The deep green field spanned to the horizon. Black metal pieces and white rubble could be seen scattered everywhere. Some of these pieces and rubble were stabbed into the ground while some of them were laying by the bottom of the hill.
The evening red sunlight gleamed on a black metal piece which was about three meters tall from the west, casting a shadow on the small green field.
The sky was dyed red and layers of red clouds could be seen in the sky as well.
Between the layers of clouds, a black shuttle battleship slowly descended. Its hull, which spanned a few thousand meters, cast a huge shadow onto the ground.
The battleship looked like a torpedo ship. It was entirely black and had holes similar to that of a beehive. The wings at the back were slowly expanding as green flames spewed out from the bottom as a propellant.
Pew!
A humanoid Mech was ejected from one of the beehive-shaped holes. The Mech was black and both of its arms were heavy duty Pulse Guns while it had a shiny black circular shield on its back. Both of its shoulders had a red stripe on both sides. Overall, it looked like a firefighter.
After the humanoid Mech, which was about four meters tall, came out of the battleship, a group of similar Mechs flew out as well. From afar, they looked like a swarm of bees that had just left their hive as they flew down.
Among them was a slightly larger Mech. It landed gently on the largest stone and scanned the surroundings through the red beams shooting out from its mask.
“Keep the battle under thirty minutes. Be wary of our surroundings!” a young man’s voice came from within the Mech.
“Understood.”
The Mechs that had a Blackboard symbol on their backs started to spread out. Twenty of them started to search the area.
Blue flames burst out behind the Mech’s legs as it moved about the field.
After a while, a signal came from one of the Mechs.
“I’ve found something! There’s a hole here and someone is hiding inside! He’s severely injured.”
“It’s him?! How did this happen? Send him to back immediately!”
After a few minutes, a Mech dragged the dirty youngster back into the battleship and the remaining Mechs returned back to their respective beehive-like holes.
*************
Inside a dim small room.
Garen gently opened up the big sack in front of him. Inside it was filled with White Peacock Stones of all sorts of size. He took one out and weighed it for a moment before placing it into another sack in his right hand.
The uncle sat in front of him as he watched Garen analyze the items quietly.
Garen took out the stones and weighed them one by one before placing them into the sack on the right. Garen’s expression was calm as he did so at a moderate pace.
Suddenly.
Garen held onto one of the stones tightly and frowned.
“This… isn’t the stone that I wanted, right?”
The car owner smiled as he immediately took away the stone from Garen’s hand, “I must have made some sort of mistake… Hehe.”
Garen scoffed as he continued to check the remaining stones.
In no time, Garen found a few more counterfeits. The car owner’s face turned worse over time as beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead.
“Have you mistaken it again? Why have you made so many mistakes?” Garen glared at him. “It seems like you’re not interested in trading with me.”
“I wouldn’t… It’s unavoidable to make such mistakes with so many stones… You’re looking at two hundred of them!” the car owner started to wipe away his sweat as he said so.
“There’s a total of two hundred and fifteen of them. I will take them all for one thousand five hundred,” Garen put away the last stone and offered calmly.
“What? A thousand five hundred?” the car owner was stunned. “Didn’t we agree on…”
“I didn’t agree that you were allowed to put in some fake ones,” Garen butted in.
“But a thousand five hundred for this many… These cost at least four thousand!” the car owner started to sweat even more.
“Four thousand?” Garen laughed. “You can sell all of them if you can find someone who’s willing to pay that much.” he casually leaned against the sofa as he looked at the car owner.
“Aren’t you breaking your promise?” The owner started to panic and stood up.
“Promise? I had planned to keep my word if you didn’t mix in some fake ones. You can’t blame me for lowering the price once you’d done so,” Garen’s expression was calm. “Furthermore, your items are worth at most five points each. My price is more than just good enough. I’m fine that you’re not willing to sell it to me because I can always find another merchant to buy from.”
The car owner calculated for a while and came to the conclusion that he would be selling each at 7 points for one thousand five hundred. He would still profit as his buying price was four points. It was just that he wouldn’t be earning as much as he expected. Just as what the opposing party said, no one would be willing to buy such a huge quantity except for this student in front of him.
He gritted his teeth as he’d thought that the student in front was a black sheep of a rich family. He didn’t expect him to slash the price to the point where he wasn’t earning good money from this trade.
This guy was good…
He looked up and stared at Garen, who was sitting firmly and seemed to be very confident as he wasn’t panicking at all. He was about to go rough on him but recalled that he had some martial arts experience. Furthermore, he was also a Blackboard Academy’s student…
This student was very smart as he didn’t slash the price to the point I would outright reject him. It would be reasonable to slash the price when a fake stone was discovered. He, a blackboard student, looked like he was tight on his money. Perhaps I could…
“I can sell you these for a thousand points,” the car owner was determined.
“Oh?” Garen was stunned as he didn’t expect the opponent would say so after being at a disadvantage. “What’s your condition?”
“I wish to team up with you,” the car owner sighed as he said softly. “You’re a student at the Blackboard Academy. With your social status, I wish to work with you to obtain some rather special intel from within the academy… It’s a win-win situation.”
“Intel? What kind of intel?” Garen was stunned as he didn’t expect the fellow in front of him would have such a motive.
“Intel of celebrity students inside the Blackboard Academy,” the car owner said seriously. “Frankly speaking, there’s practically no one inside the academy who lacks money. It took me a long time to find a suitable partner and I hope that we can try it out. You have to understand that every outsider is very curious about the situation inside the academy. Furthermore, we can raise the celebrity students’ reputations once we reveal their information. They would be able to obtain more power and this would be very beneficial to them.”
“A very good thought,” Garen nodded. “However, other people would’ve thought of it since you’re able to. Why do you think that there hasn’t been any leak for such a long time? Have you thought of this?” he smiled as he stood up while carrying the huge package that he had sifted through a while ago.
He then used his Watch Terminal and sent over a thousand Universal Units.
“Here’s the thousand points that you suggested. I have to go for now. Thanks”
The car owner was stunned by Garen’s words as he realized what he meant from the hint displayed on his Terminal. As Garen was about to exit the place, he immediately stood up.
“Hey! Can you tell me your name?”
“Nonosiva. I will find you once more when I need you.”
“I’m Kendall! What’s your number?!” the uncle quickly followed up with another question.
Garen looked at him and threw out a series of numbers. Although he was slightly dumb, he was able to make the right decision.
***********
After returning to the dorm, Garen immediately hung the do not disturb tag, pulled his curtains shut and started his training.
He switched on the light and poured all of the rocks onto a big piece of paper. Garen then took off his shirt and sat in front of the stones.
“With so many mixed grade White Peacock Stones, I should be able to break through the second level, right?” he was looking forward to it.
Technically speaking, he had yet to practice a pure Living Secret Technique. In the Totem World, his journey had been interrupted and he’d taken a stray path and learned the Evil Technique instead. In the Vampire world, his Living Secret Technique had always been capped at the first grade.
He didn’t expect that this world would have the precious ingredients that his Living Secret Technique required. Furthermore, it was treated as trash here and was completely worthless.
“This is the difference between this world and the rest…” Garen sighed emotionally as his mind immediately went into the records of the Hellfrost Peacock Technique.
The first five grades of the Hellfrost Peacock Technique were the foundations used to change his physical attributes. Only the final three tiers were considered the realm of mastering the basics. One could only enter the last three tiers after the seed of the Living Secret Technique had sprouted. With the practitioner’s physical condition as the foundation, it could produce a unique technique that would be considered the strongest for Nonosiva’s body. Hence, it was called the Derivative Level and he would be qualified for it once he had mastered the foundations.
“I wonder what will change when I enter the second tier,” Garen slowly shut his eyes and gently pressed onto the white stones in front of him with his hands.
Inside the room, a cold breeze started to flow out from his body as his skin started turning blue.
On the other hand, the stones in front of him which was in contact with his hands started to crumble into dust. Quietly, the stones turned into a pile of white dust and as more dust was formed, Garen’s hand turned even bluer than before.
The air inside the room turned cooler as cold winds kept revolving around Garen. A layer of ice started to form on the surface of the green cactus placed by the window.
As time passed.
Garen focused on the changes in his body.
At the moment the impure White Peacock Stones had been absorbed, he’d felt that the coolness in his body had gone into a frenzy as it kept pouring out from his hands and absorbing the pile of white stones.
A huge amount of viscous substance was absorbed into his body and was immediately swallowed by the cold blue lines. As the freezing lines kept swallowing the impurities, they became thicker, from the thickness of a hair to the thickness of a chopstick, and then the thickness of a finger.
These freezing lines kept circling within his body and a layer of frost formed from where ever it had traveled.