Mystical Journey

When he detected that he had suffered some internal injuries, Garen vaguely understood the terrifying effects of Resonance Degrees and realized that they could produce special abilities from within one’s Willpower.

On the opposite side of him, it seemed as if Havana’s ultimate move had ended and she had run out of Willpower. She disappeared slowly after that.

‘Times up. The fight has resulted in a tie so there will be no rewards or penalties of Quest Points. Please exit the room,’ the computerized voice spoke again slowly.

Without another word, Garen walked out of the room and entered a different one under the indifferent glances of other people. He entered a room with Level Five Willpower and New-Moon Level Resonance Degrees this time.

He underwent the same process and selected the same options before fighting an hour-long battle again.

A strong naked man with a dark green sun tattoo on his chest appeared this time. The records in the computer stated that his name was Conbasque.

“Barbaric Strength…” the hefty fellow swept his right hand in front of his chest before a frighteningly bloody wound appeared on the skin there suddenly. The holographic image of a black bear appeared beside him and began to circle his body before disappearing slowly.

The man then took long strides towards Garen.

Garen did not want to show any signs of weakness and decided to use his Level Five Willpower to face him head on and seize him in one go.

His opponent swung his arm over in a scratching motion as well. Both of their palms came into contact momentarily.

Roar!

The roar of the bear could be heard from the strong man’s body.

Garen staggered and was forced to take more than ten steps backward when he was hit by the tremendous quake.

“What powerful strength!”

Shocked looks appeared in his eyes but he was not afraid at all. Unlike these genetically strengthened Mech Pilots who only possessed Willpower, his biggest advantage was his hidden Secret Techniques and his strong physique.

Once his Living Secret Technique and Hellfrost Peacock Technique had fused within his physique, there were two main abilities that had formed there. The first one was his terrifyingly powerful regenerative abilities; injuries that were normally considered serious among other Mech Pilots could be healed within a short period of time when they were inflicted on Garen. This was how the Peacock’s body strengthened him. The next effect was intense Cold Radiation. This move was used as a trump card. However, he would always need to get rid of those who witnessed him using this move, as it would be his own fault if he was chased out of the inner region after being mistakenly identified as one of the Radioactive People.

“Again!”

Garen used the Ten Thousand True Technique secretly and shaped his hands into fists before turning his body sideways and charging over in that direction. The Ten Thousand True Technique had its own set of specialized skills that were extremely amazing and could utilize three different moves when he used it with all of his strength.

In other words, although it was impossible for practitioners of other battle skills to use different moves once they had used up all of their strength, Garen was different. When he was not using these specialized moves, the Ten Thousand True Technique was his strongest close combat skill that was also the greatest accomplishment of his martial arts.

His opponent let out a bear’s roar once more before clawing at him again.

Clap!

Garen relaxed his fist and opened it into a palm suddenly, before clasping his opponent’s wrist from the side and snapping it brutally.

Crack!

A crisp noise could be heard from his wrist but it was not completely broken yet.

At this moment, a terrifying, thunderous Willpower explosion occurred beside Garen’s ear.

The explosion that was caused by this move would have caused the ears of any other Mech Pilot to bleed from the vibrations and become extremely dizzy. However, Garen was only dizzy for a moment before returning to his normal state at once.

His powerful regenerative abilities could be seen immediately.

“Exceptional!”

Upon realizing that he could not break his opponent’s wrist with one hand, Garen outstretched his other hand at the same time and used both of them to pull downwards.

There was a clapping noise before the hefty fellow swung his other arm downwards and attempted to slap Garen’s cheek. Snake-like hissing noises could be heard when his palm came crashing over. It was obvious that it was possessed by a certain creature’s Willpower.

The slapping motion resembled a snake even more closely when it used its quick speed to move even faster than before.

The hefty fellow let out a fierce roar and took one step forward before the neighs of war-horses could be heard. They stomped on the ground loudly and the entire room shook for a moment. His Willpower turned into the shape of a warhorse in the blink of an eye.

As an experienced veteran, Garen was naturally unafraid of surprise attacks like these. Garen positioned his elbow horizontally and dodged the snake-shaped palm. Meanwhile, he turned his body sideways and casually dodged his opponent’s colliding stance.

His basic attributes were still weak right now and he did not have many advantages as compared to these other Mech Pilots that had used genetic adjustments to strengthen themselves. The amplification of his opponent’s Willpower by his Resonance Degree was alarming. Moreover, amplified Willpower would also strengthen the Energy Fields around one’s body as well. Therefore, he was able to form extremely powerful and terrifying short-term combat abilities.

Essentially, the short-term explosions in this world were extremely amazing. This was another advantage of Willpower. In other words, these attacks were like firearms that were already loaded with bullets. As long as the bullets had not run out yet, these weapons would greatly surpass the combat strength of average people.

If an individual’s basic attributes were at least ten points each, they would definitely be able to defeat opponents of these levels. However, his current Vitality attribute was unable to affect his Willpower greatly and he was merely slightly faster, stronger and had better regenerative abilities in comparison to the average Mech Pilot. He could not compare his own abilities to the advantages of using Willpower Energy Fields.

If he was fighting with an opponent who was also a practitioner of the Crouched Eagle Talon, they would be able to see that Garen had Attribute Points and advantages that were worthy of pride. However, the strongest opponent in this room that he was currently fighting used first rate and rare Training Methods and Willpower. Therefore, Garen’s assumed advantages were not as prominent anymore.

Garen fought with his opponent while experiencing the effects of his Resonance Degree carefully. He was forced to painstakingly counter his opponent many times which injured his body in the process. It was clear that Level Five New-Moon Level individuals were not opponents that he could take on right now.

As he still did not possess sufficient knowledge of Level Five opponents, after the match ended in a draw again, Garen decided to find another room that did not have a Level Five Resonance Degree opponent.

His next opponent was a walk in the park, which made him feel that they were much weaker than the previous New-Moon Level opponents. It was also obvious that their actual combat strength was not even half of that of the earlier opponents.

Garen was able to suppress his new opponent easily. When he used all of his Level Five Willpower, the few advantages that he possessed within his physical body began to appear as well.

He entered a few more rooms with Level Five Willpowers without Resonance Degrees. Garen was gradually able to understand the current rankings of his power clearly.

He was currently between Level Five and Level Five of the New-Moon Level. He could not defeat New-Moon Level individuals directly but could hold them off for a certain period of time.

The sky had already darkened as it was already past ten o’clock at night when he finally walked out from the training rooms.

There were slightly fewer people around him now as numerous students with Level Four Willpower were entering and leaving Level Five rooms. There were about ten rooms around him that were empty while the rest were lit up with red lights above their doors, indicating that they were occupied.

Garen looked down on these students who only possessed Level Four Willpower. Moreover, the students that were entering and leaving around him did not look like students at all. There were middle-aged people, old people, and even a few dwarves who were even shorter than average.

Garen felt that they resembled a large gathering of freaks rather than students.

He could not understand why there was so few Level Four students in the ranking list when he could see so many other Level Four candidates here. This Inner Courtyard continued to give off an abnormally chaotic feeling.

The Outer Courtyard was a haven in comparison to the Inner Courtyard. It was no wonder that the Elite Students in the Inner Courtyard would not leave unless they were going out for quests. If a ban had not been set in place, there were definitely other measures that confined them here.

“Hello, you must be the new student that came in from the Outer Courtyard, right?” suddenly, a gentle voice echoed over from beside Garen while he was observing his surroundings.

He turned in that direction and saw a white-haired youth with round-framed glasses looking at him and smiling. He was dressed like a model student and wore clean and neat clothes. He was surprisingly normal-looking and made Garen feel as if he had momentarily returned to the Outer Courtyard.

“You are?” he furrowed his eyebrows. In an environment like this, normal people like this person were definitely the most abnormal.

“My name is Anda. I’ve been observing you here for a long time now. I never expected that you would enter so many rooms consecutively and still have any energy to spare afterward. You made it look extremely relaxing. It seems that you’re not a normal Outer Courtyard student, huh…” he pushed up his glasses and smiled while flattering him.

“It was alright. I merely entered to take a look. It’s not like I actually did anything. I mainly did not expect that the people inside would be so amazing,” said Garen while smiling gently. He was disguising himself as well. He was previously born in a family of aristocratic territorial lords and had to make sure that he did not seem lower than the other person.

“Disregarding your hour-long foray is being too humble. After entering the Inner Courtyard, you probably saw the environment here. We jokingly say that this place is equivalent to the second wasteland and is comparable to an actual radiation wasteland. The only difference is that the food and drinks here are slightly more abundant,” said the bespectacled Anda softly. “Walk with me?”

“Okay.” Garen was looking for someone to chat about the situation here anyway.

Both of them walked through a passage that led outside. Strangely enough, Garen realized that the bespectacled Anda’s reputation seemed to travel far and wide. Fearful looks appeared on the faces of the people in their surroundings when they saw him. They would give way and form a path for him wordlessly.

While they were walking, Anda briefly introduced the situation, general knowledge, as well as certain important things that happened here while speaking to Garen.

Garen multitasked while listening. He was pondering about how he would face that girl Fila later.

Since he could not fight Level Five New-Moon Level individuals, Half-Moon Levels would be even harder to counter. Meanwhile, that girl Fila was almost at the Full-Moon Level by now. After spending all of the resources that he had accumulated throughout the years on his Mech, he was currently at the critical breakthrough point. Therefore, he could surpass himself greatly at any time.

Garen thought about his advantages carefully.

He had two advantages. One of them was his Living Secret Technique and his trump card, the Cold Radiation from his Hellfrost Peacock Technique, which was his upper hand against the other Mech Pilots. He also had Devour and powerful regenerative abilities that were his hidden strengths that were longer lasting and greater than the abilities of other Mech Pilots.

His second advantage was that his body’s Attributes were able to utilize Potential Points to upgrade itself constantly. The Staff of Yin allowed him to accumulate two Potential Points daily. Therefore, he would be able to grow consistently as long as he had enough time. As long as he was able to achieve at least ten points on average for his physique, he would be able to fight opponents with Level Five Willpower directly.

Furthermore, his Ten Thousand True Technique had fused with his Seven Star Life’s Secret Point. Although they could not be used interchangeably because the laws of their respective universes were different, there were still certain pressure points that possessed amplification effects. Perhaps it could not do certain things, but increasing his combat ability by twofold was definitely not a problem.

He could not utilize the Seven Star Life’s Secret Point fully because the bodily components of the humans here were different. However, the Ten Thousand True Technique’s greatest advantage meant that he would not have to get used to different bodies next time. This External Technique used large parts of the universe and was formed by some of the principles behind Garen’s Living Secret Technique. Therefore, although it did not possess as much strength, it was impossible to find compatibility like this with any other Secret Techniques.

There were two paths in front of him now. The first path required him to upgrade his Living Secret Technique, which meant that his Hellfrost Peacock Technique would definitely undergo impressive qualitative changes in the future. However, this path was slightly more difficult.

The second path would need him to upgrade his Attributes and use the Ten Thousand True Technique to improve himself.