As if to take revenge for his previous failure, Axel returned to the southernmost edge of the camp. He stood at the place he initially planned to build the Laboratory and quickly visited the Housing panel.

"As for the material, I'll need..."

Of course, he already figured out what "material" to use. After all, he had spent quite some time looking around and was already sure of what would be best to use, energy-wise and cost-wise.

"There!"

After pressing a button, the items began to appear before him, landing on the ground.

Although it wasn't the same way as before, which showed a neatly arranged pre-built puzzle of a building, instead, it was just... a pile of metallic bars.

"Stainless steel bars!" Axel grinned. "A material that's resistant to rust and corrosion!"

Each bar was roughly a hundred kilograms, with the total amount he bought easily reaching a couple of dozen tons. It was a little too much for a simple laboratory... but who said he's making things simple?

His planned design was a two-floor above-ground structure, with one underground floor. Of course, the one he'll use was only the top floor, with the first floor being a buffer zone and the ground floor as a sort of "vault" in case of grave emergency.

After solidifying the image in his head, he quickly began.

First off, he gathered a large amount of earth from the ground, digging a hole that's about three meters deep. Since it would also work as the building's foundation, he made it a little wider than the actual building—roughly 20 x 25 meters in area.

The actual building was planned to be 15 x 20 meters, so each edge would have a 2.5-meter buffer!

With his inventory working as usual, it didn't even take him fifteen minutes to dig deep enough. Next up, he started to "melt" tons of stainless steel bars. Since he turned them into liquid, they were able to self-level, creating a flat surface to start with.

"That ate up half of the metal I bought... I wonder if this will be enough...?" Axel pondered as he continued.

After creating a foundation, up next were the pillars.

Since he's planning to make it sturdy, the pillars should be able to support quite a weight. Thus, he didn't hold back either, overengineering it.

Each pillar was circular in shape, with a diameter of half a meter. They were placed 2.5 meters away from each other, creating a simple array of supporting pillars.

Then, he built the walls around it before creating the "floor" on top. After adding a circular staircase leading up, the basement was done.

"Heating, ventilation, and whatnot need to be added later, so..."

Axel sighed.

At least, the first part was done!

Since he wasn't feeling mentally tired yet, it was also proof that he was barely using his mana—no, it'd be more accurate to say he had too much mana that this much wouldn't faze him!

Up next was the first floor. Unlike the underground, which supported two constructs above it, this one needed half as much bearing capacity. Thus, Axel halved the pillars he used, focusing them on the outer edges.

The middle part would be supported by the partitioning wall itself, preventing deflection, as the wall was made of five-inch-thick metal.

Although for the interior design, Axel had to reference other samples on the Housing panel to complete it.

The second floor was done even faster, as it barely had to consider loads other than equipment and such. He made it in sections, making sure that he could cut off areas in case something went wrong.

"Ugh... Now I feel tired..."

All in all, the two-story metal building took him five hours to complete. Though technically, only the "shape" was successfully finished. In its current state, the inside would be like an oven in summer or a freezer in winter. But most of all, anyone inside it would suffocate sooner or later. After all, there were basically no windows installed in it!

The only way for air to get in was through the door, but that was a solid metal slab that would be closed most of the time.

In short...

"I... need to buy the equipment needed."

He spent 1 billion on the stainless steel bars alone, then spent about 20 billion to buy a centralized HVAC system. Of course, that 20 billion was nothing but the down payment alone. He'd need to pay 10 billion per week for 36 weeks nonstop before he could truly "own" the machine.

Setting it up was easy, as he had the Housing Modification ability.

He could just open holes in the wall and pass the pipes, and even create pipes for it directly into the metal walls and floors. This modification took him a total of three hours just to ensure he didn't miss a single section.

Finally, after completing the HVAC system, he began to place the required laboratory equipment. He not only met the minimum requirement, but he also added other items that he thought would be convenient to have.

Of course, since he spent a large sum on the HVAC system, he... didn't hold back and splurged on the tools as well. Instead of going manual, he chose all electrical tools instead!

Although the cost inflated into the billions, he still had money to spare.

Now, the laboratory was fully furnished.

The generator system that came with the HVAC also provided energy for the building, so he didn't need to buy that anymore, thankfully.

"Navi!" he called out.

[Yes, yes~!]

And almost without delay, the little penguin popped into existence in front of his eyes.

Finally, it was the moment of truth!

With a hint of worry, Axel asked, "Is this... enough to unlock the Concoction tab?"

[Hmm? Hmm....]

The penguin began to look around with a serious expression. It was looking left and right, nodding to itself, and muttering a few bits that Axel couldn't catch. Then, about fifteen seconds later...

[Looks good enough! With this, the Concoction Tab is unlocked! Clap clap clap!]

"..."

Hearing the good news, Axel heaved a sigh of relief.

He was truly nervous the entire time. After all, he basically spent half of his net worth on this one building! If this didn't work, then that meant more expenses!

"Alright!" Axel nodded before moving toward the laboratory.

He pulled on a lab coat and donned it with ease before heading straight for the mixing table.

"Now, it's time to test out this long-awaited function!"

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