“WTF, what a buzzkill… Wait…” Noah took out one of their low-grade mana stones and analyzed it.

He then took out the lemon-sized marble from his pocket and put it next to the mana stone. The mana stone quickly melted into the artifact. It was as if the marble was a thirsty man out in the desert and the mana stone was its water. Noah checked his notifications again and saw that the counter for the artifact increased to (100/10000). He did some quick math and discovered that he would only need one hundred mana stones to charge it up.

“Oh yeah, perks of being rich.” Noah celebrated by doing a fist pump. He was about to do a little celebratory dance but remembered that he wasn’t alone, in fact, there was a mini roc sitting on his shoulder. He awkwardly looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him.

“Ehem, mind telling us what’s so good that you had to celebrate like that?” Mark tried not to laugh as he saw that his cousin was about to do his little dance again.

“Uhhh…” Noah looked at Talal on his shoulder and couldn’t help but stutter.

“Ah, do not worry about your little artifact. Items of that tier usually pick their owners.” Talal continued to preen his feathers nonchalantly as if he already knew what was going on in Noah’s mind.

Noah looked at the roc and thought “If he wanted to kill us he would’ve done so already. Besides he hasn’t given us a reason to distrust him yet.”

He let out a breath and said “Well, reaching level ten allowed me to unlock some of the artifact’s basic functions”

“What are they then?” Mark couldn’t even be surprised anymore as he looked at his cousin who seemingly had all the luck in the world, or maybe it was because of his talent? The artifact chose him after all.

“Ah, that’s what I was going to ask you about. The artifact needs to be charged with ten thousand mana points which is one hundred mana stones before I can access it. So….” Noah looked shyly at Mark.

Mark sighed “You don’t need my permission to use the stones you know. They are as much yours as they are mine. And not to mention that that artifact can only be a good thing for all of us.”

“You’re the best!” Noah then hurriedly took out ninety-nine stones at once and put them all in a circle with the pseudo-planet in the middle. They all instantly liquefied and were absorbed into the lemon-sized artifact in the center. “Probably will never get used to seeing that.”

“That was… odd to say the least” Mark voiced out

“Indeed…”

“Wha…?” Then everything went dark.

“Hello Noah Blake”

Noah looked around the pitch-black darkness “Who? What? I can’t see shit. Turn on the lights at least.” Then, as if obeying his command, his surroundings lit up with a faint light. He surveyed his surroundings under the dim light and saw that there was nothing. He looked at his feet and saw that he was standing on brown soil which was actually the only thing there. Nothing but soil as far as the eye could see.

He then looked at the light source and discovered that it was humanoid in shape. “Hello?” He said while squinting his eyes, trying to make out the humanoid’s face. That was when his heart skipped a beat as he finally saw it. The most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on. At least to him. She was not perfect, no, but she was just the right amount of cute mixed with the right amount of pretty. But, there was one issue, she was translucent.

“Hello Noah Blake, I am this artifact’s spirit” She walked over to him and stopped a meter away “Would you do me the honor of granting me a name?”

“Uhhh, question, why is she so pretty?” Noah blushed as he realized that he had spoken out loud.

“This artifact has pulled from your memories and made me in the image of that which you find most pleasing to the eye. Am I not to your liking?” She pouted as if she was upset. Noah’s blush couldn’t help but deepen as he saw that.

“Uhhh. No, you’re fine the way you are. A bit distracting is all but I’ll get used to it…” Noah raised his right hand and slapped himself. “Right! A name… Let’s go with something easy to remember, how about Gaia?”

Gaia did a little curtsy with her dress as she said. “Ah, a name after the Goddess of Earth. Wise choice master.”

Noah’s blush deepened even more. “Ma… Master? Just call me Noah, no need for honorifics”

“As you wish, Noah. As you have now granted me a name, we can move on to the minor customization.” She waved her hand as the light emanating from her strengthened. “Noah, as you already know, this artifact is a pseudo-planet which means that it has the potential to be a true planet some time in the future if you so wish.” She paused to look Noah in the eyes.

“For that to happen you will need Creation Points which is just mana refined repeatedly by the artifact. Right now you have one Creation Point to spend. But, by the will of the creator, you are given the right to do anything with that one point you have.”

“Anything?” Noah raised an eyebrow. He looked at his dim surroundings and asked. “Like, can I make a sun?”

“Yes, you can. In fact, it is what I suggest you do with your one Creation point. Not just an ordinary sun mind you, but a Mana Sun.”

“What’s the difference between it and a normal sun?” Noah asked, perplexed.

“Aside from the normal functions of a sun, it also emits mana, though to a much lesser degree compared to a planetary mana core. Unfortunately, a mana core can only be taken from a living planet and cannot be created through only Creation points. Worry not for a Mana Sun is the next best thing.”

“How exactly does that work anyway, do I also carry around a mini sun in addition to the artifact?”

“It will exist in its own space much like the pseudo-planet. The physical appearance is nothing but a façade that you can modify now that you have unlocked the basic functions.”

“Cool! Hmmm. Let’s go with a necklace then with the artifact itself half an inch in diameter. I’m sick of bringing around a marble the size of a lemon.”

“As you wish” She waved her hand and continued “It is done.”

“Oh and the mana sun, do that too.” She waved her hand again and the whole place lit up almost immediately “It is done. You have used up all of your Creation points Noah.”

Noah could feel the mana the mana emanating from the sun. He closed his eyes, turned on [Mana Sense], and could see that the density of mana in the surroundings was slowly rising. It was not as dense as outside, but for his own little planet, it wasn’t bad. “I can definitely imagine myself plundering some natural treasure and putting it in here” His mind immediately went to the pond that was brimming with mana. It was practically telling the world that it was a natural treasure.

A minute later after he was done sensing the changes, and finally decided to exit the artifact as he had nothing left to do. So he asked Gaia about how to do it and all he needed to do was think the word and he would be out “Exit”

Outside, Noah opened his eyes and felt that his head was aching. “Ow. Why does my head hurt?”

“You may have fallen and hit your head.” Mark said shyly “I kind of forgot that, aside from your ridiculous mana, you have a relatively normal body hehe.”

“How long was I out?” Noah asked

“Around ten minutes or so. Why’d you black out anyway? Anything to do with the artifact?”

“Yeah. It sucked my soul inside and introduced itself, kind of. Well, the artifact spirit did.” Noah massaged his temples “Let’s talk tomorrow yeah? I don’t know if it was the artifact or the hit on the head but I’m in need of some good old sleep.” He got up and walked toward the stairs.

Mark shrugged and followed.

That night, Noah had a dream. This time though, he could move and interact with the tall grass around him. He looked around and he could see children playing while the adults were all at one side talking amongst themselves with smiles on their faces. That was when the sky darkened and a red beam of light burst out of the ground. The earth quaked as thousands upon thousands of, what could only be described as demons, came out of the rift. The adults ran to their children and hugged them as if they had accepted their fates.

“RUN! Why aren’t you RUNNING?!” Noah shouted but there was no reply. So he did what he did best, he summoned a few bombs and threw them at the demons. He was surprised to discover that it was as if he had infinite mana. But, it was useless. He was just a mere level twelve human, what could he possibly do alone? The sheer amount of demons overwhelmed him and reached the families in seconds. They mercilessly ripped into the adults and tore them limb from limb. They ate the kids whole and laughed while doing so.

Noah knelt on the ground, tears running down his face. For it was the only thing he could do. Soon enough, the demons got to him too and everything went to black.

A whisper sounded and reverberated across his whole body “You need to get stronger, faster young Noah. And you can’t do it alone.”

The next day, Noah woke up with a start as he suddenly sat up, tears still flowing down his face. He remembered what the voice said. “Stronger, faster” He wiped away his tears and looked out the window, the sun still hadn’t risen yet. He still had time before he and Mark would need to go out and hunt the orcs. “Guess it’s time for some spellcrafting.”

First, he had his defenses to worry about. Although he had reached the first stage of body cultivation, his base stats were pitifully low. So, he had to go another route. The first thing that came to mind was some kind of earth armor, which was simple enough to make, he just had to go outside first.

Noah was covered in armor made of mana-enhanced earth, but, he couldn’t move. “Right, the joints.” He belatedly realized that he didn’t design the armor well. So, he disabled the spell and worked on it again. He tried to imitate how he remembered plate mail looked like and unsurprisingly got the desired notification.

He did a fist pump while in his full earth plate mail and found that he could do so without any issues. “Okay, my memory was definitely not that good before. Maybe the increased intelligence doing its magic?” He thought as he did a few exercises with the armor on and was pleased with the results. “Now, what next?”