Mystical Journey

The deep swamp croc swayed its tail gently, dragged it's heavy body across the floor quietly, and quickly crawled out from an open window. Garen was dumbfounded by the fact that it did not make any noise.

He grabbed his necessities, and some things that might be of use, stuffed them into the leather bag he brought, then hid it under the bed. Then, he made his way out of the house.

On the path outside, Angel crouched beside the corpse of a unihorn lizard, attentively examining the abomination.

The lizard, who wasn't there when Garen entered the house, was obviously destroyed by her.

"What's up? What's it's strength like?" Garen went over and crouched beside her.

"Troublesome." Angel said with a solemn expression. "I initially thought it's a common, mutated creature. But in fact, it had totem light. If I didn't use accelerate, I’m not that sure if my panther could handle it. It should be at the level of an elite first form totem."

"Be careful." Garen patted her shoulder. He valued this companion who worked well with him.

He glanced at the trembling horse carriage on the other side. The three girls seemed like they wanted to come closer, but it was evident that they were a little afraid.

"Sir." The elderly carriageman carefully walked over and stood in front of Garen with some hesitation. "I guess both of you should be completing some form of mission? I'm wondering whether we could temporarily hire you to send us into the city. We can pay you some wages!"

"Wage? How much can you pay?" Garen muttered. He didn't think they could offer much. When totem users speak about money, usually tens of thousands of Rumbs. To a normal human, it would already be their lifetime savings.

"A hundred thousand!" The elderly carriageman blurted out a figure. "A hundred thousand Rumbs!"

"Barely acceptable." Garen nodded. "Angel, send them into the city. Then meet me at the war guild." He looked at a silver pocket-watch that he had just retrieved from his pocket. "It is 1.15pm now, let's meet after lunch at 4pm. Okay?"

Angel nodded and said: "No problem. A hundred thousand just for a trip is not a bad deal. Let's go ladies." She shouted at the three girls as she mounted her black stallion.

"I got to check on how my friend is doing." Garen casually mentioned. "There might be a possibility…." he suddenly grinned.

At the attribute pane at the bottom of his vision, there was a sudden jolt in potential points.

The potential points spiked from 1222% to 1287%, then quickly spiked again to 1356%. The two consecutive spikes surprised Garen.

It was the deep swap croc! It suddenly came to his realization. He had just released the newly evolved croc to hunt the unihorn lizards. He did not expect the effects to take place so soon. Even more out of his expectation was that killing the unihorn lizards could lead to an increase in potential points.

From the figures, it was evident that the deep swamp croc was single handedly battling and defeating two unihorn lizards. That should be the reason for the two spikes.

After sending off Angel’s party, Garen stood silently on the path, looking at his yard. Inside, the deep swamp croc was silently crawling past the fence into the yard. It was holding one of the lizards in his jaw, obviously as a snack and parasite for itself.

Garen noticed that there was a fresh, bleeding wound on the forelimbs of the deep swamp croc, seemingly sustained during the clash. Garen shuddered.

The deep swamp croc as a second form totem, could actually be harmed by two first form unihorn lizards.

"Now it's only a first form totem. There would certainly be stronger creatures in the nest that have not revealed themselves. No wonder the Obscuro Society dared to go against the whole world. With powerful bioweapons like that, they wouldn't have to worry about military strength.

He pondered for a moment, suddenly felt something and he turned to look at the yard across his own.

The yard of his blonde female neighbour was peaceful, except the window curtains which were swaying slightly. It was clear that someone was spying on him.

Garen was about to leave when the door from the yard opposite the street flung open.

"Sir Garen!" The blonde neighbour yelled. Her haggard and deeply trouble expression showed that she was struck with terror. A big, strong, young man followed behind her. As they had similar looks, it seemed that they could be twins.

"Sir Garen, can you help sending us into the city?" His neighbour looked frightened. She looked at Garen pitifully.

Gahhhh!!

An array of unihorn lizard cries could be heard in the distance.

Garen looked at his pocket watch and frowned. "It’s easy to enter the city. But since we’re neighbours, I want to warn you that the situation is very different now. The city might be worse off. If you are willing, stay in your own home. My baby is currently cleaning up the creatures in the vicinity. As the population here is small and sparse, it won’t draw the creature’s line of sight. Should be safe."

At that instance, she let out an expression of hopelessness and doubt.

"What do we now? When can the Royal Alliance drive away the creatures!" She was like most of the population, placing all their hope on the Royal Alliance. They viewed the current situation as a one off, incidental, regional turmoil.

Garen shook his head.

"I’m not sure. You decide yourself."

"Then we still want to enter the city." The girl muttered after hesitating.

"I’ll give you both ten minutes. We will leave immediately after that." Garen directly responded.

***************

General Veron’s Third Battalion, Wiped Out.

Through the blue messenger birds, the news spread to hundreds of countries throughout the East Continent.

At the same instant, newspapers all over the world reported the news of unknown creatures attacking human cities. But soon, people would gradually not be able to purchase these papers..

The blue messenger birds started constantly falling from the sky. Other than the unihorn lizards, there were various flying creatures who occupying the sky, which was the channel of communication between cities.

Iron Tank City

War Guild Mission Hall

As Garen stepped into the hall, he saw injured people all over the hall. Some of them had even lost their limbs. They pale faces indicated severe loss of blood.

"Garen, how are you unscathed?" A strong man with a single sheepy eye stood up astonishingly. "Right. You are considered one of the strongest in the first form mission hall." He immediately took a seat.

"Thomas? Aren’t you alright as well?" Garen walked over and sat in front of the man. "The situation seems dire." He asked as he scanned the area around him.

"It’s tough out there. Bounty is growing daily but nobody dares to accept jobs. The monsters are everywhere." One-eyed thomas whispered.

At this time, from the reception room of the main hall, walked out a squad of brown-robed men and women. The leader was burly man with short hair. There was a blood-reddish scar on his right cheek, looking like a savage.

The man held a silver helmet in his arms, quickly scanning through the rest of the people in the hall.

A white-haired elderly man holding a red staff followed behind. Closely after them were two perfect-figured women in black robes.

"It’s the Galileo Squad. They should be taking up the two toughest missions." One-eyed Thomas stared at the party as he whispered to Garen.

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the hall fixated their eyes on this party.

Garen was familiar with the Galileo Squad. Its leader, Galileo, was an elite second form totem users, while all the members were second form totem users. They even had a totem smith in their squad. With this elite line-up, they completed several challenging missions, gaining fame in Iron Tank City.

There were there strong squads in Iron Tank City which frequented the war guild for years. Only the ace of the Galileo Squad was a second form totem user, while the leaders of the other two squads had third form ultimate totems under their command.

The Galileo Squad left the hall, quickly disappearing on the path outside the door.

Garen retrieved his gaze, listening to Thomas' gentle words of adoration.

"If only I could be as strong as the Galileo Squad."

"You should forget it. Their most basic prerequisite is to have two second form totems." A bald, plump man laughed.

Garen and Thomas chatted for a moment. He was waiting for someone. After sending his female neighbour into the city, he directly headed here to check out the situation.

The situation was indeed dire. The war guild must have given up a fair bit to incentify the top squads.

The first form mission hall was the most crowded area for a small town like the Iron Tank City. For the second form and third form halls, it was just furnishings. As a place where only a select elite could enter, there were simply no exchanges going on.

Soon, their shift ended. Garen stood up and walked towards the mission counter. He took out the previously completed mission list and handed it in.

"Completed once again? That fast?" The guy receiving the list was a sinister looking middle-aged man. He and Garen were familiar with each other as the last few mission lists were distributed by him.

"Bounties should have multiplied by a few fold recently, isn’t it?" Garen asked softly.

"You are smart." The middle-aged man nodded. "All of them have multiplied, you are just in time. Also, the governor’s mansion has just released a large batch of inactive totems. Would you like to have a look?" He spoke softly, with a sense of allurement in his voice. "There seems to a fair amount of decent core totems."

"Is it specially distributed?" Garen raised his brow.

"Of course, besides us, the war guild, where else can you find such elite firepower? If we do not provide support, wouldn’t we be just waiting for doom?"The middle-aged man answered surely.

"Is there a white dragonhawk?"

"Certainly. Although it is powerful, it’s not cheap to train it."

"Show me the list."

Garen’s heart skipped a beat. Although the white dragonhawk is strong, it also means it has been researched thoroughly, with many strategies to counter it.

He was different from other totem users. With the existence of potential points, he could rely on them for direct evolution, although the probability wasn’t high. He could choose a less-researched, foundationally strong new totem as his final card.

Once the evolution succeeded, as no one would be familiar with the power of this new totem, it definitely would have a remarkable impact.