Near Gullivier University.
Garen did not encounter any more ambushes along the way. It was already nightfall when he arrived at his house in the suburbs safely.
"Boss." Under the guidance of Jay, a few of the newer high-leveled Black Uniform Organization members greeted Garen in an orderly manner.
Garen nodded, alighted from the car, and strode through the main door of the villa behind Jay and the others.
A few members of the Nighthawks opened the door for him respectfully. They led the way across the lawn and walked towards a piece of empty land behind the house.
There were a few lorries parked on the empty land. They were covered in black cloth that was pulled over tightly, making it impossible to guess what was hidden underneath.
"Boss, these are the goods that we gained this time," said Jay respectfully with his head bowed.
He'd brought a few of his subordinates with him and waited at the side for Garen to check the goods.
Garen walked in front and with the bright light from the light source beside him, he lifted up a corner of the black cloth. Large black boxes were revealed underneath.
He could vaguely feel a kind of potential energy that was entrenched within the box and constantly lingering there.
When he looked around, he noticed that the ten subordinates had dispersed on their own and were now keeping a close watch on their surroundings. Their chests were puffed out while their gazes were locked on the others around them.
"There is three lorries' worth of goods here, meaning that we have a total of 125 pieces. I will get the others back bit by bit and as soon as possible," Jay reported quietly.
Garen nodded happily.
"I trust you. Get someone to move all of the goods here into the villa. Besides that, get more people to manage the house, it's too lonely living here on my own."
"Yes, sir," Jay nodded quickly. He relayed some instructions to his subordinates quietly before a crowd of people walked inside instantly and began to open the boxes one by one to move the items into the villa.
There were flower vases, mirrors, cutlery, oil paintings, and even ancient music boxes. Various items were moved into the villa carefully and displayed inside one of the rooms under Garen's instructions.
'What do want these relics for?' asked Black Sethe beside his ear in a puzzled manner. 'The Void Creatures could return any minute yet you still think that you have spare time to fiddle with these boring playthings.'
"Can't you tell?" Garen did not reply but chose to casually ask him a question instead.
'Tell what?' Black Sethe obviously could not see the potential that antiques possessed.
"I prefer collecting relics," answered Garen indifferently.
The moving of the relics was finally completed at midnight. A line of people withdrew from the villa one by one after that. Under Jay's commands, a group of them remained to guard the villa while the rest got into their cars and returned to the Black Uniform Organization branch.
The Black Uniform Organization's headquarters were located in Africa while the Nighthawks' headquarters were established in America because of Garen. Sufficient manpower could be assembled from either location, including the elites.
Once everyone had left, Garen remained in the storage room that was used to keep the relics alone.
He looked at the dazzling array of relics. Some of them emitted potential energy while others were merely normal antiques.
He spent the rest of the night separating these antiques and relics by placing the useless antiques on the side and only removing the relics with potential energy.
Although there were 45 relics that possessed Potential Value, most of them only held a few Potential Points, while only three of them possessed a Potential Value of at least ten points.
One of these items was a mask. It was a peculiar, ancient red-black mask and although Garen could not detect its exact Potential Value, he could detect that is was definitely a high value of at least ten or even twenty to thirty points.
The timely delivery of these relics instantly improved his mood, while the condition of the wounds on his body had improved greatly as well.
'Other than their nominal collection and historical value, what other use do things like relics have?' nagged Black Sethe again.
Garen turned a deaf ear to him immediately. Just from being inside this room, he could already feel that his body was steadily absorbing the potential energy that the antiques and relics were emitting.
He glanced at the Attribute Pane at the bottom of his line of sight and noticed that his Potential Value was moving slowly and blurrily. Although it was slow, it was clear that the values were truly increasing.
He picked up a pocket watch randomly before all of the potential energy inside was quickly absorbed into his body. The cool and refreshing air currents flowed inside him from his wrists to his upper arms before rushing up his shoulders and finally entering his brain.
His Potential Points increased by three points instantly. Meanwhile, the remaining Potential Points continued to enter slowly. It would take at least a week for him to absorb all of the Potential Points from the pocket watch completely.
Absorbing Potential Points from antiques could not be done as quickly as killing things in the Totem World. However, it was beneficial because it was long-lasting and would arrive in a steady flow.
Garen looked out of the window and noticed that the sky was now somewhat bright. A whole night had passed quickly. The healing of his bodily wounds had begun to slow down in certain places because he had not gotten proper rest.
He glanced at the array of relics and antiques before him. Garen was too lazy to attend classes and decided to lie down in a pile of relics instead. He finally collapsed on an ancient but clean copper bed and fell asleep.
The fastest method of absorption was to be with these relics at all times.
Time flew by quickly.
After a few months had gone by in a flash…
Under the night sky, a white sedan stopped in front of a detached villa on the outskirts slowly before a remote was used to activate the metal gates' automatic opening.
Garen sat in the driver's seat and drove into the garden of the villa unhurriedly. He passed a fountain and turned the car around under the maid's directions before driving into the underground garage slowly.
Bang.
He pulled the car door open and got down from the vehicle before walking out of the garage slowly.
At night, the sky was filled with clusters of glittering stars that resembled countless tiny pale blue diamonds that were embedded in the curtains of the night.
Garen was dressed from head to toe in a slim-fitting suit. He walked across the lawn before entering the main door of his own villa where the lights were shining brightly from within. Two people whom he had not seen for a long time were already seated inside.
Quentin and Xander.
Both of them seemed to be closing their eyes and resting, but when they heard the sound of the door opening and the footsteps, they opened their eyes at once and looked towards the doorway.
When they saw Garen, both of them stood up immediately.
"President," both of them greeted respectfully together.
Garen had only been focusing on absorbing Potential Points and practicing his Dreaming Technique with great concentration. Concentrating his own consciousness and attention while remaining clear-headed enough to recognize that he was dreaming was something that he could already achieve quite effectively. The thing that pleasantly surprised him the most was that these exercises seemed to help his own Secret Technique levels. When the Dreaming Technique upgraded, he could feel new developments throughout his Secret Technique levels, which had remained dormant for a long time.
There seemed to be new changes within the Slaughtering Hand that even Black Sethe had not anticipated. Garen's Slaughtering Hand was actually achieved by practicing the Northern Trident Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique and was not actually a pure killing-type demonic technique. Although it had undergone strange changes, no one knew if these transformations were good or bad, and the only way to find out was to observe it step-by-step.
Within these few months, he had encountered countless raids by the White Dolls. However, when he had become more accustomed to handling them and had reached a level that was even more terrifying than the Combat World's King of the Century, it allowed him to discover the White Doll's weaknesses in a short span of time. This allowed him to cope with the White Dolls easily, while his upgraded Potential Points allowed his injuries to heal quickly. Once he was able to retain his consciousness and remain self-aware while dreaming, the White Dolls became insignificant to him even if two or three of them came at once.
The ability to remain aware in that state allowed him to use his Secret Techniques and other powers without any obstructions. Therefore, he was much stronger than his muddle-headed opponents that attacked passively.
Even without Black Sethe's help, he was currently able to handle a few White Dolls easily at once, clearly displaying the General-level powers that Black Sethe once mentioned. Within these few months, he had killed more than ten White Dolls consecutively.
However, all of his attention was now focused on the Void Creatures, making him completely indifferent towards the normal tasks of this world. He used his speedy regenerative powers to improve his life while pushing everything else to the back of his mind.
His body was currently able to constantly regain its initial qualities with the help of the relics. While upgrading himself continuously, he was also able to accumulate more than 200 Potential Points. If he had not used up all of the points on his physical body because points were useless in the Dream World, he would have used all of them to strengthen his mental self instead.
"It's rare for you to come looking for me. Did you come because of an important manner?" Garen instructed the maid to bring three cups of green tea. Although he was now living in a Western environment, he did not like drinking coffee as it left a sour taste in his mouth, and was not as comforting as tea.
Quentin's eyebrows were knitted together slightly. This beautiful and sexy girl had always been straightforward but was now clearly somewhat hesitant.
"It would be better for me to say it." Xander now resembled a normal young man that had become a part of society. He was dressed from head to toe in a well-ironed ashen suit, his hair was combed neatly and cleanly while only a little bit of his beard remained.
"President, we came to see you this time in hopes that you would mediate personally."
Xander's attitude was unusually earnest.
"Mediate?" Garen began to smile.
Up until now, he had begun restoring his body's natural qualities because of the large number of Potential Points within the relics. Accordingly, his body had begun to gradually upgrade the average values of his qualities. Currently, his each and every move seemed to emit a strong aura as if he possessed a gravitational force that attracted everyone's attention unconsciously.
"What aspect are you referring to?" he said as he looked at Xander calmly.
Xander always felt that Garen's eyes resembled bottomless abyss or whirlpools, and could not help but lower his own eyes unconsciously.
"It's about Hochman and Dahm."
"Hochman and Dahm?" Garen rubbed his chin. "Haven't they always had a good relationship with each other?"
"Last night at twenty minutes past nine, both of them officially declared war against each other," said Xander softly. "Both of them have lost their sanity and even opened fire and killed people in the downtown area brazenly. Both of their families have declared war with each other completely. Dahm even used his contacts to engage the special police forces, while Hochman dispatched some mercenaries immediately."
"They're both adults that have their own principles. As the situation has already reached this point, it will be useless for me to appear personally anyway. Once the grudge has formed, it cannot be resolved easily. Since they've already decided to make their moves, they have definitely considered all the other aspects already," said Garen calmly with a smile on his face. "However, isn't this a good thing? The strong should never shy from battle, and fighting is also another way to improve our martial arts."