Mystical Journey

Slow steps were made on the corridor of the second floor.

Garen continuously pushed open all of the room doors he passed by, his gaze swept across each of them, never stepping in personally.

Very quickly, he reached the end where there was a room on the left –the doors were already open. From the gap through the door he could see many book shelves.

Garen pushed open the door and walked in; there were two steaming cups of black tea placed on the coffee table. The windowpanes were covered with a layer of dense mist.

He glanced around, his gaze eventually settling on a black leather box placed at the corner of the study.

Walking towards the box and squatting down, he lightly pinched –the place where the keyhole was immediately turned into fine powder. He opened the box.

Inside divided two sections, right and left.

On the left were stacks of notes and books, all of them covered in red hard covers. Garen picked them up and flipped them open – precise blueprint, detailed surgical procedures, as well as some illegible records of experiments. At the bottom of it all was a poetry compilation by Isaiah.

He placed the book back in and started looking at the section on the right.

The right side of the box were some silver bank notes, some broken diamond pieces and a silver brick. At the top was a stack of cheques weighed down by a silver brick.

Garen took it out to have a look. On top, 10 pieces of bank deposit bills with an amount of one million written on each.

"This fella is pretty poor huh...he is worse off than angel."Garen shakes his head. "No wonder there was a desire to take over the storehouses."

Garen simply took up a book of precision blueprint and flipping around.

It was pretty obvious this was a version used by totem users, at the top were plenty of requests with a difficulty level below that of a luminarist’s . Garen’s master level precision blueprint can easily achieve the standard required at the top.

"A totem user, is so much less complex than being a luminarist..this item should be that book of Mecca’s.

Totem users only needed to learn an entrance level precision blueprint, but when it came to technique and skill, they are so much more powerful than luminarists and forgers. Their types are highly skilled in the area of totem control and totem manipulation.

Totem users, forgers and luminarists; truth be told, have different preferences. Luminarists are to be considered moderate among them, and when it comes to strengths, totem users are skilled in technique while forgers have strengths in the area of forging and maintenance.

Garen flipped to the section where totem users needed to use activation tactics, and was momentarily stunned by how much more complicated activation tactics were in comparison to being a luminarist.

"Seems like no matter which type, there’s no such thing as a shortcut...only the area of difficulty differs."

Totem user’s precision blueprint required of a lower standard, but the price to pay was that its activation tactics were extremely difficult. Activation tactics included a lot of mathematical and physical knowledge; if it were not for Garen’s prior experiences, he wouldn’t have been able to grasp it so quickly.

Precision blueprints leaned towards the main attack’s stability and precision, while activation tactic focuses on the basis of instantaneous force and physical principles. The first focuses on accumulation, while the latter on adaptability. This also signifies the different development lines luminarists and totem users have.

Luminarists get stronger as time accumulated increases; the more knowledge they have, the more they can accumulate their wealth and ascend themselves.

On the other hand, totem users rely on adaptability and instantaneous force. They start off strong, but as development progresses, are substantially weaker to that of a luminarist.

"Still have no idea when it comes to forgers, but they should be leaning towards the direction of luminarists. From their name, it can be assumed that they completely given up going in the direction of battle, focusing instead on scientific research, specifically totem forging.

Garen closed the box and stood up. He left the Deep swamp croc as a doorkeeper and proceeded to continue the search leisurely.

There wasn’t anything else he could find, but Garen was not greedy – as he had found a box full of wealth, all of this had been worth it.

He simply took hold of the box with one hand and leaped off the window sill of the second floor.

Behind him, Wilde and the others were still searching the first floor, a few of the men obviously reaped some harvest. Wilde himself stood guard at the door of the entrance, in his mouth was a lit cigarette. Both of his eyes looked half open, as if he was on the verge of nodding off.

As he heard the leap, he opened his eyes to see Garen and grinned at him.

"Have a safe journey, I won’t walk you." He glanced at the box in Garen’s hands, not saying anything.

"I don’t have enough manpower for the items in the storehouses, this box will be enough for me."Garen grinned. The value of this box, besides its physical wealth, would be the notes and books in regards to tactics; there would surely be an array of tactics used by this villa. Just this fact alone was able to compensate the storehouse of young grains stolen earlier on. Its value is definitely worth more than 10 million.

Garen took the box and accelerated towards the distance, Giant deep swamp croc shadowed closely behind. He felt unfamiliar gazes behind his back but they disappeared as the distance increased.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. His movements became lighter and more agile, and sped into the alley. Sticking close to the shadows, he ran in the direction of the suburbs.

Wooo~~~!!!

The long sound of a horn reverberated throughout Iron Tank City.

Garen halted his steps abruptly; he noticed that the sound of the horn was grievous and bleak.

He stood in the shadows of the valley, lifted his head up and looked at the skies outside the city.

An army of Giant Unihorn lizards looking like a bunch of grey clouds, were encircling a group of white Dragonhawks, leaving a small group of white gold Dragonhawks to defend tirelessly. They left behind white gold lines as they circled the air, continuously battling a Giant lizard every few seconds, without the time to take a breather.

At the start they were able to send down a Giant lizard whenever they came into contact with one. Now, they could only bump them out of the way with great difficulty.

There were too many grey clouds.

Garen picked up speed, nearing the city walls.

The ground was filled with the bodies of Giant unihorn lizards; these bodies carried the characteristics of silver totems, and will not turn completely into puddles of liquid silver.

Besides the Giant lizard bodies, countless human bodies were also weaved in between them; some were complete while others were not. Everywhere you’d look, you’d see huge long guns that were broken in half, a mixture of liquid silver, blood and gore flowing along the earth slowly, coloring the ground with shades of scarlet and silver.

Garen took caution and retrieved his Giant deep swamp croc as well as his sword, carefully navigating his way by sticking close to the corners of the wall under the shadows.

As he was nearing the outskirts of the city, a large number of buildings had already been wrecked and destroyed, leaving behind pieces of rubble and broken walls.

Ssssssssssss!!

A slightly red skinned Giant Unihorn lizard took alarmingly loud steps across the streets filled with bodies. Its thick tail was swinging back and forth, casually knocking away the pile of bodies around its circumference.

Garen tightened and crouched behind a triangular shaped ruin. He slowly spread his aura; in the sensory of his surroundings, small prickly dots that felt like hives pierced into his consciousness.

"At least a few hundred."Garen did a brief calculation in his heart, afraid to make any large moves.

He was fully aware that with the present situation, the only way to escape the first wave of chaos is to diffuse current strategies, hide away in various discreet areas and then start over from zero. In was during this crisis that Iron Tank City got rid of a few dysfunctional noble leaders, establishing a new and more efficient leadership team.

A more crucial point was, although Obscuro society had released these monsters as a main force of disruption in the world, realistically speaking, they remain incapable of controlling these failed living experiments. The only thing they could do is to prevent themselves from being attacked by these monsters.

In other words, these monsters are under no one’s orders. They were only scouring around hunting based on their primal needs. If it were not for the Dragon Guards’wanton massacre that angered these monsters, I am afraid it wouldn’t have blown up into such a large scale attack, involving the whole city.

Garen waited for the giant red lizard to pass, tapped his feet once, and transported himself into another cluster of shadows in the speed of lightning. He kept on going so, continuously closing in towards the outskirts of the city.

On his way he passed by a family of 3 who were hidden in a house, but he could only protect himself, unable to bring along anyone else. The ability the secret weapon has only provided speed and strength for one, making it unable to hide anyone else.

Whenever he encountered an opening during his journey, he would dash across quickly; whenever he did not, he would use small stones to divert the attention of the monsters, revealing an opening.

Soon, as he progressed forward like so, he finally reached the battle guild’s mission hall.

The entire building which the guild was situated at was completely destroyed, leaving only a piece of broken ruins where the walls once were. The surroundings were deserted and quiet, only a few giant lizards crawled by.

The cold wind whistled, blowing up a piece of thin wood board and causing it to roll around with a clear flapping sound.

Garen released the giant deep swamp croc, made sure to be constantly alert of his surroundings and searched around the ruins of the hall alone.

"Hey! Here!" A weak voice floated along the wind.

Garen followed the voice and looked over, some distance away near the lid of the waterway, stood a bald middle aged man who was waving his hand at him.

"The guild moved underground."

Garen nodded his head, retrieved Giant deep swamp croc, dragged along the box and ran towards his side. Seeing as he crawled into the waterway, he followed suit, shutting the lid after him.

Two of them followed the iron ladder and eventually reached the ground.

Following a narrow and dark passage they moved on; after a few minutes, drilled a hole on the ground that was about 40 to 50 meters. Only then did the bald man speak.

"Okay, here’s safe."He suddenly halted his steps and pulled open a metal door the height of a person from the right side of the walls. Inside, a bright yellow light spilled out.

"Go in from here, inside you’ll find the new Guild hall. Young chap, you were lucky you found me, the others would not have been so kind hearted."

Garen smiled and handed him a few silver rumbs.

"Thanks brother."

The bald man took it from him and returned the smile.

Both men walked in the brightly-lit tunnel, this tunnel extends in all directions, from time to time it would branch out into more tunnels. In them were others who walked out one after another, both male and female–it was apparent this was not the only entrance.

It’s the first time Garen had seen so many people since the catastrophe. Catching the gaze of a few others, it was evident that they felt the same.

"Quick! Save him quick!"All of a sudden from the right passage in front, bursts out a group of people; they carried a stretcher, on it laid a young man who was clutching his abdomen. Blood was pouring out continuously from in between his fingers. Gasping for breath, his face was ghostly pale and his forehead plastered with sweat. It seemed as if he was not going to make it.

The stretcher was dashed into a corner of the passage ahead.

"He is almost gone!! Anesthesia quick!! Start the surgery now!! Henry!!"

"I am here! Everything is prepared, quickly lift him in!""Be careful of your actions!""Garisith! Disinfect him now!"

A series of hurried voices came from the front.

"It’s the people from the sacrificial mission team, all three teams were badly injured." "Even the Dragon Guards suffered a huge loss, if Iron Tank’s tactical ring formation was not started up, it seemed as if even the inner part of the city would have been completely compromised."

"Thank goodness the war guild has an emergency underground place."

Garen heard someone say. He looked around and felt surrounded with a bunch of strangers, all of them wearing unfamiliar faces.

"Garen!" All of a sudden a voice came from the back.