Chapter 473: Underground floors

As she looked upon the newly built structure of Michael’s new headquarters, Claudia couldn’t help but express her shock and awe.

The building was completely new, with absolutely nothing that was reused from the previous warehouse that stood in that very spot. This was very weird because it had only been three days after Michael received the land. And already, there were two perfectly well-built structures in Main Street.

"It’s made out of some kind of stone?" she said, knocking on the wall to test its strength. And just from that interaction alone, she was surprised at how sturdy the material was.

"Where did you get this? And how did you even transport it here?"

The walls looked like it had been built using one giant slab of stone, which couldn’t have been easy to move. Yet somehow, Michael was able to do it in less than three days.

"It’s not technically stone. It’s a new material we call concrete."

Claudia nodded, noting the name mentally.

"Well whatever this material is, it’s good that you’re able to construct a building this fast."

They both walked forward, seeing the bare bones interior of the headquarters. There was absolutely nothing inside, just plain concrete.

Although she thought it was a bit small, she didn’t voice out her concerns because she knew that Michael had no choice but to establish his headquarters here.

"This is nice," Claudia praised. "Let’s go take a look at your store."

But as she was about to leave, Michael stopped her.

"Don’t you want to look at the rest of our base?" he asked, pointing down towards a hallway.

"This isn’t it?"

Michael shook his head. "Let me show you the other floors."

Confused, Claudia simply followed Michael’s footsteps as they ventured towards a hallway that led to what seemed like an opening for a door. Yet, there was no door, just a hole in the wall.

"What’s this?" she asked him, her voice echoing as she peered down the hole into a large chasm down below.

"That’s for our elevator. My engineers are still busy working out the kinks on our prototype, so the service is unavailable for now. We have to walk down the stairs"

He led her down a winding staircase leading further down. She had no idea what an elevator was, but she was far too curious about the staircase to get left behind.

"You’re creating an underground tunnel?! How far down is this?"

She looked over the railings of the staircase and saw numerous levels that they could walk down to.

"For now, there’s ten levels. But maybe we’ll expand further down in the future."

Claudia couldn’t keep her mouth shut as Michael took her on an exclusive tour of their underground headquarters.

Though, a tour may not be the right word for it. After all, the rooms were mostly empty and had no furnishing at all.

As they went further down, Michael kept talking about features like a training room, a gym room, a swimming pool, a game room and other such amenities.

Truthfully, Claudia couldn’t quite concentrate on what Michael said because she was far too shocked to see what Michael was able to make in just three days.

In that short amount of time, he created an entire fortress underground. It was insane. She would have thought that the entire thing would collapse under its own weight, but strangely enough, the material called ’concrete’ was strong enough to stabilize everything.

"You...you built this? I can’t...I can’t...HOW?!"

Michael shrugged. "Like I told you. Concrete."

Of course, she wasn’t satisfied with just that answer, so he made a little demonstration for her.

He created a block of concrete from scratch, mixing up the materials and adding water to the mix. And using some heating magic, the entire block hardened within just a minute after its creation.

He even threw some simple 1-star spell into the concrete block to show her how strong the material was.

And suffice it to say, she was convinced.

"I want this! I need to have this," she demanded. "If the Association ever needs to construct a new building, we’ll be asking for your services!"

She didn’t care if Michael was just a novice in Metropolis. This concrete would completely revolutionize the way they made buildings!

...

...

...

Eventually, everyone from Reborn was transferred over to their new headquarters.

"Dibs on the bottom floor!" Zion cheered as he ran around the room.

"You can’t say dibs. It doesn’t work like that," Vivi refuted, buzzing around Zion’s face.

"It’s exactly how that works," Zion replied back with a cheeky smile.

Fudge, Zion, and Vivi argued with each other about who among them deserved the bottom floor. Grieve would have joined them, but he got stuck in the fifth floor forgetting where he was.

While the kids played around, Sheina immediately went to work.

"Very spacious, Lord Michael. Shall I set up your office on the bottom floor?" Sheina asked.

"Yep. Take care of all the interior designs on every floor while you’re at it."

The white-scaled Dragonborn bowed. "I shall employ our greatest designers for this project."

Meanwhile, Yuna walked over to her Aunt and consoled her.

"Yuna...you never told me about Reborn."

"Sure I did."

"You never told me the entire thing! I didn’t even know they had a nation in the Parched Lands!"

After seeing the speed and quality of Michael’s construction project, she began asking Michael questions about his company in the Kings region and all of his territories.

And even now, she still couldn’t process what she heard.

"You wouldn’t have believed me if I wrote it to you," Yuna argued. "At least now, you know."

Claudia couldn’t argue with her niece.

If she had been in the same position, she would have allied with the Reborn company as well. And she was even having some thoughts of completely abandoning her duty in the Association and just becoming a full-fledged member of the Reborn company.

"And uh...," Claudia whispered, with her back turned away from Vivi. "Is that...is that a Fairy?!"

She didn’t think she would see a legendary creature in the flesh, just casually interacting with members of Reborn.

"Oh, yeah. She’s Vivi. Want me to introduce you to her? Vivi!"

"No, no, wait—"

Vivi happily flew over to their direction and she introduced herself to Claudia, who seemed even more starstruck once she was up close and personal. The usually well-spoken woman turned into a bumbling dork.

Michael saw this and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

I wonder what she would say once she finds out Vivi’s the Pixie Queen.

As they acquainted themselves, Michael walked over to his mother and father. They were included in the move to Metropolis as well, much to his chagrin.

"Honey dear, when are you going to put a King size bed in this place so we can all sleep together?"

Michael immediately stopped her. "Mom, there’s ten floors here, each one having five or more rooms. There’s plenty of room for us to sleep separately. And besides...i’m too old for that!"

Bart hugged Lylia from the side, looking at Michael with teary eyes. "Dear, look at our boy. Thirteen years old and already independent. They grow up so fast."