Mystical Journey

He gingerly took a large book with a black cover down from the end of the bookshelf.

He had read almost all of the books that contained research notes. This book was a complete glossary of rare Aberration Totems, and was similar to the atlas that Edin had given him earlier.

That book was kept in the underground library inside Blue Bay manor.

He opened the book cover, skipped past the foreword and preface, and went straight to the table of contents.

Suddenly, rows of faint words appeared in front of Garen’s eyes. Much like a tree, the entire table of contents were divided into many little branches.

‘Aberration Totem ---- Idealized Totem ---- Coincidence Totem ---- Sacrificial Totem ---- Ancestral Totem’

Below the four main groups were countless thin branches that listed out the various types.

Naturally, the books that were stored here were not those that had regular research contents, instead, they contained deeper research that could not be found outside.

Garen read the bottom part attentively.

Soon, he found a tiny branch of words at the Ancestral Totem pane.

‘Swamp Nine-Headed Snake ---- 8882’

The words at the back were the page numbers.

Above the Nine-Headed Snake was the Moth Wing Giant Lizard, while the Rainbow Bird was below it. These two animals were species that only existed during ancient eras.

He flipped to the Nine-Headed Snake’s page number immediately. The records on top appeared before Garen’s eyes instantly.

‘Swamp Nine-Headed Snake ---- The ultimate overlord of the swamp areas during the ancient times; great life force, uses strong sound waves to attack airborne creatures, and takes on the Dragon Demon’s life after confusing it. Entrenched in the deepest part of the swamp, it releases endless amounts of poisonous gas. It is the main producer of poisonous fumes in places with toxic swamp types…’

Garen read carefully, but realised that the above records were mostly things that he already understood. He felt that they were only added recently, and was perhaps information that was only discovered by researching his Totems.

Wordlessly, he remembered Ivycius’ plant series Flowering Plant Totems. After looking through the book for a while, he quickly found the White Rose Totem.

‘White Rose Totem: Plant series Totem, exists in theory. Flowering Plant Totems have strict cultivation requirements, requires the blood of immediate family members as raw materials, and needs sustenance from a part of one’s close relative’s Totem Power. Before it achieves Spiritualization, its power is weak, but after Spiritualization, its power will increase explosively. According to rumors, once Flowering Plant Totems are successfully cultivated, it can hastily sustain the spirits of its relatives. This has not been proven to be real or not.’ Behind were different kinds of variations, and the White Rose Totem was divided into different types, and each type had a general introduction. Their abilities were also abundant and strange, but most of them were either poisonous or illusion types.

Garen began to find Veska’s ocean whirlpool type Totem.

But it was slightly harder to find it this time. The Totem images that resembled large whirlpools, included four different types of Totems.

Siren Totem: An Aberration Creature that was theoretically cultivated, it was the result of a small family’s accidental experiment, and when this Siren Totem was born, it used its singing voice to destroy the whole family, before mysteriously disappearing.

Beluga Whale Totem: The overlord of the ocean, the Beluga Whale, can stir up huge whirlpools to hide itself.

Elemental Totem Ocean: Pure Ocean Totems, that were theoretically formed by the successful evolution of Elemental Totem water spirits. Possesses exceptional attack control even in large ranges. Its units of power are not very strong, but its wave range is the largest among all the other types. Its master, Minister Veska can even attack creatures within distances of a few thousand meters. It is one of the strongest war Totems.

Although the news about Veska’s Totem experiments were recorded above, the ability section that Garen was most concerned about was just a blank space.

The same Elemental Totems also included Earth Elementals, a creature that was purely made up with soil, also known as a humanoid that could control terrain changes.

Ghost Wind, a strange formless Totem, had very little information, but was immune against any type of movement based attacks, and could only be harmed by abilities with static natures.

Lava Rock Men, high-temperature humanoids made of lava, abilities still unknown.

Garen scanned past these entries, and noticed some Item Totems above.

Weapon Totems, much like God Cloud’s chains, and Green Dragon Swordsman’s sword light.

Armor Totems, like the Triangular Shields of the wall generals who had just sacrificed themselves for the Kingdom.

There were also Sacrificial Totems that, through certain secretive measures that led to countless successful cultivations when put together, used these measures to allow it to swallow itself, before finally obtaining an ultimate Totem King, before then using these sacrificial means to borrow the Totem King’s power.

The most successful Totem King system, belonged to Daniela.

Daniela’s strongest Totems, were not the King of Daniela’s Core Totems, but rather a Cthulhu Totem that had been successfully evolved by the Totem King.

It had swallowed the ninety-nine Totem Kings that were cultivated in the world, and achieved Cthulhu status, only allowing families of specific bloodlines to borrow its strength.

Cthulhu Totems possessed unimaginable strength, and no one knew their true power. No one knew how many levels they had evolved.

Daniela’s possession of the Cthulhu was their strongest form of protection. It was like Kovitan’s extremely powerful Caeserton Ultimate Protection. Ender had ancient mystical Giant Stone Sculpture battle groups. The three large kingdoms each had their own trump cards, and this was the result of the three main Emperor’s painstaking efforts.

When Elemental Totems were first successfully called Core Totems, they allowed Totem Users to quickly leap towards Spiritualized status, however, the starting point was extremely high, and evolution was also extremely difficult.

This book recorded many cases, and all of them were examples of Elemental Totems that could not evolve successfully.

It was different from the information outside that depicted the Elemental Totems as legendary items, as this place clearly pointed out the existence of these Elemental Totems. Obscuro Society was one of the representations of success.

Once Garen had finished reading this book on that introduced Totems, more than two hours had passed already.

His Totem knowledge had also become much deeper from when he first started.

The Nine-Headed Dragon was actually not as amazing as the other extremely strong Totems.

Moreover, the entire Aberration Totem series was unlike other Totem series.

Other than Elemental Totems, he could easily find a Totem that was stronger than the Nine-Headed Dragon. The Storm Elemental Totem for example, was a terrifyingly powerful black storm, and this was only its primary body, because after its first evolution, it would become a Hurricane Totem. Two people in history had obtained this Totem, and they were known as Hurricane Kings.

Each of them could single-handedly dominate a war. When regular Totem Users stood before them, all who came to fight would end up dead.

‘Mass war tactics were ineffective’

These comments were a bloody lesson that arrived in exchange for the life of an ancient kingdom.

There was also the Hill King Totem, an Elemental Totem made up of large rocks, which evolved and was known as the Mountain King, and once the entire Totem fused with the Totem User, it would transform into a large endless mountain that spanned over ten thousand kilometers, swallowing the three thousand elite Form 3 Totem Users that once invaded its homeland, destroying their Tactical Thunderstorm Formation at the same time.

These peak Totem records flashed past Garen’s eyes continuously. He was initially unconvinced, but seeing these Totems that were more frightening than myths, he knew that his own strength could not compare to these deviants. To be able to rank within a hundred of them already meant that he was strong enough.

However, although these Totem Users were extremely powerful, they all shared one characteristic.

Their short life spans.

Using these powers that could be considered the pinnacle of strength, in other words, made them grow old and reach their deaths quicker.

No one found the reason yet, but the most popular assumption was that they used strong powers that greatly surpassed themselves, but did not have an equally strong spirit to control them. In the end, they were affected by these powers and were ultimately assimilated.

Excluding Elemental Totems, there were still Daniela’s Nineteen Cthulhus, and besides the strongest Cthulhu King, the other eighteen Cthulhu Totems were distributed in different areas, each occupying their own territories and providing protection for the local Totem Users, and accepting their sacrifices.

Thus, Daniela was unlike the other kingdoms, as they were a religious country.

In actuality, Daniela had two rulers, one was the King of Daniela, while the other was the Cthulhu King.

The Royal Alliance and the Cthulhu Church both dreaded each other, creating a sense of balance. The Kings of Daniela of previous generations died inexplicably, and discerning people could see that it was highly probable that the Cthulhu King had caused it. Only the Emperor of this generation sat soundly on the throne, governing well, and strengthening the system.

Among the three Kingdoms, Daniela’s losses were probably the smallest.

The Cthulhu Church took the opportunity to save ten thousand people during the Great Chaos, thus receiving the trust and worship of countless people. The consequent result was that the Cthulhu King’s strength increased day by day, and his powers expanded as well.

Garen could finally see a clearer picture of the entire current situation through this secret information.

If Obscuro Society wanted to overturn Daniela, they were most likely to join forces with the Cthulhuism Society, as Obscuro Society’s ideals were of the survival of the fittest, coinciding with the ideals of the Cthulhuism Society. Except that the Cthulhuism Society’s aim was for the weak to become the food source for the strong, to provide everything for the strong, and to satisfy their every need. If one did not wish to be considered weak, they would need to strengthen their body quickly, and the fastest method was to sign a sacrificial contract with the Cthulhu. As long as it was suitable, within a night, a regular Totem User could make the leap into a strong, ultimate Form 2 Totem User.

They would receive the Cthulhu’s son as their Totem, and when the number of sacrifices increased, the Cthulhu’s son’s upgrade speed would increase as well.

If the sacrifices were strong enough, it was also possible for the Cthulhu itself to become one’s Totem.

Among Sacrificial Totems, Cthulhu levels were higher than Elemental Totem levels, and Cthulhu’s was at least Form 4, and became the backbone of Daniela’s strength. The eighteen Cthulhus and Daniela’s other Cthulhu that had once appeared in history; when these different types of Cthulhu Totems were added together, the number of Totems that were stronger than the Nine-Headed Dragon would naturally increase. Getting pushed to a ranking of one hundred was expected.

But fortunately, Garen understood that Kovitan’s Ultimate Shelter Caeserton actually had another name, and was called the Wheel of Purification. It happened to clash with the attributes of Daniela’s Cthulhu.

Since the Cthulhuism Society’s strength attributes had been restrained by Caeserton, naturally the alliance between Daniela’s King and Kovitan would be very close, and that was expected as well.

In reality, only very few people knew about this secret.

The average person, and perhaps the majority of Daniela’s Totem Users, did not know that they were worshippers of the Cthulhuism Society, and one of the Cthulhus that they worshipped actually originated from a Totem.

However, there was also a possibility that Kovitan was looking at the problem from a different angle. They were like the scientists on earth. Any problems that they faced would always require a scientific explanation.

Many things probably just needed a change of perspective.

Many consecutive days were spent at the book collection hall and Black Fire Palace, and every day Garen would forget to eat while burying himself in his research. The presence of his Attribute Points allowed him to forget this tiring process completely.

He quickly entered the practical experiment stage.

The Green Vine Sphere began to undergo encryption measures.

The principle of the Green Vine Sphere used parasites in reality, and would implant tiny spores into non-living things. These spores would progressively change the structure of these non-living things, and would release a special active substance known as Zibane at the same time. They already possessed strong contagious natures and viability, and their size was also smaller compared to other types of bacteria. They could almost be compared to viruses.

The strangest thing about these substances was that once they were mixed with specialized techniques, they could be arranged into a sphere-like structure, like countless wireless receivers that could accept certain types of nerve signals and neurotransmitters. They would follow the commands of the nerve signals to infect and infiltrate.

In simpler terms, the Green Vine Sphere could make objects into Totems that would still be under the command of their masters.

People who wore equipment that was made into Totems by the Green Vine Sphere, would actually need to be connected to the equipment through their flesh. The energy that they used looked like Totem Light, but was actually a type of energy that was closer to the active substances of the Totem Light’s Polluting Power. This strength was named Zibane Power by Vanderman.

Thus, they were able to turn their surrounding substances into Totems within a designated span of time, except that this Totem-inducing time was very short. However, the time needed for the Zibane Power to infect others required a high level of spirit control, and without spirit control, this strength would not be able to infect others automatically.

However, Garen was satisfied despite this.

The Green Vine Sphere gave regular people a chance to become strong.

As long as your spirit and physical body were strong enough, even if you did not have Totem User Appraisal, as long as you had a Green Vine Sphere, you would be able to reach a powerful level.

This was a brand new strength system, just like Totem Power!

No wonder Obscuro Society, Royal Alliance, and Terraflor Society all wanted to seize this technology.

Within the Green Vine Sphere’s system, one’s spirit would decide the Zibane Power’s level and strength, and after offsetting the nature of the gap, the physical body’s strength would determine the gap between each other.

Garen arranged everything carefully and came to a conclusion.

"In other words, after obtaining the Green Vine Sphere’s Zibane Power, spirit will would largely decide the class, like Form 1, 2, and 3 of Totems.

Meanwhile, the physical body would decide the strength difference between classes."

While he encrypted the Green Vine Sphere, Garen also allowed it to implant itself completely into his right shoulder.

However, this technology could not be directly announced, because it would be a large impact against the entire Totem User system. Zibane Power’s activation also needed certain requirements from his will and spirit strength. It required extremely high spirit levels to be activated.

But this final research was impactful towards the Totem User system, as Totem systems were the foundation of the aristocracy’s control over the world, and if it was discovered, it would surely become the target of public criticism.