Mystical Journey

Garen did not seem regretful at all. He had always been fumbling through his journey while going forward as he needed to experience different paths to condense Soul Seeds. In other words, it was impossible to condense even more Soul Seeds if he walked along one path resolutely. This was another key reason why so many people in the Ancient Endorian civilizations had found it so difficult to break through despite having long lives.

Faint forces were forming around his body now. Two imprint marks appeared clearly on both of his arms again. They were the imprints of the Crouched Eagle Talon’s Willpower. After absorbing a large amount of the high quality Level Five Willpower that had dissipated earlier, the Crouched Eagle Talon had finally underwent qualitative changes. When there were no more Potential Points to force his upgrades, Garen’s entire body trembled suddenly.

The imprints on both of his arms became dim and were replaced by two black Willpower Imprints on his shoulders. These were Imprint lines that would constantly need to be condensed and simulated. Every time these lines were condensed, it would be considered as practice. Garen had sketched them within a short amount of time as he could still easily remember the Imprint of the Level Five Crouched Eagle Talon.

Sketching Imprints was another way to practice one’s Training Methods.

Without his Level Five Nameless Willpower, Garen did not know what to do. Despite being weaker now, he felt more relaxed. Feelings of complete clarity floated through his mind constantly.

Only then did he understand that he had been too greedy and had wanted too many things previously. As for not being pure enough, he knew that desiring for excessive much power instead of developing his own strength was actually barely satisfactory. If he was someone else who did not have strong martial arts experiences to support themselves, he would have died in battle much earlier on.

Once most of the Nameless Willpower had dispersed and he had finally cut off the beneficial relationship between Red Moon and himself completely, the only thing that remained was a faint Imprint.

He was also left with Level One Nameless Willpower. With the bond preserving his Imprint, Garen could faintly feel that the Crouched Eagle Talon’s Willpower would be completely destroyed as well if he got rid of this last bit of Level One Willpower fully. This was another key element that was had been used to threaten him in the pool earlier.

“Just Level One Willpower,” Garen laughed coldly and was unbothered by it. The absence of a method to solve it now would not mean that he could not find a way to fix it in the future. Instead, he focused his attention on entering Level Five again with the Crouched Eagle Talon this time.

There were no particular differences. Other than the muscles in his arms becoming more solid, his explosive force increasing by one level and his Willpower increasing, there were no other changes.

“My future focal points will be the Crouched Eagle Talon and Energy Machinist NIS,” Garen decided on his direction. He felt that he had both gained and lost too much during his previous pursuits. Although his Living Secret Technique upgrades were able to upgrade all of his Willpower as well, another problem that he faced was not wanting to use the hundred over Potential Points that he had accumulated.

Life was about winning and losing. Therefore, he would just go and look for more Potential Points if he ran out! There would be losses and gains in everything anyway. When he thought of how he had continuously stopped himself from advancing merely because he was trying to save up on Potential Points, Garen laughed softly.

He was also slightly apprehensive of the various obstacles that he had unknowingly encountered on the path forward.

He knew that part of it was caused by using too much of his Potential Points to upgrade himself in the past. This had prevented him from going through many mental experiences that now caused problems to surface.

He fixed his issue of going in the wrong direction and also got rid of his Nameless Willpower.

Garen began to concentrate on investigating the Energy Machinist NIS Training Method in his hands now. This was the standard Training Method that was used by five out of ten Energy Machinists. However, its progression rate was extremely slow as most people who were not first rate geniuses at mathematical calculation would assume that everything was nonsense when they first entered.

Most of them would study it intensively for a year but the majority would not be able to understand even one percent of it.

Even though she was Professor Van Doe’s elite disciple, Galafil fell into the above category as well. One could only imagine its true difficulty.

‘Individuals who are not mathematical geniuses should not even think of attempting.’

These were the first words that had been said when he had opened the Training Method.

Garen had instinctively overlooked this. His Intelligence Attribute possessed enhanced calculation abilities and he did not believe that his current 2.1 points of Intelligence could not meet the requirements of this Training Method.

When he ended up glancing at it quickly, the first question made him somewhat dumbstruck.

‘Level One requirements: Solve two equations simultaneously. Extract the root of these equations to the twelfth decimal point. The time limit is ten minutes.’

Simple mental arithmetic was already a terrifying request that most people could not complete. Meanwhile, they were now requiring him to simultaneously solve two… And he was only given ten minutes?!

After coming to this world, this was the first time Garen had felt the terrifying importance that the people of this world placed on brain development.

He furrowed his eyebrows and gritted his teeth.

“Try it then talk!”

After glancing through the test questions, Garen closed his eyes and memorized them. He pressed a button on his watch to start the timer while his brain began to calculate answers quickly at the same time.

He had participated in all of the classes in the Academy but their level of difficulty had never been as troublesome as what he was experiencing now. Although his 2.1 points level of Intelligence and memory were shocking, currently, he clearly understood why less than one in a hundred people were able to progress through these elite conditions. These Training Methods were basically specially designed for bookworms and top students.

It did not require anything else except for mathematical calculation abilities!

While closing his eyes and calculating, the nerves on Garen’s temples almost bulged out as well.

Ding.

Ten minutes were up.

He opened his eyes impatiently and had barely managed to calculate it…

He stated both of his answers and compared them with the answers that were displayed on his watch’s information screen before exhaling a long breath firmly.

“I was barely able to calculate it, how scary… No wonder there are only so few Energy Machinists despite this being an era of terrifying mental developments. No wonder, no wonder…” he finally understood it completely.

He shut his eyes and rested his mind for a moment before opening it again and browsing through the contents at the back.

Sure enough, the strings of calculations at the back were extremely complicated. Most of the time, the conclusions and inferences from the calculations in front were used in the calculations at the back. The conclusions and inferences became longer and more complicated as well.

Unconsciously, the amount of sweat on Garen’s forehead had increased. He needed to constantly memorize the conclusions in front. Otherwise, he would not be able to understand the quick calculations at the back that were linked to one another.

There would even be occasional leaps sometimes. The information would display the conclusions matter-of-factly but Garen would need to spend half a day calculating before he would be able to understand the inferences and conclusions that they used as formulae. Other times, he wondered about the clever methods they used to calculate the final answers, as too much had been left out of the calculation process in the middle…

Less than an hour had passed but Garen’s body was almost entirely soaked in sweat!

“No! I need to think harder!”

Garen closed his eyes quickly and shifted his attention towards his Attribute Pane.

After browsing through so much information, he realized that the Energy Machinist’s power was mainly obtained from Energy Machinery that was cultivated from biochemical pools and experimental platforms. The power of the Energy Machinery was derived from the Training Method amplification. The forging materials belonged to similar levels as piloted Mechs except that they were switched with driverless Mechs.

Garen desired combat method would be able to utilize his Secret Technique abilities fully. It would use his radiation to affect the biochemical pool to forge even more powerful biochemical Energy Machinery. He could condense the Distorted Seeds as Energy Machinists would need to use either intelligent chips, biological brains, or hearts as the core of their Energy Machinery.

After carefully rereading the information, Garen verified the feasibility of his ideas.

The stronger the core of his Energy Machinery was, the greater the changes made towards the mutation of its materials would be. Hence, many Energy Machinists would enter the radiation belts to find radioactive mutated materials that were strong enough. Furthermore, Garen was unfazed by the radiation on his own Distorted Seed anymore.

It was important to note that a good core could not simply be found when needed. However, he could have as many Distorted Seeds as his heart desired! By using his Distorted Seed as a core or a heart, as long as he had sufficient materials, he would be able to use the biochemical pool to quickly forge single-use war weapons by using the mutated creatures that he cultivated.

“It’s very feasible!” Garen made up his mind. As some Energy Machinists would engage in gang fights, it would be an issue if those who served as cannon fodder were unable to upgrade their strength because material cores were too difficult to find. Unlike the rest, as long as he had a sufficient amount of Distorted Seeds, he did not even have to use control chips because of his body. The parasites of the Distorted Seeds would not be able to attack him because he was the main body. Moreover, they could be somewhat controlled by him as well.

The only thing he required was the cultivation means of the Energy Machinists.

“I’ve upgraded my Intelligence slightly because the direction that this Training Method is going towards is exhausting my brain…”

Garen felt a slight headache oncoming. When he glanced at his progress, he already knew that he had only improved by 0.5%. Although it was much better than most people, if he were to use this progression rate to train as an Energy Machinist, he would not even need to dream of entering the first level until a few years later. Level One Energy Machinists could only forge scouting Energy Machinery while Level Twos had slightly more combat abilities and were able to forge small-scale combat Energy Machinery.

He would need to reach Level Four or Five at least if he wanted to form combat abilities. Only then would he be able to forge medium-level Energy Machinery where one individual would be equivalent to a small-scale army.

The Training Methods of Energy Machinists involved more than simply sketching Willpower Imprints. Instead, they would require people to constantly solve calculation cycles. Difficult calculations like these would automatically stir up Willpower to naturally form Willpower Imprints. Strangely enough, the Willpower Imprints of Energy Machinists would not be on their own bodies but would float an inch away from the back of their heads where it was impossible for the naked eye to see.

Garen’s gaze fell on his Attribute Pane. He pushed the large pile of topics behind him and allowed his eyes to scan across the single Attribute Pane immediately.

‘Nonosiva Lin — Strength 3.1, Agility 3.0, Vitality 4.7, Intelligence 2.1, Potential 12530%. Soul Limit 40.’

“I have 125 Potential Points? I’ll increase my Intelligence first!”

This time, Garen could truly feel that the Energy Machinist path would correspond with his own Living Secret Technique very well.

His gaze focused on his Intelligence and there was a brief whooshing noise as his Potential Points began to decrease quickly while his Intelligence started to increase and become clearer from its blurry state.

As long as each Attribute had a value of less than five points, ten Potential Points would be enough to upgrade one Attribute. Almost thirty of his Potential Points had disappeared at once and he was left with 98 Potential Points. Meanwhile, his Intelligence had increased to the 5 points immediately.

Garen paused. There were still many uses for his Potential Points and it was unnecessary for him to use all of them on his Intelligence. Five points of Intelligence was sufficient.

He attempted the cycle calculations from the question bank. It was much easier this time as his arithmetic abilities had been enhanced by twofold. Garen was now able to complete the first level of the question bank easily.

He felt as though these complicated calculations were merely math questions that were slightly harder. They were not at a level that made his head dizzy anymore.

Unknowingly, Garen had finished calculating the entire first level of the question bank.

Hum!!

A tiny music note that was shaped like three chestnuts appeared an inch behind Garen. Apparently, it was so simple to achieve Level One! The moment the music notes condensed, bouts of Willpower surged out of one of them quickly and rushed into Garen’s brain. They formed little silver spouts that resembled cyclones and occupied a small corner in Garen’s mental space where his Soul Seed was located.

“Apparently, it’s this easy!!” Garen widened his eyes in shock. He had never expected that Energy Machinists would be able to achieve the appropriate levels instantly as long as their arithmetic abilities were sufficient! There were simply no major obstacles at all! The thing that shocked him the most was the information and messages that he received after entering Level One. It stated that Level One Energy Machinists had the right to use Space Equipment!!!

His mouth gaped open and he was at a loss for words. Energy Machinists were basically the cream of the crop and perfect beings among the Mech Pilots.