Mystical Journey

Glittering Water…

This name seemed to have fished out some memories from the deep recess of his brain.

Garen only felt immense pain in his head as image after image kept flashing in his mind.

These scenarios seemed far and blurry, like they weren’t actually his memories.

"The Nine-Headed Dragon’s genetic message…" He walked to the plum bush nearby and placed himself down.

The Nine-Headed Dragon’s memories occasionally affected Garen, but they were much better compared to before, reduced to some occasional headaches.

Garen reached out to touch the ice-cold stone table. The cold tabletop was smooth to the touch, its tough body gave Garen a firm sensation that he was touching something real.

After some time, the pain gradually subsided.

Garen put down his hand, and took a deep breath.

"The Glittering Water has appeared… looks like we are nearing the destruction of the Royal Alliance. Glittering Water is capable of boosting low level totem users’ evolution and extreme healing prowess, but its production was also alarming low. Based on the original history, Kovitan had a Glittering pool, Daniela had two, Ender had one, and the other regions sporadically had three. This was the real cause of the RAL’s fall."

On the original timeline, the Glittering Water had strong special effects, and even though a pond could only produce enough for ten people a year and was only effective for these low level totem users, it still caused massive internal conflict among the alliance.

Due to the ravaging monsters, the internal conflict in the RAL, factored in with the Glittering Water’s ability causing internal conflict.. Perhaps there were Obscuro’s plans inside, but it was undeniable that the Alliance’s wobbly structure was to blame for the most part.

And during this time, Daniela was also undergoing massive change due to Glittering Water. Having been dethroned by this generation’s King of Daniela and becoming an incomplete version of the Cthulhu Totem, and then healed by Glittering Water, resulted in an inclination for wounds to heal.

During the King of Daniela’s pursuit of absolute power, he challenged experts everywhere, and constantly challenged the Cthulhu Totem. Originally Cthulhu King paid no heed to him, but his improvements were too rapid.

When the Cthulhu King realized something was wrong, it was all too late, the King of Daniela had immense innate talent, and reached an unimaginable strength. Within the next of century, he would fight the Cthulhu King ceaselessly, eventually gravely wounding him, gaining the chance to stabilize the country and develop it.

However, due to Cthulhu's’ careful management over thousands of years, the Cthulhuism Society had an immense foundation, so both sides forcibly maintained peace.

The appearance of Glittering Water expedited the Cthulhu King’s recovery, and Daniela’s new internal war will begin once again.

Garen thought carefully. The current Kovitan was but an empty shell; with such a small area of control surrounding the Kingdom left, it was considered heavily injured. Next would be Daniela, and then finally Ender.

Daniela was different compared to Kovitan, the Cthulhuism Society and RAL’s powers were both second to none in the current standings. Even Obscuro would not simply take action against the big characters if Hellgate weren’t awakened.

With the appearance of the Glittering Water, Garen realized that he had a very good opportunity.

Glittering Water is much more important to the Cthulhu King compared to anyone else. His need for Glittering Water was massive, and so long as Garen owned a pond, he would have the necessary bargaining chips to negotiate with Cthulhuism Society and gain some benefits.

Plus, Garen could faintly feel that this Glittering water may be beneficial to help him recover the Nine-Headed Dragon’s memories. The headache that occurred just now had no indication it was coming at all, there must have been a reason behind it.

Garen lightly tapped on the table with his fingers. He thought about ways to maximise his advantage before the Alliance fell. In order to expand his abilities, even if he doesn’t win against Hellgate, he should at least be able to ensure his safety.

Fuuu...

He let out a long sigh. Just as he prepared to stand up and return to the palace, he suddenly realized that someone was sitting to the side, in the corner of his eyes.

It was Kid.

He was holding onto a red plum, and kept rubbing the twig in a rotational motion, he looked like he was enjoying himself.

" What are you doing here?" Garen was almost used to Kid’s mysterious appearances.

"I had nothing to do so.. I just found something new, so I came over." Kid answered with boredom.

"New discovery?"

"Yeah, you have to remember to protect me though." Kid smiled as he said.

Garen Was speechless. This Kid had never done anything proper, instead opting to play all the time, and his own abilities remained a mystery. What kind of protection does he need? Seeing that he didn’t want to talk about it at the moment, he didn’t ask any further.

As he walked towards the inner hall, he had a short chat with Lala, who just had lunch with Prynne, who was strolling around. By the evening, some news came through about the Glittering Water mine.

"You mean to say, even though we occupied the mine, half of the Glittering Water in the pool had been taken by others?" Garen asked as he frowned at the Black Swamp guard who reported to him.

"Yes, Elder Lightless and Skyharp have already begun the hunt, while Elder Angel and Blizzard is guarding the Glittering Pond." The Guard answered immediately.

Garen glanced at the experts on both sides of the hall.

Ivycius was emotionless with his sword on his knees, silent, eyes closed, as though he was meditating and didn’t bother with the guard’s report.

Anjiad from the Seven Nights’ Tower on the other hand, was yawning, his eyes full of dark circles. Who knew how long had it been since he slept.

Beneath it was the supervisor of the Black Swamp Palace, Lala, as well as the family’s head guard Maxilan and Edney, and the White Silver Palace’s three pupils under Ivycius. Not to mention Master Calingan, who just rushed over from the Technique Hall.

Garen frowned, and he looked at Master Calingan.

"Master, about the Technique Hall…"

Calingan nodded and stood up. "We can dispatch a Forger and rush over with the latest Tactical Array. We have just finished researching an ambush bramble array, which was based off the original Royal Palace’s illusionary array, modified and simplified to form 2. The alert radius is about two kilometers.

"A form 2 array?" Garen nodded, " that would suffice for an alert array, plus it is a portable item, but what if I wanted a higher level array?"

Calingan shook his head.

"I’m sorry, Palace Master, but any arrays above Form 2 would exhaust large quantities of rare materials, and you would require at least ten forgers. With the current capacity of the Technique Hall, the research progress would be severely impacted.

"That’s fine then." Garen shook his head.

"Palace Master, in the singular tactics warehouse, don’t we have three large area Spiritualized arrays?" Calingan reminded.

Garen thought about it, the most valuable and practical thing in the Royal Palace’s warehouse was indeed the three sets of large area Spiritualized Arrays. Its area of effect was more than ten kilometers in radius, and it was strong enough to deny entry to any totem users beneath Spiritualized form. It was indeed a great defensive array. These three sets were also the most valuable items in Kovitan, aside from the heirlooms that Garen carried all the time.

"Among the three arrays, the Ten Circular Ring was planned to be placed in the entire compound of the Royal Palace." Calingan explained. "Out of the remaining two, I intend to use one to be an inner array to protect the Technique Hall and the residential inner halls. And the final one can be used to guard the Glittering Pond."

Garen nodded after some thought.

"This is a good idea."

Calingan continued.

"If we can get more help and resources, our Technique Hall’s abilities could be increased by a margin too. I heard that Ender’s Master Raphael possesses wonderful skills in terms of Tactical Arrays…" He began giving a list of names.

After all, he was not an expert in researching arrays, and not strong in this aspect.

"Raphael from Ender huh?" Garen stroked his beard. " Lala, try to establish communication with this master, see if you can invite him."

"But the situation in Ender is very stable, this master is also considered a national treasure, I don’t think it would be likely." Lala explained.

"That’s fine, just reach out for now." Garen said coldly, he immediately looked over to Maxilan. "How have my apprentices been?"

Maxilan stood up and answered respectfully.

"Three apprentices have already entered the first level. I have already passed on the skills for level 2. The rest of the apprentices have also been recorded and rewarded according to their entrance period."

The living conditions in the Palace area had been harsh, and was to train their willpower. All their diets have been specially made to be exceptionally nutritious, with terrible taste.

Whoever could endure it was basically a palate genius.

To design this specifically unpalatable food, Garen specifically got Lala to recruit chefs from all over the kingdom who could cook the worst without losing nutritional value.

The sleeping environment was also made of the toughest rock available, and there were only ten blankets. Only those who performed well had the luxury.

Now that the study improvements have been produced, according to the records, only those who did well will be given the reward of a slightly less terrible daily meal. Of course, to get a normal tasting nutritious food, they had to put in more effort.

Perhaps someone had tried not eating, but being barred in the palace with no chance of going out, he could only live in starvation. Plus, such a balanced combination of nutrients was beneficial to the body, and this diet allowed a person to improve slightly faster than others.

After hearing the progress of the three apprentices, he was rather satisfied. As for the rest of them, he didn’t really mind. Only the top ranked ones are worthy of his attention. Plus, level one doesn’t really mean much; the Black Water Pure Technique was the easiest of first levels, but level two was different, to reach level 2, one needed to go through a session of attack endurance trainings, special medicinal baths, and depended heavily on the person’s willpower and strength of body. In a short span of two to three months, there would be no need to consider the possibility of a breakthrough. It would only get harder as the training progresses. The second level was an entrance test. To achieve breakthrough wasn’t bad, but for those who failed, they may take up to tens of years.

Garen thought for a while

"How is the recruitment for totem users going along?"

"There are already two Spiritualized Totem Users who registered. The rest include 15 form 3s, and thousands of form 2s." Lala replied.

"Dispatch the form 2s to maintain the operations of the arrays in the palace. Spread the form 3s out, and have Maxmilan and Edney lead them for now. A ranking match is to be held after a month’s adjustment period. The one who rises above everyone else will be promoted by default to a leader of the guards’ unit.

The palace area was divided into male and female guard units, which were responsible for the security of some of the public areas. However, due to the lack of personnel, they were temporarily commanded by Maxmilan and Edney. Since they are the head guards of the family, and have their own sets of responsibilities, the Trejons Family is growing was size by the day, and its properties along with it, so they were also caught off guard.

Hence, Garen gave them the rights to choose their personnel, after the recommendation of some helpers, it got less hectic.

"Then what about the two Spiritualized Totem Users?" Lala asked

"Let them be in charge of the elders’ living quarters. Independently create a management office of the Elders’ Hall, so that they can expand in the future.