Cultivation Through Artifacts

"You mean, you know where this thing came from originally?" Khal asked Miss Mary with disbelief.

"Well, you can say that, yeah." Miss Mary smiled and continued, "Although we still have a lot of things to understand and discover, from the numerous records we have found throughout the years we got to learn that bracelet was once a powerful relic, a heaven-defying artifact called the Core Collector which was created by an ancient Sect known as the Skybreakers."

"The... Skybreakers?" Khal raised his brow as he has never heard about such a faction before.

"I know what you are thinking. How come you have never heard about them if they had such a powerful thing such as that bracelet, right? Well, the answer is rather simple. They were never cultivators of our Realm, that is why."

"What should that even mean?" Khal asked.

"It means, the Skybreakers never lived in the First Realm, but existed in a higher Realm instead, in the Realm of Gods or its another name in the Fifth Realm!"

"The Fifth Realm? The Skybreakers were really that strong that they were able to reach such heights?" asked Khal with disbelief, but soon frowned, realizing something was wrong.

"Wait... Why did you say 'were'? Are they no longer in the Fifth Realm or what?" 

And to his surprise, Miss Mary nodded as an answer.

"Seemingly, the Skybreakers were wiped out by a different race by unknown means, or at least that's what we got to learn from the records we have found."

"They were wiped out? Even though they had this artifact? Impossible." Khal looked startled as he was the most aware of just how ridiculously powerful his bracelet truly was.

The bracelet was simply so heaven-defying, that it could make the weakest person invincible under days, much less a scary race that resided in the Fifth Realm!

"Yes, we were thinking the same, but it is how it is." 

After Khal heard this he remained silent and soon raised his head before asking, "Then how come the bracelet is now in my possession? How did it get into our Realm all the way from the Fifth Realm? Also, where did you get to learn all of this knowledge?"

Hearing Khal's rapid questioning, Miss Mary just simply smiled and said calmly while taking a sip from her tea, "Calm down. I will explain everything clearly."

Then, she began to explain everything she knew to Khal.

Time passed quickly, and hours flew by in a flash. After about two to three hours of straight-talking, Miss Mary finally stopped speaking and let Khal, who was a long time ago at a loss of words, digest all the information she just told him.

Seconds became minutes, and after ten minutes of silence, Khal finally raised his head and asked Miss Mary, "So, you say, everything you have just told me was learned from this mysterious place called the Sky Palace where everything is related to the Skybreakers?"

"Yes."

"And that this place is in a separate space that could be only accessed with a special 'key', which was once guarded by a Skybreaker, who in fact was the one that gave me the bracelet in the past, but because he died, you were able to get your hands on the key."

"Exactly." nodded Miss Mary.

[That must be a special Realm Key into the Zero Realm, just like the one that brought you into the Eternal Garden.]

'Yeah, I kind of figured that out already.' said Khal to Nova, whose voice suddenly sounded in his head.

After that, Khal looked at Miss Mary and asked, "How did the Skybreaker die? Did he die knowing you will get the key or not?"

However, this time the one answering him was not Miss Mary, but Madam Rose who sat and listened from the side in silence all this time.

"We don't know how he died as everything happened way too fast for us to find out the real cause of his death, but he indeed gave us the key willingly, but with one request."

"And that was?" asked Khal, his interest piqued by several folds.

Madam Rose smiled before she pointed at Khal, "That once you have successfully activated that relic's power, which only a few Skybreaker was capable of doing ever before, we have to protect you no matter what."

"Huh? Me? But why?" Khal asked with confusion.

Miss Mary and Madam Rose however shook their heads, as not even they knew the answer to that question. 

"However, before he died, he also gave us this and told us, if you ever succeed on activating the relic, let us give you this." 

Then, Madam Rose stood up and after taking out an item from her spatial ring, she handed it over to Khal.

It was a sky blue token, that had a circular shape and several symbols carved into its center, that Khal didn't recognize at all.

"What's this?" Khal asked as he inspected the token with great curiosity.

"We don't know. We inspected it numerous times before, but after several experiments, we concluded that it is only an ordinary token with no special traits," answered Miss Mary.

"I see..." Khal mumbled as he gazed at the token before tossing it into his spatial ring.

"Anyways, I hope you are not angry that I kept you in the dark for so long. I had my reasons to do so." Miss Mary sighed, her eyes flashing with some guilt.

Khal remained silent for a while before he shook his head and smiled gently, "Of course I am not angry. As a fact, I feel relieved instead and happy."

"That's good to hear." Miss Mary sighed with relief.

"But, when do you plan to tell this to Liza? She was just as angry and depressed as I was, you know that right?"

"Yes, I know." nodded Miss Mary and continued, "And I will meet her personally back at Moon City, but only once you have finished doing why you have come here."

"Hm?" 

Seeing Khal's somewhat confused and surprised face Miss Mary smiled and asked, "What? You thought I would not know why you have come to the Western Continent?"

She then put the cup from her hand back onto the table and continued, "I know you have reached a bottleneck with your cultivation Khal, and also that you are planning to enter the Neverending Dungeon, so, please... Let me help you."