Garen looked at his attribution pane again doubtfully, and sure enough, his strength had already reached the 6.66 mark. There were no further changes to the number, and it remained firmly at that point.
He reached his arm outwards and leaned against a long ashen coloured bench on the roadside, grasping it tightly.
Suddenly, he felt a hot sensation travelling quickly throughout his right arm from ring finger. His entire right arm began to warm up, as if he was soaking himself in a hot spring.
Crunch!
A cracking noise sounded in the air even though he did not lean heavily on the bench, as the wood broke and turned into dust in a blink of an eye, and dispersed in the wind.
Garen narrowed his eyes in disbelief, as he truly was not using a great amount of strength, He merely pressed the bench innocently for a moment. It felt as if the sturdy wood was completely non existent when he touched it.
"What great strength!" Slight fear trembled in his heart.
After hesitating for a moment, he lifted his right arm, straightened it into an offensive position, and swung it forward suddenly.
Tch!
A shapeless air fluctuation flew out immediately.
Crash!
A bronze statue far away was cut into two halves instantly. The top half of the human statue slid down slowly, and was abnormally smooth.
After that, a loud crashing noise could be heard.
No one knew how many things and walls these air fluctuations had passed through to cause such fine layer of white dust to form in the distance. It happened so fast that the number of things it passed through was unknown.
"Tch tch…" Garen himself was feeling an uncontrollable sense of shock.
He suddenly thought of the troll’s mace, and realised that both of these things possessed almost the same degree of monstrous strength.
"Such powerful strength, who knows what the effect will be if it’s used against totem light." Remembering the troll’s strength, Garen began to feel slightly hesitant.
The troll did not consume all of his totem light. Its attacks also brought its own type of unique strength, and was not held off completely by the totem light. In other words, it was a type of power that possessed a similar nature to the totem light.
He really wanted to call the Deep Swamp Croc over to test out the new strength he had on hand, but before that, a series of footsteps began echoing from the far end of the messy, damaged streets. Leila, the man in the red hat from the Hunting Group ran towards him and arrived here quicky.
Behind him was Angel, who was holding a girl and lagging behind slightly.
The three of them were looking towards here from far away, with panicked and alarme expressions clearly displayed on their faces.
Garen hesitated for a moment and relaxed his right arm downwards temporarily, afraid of the slightest movement. This arm was weird because it could release an unbelievable amount of strength without its reactionary force springing back. The slightest accident could cause him to injure others. He was not ready to use his right hand for the moment.
He dashed towards the direction of the three other people quickly.
"What’s the matter?" he asked softly as he looked at the girl Angel carried, who was actually Vicky who was now unconscious. "What happened?"
Angel furrowed her eyebrows and scanned the surrounding area.
"I feel like something isn’t right with this city. Earlier, some of the houses in the area collapsed without reason, not to mention that I think I heard a giant monster’s footsteps, and I’m not sure if it’s an illusion or not. Before I knew it, I heard Vicky collapse and faint. She seemed like she was hit by something, as her totem light was penetrated suddenly, and her core totem was heavily damaged!"
Hearing her say this made Garen suddenly think of his own core totem, the Black Striped White Tiger, and how it was almost wrecked as well. Once the totem light was completely broken, the core totem would also suffer similar damage.
He could not help but glance at Vicky. This girl was also a form two totem user, but her complexion was completely pale, an obvious sign that she was gravely injured.
"Has it been five full years already?" he asked.
"It’s already the sixth year," Angel replied quickly.
Garen nodded his head.
"That’s fine. Get this girl a new core totem immediately. If a totem user is protected by their totem light for too long, their immunity becomes extremely weak, and when they’re exposed to air and other external substances for extended periods, I’m afraid she may face more problems later on. I assume she has more than one totem, right?"
Seeing Angel nod her head made Garen relax.
"We should leave this place. I don’t think it’s safe here anymore." Garen examined all of the streets around him.
All the streets were filled with smash marks left by a heavy object, showing that the traces left by the city troll still remained.
"But we haven’t finished collecting our things? Are we really just going to leave like this?" Leila wavered.
"Are you things more important than our safety?" Angel glared at him.
"Uhh… Both are important…" Leila shook his head warily.
"Move!" Angel kicked his buttocks.
"My limited edition ‘43 out of print fashion!!" Leila wailed, but was pulled away on his ear by Angel nonetheless, as she dragged him away immediately.
Garen took the items he had collected and returned to the carriage on the city outskirts with Angel’s trio. Ansa, the black clothed man in the Hunting Group that had stayed back to keep watch, was now crouching beside the carriage, and checking some of the dead rat corpses. He noticed that everyone had returned, and were carrying large and small bags of items. He stood up hurriedly and came forward to help carry some of the stuff.
Lala, who was inside the carriage earlier, also got down to help arrange the various goods.
Basic cooking essentials, flour, tissue, a change of clothes, new cups, and cutlery. There were also some tools that Luminarists used for conducting experiments.
Everything was immediately moved into the third carriage.
Leila, the bastard had the audacity to command his Black Beetles to drag a brand new, gorgeous, large silver carriage outside.
"Using form one totem insects to pull a carriage. Haha. Only a brilliant totem user like myself would have the right to enjoy special privileges like this."
Garen did not say anything. Four members of the Hunting Group in one tiny carriage was truly a tight squeeze. Meanwhile, this large carriage had six wheels and was over six meters long and four meters wide. It was almost the size of a small house. Four of them inside this carriage would definitely be more spacious for them.
The black clothed man Ansa was very attentive. He found various spare parts for the carriage, and also a lot of nails and a hammer that could be used for repair work.
Both Angel and Vicky found a myriad of tools used by Luminarists and Forgers, such as an incubator, petri dish, thermometer, conical flask, and a centrifuge, among others.
"It’s a shame we couldn’t find a unit factory, but the things that we did manage to find aren’t too bad. Unit factories were involved in the deep secrets of the Forgers and Luminarists, hence, even if we didn’t take them with us, they would still be destroyed in the end. It’s very likely that others would be able to uncover the techniques of creature units from there."
"These are already pretty good," Garen nodded in satisfaction. "With these tools, I can conduct new and deeper research. Thank you very much."
Angel’s mouth twitched.
"We don’t need meaningless rewards or gratitude. Some for you, some for Ansa. Ansa’s equipment is specially used for totem repairs. Melting machine, repair instruments and separators, and the precision instruments are all specialized. Meanwhile, yours is mainly used for creature research, so both of you can exchange equipment if needed."
"I know," smiled Garen. Although Leila had left, the basic equipment that he left behind was sufficient. With these tools, Garen could start from the most basic experiments and quickly progress towards his plans.
Once everyone had retrieved their own items, it was nearly evening, and the sky had began to darken slightly.
Everyone returned to their own carriages, and by evening, Aisley City began to look even more gloomy. There was not a shadow of a person to be seen and barely any light. Every inch of the city was dark and empty.
Standing outside the city, one could definitely feel the endless cold and chills coming from inside.
Garen reversed the order of the carriages. His own carriage was the first in front, while Lala’s goods carriage was in the middle, and the Hunting Group’s two carriages were the last ones at the end.
He clapped his hands and lined the four carriages in a row, before they left Aisley City slowly.
Sitting next to the carriage window, Garen took the map out and began looking at the road carefully.
The yellowish map depicted a little red dot, and beside the dot a line of words read: Lush Forest district, Vanderman mansion.
Garen stretched his index finger outwards and placed it on top of the red dot on the map lightly. They would pass through a large forest, a river, and a stretch of mountains. Finally, the would stop at the position on the map with the city symbol.
"Aisley City is here, so we still need to pass over a stretch of mountains, cross the Naserweiya river, pass through the Red Rat forest, before we can finally enter the Lush Forest district. I’m just unsure about what this place looks like now."
When he thought of the abnormally huge city troll, an uneasy feeling bubbled up inside him. It felt as if everything had deviated from its initial course. The experimental aberrations and various germs and viruses released by the Obscuro Society had caused various unfathomable changes.
It seemed like the world had become more mysterious day by day.
Tch…
His index finger had accidentally torn through the map. The map fell on the table, and Garen unknowingly pierced a hole through the table as well.
Garen immediately realised what had happened and retracted his right index finger frantically, as a panicked expression appeared on his face.
He looked at the Troll Grip he wore on his finger, the insignificant dark green ring that was tightly wrapped around his ring finger.
"Was this also the Obscuro Society’s intended change?" he pondered quietly.
He turned around and took a leather suitcase from below his seat and opened it to rummage the clean clothes inside, before finally taking out a black leather glove, and wearing it on his right hand.
After moving his palm and feeling that nothing was amiss, then only did Garen stuff the box back into its place below his seat.
Right now, he was unable to estimate the true strength of his right arm. He only knew that it felt extremely powerful, because at 2.6 it was already at the pinnacle of human strength, and with just one hand, he was already as powerful as a Deep Swamp Croc. This was something that Garen had tested out once before with his own eyes.
But now it had increased to 6.66 at one time, and this number meant more than just two or three times of his initial strength. The higher the numbers, the effect of the strength generated would also become more obvious.
He had investigated and found out that the enhanced strength from the Troll Grip did not mean that he had exceeded the limit of his attributes. Instead, it meant that his other attributes would not be able to increase in the future after some time.
Daa…
The sound of the carriage wheels could be heard softly, as the carriages began to move slowly.
The grassy hills outside the window looked as if they were moving backwards slowly. The carriage shook slightly when it rolled over some gravel. Next, the carriage turned in a semi circle motion before speeding up gradually.
Garen sat up straight and held the Resonance Stone in his left hand again, as he began to feel the frequency carefully again.
His brain possessed calculation and analytical skills that were far superior to an average person. It was the effect of intelligence levels that had reached 2.5, which also caused him to have an increase in physique-based secret techniques. The progress in which he grasped frequencies wildly exceeded Reylan’s expectations.
From his initial stage of weakness and inability to sense them, to his current stage of improved clarity, it now felt as if he was holding a beating heart in his hand. Before this, he had wasted a duration of a few days.
Holding the Resonance Stone gently, Garen continued to bury his head in the process of researching frequencies.
As long as he could synchronize his own frequency and reach the Resonance Stone’s level, he would be able to restore the Crystal Derivator to its initial stage at the right degree.
Regardless of the Troll Grip or the nest revenue brought on by the Resonance Stone, the thing that he truly wanted was neither of them. Instead, his goal was to fully grasp the Crystal Derivator.
To him, the Crystal Derivator, regardless of its current strength or his future plans, still possessed utmost importance for him. He could not lose it!