Mystical Journey

Garen looked over at the lady, the two seemed to be a married couple. She was worriedly staring at the claws wrapped tightly around the baldie's neck, trying to not move even a single inch.

The two were only mercenaries trained by the military. Their abilities with firearms were definitely exceptional and their reaction speed was quick as well, but compared to a real Grandmaster of Combat, they would be defeated instantly.

The same could be said if they were to fight against the monstrous beings in the town.

The two were just average humans, and as the baldie said himself, they were just hired mercenaries.

However, Garen's objective was not that simple.

He carefully looked through the pockets of the baldie, swiftly ripping out a small black wooden cross from his robes.

The moment he made contact with that cross, a cooling aura flowed through his arm, and a sparkle blinked to life in his eyes.

"Where did you get this thing?"

The baldie's face seemed to wince in pain.

"This is a souvenir from a friend, a very good friend of mine. He asked me to always carry it and to never let it out of my sight."

"What a great souvenir," Garen purred, satisfied.

This cross definitely contained some potential aura, not the type that was for one-time-use, but the type that continuously flowed.

The surface of the cross seemed to be covered by a layer of shapeless energy as if it could burst any moment.

Garen guessed that this was the type of charm that was used against supernatural beings. If it came in contact with a supernatural being, it would burst immediately to protect baldie.

Baldie's friend was obviously worried about him getting into life-threatening trouble, so he gave him this necklace.

"Looks like your friend is a great guy." Garen ripped off the necklace. His original killing intent towards the two had completely been dispersed. He started to think about how he could manipulate this two to work for him.

After all, his sources of information right now were extremely limited, it was almost none other than the Internet. If he had two people with different identities he could use as his eyes and ears, his understanding of this world would increase even more.

There were many ways to manipulate an enemy, but since he did not have any understanding of the unknown powers lurking in this world, it was difficult to find a way that can guarantee success…

This world was full of vampires and quite possibly witches as well, and possibly other supernatural beings. At the surface level, this world seemed simple, but it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Looking through his memories of past secret techniques, Garen decided to use a stealthier secret technique.

If it was purely for punishing an individual, even the lowest tier skill would do, but to ensure the loyalty of the individual, this was the best method.

Looking at the baldie, he let out a meaningful laugh. Garen loosened his grip on the baldie's neck.

"Thank you for all the information, but as you guys can see, this is not a town that you can mess around in. From our conversation earlier, I felt your sincerity and I applaud you for that."

He paused for a moment, "Since you guys are mercenaries, I have a mission for you guys, I was wondering if you guys would like to accept."

"You're not gonna kill us?" The baldie asked, looking visibly relieved.

"I'm not some bloodthirsty serial killer, why would I want to kill you?" Garen opened his arms, "This mission, if you guys manage to succeed, I might consider taking you guys on as disciples and teach you that powerful Battle Skill you guys saw just now."

There was a sparkle in the baldie's eyes, not only him, even the black-haired lady unconsciously gulped.

Only mercenaries like them who have been in countless near-death scenarios would understand how useful having that kind of battle skill would be in combat. Furthermore, if they could be like this kid in front of them, with that terrifying reach and complete lack of fear of firearms, it was the ultimate killing ability. The opportunity to learn this skill, in the eyes of the couple, posed an irresistible temptation.

"Are you serious?! You're really willing to take us as apprentices and teach us that frightful technique?" Even baldie's voice was audibly trembling. Although what was in front of him looked just like an average looking 10-year-old boy, at this point, he had completely ignored the age of the being in front of him.

The lady at his side was still in shock, she opened her mouth trying to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. She helplessly looked at the baldie, letting him handle everything.

"Of course." Garen smiled. The assassination skills he had accumulated were countless, not to mention that since he was a master in the human body's structure and a Grandmaster of Combat, his expertise in human combat could allow him to create a simple killing technique in a blink of an eye.

Furthermore, a simple technique to him could be considered a top tier ability to others.

"Then sir, what is your mission?" Baldie cautiously asked. This kind of amazing reward must come with a steep cost.

"It's simple actually." Garen raised up the wooden cross in his hand. "You see, I'm very interested in antique items, especially this kind of antiques. I want you to find out the origin and history of this item, and to find out if there are more of these similar items. Of course, it would be much better if you could find them."

At the sight of the two confused mercenaries, he tossed the cross into the air.

"From a quick assessment, this cross has at least 80 years of history, you guys can start from there."

"If it's to find out about this cross, I have an idea." The baldie proudly exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" Garen asked with joy.

"Yes, 100%." The baldie answered reassuringly, "I once saw some information about these crosses at the organization, the number of crosses isn't a lot, but the price isn't too high as well. They are often sold off as accessories."

Garen gave him a strong pat on his shoulders.

"Great job. As a reward, let me give you a preview of what I will teach you. You guys can then decide whether this job is worth accepting or not."

There was a fire ignited in the duo's eyes.

...

2 hours later...

Garen slowly walked out of the woods onto the road, his hands were in his pockets as usual as he walked towards his home.

That wooden cross was in his pocket, and he was gripping onto it tightly.

Hints of an icy aura kept flowing into his palm, slowly moving through his arms, to his shoulders and finally to his brain.

Looking at his skill pane, then once again feeling the total amount of aura the cross contained, Garen estimated that this cross could provide him with at least 3 attribute points, which equated to 300% of potential value, and that was a very conservative estimate.

After such a long, dry period with zero growth in potential value, suddenly earning so much boosted his mood tremendously.

He suddenly started having a much better impression of Arisa and her sister. Upon the sisters' arrival, he'd immediately managed to capture someone who gave him potential points. Maybe even more of the White Phoenix Primary Color or whatever people would come, and his potential points will slowly accumulate even more.

Looking back to the baldie and his wife learning secret techniques.

Garen let out a sly smirk, they were his feeler tentacles, from now on, he would no longer be like before, lacking information on the underground world.

The skill he'd taught them wasn't a complete secret technique. Without the support of a real secret technique, it was naturally impossible for it to be a strong secret skill.

Furthermore, it was a secret skill that Garen had created on the spot; as the name suggested, it was the middle point between a skill and a secret technique. The learning prerequisites were low, so anyone could learn it, but it would cause certain harm to the user's body when using it. It was a skill that sacrificed one's own health to increase one's ability.

Although it could only power you up for a short period of time, it was still an extremely useful skill for the couple.

Garen called this new skill the Shooting Shadow. It was a shooting type support secret skill which could stimulate certain nodes on the user's body, allowing it to double their sight, hearing, and reflexes for 30 minutes. To them, this was the ultimate trump card.

And this was only the 1st level of this skill, there were a total of 6 levels.

The amount of sacrifice for each level was the same, it may even decrease, but its effects would only get stronger as one progressed.

At level 6, this skill could amplify sight, hearing, and reflexes by up to 6 times.

This made the couple pay full attention to Garen, with his support, they finally managed to attain Level 1 of this simple secret skill. After feeling the strength of the skill, the two were completely set on working for Garen.

The side effects of this skill were very damaging; every time it was used, it would cause internal damage to the user's body, but this kind of damage wasn't obvious. Every time it was used, the user would need to rest for at least 3 months, otherwise, if the skill was used repeatedly in short succession, it would lead to irreversible damage to the body, like blindness or deafness.

That was the biggest difference between secret techniques and secret skills. Secret skills came at a huge cost and couldn't be used continuously.

Secret Techniques, on the other hand, had no major side effects and could be used repeatedly. Just like Palosa's 99 Acute Airholes, which gave him his reputation as the unrivaled master he was from the beginning.

The reason the secret skill Shooting Shadow was so strong was that, when Garen was guiding the two, he used some of his own aura as a primer to stimulate a certain amount of change in their bodies, allowing them to master the skill.

What they didn't know was that if they wanted to continue training for this skill and get to the next level, they had to find Garen and have him stimulate their bodies again.

In other words, their growth was all up to Garen.

There was also one other disadvantage to secret skills.

It was they could only be improved and could not be abandoned.

Once you learned a secret skill, it was like walking into a dead end, and you could only continue to train. If you don't get to the highest level but stop your training for a prolonged period of time, you will experience intense pain and your body will slowly deteriorate until your death.

Regarding this point, Garen was prepared to improve it a bit more.

After all, secret skills were just something he created at the moment, he needed time to perfect it.

When he reached home, he started to record all his memories down. At dinner time, his parents were finally home, and so were Jason, Vivien and the sisters who'd spent their day outside playing. Under their parents' invitation, the sisters also joined the family for dinner.

Garen sent Raffaele a text.

The reply stated that everything was fine, the other party did not try any of their schemes.

Now that his two feeler tentacles were sent out, all he needed to do was to wait for their reports. He had also gotten his hands on his first batch of potential points, putting Garen in a cheery mood, and he gleefully gazed at Arisa and his sister.

If this was successful, he could obtain even more crosses, giving him even more potential points. Everything was going according to plan, and with his strength rapidly increasing, he could soon find an opportunity to find out more about the vampires.

It was still early anyway, he was still a lower-secondary student going into upper-secondary next year, and was still young.