Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 28: The Origin of 'Power Cores'

“Aren’t those things… Artifacts?”, thought Khal with a slight frown and started to walk toward the shop.

Seeing that Khal was walking toward a shop in a small and narrow alleyway, Liza looked confused but still decided to follow him.

“What did you find?”, asked Liza curiously from Khal, but seeing his serious expression, she felt something was not quite right.

“Something just caught my eyes.”, answered Khal to Liza calmly, as he arrived before the shop’s door and looked at the sign above his head.

‘Ancient Artifacts’

“Well, the name tells everything.”, thought Khal not so surprised, and put his hand on the door.

*Creeaak!*

With a noise that sounded like the door hasn’t been opened for ages, Khal walked in slowly with Liza following him closely from behind.

“Woah! So much stuff! They look so ancient!”

The moment Liza walked in and saw the hundreds of different-looking artifacts, her expression turned to that of awe instantly.

However, on the other hand, Khal was not surprised. No, instead his expression was way beyond of shock and surprise.

[Notify! 167 ‘Power Cores’ had been detected in proximity!]

“…”

When Khal heard the voice in his head, his face stiffened and thought, “Just like I have thought. These ‘Power Cores” are truly from Artifacts.”

Instantly as he thought about this and the realization hit him, Khal’s jaw dropped, and thought, “Wait… Then that means I am able to… I can cultivate through Artifacts?!? Or to be more precise, through their core, but still, isn’t this a bit… Strange?”

As he thought about this possibility, Khal instantly became speechless and looked around the several Artifacts around him.

At every corner of the room, what Khal was able to see was different-looking masks, bracelets, earrings, or bizarre stuff with small and shiny crystals embedded into them.

“But wait. There must be more than 167 artifacts here, so this means not every Artifact has a ‘Power Core’. Interesting.”, thought Khal with interest as he looked at a mask before him.

While he inspected it with a dazed and confused expression, suddenly from the back of the shop an old man walked out and looked at them with a gentle smile.

“Welcome to Ancient Artifacts! How can I be a help to y-, oh? You have a truly precious core there young one.”

Khal hearing the unfamiliar voice turned to look at him, but seeing as the old man was prying on his bracelet he raised his hand and asked, “Precious? This?”

The old man hearing Khal’s expression smiled and nodded instantly.

“Yes my child. That pebble inside your bracelet is a very expensive Artifact Core. If I’m right it should be from a Middle-Quality Artifact, and what is more, it’s on the Flawless Tier. Where did you found it?”

Khal hearing the words Middle-Quality and Flawless Fier instantly looked confused, but still looked at the pebble and said, “Found accidentally on the ground, so decided to use it as jewelry.”

“Found accidentally on the ground, huh? I see…”

As the old man said that, he started to think and a small while later he said, “If you want, I can give you 50 Artifact Cores from the Refined Tier for that one. What do you think about this great deal?”

When Khal heard this looked surprised, but instantly shook his head.

“I am deeply sorry, but I don’t plan to give it away.”

Naturally, Khal was not stupid, so he wouldn’t sell his Power Core, no matter what. His Talent was coming from that pebble, and to top it off it was a powerful one.

Also, even if he would sell it, he wouldn’t sell it right away. The reason why not was because he still didn’t understand what the Artifacts’ Tier real value truly was, so he didn’t want to sell it, fearing he would get scammed by the old man.

He would not sell it even if they put a gun to his head and started to threaten him!

“I see, then that is unfortunate.”, said the old man, and after thinking for a while, he looked at Khal and said, “Then if you change your mind, you can always find me here.”

After he said that, the old man turned around and with slow steps, he walked back into the room from where he just came out a moment ago.

Liza seeing this looked at Khal, and with a gentle tug, she asked, “Umm… Can we go now?”

Khal knowing that he couldn’t do anything more there nodded and turned around slowly.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

With that said, he walked to the door, and while letting Liza to leave the shop first, he glanced at the Artifacts around for one last time.

Seeing the massive amount of ‘Power Cores’ that held secret powers which only he could use, Khal sighed and thought, “I will definitely come back for them.”

As he thought about that he walked out of the shop and closed the door behind him gently.

After finding out that his power came from the so-called ‘useless’ Artifact Cores, Khal spent the following hours of the day deep in thought.

Even while he was eating in Moon Academy with Liza and walking around to check out the place, he was so mesmerized by his own thoughts, that he didn’t realize that the sun had already gone down.

“Ah, it seems it’s time for us to find our rooms.”, said Liza and looked at the key in her hand.

Seeing that except for the three letters of ‘V.I.P’ there were no other things on their keys that would help them find their rooms, Liza frowned and looked at Khal.

“What should we do? I didn’t think about it before, but how will we able to find our rooms like this?”

Hearing Liza’s question, Khal came back to reality and looked at the key in his hand too.

The key was made out of black wood, with a very detailed and gorgeous design. The top of the key was formed as a tree’s head, while the bottom was made as the trunk in the shape similar to that of an F.

Turning it around, Khal suddenly noticed something and squinted his eyes.

After a small while, he showed it to Liza and asked, “What has been written here?”

Liza seeing that Khal has found something leaned closer and after reading for a long time, trying to figure out the words, she frowned and said, “It says, ‘Turn it’.”

Looking confused by that meaning, Liza looked up at Khal and asked, “Turn it? What should that even mean?”

Khal didn’t know the answer either, but still, he grabbed the key with both hands on both ends and tried to make it twist.

However, to his great surprise, no matter how hard he tried to turn the key, it didn’t budge at all. It didn’t show even the slightest sign that it would break, making Khal to stop twisting the key, knowing he would only just waste his time if he continued.

“So this won’t work, I see.”, said Khal and after thinking for a while he asked quietly, “Then how about this?”

Putting his hand out with the key in his grip, Khal imitated the move in the air like he put the key into a keyhole and turned it to the right.

But to his great surprise, just as he did a loud noise sounded in the air.

*Click!*

“!”

Hearing the clicking sound that was similar to when a lock has been unlocked, Liza and Khal looked at each other with surprise, not believing that this true worked.

Shortly, Khal turned his gaze back at the key in his hand, which was still put in the bare air and not into a keyhole, and a small while later pushed his arm forward, in a manner just as he would open a door.

Instantly as he did, the space before him suddenly split into two, and just like with any other doors, a new sight welcomed him.

“Woah… It’s… amazing!”, thought Khal with widened eyes, as he looked at the breathtaking sight right before him.