Mystical Journey

Ding.

Garen placed the forceps back into the glass bottle gently.

He looked at the oval-shaped silver pauldron in front of him, and exhaled slightly.

He picked up a piece of white cloth from the side and gently wiped some stains off the surface of the pauldron.

"There are some defects apparently…" He furrowed his eyebrows and murmured softly. "The roots of the Green Vine Sphere can only support fifty-three divisions of Zibane Power. It can only forge fifty-three sets of weapons or armor to be made into Totems. No wonder… No wonder there were only two hundred Black Fire Guards. This was also the best result that could be obtained when Avic integrated his cutting-edge technology carefully. Nearly four times of increment would be enough to frighten most people."

"Two hundred Black Fire Guards, giving up their control would mean obtaining two hundred sets of Black Fire armor. It would grant normal people Totem Power traits. This was the foundation, and geniuses with strong wills and strong bodies would be able to truly activate the Black Fire Armor."

Garen picked up the pauldron in front of him, and illuminated the surface carefully, as many faint silver dots began to light up on it, showing the characteristics of Zibane Power after its activation.

"Zibane Power requires strong to reach activation; the stronger the will, the greater the power that can be controlled, allowing Zibane’s activation to become stronger, thus strengthening its infectiousness as well. This beneficial cycle made it like a seed, the more substances it absorbed from the outside, the stronger its main body and armor would become."

He put the pauldron down.

"Avic gave up on this potential, and used the absolute loyalty of the corpse-like Black Fire Guards instead. But this kind of power was ultimately too small." Garen shook his head. "If those with weak wills received the armor, they would be swallowed by the Zibane Power in the end, turning into the living dead. They would lose their whole personality. This thing seems to be extremely dangerous."

He began to think about ways to solve this danger, and after some thinking, he thought of more than ten plans, but still had no clue. Vanderman had researched this level for many years, but had yet to find a conclusion. The people in the Royal Alliance had no conclusions either, thus it was natural for him to not be able to even touch the sidelines when he was working alone.

"No matter, to gain power, one must surely be aware that a price must be paid in exchange." Garen exhaled.

To gain two hundred sets of heavy Black Fire armor would mean that two hundred people would have to be chosen as the carriers of the heavy black armor, to walk on the path towards strengthening oneself.

In other words, Garen would not be able to ultimately command these people. He only had the right to recover the Zibane Power, but if someone was strengthened to a powerful degree, even if the strength was recovered, his power would still remain. The physical characteristics that were altered by Zibane would not change.

It meant that even if more than half of the strength was recovered, it would still remain.

This way, his control of his subordinates would not be as tight anymore.

But Garen was unconcerned.

The only thing that he wanted was power, and strength that was sufficient enough. Whether or not he could grasp it, depended on his own abilities.

Bang bang bang.

Suddenly, a series of rhythmic door-knocking noises broke his train of thought.

"What’s the matter?"

He asked in a slightly impatient manner.

"P… Palace Master, there’s a group of people… They’re carrying a heavily injured woman, and are here to see you, saying that they’re your old friends," said the servant girl in a loud but shivering voice.

"Old friends?" Garen closed his eyes and converged his thoughts. He pulled the curtains on the right closed.

He walked towards the doorway and opened the main door. Outside the door stood a servant girl with shivering legs, she was extremely pale, and did not dare to raise her head. It was obvious that this girl had just entered the palace, and did not seem older than eleven or twelve years old.

Garen opened the door and eyed the girl carefully. He was about to speak.

"Don’t… Don’t eat me!!" The little girl was frightened to the point where she sat on the floor. "Palace Master… I beg you, I was wrong! I’ve learnt my lesson!! I’ll never do it again!!"

Garen’s had a blank expression on his face, he was merely surprised at the rare arrival of a new servant girl at the Black Fire Palace, and when the time he took to size her up increased slightly, he had frightened her to this degree. He assumed that this girl thought that his curious gaze was actually him deciding on which part of her flesh he would like to devour first.

This girl seemed like she was used to getting bullied, and would frantically admit to her wrongdoings before the situation cleared up.

"Damn, those rumors will be the death of me!" he cursed softly.

"Take me there!" A noise echoed behind the little servant girl instantly.

The little girl got up from the floor quickly and ran inside the palace with Garen while her whole body was still shivering.

Garen followed closely behind her silently.

At the side of the Black Fire Palace hall, the girl dragged Garen behind her, before disappearing in a puff of smoke as she ran.

Garen was not the only one who was speechless, as the people in the palace hall were speechless as well.

There were a boy and girl in black clothes, who both had white leopard heads printed on the arm sleeves of their clothes.

They were led by a young boy and girl, and beside them on the floor, lying on a simple stretcher, was a pale yellow woman in a coma.

Garen glanced over, and was suddenly startled.

"Angel?!"

He recognized the woman on the stretcher as Angel, the female fugitive he had met in Iron Tank City.

She had once given him some raw material supplies in either the Kingdom or Trejons territory.

"How has she become like this?!" Garen walked over frantically and knelt beside the stretcher, before checking Angel’s condition carefully.

This allowed the group of people to let out a sigh of relief suddenly, while their initially frightened faces also began to look much better.

"So it’s true that the Palace Master knows Teacher!" said the young man that led the way, or perhaps the young boy, as he stepped forward immediately. "We’re from the Black Panther Mercenary Group, and Commander Angel is our teacher. I’m Gracie, and she’s Hill."

His upper lip had a soft, faint green mustache, he had short brown hair, and he could be no older than eighteen years old, but his face had a certain childlike perseverance and paleness. It seemed like he had lost a lot of blood as well. Currently, the boy was looking at Garen frantically.

"I’m begging you, please, please save Teacher!" The girl who was standing on the side had a red ponytail, and was crying terribly, and could not help but plead Garen. "We’ve thought of everything, and tried all kinds of medicine! All of the hospitals said that there was no cure."

"Stop crying! How can I save her if you don’t tell me the whole situation?!" Garen looked towards the boy, Gracie, who appeared much calmer. "You, tell me!"

The boy nodded solemnly.

"Teacher went out last month, and I heard that she had planned to go out with some of her old friends to do something, but I never expected that when she returned two days ago, that she would collapse suddenly, and become unconscious. We initially thought that she had been poisoned, but all the hospitals and Luminarists did not detect as much. After that, we assumed that her brain had suffered injuries, so we hired the best brain disease curing Luminarists, but to no avail. They could not detect any wounds."

"What did Angel say before she fainted? Did she allow you to come find me?" Garen asked softly.

"Teacher didn’t say anything, she just looked exhausted, as if she hadn’t had proper rest for many days." The boy shook his head. "As for coming to look for you, Palace Master, Teacher had never mentioned this. We only heard from our seniors in the group that Teacher and Palace Master used to be friends. Since we had no other options, we decided to come and beg you."

"You did well." Garen patted the boy’s shoulder. "Calm in moments of danger, very good!"

He bowed his head to check on Angel’s condition again.

Angel, who used to be curvaceous, was now a skinny bag of bones. Her blood flow was not unusual, and her body did not have any traces of poison, while her brain remained in a sleeping state, a sign that everything was normal.

"Oh no, this person is about to die," Kid’s voice suddenly trailed out from behind Garen.

"Do you know what’s wrong?" Garen was used to Kid’s elusive manner, and he did not even turn his head to ask.

Meanwhile the others were frightened to the point where they moved away, and some of the easily scared members swallowed their saliva, as they glared at Kid with a shocked expression.

Kid was sucking on a lollipop as he crouched beside the stretcher like Garen, while both of his hands shook aimlessly, waving around.

He furrowed his eyebrows and touched Angel’s forehead.

"She’s having a nightmare," He said certainly after a few seconds.

"Having a nightmare? You’re saying that someone pulled her into a nightmare, and now she can’t wake up?" Garen asked.

"Perhaps. Someone planted a seed on her that induces nightmares. She failed to realise it, and then fell right into the dream," Kid shrugged, a mature expression on his face.

"How do we solve this? Garen asked directly.

"It’s simple, we just need to get rid of the nightmare seed, however, most of these seeds will naturally hide themselves in her most private areas," Kid pursed his lips. "We’ll just have to see which of you can find it."

"Get rid of the nightmare seed?" Garen stood up and pondered. "I’ll do it."

"What are you planning to do?" Kid looked at Garen curiously. "If the seed has burrowed itself in her most intimate parts, you’ll be responsible."

"It won’t be that troublesome," Garen said nonchalantly.

His toes raised themselves, and the crowd cried in shock when Angel who was on the stretcher earlier was suddenly lifted up in the blink of an eye, and began constantly turning around in midair.

It was as if she was suddenly suspended in front of Garen.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh… The violent flipping of her body caused blowing wind noises to be heard.

Bang!

Garen slapped his palm against Angel’s shoulder suddenly. He instantly held her in place, clutching her in midair.

Bang bang bang!!

Endless slapping noises could be heard between the two of them continuously.

Garen’s palms slapped the unimportant parts of Angel’s body.

Each slap made Angel’s whole body shake, and some tiny, loose objects immediately fell off her body, and flew towards all four corners of the room.

This was one of the higher level skills of the Secret Techniques, Shake.

Using it here, with some added tricks, was just enough to shake all of the hidden things loose.

In the Secret Technique World, it was used to get rid of the hidden weapons and poisonous darts that were left in the dead soldiers, but was also extremely suitable for Garen to use here.

Soon, the objects that were shaken out lessened, and her outer clothes had almost fallen off as well.

Plop!

A purple dot fell suddenly fell out of the bottom of Angel’s shirt.

Bang!

Garen used both of his palms to support her, before carefully placing Angel back on the stretcher, with incomparably gentle strength. He showed extreme and precise control over his power.

"This is it."

Kid picked up the little purple dot, and saw that it was obviously an oval-shaped plant seed that looked like a soybean, except that its colour was different.

Garen and the others looked at Angel, noticing that her complexion had improved. She did not look as haggard as before.

Kid held the seed, wiped it on his shirt, and put it in his mouth instantly.

Crunch!

"Seems like something weird is flowing out, but it doesn’t matter, I’ll just chew it up." He chewed it for a few moments, before the sound of something falling could be heard, and swallowed it.

A group of people including Garen, immediately stared at him silently.

"You’re… alright??!" The red-haired girl stared at Kid with a shocked look on her face.

"Yes, I’m alright?" Kid rummaged his pockets, and took out a handful of purple seeds immediately. "I still have some, do you want any? They taste pretty good."

The others around him stood dumbfounded.