Mystical Journey

The window was splashed with falling rain.

Garen served up a hot cup of coffee, standing by the window.

On the large bed behind him, that girl called Lala was lying down on the bed massaging her head, not fully conscious.

"Are you awake?" Garen turned back to the bed, this Lala girl’s motive of coming here was obviously to get some form of protection from him. It’s just that he had his own agenda to accomplish, staying by his side is not that much safer compared to somewhere else.

The girl tried to get up. The clothes on her body had not been touched by Garen; they were still the original dirty attire from before.

The first thing she did was to check her body for traces of possible harassment. She relaxed herself . Following that, she placed her gaze upon Garen who is standing by the side of the window.

"Thank you, for saving me once again." her voice sounded sore, obviously she is having a flu. "If it wasn’t for you last time, we should be dead by the roadside outside the city."

"I always expect for returns when i do something, I have saved you twice, how do you intend to return the favor?" Garen looked at her calmly. "If there is a behaviour of wanting something, it is only natural to consider the price, there is nothing that can be gotten without paying a price in the world. Don’t you think?"

"I understand." Lala’s eyes shows that she seemed to understand, "I am but a weak lady, what else can i give you? Or rather, what do you intend to take from me?" Her speech is clear and without hidden meanings.

"The cleanliness of this house, the daily chores and housework, very simple requests. The condition is that I provide shelter and food, how’s that?" Garen answered coldly. "Also, as a man with normal sexuality, to be able to see a clean and cute lady at home, will improve my mood greatly too." He spoke straightforwardly.

Lala lowered her eyes: "Your demands are reasonable, I am willing to work in order to exchange for my safety and livelihood. Under this isolated environment, you are able to suppress your desires and stay respectful to a lady, you are a good man."

"Good Man?"

Garen laughed without voice. He extended both arms, looking at his clean, untainted palms. These arms, who knew how much blood had tainted these arms, innocent ones, sinful ones, or even just plain brawls, but such is life.

He snapped back into reality, laughing sarcastically.

"I’m glad to get to know a partner of an opposing gender which is rational, but I will remind you, there are many places in the house which are prohibited for you, you best not run around. If you wish to go out, leave me a note. I will arrange for it. The medications are placed by your pillow, and for your information, this is my first time taking care of someone outside my family."

"It is my pleasure." Lala relaxed and smiled. As she looked at garen calmly leave the room, she exhaled in relaxation. Aunty had already arrived in the city safely, in one night, her entire world collapsed, countless creatures killed people around her; the ones who she were familiar with, the ones who weren’t, too many lives have been taken away as she watched.

"Sufficient food, sufficient safety, warm blanket…" Lala had not had a moment where she thought of things she normally had to be a luxury.

Garen walked out of the guest room, tidied his collar and walked back to his master bedroom.

Standing in front of the mirror, he took a good look at himself.

His smooth bald had have a layer of short hair now. On the outside was a grey mantle, so long as he wore the hood and lowered his head, nobody will know who he is.

He pulled open his wardrobe. After some flipping through, he took out a greyish-white inner tee to be changed into and wore the pieces that would make up the complete leather armor he prepared previously.

Two round shoulder pads, forearm guards, knee guards, calf protectors, boots, and then a helm with a chest plate.

As he wore all of those, the person inside the mirror looked similar to the guards of Iron Tank city.

After giving it some thought, Garen took off the helm and wore the grey mantle again.

"Now this is much better." He satisfyingly said as he looked at himself.

The mantle covered the entirety of the armor, giving him a muscular look.

"Next, let's look at what my little babies are up to." he focused on the attribute pane.

"Strength 2.66. Agility 2.72, Vitality 2.76. Intelligence 2.53. Potential 632%. Possess the qualifications of a Luminarist "

6 points of Potential points.

Garen squinted his eyes, he glanced over the totem pane, the amount of parasites had dropped to five, which should be due to another battle happening.

"Let’s have the blue back lizard evolve instead, the success rate for third form evolution is too low."

He triggered a thought.

Soon, the doors were nudged open, and three blue back lizards slowly walked in. The last one closed the door under Garen’s control.

This kind of deep blue colored lizards normally inhabit the desert areas, so their survival abilities are really strong, with extreme tolerance to hunger and thirst.

Garen squatted in front of the three lizards and touched their heads.

"From now on, you're Number 3. Deep Swamp Croc will be Number 2. This will ease identifiability. I’ll have you evolve first."

His gaze placed on the blue back lizard’s icon, quickly, three points of potential points disappeared in a quick jump.

Number 2 blue back lizard shuddered for a moment,, and then started vibrating intensely, as if something were vibrating immensely inside its body.

Jiii…..

Number 2 let out a painful hiss. Its body rapidly grew from about a meter, quickly elongating to two meters, three meters, four meters, five meters!

Its height also grew from ten-odd centimeters, quickly to twenty centimeters, thirty centimeters, fifty centimeters, more than one meter!

Its skins started to show a bronze-like yellow tone, the teeth slowly grew out of its lips.

The entire lizard's body looked more and more like a crocodile

Between its four legs, it grew another pair of short legs, becoming a six-legged creature. Its back also spouted a row of dense spikes.

The most eye-opening aspect of the creature is its eyes. From the original jade green, it turned into a clear white, as though there were no irises in them.

This lizard’s evolution scared the other two lizards. They quickly hid, avoiding the quickly expanding Number 3 that was hissing in a scary manner.

Garen stood in front of the now evolved lizard, feeling that this fellow looked like the rumoured Komodo Dragon, one that could eat something that was its own size.

He looked at the totem icon within his vision. The blue back lizard changed its icon.

"Evolved Lizard( Unnamed): Blue Back Lizard’s second evolution form, Form 2 creature totem. Upgradable, evolution sucess rate: 34%. Potential point consumption: 500%.

Ability: Petrification (Any creatures making eye contact with it will be damaged by the Petrifiaction Light), Fast Tunneling."

"Petrification?" Garen noticed that this evolved lizard’s eyes had a hint of green light within its white eyes.

"Rename as Petrifying Lizard."

He changed the name on the totem, then only he carefully checked out the Petrifying lizard.

Petrifying Lizard laid on the floor, motionless, almost lazily, just like a bronze statue.

Garen took a turn around the lizard, extended his arms and touched its skin; very coarse and tough, like hardened leather, but with a hint of warmth.

He tried touching the spikes on the Petrifying Lizard’s back; also very tough, much like an awl, poking out of it skin one by one, forming a straight line from head to the tail.

"Go hunt something for me." Garen instructed as he opened the door

The lizard crawled slowly out of the door. Its movements are extremely slow, like an old grandpa at their seventies or eighties, the round belly was almost as good as being dragged on the floor. The six paws slammed the ground as it walked.

Garen shook his head, speechless.

"Stealth doesn’t work, use your fastest speed!" He ordered.

The Petrifying Lizard then increased its speed. It was apparent that it was trying its best; the six short limbs just struggled to move forward, but the speed was only comparable to a tortoise at best.

"This speed!..." Garen had a hidden impulse. "This is only a feeder during close quarters combat!"

Bringing the Petrifying lizard out of the villa, Garen came to the backyard, where there was leftover Unihorn Lizard carcass.

"Attack that carcass!" Garen ordered.

The yellow lizard struggled to crawl into a five meter rang of the carcass, both eyes glared at the carcass.

Without any visible movements, the carcass started turning into a greyish white rock-like form from the bottom to the top. Soft crackling sounds were heard as the rock spread.

Three seconds later, the carcass completely turned into a stone statue.

The Petrifying Lizard spat out a red core, it didn't seem a tad bit tired.

Only then, Garen felt consoled.

"Petrifying Lizards can only be used as a defense against ambushes, it basically could not keep up with other creatures’ speeds at all."

Ah!!!

A loud scream of a lady was heard from the main door.

Garen stomped once, and suddenly turning into a shadow, showing up at the front yard of the villa.

Lala was covering her mouth at the doorstep, staring at the large black beetles walking past the lawn in fright, the saw-like rows of teeth in the black beetle looked horrendous, scaring her pale. She was holding onto the doorframe as she felt weak in her knees.

Seeing Garen’s appearance, her voice was trembling while her fingers pointed at the beetles.

" Bug!! Monster!! There’s a monster!!"

"They're my little babies, don’t be afriad" Garen waved his hands so that the beetles left their field of vision.

After calming Lala’s emotions, Garen told her not to go out, otherwises it would easily attract the monsters into the house. Luckily there was the scent of the dead unihorn lizard lingering, completely suppressing the scent of Lala that was within the villa.

He looked at the remaining potential points and he felt that the three points spent on the Petrifying Lizard was not worth it. It didn't matter how strong the petrification was, it had to first land on the opponent. The remaining three points, he did not plan to spend it on the Blue Back Lizards.

The two blue back lizards have already dug out some underground water from the kitchen, or perhaps taking a turn underground for as they dig for underground water. To have a well near the the kitchen, it will be much easier to use water.

After settling Lala, Garen wore his grey mantle and hoodie, checking his body, "I should go into the city to check on the situation… so long as i’m cautious, I should be fine.