"Right." Reylan’s knowledge was indeed profound, as she talked about these secrets like household matters. "A nest has only one resonance stone. It is its core, and its heart. Without the stone, although they wouldn’t die, they would gradually wilt and become a normal plant. Two things have to be done to control a nest."
"What are the two?" Garen looked at the remnants of black bull panthers after the massacre by the deep swamp croc, then walked towards the tower in the middle of the fortress.
Reylan followed closely behind.
"The first step is to segment the resonance stone. Hold one half in your hand and leave the other half in the nest. You will be able to control the nest’s life with the resonance stone. As the plant as no intelligence, survival is their basic nature. With the resonance stone in your hand, you will gradually be filled with their aura. Naturally, you will be the master of the beings it creates."
"The second step is to remember the vibration frequency of the nest. It is like the password to a code. Only by remembering this you would be able to truly control the beings of the nest with the password. This is difficult, exceptionally difficult."
"How can we say no without giving it a shot?" Garen smiled.
The two of them followed the steps to the door of the tower.
Garen stretched out his hands and pushed open the door.
With a deep groan, the door slowly creaked open. A large amount of dust continuously cascaded in the wind.
As they entered the tower, a dark hall instantly appeared in their vision.
In the magnificent hall, everything, including the walls, floors, fireplaces, oil paintings, sculptures, were covered in a dark green mucous membrane-like flesh.
Hanging on the wall opposite the door was a golden sun ornament. The golden ornament was covered in green flesh, and a water basin-sized ferocious eyeball was popping out in the middle.
The surface of the white eyeball was full of blood strands, with a black pupil in the middle. It constantly adjusted its focus as it kept a close eye on Garen and Reylan.
In the red lines of the eyeball, blood was clearly flowing into the inner part of the eyeball. The flow of blood in the translucent blood vessels was like delicate red sand, faintly emitting the sound of moving sand.
Garen looked around the hall.
To the left and right of the eyeball were multiple black bull horns. The horns were arranged in the formation of a saw. They seemed to sense danger as they slowly protracted and covered the eyeball like a big mouth with black, sharp teeth, completely protecting the eyeball.
"Disgusting. There’s a sour smell in the air." Garen frowned and covered his nose. "What do we do now?"
Reylan also took out a scarf and covered her nose.
"Every nest has a different internal form. You have to look for the resonance stone on your own, which is one of the difficulties of taking a nest. Take note that once the nest dies, the resonance stone will melt instantly, even if it has been retrieved."
Garen nodded. He paced around the hall as he observed the surroundings.
A white-gold aura slowly emanated from his body. The peculiar thing was the eyeball of the nest shrunk back slightly, as if it felt the great aura.
Garen realized it and looked interestedly at the eyeball. After he came to this world, this was the first time meeting a being that could sense his white gold aura.
"The nest will assimilate into the first building or area that it comes into contact with. This tower was also a structure that was assimilated by it." Reylan was explaining to one side.
Garen nodded, showing that he understood.
He stepped on the flesh-like surface on the hall, feeling its softness. It was like stepping on a rubber surface. There was even white slime sticking on his leg as he lifted it up, forming white filaments.
The white gold aura expanded incessantly. Garen, with complete concentration, shrouded the whole area of the tower with his aura.
Very quickly, he could thoroughly sense the blood flow of the black bull panther’s nest.
He grinned as he walked towards the wall on the left. He stretched out his hand and pressed it on an oil painting on the wall.
A deep swamp croc crawled out from behind him. It opened its large jaw and slowly extended its tongue armed with ferocious needles, aiming at where Garen’s palm was.
Garen stepped aside.
Chiiii!
The giant croc’s tongue shot out like a sharp arrow and pierced into the art on the wall. Very quickly, an oval-shaped red piece of flesh was retrieved as it retracted its tongue.
Its tongue held the piece of meat and slowly put it in Garen’s wide open palms.
"This should be the resonance stone," Garen said confidently. This was the largest focal point of the blood flow in the eyeball’s nest. It should be what Reylan was saying.
Reylan looked at Garen with surprise. He couldn’t comprehend how Garen could locate the resonance stone in such a short time. It looked like he had unimaginable methods.
"Next is to segment it. As the resonance stone is not considered as hard, it is easy to do. Big brother, you can carefully study the control mechanism of the nest. The Obscuro Society’s derivator also imitates this mechanism. Once you understand it, you can quickly resolve the concerns regarding the derivator."
Consequently, the two of them cut the resonance stone into two pieces, a big one and a small one. The small piece was then replugged into the hole in the wall.
After Garen’s aura expanded, he thoroughly memorized the blood flow of the nest according to Reylan’s explanations. It was tremendously fruitful.
As for the frequency of the resonance stone, Garen could feel that this oval piece of meat was indeed like a heart. It was beating lightly, but its frequency was messy and randomized. Even after holding it in his hand for a while, he couldn’t sense any repetition.
The two of them exited the nest tower. The black bull panther corpses all over the plaza had disappeared completely, leaving not even a trace of blood.
"Absorbed by the nest." Reylan wasn’t surprised.
"Let’s rendezvous with the others." Garen shrugged and took huge steps towards the door.
As they exited the deserted fortress, Angel and the rest were starting a bonfire nearby. They were scattered around the fortress as guards.
Angel and Vicky were trying to pry open snail shells with a twig. Leila and the remaining person from the hunting party were huddled together. They seemed to be recording something.
Garen took a glance at the group of people.
"Leila."
"Boss!" Leila instantly noticed Garen and Reylan coming out and quickly ran towards them.
A thought flashed through Garen’s mind.
Five black beetles crawl out from behind the group. The beetles had full-black bodies and were half the height of a grown man. Their jaws were full with sharp teeth, looking abnormally ferocious.
"Many totems users have their own way of sleuthing. However, the five black beetles here will be my reward to you to do that. They will fully obey you, but only simple commands can be used to convey your orders. Each of these beetles have power equivalent to a first form totem."
At his last sentence, Angel who seemed unapproving started to be slightly moved.
"First form totem? Impossible!" Angel couldn’t help herself. "Without totem light, no matter how strong the beasts are, they wouldn’t be able to stand against totems!"
"Who said that they do not have totem light?" Garen smiled and pointed at the beetles with his finger.
At that instant, there was faint black light glowing on the surface of the beetles.
Psssttt...
Angel, Vicky and the other two people from the hunting group had chills from the scene before them.
"Giving five level one totems to an outsider in one go!" Vicky couldn’t believe it. She fixated her gaze on Garen’s face, trying to find a trace of pain in his expression. But regretfully, she failed.
Garen’s expression was like deadwood, without any change.
In fact, the truth fit his expression.
The five beetles were only a tiny part of his army. By giving it away, he no longer had to worry about feeding them, and the deep swamp croc could very quickly breed a few more.
Moreover giving them away did not mean that they were free from his command. He was already in control of these beetles.
This was also a good way to recruit a team. With the benefits of totem strengthening, and having creature totems to order around, a team like this had overwhelming advantages. Of course, there was only one solidifying totem currently, but very quickly they would be able to increase the number.
It was Garen that looked down on the solidifying totems that were too weak.
This was the first time he encountered a nest. There used to be multiple nest appearances in Iron Tank City, but the Grand Duke penetrated the enemy lines and destroyed all of them, temporarily relieving the city from danger. This stopped Garen from really seeing a nest.
There was no way Garen would give up on the derivator at the moment. A large majority of his strength came from the derivator. Furthermore, he couldn’t stay in this state of lag for long. Once the elemental generals realized something was wrong, that would spell trouble for them.
According to Reylan’s description, the elemental generals had at least the ultimate form of elemental totems. They had incredible power, only second to the marshals with precious heirlooms. They were at least on the level of the former Grand Duke, considered to be on the level of fourth form aberration totems.
Although totems can be classified into animals, plants, and elementals, They were in fact of a unified division.
Such was the internal levels of the Obscuro Society.
After Garen obtained this information from Reylan, he used it as a standard to gauge his enemies.
The Obscuro Society categorizes all the totems under them into six levels.
First form, Second form, Third form, then Spiritualization, Fourth form, Fifth form.
Only the strongest two marshals have achieved the fifth form. Their exact strength was an unknown, but definitely not something an average person can match. In fact, this path was the path of the elemental totems and spiritualization was the beginning of elementalization.
所以凡是元素图腾,都至少是第三型灵光化阶段.哥德的父亲大公爵也是这个阶段,并没有达到第四型层次,只是手中的秘宝龙影之心对他有着提升.可惜,龙影之心也没了.所以才被数头三型灵光怪物逼得最终自爆.
All elemental totems were at least at the third form of spiritualization. Goth’s dad, the Grand Duke, was at this level. He couldn’t progress to the fourth form, but the Heart of the Dragonshadow increased his power level. Pitifully, the Heart of the Dragonshadow was gone, and he was forced to self-destruct by the third form spiritualized creatures.
In addition, Goth was currently at fourth form, after almost completely elementalizing his core totem, the King of the skies[1]. His precious heirloom also elevated his strength. But the most frightening fact was, this guy was improving every single day.
Vanderman, the father of his host body, Acacia, was considered a second form, while Aquarius was a third form, but evidently did not reach spiritualization. Angel was a second form, but for the elemental generals, they were at least at the stage of third form spiritualization. All generals had at least a third form totem. The only difference was whether it has undergone spiritualization, and the number of third form totems they controlled.
The truth was, with Garen’s current strength, he should not be afraid of any single elemental general. His two third form totems, the petrifying white dragon and dual headed salamander, were both incredibly strong. The petrifying white dragon was at third form spiritualization, but it was a pity it could no longer be evolved. Although the dual headed salamander wasn’t spiritualized, it was a relentless war machine.
According to Reylan’s judgment, spiritualization is obtained naturally through the evolution process. If they had poor innate talent or bad cultivating resources, the evolved totem will not have spiritualization. This is the difference between the quality of evolution.
Even the same type of totem will have differing strength with different cultivations.
Initially, Garen planned to follow this path steadily to the end.
However, with the emergence of the nests, and his increased understanding towards creature totems, Garen had some new thoughts.
Even though that was the case, he could only thoroughly pursue these thoughts after resolving the control issues of the derivator.