Chapter 29 - Entry

Aiden's eyes were wide with astonishment as they arrived at the edges of the forest, and he saw the first glimpses of the towering brick walls that protected the city and its residents. Towering and wide walls, with the occasional duo of guards patrolling on them.

"I see you like the scenery, huh?" asked Granny, noticing the boy's wide-open eyes. Lily also chimed in, seeing Aiden's reaction.

"It's awesome, right?" Then with her small fists clenched, she donned a determined gaze and continued. "But just you wait, the sweets are even better inside!"

Shaking his head with a smile, Aiden patted Lily's head, while answering Granny.

"Yes, it is an incredible sight. However, I still prefer the calm and relaxing atmosphere of the forest to these cities anytime. Seeing so many people just fills me with unease."

"I can understand that, and I'm also the same in that regard. We will just deliver these potions to Mr. Norton and his family, and then after a filling lunch we can go back home," answered Granny with her gentle smile.

Fixing her hoodie and with a few pats to her ragged clothes to clean it up, just a little bit, they arrived in front of a larger crowd of people waiting in a messy line. They were waiting to gain the approval of the guards stationed in front of the gates, and gain entry. The group waiting for entry rather large, and while you could see all kinds of faces, they were probably all from the same social class. You could not see silk or any fine clothing on them, they were all rather crude, plain or simple.

Not minding the few obnoxious stares they were receiving, they stood at the end of the line. Granny looked at Aiden, and with a stern expression, she whispered to them in a low voice.

"Listen here, whatever happens, try to remain calm okay? If you transform here that will cause bigger troubles for us, okay? We may have to pay a small contribution to gain entry, but that's just how it goes. It's important that we remain low-key, as long as we are in the city. Promise me you will remain calm Aiden!"

Without answering, Aiden simply nodded his head then closed his eyes, to instead focus on his system while waiting for their turn.

Quite a few events have passed in the last few days, and with the system in semi-automatic mode since the last upgrade, he did not pay any attention to it.

First, he wanted to see his status screen, to see the gains he received from the last hunt. His end results were substantial at that time. He also noticed that the system seemed to have automatically gathered some of the slain wolves parts without any input from him.

[

Name: Aiden

Race: Primal (Evolver)

Form: Ancient Dragon (Tier 3)

Level: 4/100 (50/800 XP)

Condition: 100%

Soul Power: 50

Experience: 0 XP

Might: 27 (50/500 XP)

Agility: 27 (100/500 XP)

Spirit: 32 (0/500 XP)

Innates:

Dragon's Wrath (Level 2) (0/1000 XP),

Skills:

Primal Absorb (Level 1) (50/100 XP), Hunt (level 3 - 10/100 XP)

Effects:

Blessing of Ioris (-),

Physical Resistance (level 3 - 15/100 XP),

Fall Resistance (level 1 - 0/100 XP),

Water Resistance (level 1 - 0/100 XP),

Poison Resistance (level 2 - 25/100 XP)

Inventory:

1 Cave Viper Egg (fertile),

9 Cave Viper Egg (unfertile),

5 Grey Wolf Fur (damaged),

8 Black Wolf Fur (damaged),

4 Wolf Fang,

1 Monster Energy Orb (Tier 1)

]

Seeing his updated page, he immediately had quite a few questions. It seems that the system operated in a semi-automatic mode, not just automatically spending his experience to level up, but various parts of the defeated wolves have also landed inside his inventory.

One item, in particular, he had to investigate it. It was the orb that had some black mass swirling inside of it.

[Monster Energy Orb (Tier 1) - An Orb containing the energy residue of an entity with a connection to the Spirit Pool. The Orb can be consumed, gaining an immediate boost to the user's maximum Energy Pool. It can also be used as an ingredient for Fusion.]

'Enya, can you give some more information about this orb? It says I can use it for Fusion, how does it work?'

[Aiden, during the fusion process, you need to provide 2 or more of your life forms or any forms of life signatures as ingredients for the fusion. Once this condition is set, you will be able to advance forward and see various projections of the results, and even alter it. While you do have to maintain a 100% Stability, you will be able to add or remove traits or even visual features from the end result to modify it to your liking. Based on the complexity of the fusion you will also see an estimated time required to complete the fusion. You can even save your drafted results before committing it, and start the fusion at a later date, as some fusions could take the span of multiple days.]

After Enya's lengthy introduction the feature Aiden carelessly neglected for too long, he wanted to try it out. However, before he could have done so, he heard some commotion ahead and opened his eyes to take a look.

A lavish carriage came from the road, and from the arrogant look of the driver itself, it was obvious that it carried someone of higher social standing. The guards have also bowed deeply, and without causing any fuss, they bowed and opened the gate to let the noble into the city ahead of the crowd.

This privileged and unfair treatment earned the ire of the crowd, and the crowd that gathered started shouting at the guards. The guards, in turn, doubled down on their attitude, and most likely increased the entry fee, as the first few waiting in line shouted even louder. The commotion started to gain traction, and the sounds reached the ears of the guards stationed on the walls.

Shortly after a man with a similar attire as the guards but with a slight color variation and a small silver star sewn onto his shoulder pads arrived and started questioning the guards and the angry mob to get an overall picture of the situation.

After a brief round of questioning, he understood the gist of the problem. Shaking his head, he exhaled then loudly addressed the crowd.

"Everyone please calm down. Citizens with higher social standing have the right to enter the city without interruption, skipping waiting in line. The guards while they had no right to increase the toll, " reaching the point of his speech, he gave a stern look at the guards who in turn shivered and lowered their heads" have done nothing wrong, just adhere to the law. Obviously the entry fee has not increased, and I also have to warn you all that if you continue to cause trouble, you will be denied entry to the city and we will be forced to remove you."

Giving a brief pause, he looked at the crowd sternly, then with a loud sigh, he continued.

"Now, please get back into the line, and wait for your turn. Any troublemakers will be immediately removed from the line and denied entry from now on."

As he finished his speech he turned to the 2 guards and said a few words to him that was inaudible to the crowd, but from the looks of it, the captain did not give them praise, as the 2 guards shivered in fright in response. With a wave of his hand, 2 new guards arrived to replace them, and with that, they all went back inside the wall, to their previous posts.

Looking at the whole scene playing out, a few words of praise escaped Aiden's lips.

"This captain… has a high sense of justice. He could have taken the side of the guards and nobody could have done a thing, but he remained impartial."

"Yes, he is Captain John Deere, one of the few reliable officers in the ranks of the guards. We are actually lucky that it was him that arrived, and not some of the less favorable captains. Anybody else would have arrived then the outcome would have been vastly different." answered Granny.

The crowd shortly quieted down, and as the new guards started working, listening to the various reasons for entry, and taking the fee, the line finally started moving. It was still quite some time, before their turn, so after a few rubs on Lily's head that earned him a cute "Ehehehe", he closed his eyes and focused his concentration on the system once again.

'Okay Enya, you mentioned I could experiment with the fusion and I do not need to commit to it, but I could back out and save my results for a later time? Can I only store 1 result or how does this feature work?'

[You can save only 1 as a draft. Later you will be able to get back into the system and selecting the stored draft, open it back up, and then commit to it. One thing to remember is that you will be able to use your mastered forms an infinite number of times while orbs that you gather can only be used once.]

'I see… Thanks for the information, Enya. Now, let's check this feature out finally!'