Mystical Journey

Boom!!!

A green shockwave burst outward on the soil in the yellowishgreen forest.

Garen used his aura to direct himself to the ground from the air. He gained his momentum and got out of the green shockwave’s area of effect and landed beside a small puddle. He took a few steps back as he landed, and he turned around to look at the green shockwave that had spread across the area as he stabilized his footing.

He raised his hand and looked at his right palm. It was glowing faintly in green, and there was white smoke coming out of it, with the surrounding filled with a sour and foul odor.

"What strong toxicity!"

He placed his palms down and gave them a gentle jitter. The green colored skin at the center of his palm sunexpectedly came off like green old cloth from the vibrations. The skin landed on the ground and immediately rotted the stones and soil into a greenish, viscous substance.

Garen’s right palm was instantly filled with blood, but a layer of dried blood formed and stopped bleeding in no time. He had presented that he had absolute control over his body.

This huge commotion would definitely grab someone’s attention.

He then saw that the plants that had instantly decayed the moment they came contact with the green shockwave.

"Damnit!" Garen’s expression changed as he cursed fiercely yet quietly. "Is every second form totem user this troublesome! They can even self destruct before they die!"

He was using his aura to stay aware of the battle between the Marshall squad and the man in the black robe. So why did he come out and ambush them at the end? It was because he wanted to obtain the intel and knowledge of the core totem from the man in black robe. Even if he didn’t manage to obtain the information he wanted, he could at the very least obtain some precious resources, right?

He didn’t expect him to self destruct at the end, and he couldn’t obtain anything any longer.

Without any hesitation, Garen left the place with great haste. Although he wanted to check out the place, he didn’t dare to enter as the core was so toxic that the air surrounding it was filled with its strong poison.

As he took a few steps, he stopped and turned around with a huge grin on his face. With a happy look on his face, he sped off into the distance and soon disappeared at the other end of the slope of forest.

Garen slowed down as he reached the shades in the forest. He then activated the neon butterflies and let them patrol around his head as he slowly went towards the place where the four people separated.

At the same time, he closed his eyes as he set his sights upon the attribute pane.

‘Strength 2.3, Agility 2.1, Vitality 2.5, Intelligence 2.1, Potential 1493%. Possess the qualification to become a Luminarist.’

His strength, vitality and intelligence had increased by an average of 0.1 and his potential points had increased from 12 to 14, and would become 15 fairly soon!

Garen started to think hard after feeling happy about it.

"It’s perfectly normal for the physical attributes to recover before it reached it peaks. However, my potential points have unexpectedly increased as well… Was it because I killed a Luminarist? I have just checked it yesterday, and there were no changes, and then there was a change the moment I had killed a Luminarist. If killing the Luminarist is not the cause of it, it will still definitely be linked to it!"

He was very sure of his assumption. His worry over the source of obtaining potential points had finally reduced slightly.

"Should I try to evolve neon butterfly now?" He immediately scratched off the thought; if he were to evolve the neon butterfly without any inherited knowledge, besides the extremely low success rate, the evolved neon butterfly would be impossible to hide. If that were to occur, how was he going to explain the evolution of the neon butterfly without any inherited knowledge to the others?

"Forget about it, I should find another core totem first."

After discovering a clue to obtaining potential points, Garen was determined to follow his original plan, which was to become the best Luminarist. As the risk and rewards were directly proportional to each other, he had to take a huge amount of risk to obtain a huge amount reward.

"This way, I just need to get through the crisis that will occur next year, and I can think of changing my totem afterwards. The second world war is going to last for years…" Garen had a plan in mind. With his eyes filled with determination, he sprinted off and he went forward.

As he went over the hill, he soon returned to where he parted with Goth and the others.

There were already a few people in the Marshall Squad’s white vests standing by the grey road. The middle aged team leader seemed to be discussing something softly with Jessica. There were no traces of anybody else.

Jessica burst into tears and rushed towards Garen as she saw Garen return.

"Garen! You’re okay!?" He ran towards him and held Garen’s hand tightly. "I thought you were…" Her tears almost went down her cheeks.

"I’m alright. I won’t die so easily, since I trained my body a bit back in the day." Garen patted himself on the chest. "Where is your brother, Goth and the others?"

"There’s still no news yet…" Jessica quickly wiped off her tears as she said sadly.

"Don’t worry. It will be fine since the one going after them is not the strongest." Garen comforted. "We will definitely earn a huge amount after this, since this mission’s difficulty is very high. The one who went after me was a second form totem user. If not for my speed as I jumped into the pond, I would have definitely not been able to return."

"So you were hiding in the pond." The middle aged man came forward as he showed him his white badge. "Jefferson, leader of the Marshall Squad. So you’re Garen? What a brave man for a fellow without a core totem to kite the second form totem user away. You deserve praise!" He commended Garen as he patted his shoulder. "Rest assured. You guys have done more than necessary for this mission. Naturally your reward will increase as well."

"Thank you team leader Jefferson." Garen acted flush as he wanted to get a closer relationship with him. After all, his age was much younger than this man. "I wonder how my two partners are doing?"

"Don’t worry. They will be fine. They were only kiting away the first form totem user. They should return before you know it." Jefferson smiled as he looked at the sky, in which there was a black eagle flying in circles.

"Alright, it’s time to cover up the influence. You know the rules right?" Jefferson whispered. "We will minimise the rumors of the battles between the totem users from the general public."

"Are we still able to cover this?" Garen whispered.

Jefferson frowned. "We’ll do what we can…"

He continued questioning Garen relating to the details of the leader of the men in black robes. He turned around and left as he gave his subordinates the orders after he was satisfied with the intel. Garen managed to convince him that he was able to escape from the pursuit due to his speed. After all, it was not surprising to see a totem user practice martial arts to make up for their lack of physical attributes.

After ten minutes of waiting, Andy, who was leaning on Goth appeared in Garen and Jessica’s sights.

"Are you two alright?"

Jessica and Garen quickly went up to welcome them.

"Andy injured his hips." Goth shook his head as he replied. "We would have return earlier if I carried him, but he insisted on walking on his own."

Andy had a miserable expression and felt like committing suicide at the thought of being princess-carried by Goth.

Jessica couldn’t help but burst into laughter when she saw goth’s hopeless face, and her brother’s embarrassment when they came back safely.

For some reason the term ‘hips’ was supposed to sound very normal. However, it became rather funny when the word came out of Goth’s mouth.

Even Garen couldn’t help but to reveal a hint of a smile.

"I’m glad you’re okay. Team leader Jefferson had said that he would increase our more rewards for this mission."

"I was just about to ask this!" Goth gave Garen a big thumbs up, whereas Andy gave a sigh of relief as he smile wryly.

"Okay. We need to take a good rest after this mission. What do you guys plan on doing now?" Andy voiced out. "I will talk about Jessica and my plan. We are currently living in the inner city’s Air Wing region and our address is No. 109 Vine Street. You should visit us when you’re free."

"Have you forgotten, brother? Father is sure to scold you when you go back with this injury…" Jessica softly added.

"Eh…" Andy started sweating cold sweat on his forehead.

Goth curled his lips as he scratched his chest with his hand.

"I live in Kovitan’s Main Street Region, the bread shop above the red wolf statue is opened by my mother. You can find me when you have any needs, and please let me in on any good missions as well. However, I think I will get scolded when I go back as well. My mum doesn’t like me being hired as a Luminarist…"

Garen started laughing as himself as the other three had finished their sentences.

"I am currently considered as a free man since my parents are overseas at the moment. I plan to travel around for a bit. I’m staying in a hotel at the moment. Let’s leave this place while we talk since all of us are planning to go back."

"Fine." "Alright."

The four of them wanted a stamp on their mission list as a personal validification from the Marshall Squad’s leader Jefferson. After that, they quickly went back to the Luminarist’s hiring guild in Iron Tank City.

Under the effect of Jefferson’s stamp, the mission was reevaluated to an active mission, which was a grade higher than the investigative mission that was originally given. They had obtained a total of fifty thousand silver rumbs.

They split the reward into five portions. Since Garen had managed to lure away a second form totem user, the other three insisted on giving him two portions worth of the reward, which was twenty thousand.

After a little bit of dispute, Garen didn’t argue any further and accepted the twenty thousand rumbs.

It was considered a huge sum for him currently.

It’s way too easy to earn money as a capable Luminarist.

The four of them parted ways after dividing the money. Goth and the other two went home since they were locals, whereas Garen, as an outsider could only stay in a hotel.

He was travelling alone for a while at the outskirts of the city.

The current situation had started to become slightly chaotic.

In the past, Luminarists existed far away from the civilizations. However, due to the outburst of conflicts between the Luminarists among the commoners, rumors regarding the Luminarists had started to spread in the commoner’s world.

The commoners had started to grow accustomed to the word Luminarist, or the specialised totem users.

The chaotic news kept spreading throughout the RAL via newspaper. The blue birds that were used to sent mails through the sky were consistently spread about in the sky. These types of blue pigeons possessed incredible speed and endurance. With its small and compact body, it could fly over ten thousand kilometers in a day. They were evolved from the falcon by the Luminarists via the second form support totem.

No matter how far away the recipient was, the news would definitely reach them within a week.

Garen bought a few pieces of newspaper on the street, and he noticed the news regarding the turmoil had started to gain traction. There were discussions regarding the duration, scope, degree and ultimate beneficiaries of the unrest everywhere.

As of now, no one had really realized the horror of this upcoming chaos.

After hanging around by the outskirts for some time, Garen started to enter the Iron Tank City.

The Iron Tank City was a big open style city. There were no walls covering the city and the buildings were densely packed from the inner perimeter to the outer circle. From a bird’s eye view, the city looked like a giant grey circle.

The buildings inside were either white or grey in color. This was to reflect enough sunlight away from the city to reduce the amount of heat energy.

Garen entered the city via the famed, half open city wall which could be found everywhre. There were stores selling snacks and fruits at both sides of the city gate. Garen bought a small fruit that resembled the roxburgh rose fruit, and ate it while he walked around.