Chapter 550  A meeting

    A few blocks away, in the shadow of a crumbling tower, Alex stopped and waited.

    The alley was empty, with its only occupants being the rusted remains of discarded crates and barrels.

    Seconds turned into minutes, and just as Alex began to wonder if his gamble had failed, the air above the tower shifted ever so slightly. The soft rustles of wings entered his ears, followed by the faintest disturbance of energy.

    "I know you''re there." Alex said, keeping his voice low and calm.

    "This is the second time you''ve followed me in these past three days. Reveal yourself."

    For a moment, silence was all that rained in the shadow of the half demolished tower. Then, a soft shimmer could be seen, and a figure materialised in front of him.

    It was the same eagle he''d see before, or rather ''sensed'', but it was an eagle no longer. Now, standing in the shadows, a cloaked figure stood with sharp angular features and piercing gold eyes that glowed faintly beneath their hood.

    "You''re sharper than I expected." the figure said in a smooth tone filled with confidence, and slight amusement. "Most would have never noticed me."

    "Flattery won''t get you anywhere," Alex replied coolly. "Who are you, and why have you been following — observing me?"

    The figure chuckled softly.

    "Who I am isn''t important, it''s who I represent that is. But before we get into that, let''s just say someone is very curious about you, Alex."

    Alex''s eyes narrowed. ''The only ones in this city who know my name are the guards I told at the gate. Whoever this is clearly has some connections to the city''s government.''

    "You know my name, congratulations." Alex said mockingly.

    The figure tilted their head in response though. "I know much more than that. The question is, how much are you willing to reveal about yourself?" The tension soon grew thick between the two of them, as neither of them were willing to speak afterwards. Alex''s instincts told him to just attack this guy right here, right now and use forceful, violent methods to extract the information he wanted – but he held back. Wanting to see what they would do next.

    After he was at least 90% confident that there was nobody within 500 kilometres of himself, he closed his eyes and consulted the System.

    [Taming space: 1 beast]

    He didn''t speak to the System directly, instead he only wanted to interact with his newly acquired taming space.

    Inside, Brontes still slept soundly, or Alex assumed he was. However this wasn''t a moment where he wanted to allow Brontes this luxury. He had an experiment to perform.

    ''Come out, Brontes!'' He shouted internally.

    Some seconds of awkward silence passed where nothing happened, making him think that some other method might be needed to lure Brontes out, but a familiar energy signature soon started to reveal itself in front of him.

    "Brontes!" Alex blurted out in joy at the sight of the familiar beast.

    Brontes opened his eyes sleepily, barely even able to keep them open. He was clearly not fully recovered yet, but Alex immediately noticed the huge difference in his aura compared to just a few days ago.

    Compared to the week of sleep Brontes had gotten on the ship, those last three days of sleep in the Taming space were much, much better for his recovery.

    ''Perhaps the taming space has a boosted recovery effect for tames inside?'' He thought up the correct answer.

    However this experiment wasn''t just for him to see Brontes'' progress, instead it was to see if he could even summon him.

    He wanted to be assured if he could even use his biggest trump card if it came down to it.

    If it turned out that he couldn''t summon Brontes, then he would just not show up to the south gate in three days time.

    But now that he had confirmed it...

    He definitely had to go!