Birth Of The Crafts-God

The next day came around quickly, but for some, it was slow, due to the intense anticipation for the day's event. Even as the first light of the day broke, many had already visited the official website of Legacy Crafts dealership and Novanio Tech, for information about the upcoming conference.

The SS vestige craze had first begun with freelancers, vestige-smiths, and vestige enthusiasts, but as the craze got wilder, the students of freelancer academies got wrapped up in it. In the end, at least one out of ten people in Baylands City had heard about them. And this was all within two weeks.

With a new product coming to the market soon, it was inevitable that victims of the craze would rush to find out whatever information they could.

The two websites were the only source for any information, as the Seven Sparks Forge store has no website on the Kellan Solar System Intranet (KSSI). For this, Lucas was to be blamed as his inadequate knowledge on running a business, despite having lived in the 21st century, was responsible. Luckily, after this event, Lucas was updating himself on common business knowledge and activities.

Back to reality...

Due to the incessant massive visits flooding the two websites, they ended up being shut down. The two companies announced on their social media platforms that an upgrade would be ongoing, but Novanio Tech was the only one that would be recovering quicker, taking at least three hours for the upgrade.

This was understandable as between the two companies Novanio Tech was wealthier and much bigger in scale. Due to the degree of businesses they held, their website had to be brought online as quickly as possible.

One might wonder why their website wasn't stronger than Legacy Crafts dealership, and the answer was simply because the company has never predicted to experience such an incident before. Novanio Tech catered to companies by supplying them with stellar processors. They had little to do with the end-user, so there was no reason to have a website powerful enough to sustain dozens of millions of visitors in one instance.

After the downfall of the websites, the curious crowd began questioning the social media accounts of the two companies, hoping to get some sort of information about the new type of vestiges to be released.

Although vestiges were strongly regulated, it didn't prevent the common man from having some interest in them. This was especially so since the focus of the topic was the creator of a vestige that had the entire industry in its grasp.

In the end, the Novanio Tech social media account announced that they wouldn't be related to information or activity concerning the SS vestige or Legacy Crafts dealership. This wasn't Novanio Tech cutting off relations entirely, but this was the company's higher-ups' way of maintaining their business' line of focus. Novanio Tech was a stellar processor supplier and not a vestige-smith company or a vestige dealership; the integrity had to be maintained.

With Novanio Tech shifting the focus to Legacy Crafts dealership, the executives of the latter company had to give the crowd a reply, or at least, something to keep them a little occupied.

In the end, the social media account of Legacy Crafts dealership made an announcement on Kikao [1], the number one social media platform in Baylands city-state. The announcement wasn't anything special or anticipatory, instead, it was just a simple question:

"What defines a vestige?"

Right after the question was the time for the conference as well as the location. In order to reach out to more people, the conference was an online one instead of a physical event, and it was open to everyone through a link.

While the decision of making the conference an online event did attract attention and appeal to many, the question put up by the account still has the bulk of attention.

What defines a vestige?

This seemed like a simple question, but it also gave off the feeling of a riddle. Many of those who read the statement were confused by it and began to overcomplicate what was supposed to be an easy question.

"Hey, what do you think they mean by this?"

"I don't know. Probably trying to sound sophisticated or something."

"No, no. I don't think so. It's probably a hidden mean. Common guys, think."

Various conversations took place both in reality and under the comment section of the post, as many discussed what the question could mean.

"These guys are good." Kelvin commented as he stared at the checkout counter's display screen.

"Indeed. They're well experienced with this."

Lucas was fascinated by the actions of the Legacy Crafts dealership.

Just one question was enough to trigger the entire Kikao social platform and become the number one trending topic.

One should recall that in the past two weeks of the Legacy Crafts dealership's existence, they had spent zero fees on advertisements, but had already generated a revenue of more than a million federal coins.

Lucas had made nine hundred and twenty thousand (920000) federal coins from the forty SS vestiges, and with the Legacy Crafts dealership selling at a higher rate, they had surely generated over a million. This was even without considering the other regular vestiges they sold in the course of doing business. And they achieved all of this without spending on advertisements. Even though some of the vestiges were yet to be sold, the existence of the waitlist pretty much made no difference.

It was all thanks to their bizarre marketing strategy that utilised public desire and interests to make themselves known. Now once again, their strategy was in effect.

"I have a feeling those alliance guys would be pissed. After all, they provided us with the opportunity to be able to do this." Kelvin smiled.

It was true that this was all the result of the alliance's actions. If they had remained quiet and minded their business, or even competed fairly, Lucas wouldn't have decided to release a new product. The Blue Spear and Dark Dagger were already enough to earn him a ton of wealth and keep his business doing well. Lucas wasn't the type to be obsessed over money or being rich, so until the two vestiges weren't doing well, it was unlikely that he would have released a new product, especially so soon.

"Let's get ready." Lucas said. Discover hidden stories at empire

"Huh? We're going? Isn't it an online conference?" Kelvin was confused.

Since it was online, there was less reason for them to attend the conference at its physical location.

"We aren't going to the conference. There's no point in doing so. I've already handed the vestiges over and explained to them how it works." Lucas responded as he stood up to walk away.

Even with the explanation, Kelvin still remained confused.

"Then...?"

"It's time to open the store, bird brain. What 'then'? Have you forgotten already?" Lucas stared at Kelvin as if he were looking at a fool.

"..."

Kelvin immediately scurried to get the store ready for business. Lucas had earlier told him that they would open late which was why the store was empty. But with the owner now informing him to do so, Kelvin rushed to act.

Meanwhile, Lucas glanced at the system notification on his interface. It was one that had him in a good while for over a day now, but Lucas had forgotten to check it out.

[[ Congratulations on completing the hidden mission: Not just weapons.

Mission Description: Create a unique vestige that isn't a weapon.

Rewards: Special Ability Card]]

[[ Congratulations to the host for levelling up the system (now level 3). One new system ability granted.

Rewarding ten system coins, One leaf from the Tree of Gehenna.]]

[[ Leaf from the Tree of Gehenna: a unique material that can be used to create heaven-defying items, for instance, a revival drug, or a potion to change one's physical condition. Consuming it in its raw form can bring the dead back to life with the right conditions. It could also be used to gain death-related abilities. ]]

From the conversation Lucas had with the system the last time he levelled it up, he had learned that with each level up, he would gain a unique material. According to the system, the unique materials up until level five would be key ingredients to making a potion that would modify his human physique and enable Lucas to be able to use stellar energy.

Although there was an item with a similar effect in the system store —the Red Dragon Heaven Pill— it cost at least five hundred system coins. What's more, the Red Dragon Heaven Pill was only capable of healing all sorts of diseases by making a perfect body that was capable of storing and manipulating stellar energy. With such a physique, one's stellar refinement would be moving at a speed at least three times faster than the hyuman with the highest mDNA concentration.

However, the elixir to be produced with the unique items would do more than just give Lucas the ability to use and store stellar energy. While the physique produced with it would be weaker than that made using the Red Dragon Heaven Pill, the added effect of special bonuses was more attractive to Lucas.

Also, it was easier to level up the system than it was to make five hundred system coins. Until now, Lucas had only seventeen coins, and this was with the extra ten he had just gained with the recent level up.

"Two more levels to go."