Mystical Journey

"Yes, you just need a little bit of this type of metal in order to corrode any part or organ of any creature’s body. It will produce a special type of secreted substance that, once filled inside the creature’s body, will give it a terrifying nature that allows it to counter the Totem Light. It would be similar to making water into a type of ice that could be compared to steel. With the emergence of this strange and powerful transformation ability, you could only imagine the excitement on the faces of the expert researchers. This is truly a discovery that will transcend time and eras!" said the silver-faced man, shaking his head. "As for how the crystal derivator came into being, we used the resonance technique that we had perfected much earlier, and coordinated it with this type of creature-corroding black copper, to forge the current crystal derivator known by everyone. However, during the last stage of the experiment, an accident occurred."

Garen looked at him silently, waiting for his next sentence.

"The accident was uncovered by an unknown, ordinary researcher. He realised a terrifying truth about the black copper. This strange metal was apparently allowing monsters that it had corroded to naturally evolve themselves! Once he had observed the incident and confirmed his suspicions, the black copper seemed to have a sense of awareness, and once it had noticed that it had been found out, proceeded to suddenly hurry up the evolution process. When the researcher raised the alarm, the other Totem users on stand-by rushed over, but it was too late by then. The monsters that had been successfully evolved has grasped a strength that surpassed the base’s control, and they ended up massacring twenty-five Obscuro base strongholds. A large number of the monsters fled the base, because we were unable to control them at all."

"Does this mean that, the release of the Aberration monsters this time, was not let out intentionally as part of the idea that you announced to return the world back to its right state? Instead, this incident, from beginning to the end, was just an accident?" Garen asked in a serious tone.

"It’s exactly as you said," answered the silver-faced man feebly. "Thus, the current situation is completely out of our control by now. A lot of areas have suddenly experienced sightings of unknown powerful monsters and strange phenomena that they’ve never seen before. We are unsure of the current occurrences, and all the surviving researchers are working hard in their research. In the end, they came up with a terrifying conclusion that the black copper contained an activated life force, and seemed to be rapidly changing the natural circulation system of the world. They brought up a frightening proportional formula, the Buffett formula. Every time it forged a black copper-polluted creature, it would simultaneously release enough influence to aberrate five other creatures of the same form. Once everyone had calculated the model, they came up with this growth formula, and although there was a complicated process in the middle, the conclusion was as such."

"Even though we already knew this, we could help but constantly attempt to create a power of our own. Once the black copper’s polluted corrosion became even stronger, to the point where even advanced Totem evolutions were beginning to appear, natural Aberration creatures of the same advanced level began appearing on Earth, and once we noticed this, the natural Aberration creatures had already evolved at a faster speed than our own, and we lost all control of the situation. Some of the monsters had even evolved to a stage that even we were unable to derive."

"Then were there any appearances of monsters that did not seem abnormal but were actually unusually strong?" Garen asked again.

"There definitely were, but these phenomena would only occur a short while after the situation was out of our control. The Obscuro researchers realised that the new natural circulation systems built by the black copper in a short span of time were difficult to differentiate in many places, and resulted in many incomprehensible natural phenomena occurring in many places, such as the music in the pumpkin farm." The silver-faced man was well-versed in professional knowledge, and the clarity of his explanations were far superior to than Reylan previously.

"So where can this type of black copper be found?" Garen suddenly gained an interest in the source of this metal.

"The crystal derivators have a small amount of black copper dissolved inside them, but if you’re thinking of obtaining the exact type of metal from its source, you need to go to Obscuro. This type of metal is highly controlled by them, because every time a monster is forged, there is a chance that it will cause five more to be naturally aberrated. It is similar to the Poisonous Dove Flower, it only needs to happen once, before it will happen the second time, and the third, before it becomes deep-rooted inside, and inextricable. In order to counter the unimaginably powerful Royal Alliance of Luminarists, we had no other choice. The Elder Parliament of the Royal Alliance of Luminarists commanded the three departments, and was a long-time established organization that had not been changed in the last thousand years. If the deviated monsters had not pinned the Elder Parliament down, the three departments would have focused most of their concentration on the monsters, and we would not have as much time to layout our plans calmy, or even develop our own strength.

Garen heard a new term once again.

"What kind of organization is the Elder Parliament?" According to his previous history, he had never known about the existence of such an organization before.

"It’s the highest decision-making organization in the Royal Alliance of Luminarists, and also the strongest existing group in the Alliance as well. They were a huge shadow that shrouded over both the East Continent and the West Continent for over a thousand years, and every change that occurred never failed to be part of their behind-the-scenes plan. The three departments of the Royal Alliance of Luminarists were originally loose organizations, and if they were not combined by Elder Parliament, they would not have become an organization like the three departments, as each individual country would have wanted their own way, thus causing mutual conquests," said the silver-faced man as he glanced at Garen with a surprised look. "I assume that the time you’ve spent in the three departments has been too short. The higher level ones, and the ones with more qualifications all have an opportunity to participate in the department’s arbitration assembly which is held every twenty years, to ensure that the attitudes and wrongdoings of each country is dealt with in a balanced and correct manner. This is to prevent the abuse of power in the Royal Alliance of Luminarists."

"Then why have I not come across anyone from the Elder Parliament that you spoke of earlier? Don’t tell me that so many powerful individuals just disappeared without a trace like that?" asked Garen in a surprised tone. "Why hasn’t there been any trace of them even after such large-scale incidents?"

"Everything was underground. The strongest monsters were always lurking underground, and were endlessly evolving. The West Farm defense line that they created was an underground defense line that extended above ground. If that wasn’t the case, do you think that the Totem users and their manpower would have been able to resist the monster’s invasion? Initially, Obscuro was able to defeat even the strongest Elemental Generals. But once the monsters rushed underground into the human cities, the consequences were disastrous. If we Obscuros did not hide ourselves deep inside enough, and well-concealed enough, we would have been killed by the monsters long ago."

Garen felt that he had grasped a better understanding of the situation now. Initially, he was uncertain because even though the Royal Alliance of Luminarists did not seem exceptionally strong, the Obscuro Society was still afraid to face them directly, and only dared to attack them secretly from underground instead. Now he knew that it was because the Elder Parliament had always been watching from afar.

"Come with me, we’ll go in and take a look." Garen pondered for awhile, before turning his head upwards and looking at the large library building in front of him.

The silver-faced man smiled bitterly but remained silent, because he knew that this was an order and not a request. After he drank the recovery drug earlier, he was now slightly better and had managed to stand up. The white coloured Totem Light on his body had lit up once again, and was a sign that the recovery drug had an effect on the Totem Light.

Garen lead the way and walked inside the main door of the library.

From outside, he could see that the rows of thin, straight windows in the library were all broken, and a few broken pieces of glass remained on the window sill. Only a part of the main door was left in the doorway, while the other half had been bitten off by something unknown, exposing the rough black coloured metallic section inside.

As he walked inside through the main door, the morning’s pale gold light beams glittered in from the window on the left side and fell on the floor, causing the floating dust in the air to be seen vaguely.

The ground was littered with broken benches, and the black marble floor was filled was cracked and filled with rubble. There were also a few large pits that were over a meter deep, and the inside resembled magma-like honeycomb that had been melted and condensed again.

In the middle of the hall stood a large silver sphere. The sphere had a diameter of over two meters, and was propped upwards by a thick white pillar below it.

The entire surface of the sphere was covered in multicoloured handwritten words, as if they were messages that people from the past had left behind.

Garen evaded the deep pit carefully, and walked towards the big sphere that was in front of him.

He stroked the various writings on the sphere gingerly and noticed that the words were written in language that he could not understand, which were probably the specialized language of this little country.

Garen looked for a while, but could not find a message he could understand.

After looking for a while, he gave up, and returned his hands to his sides, before suddenly realising that his own fingers were now covered in a thin layer of black dust. The dust seemed to have some corrosive properties, causing Garen’s fingers to hurt slightly.

He had released his Totem Light earlier, but apparently there were still poisonous substances that could come into contact with his skin without his permission?

It was important to note that the Totem Light was connected to one’s consciousness. When the outside world contained substances that could potentially harm one’s body, it would automatically filter out the harmful substance. The same principle was used against its enemies, because once it noticed an enemy that harboured hostility towards itself, the Totem Light would produce defensive measures.

This acted as an exterior skin-like layer that would sense whether the substances from the outside world would harm its main body. It was immediate and connected to one’s consciousness, and possessed an independent judgement system.

During the stages where the Forgers and Luminarists were first forging their Totems, it would first find a way to move the core inside. This was the foundation of building Primitive Totems. Once the Core Totems were formed, it would then enable the core component ability.

Meanwhile, there were currently substances that were able to break through this layer of decision-type defense, and had injured Garen’s skin. This was somewhat incomprehensible to Garen. Although he had not learned a lot of things from Teacher Emin, fortunately he was a legitimate Luminarist by birth, and was very clear about certain basic principles.

He began to ponder deeply.

Bang!!

Suddenly, a dull noise echoed from the right.

Garen glanced towards the side, slightly shaken suddenly.

He could see a strong-looking black horse that was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes.

The black horse had a mane like a male lion that it flipped around constantly. It’s whole body was incomparably black, with no trace of variation. From head to toe, it seemed like he could vaguely see the bright, black gloss reflecting off it.

The strangest part was that the bottom half of the black horse was not made up of flesh and blood, but was a large black paint covered horse carriage instead.

The bottom half of the horse had a black carriage growing out of it directly. It had no hind legs, but in its place were two large black wheels that were attached to the carriage.

Tch!!

The black horse exhaled a large gust of air from its nostrils angrily towards the ground, blowing up a large pile of gravel and dust.

The moment Garen laid eyes on the black horse carriage, he was frozen in place.

"This is… could it really be…??!!" His mind suddenly remembered a name that he had once seen before.

"It’s here again!!" The silver-faced man suddenly shouted behind him, and immediately hid behind Garen’s back, as an unusually scared expression appeared on his face.

"Is he very strong?" Garen asked in a serious tone.

"Incredibly strong, and deviantly so!!" exclaimed the silver-faced man. "I absolutely cannot defeat it! It can only attack me!" Once he thought of the earlier situation, his heart began to thump inside his chest. The speed of this black horse was not exceptionally fast, but it could move in the blink of an eye, and could also any type of substantial object. Also, when it truly wanted to strike its enemies, it would produce truly high-impact damages. It will definitely very strange.

"I never thought that something like this would still exist…" Garen knew that this was not a mere coincidence. "I should have thought of this earlier. To think that there would still be such a thing…"