Nathan entered a tavern. He had reached the city far to the south, near the front line.
He couldnāt help but look at the poster on the wall. It was a picture of a man wearing a black mask covering his lips and nose.
Just from one look, it was clear it was a picture of him, especially since the one providing this poster was the Eleren family.
It had been one month after he had escaped from the Eleren family.
In the past month, he had been focusing on his training, mostly manuals. Although he wasnāt able to perfect them yet, he had a high mastery of each of them.
Of course, Nathan didnāt neglect his elemental practice, but the progress couldnāt be compared to the progress on the three manuals.
And finally, he went to the place near the front line.
Nathan reached the bar and waited for the bartender to notice him.
Before he got served, he couldnāt help but overhear peopleās conversations.
"Have you heard about the front line?"
"What about the front line?"
"I heard the aliens are attacking us like thereās no tomorrow."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I heard that from my brother. They said the aliens were working together and launched a much bigger assault this time."
"But the front line is good, right? On the central plain, the people have been praising the existence of the cloud-repelling device. There are already many high-level summoners that are now joining the front line."
"I donāt know. According to my source, the front line is having a hard time resisting them. More and more aliens are slipping past them. At this rate, this city might be swarmed by aliens as well."
"Oi, donāt say such a scary thing."
"Thatās not the scary part. I have heard about other cities near the front line getting attacked, but I can assure you thatās not the scary part."
"If thatās not it, then what is the scary part?"
"From what I have heard, the high-level aliens are working together, which causes the people on the front line to have a hard time."
"What? But arenāt aliens supposed to work individually? While itās true that low-level aliens can work together, they are driven by instinct."
"Right? Itās different from high-level aliens. The high-level aliens are said to be intelligent. They are smart enough to understand basic things, which makes them more individualistic."
"I donāt know whatās going on, but thatās what I heard. Because of that, the front line is having a hard time, and that gives a lot of trouble to the cities near the front line. Some have begun their evacuation, and I bet our cities are going to do that pretty soon."
"But this city is unlike most cities. We have a lot of summoners here, so even if we have to fight, canāt we just defeat the aliens?"
"We probably can, but most summoners here are pieces of trash who only think about themselves. If they find any danger, they might get away, leaving everyone behind."
Nathan couldnāt help but glance to the side. The ones talking were a group of five people. Each of them was a summoner.
The strongest one seemed to be a crystal sense stage summoner, while the rest were just one rank below him.
Still, their information was something that couldnāt be ignored.
Nathan had gone all the way to the south for something, so this might be the result of his arrival, or it might be a much grander plan than he originally thought.
It was weird for the aliens to suddenly launch a fierce attack on the humans like this, so he couldnāt help but think that the Eleren family or the Death Society might have something to do with this.
Nevertheless, investigating this matter wasnāt his original intention in coming here.
It looked like the bartender had noticed him.
While the bartender approached him, Nathan took out some bills and placed them on the table. "I heard I could get the best ale here."
The bartender raised his head, looking at Nathan. Nathan had changed his appearance slightly thanks to Maeās illusion.
His hair color had changed from black to brown, and his eyes had a soft green reflection like most people on this continent.
With Maeās illusion, there was no need to cover his mouth to avoid getting his lips read.
The bartender paused for a moment before grabbing a drink and pouring it into a mug and placing it in front of Nathan. "Of course, we have the best of the best."
Nathan didnāt drink, but it wasnāt about a drink to begin with. The moment he looked down, he saw a small piece of paper.
āBear Paw. 301. 3 Knocks.ā
Nathan smiled and took out a bill while walking away. "The ale here is definitely good."
He followed the instructions and headed to the inn across the street called Bear Paw.
Erasing his presence, he slipped past everyone, including the inn staff, and headed to the third floor.
He finally reached Room 301 as the bartender instructed. Carefully, he knocked on the door three times.
The crisp knocking sound echoed across the hallway, so Nathan checked carefully, making sure no one came out.
Soon, the door was opened by a man. This man was not an ordinary person. His strength alone was already at the crystal armor stage.
If Nathan fought him here, he wasnāt sure whether he could beat him or not, especially under peopleās gaze.
"Are you a customer?"
"I heard you are one of the best item trackers in the world."
"One of the best? Well, you can say that Iām the second best because Iām also an item collector. But that introduction... the one recommending you must be Count Harold."
Nathan nodded. He personally didnāt have a connection to this count, but Neyeid was the one handling it.
"Please take a seat. What do you want from me? Do you want to buy an item or do you want to find an item?"
"If you have it, I would like to buy it. If you donāt have it, then I want to find that item," said Nathan casually.
This was his real objective in coming all the way to this place. He wanted the sacrificial items for the next familiar.