Cultivation Through Artifacts

"So many things I can strengthen, but what will I gain if I do?" pondered Khal as he watched the words in the air, but a voice replied inside his head right away.

[Notify! Choose one to see further information!]

Khal nodded and did exactly as he was told and selected the first option, the 'Power Core Holder' ability.

• Power Core Holder: An ability to hold and use 2 Power Cores at once. (Can be strengthened by 'Body Essence'!)

[Warning! Needed 'Body Essence' to unlock this ability - 1000!]

"Just as I have thought," exclaimed Khal loudly and chose the second ability.

• Essence Path Status: A 'Status' that unlocks further abilities to help open the 24 sealed Essence Paths in the body!

[Warning! Needed 'Body Essence' to unlock this ability - 1000!]

"A Status similar to Artifact Creation Status? Intriguing," said Khal and continued to check the remaining abilities.

• Detector -> Revealer: An ability that detects Cores' together with their unique traits.

• Boosted Magnetism: Holds a bigger radius and can pull more Cores toward the 'Owner' with greater speed.

• Transfiguration -> Essence Refiner: An ability to refine 'Beast Essence' into 'Body Essence' with greater success. (Can refine 1 'Beast Essence' into 20 'Body Essence'!)

• Upgraded Creation Mode: Reduced time limit after usage! (168 hours -> 84 hours)

[Notify! Each of the following abilities needs 750 'Body Essence'!]

Khal read every ability before him in the air while gradually a light frown emerged on his face.

"Each of these abilities has extremely useful traits that I must obtain, but for the time being, I can only choose only one."

Especially the Essence Refiner ability. If Khal could obtain that power reaching thousands of Body Essence under days wouldn't pose a problem at all. Unfortunately though, he must wait for the second chance he could buy it because this time he won't but instead choose something else.

"I want to unlock ability 'Power Core Holder'!"

[Are you sure about your choice? Once you decide to buy it your 'Body Essence' will fall from 1000 units to 100 units again.]

"Just what I have feared of..." thought Khal as he realized that this was the worst-case scenario. This meant after he bought something the collected Essence inside his body would vanish and he needed to collect Body Essence once again all the way from the start!

Like this, things became quite complicated but not to the degree he couldn't solve it.

"Once I collect enough Body Essence again, my next target will be the Essence Refiner ability for sure!" thought Khal and confirmed his choice the next second.

"Yes, I want to choose that!"

[Understood!]

[Notify! Using 1000 'Body Essence' to Unlock ability 'Power Core Holder'!]

Immediately after the voice sounded, Khal felt as the Essence inside his body suddenly moved toward his bracelet as though it was a raging river.

However, the sensation wasn't painful nor uncomfortable but instead pleasant which was quite strange to say because right now his Essence was suck from his body!

Sometime later, when almost all the Body Essence vanished into his bracelet, Khal felt as something snapped so tilted his gaze at his wrist.

Crack!

Snap!

"Eh?"

The Power Core that was embedded into the bracelet gradually began to shrink while right next to it another spot where another Core could be placed was formed.

[Notify! Ability 'Power Core Holder' successfully obtained!]

"Argh..." when the process was done, Khal suddenly felt as the pleasant sensation vanished and what replaced it was indescribable exhaustion making his vision turn blurry while his body became extremely weak.

His complexion paled, his back was covered with cold sweat, and the muscles in his entire body were twitching like crazy.

"Chirp!"

Rubie noticing as Khal's body suddenly fell onto the ground powerlessly jumped onto the ground and looked at him with a worried expression.

"Damn... I feel... Quite sleepy..." mumbled Khal as his vision gradually became darker and in the end, everything turned black.

***

"he... hey... Hey... HEY! WAKE UP!"

"!?"

Leaping onto his feet as fast as lightning, Khal looked at his surroundings hurriedly while his face held a complexion he didn't know where he was.

"Um... Hello? Earth calls for Khal, Khal are you there?" hearing the familiar voice from the side Khal tilted his head to the side slowly, only to snap back into reality the very moment he saw the individual before him.

"Neo?"

"Yes, that is me and yes, I am perfectly fine. Thanks for asking." nodded Neo as his body was still locked firmly onto the floor akin to a wild beast or slave.

"Wait... How did I get here?" looked around Khal abruptly, realizing he was once again teleported into this strange place called Soul Prison.

"Well, that question even myself can't answer, but right before you appeared out of thin air like some kind of great magician, a voice sounded in the surroundings." gestured Neo as he tried to imitate the way Khal just emerged but failed because of the lack of space where he could move.

"A voice?" asked Khal, instantly glancing at Neo with confusion.

Neo as a reply nodded and said, "Yeah, it said 'Until 1% of replenishment the owner's consciousness will be placed into Soul Prison' or something like that. I guess it was the bracelet's doing this time too."

Khal was surprised by this but found it only natural for Neo to find it out. Except for what his bracelet could do, he already told him the truth so it was only natural to suspect that the place he was sealed into was the bracelet.

"Yeah, I guess so." nodded Khal and looked at the chains around Neo. After thinking for a while Khal looked around and thought, "How should I take those off from him?"

[Do you wish to undo the 'Soul Chains'?]

The voice inside Khal's head resounded like thunder, making his face to be contorted into a grimace slightly.

"Yeah, I want." nodded Khal, causing the chains around Neo to disperse into tiny fragments in a flash.

"Argh, finally! Thanks a lot!" sighed Neo, seemingly happy he can finally move once again, "So? Were you able to find out something about our situation?"

Khal hearing this simply shook his head and sighed, "Unfortunately nothing. I had no time at all..."

"What? No time? You went away for weeks and you were unable to find even the slightest clue?!"

Though, Khal shook his head once again while shaking his hand around, "No, I didn't mean that way. The problem was..."

Like that, Khal told Neo everything that happened so far, including his 'accident' with Moras, the challenges in Moon Academy, and his misfortune to obtaining the Moon Robe.

When he arrived at the end of his story, Neo's complexion was already ice cold.

"So briefly, that is what happened with me and that is why I was unable to look for clues." sighed Khal as he glanced at Neo.

Silence descended between the two and only after several long seconds later did Neo lock his gaze with Khal's and ask, "That bitch, Alde... Did he lay a finger on Liza or Miss Mary?"

"!?"

Khal didn't expect this question to be Neo's very first so was completely caught off guard and didn't know what he should reply to that all of a sudden.

However, Neo completely misunderstood Khal's hesitation and began to emit a tiny amount of killing intent, making Khal feel a bit of pressure.

"No, no, he didn't. He didn't lay even a finger on Liza, but even if he wanted to he couldn't. Liza is way stronger than him and is currently in Moon Academy while also a strong and well-known Cultivator is standing behind her! He wouldn't dare to do anything reckless even if he had guts bigger than the heavens!"

"Then that is a relief." sighed Neo, his previous killing intent vanishing in a blink of an eye, "And what about Miss Mary?"

"..."

"Hm? Something the matter?" asked Neo with a raised brow, finding it strange that Khal didn't reply to him even after several seconds.

On the other hand, Khal didn't stay silent because he didn't know what happened with Miss Mary, but because he knew exactly what happened with her.

"Hey, talk to me if I ask you. What happened with Miss Mary? Is she okay?" asked Neo, his voice hold a bit of irritation and fear.

"Miss Mary..." began to say Khal and after taking a deep breath looked firmly into Neo's eyes and said, "She... Died."