Mystical Journey

Garen also found out from his conversations with the two of them that they work at the Tax Department and Irrigation Department respectively.

The Irrigation Department, where Nini was from, was located on the street opposite the palace. Most of their casual conversation involved the nobles and officials moving in and out of the palace.

"Speaking of which, this morning I saw the First Concubine’s carriage leave the main hall and head towards the side hall. Last time I could still the Concubine’s flower-watching guards from afar, but now I haven’t seen them for a long time," Nini said casually.

Garen frowned slightly. "The First Concubine left the main hall today, but it’s Saturday, isn’t the ceremony the day after tomorrow?"

"So you know too." Nini looked at Garen in surprise, he had just said he worked at the capital, but that his job was secretive and he couldn’t speak about it. She didn’t think he would know about these details.

"Normally, any preparations for large-scale ceremonies would only end at least the day before the ceremony itself, but something must have happened. The First Concubine is in charge of many systems, she has a lot of things to handle." Nini said nonchalantly. "If it wasn’t for the fact that I noticed how regular the First Concubine’s guards are, I might not have noticed anything different either."

"Speaking of which, I heard someone mention, it seems that the First Concubine has indeed left the main hall early." The other person, Dilan, added on.

Garen didn’t think much of it at first, but once Dilan mentioned that term, a possibility occurred to him.

If the Aegis Ceremony was so important, would Avic possibly go ahead with it secretly? In order to prevent outside intervention?

In that case, he would just need to put on a show during the official ceremony, and it would be enough. The ceremony had already been completed beforehand, there was no need to worry it would be disturbed.

The more he thought about it, the likelier it seemed to Garen.

If this possibility really existed, then... Obscuro’s assassination attempt would probably also be brought ahead!

His heart grew slightly cold. Although he wasn’t particularly fond of Avic, he didn’t dislike him either. The main thing was if the ceremony and even the assassination were brought forward, it would be highly disadvantageous to his hold on the situation, as Obscuro would be one step ahead, and constantly ahead.

As he thought that, he began to grow restless.

Glancing at Dani and the others in the distance, he stood up slowly.

"Sorry, I suddenly remembered something urgent."

"It’s okay, go ahead." The two of them paused for a moment but didn’t really care, politely indicating that they would take care of Dani and the others.

After paying the bill for Dani and the others, Garen walked out of the bar and looked at its name: Dewdrop Bar.

Calling a carriage immediately, he hurried towards the War Guild. He needed a couple more days of understanding and contact to teach Dani, but this matter couldn’t wait.

He needed to make the preparations as soon as possible.

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

War Guild

It was still that Milvus Tide Bar.

As soon as Garen walked through the door, an attendant in black came up to lead the way.

The two of them went through the corridors and many sofa rooms, walking into a small corridor. The corridor had many lines of single rooms.

After knocking on a single room in the center, they found a child dressed in black sitting inside, together with two other people.

One was a pretty woman with blonde hair, who dressed extremely sexily, her shirt white skirt almost all the way up to the top of her thighs, but right now she was being totally ignored by Kid, her expression unbelievably awkward.

The other was that old forger from back then, holding a black box and frowning, thinking about goodness knows what.

"You’re here." Kid watched Garen come in, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, is everything ready?" Garen looked at the black box in the old man’s hand.

"Of course! With two masters personally on the case, there’s no way anything would go wrong!" Old Man touched his beard with a smile, standing up and giving the black box to Garen. "Just press it against the chain seal you had before."

Garen nodded and opened the box. Inside was a diamond-shaped white-silver ornament, carved hollow.

Vaguely, he could hear the sound of dense approaching footsteps from outside the room, evidently the people here to protect this transaction. This was such a valuable item worth millions, even the War Guild had to take it seriously. Unlike Iron Tank City, this place wasn’t lacking in manpower.

He picked up the ornament, and held up his sleeves lightly, pressing it determinedly against the seal of the War Chain from earlier.

Something strange happened.

The ornament actually liquidized quickly, slowly melting into Garen’s skin, melting in the War Chain seal that was already on his arm.

Garen glanced at his attribute pane, and saw the minute changes as expected.

‘War Chain:

Effect 1 -- Eye of Isaiah. Effect 2 -- None. Effect 3 -- None. Effect 4 -- None. Effect 5 -- None. Effect 6 -- None. Effect 7 -- None. Effect 8 -- None.

Collaborator -- Angel.’

"Eight tactic spaces in total, are you satisfied, sir?" Old Man asked with a smile.

"Satisfied, very satisfied!" Garen nodded. "You should have some Solidifying Tactics for sale here, right? May I choose some?"

"Of course, please come with me." Old Man nodded, his expression telling of how good his mood was just then. It was rare for someone to want to upgrade a War Chain so much at once, and to buy Solidifying Tactics too, that would invariably be a huge profit for the man himself.

Garen and Kid followed Old Man out of the private room, heading deep down a corridor, protected by a host of totem users in black until they finally reach the wall at the end of the tunnel.

Old Man reached out and patted the wall once, white light glowing on his palm.

The wall instantly rippled, and actually disappeared before everyone’s eyes.

Garen’s expression didn’t change as he and Kid followed Old Man into the hall behind the wall.

It was a large and dark brown hall shaped in a circle, the walls lined with a circle of round glass display cases, and with a cylindrical display in the center of the room as well.

In these glass display cases, there were many strangely-shaped items scattered sparsely, none of them very big. Some were like little boxes, some were like live specimens of unnatural living organisms, and some looked utterly normal, like a mineral stone.

There was also a smattering of people in the hall, standing in three groups. They looked to be like Garen and co, Guild customers brought here to choose Solidifying Tactics by the people from the Guild.

"This is the display hall for Solidifying Tactics, please go ahead and point out anything you two might like to me." Old Man explained with a smile, "I can provide you two with the highest discount of 20%."

"Then I’ll thank you for that." Garen smiled slightly. "Kid, you have money on your side?"

"No problem." Kid replied nonchalantly.

"Then please assume I’m borrowing it from you first, I’ll return it to you in a bit." This time he was grateful to Kid, otherwise the War Chain’s upgrading would prove to be a problem."

"It’s okay, I don’t know how to use the money anyway." Kid evidently really didn’t care.

Garen nodded and didn’t hold back anymore.

He walked to the counter and looked at them carefully, one by one.

As expected of the large kingdom capital’s guild, it wasn’t like Iron Tank City, where there were only a few choices of Solidifying Tactics. Here, they actually displayed them openly for everyone to choose, and a glance showed that there were no fewer than thirty items.

Garen followed the counter, checking them individually.

The Solidifying Tactics here were divided into three categories in total.

Self-strengthening types, Totem-strengthening types, and Special types.

Self-strengthening types meant they strengthened the totem user themselves, and this strengthening could affect the speed a Totem user can release a tactic, its powers, or how nimbly they can control a totem in battle and so on.

And totem-strengthening meant that the single totem would then be temporarily strengthened.

There were the most types in the last Special category, such as healing, scoping, night vision, underwater breathing, levitation, disguise, ice sealing and whatnot. These were all extra abilities for a totem.

Garen looked around him in a circle, but couldn’t find the tactic he wanted. Although he knew the Eye of Isaiah that he had found was no ordinary tactic, but all these Solidifying Tactics didn’t even come close, so Garen couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

Looking at the prices tags, these Solidifying Tactics were each worth ten thousand golden rumbs, which was equivalent to at least ten million copper rumbs, two or three of them were enough to buy a basic Level One War Chain.

As though seeing the look of disappointment on Gardens face, Old Man mused for a moment.

"How about this, other than the Solidifying Tactics our War Guild has, there are still some Solidifying Tactics we had planned to put up for auction, you can have an early look at them. See if there’s anything you might want."

"Sure." Garen nodded.

Kid told him briefly how much he had in his own savings through the black box at his collar, he still had about twenty thousand golden rumbs. Added to the eighty thousand golden rumbs he had used earlier to upgrade to Level Four, he would have used a whole hundred thousand golden rumbs. That was a huge fee, even if the Trejons family sold off everything they had right now, they would only have at most forty or fifty thousand golden rumbs. This was including all of their solid assets and the land His Majesty the Emperor gave them, all of it added together.

Using so much of Kid’s money this time, Garen felt a little ashamed, but now was the most crucial time, so he couldn’t afford such concerns. There would be plenty of chances for him to return the favor later.

After waiting for a moment in the hall, Old Man sent someone to bring a catalog that he gave to Garen.

The catalog had the detailed information regarding five Solidifying Tactics, and was evidently the information for the auctions.

The first of these Solidifying Tactics was the Hand of Vandala.

It looked like a necklace pendant shaped like a golden palm. There weren’t any special patterns on it.

It had a very simple effect. Aurification, it used a certain amount of Totem Light or totem power to turn a certain amount of a material into gold.

Although gold wasn’t as precious as white silver here in this world, it was still a precious metal second only to white silver.

There were surely many totem users who would like this thing, but that definitely did not include Garen.

The second was called the Navy Blue Chain.

It also looked like a necklace, and was completely navy blue, with an irregular white stone suspended in the middle.

The effect of the Navy Blue Chain was Water-style Mist Territory, it could form a mist territory with a radius of twelve meters upon release, blocking the enemy’s vision. The thickness of the mist depended on the strength of the totem user.

The third was called the Dematerialisation Badge.

Looking at this one, Garen’s interest was slightly piqued.

It was just a picture that looked like a black flame.

Its effects were self-strengthening: upon activation, it could elementalize part of the totem user’s body, if the totem user was strong enough, they could totally use it to avoid a fatal blow, and they could use it to transmit across long distances as well. Of course, if it was a low-level totem user, it’d be impressive for them to elementalize even one fingernail.

The fourth and the fifth were both tactics used to strengthen totems. Garen gave them a glance, one was very effective with healing, the other could add the element of ice to the totem, allowing the enemy totem to take ice damage. Compared to regular strengthening tactics however, its effectiveness was a lot more overstated.

"How about this Dematerialisation Badge?" Garen pointed at the third Solidifying Tactic and asked.

"You have great taste, sir!" Old Man gave him a thumbs up. "This Dematerialisation Badge was found by one of the Guild’s great fighters in a monster’s lair, they snatched it from the hands of Obscuro. In order to obtain this Badge, two of our elite Form Two totem users were grievously injured. Although elementalization was a necessary route to success for high-level totem users, wouldn’t it be an extra level of insurance to first have access to this technique using a Solidifying Tactic?"

"Cut the crap, and just tell me, how much does it cost?" Garen was lazy to listen to his preamble.

"This much." Old Man held up four fingers. "And this is after I gave you two a special eighty percent discount."

"Forty thousand golden rumbs?!" Garen raised an eyebrow. He wanted to buy this mainly because he was interested in the elementalization, elementalization was something true totem users could use temporarily when Spiritualized. But the path Garen was pursuing didn’t have anything to do with elementalization at all.

Although the Nine-Headed Hydra was powerful, in term of elementalization, and especially when.It came to the elementalization of the main body, it had no clue whatsoever. With this thing, perhaps he could peek at the secret high level totem users had for elementalization.