Cultivation Through Artifacts

Khal watched blankly at Logan like he just heard something incomprehensible. Find a job? What? Why? He was a Cultivator who can earn money through accepting missions and killing beast while at the same time getting stronger; why should he find a job?

As Khal’s brain tried to find the logical answer to his question Logan’s eyebrows knitted together tightly and asked, “You weren’t told you need to find a Job inside Moon Academy? That is a serious requirement if one wanted to stay inside the Academy; you need to do at least one Job a month, as for what Job you choose, that is completely on you.”

“What? No. I wasn’t told about that at all. Who should have said that to me?” raised a brow at that as he asked.

“Who? Isn’t that obvious? It should have been your…” started to say Logan but halted in his sentence as he realized he should have said that to him.

“…” as Khal noticed Logan’s strange reaction squinted his eyes but could do nothing but sigh helplessly. This teacher of his… How could he forget to tell him something so important like this? It was…

It seemed that one needed to do and accept a Job once every month to remain in the Academy; just how could anyone, especially an individual that was a teacher in the Academy, forget to tell their disciple something this important?

“I see. Then we should head back now. If I am right I have been here 5 days, so I have 2 more days to find a Job, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go.” nodded Khal and waited for Logan to teleport them back, but unexpectedly Logan put his fingers before his chin and started to ponder loudly.

“Now that I think about it, then what I asked was not really a punishment; it was a must for you no matter what.”

“…” Khal watched Logan before him with an indifferent expression, but deep inside he started to feel something was not right.

“Ah, that’s right!” smiled Logan and as he tilted his gaze at Khal grinned, revealing his white teeth below the moon’s light, “Then your punishment should be to find a way back into Moon Academy. Well then, see you back there.”

As Logan’s voice fell, his body slowly turned transparent and under a split second, he vanished into a thin air, leaving Khal behind just like that without a second thought.

***

Back inside Moon City, inside Jas’s room which was only lit up by a single candle, Logan walked inside and leaned onto the wall on the side.

“So? How did it go? Did you find out if he borrows the power of ‘that’?” Jas who read calmly behind his desk put the book down gently and glanced at Logan; it was apparent he was curious about the news.

However, Logan just shook his head making surprise and shock flash in Jas’s eyes for a split second.

“How do you think so?”

Logan although deep in thought still stood up and extended his palm before him. Instantly, red flames enveloped his hand and a book with an eerily red luminance appeared and floated above his palm; the whole thing leaked a presence that made everyone’s hair stand on end.

Yet, even though the book gave out such a creepy aura, Logan looked at it with such kindness and warmth on his face that it was akin he looked at his most loved one in the world!

Jas watched Logan and the book above his palm all this time in silence and waited patiently; and soon just as he anticipated Logan started to talk.

“He doesn’t borrow a power similar to me, yet it is identical in a few ways. I still can’t tell it why or answer how but I know it for sure; he does not borrow powers from ‘them’ and ‘that’.” exclaimed Logan as he examined the book in his hand.

“…” Jas stayed silent for quite a bit and after a while nodded his head lightly while he closed the book on his desk with a ‘thud’ sound.

“I understand. Then it seems he should be considered fine. But still, for the time being, watch him closely. If you are wrong and he truly is associated with ‘them’ we sh-“

“I know exactly what we should do, there is no need for you to tell me that.” said suddenly Logan as he clenched his palm into a fist, causing the sinister book to vanish into thin air alongside the crimson red flames.

“…” Jas locked gazed with Logan in silence and nodded. It seems Logan was 100% clear about the consequences that would come if Khal used ‘that’ power they talked about.

“Perfect.” closed his eyes Jas but for some strange reason a slight, hardly noticeable sadness and worry crept onto his face.

***

As the moon on the starry sky slowly descended bringing out the world from the dusk, the sun rose slowly from the east bringing a new day, a fresh new start for everyone. Or at least everyone except Khal, who finally arrived at the gate of Moon Academy with bean-sized sweatdrops on his face after running for half a day without rest.

With rigid breaths and exhausted steps, Khal walked inside Moon Academy and slumped down onto the grass below a tree’s shadow; he was so tired that he couldn’t even open his eyes properly.

“That… bastard…” murmured Khal quietly but no matter how much he wanted to continue his cursing, he realized he had not a single drop of energy left to talk or think, so just simply decided to stay silent until he recovered completely.

After Logan left him behind in the middle of nowhere he had no choice but to ‘walk’, which in truth ended up as running, all the way back to Moon Academy. Because he didn’t even have an aid that could tell him where he should start to go, like the Moon Mountain that would have given help to pinpoint Moon City’s direction, he decided to choose a randomly.

With the help of his Crimson Snake Dance, he was able to travel distances pretty fast but even like that, he needed close to an hour to reach a small village. But when he arrived there and asked around where Moon City was, the answer he got was…

Aggravating!

Not only did he chose the direction which led to the complete opposite direction where Moon City was located, but it turned out it was 1 day away on the foot! He was told it would take him at least 18 hours to reach Moon city from there even if he took a horse!

Such luck… Khal didn’t know if he was hated by the heavens or he had simply insanely bad fortune, but the constant ‘incidents’ that were happening with him started to irritate him.

But unfortunately, he could do nothing but sigh and laugh helplessly at his fate; as it was irritating it was as funny.

Breathing heavily on the ground, Khal opened his eyes into a slight slit and took a peek at his legs. They were currently so numb that he didn’t feel them at all; they were, without a question, exhausted and drained from every ounce of energy he had.

“If… Logan wouldn’t have told me… that secret… I wouldn’t have been able to arrive under 13 hours… I’m pretty sure about that…” thought Khal and put his head back down onto the ground and concentrated on calming his breathing down.

He ran close to 13 hours straight while constantly using the Dance of The Celestial Serpent’s First Form; the Crimson Snake’s momentum boosting ability. With the newly obtained knowledge, Khal was able to correct the so-called mistake that Logan talked about and form his Essence around his feet just like how he did it. However, the result was… Heaven defying!

Not only did his momentum increased leaps and bounds but even his speed improved thanks to it too!

At first, he was able to travel around 15 meters with his old method in a single instant but now he could reach thrice as that! And what is more, the pain inside his leg lessened too, but regrettably, it did not vanish completely; that is why his legs became numb in the end even though the pain was weakened by several levels.

Spending the following one hour on the ground like that, Khal concentrated to calm his breathing down while ignoring the several puzzling stares on his skin from the bypassers.

After one and a half an hour later, when he finally obtained back a small feeling inside his legs, Khal opened his eyes and sat up. Looking up at the sky, it was visible that it was close to 2 to 3 hours already, so it was time for him to move.

“Argh…” standing up with a painful groan, Khal dusted off his butt and back and with shaky steps walked away, looking for his first-ever job.