Mystical Journey

Garen looked back and saw fake-eye Thomas rushing over from behind.

"Thomas? It’s so great to see you alive!"

Garen gave him a fierce hug. This guy had given him much help over the years, a very well-informed person; the timing was splendid, he can now learn what the current situation is from him.

"Let’s go, take a rest inside."Thomas dragged Garen forward for a distance; in no time, after going through a small door, impressively, was a quest hall exactly like it was above ground. The only difference was that 7 or 8 people were scattered around; a woman with one arm skillfully served everyone food, drinks and alcohol.

The atmosphere was dull and heavy, there were lots of people with low spirits – some lying on the table drunken, while some were polishing their silver knives with a cold and detached expression on their faces.

Thomas familiarly dragged Garen to a corner to sit down.

The outskirts of the city had been damaged, now our war guild base is the logistic point for our frontlines. What do you have in mind?" Thomas rushed to enquire as soon as he sat down."I would suggest you to go straight to the inner part of the city; the only ones brave enough to be left behind are masters. I am planning to go straight to the inner part of the city to participate in defense tasks, you should follow me."

"I have my own plans, no worries." Garen smiled,"What is the current situation in the city?"

"The Dragon Guards collapsed, if it were not for Grand Duke who came after to combat the monsters, I am afraid not one would have lived to defend the inner city." Thomas explained simply,"Now, half of those in the city have perished, leaving only a small portion of residents living in the inner city to avoid massacre. Those from the outskirts and suburbs have pretty much all perished. Perhaps there remains few who were hidden, but the numbers are definitely not large."

"How about the other places?"

"I have no idea, according to the guild’s last contact with foreign guilds which was the day before yesterday, the current skies have been completely saturated and blocked by the monsters. Guilds of different locations are being isolated." Thomas lowered his voice, " The heads of the guild seemed a little off."

" How about battle resources? It should be priced lower right?" Garen asked after thinking for a moment.

"Definitely, as the number of people decreased, the amount of people capable of using totems for battle is not enough. There is an oversupply, a lot of items have decreased in price.

Garen suddenly noticed his motive, it was true that he needed to stick to a group at this crucial time.

"I have companions, no worries." He shakes his head to refuse. "Let me settle my box first, some items valued higher when sold, will be given in exchange instead. Nothing is more important than life. Right?"

"No problem, look for me here when you are free, I usually hang around during noon."Thomas didn’t insist further and agreed with ease. During these times an extra friend meant an extra security blanket.

Garen dragged the box towards the counter in the hall.

He walked to the left window and knocked.

The girl inside went blank for a moment, visibly downcast shortly after.

"Sorry, this afternoon Mr. Jason had already..."

Jason’s heart sank. the middle aged man worked well with him when he was around, he’d have never thought he’d be gone so soon.

"How much are war shackles and a war hall? He asked in a low voice.

"20 million for all, if resources were used in exchange, even better."The girl snapped out of her daze and replied.

Garen placed the box on the counter, opened it and took out the books and notes. He then proceeded to put money and precious items such as diamonds and silver blocks through the window.

"Mind estimating the value for me?

"Alright." The girl took over the items and skillfully separated them into similar groups.

The estimation was soon given.

"Altogether 36 million or so, do you want me to record it in your badge or?"

"Give me a set of war shackles instead, keep the remaining in the badge."

"Okay, please wait for a moment."The girl rarely encountered war shackle related transactions, and was a little unfamiliar with it. She decided to seek help from people behind.

After Garen waited for a short while, a tall and slender young man walked out. In his hands was a silver cylinder.

"May I ask if it’s you who wanted war shackles?" He walked to the counter, replacing the girl’s position.

"Yes, is there a problem?"

What type of war shackles do you need? A blank one, or one with effects?"The young man solemnly asked. "A blank one." Garen answered concisely.

"In this case you would want to add a permanent tactic. Here we have two types of permanent tactic that can be added on, you should consider it. One deepens your damage, tearing the wound in a way that makes it harder to heal. The other is a paralytic toxin, a layer coated on totems would slightly interfere with the enemy’s attack.

"There’s no need, we have other considerations." Garen rejects him. These two permanent tactics are pretty useless. The guild would not bring out anything useful for sale, but would have taken it for themselves instead.

"It’s alright then." The young man quickly drew a tactic symbol on the silver cylinder, the symbol glowed red and vanished, disappearing into the surface of the cylinder. He then passed it to Gren.""Please take this, this is your blank shackle. This shackle is of the lowest level, with only two effects inset. Although so, you could choose to upgrade through a forger in the future; a high leveled forger is capable of transferring an inset permanent tactic into a new shackle. Of course, only forgers of our guild have the technique for it."

"Thank you." Garen took over the cylinder and noticed all of a sudden around him, greedy glances headed his way.

He looked back and glanced around, not minding a bit.

He opened the cylinder straight, plucking out a silver V shaped arrow from inside, it was a like a thin sheet of metal. The surface has an abnormal shine to it, only tilting towards the light showed a layer of colored light swirling in the internal alchemy.

Garen checked it in detail, and pressed the metal sheet into his left arm.

Ssssss...

The metal sheet accompanied by a sizzling sound melted into Garen’s skin. After a cloud of green smoke, it looked like a birthmark gotten since birth, completely natural. There was nothing that gave it away to being unnatural.

Under Garen’s field of vision, a horizontal bar appeared. Behind it were two pink boxes.

"War shackle: 2 permanent tactics can be added. Master the forger’s technique, and its ability will level up.

Effect: Could be used to connect companions, allowing both to benefit from the effect of Permanent tactics. As to how much effect one benefits, it can be controlled by the shackle’s owner."

"This is the one." Garen nodded his head in satisfaction. He had used up the War shackle without any hesitation, and the greedy glances started to mind their own business. A used War shackle is not of much value.

"Let’s see if it is possible to evolve the core totem." Garen looked at the potential points in the potential bar.

Killing Mecca, a Form 2 totem user, had increased his potential points to 1516%.

"15 points, we can try now."

Till now, he had reached the first stage of his ultimate goal –he managed to get his hands on the core totem. After this, the key would be combining potential points with Gothic and the rest.

The only thing is, Gothic had definitely participated in the defense tasks, and was bound to showcase jaw dropping abilities, attracting the attention of the Grand Duke. To follow in this footsteps of such genius...

Thomas disappeared again, so Garen went back to the hall alone to find a seat. If Angel did not live, he was planning to find a few people to establish a new team.

"Aska is here.."

"Resta as well."

Someone seated at the door muttered.

Not long after, two people emerged from the tunnel. One was in front of the other – The one leading had red hair, a good looking youth; his outfit was in a state, but he was unhurt.

"Aska, here."A red headed girl waved her hand from across the hall.

Garen recognized him. He was popularly known as a genius among the guild members – Aska Byzantium. According to popular belief, the moment he lighted up a totem, he shared the innate gift of black panthers –its speed. He then continuously controlled 3 different totems, benefiting from all 3 of them their dissimilar unique abilities.

Much earlier on, his second totem evolved into Form 2. He was an innately talented and excellent guy. His natural ability is the rare ability to power share, capable of casting the totem’s power unto himself; this ability helps the totem user to adapt to different situations easily. For example using the Fire Wolf’s fireball power, the polar bear’s ice attack and more.

Garen’s gaze falled upon the person behind Aska.

Resta, also a new found genius with natural golden curls. His ability is hardening. He can prepare all his totems with a tougher skin, protecting them from huge damage. He had also used a Form 1 totem to kill a Form 2 totem alive. Only 19 this year, Aska and him belonged to the Genius level.

But Resta was not someone of the War Guild, but a nobleman from the city, or so he heard.

Garen retracted his gaze.

He was not a genius, in comparison to these people, his only strength was his potential points. Although this ability grows stronger as development continues, in its earlier stages, its incomparable to these insane talents.

He was all in all one of a normal rank. His military strengths from his previous life was not obvious here.

Aska and Resta walked together towards the red haired lady at the corner, they were from the same circle; Resta obviously a friend of Aska. These people are either geniuses or elite machines. Their circle and other circles are of two separate worlds. In a small place such as Iron Tank City, they have even become the main force fighting against the monsters.

Garen sat on his seat, quietly waiting. If Angel did not die, she would have made the same decision as he did. During these times, the only way to be safe is to stick to a group, else they would be the object of bullying.

Now, Garen could possibly defeat a Form 2 totem user with great difficulty, but was definitely incapable of facing off two. He barely passed off as talented in the guild’s hierarchy.

Not long after, in the tunnel where many come in and go out from, a black robed lady walked in quickly. It was Angle. He left shadow was wrapped with thick bandage, blood stains were visible. As she saw Garen, she walked over and sat on the opposite side of him.