Galaxy's First Ruler

15th June 2021

Leavenworth, USA

Under the basement of Guo's Antique shop, there was a lab of the size of a basketball court with many small but high-tech instruments.

It had taken Aldrich and Boomie only 3 days to form it from scratch since the last Random-Allocation. With the excuse of renovation, and being the old friend of now-famous Tanker, none questioned much about the many vans and noises. The rest of the week Aldrich had spent completely shut off within the lab, researching the markings from the Cu Chulainn.

On the first day of his study, he came up with an outcome that once removed from the body none could reuse this marking anymore. And on the second day, he realized the markings were a very complex structure to interact with Mana, independent of the user. This meant that to use the function of this marking, a Dreamer or a Crawler didn't need to use their own Mana reserves.

The third day went by in finding out a workable method to replicate the effect of these markings with the materials available to him. Aldrich had already ordered a sizable amount of Crawler's hides, which got dropped as rewards in some Dungeons. The raw material he had elected to use as the "ink" was molten Mana cores. And Aldrich had the perfect Mana cores to work with.

Mana Cores of 2 Common Elites and 1 Rare Boss.

But Aldrich found himself blocked by a major problem on the 15th of June. With what should he make the markings. Since morning, he was experimenting with Quills made of Crawler's bones, Items, and even normal weapons. But even after wasting a whole Molten Mana-core of an Elite, he couldn't find any solution. At last, there was only one method that had left, which he knew would work. But it was costly.

It would cost Experience Points.

"Metacreativity."

[…

Skill Metacreativity is now active

Specify your creation: Item or Skill?

…]

"Item."

[…

Fill up the template for Item

Item Name:

…

…

Submitting request to create Item….

Optimizing Item…

Item 'Scholar's Pen' is created

ExPs consumed: 1000

Warning: The consumed ExPs are permanently lost

…]

Aldrich held the bluish-green fountain pen and checked its stats.

[…

Item: Scholar's Pen

Type: Pen

Rank: Common

Durability: NA

Minimum Usage Condition: Class Generalist

Description: An Item that uses molten Mana cores as ink

Item-specific Skill: NA

Warning: The legibility of the writing would depend on the quality of ink used

Warning: The Item would occupy 0.5 units of Inventory

…]

Aldrich had kept the consumed ExPs to a minimum. He restricted the Item to only one Class and sacrificed the use of any accompanying Skills. As long as it worked as he had intended it to, Aldrich would have marked the creation of the Pen as a success.

Aldrich melted the Boss's core and filled it in the pen's barrel. Even though the Mana core was bigger than his fist, once melted, it was only enough to fill the barrel up to half of its capacity. As soon as he put together the barrel and cap, the whole pen shined with an ethereal blue aura. Aldrich's heart gained back a little rhythm from his childhood.

Taking out a square piece of parchment, of the size of his palm, he remembered the marking that he had analyzed out of the original one. In the silent lab, Aldrich's eyes shone with brilliance as he put the pen's nib on the hide. As he traced the pen in a planned manner, the melted core came pouring out like a thread made of stars. But even before he could finish the first stroke, his head throbbed with unimaginable pain.

VROOMMMM!!!

The sound of a racing car's engine at full power echoed within Aldrich's head as his Divine Sense, out of his control, got sucked within the pen. Aldrich felt like someone was peeling off his skin, piercing his head, and eating his organs all at the same time.

Karma seemed to come towards Aldrich like a sledgehammer towards a nail.

But no matter how much pain Aldrich felt, he knew he couldn't stop. Stopping now meant that he would waste a Rare Mana core and the entire process along with it. Aldrich kept going stroke by stroke and his Divine Sense got sucked by the pen, like the drainage of a bathtub.

Before Aldrich approached the finishing strokes, blood had already been seeping out of his ears, nose, and from the corner of his eyes. His whole body shook as he tried to keep the blood drops from falling onto the hide and maintaining the fluency of the design.

BOOM!!!

A burst of blue and white light flashed out of the hide and with a thunderous sound, it threw Aldrich back towards the lab's wall. Aldrich's Divine Sense was on the brim of running out. And the scary part was that he did not know what would have happened if there was no Divine Sense that had left to feed the pen. Or what would have happened to him without his Divine Sense? The concept of Perception was becoming more mysterious by seconds right in front of him.

Aldrich didn't know how to compensate for losing his Divine Sense. Neither the Health potion nor the Stamina potion seemed to work. Aldrich dropped the two vials and faltered as he tried to stand up. With blood still dripping from his chin, he looked at the source of blinding light. And the pain in his eyes intensified by the way they had become wide in surprise after looking at that thing.

There was a square piece of complicated design hovering amid the air where he had been working on the design previously. But that wasn't the reason for his agape mouth. Aldrich could see rows of words hovering over the design, words he had become familiar with after waking up from the long sleep. But before he could analyze the Stats, the System interjected with a notification.

[…

You are eligible to obtain a new Title

Generating Title Quest...

Title Quest (optional): Engrave 10 Common Rumok

Title Reward: Divine Rumok Engraver

Do you want to initiate the Quest for this Title?

…]

Aldrich did not know what these Rumok were. But seeing the System presenting the Title Quest after making the design, anyone could have guessed that these marks were termed as Rumok. But Aldrich could infer even more out of this declaration.

The notification from the Record stated that he wasn't the only one to create these Rumoks in the Universe. Which meant that there wasn't any harm in accepting the Title that seemed even mightier than what he already had.

"Yes."

With an uncontrolled vibration coursing through his body, Aldrich approached the hovering Item and saw the Stats over it.

[…

Item: Force Rumok

Type: Rumok

Rank: Common

Description: Dreamer can freely exert the force of Push and Pull over any object

Warning: The Rank of Rumok would limit the range

Do you want to equip the Item?

…]

"… Yes."

Just as Aldrich said the words with heavy breathing, the hovering parchment crumbled like dust particles. An even more scorching pain took over the backside of his palm. Aldrich brought his right hand up and saw the same design materializing, like being engraved by an imaginary person.

A formless power overtook Aldrich's body as he sensed the surrounding objects. Aldrich's right hand reached out towards the Scholar's Pen, which had also fallen at one corner of the Lab. As he uncurled his fingers, the Rumok gave a brief but brilliant flash.

"Come."