Chapter 369: Mastermind 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Dragging the Third Princess behind him, Garen didn't stop for anything, quickly returning to the bridge, and riding his own horse casually as he rushed back to his estate. Besides, the Third Princess was being held in the Salamander’s mouth, still unconscious.
He wasn't panicked either.
Riding his horse from afar, he saw the area around the tower surrounded by many troops. Several characters with impressive auras appeared one after the other, observing the situation.
Garen even pretended to be a passerby, walking past the scene.
One of the leaders was a red-haired man wearing a white cape, crouching on the ground where Wade had disappeared and checking the traces.
Two guards were beside him reporting the situation, and there was a circle of guards in half body suits of white armor, sealing away the scene.
There was even a group of spectators surrounding them, speculating away and sounding like a swarm of flies on a pile of rotten meat, buzzing.
Garen rode his horse and passed the scene slowly.
"Tsk-tsk… How terrible, not even one survivor." He acted like an ignorant passerby, tut-tutting at the scene.
"What do you mean, dear sir, you don't know. I came here as soon as I heard the sounds, but once I got here, I saw that the killing was already over. I didn't see the killer, but all this blood on the floor… Tsk-tsk…" A fat merchant was also passing by on a single-seater carriage, looking at the scene just like Garen.
"Aren't you afraid of getting involved?" Garen glanced at this man.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be afraid? But my biggest hobby is to stick my nose into other people's business, as long as I find a safe space, I won't have to be worried about anything." The fatty waved his hand.
Garen shook his head, and rode his horse casually past. Looking at the White Cape’s expression of confusion, his heart lightened up.
Without making any stops along the way, Garen returned to his own estate.
As expected, Lala was gone.
He carefully avoided everyone's gazes, calmly walking into the estate and closing the room door behind him. He then pulled that person out of the Dragon's mouth, carrying the Third Princess in one hand and closing the windows with the other.
After checking all the doors and windows carefully, he was satisfied that they were all tightly sealed shut.
Garen carried the Third Princess and walked down into the secret basement. The first thing he saw was Komodo, panting in the entrance to the tunnel, his expression panicked and his body plastered to the wall as though he was hiding from something.
He held an iron shovel in his hand, and was shocked when he heard footsteps, so he raised the shovel and smashed it down at Garen’s direction.
"Look before you smash!" Garen pinched the shovel with a smack, glaring at him coldly.
Komodo instantly widened his eyes.
"Aw mah gawd! Aw mah gawd!! Master, you’ve finally come home! Miss Lala was taken away!" Komodo’s expression was that of intense relief. He looked strong on the outside, and was rather large-sized, but in truth he was extremely cowardly and afraid of dying.
"Move aside!" Garen pushed him away, carrying the unconscious Third Princess with one hand and striding down the corridor.
When he reached the corner of the second corridor, he slapped the wall on his right with his palm, and just happened to hit a palm-shaped dent.
Clack-clack-clack…
There were crisp sounds behind him, and the two black-purple metal walls came down over the entrances, sealing the corridor away.
"Master, what are you doing?" Komodo followed behind Garen, confused. He had also noticed the woman Garen was carrying in his hand.
"Before I finish my business here, no one is allowed to enter. That includes you," Garen replied mildly.
Komodo immediately gave a shudder of fright, and didn’t say anything more.
The two of them descended rapidly, one after the other, and soon reached a lab that wasn’t very big.
Throwing Princess Ann-Rue inside, Garen adjusted the passcodes in the room. In the whole underground, there was one extra-secure room like this one, secured with five chain wheels. Therefore, it could be arranged into five digits, so after setting up five different numbers, he could properly secure the room.
Garen turned to the correct passcode, and walked inside.
"Komodo, you go take care of those survivors from the experiment, don’t interrupt me unless there’s something important."
Komodo blinked, and put on a suggestive expression.
"Alright, Master. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you!" he guaranteed loudly.
Garen was too lazy to bother with what he was thinking, and slammed the door shut.
The secret room was a bit like a huge tent, the top was rounded to a tip, and the area in the center was cylindrical.
There was pale yellow light in the room, and a large fire basin hanging above, illuminating the room in place of a lamp. The red flames in the fire basin leapt non-stop, coloring the ceiling a total black-red.
Garen reached out to turn some switches on the wall next to the door, adjusting the flames in the fire basin lamp.
There were two lonely black sofas in the secret room, and a red-brown compound shelf in the corner. There were nine shelves in total, and two of those shelves were even open.
Garen walked to the sofa and sat down, quietly waiting for Princess Ann-Rue to wake up. At the same time, he organized his situation now.
"I got rid of the witnesses properly, that area is under the Royal Family’s patrol, and passersby might have seen the color of my clothes, but even then they surely only caught a glimpse from afar, and couldn’t see the patterns clearly. Judging from the reaction from the Royal Family just now, they shouldn’t have found any effective clues."
Garen caressed his stubble lightly, his long blonde hair reflecting a mysterious golden-red under the firelight.
"I have no choice but to give up on the Crystal Derivator, since it could be taken over and controlled by Obscuro, I might as well release the three Spiritualized Petrifying White Dragons, rather than just hand them over." He lifted the Crystal Derivator, and suddenly remember that this Third Princess should have one with her too.
He stood up directly, and walked up to Ann-Rue, who was lying on the ground. He crouched down next to her and started pressing around her body, quickly discovering her Crystal Derivator in a small pouch behind her waist.
Garen didn’t even look at it, pinching it into pieces with a snap.
The broken crystal shards scattered everywhere.
He directly took all the little pouches Ann-Rue carried with her off, and poured all the bulging contents onto the sofa. He then stripped the totem storage tool off of her.
There was a red scroll, tied neatly with silver string, but he didn’t know what it was for.
Two black crystal storage rings, a small makeup mirror. And some tiny shards of red and blue gems.
Lastly there was a glass flesh-colored tube that looked like lipstick, he could see sticky flesh-colored liquid shaking slightly inside.
Garen looked at the label on the glass tube, slightly curious.
‘Aer Chest Enhancement Oil, Specifically for Royalty’
He glanced at Ann-Rue’s chest somewhat at a loss for words. It was flat as a pancake, with only the slightest suspicion of a bump…
He didn’t waste any time keeping the ring and rubies, as well as the scroll, all into his own bag. Garen sat back onto the sofa, and waited quietly.
He had just killed so many totem user guards and three Form Three totem users, one of them was even Spiritualized.
Garen couldn’t count the total number closely either, so he settled his heart to check how many potential points he had earned.
‘Power 14. Agility 3.11. Vitality 10. Intelligence 2.53. Potential 5528%. Has Luminarist quality.’
"Only 55 potential points?" Garen frowned, this might even include the few potential points he had left before.
The Petrifying White Dragons kept hunting for him, amassing many potential points, to the point where Garen nearly forgot how hard it was to earn potential points.
He killed many powerful entities this time, and still only earned fifty-five potential points. The Petrifying White Dragons had collected so many before, more than four hundred, who knows how many monsters they had to massacre to get so many.
"I had so many potential points before, so although fifty-five points is already a lot, it just feels rather underwhelming." Garen was slightly self-deprecating, over four hundred potential points had spoiled his sense of judgment.
Looking at his attributes, his agility was still only at 3.11.
It was just nice that these attribute points could be all added to his attributes.
Garen immediately moved his gaze to stare at Agility, and his potential points dropped like a stone.
At first, one potential point could increase his agility attribute by 0.1.
Soon enough, after using almost twenty potential points on his agility, he increased it to five attribute points. In an instant, he required 20 potential points to increase his attribute by one.
After increasing his agility to 6 points, Garen stopped immediately. Looking at the dozen or so potential points he had left, he shook his head rather helplessly.
He used his potential points up too quickly. He hadn’t even considered adding more secret techniques.
Garen thought about it, and the three red dots on his forehead immediately lit up with a red light, a small, shrunken version of the Eight Headed Dragon totem materializing behind him.
The meat lump that formed the ninth head on the totem’s back had clearly grown a lot bigger.
Evidently, the change in attributes had a certain effect on its growth, it was just that he still didn’t know when it could grow its ninth head.
Garen really anticipated this. Be it in the legends of Earth, or those of the Secret Technique World, there were stories about the Nine Headed Hydra. They were each different, so he was really excited to see what heights the totem that began as a Dual Headed Salamander would morph into at the final stage.
With six in agility, he felt his body grow a lot lighter, the lines of his body also evened out. Whenever he lifted his arms or legs, it felt as though the air automatically gave way.
It was a very strange feeling, and somewhat intoxicating.
Garen felt the changes in his body carefully, and lost track of time.
"Mm…"
After staying unconscious for no one knows how long, Princess Ann-Rue finally frowned, and slowly woke up on the floor.
"Where is this? My head hurts so bad… Wei Xi! Wei Xi!! Bring me a cup of Active Water." She didn’t seem to have a grasp of the situation yet, and after calling what seemed to be the name of a maid a few times, this spoiled princess finally woke up, and glanced at Garen on the sofa. She quickly covered her chest, and shrank into the corner of the wall.
"You!! It’s you! What are you planning!? I’m warning you! I’m the Third Princess of the Kovistan Royal Family! Once he realizes I’m missing, my father the King will definitely send out the strongest Royal Knights out searching everywhere, you’d better release me now! I can pretend nothing happened. Otherwise, you’ll definitely be dismembered! You’ll be staked! Fed to the dogs alive!"
This poor thing was so scared her face was white, her expression that of terror. Even then, she was threatening Garen loudly.
"Poor thing. You still don’t know what situation you’re in now?" Garen stood up, playing with the unknown scroll in his hand. "Now tell me, what is the scroll in my hand here for?"