Chapter 549 Luring out of the shadows
Chapter 549 Luring out of the shadows
Chapter 549 Luring out of the shadows
A few days soon passed, and Alex's life was quite tranquil. But the constantly observing presence never went away unfortunately.
During these few days, Alex had gleaned some information. For one, the name of this place was 'Advent Garden' which sounded rather peculiar to name a city, but he held no reservations against such a thing.
With how vast the Primordial Expanse was, it was a no brainer that many diverse cultures would develop completely unaware of each other, and so it was normal that places like this existed where they had such exotic names for a city.
Some other interesting things he'd learned though was just how scarcely vast this area was. He was wondering and curious at first at the reason why there were so few traders for such a large city, but after fishing around for some information for a little while, he connected the puzzle pieces together.
This place was called Advent Garden for a reason, not just because whoever founded the place had an exotic naming sense, but because it acted as an oasis of sorts for any lone, or lost travellers in this vast expanse of land.
As it turned out, in the entirety of the surrounding area, spanning over 500,000 kilometres, this was the ONLY city… For someone like Alex, a higher life form, that might not seem like much of a distance to travel, but that was just because he could cover that in about an hour, but for the ordinary, C tier and below natives? Good luck trying to get to the next closest city.
'That explains the lack of trade…' Alex mused to himself, ' And the unusually diverse mix of people here. It's a melting pot for those who managed to find their way through this wilderness alive.'
The city was also a curious study in contrasts. The bustling streets were filled with merchants, who were mostly all local, or newcomers planning on settling down since the hopes of returning to where they came from through the wilderness was so abysmal. Ther were also artisans, performers, you name it. Moreover, the average level of strength in Advent Garden seemed to be pretty high compared to the population there.
Even just walking down any random street, he could spot many D tiers, with a high chance of even a C tier too. The chances of seeing B tiers were much, much lower though, but still higher than other cities. He'd only sensed a few of them so far, but that was still more than any other city had.
He had yet to sense any A tiers or S tiers, but that was most likely just because he didn't have the ability to do so. But this was also in part because of his inability to sense life forms in the Primordial Expanse. After all, they might be able to hide their auras, but he would still be able to sense their life force if this were in the outside universe.
Unfortunately things just didn't work that way, so he had no choice but to hope that whoever's attention his presence in this city he had grabbed wasn't a powerful A tier, or even more dreadfully, an S tier.
Even if they were an A tier Mutant class he would still keep his distance, or perhaps even leave the city entirely. Even though he theoretically might be able to match them in strength, following the same trend that he had throughout his life as an awakened, he had yet to test out his strength against such powerful beings yet.
Moreover, it was already common knowledge that the higher one climbed through the ranks, the larger the power chasm between each rank became.
It was only on the third day that Alex noticed a familiar prickling sensation along his spine. He immediately activated his spatial perception and expanded it to the max range, and found the same observing bird high in the sky once again, circling him just as it did three days ago.
'Why do they persist in watching me? What is their end goal?' Alex mused internally, with frustration stemming from his situation clearly bubbling to the surface. 'They haven't made a move. Are they waiting for something? Or perhaps someone?'
He continued strolling through the streets in the same fashion he had before noticing the watchful eye above in the sky. Any deviations in his patterns might alert the observer to the fact that he had noticed something amiss.
He made a show of appearing distracted with his movements casual and leisurely, giving off the air of having his guard down. Internally, however, his mind was as sharp as his sword. He passed through a crowded market, with the chaotic atmosphere providing him the perfect cover for what he was planning to do next.
***
Alex stepped into a small apothecary shop near the middle of the market. The interior was dimly lit with a few small candles dotted about, lined with shelves of strange herbs and potions. The shopkeeper, an aged old man with a thick beard, greeted him with a nod but didn't interrupt his search any further. Alex selected a few random items, altering his expression slightly to mimic an expression of shock and joy, as if he had discovered something that tickled his fancy, before placing them on the counter.
"This'll work wonders for my tame!" He said under his breath.
All this might seem quite unnecessary, but Alex had a reason for doing so.
Ever since he entered the cover of the market, the observer high above had descended and only floated a short distance above this time, mimicking the actions of the other birds in the vicinity. However, Alex noticed instantly the observing bird disappearing from his perception when he entered the shop, before reappearing in an unassuming corner of the shop.
No matter where Alex went, it kept a keen eye on him, and with their closeness, a watchful ear too.
He wanted it to hear his mumblings within the shop.
"Anything else sir?" the shopkeeper asked as he rang up the purchases.
"No, this will do." Alex shook his head.
Alex brought out a random D- rank Ordinary class beast core and threw it to the shopkeeper, before exiting the store.
Instead of leaving the shop directly though, Alex stepped through a side door leading into a narrow alley. The observer would have no choice but to follow, or risk losing him entirely. He moved swiftly but without appearing hurried, with his senses keeping a high alert for any movements within his vicinity.