-In a Cave on the nameless mountain-

It wasn't comfortable to sleep on rabbit furs, his hand-made bed might not be the best bed there is, but it was better than sleeping on rabbit fur. He put the girl on his bed yesterday to tend his wounds, but he didn't expect her to sleep there, and if he could, she would be the one sleeping on the rabbit fur.

'I would probably make her bed today, ı don't want to sleep on the floor tonight.'

"I will help with the bed, and sorry I didn't mean to make you sleep on the floor."

"Please, I am just speaking to myself. Don't butt in."

"But you were talking about me, and I thought it would be a good idea to help with the bed."

"Thank you. We will make the after you tell me more about why did you come to earth. I do remember you said you were escaping from your kind and come here, but I think that's not the only reason. if you wanted to escape, why did you choose the solar system they will invade? Moral reasons? Do you have any morals? If so why now? You did know that they will be coming to conquer, and only now you come to warn me or humans? Why did you come to warn us and not the others that get breached and pillaged? And what's your name? I couldn't ask yesterday.”

“I see that you are concerned and you have the right to do so. But I assure you I didn't come here as a scout or spy. I do have some motives but they are not involving enslaving you or kill you. If I wanted to kill you or capture your unripe mind I would have done it the moment we met. As you remember I was in a dire situation when you decided to leave me alone. What I want is to stop the meaningless carnage. Yes, they are powerful and If they were to come earth now, it would be the end of humanity. But If you were to be prepared at least a little bit they would surely have a hard time to blemish this planet they might even be defeated if you could become strong enough. Yes, I could not be able to stop them until now but would you just surrender if I were to say every planet I have been until now in their hands. And finally, if I have to Show my ulterior motive, it is to become powerful and get my still alive family members out of the hell they have been to. By the way, my name is Octavia, Octavia keer.”

“If I were to say I believe you but want you to prove that you won't backstab me and escape when we fail?”

“I won't say that I won't backstab you, because I will if I have to, to save my family. But do you have a choice? To become strong enough you need my help, my knowledge.”

“So you are saying, I don't know you, don't know me and we are conducting business.”

“You don't have to put it that way but we have to collaborate to survive. What other choice you do have?”

“You are right but how can we stop them? They probably will be bringing their superior weapons. Even your ship, a criminal's escape ship is out of our reach. Our technology is nothing near yours.”

“You can just become a landlord and protect the earth. I promised you a reward you can start your evolution with that. After that, you can make your land yours by claiming them. We would need some materials but acquiring them won't be hard, probably.”

“Reward?”

“It’s in my ship. It is a core that you can use externally until you create your own. Having a core is essential to use mana. It produce and store mana. The core I will give you is my ship's core. It isn't for personal use but a little bit tweak and it will be yours. Let's head there and take it. If not maintained, a core might malfunction and release its mana outside and we don't want that.”

“why?”

“Because, if mana becomes sufficient enough it will cause uncontrolled monsters to spawn. At first some weak monsters, but with time they will evolve into dangerous fearsome monsters”

“Okay then let's go. We can eat later.”

Liam put his bow on his back and take the two arrows he has, and they left the dwelling to head towards the area where the wrecked ship is. It didn't take a long time to get there because of the yesterdays stroll but there was a problem. Little one but a problem nonetheless, It was a loathing creature with octopus-like shape. While they get close it squirmed more and more

“Woah, what's that thing?”

“An unintelligent mana based creature. It is weak, but a mana based creature anyway. I will handle it.”

“But I have a bow, can't I just shoot it down?”

“You can but what if it gets close to you? Can you crush it with your hands or poke it to death? If no, then let me handle it.”

After she finished her words, she ran toward the creature and squashed it in her hands. It was a horrifying sight to behold. Whatever juice it had, it wasn't there anymore.

“Yes I know its gruesome Liam, but do you have another idea that won't injure you or me. I don't have a weapon so I had to do it in a vile way.”

“Ah, whatever, let's get what we are here for and leave. I don't want to see it all day long.”

“It is behind the seat. But before we take it off I want to use its mana to create a weapon for both of us. With the ship's interface its easy. But without it, it would be practically impossible to make this weapon properly.”

Octavia put her hand on a panel at the backside of the ship and two hexagonal black items come out of the panel. They looked like two thin sticks. She just gave one of them to Liam.

“What are these sticks for, poking?”

“Funny, but no. Look at me.”

Stick in his hands took the shape of a gun. But there wasn't a trigger or the muzzle to projectile to shoot. It was a weird shaped box.

“Why is mine not changing?”

“You need to learn how to use mana to activate the gun.”

“It is a gun?”

“Yes, it is. When you direct your mana to it, gun stores a little bit of your mana and when you will it to shoot, it forms the mana into little pellets and propels it the direction you hold. If you don't hold it properly or your strength is not enough, it might break your wrist. So I suggest you to wait a little bit until you raise your strength.”

“Understood. So where is the core?”

“Here just under the panel I just touch. Let me get it out.”

It was a tiny transparent sphere. She hold it in her hands for a while.

‘She is tinkering with it, probably?’

“Yes I was, here take it. I made it so you can use it and it won't release the excess mana anymore. It will use the excess mana to produce your core. When we get back we can make it into a necklace, and don't drop it. It is sturdy but still can shatter so be careful with it.”

Liam tried to take it, but...

Do you wish to bind the core?

“WOAH, what's that?”

“This is why I told you to be careful with it. Just accept it.”

“How? And how can I understand what it says”

“Just like me, it sends the message with the information in your hand. Think of it like taking words from your mind and projects it into your mind. You cant control its interface just yet properly But before you can, you will probably form your core. To accept just form the idea on your mind.”

‘I accept you as my core’

User name Liam Maximus Age 20 Strenght 11 Core condition External Endurance 10 Mana generation 1 M/h Perception 11 Mana capacity 4.978/5 İntelligenge 12

“Uh to have an idea whats your stats?”

“Hmm, my strength is 22, endurance is 26, perception is 21, and intelligence is 29. Normal human stats should be around 10 give or take.”

“I am quite normal then.”

“Now that you got your core we can start your evolution and continue to progress my own. We need to claim your land and to do that we need another core but it won't be easy to produce. We need to mark the borders to start with and you need to pour some mana to markers to claim it. The material of the ship will be enough to cover the cave. After that you can use the mana land produces to enlarge your territory. But the land must be unclaimed or consent of the owner of the land is necessary.”

“Okay, then let's carry the materials to the cave.”

With a makeshift sledge, they started to move the salvageable goods to the cave.

After carrying the materials to the cave it did take them two hours to make the cave into the core room.

“So I have to put my mana and it will complete?”

“Yes”

“How can I do that?”

“Oh, I haven't explained that. You cant use mana for now but you can at least channel it. Just focus on your core and think about releasing your mana, but into the mechanism we made. It will make you claim the land and produce its core. İt will be a little bigger than the core you have right now, about the size of your fist. It won't produce a lot of mana but we will compensate it with other types of energy. We can convert them to mana using the core you will produce.”

“Here I go.”

Liam tried to focus on the core and claim the land but somehow mechanism won't let him. He tried again and again but he never got successful.

“Are you not the owner of this land?”

“I am, at least part of it.”

“You probably need to convince other owners”

“I guess I need to visit my mother and buy a solar panel.”

“And a TV, I can learn to speak your language if I can hear it long enough.”

“You can? It would be awesome if you do not speak into my mind. I can bring the old one in my house, mother won't say no for that old TV.”

“You can do it too, but you need to get used to your core. When that happens core will help you with processing the knowledge, and until you can use your brain to its full capacity it will help you use it. It won't change how you think or increase your intelligence but it will help you learn better and more orderly. For now, you cant process the knowledge in your brain, but you can when you reach your first evolution. It is around 20 but varies from person to person.”

“Awesome. Then I will leave now to see my mother. I probably will be back two to three days, unless my mother insists me to stay with her. In that case a week at most. There is some dried meat and potatoes wooden box. I will return when I convince my mother.”

“Don't worry I can hunt, I won't starve to death when waiting for you.”

“Good to hear. Uh and we forgot to make the bed. I guess we will when I return.”

“It will be done before you return. I will make my bed.”

After Liam leaving the gun near the bed, he took some rations for the travel and then left the cave.