Mystical Journey

Garen squinted his eyes slightly, momentarily looking at the person in front of him.

"Fine...Excellent. Griffith, I’ll remember this name." It was impossible for him to act now due to the city being under heightened martial law. Anyone who challenged the military during this high tension period may be strongly repressed.

Regardless of reason, attacking an army official would be considered treason. Regardless of sufficient reasoning, the outcome is being hunted down by totem users all over the city. A serious offence might even bring you the wrath of the Governor’s Dragon Guard. The Dragon Guard was a squadron with terrifying strength, formed entirely by second form white dragonhawk totem users. Anyone one of them could take down a totem user of the same level.

Garen assessed himself. In his current, the most he could handle was a common second form totem user. Moreover, as he hasn't tested it in battle, extra caution was needed. Although he was confident in his abilities, his confidence was built on the evolved deep swamp croc. As his wildcard, it wasn't to be revealed easily.

Even by revealing it, whether it could deal with enemy second form totem users was a serious question of its own.

In actual fact, silver totems were still not on the level of original totems. Hence, it is very possible that the deep swamp croc would be slightly weaker than original second form totems.

Garen’s mind was overwhelmed with thoughts. Without saying a word, he tossed a stack of silver Rumb, then turned to leave the warehouse.

Behind him, Griffith and his men were so pleased that they burst into laughter instantly.

Garen suppressed the discontentment in his heart. If the enemy did not have a second form totem user in their midst, he might have took action.

As long as he did it cleanly, people may not notice anyway. They at most would have thought it would be the doings of the monsters outside of the city.

Griffith grinned and as he was about to reply, he suddenly felt something was off. It was as if he was the only person who heard a sound, while the second form totem users beside him did not feel anything at all.

Griffith’s laughter abruptly stopped. He unknowingly felt a faint shudder in his heart. Swiftly, he turned to look in the direction Garen left and he could not even see his shadow although merely a few seconds had passed.

"What’s going on?" Mecca, a second form totem user who was beside him asked.

"Didn’t you hear the sound?" There was a trace of uneasiness on Griffith’s face.

"Sound? What Sound?" Mecca frowned. The few soldiers beside looked at each other, feeling confused as well.

Griffith instantly panicked. For the first time, he secretly regretted finding fault with that guy.

"My heart still feels there is something wrong.." He wondered if he was hallucinating a moment ago.

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

Feeling unappeased, Garen left the warehouse and headed towards the Mercenary Guild. In both his past life and current life, as a martial artist and a fighter, he was always a ruthless person. Meeting someone as reckless as this yet not being able to annihilate him, he got more and more disgruntled by the minute.

"Patience...Patience...I will get my chance soon.."He knew in his heart that a multitude of monsters will soon be laying siege to the city. In the face of overwhelming disaster, no one would notice the death of one or two quartermasters.

Looking at the progression outside, the large-scale siege would be happening soon.

At this moment, it is imperative that he gathered enough money to obtain the black-striped white tiger.

Once he reached the Mercenary Guild, he entered and sat in the corner of the hall, waiting for a few others to arrive.

He had lunch at the guild, and about 1pm, Andy and his sister entered the guild. With one glance, they noticed the bald Garen sitting in a corner. Both of them, in the usual grey robes, walked directly towards Garen and sat across him.

"Haven’t seen you for a few days. What have you been up to? How was the vacation?" Andy took off his robe as he sat in.

"I’m doing okay. Only a minor setback." Garen answered lightly. "At the end of the day, I shouldn’t take any chances."

"What happened? Spill it." Jessica murmured, "Maybe my brother can lend you a hand."

"Forget it, I’ll handle it myself." Garen grinned. "Let’s not talk about these. Thank God you guys are alright. There are hordes of monsters out there. If we didn’t just quit, I reckon we would be in big trouble."

At the mention of monsters, Andy and Jessica’s countenance sunk.

Andy quietly produced a folded piece of paper from his arms and passed it to Garen.

"What’s this?" Garen unfolded the paper. It was a newspaper extract.

The headlines were clearly printed with: Terrorist organization Obscuro Society claims, fighting to create a new, better world.

The details were stated below.

The Obscuro Society claims responsibility for the multiple uprisings. At the same time, they issued an ultimatum to the Royal Alliance.

"This newspaper was from two days before the creatures appeared." Andy whispered, "We can now be sure that the Obscuro Society is the culprit."

Soon, Goth made his entrance. He was wearing a brand new dungarees, looking fresh and energetic with his new crew cut. He sat down beside Garen, took up the pot of coffee and directly poured it into his mouth.

He gulped down the coffee, put the pot down heavily, and burped.

"What should we do now? Let’s take a vote!?"

"Chill. Help me guys, lend me some money." Garen mumbled. He initially wanted to borrow from Angel, but borrowing from the few people in front of him would be the same. With his eight hundred and twenty thousand, he only needed a hundred and eighty thousand to obtain the black-striped white tiger. It wasn’t much.

"Just say the amount you need. But let me clear, don’t mention anything about three hundred thousand." Andy generously waved his hand.

"Lend me a hundred and eighty thousand."

"No problem." Andy frankly replied, "Luckily you did not mention three hundred thousand. That is all that i have."

"Didn’t you say that you’ve finished your money?" Jessica whispered.

"Do I seem like that kind of person?" Andy laughed heartily.

"Jessica, I saw a nice scarf just now and I bought it for you as a gift." Goth took out a piece of folded cloth and passed it to Jessica. By his expression, even a fool could discern his intention.

Jessica’s cheeks turned red. She bowed her head sheepishly.

Andy and Garen stood up simultaneously and went to the Mercenary Guild’s counter. They withdrew a hundred and eighty million Rumb and packed it in a black pouch. Garen rushed off with the money, planning to obtain the black-striped white tiger as soon as possible. Otherwise, the price might have increased after a while.

After making a few turns in the alleys, he very quickly he arrived at the War Guild. The crowd was sparse, seemingly much quieter than before.

After entering the hall, Garen headed straight towards the counter and handed over the money to the middle-aged man.

"That fast?" The man, who was gobbling down a plate of pasta, was caught in disbelief.

"Please." Garen nodded.

"Follow me then." The middle-aged man stopped speaking, stood up and pulled open a side-door. Both of them entered a small room at the back.

Like the last time, they went across the room, crossing an alley and quickly arrived at a row of wooden doors.

The middle-aged man took out a key and unlocked the first door.

"Wait here." He went in for a moment and returned with a black box.

"This is what you've requested, the only one in Iron Tank City." He passed the black box to Garen.

Holding the black box in his hand, Garen have it a pinch. The box was light, like a small jewellery box.

He flipped open the box. Between the black velvet was a black crystal ring. The activation spell was carved was on the cover of the box.

He retrieved the ring and tried it on. In the end, it could only fit on his left ring finger.

"Check it out." The middle-aged man shut the door, leaned on it while staring at him.

Garen nodded and raised his left hand. He murmured the spell according to the words on the box.

"Gomola, ehado, cyatin.." A series of unusual words left Garen’s mouth. This was a phonic interpretation of the ancient language. He did not understand it, but uttered it according to the phonics.

He made some gestures with his index finger in the air, drawing the totem activation symbol.

With a bang, the ring’s crystal emitted a black ray of light. As the ray of light hit the floor, it expanded into a ball of light. Once the light dissipated, a black-striped, white-skinned tiger strolled to Garen’s side. It smacked its lips, revealing a tongue filled with hooks which could easily sever flesh.

Owww...

The white tiger let out a low howl as it crouched beside Garen.

His body was about four metres long, with black spots from the head to the tail. Its thick tail was like a curled bat.

Garen patted the white tiger on its head, while browsing the skill pane below his vision.

Unsurprisingly, the black-striped white tiger’s icon was already present.

"Black-striped white tiger: First form totem, can be upgraded. Success Rate: 11%. Potential Points Consumption: 700%.

Abilities: Tail whip, Puncturing Crunch."

"11% success rate…" Garen’s scalp went numb. Even the neon butterfly had a 21% success rate, but this black-striped white tiger’s was 11%. Considering this fact, he had to try 10 times to success once. One try would use up 7 potential points.

Since he had decided on it, there was no other option. Besides the neon butterfly, he could only have one more totem with low success rate. This was the limit. His mediocre talent determined that he could only control two totems.

As he left the guild, Garen withdrew the white tiger. He then arrived at a remote alley.

Ruthlessly, Garen gestured in the air and drew a complicated, oval symbol.

The symbol shrunk instantly into the size of a fist, then into the size of a fingernail. It then flew into the black crystal ring.

Very soon, he felt a sensation that was totally different compared to common totems. It felt like the black-striped white tiger was more intimate than others. The vague distance between them shrank a fair bit.

He looked at the black-striped white tiger’s icon below his vision.

Suddenly, it overtook all the other totems on the list and was positioned first. There was a note which popped out on the side: Core.

His body illuminated with a layer of white light that stuck to his skin.

"Core totem, finally!"

Garen heaved a sigh of relief.

"I should rendezvous with Goth and the gang, then examine the tactics that Angel obtained. I must get ready to take on Griffith."

If his calculations were accurate, within these few days, Iron Tank City would face its first siege. That would be an opportunity for him to act.

There was a flash of ferocity in his eyes. Whoever snatched his belongings must have had a deathwish!