No matter who, every single person standing near or around the city gates looked incredulously in Alex's direction. But Alex remained calm. After all, who wouldn't give strange looks if they suddenly saw a man riding atop a huge lizard co out of nowhere, and soone who looked completely unfamiliar to them no less.
In fact, despite the weird looks and attention he was stirring up simply from Brontes' presence as his mount, Alex actually felt quite happy and relieved inside. Was this not his most hopeful outco?
It beat just imdiately getting attacked, that was for sure. But Alex was also positive that their C tier aura's were a part of the reason they weren't attacked. If they revealed B tier aura, or god forbid their actual aura, then only god would know how these people would have reacted to their sudden appearance.
Seeing the attention that they had garnered at the gates, it was only natural that people would want to investigate. As the officials in charge of guarding this section of the wall, the city guards quickly made their way over.
They descended from their posts atop the walls with clearly practiced efficiency, with their armour not looking any special to the first glance.
'Must be because of the lack of trade with outside forces.' Alex thought to himself.
This city still gave him quite an interesting feeling – a place so large, yet so isolated. It only made him wonder how this situation exactly ca to be. But despite all that, he was a newcor here so if he went around asking questions about the city's status and history, then he could rouse so suspicion that he would rather not gather.
The less people that knew about him in this place, the better. Though that wouldn't stop him from going about his business as usual of course, it just ant he had to play things carefully.
"Halt!" One of the guards barked at him when he neared the gate. His voice was amplified by his clear C rank Mutant class strength, which Alex and Brontes both felt clearly through the aura he was perating.
The guards had no reason to hide their strength, in fact showing it so brazenly like this acted as a good deterrent for any would-be criminals, making them second guess entering this city. With how little visitors they had, they were sure to be more thoroughly investigated after all.
"State your identity and purpose!" The sa guard shouted at Alex.
Alex raised both his hands in gesture of peace, keeping his actions calm and steady to not agitate anyone.
"Na's Alex. Just a traveler passing through, looking for supplies and information. I don't want any trouble here." He said, maintaining a calm but confident tone.
The guard's gaze shifted to Brontes, clearly agitated, as his grip visibly tightened around his sword.
"And the beast? What is it?"
"My mount." Alex smoothly answered, patting Brontes' neck for emphasis, receiving a low but calm chirp in response from Brontes. "Tad and trained. He's harmless as long as no one threatens to harm us."
The guards exchanged glances with each other, clearly scepitcal over the whole situation. One of them activated so sort of magical device on his wrist, and a beam of light scanned Brontes and Alex from head to tail.
'The fuck was that?'
This was clearly an unexpected response that Alex had failed to consider. Who said that technology didn't work in the Primordial Expanse? They should be shad for lying!
'No, wait. That thing clearly emitted an energy signature, so its not a technological item… Perhaps this place has developed their own 'technology' of sorts using energy as a resource?'
Whatever the reason, Alex's tension heightened to the max as he darted his gaze around each and every one of the guard's faces, looking for any kind of minute reaction or detail that might tell him what they had found out from that scan.
Brontes had cloaked their aura, but Alex had no clue if that would work against this unknown variable they had just unleashed.
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The scan lingered on the faint crackle of lightning that danced across Brontes's scales, before finally dissipating a few seconds later.
"This… mount of yours emits a power signature far beyond the normal tas we are used to seeing," the guard spoke, his tone full of wariness. "Where did you acquire it?"
Alex suppressed a sigh, knowing that they had clearly just dodged a bullet but not revealing any his his stres. Sure, they had just avoided a possible situation from occurring, but that didn't an they were out of the blue yet.
"It's a long story…" he said, giving them a lopsided smile. "But I can promise you, he's under control. We're not here to cause trouble, like I said. We only want to stay here for a few days, and we'll be out of your hair soon enough."
The guards didn't look convinced, but one of them stepped aside and spoke to that sa device on his wrist that he'd used to scan Alex and Brontes earlier. After a few tense monts of a staring contest between Alex and the other remaining guards as they waited, the massive gates began to creak open, revealing the bustling city behind.
Alex tried using his enhanced hearing to snoop in on the conversation between the head guard and whoever was on the other end of the communicator, but there was so sort of filter that blocked him from understanding what they were saying. The words were all garbled, and it was clearly interference, not them simply speaking a language he didn't understand.
"You'll be watched," the lead guard said as he walked back to Alex. "Any sign of aggression, and you'll be dealt with imdiately."
"Understood." Alex said, nodding at the guards. "Thanks for the hospitality."
Brontes soon strode through the tall, imposing gates of the city with Alex curiously looking around on his back.
'I forgot to ask what the na of this place was…' Alex chastised himself, but let it go instantly.
However while he was thinking, Brontes suddenly let out a huge yawn, and promptly fell over onto his side, knocking Alex off in the process.
He'd clearly just entered a deep slumber, but this ti there was sothing different than the first ti he did so…
He disappeared from view completely!
[Ta Brontes has entered the taming space.]
[Beasts in taming space: 1]
'...'
'Are you telling you could have just done that the whole ti, instead of having us go through that whole mount ruse???'
Alex didn't know what to think.
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