Mystical Journey

With a swift motion, he caught the three black needles with his bare hand.

Boom!!

She saw that Acacia’s golden eyes were fused with a faint red color, as she felt two big hands silently placed onto her chest.

There was no sound of impact, only that her mind was sent to a chaotic state. It was as if her body was hit by a big vibration and lost her balance as a result of losing almost all her strength.

Diaz could do nothing but to watch herself falling into the pond, back towards the ground.

Splash!

Garen stood at the edge of the cliff and threw the three black needles with his left hand. At the same time, he jumped and went after Diaz who was falling into the pond.

"You bastard!!" Diaz wanted to scream but she was interrupted by the three black needles that were fast approaching, followed closely by a black figure from above.

As she looked up, she saw Garen fast approaching with a cold expression. The frail and fragile look that he had earlier had completely disintegrated. The gaze sent a shiver down her spine. This fellow had hidden too much of his strength! No! She had to report this intel immediately!

"Three Leap!!" She stomped with all of her strength and went after Garen, leaving behind a hemispherical wave behind her. She was like an arrow flying up from the pond. She stomped on the water three times, increasing her speed with each stomp and reached the edge of the pond in no time.

She was not an expert in fighting on the water or fighting in close range. In addition, she had been hit by his palm and her body was still numb from it, resulting her being unable to exert any force. She could only muster half of Three Leap’s strength and speed, which was one of her proudest skills. This made her feel fear and aggrieved.

"When I recover…!!"

As she was about to utter a vengeful statement, an intense strength came from behind her silently.

"Myriad Water Jasper Technique!!"

Garen attacked Diaz’s back with his glowing blue hands, and the ear splitting sound of waves followed suit.

All his might merged as one and released a sound that resembled a tsunami. The horrifying strength had formed countless of small vortices and landed onto Diaz.

Boom!

Fresh blood came out from Diaz’s mouth. Blood could be seen everywhere, as if water was leaking from a water bottle. She limped a few steps and turned her head around.

"You…!!"

Garen walked up to her and kicked her. She was sent flying and landed hard on a green stone before falling to the ground. The total count of broken bones that accompanied the sound of snapping and breaking from her body was unclear.

"Any last words?"

"I… I…" Diaz tried to open her mouth with all of her might, but her mouth was completely filled with blood, and anything that came out from her mouth was completely unintelligible.

Garen squat down, picked up one of the black needles that was scattered on the ground, and gently took aim at the center of her head.

"Good bye."

Pew!

Diaz shivered as despair could be seen in her eyes. Her body started to tremble greatly. After a few moments, her trembling subsided and became weaker, eventually coming to a complete stop after a minute.

Garen stood up and brushed off the dirts and dust that was on his body. His casual clothes, which was originally white, had turned green.

"This is embarrassing." He sighed as he started to examine the traces he had left behind.

His footprints, special effects that was caused by the fist technique and the remaining clues that could possibly reveal his strength were completely cleaned up.

"This person that was sent to probe us by Aquarius… Diaz… I’ve seen this person in the images…" He looked at Diaz’s corpse as he vaguely found this person in his memories.

He sorted out the major keys and main events related to Vanderman that occurred in this time frame, which was about the overall events within the next 2 years.

"This person should have appeared two months later. Why is she here?" His started to frown slightly. "If I hadn’ ambushed her, I would have been in grave danger if she were to pull some distance between us and attack from afar with her longbow." Afterall, he had yet to reach General-level.

After ensuring that there were no strange noises from the surroundings, he squatted down and took off the longbow and arrows from the corpse. He then started fumbling around the corpse, and found a small brown pouch and some spare change.

He poured out whatever was inside the pouch onto the ground, and what came out were some pink pills and a stack of white long cotton cloth.

"What is this?" Garen picked up the cotton cloth and examine it carefully. He could faintly see a line of word saying: ‘It’s a relief to have Masona.’

There was another short sentence below: ‘With the Masona pad, you can move about freely.’

Garen immediately knew what it was and threw away the pad.

The pink circular pills were very tiny. On the surface were the words printed ‘AD’

"This is…" Garen seemed to have thought of something. "This might be useful."

He kept the the pills and picked up a tree branch filled with leaves. He started to wipe of his foot prints as he walked, and swiftly left the pond area.

He went back to where Ulun was. Initially, he hid himself carefully. Upon realizing that there were no blue-scaled snakes, he quickly rushed towards Ulun’s side. Surprisingly, his loyal subject was alive. He had a hole in his head and was bleeding profusely.

Garen took out the pink pills and crushed it into a powder. He then rubbed it onto the wound and applied pressure onto it.

After a while the wound stopped bleeding.

Ulun started to wake up from being unconscious.

"Mas...ter, are you still alive?"

"Someone saved me. Let’s not talk about this and leave this area first!" Garen acted as if he had yet to calm down.

"Al..alright."

Ulun’s injury wasn’t dire as he only lost too much blood from the bleeding. The bloodstain that was on his body would have shocked anyone. Although faltered as he walked, it didn’t really affect him much at all.

As the two of them went back to the horse carriage, they saw the driver laying down on a pool of his own blood with an arrow stuck in his neck. The two horses ran off with the carriages about ten meters away and were stuck in between two trees.

Garen and Ulun got up the carriage and swiftly went back to the manor.

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

There was an uproar in the whole manor when the news of Acacia being ambushed spread.

Angered, Vanderman sent out all of his forces to the Black Flower Mountain to search for any clues for two days, but to no avail. The corpse of the female assassin was dragged off by the wolves to an unknown place, and what could only be found was the trace of the battle near the pond.

Due to this incident, Acacia was grounded and could not leave the manor.

Vanderman had gone out for some reason unknown to Acacia. However, judging from the look of his face when he went out, he obviously was not out for vacation.

Garen took this opportunity to stay in the manor and study the handbook on a daily basis. He also trained his physical body in the hope that he would recover as soon as possible and raise his Precision Blueprint to the Intermediate-level.

As his physical body kept recovering, his learning pace had started to become faster as well. The requirement needed for the Intermediate-level was a matter of time.

He was able to attack the without any pause. The surprise attack to stun the enemy, and Myriad Water Jasper Technique as the finishing blow.

He obtained Myriad Water Jasper Technique from Celine, and it was very suitable to use it during an ambush. Furthermore, it didn’t put a lot of strain onto the user’s body. The only downside of this technique was that it wasn’t lethal, and would be ineffective against a master. However, it seemed to be rather effective towards the General-levels of this world.

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

In the certain part of the manor, there was a sea of bright red roses.

A girl in a tight short skirt and a green mask was standing in the center of the rose field, cutting off the branches with care. There was a girl in a green shirt reporting the situation to her, softly, with her head bowed.

"We have a few captains that are on the move to kill the bandits. Such is the situation regarding the bandits for these past few days. Furthermore…" The reporter looked at the masked woman in front of her cautiously.

"Furthermore, Diaz who had gone to Vanderman’s manor had disappeared and has yet to return."

"Oh?"

The masked woman stopped cutting the branches and sighed softly.

"Have we received any secret signal?"

"None."

"Have the remaining people receive anything as well?"

"None."

The masked woman placed down the scissor as she frowned.

"Diaz is a woman who knows the severity of the situation. She would not have disappear for no reason. Looks like she has gotten into some trouble."

"I’m afraid so." The reported lowered her head.

"Vanderman… Even a General-level couldn’t escape from you? You’re a mysterious man…" The masked woman’s green eyes were filled with murderous intent. "What about Tracy?"

"Isn’t she on vacation?" The reporter was stunned.

"Call her back immediately. I cannot withdraw from this incident; I will leave the rest to her. We, the Green Shades, must not lose our value over this incident."

"Yes."

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

A few days later….

Hoooo!

Garen threw a punch in his room and short vortices were formed in the air.

Garen threw the punches with both of his hands, and this time his clothes that were near his shoulder was slightly torn off.

His face was filled with satisfaction as he relaxed his fighting posture.

"My strength and agility are now more than 1.5. I am finally able to use my battle skills combined with the secret techniques. Now, my last step is to fully recover, and use my four ultimate techniques without worry. " Garen picked up the towel and wiped the sweat off his body and sat beside the circular table in the middle of his room.

It was a table that he wanted placed there so that he could conveniently pick up the items on the table.

He looked at the attribute pane as he poured himself a glass of water.

Although the the medicine was no longer in his body, the effect had yet to be completely absorbed. Hence his body would still be recovering for a while before it completely stopped.

His strength had recovered by half compared to the last time.

‘Strength 1.6, Agility 1.5, Vitality 1.9, Intelligence 1.1, Potential 1772%. Possess the qualification to be a Luminarist.

Secret technique -- Divine Statue technique, Ten Thousand Mammoth Battle Skills.

287 days left until full recovery (a year).

Precision Blueprint: Intermediate-level. (Total of three level: Beginner-level, Intermediate-level, Master-level)’

As he had reached the Intermediate-level for his Precision Blueprint, his recovery time had naturally decreased. Furthermore, his intelligence level had finally reached 1 point, which was the average intelligence of a human. This was the point that Garen was most excited about.

His current logical thinking was different than before. In the past, he was slow, unresponsive and couldn’t connect the major points most of the time. Memorisation was essential to the Precision Blueprint. In addition, it could be handy and he felt much more smoother as well.

This was indeed the advantage of having a high intelligence. He drank another hot cup of water with satisfaction.