Cultivation Through Artifacts

Time passed quickly and after a few hours of rest, the three proceeded to descend deeper into the dungeon, killing beasts and consuming their Essence.

Though, because all the creatures were on the Eighth Cultivation Stage and their numbers were not few, Baylie and Deva became exhausted quite fast thus they could do nothing but stop after almost every twentieth floor.

Because of this, the two felt rather embarrassed, especially Deva who was the strongest among the three. They didn't understand just how Khal was capable of fighting so many terrifying creatures without losing a tremendous amount of his strength.

'Just who exactly is he?' the two pondered to themselves while they sat in the middle of a desert and stared at Khal who gazed at the starry sky above them with a nonchalant look on his face.

'Hey, Nova... Can I ask you something?' Khal decided to kill his boredom by asking a question from Nova.

[What do you want to know?]

Khal remained silent as he didn't know how to ask his question, but after a small, while later he sighed inwardly and asked, 'I know it hasn't been a long time, but can you remember anything else since our oath?'

[Well, not quite a lot, but there are a few things that I have found as... interesting.]

Then Nova began to explain what he got to learn, which shocked Khal deeply.

According to Nova's memories, she was once a powerful existence who was capable of annihilating races with a simple curse of hers!

However, because of unknown reasons, as that part of her memories are still foggy, she or to be more precise her soul and spirit were trapped and sealed inside the bracelet.

'Were you, in fact, the one that attacked the Skybreakers? Maybe that would explain why you were trapped inside the relic.' Khal pondered as this was the most likely possibility that could have occurred.

[Yeah, maybe... But even if that happened, why would I attack a lowly race such as the Skybreakers?]

Khal seemingly thought that was right, as according to Nova, out of the many races the Skybreakers were not strong at all, only their relic was.

So even if she wanted to acquire the bracelet, she could have easily done so without shedding any blood, much less going all the way to completely annihilating the Skybreakers, so things seemed to be way more complicated than that.

After thinking for a while more, Khal could only sigh and ask, 'Then what about Neo? How was I able to invade his body in the first place and how did his soul get sealed away? Also, what about my sealed Talent and my lost Hidden Talent?'

As Nova was a part of the bracelet, obviously she already knew about his situation that he reincarnated into this body, thus why he asked this question.

However, this time Nova was the one who remained silent, and only after several minutes later did he began to speak.

[Currently, I can only think about one explanation.]

'And that is?' Khal asked, curious to hear Nova's thoughts.

[That the lost Hidden Talent and the sealed Talent are the main reason why the relic's power was triggered, thus why it activated in the first place. It seems one can only use the relic if they have no Talent, but that is only a guess from my side.]

[As for how the original Khal has been sealed away and how you got reincarnated into this body, it's a complete mystery even for myself.]

Khal nodded slightly hearing this as he too thought this way.

Time quickly passed away, and the three continued to descend the floors one after another while also taking breaks occasionally because of Deva and Baylie.

"I can't believe it. We are really on floor 299!" Baylie gasped with shock as he watched Khal and Deva consuming the Essences in the distance.

Because he was already at the peak of the Eighth Cultivation Stage, he needed only a small amount of Beast Essence to reach his bottleneck. Now, he only had to open a few of his sealed Essence Paths in order to enter the Ninth Cultivation Stage.

'If we could have him help us clear all the floors whenever the creatures reappear, the strength of the Kenmer Family would definitely skyrocket over a single night for sure!'

Once Khal and Deva finished consuming their Essence, Khal was lead to the staircase that led the way to floor 300, but to his surprise both Deva and Baylie stood still, their faces slightly pale.

"What happened?" Khal asked with a frown, thinking other creatures they missed to kill appeared, but no matter where he looked he saw nothing.

"We... We shouldn't go down there..." Deva muttered, seemingly insisting to descend any further.

"Shouldn't? Why?" Khal shifted his gaze at the staircase but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Now I can understand why they failed to go any deeper than this floor. The next floor... Is not something we should enter." Baylie took a step backward, his body trembling from fear.

'Just what is happening with them? I don't feel anything at all.' Khal now really tried to figure out what was making the two behave so scared.

[Oh? How interesting... To think that a beast like that could exist in the First Realm. It's not a surprise they are so scared.]

'What are you talking about? What beast?' Khal now began to feel irritated and asked Nova to tell him.

[Because you have yet to experience life-threatening dangers, you have yet to sharpen your instincts to perfection. But those two have already undergone numerous life and death situations, so it's not a surprise they notice something you can't.]

[It seems on the next floor, a beast succeeded in reaching the peak of this Realm and is very close to entering the Tenth Cultivation Stage!]

[But to be honest, likely, it has already reached it but then it would mean your journey until this point was meaningless.]

Khal listening to Nova fell silent, not knowing what he should say.. Things turned out to be way worse than he initially believed them to be.