Chapter 613: Battle for the Treasure 1
"Great point." Dahm smiled, "What a poor child... Let’s create an opportunity for her then. If we could lure out Hochman that would be even better."
"As expected of Marshall Dahm! Your plans never fail to amaze this humble servant!" The bespectacled man praised.
"Recently the Primary Colours sent a representative on wanting to merge with our family. Since there’s nothing much happening these days, why don’t you follow me for the meeting?" Dahm nodded.
"Thank you, Marshall!" The bespectacled man burst out in joy, not trying to hide his happiness at all.
A row of people, similarly, walked towards a white motorcade, almost indistinguishable from the from the snow-covered ground. The motorcade slowly drove off into the distance.
At the entrance to the gymnasium, Garen stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the leaving motorcade, his face unconsciously letting out a satisfied smile.
"Master..." Raelan said with a concerned look on his face.
After all this time training under his wing, they noticed that despite his appearance, his mental age has far exceeded them. With all his teachings to them, the five had unconsciously started calling him "master" as a sign of respect.
"Don’t worry." Garen raised his hand, motioning for her to stop.
"This is their fate. I cannot stop them, and they know they can’t as well."
"Fate? We’re only average students, how can this kind of thing exist?" Raelan looked at Garen’s back, she had never truly understood this man he called her master.
"Average?" Garen smiled, "Do you really think that those two are ‘average’?"
Raelan opened her mouth to argue, but she reluctantly lowered her head.
Up till now, she was still stuck in the 2nd level - White, and no matter what she did, she could not progress towards the 3rd level - Spin, whereas the two have already achieved the final form of the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist, with the 4th level - Illusion.
This kind of difference was comparable to Heaven and Earth, and with just a flick of a finger, they could easily kill the three of them.
Quentin and Jamie were in the same boat as well, not able to exceed Level 2. Although their bodies had attained a certain degree of strengthening after training in the Secret Techniques, it was underwhelmingly little as compared to Hochman and Dahm.
"Master..." Quentin walked up to him, looking at Garen, "What is your goal for all of this?"
They all had a copy of Garen’s information and notes which he’d prepared, which were intricately detailed yet extremely simple. However, when comparing what’s written in the notes and what she saw, the difference was unreal.
Was there truly geniuses who were just born talented in this world?
"Goal?" Garen turned around, looking at the three. "All of you are my pupils, but all of you are from different types of soil, you would bloom into different types of flowers and bear different tasting fruits. This is not my goal, I am but a teacher, an observer. Everything is left up to fate."
"Fate?"
"Hehehe..." Garen didn’t say another word. He slowly walked out of the training facility, disappearing into the snow.
Quentin and the others looked on as he left, no longer saying anything.
They had a gut feeling, that the clashes between Hochman and Dahm would become more and more intense.
The two’s strengths have already far exceeded their imagination, it was unlike Garen’s inscrutable and unapproachable strength.
Hochman had a type of sheer ferocity and force! Anyone who stood in his way needed to be annihilated! He started to treat even Garen with less respect.
On the other hand, Dahm looked gentle and polite on the surface, yet his body was emitting a chilling vibe whenever they look at him.
After a long while...
"I asked Hochman the other day," Jamie said as he leaned on the wall. "I asked him, what happened between you and Dahm?"
"What did he say?" Raelan looked over to Jamie. Quentin also walked up beside him.
"He told me to ask Master."
"So it was Master’s doing after all!!" Raelan tightened his fists.
"Though Hochman said that he does not regret a thing. Master allowed them to become stronger and stronger, even achieving greater heights of the future." Jamie sighed, his breath visible in the frosty climate.
"Yeah... They have become stronger and stronger." Quentin nodded, you could see a hint of jealousy in her eyes. They were all training under Garen’s guidance, what made them so much stronger than the others, whilst she was still stuck at her level?
"When I was talking to Hochman, he told me a statement that I couldn’t wrap my head around." Jamie continued.
"What statement?"
"He said, ‘This world is far more complicated than you imagine.’"
"What does he know, and what has he experienced?"
"Who knows?" Jamie’s said expressionlessly, "He’s become like a stranger to me."
******
"The seeds have already sprouted..." Garen was watering the potted plants in his room.
Drops of water were flowing out of the white watering can, splashing onto the leaves and dripping into the soil.
Hochman and Dahm’s bad attitude towards him was no longer important. What’s important was that their clashes have reached the point where they could no longer hold back.
To Hochman, those who submit to his will would prosper and those who resist would fall. In the areas under his rule, even the government servants had no choice but to submit to him. His family has widespread influence, and along with his monstrous physical strength, they’d become an influential superpower in the area.
On the other hand, Dahm used Nottingham as a base of operations, controlling the other areas through his family’s influence and connections. Almost like a giant snake hiding in the depths of the sea, ready to kill at any moment.
"They’ve probably already noticed that I was the one who planted the primer in the first place..." Garen laughed. "But so what? The power created from the primers merging is not fake, it is an actual strength that one can feel. The two of them should understand that the most."
He felt that he could probably leave this circle at this point as Hochman and Dahm no longer needed to be under his manipulation.
Beep beep... Beep beep...
A clear notification tone rang.
Garen looked at the sunlight shining through the balcony for a brief moment, then walked into his room and grabbed his phone located on his bed.
******
South Africa
Smash!
A beautiful oriental porcelain vase was shattered on the ground, fragments flying all over the place.
Huff! Huff! Huff...
The baldy had one of his eyes bandaged up, his facial expression was twisted to the extreme.
"Trash! Bloody trash!" he wheezed in the ward. The doctors and nurses were at the door, too scared to even go in.
In the pure white ward, the group of men and women clad in black stood with indifferent expressions. The atmosphere of the entire room was gloomy, everyone inside was radiating a chilling vibe.
"That was a trap..." A younger girl said softly.
"Yeah... It was a trap." The baldy nodded.
Bam!
He angrily kicked at the metal table in front of him, knocking it to the ground.
"That Black Uniform, Levi." He roared in a low voice, "That sly, disgusting piece of shit! How did he manage to reduce the numbers of my, the African Hawk’s men down by four?"
With two smacks, the doctors and nurses outside the ward were knocked unconscious and were dragged away, preventing them from hearing the confidential conversation.
The ward was completely silent.
"That pest that I could’ve killed with one strike! How dare he! How dare he!" Baldy was thinking back to what happened before, getting even more furious.
"Leader, I don’t think that’s the most important issue right now, Levi had a lot of schemes prepared, we were careless this time and fell into his trap. Under normal circumstances, we would have easily defeated him." A short-haired man with a beard said.
"No..." Baldy took a deep breath, "This is no longer about getting revenge. It’s too late... It’s already too late. The mission has failed. The Stone Clock of Fortune has been sold by Levito and the Vincent Organisation. Our mission has failed."
He paused, "I just sent a text to the boss."
Suddenly, the expressions of everyone in the room changed, their faces turning white and losing their calmness and indifference.
"You’re crazy! We haven’t failed! No! We still have a chance! We can still take back the Stone Clock of Fortune!" The young girl frantically shouted.
"No..." Baldy shook his head, "This issue is out of our hands, if we hide this loss from the boss, he’ll definitely kill me."
"Damn it!" The bearded man furiously punched the wall behind him.
Thinking of the mysterious and torturous punishments of the boss, he couldn’t help but tremble in fear.
******
Garen picked up his phone and looked at the text message, his expression instantly changed.
"Failed? The Nighthawks lost 4 men?"
Garen put down his phone, his eyes glowing in anger.
He immediately called Baldy.
The call went through in an instant.
"Boss..." Baldy now longer called him Commander, Baldy would only call him that in extremely formal situations.
"I’m coming over personally."
After saying this, Garen immediately hung up and turned off his phone.
Originally Garen didn’t care much about the Stone Clock of Fortune, it wasn’t important to him, the number of potential points it contained was too low. It was something that he did not need, but having it was better than not having it, that’s why he sent the Nighthawks to get it.
Who would’ve thought the Nighthawks would fail? Even to the point where they suffered casualties. They were elites, all personally trained by him himself.
"Damn... It’s been such a long time since I’ve taken a life." Garen squinted his eyes.
******
The data was sent over from the Baldy, directly to Garen’s phone.
He vaguely understood everything that happened over in South Africa.
There were 2 key players.
The boss of the Black Uniform Organisation, Levi, and the archeologist Kenna.
Kenna was an adventurer and an archeologist who was being pursued by the Black Uniform Organisation, which specialized in auctioning antiques because he knew of the whereabouts of the Stone Clock of Fortune. This led to a series of mutual grudges between him and that organization.
The pursuer, Levi, somehow survived being buried alive by the rubble from the tomb collapsing that was caused by Kenna. Due to his grudge against Kenna, and also his greed for the secrets locked within the Stone Clock of Fortune, he decided to start pursuing Kenna. Kenna’s sister and cousin have both died at the hands of Levi. Levi also suffered multiple heavy hits from Kenna’s traps, with grudges piling up, Levi’s goal shifted from the Stone Clock of Fortune to the sole purpose of killing Kenna.
To remove Levi from the picture, Kenna decided to stir the pot, spreading rumors and information about the Stone Clock of Fortune to the public, attracting the attention of other groups and elites.
This was the moment the Nighthawks decided to step in.
Baldy, with his immense strength and powerful henchmen, gave out killing orders on Kenna and Levi, thinking of finishing the two off.
Thus, after destroying various interfering parties, they fell into a trap. With Levi’s scheming, he managed to get the other interfering parties to cooperate, defeating the Nighthawks.