Mystical Journey

Clint, on the other hand, went to sniff at it. It seemed to be very fragrant, and smelled like lemons. All of a sudden a large hand reached over, picked up the cup and poured half of the alcohol inside into another empty cup.

“You can’t drink so much on your own, this portion is for the two of you!” Yellow Beard laughed heartily, picking up his own cup again and guzzling it madly.

“Thanks, uncle.”

Clint looked at the cups hesitantly, and reached out his hand to pass one cup to Baylon.

“Are we really going to drink that?” Baylon asked hesitantly.

“Just try a little…” reminded Red Moon softly. “Everything in the radiation belt is very dangerous.”

“Got it.” Clint nodded, and bent down to lick the wine lightly with the tip of his tongue. Instantly, a refreshingly sour, intense taste of alcohol entered his mouth.

Urk…

It was just a little, but his face was already turning red, the things in front of him beginning to sway.

Baylon was even faster. While he was still slightly dizzy, Baylon had simply collapsed onto the bar counter with a thud, and lay there unmoving.

Clint opened his mouth and tried to speak, but his lips felt numb and swollen, and he could barely make any noise at all.

Bam!

He collapsed onto the bar as well.

“Eh?” The yellow bearded uncle looked at them in surprise, and was instantly speechless. “These two kiddos can’t even take that little bit of wine? I’ve been holding back, y’know?”

“You settled it so quickly?” Only then did Big Sister Wu Dan walk to the counter, looking at the two young ones who were passed out. “Them?”

“Too weak, they fell just by tasting some Yellow Lemon,” the yellow bearded uncle shrugged.

Wutan was quite tempted, a hint of struggle flashing through her eyes.

Similarly, the yellow bearded uncle also glanced at her, with a similarly unknown emotion rising in his eyes.

The two of them did not have any ill intentions to begin with, but now, with such a great opportunity…

Wutan clenched her teeth, and turned her head away, reluctance flashing through her eyes.

“Bring them in, Lil’ Four is running out of time, if we have these two…”

Yellow Beard sighed, and glanced at the two young ones.

“Don’t blame us… We had no choice, either.”

He got up and lifted them, one in each arm, before striding towards the small door behind the bar counter.

The bartenders and the other people seemed completely used to it, they had no intention of moving at all.

One of the bartenders glanced at the two young ones who were being carted away.

“Hoho, two fresh ones, one boy and one girl. The girl can be deflowered immediately and sold to the brothel, but the boy is quite a looker too, smooth skin and juicy flesh. Recently there have fewer meat pigs, huh? Such fresh produce is really hard to find now. The last time I had a pie, the meat inside wasn’t all that fresh anymore.” He lit a cigarette and puffed nonchalantly.

“The Boss and the leaders are all here, they should be able to get a good price for that. That woman Wu Dan is going to get rich,” continued the other bouncer with a laugh.

“That’s a matter of luck as well, she walked out and caught two little lambs just like that.”

Clint was picked up and brought away dazedly, but he was not completely out of it, and he had heard their words perfectly clearly. His heart instantly sank.

“The situation’s terrible.” Red Moon’s voice was slightly anxious as well. At first, he had not thought that Clint and Baylon would so inexperienced as to collapse with just a little wine. Wutan and the others did not really have bad intentions to begin with, so he did not really remind them, but now that the two of them were sitting ducks, the situation was going from bad to worse.

“Clint! Clint! Wake up! Wake up now!!” He kept yelling Clint’s name, trying to wake him up. If he had not fallen asleep because he used his power too much consequently before, and now all his power could only barely maintain his consciousness, he would be able to remove the alcohol from Clint’s body right now with the power of the Forbidden Mech.

“I… I…” Clint was barely conscious, but he was as anxious as Red Moon inside. The only problem was that he could not move his body at all.

Red Moon was boiling over with rage as well, he had lost all his powers, and now thanks to one moment’s carelessness, Clint and Baylon were in such a dangerous state. This was really bad.

Clint and Baylon could not use their Willpower at all when they were away from their Mechs. And he did not have any power at all as well right now. If they were not careful, Clint might become the first inheritor of the Forbidden Mech to be easily killed off by normal people.

********************

Blackboard Academy

The Inner Courtyard was a strange and wide underground space. If Garen did not have someone leading him down here, he would not have dreamed that the school’s Inner Courtyard would be a huge empty abyss several thousand meters underground.

Above them was a simulated sky, with a golden sun slowly shining down on the earth. Unlike normal suns, however, there was a metallic silver ring around this golden sun, like a satellite ring.

Looking at the bright scenery outside, Garen pulled back his gaze, and sat quietly in his seat, waiting.

Right now he was sitting in a meeting lounge that was neither big nor small, and there was a black metal table in front of him. The wooden chair behind had a thick black leather cushion on it.

But no one was sitting there right now.

Ker-chak.

The door to the meeting lounge opened.

A wrinkled old man holding a staff walked in slowly, and then, glancing at Garen, sat in the chair behind the table.

The old man wore something like a long white robe, and Garen could vaguely see a line of deep blue code numbers printed on the right of his neck. They looked like tattoos.

“You’re here because that guy Ansader introduced you. We’ll cut the small talk, I’ll teach you properly. But you need to give me something equivalent in exchange. You get that, right?” said the old man mildly.

“Yes.” Garen lowered his head in a sign of respect.

“I, Van Doe, don’t have many rules, but you must strictly obey all of them.” The old man coughed twice, his tone softening. “You have two senior brothers and one senior sister, they are all experts at the Crouched Eagle Talon as well, and you will meet them later. Now, show me your Willpower so I can see your progress, and then I can teach you better as well.”

“I understand, Teacher,” replied Garen respectfully. He could tell that this old man was far from just Level Five. His own internal Nameless Training Method was already at Level Five, but he could not tell how powerful this old man was at all.

Before coming here, he had already investigated Old Man Van Doe’s reputation. In order to protect him, the prodigious elite, as well as due to the fact that he could reach Level Three Willpower in such a short time, Ansader did not treat him lightly. The teacher he recommended was one of the strongest among the Inner Courtyard’s professors. Actually, the academy had very few professors, most of them were strong fighters among the instructors. The title of professor came from a selection among the instructors anyway.

And Van Doe was one of the best of the professors, he rarely revealed his power, so nobody knew if he was really only at Level Five. Most believed that he had already long surpassed Level Five. There was a large gap between Levels Five and Six, unlike the other levels, there was also a long endurance period between these two levels.

The levels could be divided into four, namely New-Moon, Half-Moon, Full-Moon, and Two-Moons. There was a large difference between the four levels as well, because with different resonance degrees, there was a large difference in the amount of resonance power they could unleash. That was why the peak of elite students and the many instructors actually used these four levels to gauge their strength.

The Inherited Level was not that easy to enter, and once someone entered it, they would have basically surpassed the limits of the human body. It was immensely terrifying, the resonance skills released in battle can reach Army Level straight away. Fighting an army with one man, that is the power of the Inherited Level.

And since ancient times, countless prodigies and elites had tried to enter Inherited Level, but less than 1% of them actually made it. Most of the rest could only stay at the Full-Moon Level, and could not go further than that.

Faced with these four levels, humans matched them to resonance data and levels.

Between Levels Five and Six, there was detailed information about Mech resonance, and this information decided that from 10% to 30%, one would be in New-Moon Level. 30% to 50% was Half-Moon, 50% to 90% was Full-Moon, and finally, 90% up to the people endlessly approaching 100%, that was the final Two-Moons Level.

Only those who truly reached 100% could enter the Inherited Level.

Garen was now just dabbling into Level Five, forget resonance Skills, he did not even have any clue about his own Mech. Without a mech of their own, no matter how strong a pilot’s Willpower was, when faced with a true high-level Mech, they would still fall like flies. After all, without the boost of a Mech, the pilot’s own Willpower Energy Field could not even penetrate the opponent Mech’s defense fields.

A victory by using the power of Willpower alone would only appear in battles against low-level Mechs, Mechs that were Level Four and above all had the ability to increase Willpower and form a Willpower Defense Field System.

Garen looked at the geezer who looked like he had one foot in the grave from the corner of his eye.

At the same time, he slowly emitted his Crouched Eagle Talon Willpower.

“Definitely not a regular Level Five, New-Moon, Half-Moon, Full-Moon, Two-Moons, I wonder what level this old man actually is,” he hazarded guesses inwardly. Unfortunately, once he reached Level Five, it was not so easy to advance anymore just by practicing training methods. Most importantly, he needed his own Mech, only then could he continue to progress. So he had no frame of reference for anything higher than that.

Van Doe half-closed his eyes,as though resting, but also as though he was carefully sensing Garen’s Willpower.

After a long while, he finally spoke.

“Not bad, not bad indeed. No wonder that old boy Ansader recommended you to me so seriously. Level Four Crouched Eagle Talon, and you seem to be practicing another training method as well. You truly have great talent to reach such a level at such a young age.”

He said that, but he did not look very happy at all.

“However, it seems that you did not train your Willpower the normal way. Instead, it looks like you used some external force to forcefully raise it. Although you tried to fix your basics later, you still have too many holes. Once you enter a battle of Willpower, in the long run, you’ll be in trouble.”

Garen’s heart gave a jolt. Although he already had a very high opinion of this old man, he never thought that he could come up with so much in such a short time.

“I don’t know how you forcefully upgraded it. There are many ways, and although all of them can only be encountered by luck, that’s still your luck, and not that of others.” The old man took out a gold-rimmed pipe, put some tobacco into it, and snapped his fingers. He actually managed to light a spark in the air, and used it to light his pipe.

“That’s why you don’t have to worry that I’ll reveal your secret,” Van Doe said calmly. “I am always fair to my disciples, but I’m also very strict. If you do not reach my requirements, then do not blame me for not showing you face. After all, your true talents are only slightly below-average, the chances of you making a breakthrough in resonance are minuscule at best.”

Only then did Garen understand why the old man showed no fondness for him even after knowing his level.

“Sixty years ago, I accepted a student just like you, he reached a high level of Willpower at a very young age. But when it came to the hurdle of resonance, he spent eighty years before he could just barely make it to New-Moon Level. So my suggestion to you is that you should gather more wealth and equipment now, a good Mech will be very helpful to you in increasing your resonance as well. Although your natural talent is terrible, with a good enough Mech, you might still be able to advance at an average speed. Do not be too disappointed,” Van Doe comforted him.

“I understand, Teacher.”Garen was slightly relieved, the old man still could not sense his hidden internal Level Five Willpower, that meant that the training method the Forbidden Core gave him was still high enough in level, and mysterious enough to fool him.