Mystical Journey

Black wind started to blow, drawing black streaks across the air. These lines caressed his face as they blew past.

The dark green field was opened up, either revealing black dirt underneath or pushing all the fresh blood and limbs to the side. There even were some Black Knights and horses left that were squirming around on the ground in pain.

"Don't force my hand!!" The circles in the Cthulhu king's eyes rotated faster, as the saturated red light started to spread to his surroundings. Red cracks started appearing all over his body, as if lava were about to implode from within.

The ground started to tremble…

With Cthulhu King as the epicenter, a humongous, bloody mask slowly appeared.

It had no eyes, its lips were elongated and had no expression. The giant mask was facing the horrifying black smoke dragon head in the sky, and both of them were at least forty meters long.

The four Demon Phoenix on one side looked at the situation from afar, and the Demon Phoenix's mouth curled into an 'O' of awestruck horror.

"Even Osaka from before wasn't this crazy…" A voice of a woman in purple armor trembled.

What they were looking at had broken the limits of the human realm, and transcended into a world that was totally that of ordinary mortals.

The four of them felt the black smoke blowing towards them in the wind, and had no choice but to retreat a few meters away before they could stand firmly again, hiding beside a black pillar. It was then that they were able to properly assess the situation.

The Black Knights and flying dragons were all but eradicated.

The golden rays that rained down from a giant crack in the sky-filled cloud were just slightly larger than the black dragon head and the bloody masked man that were facing each other.

The black smoke and red light interacted with each other within a few hundred meters, but it was obvious that the red light was lacking strength.

"Are you willing to give up this body?" The black dragon head in the sky spoke calmly. A faint growl of a dragon could be heard within his voice, emanating an almost tangible fear and pressure.

The Cthulhu King stood at the bottom, staring at the dragon head coldly. After some time, the lava-like cracks on his body slowly dimmed and disappeared. The bloody mask gradually followed suit.

"You win this time! Just tell me what you want!"

"Let me enter your Secret Technique vault." Without any hesitation, Garen conveyed the demand he had already decided beforehand. Cthulhu's Origins could be exchanged with

Glittering Water, but Secret Techniques, especially the ones in this world, were even more valuable.

He was able to pull ahead of the Cthulhu King as he relied on the Nine-Headed Hydra's incredible recovery rate and the Nine-life Talent mixed together with his potential points.

However, the difference in Secret Technique was too far apart.

Without the additional support from the potential points, a totem user would be completely defenseless against the Cthulhu King, and would have been killed by him in a matter of seconds.

This world was partially separated into ancient ruins and human creations. The Cthulhu King, who stood at the world's pinnacle for thousands of years, must have collected a tremendous amount of Secret Techniques that could only be the best in this world.

"Secret Technique vault?" The Cthulhu King hadn't expected his opponent to demand such a request. He was more or less afraid of Garen; he couldn't kill this guy or run away from him.

As he fought him throughout the battle, he, who had been underestimating him, and started to view him as an equal in combat.

He found it strange that even though the Nine-Headed Hydra had incredible healing capabilities and the ability to substitute death with a dragon head, the ability he had was way too extreme. According to the prediction model of the Forger, its potential should be about nine lives, and Garen had died 9 times during the battle against him…

He decided that he had to research the Nine-Headed Hydra's source of energy in detail once he went back. He had lost so much during this battle.

"It works best with a Secret Technique that suits you. It would be pointless to learn other

Secret Techniques. Are you sure this is what you want?" He started to feel suspicious as he stared at Garen, trying to understand his thinking.

"This is my demand." Garen didn't want to offend him since the Cthulhu King was only teaming up with the Obscuro Society temporarily. Once Hellgate was born, they planned to dispose of the Cthulhu King.

"Secret Techniques are one of the main pillars of requirement in entering form five, it might too late for you to change one now." Cthulhu King suspected that he was trying to change his Secret Technique, as his was of too low level. However, they were at a level where everything revolved around on their Secret Techniques, including the merging of totems and evolution of their bodies. The Secret Techniques were the foundation of everything. It would be impossible to change the Secret Technique now, unless he planned to throw everything away and learn from scratch.

"That's fine, I just want them for reference." Garen didn't mind at all.

"Fine." Since there was a great disparity in their strength, the Cthulhu King didn't deny his request.

Huu…

The black smoke disappeared as the black dragon head slowly dissolved into black clouds and moved to the center, converging into a muscular person.

Golden hair appeared, and the smoke turned into a black cloud carrying a slowly descending figure.

He landed on the ground.

Garen looked around before he fixed his attention onto the Cthulhu King.

The opposing party sat on the ground and crossed his legs. The circles in his eyes slowed down, turned faint and disappeared.

Garen sat down as well, and both of them didn't say a word for some time. There were about ten meters apart from each other.

"Don't worry. As the leader of a society, my words carry the same weight."

The Cthulhu King formed a red screen with one hand and used the other hand as a pencil, writing something on it at great speed.

"At our level, other Secret Techniques don't matter much anymore. No matter how good of a secret technique or totem you possess, it was naught but a good starting point. To us, we have already reached the summit."

In that instance, he had written down a simple paragraph of Secret Techniques with thousands of words. As a talented totem user who stood at the pinnacle of the world, it was natural that his tactic and hand speed were at the top as well. He waved his hand three times each second and three words appeared. His speed of writing far surpassed a typical person.

He gently flicked his finger and the red screen flew towards Garen like a piece of paper.

Slam!

Garen captured the screen with one hand and glanced at it.

He had memorized everything written on it clearly, and his brain started to analyze the legitimacy of the content at great speed for any fundamental flaws in it.

He had obtained a lot of knowledge of the Secret Techniques from the previous world, and he determined, rather easily, that this Secret Technique was not a fake. However, his opponent was also a master in Secret Techniques, who had accumulated so much for so many years. It was laughably easy for him. The Cthulhu King, who was naturally gifted, could easily fake the contents if he wanted to.

At this level, Garen didn't have any trust in his past knowledge, as the men he dealt with were all gifted elites who had lived for many years.

He knew that, if not for these gifted abilities and attribute points, he would not be able to fight against these men. He originally was just a commoner with little capability.

This Secret Technique, Mountain Wheels, was obviously the original version from the ancient ruins. It had a total of three grades, and the highest grade had the strength similar to the peak of a form five. It seemed that it was his best Secret Technique, and this gave Garen a surge of thoughts and inspiration.

"Secret Techniques can be categorized into modern secret techniques and Ancient Endor's Secret Techniques." The Cthulhu King spoke, "This is one of the Secret Techniques that I referred to when I create the Sun-Sealing Demonic Wheel. I'll pass this to you first."

Garen nodded and crushed the red screen with his hand once he memorized the its contents.

The Cthulhu King hesitated for a moment but continued. "Have you heard of the divides between Secret Techniques?"

"Let's hear it." Garen glanced at the Demon Phoenix who wasn't far from them. She and her party popped their heads out from behind of the black stone pillar and didn't dare come closer.

The Cthulhu King's voice suddenly turned sharp, and only a faint sound traveled directly into

Garen's ear. He was using a combination of a form five Secret Technique's sleight of hand.

Garen had already learned this in the Secret Technique World, called Needle Voice.

"The Secret Techniques are separated into two types, living and dead."

"Living and dead?" Garen was curious. "Secret Techniques can be categorized into live and dead ones?"

"Of course." The Cthulhu King nodded. "The Secret Techniques we learn are called Dead

Secret Techniques. This death doesn't imply death in being alive or dead, but the nature of the Secret technique." He paused for a moment and continued. "Death means that it will never change nor evolve. These kind of Secret Techniques are like a frame. Those who suit it can learn it to a higher level; those who aren't suitable to it can never master it no matter how gifted they are. It already has a specific direction and can never change."

"Then, that means that the Living Secret Technique…?"

"That's correct. The living secret technique has incredible tolerance and adaptability. It is just a foundation, but this foundation is alive. It has multiple directions and suits multiple types of people to learn. The Secret Technique would evolve to adapt the learner's nature as they dive deeper." The Cthulhu King said calmly. "Hence, this kind of Secret Techniques are alive and grow over time. These are a cut above the rest."

Garen's expression changed slightly. He hadn't even heard of such Secret Technique in the world of Secret Techniques. The world the strong ones he interacted with was definitely different.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"I have discovered that one out of four ancient ruins have Living Secret Techniques. There are three portions, and I can feel that one of them possesses cold type attributes. Although it's not so suitable for your water-based strength, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Are you interested?"

"Living Secret Technique…" Garen closed his eyes, as he knew that the opponent definitely had some motives in mind, but then again this opportunity was very hard to reject. "Why are you looking for me? Can't you obtain it with your Cthulhuism Society's strength?"

"There are people from the Western Continent vying for it as well. I am not confident alone."

The Cthulhu King squinted his eyes and said softly. "The Living Secret Technique isn't something anyone can learn. It's much more complicated to reach the peak compared to a Dead Secret Technique. It can't be helped if one is not compatible with it. You have to think this through. Once you've missed this opportunity, you won't know how long it will take for you to find a compatible one after this."

Garen was silent.

The opponent he would face was definitely on the same class as Cthulhu King, if even he needed help. In this period where Hellgate was about to reborn, he wasn't planning on finding more things to do.

He also had to find some time to send messages to the Hawk King Goth and Teacher Emin, so that they would enter the Ultimate Protection if things went sour. It would be a completely wasted effort, though, with Goth's personality.

During this period… But that Living Secret Technique is indeed very tempting.

"One of the major special characteristics of the Living Secret Techniques is its ability to adapt and grow. Only those who are suitable to it can create their own Secret Technique. It will then become the seed of the formation of totem strength. We believe that perhaps this kind of strength is the only thing that can further improve beings like ourselves."

The Cthulhu King opened his mouth once more. "Back then when the Hellgate of the Obscuro Society found a Living Secret Technique that is compatible with him, he shut himself away from the rest of the world to master it."