Mystical Journey

The middle aged man behind the counter handed out a roll of yellowed paper.

After receiving it, Garen unrolled the paper and brought it aside to have a long look at it.

" The Iron Tank City Army emergency goods deployment list:

Spear of Agas x 5

Full body armor x 7

Battle horse armor x 7

Military crossbow x 15

Inactivated totems:

Red Dragonhawk x 3

White Dragonhawk x 3

White bear x 5. Brown bear x 5, Black wolf x 5. Snow sculpture x 33. Fanged hound x 33. Black eagle x 10. Northern snow lion x 1. Cape Verdean Wolf x 15.

Black striped white tiger x 1. Ground drilling rhino x 1, Giant rattlesnake x 1."

Garen straightened out the paper with a few light shakes, and knitted his brows together. He then waited for another man to finish up his business at the counter before heading over again.

"These totems at the top, the last three are new to me. What is the price?"

The middle aged man took a quick glance at him. "Since you are an official member of the guild, we offer a special price for insiders. 1 million per totem. I shall warn you beforehand, the last one was listed separately, which means it does not have a legacy. The absence of a legacy means that it will be incapable of evolving. Although it has a strong foundation, you must bear this in mind."

"Noted." Garen was absolutely clear.

Ground drilling rhino and Giant rattlesnake still had a sliver of hope when it came to evolving, as results of prior research done by other people point towards that, or so he had heard. Only the ways of raising a Black striped white tiger remained a mystery, as no researcher has managed to figure that out. This breed of genetically mutated tigers is extremely ferocious. Although there is only one type, its speed, strength and lethalness is comparable to that of a Dragonhawk – minus the possibility of evolution. Various academies have tried, failed, and given up.

Not only that, the remaining numbers are but a few; would have never thought of actually seeing one here.

" How much money do I have left in the treasury?"Garen presented his medal.

It was passed over the counter and inquiries were according to the serial number.

" 870,000. You still need a little more. Do you want to accept a few quests?" The middle aged man asked. He currently has a huge pile of unattended quests.

"It’s alright, I will come over in a bit. Remember to hold on to it for me." Garen covertly handed over a few one hundred silver sheets. The man quietly accepted it.

"Don’t worry, I will keep it for you for two days. Anyways, this is an item that many would not want to purchase, even if they could afford it. Who would want to spend a million on a totem that is incapable of evolving?

" Thanks , I am intend to have it as a secondary totem." Garen took a totem introduction leaflet that was handed to him over the counter and turned away to leave.

He only had a couple of tens of thousands on him at the moment, which was definitely not enough. However, the resources he had stashed up previously would be put in good use.

"This timing is just right, if I would have waited a little more, all the good items could have been used up and taken. Not only that, I still have to fork out another sum to purchase war shackles and war halls."

He decided to obtain the black striped white tiger first, as he was planning to use it as his core totem anyways. The information on the black striped white tiger was fairly brief, Garen found the line describing the black striped white tiger from the information on the totem introduction leaflet.

"Black striped white tiger: A type of basic totem, possesses extreme speed and lethality, its 6 centimeter sharp teeth can easily bite through any known defense a totem has. Originated 600 years ago from a remote academy called Taja Cannes. Power: Tail whip, Puncturing Crunch."

Leaving the guild, Garen boarded a horse carriage, heading straight towards the young grain storehouse that he bought.

Seated on the horse carriage, he looked out the carriage window – 5 out of 10 people on the streets were holding a gourd shaped container, lining up at the rice store, common goods store and bakery to purchase items. Several fruit and vegetable stalls were sold out and closed for the day.

A few wholesale stores that were of a larger scale placed signs that signify a limited stock supply, barely sustaining themselves.

From time to time, ox carts dragging along goods would pass by. The area of Iron Tank City was seemingly vacant of the noblemen and businessmen that were usually clothed luxuriously.

Garen estimated that the items he had stored up prior to this could be sold at a higher price, therefore a total sale of 3 million should not be a problem. Although so, the most cost effective way seemed to be setting aside a portion of basic living expenses while using the rest in exchange for expendable battle items.

If an exchange was done instead, he would be dealing with the guild directly, which means it is likely that he will only need half of his item storage in exchange for the Black striped white tiger. Garen believed that the guild had good taste, and was pretty sure he will be able to recognize the advantage of hoarding rare items for enormous profit.

If only he wasn’t in such dire need to evolve his core totem, Garen would have never thought of selling his items off so early.

The other half can be used to feed himself and occasionally purchase other items.

In no time, the horse carriage arrived at the area in Iron Tank where storehouses were specifically built.

Garen came down from the carriage, paid, and headed towards the deepest area on the left.

His storehouse was built at a secluded left corner.

He did not go far before realizing with a startle that something was wrong. Several grey ox carts were continuously dragging along young grains from the deeper part of the area, the cart drivers were servants clothed in grey cloth.

"The man in front, please halt!"

A short distance away a group of armed men on patrol rushed over.

"What are you doing? The area in front is a private property! You are not allowed to trespass." The leader of the group was a man with a mustache, and he was staring at Garen with stern gaze.

"Private property?" Garen’s face dropped. From the gaps in between the storehouses he could see the entrance of his storehouse, and ox carts were dragging young grains from inside.

He had completed so many quests, gone through life and death situations with Goth and the others, suffered heavy injuries just to have a small amount savings. The young grains he had purchased is now being towed away from his storehouse by one ox cart after another.

"Whose men are you?!" Garen’s face darkened. "This is my storehouse, and the young grains you are towing away happens to be mine!"

Moustache man frowned. "This is the private property of Quartermaster Griffith, if there are any issues please speak to our boss."

Garen’s face darkened again, forcefully pushing away one of the men who was blocking him, and walked towards his storehouse in huge strides.

"You stand right there!! Do you hear me!" The moustached man was furious. He chased up to Garen’s footsteps and grabbed his shoulders. His hands grabbed nothing but the air though, as Garen’s was much faster than he had imagined.

"Take him down!!"Moustache man shouted all of a sudden.

An army of men rushed up, those who had swords bore swords, those who were meant to obstruct his way, did so.

The ground underneath Garen’s feet shook, and a shapeless energy immediately threw the men off their feet, and they flew, hitting the ground with intensity.

Nearby, an ox cart moving goods was disturbed. The ox that was pulling the cart let out a series distressed moos, anxious to escape from the place.

The old man sitting in front of the storehouse that was tasked with administration felt things going horribly wrong, and sent out a blue messenger bird. He fell into his seat, face pale, plagued with fear as he stared at Garen.

"I am Quartermaster Griffith’s house keeper! You can’t touch me! You can’t touch me!" He muttered the last phrase repeatedly, the fear seemed to have paralyzed his senses.

"Quartermaster?" Garen narrowed his eyes, a spark of an idea brewing in his heart.

His hand reached out to grab the old man’s collar, lifting him towards himself.

"Just because he is a Quartermaster he is allowed to carelessly snatch away someone else’s private property? It seems like he got bored of living and wants a taste of death…"

"Master...I have nothing to do with this master!" The old man was sniveling with tears pouring out of his eyes, his whole body was shaking like a leaf, cold sweat plastering the hair near the temples of his face.

Garen hurled him aside carelessly and waited where he was. The blue bird the old man had sent earlier should have reached the Quartermaster, whatever or whoever that is; he should be here any minute now.

Without waiting for long, a black luxury car was driven into the storehouse area, and stopped a short distance away from the storehouse he was at.

Two sizeable men clothed in black military uniforms came down from the car and walked down.

The man who was walking slightly ahead had a nasty expression on his face, with traces of anger caused by humiliation and a slight urgency.

The other man’s face was immensely calm. His hands were mindlessly fiddling with a silver pocket watch, while his middle finger was embellished with a black gemstone ring.

" Type 2 totem user?" Garen’s gaze locked onto the man holding the pocket watch.

"I am Griffith , who dares to cause trouble here?!"The man who was ahead roared loudly, his eyes quickly fixed on Garen who was standing in front of the storehouse. " It is you I presume? Seems like after a long time of refraining myself, no one in the city knows the name of Griffith anymore."

" Griffith, is it? Who are you to carelessly invade and occupy the private property of citizens?" Garen faced both of them, raised his voice and spoke coldly. "I have previously purchased the young grains here as well as other items, now all of a sudden you own them. Do you not have the intention of giving an explanation?"

"You are the previous owner of this storehouse?" Griffith sneered, "Are you sure you are not mistaken about something? These young grains are items that the other shop owners and I have transported over earlier on – I have a contract with these shop owners as proof. Deeming others’ property as your own… from what I see, you are the one invading other people’s property!"

While speaking he thrusts out a stack of paperwork that he had obviously prepared, and waved it around at Garen. He had a mischievous look plastered on his face.

Garen frowned. To be honest, this was his biggest fear. Being a lone ranger without a background, to have a business that involved buying and selling as per what he was doing, encountering these types of trickery was what he was most afraid of. After all, the buying and selling business was not supported by the government, and you could only conduct it underground. Once a lack of power is realized by others, it was highly possible that one must absorb the bitter consequences.

The other party he guessed, had done a background check on him, which explained their unscrupulous behavior.

" Alright, now that everything is clear, we should figure out the compensation for injuring my guards. I am known to be ever so generous, all you need to pay is a small amount, and I won’t investigate the matter any further." Griffith said with a smile on his face.

He had already known the identity of the man in front of him. If it were not for the fact that he had entered the battle guild and was a member, he would have gotten his bodyguards to capture him.

But it is different now than it was then, for the war guild is the front line of the entire combat team of Iron Tank City. If he were to be caught, the guild will definitely conduct some questioning, and if it were to be blown out of proportion, sensitive issues such as invading one’s property was likely to bring about bad consequences, which might bring huge losses to both parties in an immense impact.

Which is why it is important to have a good control of the scale of the issue – to let the other party undergo a small loss while keeping the matter down low at the same time.

"Alright. We will leave the matter as so. As you are a member of the war guild, I will not look into the damage you have caused my soldiers." Griffith said with a smile.