I clenched my fist: the muscles responded instantly, without the slightest delay. It was time to put this strength to use and get to work on outfitting the Main Building.
First of all, I decided to make some furniture for the hall. With my newfound physical strength, handling massive logs and controlling the vector shift became much easier—I didn't even have to waste extra mana on reinforcing my grip.
I started with a sofa. In my head, the process seemed simple enough: first, I formed a load-bearing frame out of sturdy wood, carefully distributing the mechanical load across the frame so the structure wouldn't sag under weight. Then I tackled the stuffing: I took the dense fur of forest monsters, cleaned it, and compressed the fibers into a multilayered, porous filling with varying degrees of elasticity.
In simpler terms: I cobbled together a perfect, sturdy wooden base, and tightly packed a mountain of the softest, processed fluff inside. The result was a sofa—deep, with wide armrests, soft, yet pleasantly firm.
Using the same method, I carved out several ergonomic chairs with curved backs and assembled massive dining tables with smooth tops.
Finished with the furniture, I looked around the hall. My gaze first fell on the sofa, and then shifted to the pile of crystalline quartz lying in the corner. I stood there, silently shifting my gaze between the soft wool upholstery and the quartz.
"Without power, we'll remain just a village. Electricity comes first," I muttered.
Picking up a massive quartz crystal block from our supplies, I teleported to the waterfall.
I clamped the quartz crystals between two rocky outcroppings, right under the pressure of the falling water. Continuous mechanical compression of the quartz crystal lattice causes internal polarization of dipoles. Thanks to the direct piezoelectric effect, a stable, powerful high-voltage electric current is generated within the crystal.
Or rather, the water from the waterfall slams into the rock-clamped crystal with all its might, continuously squeezing it. And from this constant pressure, the crystal starts pumping out tons of free electricity.
But generating a current is only half the battle; it still needed to be brought to the camp. I needed wires, and not just thin metal conductors, but wires with reliable insulation.
Here, I once again applied a combination of thermodynamics and slime properties. First, I extracted the thinnest conductive iron wires from our available hematite ore. After heating the wires to the required temperature, I ran them through a mass of liquid slime. Localized heating and an instantaneous change in its physical state altered the gel's polymer structure—the outer surface of the slime turned into a dense dielectric layer.
As a result, I ended up with flexible cables whose insulation made them safe to handle without risking an electric shock.
But teleporting several kilometers of insulated wire was impossible—the spatial shift would simply snap the continuous wire apart. So, the only reliable way to lay the line was to walk the path on foot.
Thirty minutes later, the sun had set, and I was walking slowly through the thicket toward the camp, winding the wires around rocky outcrops and tree branches, dragging a thick, flexible cable behind me.
At some point, I caught myself thinking that I was walking with ease. There was something strange about how energetic I felt: after non-stop exertion, I should have been dropping from exhaustion at the very least.
"Listen, Lumon," I said quietly. "Is it just me, or did magic stop harming me now that I have a living arm?"
"An error in your conclusions has been identified. The current decrease in internal degradation is a temporary anomalous effect. It is caused by the absorption of Spirit Elyria's mana and Vampire Noah's mana."
I halted mid-step.
"Wait, what?! Repeat that? What vampire?!"
"Probability of data error — 0%," Lumon stated emotionlessly. "A biochemical analysis of Noah's mana, conducted during the operation of the Bio-Matrix, confirmed the presence of a mutational structure characteristic of pureblood individuals of the 'Vampire' type."
"Seriously?!" I snorted, shaking my head, and resumed my trek through the bushes. "...Now it makes sense where he gets that kind of physical strength."
A little later, I flexed my fingers and asked:
"So that means, in order for magic to cause less harm in the future, I just need to periodically absorb someone else's mana?"
"Negative," Lumon cut in. "Direct absorption of foreign magic under normal conditions will cause systemic organ failure and tissue necrosis. The current positive balance is a complete fluke. At this moment, I am personally maintaining precise control over your metabolism to neutralize the conflicting mana structures of Noah and Elyria."
"Alright, got it," I sighed, but a second later added: "Well, if not mana, then maybe..."
After some time, the lights of our camp's bonfires began to pierce through the trees ahead.
I stepped out into the bonfire-lit central plaza, dragging the thick cable behind me. Dinner was in full swing at the camp: people were sitting around the fire, chatting animatedly about something.
Elyria was the first to notice me. The spirit hovered beside her plate and waved at me:
"Iron! Where have you been?! We've all been waiting for you, come sit down and eat!"
"Go ahead and eat without me for now," I replied, dropping the coil of cable at the entrance. "Though you've already started anyway. I have something I need to finish."
"You've come up with something again and can't even eat properly!" Elyria grumbled in displeasure.
"Looks like it," I smirked and grabbed a tool.
I needed to finish setting up the power grid. First things first, at the entrance to the settlement, I installed a secondary quartz crystal transformer. I needed to step down the high voltage coming from the waterfall to a safe, domestic 220 volts, while simultaneously stabilizing the frequency.
First, I ran the cables through our six residential houses. I carved deep sockets into the thick logs and recessed the electrical contacts inside them, carefully running the wiring through the walls.
Then it was time for the Main Building. I was messing around near the wall in the hall when quiet footsteps sounded behind me. Turning around, I saw Eliza. In her hands, she held a wooden plate of steaming roasted meat.
"You haven't eaten anything at all today," she said sternly, stepping closer. "Here, at least eat this."
"Yeah, thanks, but just leave it somewhere around here for now, I'll eat later," I muttered, not looking up from calibrating a contact.
Eliza stared silently at my hands occupied with the wiring for a couple of seconds, and then said:
"Should I feed you?"
I froze, slowly turned my head, and stared at her wide-eyed:
"What are you even talking about?"
"Well, you're not eating, your hands are full, and I have experience," she explained calmly, lifting a piece of meat. "So?"
"No, there's no need," I shook my head with a smile. "Better just leave it on the bench. Honestly, I'll grab a bite myself in a couple of minutes."
Eliza agreed, set the plate down, and turning toward the exit, added:
"Alright. But go to bed earlier today!"
"Alright, alright," I promised, and went back to work on the wiring.
A few more hours passed, and the settlement fully plunged into a deep nighttime silence. In pitch darkness, illuminating my work only with flashes of magic, I finished wiring the cables through all six wooden houses and both wings of the Main Building.
"Comprehensive scan of the power grid complete," Lumon's even voice reported. "Insulation is intact. Voltage drops are within normal limits. Short circuits are absent."
"Excellent. The hardest and most tedious part of the job is done," I muttered under my breath. "It's just a shame I still don't have lightbulbs or chandeliers. But that's a task for tomorrow morning."
I turned toward the exit and my eyes caught the bench where Eliza had left the plate. Grabbing the meat, I warmed it up slightly in my palm, stepped outside, and walked slowly through the camp, eating as I went.
In the absolute darkness of the night, I made one final inspection of the six residential houses and the Main Building, monitoring the system through Lumon's scanners. Everything worked perfectly.
With a sense of satisfaction, I returned to the Main Building. Passing through the pitch-black central hall, I pushed open the door to my office, stepped inside, and collapsed face-down onto the sofa from sheer exhaustion.
"Damn..." I mumbled into the soft upholstery. "Why didn't I do this sooner...?"
Then I rolled over onto my back, stretched out at full length, and stared up at the dark ceiling. In the silence of the night, the image of Zeno suddenly flashed before my eyes.
"If I make this village the strongest, safest, and most developed nation in this world... will you forgive me, Zeno?" I said quietly into the emptiness of the room.
I covered my eyes with my palm and thought with a tired smirk:
"God damn it. I'm thirty years old... No, older, and I'm still fixated on the words of the very first person I met in this world. But why...?"
My strength finally gave out, and a couple of seconds later, I drifted off to sleep.
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