Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 44: What is This?

[Notify! ‘Ember Core’ has been found!]

“Ember Core? What is that?”, thought Khal with confusion the moment he heard the voice inside his head.

So far, what he could understand about his bracelet that it used Artifacts’ so-called Cores to give him Talents.

Just like the moment he has entered the Artifact shop back in Moon Academy, Khal was welcomed with a notification that told him that in the shop over a hundred Power Cores could be found.

Each of those Artifacts that held a Power Core theoretically could give Khal a different Talent, but because he didn’t have time yet to try it out, he didn’t know if it was true.

However, in Khal’s view, weapons and artifacts were two different things. One helped humans during a fight, while the other one was nothing more but an antique used in traditional ceremonies or festivals.

So getting a notification about Core in a place where no artifacts were but only weapons made Khal quite confused.

“If it’s a Core, then theoretically it could give me power too, right? But, it is not called as a Power Core, but as an Ember Core. Just what could be the difference between the two?”

As Khal thought about this, Logan on his side frowned and asked, “What? Did you never see weapons in the past or what? You look like someone who just saw a ghost.”

“Ah, my bad. I was just thinking about which weapon I should choose.”, answered Khal with a wry smile, as he came back to reality.

Logan could just raise his eyebrow to this reply because Khal didn’t really look like someone who thought about choosing a weapon.

But to be honest, he didn’t really care about it. He just simply nodded and crossed his arms before his chest.

“I will give you 15 minutes. If you don’t end up choosing a weapon until the end of the time limit, you will get nothing. Understood?”

Khal knew that he had no choice but to agree, so nodded and started to look around.

“How should I find the Ember Core?”, thought Khal with a calm gaze.

Currently, as he could see it, there were more than a thousand weapons in the huge room.

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There were short swords, long swords, hammers, axes, scythe’s, throwing knives, staffs, and all kinds of different weapons.

Each looked extremely scary, but none of them caught Khal’s curiosity.

Why? The reason was very simple. He first wanted to find the one which held the Ember Core.

“Think… There must be a way to tell which one it is.”, thought Khal, and a second later his eyes brightened up with an idea.

He could remember that his bracelet had a function called ‘Magnetism’, so maybe using it should help him.

But if he uses it, there were risks too. For example, if he decides to use it, there was a high possibility that he will get busted by Logan, who was standing only a meter away from him.

He didn’t really want that though, but no matter how hard he thought about other solutions, he didn’t have any better idea.

Because he had no clue that touching an artifact or weapon that had a Core would make the bracelet respond, Khal’s best choice would be that.

But even if he knew that his bracelet had such a function, there was no way in hell that he could examine each weapon in this huge room only under 15 minutes.

There were way too many weapons for that, so it was a definite no.

“No matter what, I need to use Magnetism. But how will I explain it if the weapon or the Core suddenly starts to fly toward me?”, thought Khal but soon enough an idea popped up in his head.

“Wait. What if I activate Magnetism, but before it could work entirely, I deactivate it? By using my Heaven’s Eyes, finding it would be no problem at all. I will be able to detect its slight movement.”

Naturally, he had no way to avoid Logan’s sight if the weapon he was searching for started to move way too obvious, but he didn’t really have a choice.

Only if he were careful enough, maybe then will he be able to avoid getting busted, but that was not guaranteed either.

“You have 10 more minutes.”, said Logan on a side with an unfazed expression, making Khal to act instantly.

“Okay, then let’s do that.”, thought Khal and closed his eyes.

“Hey, can I use my Magnetism ability manually?”, asked Khal in his mind, hoping to get an answer.

In the past, whenever he asked a question, the voice in his head would never answer. But even though Khal knew this, he decided to try his luck now once again, maybe this time he will get one.

And to his surprise, he truly did.

[Do you want to use ability ‘Magnetism’ manually?]

“Yes!”, answered Khal instantly, happy that the voice in his head finally answered one of his questions.

[Understood! Ability ‘Magnetism’ has been turned Manual Mode!]

[Notify! Manual Mode will be active only for 5 minutes!]

“Perfectly enough time.”, thought Khal and without hesitation activated his Talent.

Instantly after his eyes turned sky blue in color with a crimson red slit in their middle, he looked around.

When Logan saw Khal using his Talent in a place like this raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn’t say anything. He just stood still with an expressionless face, while leaning against the wall on the side.

“Well then, how do I use this power?”, thought Khal, but immediately as he thought about the ability, he felt as a small portion of Essence in his body vanished.

“!”

As that happened, in Khal’s vision, he noticed that in the far left corner, somewhere below several short swords in a small box, something started to move gently.

[Notify! ‘Ember Core’ cannot be taken away!]

Hearing the voice in his head and the rapid disappearance of Essence from his body, Khal stopped using his Magnetism ability and walked toward the left.

Logan seeing as something has caught Khal’s attention, looked curious and waited with great anticipation what he will choose.

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

With a sharp metallic sound, Khal started to put the short swords out from the box to the side, and soon enough, found a strange-looking weapon in the bottom of the crate.

“What the hell is this?”, thought Khal and to make sure it was the one he just saw, he activated his Magnetism ability once again.

However, instantly as he did, the weapon before him started to move, but for some unknown reason, it didn’t fly toward him as he expected but simply moved here and there at the bottom of the box.

Naturally, Khal knew why this was happening.

“The Core is trapped inside the weapon, so not even Magnetism could help here.”

As Khal thought about this, he deactivated his Magnetism and grabbed the weapon before him.

“But still… Just what are you?”, thought Khal and raised the weapon before him.

In Khal’s hand, a small dagger that was made out of some kind of black crystal could be seen. It had a gently curved shape, while the side of the blade had several deep slashes in its middle.

But, because its length was long for a dagger, but short for a short sword, Khal didn’t really know how to call the weapon.

Generally, because of its outer look, it would be either called as a dagger or short sword, but it was still hard to tell. Especially because of its handle.

Its grip was twisted in a spiral-like manner, but not in a way that it would be uncomfortable to hold.

However, it was not everything. At the bottom of the handle, what Khal was able to see was a small gap, where his thumb could be perfectly fit.

“What is this?”, thought Khal with curiosity and put his finger into the hole.

But when he did, suddenly he felt a slight change around his body and surroundings, making him stop moving instantly.

“…”

Waiting in silence and without moving even for a bit, Khal saw nothing, so just frowned and looked at the weapon in his hand.

“Did I just imagine it?”, pondered Khal with confusion and moved his finger upward slowly.

However, when Khal felt that nothing happened at all, he frowned even deeper and without hesitation, pushed his finger powerfully.

Yet, the moment he did, a startling sight transpired.

*Swish!*

*Clang!*

“The hell?!”, yelled Khal with alarm quickly and pulled his left hand away hurriedly which was quite close to the blade a second ago.

“It turned into a… Fan?”