355 Mad Plan 1 (1/2)

Chapter 355: Mad Plan 1

Night time

In the first empire, a large cluster of dark grey buildings were lit up with countless lamps, as though the mountain’s peak was covered in an abundance of candles.

The area at the bottom with the dimmest candlelight was on top of a straight, lofty stone wall.

An ashen coloured mansion was embedded in the middle of the stone wall, and a small straight lane on the left was the only road that led to the outside world.

It looked like someone had dug a hole in the stone wall and built a manor in the empty space, with a balcony railing that could only be seen from the precipice.

A tall man with short blonde hair rested his hands on the railing and leaned on it as he stood on the balcony quietly, watching the sea of white fog below him. The gusting wind blew towards him, causing his hair to be mussed up continuously . The white pajamas he wore were also blown backwards.

He swirled the blue alcohol in his hands, and took a small sip.

”The request for an audience has been sent in, so I’ll just have to wait for His Majesty to summon me. The Green Vine Sphere in my hands cannot be kept for much longer, and the people from the Royal Alliance of Luminarists will definitely want to acquire it. The type of benefits that I will be able to obtain all depend on my gaining abilities now. Avic Sisman is a wise young leader, and ever since he ascended the throne, the Kovitan Empire has been flourishing, and it’s steadily becoming the strongest power in the continent. A person like this will definitely give me a favourable answer but if I don’t sort this out properly, the other researchers will be worried.”

Garen drank his alcohol and pondered silently.

”I don’t know when Beckstone will arrive here, but I know that this is an important place where he has to reach. Historically, after the incident at Vanderman’s manor, he only arrived at the Kovitan Empire one year later. Sequentially, that huge incident occurred, but he did not get injured in that situation. This time, he’d been badly beaten up by me, so the timeline is not very clear anymore…”

Garen shook his cup again, and finished the remainder of his alcohol in one gulp. The taste of the icy grape wine swirled around his mouth and on his tongue, before sliding down his throat. It tasted light and very sweet, just like grape juice that had been spiked with some alcohol.

”The other thing would be my bodily changes.”

Garen bowed his head and looked at his arms, noticing that the topmost layer of skin had began to give off a light blue shade.

Regarding the changes of his own body, Garen had been preparing himself for this for a long time, and had even calculated the times he used the Derivator. This kind of transformation was similar to the Obscuro Society’s Empowerment, except that it was considered as an Empowerment that was not controlled by a Derivator, and the process was also different.

Garen was going in the direction of optimizing his own body structure, while the Obscuro Society was trying to use the Totem Light to transform their own bodies directly. They were unable to face the rejection reaction, so they simply chose to prioritise the Totem Light in a process that involved outside contamination and virus attacks.

Meanwhile, Garen’s choice involved the main body absorbing the Totem Light, and it was a process that required his own body to produce an adaptive evolution in itself. Both of them had different natures.

The former required the ‘virus’ that the Derivator used to control Totem Light. The latter would control everything by themselves, however the difficulty would increase exponentially. In Garen’s case, his physical body was extremely powerful, and greatly exceeded the expectations of the researchers in this world.

The first step of the transformation gave Garen’s body the characteristics of Totem Light, but needed refinement to be steadier. The second step of the transformation required him to attempt to exceed his limits completely.

The reason why he could not increase his Attribution Points was due to his physical body reaching its limit, hence it was unable to increase any further. But what would happen if he increased the limits of his physical body? Would a newer, higher tier limit emerge?

That was Garen’s current plan.

If he exceeded the limit, he would be able to obtain the ability to use his Potential Points to increase his Attributes once again. He had found a way to carry out this step a long time ago, but he’d only been able to implement it thoroughly after Leila had passed on many of the Obscuro Society’s core skills to him.

The act of transforming himself into a Core Totem was a mad thought in itself. Countless talented Luminarists from the Obscuro Society had died while researching in this direction, causing many future researchers to avoid this area and conduct their research without using outside sources.

Their biggest hardship was that they lacked control over their own bodies, which led them to think of using Crystal Derivators as an exterior form of control.

However, Garen was different. The first step was a success, which made him certain that this was the direction and path that were the most suitable for him.

”The requirements for the second step of the transformation have all been met. The derivation theories have also been understood, so I can begin my experiments tonight,” Garen released the cup in front of him lightly, and let it fall into the sea of white clouds. ”I hope for the best.”

He turned around and walked out of the balcony.

The wine cup plunged into the clouds before disappearing soundlessly.

Behind the balcony was a spacious hall, and the dim table lamp there swayed gently. It was a candle enclosed by a cylindrical white cloth, and each of the four walls were adorned with a similar lamp.

On the wooden floor, a long rectangular wooden desk was placed exactly in the center, with two wicker chairs arranged beside it. The table and chairs were the same shade of brown, with a tinge of red.

Garen sat down on one of the chairs and picked up a pile of manuscripts that had been placed on the table. He picked up a pen and began editing and checking them.

After checking for a while, he put away the manuscripts, got up and walked towards the wall on the right. There was a white cabinet placed high on the wall, with two used, black coffee cups balanced on top.

Garen shifted the coffee cups and began brushing against the walls, before his palm pressed against something softly.

Ka-chak.

A square switch sunk into the wall, and the entire wall slowly split along a ‘Z’-shaped crack and opened inwards, revealing a dark passageway.

The arched passageway sloped downwards towards the right into the darkness.

Garen picked up the manuscripts and walked inside as though he was going down spiral stairs that wound towards the right. He walked on for an unknown span of time.

Within the dark passageway, the area in front of him was unexpectedly illuminated by white light.

It was a half-opened metal door.

Garen walked towards the front of the metal door, pushed it open gently, and walked inside.

The door suddenly opened wide, revealing a large, round stone hall.

The stone hall appeared unusually rough, and the stone wall had uneven marks. The entire stone hall was the size of a football field with only a little light illuminating the area, revealing specks of white dust on the ashen stone wall.

Garen walked through the metal door, and the position where he now stood at happened to be at the extreme right corner. He looked at the center of the area from a distance and noticed a black shadow collapsed there, as its soft breathing noises echoed within the stone hall.