"Micheal, you have changed." Mother said she looked at me intently, not only she, but my father is also looking me in such gaze, and he seemed to be using some sort of method as his eyes flashed with blue ruines, which is making me quite uncomfortable.

"The Ghoul Ruin seemed to have made a greater improvement to your strength than I had through," Mom said, "Yes, the advancements Ive made there were phenomenal," I said; I did not hide anything.

"That's good; you will need all the advantage you have; the people that are participating this time possess the strength, Ive never seen before," Mom said, and I couldn't help but nod at that.

Since I had returned from the Academy, Ive heard about these monstrous participants, and to be honest, I couldn't wait to fight them.

"Mom, I want to ask you something?" I said to my mother, hearing me said that my mother straightened up her lazy pose, and a serious expression appeared on her face.

"You want to know about the shield, right?" Mom said, and I nodded.

A strange atmosphere spread as silence descended; mother had closed her eyes for a second before opening them. "The Shield was from Lia; it was her Totem Artifact," Mom said slowly with a painful expression on her face.

Totem Artifact? I couldn't help but surprise to hear that as a totem artifact should not do what that Shield is doing. 

Totem artifacts are powerful as long as they remained with the creator. When they actualize after the death of their host, their power diminishes a lot, and the Shield I have inside me very powerful, and it is sentient.

Extremly few totem artifacts gain the sentient, but that sentient dies when the creator dies, but the Shield still had its sentient.

I have felt its power and saw easily how it was able to push back against the attack of the Green King. The attack of Green King nothing compares to the job it had been doing for all this while.

It had been suppressing a very powerful sentient curse inside me for years and is doing it now. The Totem artifact could not do that, even those from the powerful tyrant; there must be something different about that Shield.

I looked at my mother for an answer but only to see her busy with her own thoughts.

She looked very sad, so sad it hurts seeing her like it; I wanted to do something about it, but there is nothing I could do about it, I am feeling completely powerless, and I hate this feeling very much.

"Lia found that Shield when she was a Knight; she found it in her first ruin. That Shield is very mysterious; it had boded with her on its own, becoming her Totem Artifact," Mother informed softly. 

I was right; normal totem artifacts could not do what Shield is doing; the suppressing quality and sentient are due to its mysteriousness.

That begged another question, why the Shield had not become my totem artifact? It is clear that it had been suppressing the curse inside me since I was a child, then why had it not become my totem artifact?

I have no answer to this question, I have a couple of guesses, but those are good as the question I have in my mind.

"She would have survived if she had used the Shield to flee, but she did not; she instead gives that shield to me," Mother said softly, and silent tears begin to come out her eyes.

Sadness couldn't help but well up in my eyes seeing my mother broken in grief. Seeing there is nothing I could do, I just sat beside her and held her hand silently.

"I am fine now," mother said after a few minutes as she wiped away her tears.

We did not talk much for few minutes; the only sound came out around us of rose's playing; Ashlyn had kept Rose away when grief stuck mother.

"So, what sort of Inheritance you got dad," I asked my father. Hearing my question, a smile couldn't help but light up across my father's face.

"Its Scholar Inheritance, It is non-combat Inheritance," My father said; most people would feel slightly sad stating their non-combat Inheritance, but my father way too happy to state that.

"The Inheritance is a full-fledged research lab; it let me do many things that even lab would not." "Micheal, you would not believe the things simple energy circulation could achieve and circulation of Su…"

My father became excited and began to state the cool facts about his Inheritance. As he began to talk, my expressions started to turn serious before excited expressions appeared on my face.

My father's Inheritance is far more powerful than I had thought, and it might able to help very much.

"Father, do you want to scan me? I want to see if there is any weakness in the body due to uneven refinement," I asked my father.

"Are you sure?" Father asked. The body is sacred for any practitioner, and they would not let anyone deep scan it; it will be like baring half of the one secrete.

"It's fine, father," I said. I could tell my father want to scan me, and seeing how crazy he is about his research, I am sure he would have already scanned my mother back home; she sometimes used to act as his research assistant.

"Ready then?" he asked; I nodded. 

Next second, my father placed his hands on me, and I felt feather-light energy traveling inside me, spreading into every part of my body and soul.

I had hidden my runes and turned off all instinctive resistance toward foreign energy to keep the pressure on my father minimum, but it looked like he is still having some problem.

Time passed by as my father continued to send more and more energy inside me, till it reached quite deep. 

"My God!" "I thought Archie was a monster, but he is nothing in front of my son," father said in wonder as he removed his sweaty hands from my shoulder.