Noah reached into the painting for the third time.
This time, the object he found was different. It wasn't a book or a garment. It was cold, irregular, and the size of a fist.
He pulled it out, and it turned out to be a crystal.
Transparent, like a raw diamond, but without the typical reflections of a gem. It was matte, almost opaque, and its surface was full of irregular facets that seemed to change angle as Noah moved his head.
As soon as he touched it, something happened.
His Elder Blood stirred as if it had recognized the crystal. A current of energy ran down his arm, up his neck, and into his brain.
Noah's eyes rolled back for a second, and a flood of information invaded him.
Neahtid Crystal.
Condensed from the Law of Time.
Contains: 23.7% of the totality of the Law. Sufficient to...
The vision stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
Noah blinked several times, regaining consciousness.
And then he burst out laughing.
—Hahaha! —his laughter echoed in the empty laboratory, euphoric, almost hysterical—. I can't believe my luck!
He raised the crystal before his eyes, admiring it as if it were the most valuable treasure in the universe.
—Compared to this, the two previous artifacts were garbage. Garbage!
He turned the crystal between his fingers, watching how the facets captured the dim light of his spell.
—This crystal contains parts of the Law of Time. And not a small amount, but a good portion of that law.
His smile calmed slightly as he recalled the limitations of his own path.
—It's a pity I can't begin to interact with the laws until I reach rank 4 in my Magus path and successfully evolve my soul so that it can interact with them.
But even with that drawback, Noah was extremely excited.
From this entire journey to this world —the spells learned, the looted objects, Dave's absorbed talent— this crystal was the most valuable thing he had obtained. It would be incredibly useful to him in the future, when his soul was ready to comprehend the fundamental laws of the universe.
He stored the crystal with the utmost care in his 4D pocket.
Then, with a gesture of his hand, he opened a spatial portal.
The blue light vortex appeared before him, growing until it formed an arch large enough for him to pass through. On the other side, the blurry silhouette of a room could be seen.
Noah took a step toward the portal.
—Halt!
A sudden voice came from the laboratory entrance.
Balthazar stood among the broken doors, his face flushed with fury and his breathing agitated. He had followed Noah's trail to this place.
And now he saw the silver-haired boy about to escape.
—You're not moving from there! —shouted Balthazar, raising his hand.
A spell began to form in his palm, golden light concentrating into a bright sphere that shot forward the next second.
But it was already too late.
Noah had already taken the step. His body entered the portal an instant before the spell hit the frame, scattering into harmless waves of light.
The portal closed behind him with a soft sigh, like an exhalation.
Balthazar was left alone in the middle of the wrecked laboratory, his arm still extended and the spell dissipating between his fingers.
—...Damn it —he murmured.
His fist fell, powerless.
The echo of his frustration bounced off the empty walls as the darkness of the laboratory reclaimed the silence.
---
Noah appeared in his underground chamber, back in the shinobi world.
He exhaled slightly.
—Phew, that guy almost got me. But the result was worth it.
He had obtained more than he expected in those two trips. He had gained incredible psychic abilities, and on top of that, the magical knowledge acquired and the artifacts that were now part of his resources.
After everything he had acquired, this small place was clearly insufficient.
Noah scanned the room with his gaze, evaluating each detail without lingering too long on any in particular.
—Time to expand it —he murmured as he rubbed his hands before touching one of the walls.
—Wood Release: Root Structure!
The wall trembled softly. Thick roots began to sprout, intertwining with each other, forming solid, smooth walls. The ceiling rose on its own, gaining height as new wooden beams extended to support it. Noah moved his hands with precision, directing the growth like a sculptor shaping clay.
When he finished, the original wall had been transformed into a vast room of about three hundred square meters, with a ceiling height of four meters. The polished wood walls had a dark mahogany tone, and their surface was as smooth as if they had been hand-planed.
Noah nodded, satisfied. Then he extended his arms, and new structures began to emerge from the floor: shelves attached to the walls, long sturdy workbenches, shelves at different heights, and even a kind of control panel with multiple projections for placing instruments.
—Now, to decorate.
He used his 4D pocket and began to extract the equipment he had looted from MIT.
First, he organized the space into clearly differentiated sections.
In the northwest area, he set up the biotechnology laboratory: several workbenches with electron microscopes, centrifuges, incubators, a genetic sequencer, and shelves with culture boxes and cryogenized samples. A fume hood was also installed against the wall.
In the northeast area, the robotics and precision mechanics section. There he placed high-end 3D printers, a small CNC lathe, robotic arms, and boxes with all kinds of electronic components: microchips, sensors, actuators, fiber optic cables.
The center of the room he designated as a computing and design area. On a large wooden table, he aligned three high-resolution monitors, a high-processing tower, and several solid-state drives with petabytes of storage capacity. A thermoelectric generator, powered by a small reactor also obtained from MIT, provided clean energy to the entire complex.
The southwest area became the energy and materials laboratory. On the nearby shelves, dozens of boxes contained samples of experimental alloys and energy compounds.
Finally, the southeast area he reserved as a storage and maintenance area. There he stacked boxes with tools, spare parts, chemical protection suits, and cleaning equipment.
When he finished placing everything, he stepped back and observed his work. The contrast was striking: the organic-looking wooden walls housed inside them the most cutting-edge technology of the 21st century. It looked like a mad scientist's laboratory, but Noah was smiling broadly.
—Perfect.
He walked over to the computing area and turned on the monitors. The system booted with a soft hum, showing the MIT logo on the main screen. Noah quickly typed several passwords, unlocking files and computer-aided design programs, and began working on a new project.