basically standard, but he had slowly learned to experiment and managed to add unique scents by using the fruit of the trees he had planted.

Once done bathing, he pulled the plug and let the water drain through the pipes, passing through the settlements' sewage system that was now intricate and even spread outside its walls to affect the rest of the desert.

Darius tied his now shoulder-length black hair into a ponytail. He might not look older, but his face had changed slightly, becoming more refined and handsome compared to before where he was androgynous handsome.

He had to guess that it was mostly due to his Dragon Ancestor bloodline given free rein compared to its suppression under the Supreme System.

He snapped his finger and let the winds of this world dry him up with ease. Darius had long since achieved the fabled One-Word Cast ability that should be exclusive to Grandmasters. While this might be impressive, he was someone who was actually used to casting without making a single motion except maybe pointing his finger.

As such, he had created his own Single-Step Casting Method, where one chose a trigger for their spell and used it. In this case, he chose snapping his finger for it was quick and easy.

Darius then used the Intermediate spell Cleanse on the bathroom, instantly eliminating all grime and dirt from the entire room as if a bunch of maids had been hard at work for hours.

Darius went downstairs and entered his personal storeroom which also had a freezing chamber. He took out some vegetables that were chilled up due to the way he mimicked a cold room.

He then went to his kitchen and cleaned out the materials slowly and methodically. He still had his level 1 Cooking skill from his early days when he had been in the wild and made a khebab, but had long progressed further after years of experimenting.

Darius also took out some flour and rolled it up into noodles after following through with the correct processes. He then put his vegetables on boil while he finished up the noodle dough.

Using salt and some spices he acquired from his plantations, he seasoned his vegetables before throwing them into a pan with vegetable oil, frying them. He soon amped it up by adding his now-boiled noddles into the mix.

With some extra spices and a bit more oil he glazed the noodles over and whipped up a plate of stir fry noodles with vegetables.

He enjoyed his meal as he drank pure water with it. When done, he casually disappeared from his seat so silently and perfectly that it would spook even another Grandmaster.

After all, when one used a spell from the Space element, there would usually be some ripples in space. However, Darius made no such sensation! It was like his entire existence was sucked in another location by the world itself.

Darius checked on the various facilities. His large stock of water was still going strong, but he filled it out of habit. Darius then moved to his generators which had grown in size and number over the years.

Now, he kept them in a well-cooled location with enough distance from each other. He also made sure to replace any worn parts without even opening the machine, simply using the Material element to replace that part with a brand new version of itself.

So not only did they look new, but they functioned as if they were new too. Darius refilled the diesel in the underground once more. He frowned at the inefficiency of his energy generation, but shook his head.

Since it cost him nothing to make, there was no problem yet. Besides, now that he was done with his training, his next act would be to go to the next step and optimize everything to perfection.

He had long noticed that the Material element, while useful, came at a hidden cost that one would not notice during a short period of time, but would notice only after longer periods.

Namely, the sustainability of original materials!

For example, his spell Water to Oil allowed him to make various oils from water or water from oil, though it was obvious which direction Darius used it in. So when creating the diesel just now, Darius had to consume water to make it.

This was fine since he could 'create' water using mana through the basic spell of the water element, but it was not so simple in other cases. Especially regarding metal.

His spell there was Stone to Metal. Now, he had a lot of stone thanks to his earlier exploits and it was easy to make some using the Basic Stone to Mud.

However, to make stone, he first needed mud. To get some he would water any piece of sand and turn it into mud for his spell to work, which was how he got it to do what he wanted all this time.

However, the issue was with how much he had created... sand was thinning out!

In fact, Darius had underestimated how continuous use of the Material element would drain on the natural resources of an area, allowing him to nearly use up all the sand in this desert!