Secrets of the Universe

After a few more minutes, a loud yawn escaped from Kaley's mouth, "I'm tired."

She stretched her arms wide and proceeded to sleep.

However, before she could fall deep into sleep, she was interrupted by Jake, "Don't sleep yet. We still have something to do."

She grumbled with a weak voice, "What is it?"

"We have a guest to attend to," responded Jake.

He understood her need to take a rest. 

Heck, even his bones were begging him to close his eyes, but it was not the time for that.

"Remember, we have an appointment with a weapon-maker. I need a change of swords and you need a weapon. All this while, you have been using materialized daggers," explained Jake.

He eyed her, "Are those daggers your weapon?"

"What do you think?" teased Kaleyx.

"The daggers are your halo. It is part of your abilities as a dark-celestial. Interesting....," smiled Jake.

He had seen Cheyenne Aztec transform her golden halo to a golden spear. Hence, he could guess it was the same for Kaleyx.

He was sure that they could never get destroyed as long as the holder was alive. It was a kind of symbiotic weapon!

"As a fallen celestial, I have lost the ability to change my halo into its original shape. It forever stays in its weapon shape. I don't think I need a weapon," Kaleyx closed her eyes as she spoke.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with a second weapon," sighed Jake.

A knock sounded on the room door and Jake smiled as he was expecting it.

Using his energy to open the door, Jake allowed the man on the other side to enter.

It was a stout bronze skin man with dark-green eyes and short, straight, brown hair.

His physique was large, as large as a bear. However, his hunchback deceived any onlooker about his heights.

His large eyes scoured the room as he set them on the duo, " Quinn is my name. Was the request sent by you two?"

"Yes," admitted Jake.

"Heh, you kids are still green. Why do you need the services of me, a top-tier weapon maker?" boasted Quinn.

As banged his large hand on his chest, loud sounds could be heard.

His stamp on the ground felt like it shook the building. It gave the illusion of Quinn being capable of collapsing the building with his mere foot.

However, the duo wasn't intimidated….not even a bit.

Instantly, the two of them released their auras to silence the audacious ma.

The moment the two auras hit him, he froze like an iceberg during winter.

Beads of sweat rolled down his skin as he realized that his customers weren't regular cultivators. They were [Realm-3] cultivators, standing on the peak of the continent.

'How do I get myself out of this?' rapidly thought Quinn.

He pretended to be distraught as he exuded a wise air around him, "Hmm. Hmm. You are certainly part of the younger generation. In my eighty years of life, I haven't seen any as bright as you two."

He donned an experienced look as he brought out a large cart from his [Spatial Belt], "You certainly deserve an extraordinary service."

He brought out a small hammer from his pocket as he took a slightly low bow, "allow me to re-introduce myself. I'm Quinn, a [Level 2 Weapon maker]. The owner of Hephaestus's Forge, one of the most prominent forges in the entire continent."

Despite his eccentric behaviors, he had merits to his name.

His works were so popular that even Jake had heard of him. Not to talk of his [Level 2] status as a weapon maker.

Jake was sure that the only thing holding Quinn back on his weapon-making path was his low cultivation base.

When he checked, Quinn was still at [Realm-2].

However, Jake still wanted him.

His only other option was a [Level 3 Blacksmith] and Jake didn't want a blacksmith.

A Blacksmith focused mainly on metals while a weapon maker could use any material to make weapons as well as armors.

Jake didn't think much and easily settled on the best weapon maker on the continent.

He looked at the strange man and asked, "Quinn, we want to offer you a colossal project. But, first, do you have the time for that as we would require you to finish everything by the end of this week?"

"A large project. Of course. As long as you have the money, I will clear my schedule. The others can wait," Quinn bumped his chest again.

Jake silently eyed Quinn for a second before he went on, "Perfect. We have the coins to back up the project. First--"

He was cut off by Quinn with a smile, "Wait, take this hand-out. It will help you become acquainted with my services."

As he gave the items to the duo, he noticed their unimpressed looks and realized he had f*cked up.

He smiled cheekily at them, "You can continue."

"First, we need custom-made combat suits. Five for each one of us. So, ten in total. The suits should be categorized into different themes. I want a normal light armor, an assassin-style suit,...."

Jake gave his preferences to Quinn.

He, of course, emphasized the bracers. The bracers were probably the part of an armor that Jake used the most. Only with it was he confident to take on opponents with powerful weapons.

However, after each fight, its effectiveness always deteriorated. 

Hence, he ordered lots of bracers and their quality had to be the best and most comfortable.

He also talked about a sword belt, but it was postponed until they got to the weapon section.

Jake wasn't picky with the other parts of his armor, as long as they were comfortable.

He asked Quinn to make a scarf with the armor and also asked him to integrate a hood that would fit well with his cloak.

He then gave his cloak to Quinn for reconfiguring.

After that was Kaleyx's turn, she wasn't picky too.

All her orders were good and reasonable. She picked combats suits that leaned to her fighting style…..

However, she couldn't help picking a few stylish but practical ones.

After she was done with her orders, Quinn showed her sketches of them based on her words.

The drawing was awful but Kaleyx only focused on the concept hidden beneath them.

She nodded at Quinn to show that she was satisfied.

"Okay. I will skip the cost until we are done, but we need to talk about the material. You know different materials give different effects. I noticed that your cloaks have a few elemental resistances. So, should I make the rest of the armor the same?" Asked Quinn.

The serious look on his face told them that he was already immersed in his works.

Jake replied, "I will depend on you to pick the most suitable materials. However, they must be able to not hinder me from gathering momentum when fighting. Add all the known elemental resistance. They should also be capable of absorbing impact..."

He gave a few more instructions and allowed Kaleyx to speak.

"Use the same prescriptions. However, I will be giving you drops of my blood to sprinkle on the suits. This is due to my special element, you see," smiled Kaleyx.

She conjured a ball of negative energy and flashed it in front of Quinn.

The dark-silver look of the energy ball unsettled Quinn. The moment he laid his eyes on it, he felt like throwing up.

His body trembled as he suddenly felt his connection with the world disappearing. He started losing track of his identity and regressed back to a simplistic mindset.

His intelligence was constantly draining like a bucket with holes. Suddenly, he burped and released an air of purity.

His innocent eyes looked around as he found himself not being able to think. His mindset had reverted back to baby.

His body seemed to also believe it as he started shrinking like a shriveled plant.

However, that was not all 

His ability to simplistically think was diminishing. It mirrored the light in his eyes that kept dimming...and dimming…...and dimming 

When it looked like it was on its last wisps of life, Kaleyx quickly extinguished her energy ball.

Immediately, Quinn fell to his knees, gasping for breath. Everything that occurred to him had come back rushing to him

Quinn found himself experiencing what it felt like to speed-run an evolutionary process. His mind ached as he tried to dispel the after-effect of Kaleyx energy on him.

Suddenly, a cool energy embraced like a cold shower after a day's work.

The purple energy healed all his mental ailments and even made him sharper than usual. 

Under the cold warmth of Jake's energy, his [Realm-2 Stage-9] cultivation base rose up and shot past his limits.

It broke past the cage that was his destiny.

In a certain room of a certain building, a man that was fated to be in [Realm-2] all his life breakthrough.