Chapter 309: Evolution 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he had received the Eye of Isaiah, Garen continued to investigate the house. Apart from some silver rumbs and some jewelry, there was nothing else left.
Only then did he leave the house, before looking at his remaining Resonance Hawk waiting outside, with its exhausted, injured body. His heart dropped for a moment.
"Go home!"
His will sounded more like an order.
Suddenly, the Deep Swamp Croc and Beetles began to move respectively, as they gathered around Garen and crawled outside.
The Resonance Hawk had calmed down now. Currently, it was facing some difficulties flying, and could only perch on the Deep Swamp Croc’ back as they travelled together.
On the road back, Garen took the opportunity to stop by to search the medicine shop by the street. This area was quite a distance from the inner city, thus many shops had yet to be looted by the inner city dwellers. Garen hid himself in his Silver Totem herd, and managed to find a lot of medicine easily.
The road back seemed to be experiencing a peak of monster movement. Every ten minutes, a large herd of a hundred over monsters flew closely over his head.
On the ground, a large group of Dead Babies could be seen. They crawled crookedly, looking in every direction for a member of their species to kill. The crawling movements of these purplish-red coloured baby herds made them look like purplish-red worms that continuously let out wailing cries.
Garen had no other choice but to let the Deep Swamp Croc and Beetles hide him from view. He used the Bone Shrinking Secret Technique to hide himself in a closed alley while the Deep Swamp Croc and Parasites blocked off the entry points to prevent the monsters from entering. This was how he evaded countless monster armies. However, this also led to a few Parasites being devoured by starving Dead Babies, while the three remaining Parasites huddled close beside the Deep Swamp Croc.
Once the Dead Baby army had passed them, Garen quickened his pace, and went in the direction of his villa to return. As the armies grew more frequent, Garen became such that he did not dare to linger anywhere for a long time, because he knew that it would be a serious matter if he exposed himself.
There was no guarantee that he would not attract a swarm of monsters as strong as the White Bat in the next minutes.
He hurried back to the villa, where it was completely silent, with only two Beetles crawling around, patrolling the perimeter.
The suburbs also had some additional nomadic Dead Babies, and another black-skinned monster.
The black-skinned monster had sharp spikes all over its body. It was as tall as a human and resembled an upright hedgehog, with bloodshot eyes and sharp, long black claws, as if it possessed a pair of iron claws. It walked through the streets with an arched body, looking like a camouflaged hunter.
Garen returned to his villa carefully and decided not to go out anymore. He let the Deep Swamp Croc and Beetles go out hunting by themselves, to bring back a corpse for them to feed on.
He entered his study and began to practice his Tactics tirelessly.
Many days passed, and within this period of time, Garen carefully allowed the Deep Swamp Croc to accumulate Beetles, and before he knew it, the number of Beetles had increased to ten. The Resonance Hawk’s injuries also began to heal in about ten days, and it was finally able to go out and hunt.
Garen allowed the Resonance Hawk to provide assistance to the Deep Swamp Croc in the beginning. It would endlessly capture stray monsters and give them to the Giant Croc to be used for its Parasites.
A few more days passed, and the number of Parasites finally reached twenty. This was the limit, as twenty Parasites would only need to eat once every week to be full. However, Garen was worried about their frightening consumption rate, and decided to just capture all of the stray monsters in the vicinity.
After two of his Resonance Hawks died, he attempted to turn the captured monsters into new Silver Totems for himself. Unfortunately, these monsters could not be empowered or controlled, apparently because they were highly resistant to this.
Garen finally understood why the Obscuro Society were unable to control these monsters.
Garen used the twenty Parasites as consumables and began to release all of them while constantly assessing the movements in his surroundings.
Immediately, a monster herd with less than fifty monsters nearby the villa, were marked by Garen. Most of these were new monsters. Recently, the density of these monsters had increased, and it was obvious that most of them had come over because they were attracted by the people in the inner city.
Although Garen’s hiding abilities had increased, he was still too afraid to come out alone, as the density of the monsters outside was too high, and there were no dead ends he could use to hide.
Under the cover of his Beetle herd, he returned to the ruins of the War Guild once again, following the tunnels to enter the passageway to the inner city.
The two guards from earlier had disappeared without a trace. Bloodstains could occasionally be seen on the floor, making it impossible to tell if they were still alive. Garen was shocked but not afraid as he walked along the road, before finally arriving at the inner city.
There was a tense atmosphere in the inner city, but Garen did not have any time for this, as his goal was Goth.
After waiting for another five days, Goth finally left again.
***************
Inside a white house in an unknown area of the outskirts of the city
Boom!!!
A shapeless figure caught a man in a black robe violently, as if a large shapeless hand had suddenly thrown him in mid air.
"Where is Ansella??!!" Goth’s eyes were bloodshot, as he growled at the man.
The corner of the black-robed man’s mouth was bleeding, and a frightened expression was plastered on face as he looked at Goth. "We underestimated you… Goth, stop looking for Ansella, when you finally find him you’ll…" Suddenly, he stopped himself from continuing.
"Then, tell me! What about the medicine? The medicine to cure Jessica!" In one movement, Goth pulled the man towards himself.
"Medicine…? It’s always been with Lord Ansella. That’s the one and and only antidote," replied the man quietly.
"Where is the real Ansella?! I’m not looking for a substitute like you," said Goth as he used all his might to suppress the anger inside him.
"I don’t know. I only know the whereabouts of another Ansella, but I don’t know if he is really the Lord himself. I’ve only been following his commands and carrying out his orders this whole time. It would be useless for you to kill me." The man’s face was indifferent.
"Tell me!"
The man told him an address softly, and watched as Goth walked out of the hall without turning back, disappearing into the dark night in the blink of an eye.
Finally, he could not handle it any longer, and flopped onto the floor to sit.
"Hehe… All my effort, even if they were destroyed, it would only last a moment..." His gaze fell unto a mercury puddle not far from where he sat. That was where he had spent many years painstakingly nurturing Core Totems and Secondary Totems. Suddenly, something flashed in front of his eyes, as he looked towards the shadows in the hall.
"Who?!"
The shadows quietened down for a moment, before a figure in a grey robe walked out slowly. It was golden-haired Garen, whose eyebrows were also lightly gold now, walking out of the shadows as he raised his chin slightly.
"Which level are you positioned in the Obscuro Society?" Garen asked the man quietly.
"Who are you?" said the man as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Why should I tell you?"
"Because of this," Garen sneered as eight Black Beetles crawled out behind him, before surrounding the other man. "Just because Goth didn’t kill you, doesn’t mean that I won’t."
"These are?" The man blinked, before recognizing what they really were. "Silver Totems?! Don’t tell me you’re…" He shut his mouth immediately, as a wry smile appeared on his face.
"You’ve managed to find me. I don’t have anything left to say, so just kill me then. I’ll just accept this as an atonement for all my previous misdoings."
Garen knitted his eyebrows together and glared at this man. He could tell that this man knew a lot of things. However…
He raised his head and looked at the outsides of the house. After hesitating for a while, he finally raised his hands.
Tch!
A black line flew past and nailed itself at the man’s forehead. It was a black piece of wood.
A shocked expression appeared on the man’s face, before he fell face up on the floor.
Garen turned and walked into the darkness, his grey robe billowing behind him, as he disappeared quickly through the window.
A few seconds later, a dark figure entered the main door slowly, and crouched beside the corpse.
"Dead already?"
******************
Every time Goth went outside to look for the supposed Lord Ansella, it was unfortunate that he could only find substitutes or counterfeits. He killed some of them but could not bear to kill others and ended up letting them go, only for them to be killed by Garen who was always following from behind.
Out of these people, some of them were strong while others were weak. The strong ones were almost as strong as the blonde woman, while the weak ones were merely Totem users who only possessed single Totems.
Garen had followed Goth for over forty days straight, before Goth finally ran out of clues. The injuries on his body had also accumulated, and worsened in an instant. He became bedridden, and had no choice but to rest to heal himself.
Garen did not linger on the road, and decided to return to his villa in the suburbs. During this period of time, he had managed to perfect the Sight Sharing Tactic after much practice.
He opened the door and walked into the hall, before taking off his grey robe and passing it to Lala.
Within the days of constantly following Goth everywhere, during his periods of hiding, he once encountered a terrifying Giant Spider, and nearly got caught and turned into food.
However the rewards that he gained were also extremely satisfying.
He had managed to kill six lost Obscuro Totem users right and left, and had finally manage to obtain thirty-over points of Potential Value. Including the acquisitions that his Silver Totems had gained from their hunts, Garen now had almost forty Potential Value points.
He never once had so many Potential Points in hand before. Garen controlled himself and did not use them immediately, so that he could accumulate them in preparation for the moment he would finally use them to attack a Form 3 Totem.
"You’re back?" Out of habit, Lala took the grey robe from him and prepared to wash it immediately.
"Hold on." Garen stopped her. "Be careful during this period of time. The density of the monsters outside had been increasing rapidly. Don’t open the curtains carelessly, and don’t go to places where you can be seen easily. The clothes should just be dried inside."
"Got it," Lala answered immediately. Seeing that Garen had instructed her so strictly, she was now aware of the severity of the problem, and nodded her head in agreement determinedly.
"I’m going upstairs now. Don’t disturb me unless it’s an important matter," Garen instructed.
"Yes, sir."
Garen walked towards the study on the second floor. His footsteps beat against the stairs rhythmically, releasing a clap-like noise.
"This time, I need to obtain a Form 3 Totem first. If I don’t, I won’t be able to keep up with their strength for much longer. The monsters in my surroundings are increasing, and if I don’t have enough strength, I won’t be able to protect this house either."
Inhaling deeply, he walked into the study and shut the door tightly.
On the floor of the study, the Deep Swamp Croc began crawling across the floor quietly. Its little green eyes stared at its owner intently.
Garen walked over and crouched in front of it.
"This time it’s all up to you, No. 2," said Garen as he stroked the Deep Swamp Croc’s head and said to himself. This was a habit that he had recently adopted. Ever since Resonance Hawk No. 1 died in battle for him, he began to form this habit.
The Deep Swamp Croc crawled a few steps forward before turning its head to look up at Garen, unable to understand what he was saying.
Garen stood up and took two steps backwards.
"The forty point Potential Value that I’ve accumulated this time, must definitely be used to reach Form 3 in one go!" he said as he took a deep breath, before his gaze fell onto his Totem Pane.