"What's the matter, Lucius? You always seemed distracted for the past month or so," Kron said as he dropped into the chair next to him.
Lucius yawned and leaned back. "Busy busy. My sister is going to middle school soon, and I have to get her supplies and such." It wasn't the reason, but it was partially true. However, Kron didn't seem convinced.
"But you're at school. Are you distracted twenty-four-seven? C'mon, spit it out," Kron pressed.
Lucius had the urge to tell him, but he knew that he would never believe him. Plus, Lucius wasn't really the person that would share what he was thinking all the time.
"Well..." Lucius tried to think of a convincing lie, but nothing came into mind.
However, Ilane stepped into the room, saving Lucius.
She waved at him. "Hello. How are you?"
"I'm fine," Lucius said.
"So you seem pretty distracted these days," Ilane said, which made Kron grin.
Oh, give me a break. Her too? Lucius groaned.
"I'm very busy, taking care of my sister," Lucius used the same excuse as he did with Kron. "My sister is entering middle school, and I'm her legal Guardian. So I have to fill out all of her paperwork and ugh. It's a lot of work."
"Uh huh," Ilane said, but just like Kron, she didn't sound convinced. But thankfully, she didn't press the matter.
"So what have you been doing these days Lucius, besides paperwork?" Kron asked, still with that idiotic grin on his face.
"Oh, you know," Lucius shrugged. "The usual homework, cooking, et cetera. Nothing unusual is happening these days, besides the paperwork."
"Ah," Kron said, but just like last time, he didn't seem convinced.
Lucius checked his watch.
"Oh, the bus is coming in ten minutes! I got to go! See ya!" Lucius sprang out of his chair and waved as he left the school.
Once he was gone, Kron leaned toward Ilane.
"You know he's lying right?"
Ilane nodded. "Yeah, but he definitely doesn't want to tell us."
"That is literally just baiting us to find us," grumbled Kron.
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(AN: Most of this section, Lucius uses the internet for a lot of things)
"I need somewhere bigger and more spacious to work with things," Lucius said to Luna.
So they spent the next hour getting logs and making a large workshop. It took them roughly two hours, but the finished result was far better than what Lucius expected.
Then, Lucius spent the next hour building things. He built a table the size of a dining table, many chairs and shelves, and created metal tools that functioned far better than his wooden ones. He also built a vent that leads outside that was right next to a tub of very densely packed metal into a tub, which would serve as his melting area.
After that, he brought in loads of crystals and his weapons to start his engineering.
His first priority was making lights for the houses. The most basic electrical thing.
First, he did the usual. He let a Mana Crystal absorb a Thunder Crystal, then propped it up right next to an AE Crystal. He created a metal wire
Then he spun it, creating the current. Nothing out of ordinary.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Then, (back in the real world), he hopped on his computer and searched up How does a light bulb work?
According to the internet, a light bulb is powered by electricity (duh). The electricity flows into a filament of tungsten, which heats it up. Tungsten has a very high melting point (6192° Fahrenheit, 3422° Celsius), which is why it can get to the temperatures that produce the bright light.
So to produce the same effect as a light bulb, he needed to find a metal that could handle extreme temperatures when it was heated, and by extreme, he needs extreme.
Lucius brought in a bunch of metals, but he couldn't find any that would stand even 2000° Celsius (3632° Fahrenheit; I'm going to use both interchangeably a lot, but I'll try to put the other one too). Everything would just melt into a metal goop.
After countless attempts, Lucius, who was very frustrated, walked out of the lab and went up to Luna.
"Do you know any metals around here that could stand extremely high temperatures? Like, over 2000 degrees (Celsius)?" Lucius asked.
"No, but I might know someone who might know," she replied and dragged Lucius off. They headed into the village and walked along the streets until they arrived at the blacksmith.
The instant Lucius opened the door, he was blasted back with an intense wave of heat. Luna, on the other hand, had no problem and continued to pull Lucius through the door.
They walked up to one of the wolf-smiths who was examining a metal sword very closely.
"Hello, Talis," Luna said. The smith set down his sword and smiled.
"Why hello there, Miss Luna! I see that you've brought the chief down. So, what can I do for you two?" Talis asked. He didn't seem afraid of Lucius, unlike the other people.
"My friend here has a question," Luna said. She gestured toward Lucius as if queueing him to speak.
"I was wondering... do you have a metal that can withstand very high temperature?" Lucius asked.
Talis rubbed his chin. "Well... I do have some, but I wanted to do something with it. However, I will give it to you on one condition," Talis said. "You have to make sure that you keep my family and everyone here safe."
Lucius grinned. "I promise. I will do everything in my power to do so. Also, if what I'm doing works, your family will get something in return."
Talis returned the grin. "Well, I'm looking forward to it!"
He went into the back and returned back with a long piece of metal. When he handed it to Lucius, he staggered under the weight. Talis laughed.
"Yup, that’s it. It's real heavy, ain't it?" Talis said.
"Where did you find this?" Lucius asked.
The metal was very shiny and heavy, but it just looked like the normal metal back in the real world.
"Oh, I found it in Templar Mountains up north," Talis said. "It's called Brightmetal, but I frankly have no idea why it's called that."
Lucius filed the information and said, "Thanks."
They walked off and entered the lab.
"What are you doing here?" Luna asked. She walked around the thing crystals that Lucius set up.
"Just watch. This might work, but I'm not exactly sure what the end results will be. Hopefully, it doesn't kill me," Lucius said and grabbed his sword.
"Uh, Luna?" Lucius asked. "Can you smush this into something real thin?"
"Sure," she said and grabbed the Brightmetal from him. In her hands, she firmly gripped it and, very slowly, crushed it in her hands. It slowly elongated and became something like a very large pizza dough.
She handed it back to him. "Thanks," Lucius said.
Then, he took his sword out of the sheath and sheared off a very thin piece of metal that was about three inches long. And with a picture of a tungsten filament in front of him (in the real world), he shaved off two more and twisted them together into some sort of twisted licorice.
Then, he propped it up connected to the metal wire and spun the Mana Crystal.
And to his surprise, it worked! The current flowed through the wire and heated the metal filament very fast, and in an instant, he was bathed in a bright light.
"It worked!" He yelled. Luna was looking into the light with surprise.
"Wow, she said. "Is this something from your world?"
"Yup," Lucius said, still very proud of himself. "It's called electricity, and it can do a lot of things. That's how most of my world is powered."
"Is it reliable? Does it explode?"
"Nope; in fact, it's way safer than magic essence. The only risk that might happen is getting burned or shocked, and the only problem with that is you need to touch this," Lucius said and pointed to the wire.
Then, Lucius went out with a bucket and gathered up a bucketful of sand from the water-side. Then, he went back and tossed a bunch of Fire Crystals in the metal tub which quickly erupted into a large flame. Suspending a metal pit in the heart of the fire, he dropped the sand in and waited.
Soon, the sand melted into a bubbling liquid that was red hot. Luna grasped the pot and lifted it up and poured it over a sand mold of a light bulb.
Lucius made a crude frame of a light bulb with wood and packed it with sand. When Luna poured the liquid glass, it instantly vaporized the wood and filled were the wood once was.
In the center of the mold was the Brightmetal filament that was suspended by more Brightmetal to ensure it would be in the mold and it wouldn't melt.
After waiting for over an hour, Lucius returned to the workshop and dusted off the bulb.
Even though it was crude and uneven, it still resembled a light bulb, so Lucius called it a win. He poured water into the bottom of it and removed all of the sand in the inside of the bulb. Soon, the only thing left was a light bulb with a Brightsteel filament suspended inside.
Then, Lucius connected the copper wire to the Brightsteel and spun the Mana Crystal, making the whole workshop light up.
Smiling, Lucius left the lab and dropped into his bed, feeling sleep overtake him.