Chapter 50: Tavern Incident

Amidst the loud noises in the "Chamber of Drunks" tavern, Ain looked around, observing the place, and tried to familiarize himself with the customs.

He noticed that nobody really paid attention to him. Only a few cast some glances when he walked in before looking away, busying themselves with whatever they were doing.

In the hall-like tavern, tables were scattered erratically. Most of the furniture was made from wood, and it likely wasn't regular wood. They exuded an abnormally robust aura and were made from precious materials. Off to the left of the hall, there was a large bar. Intermittent sounds of utensil banging and sizzling meat were audible through a swinging door behind the bar.

The yellow lights and large fireplace mimicked the setting sun, justifying the alcohol.

After a quick look around to observe the tavern and the people, Ain roughly figured out the dynamics. He walked up to the bar and was met with a middle-aged woman with a burly build.

"What'd ya want, kid?" The barkeeper's voice sounded.

"Can I have a beer and some meat skewers?" Ain asked, having already thought of his request. As he looked around earlier, he failed to find anything akin to a menu, so he could only go off of what he saw in the others' hands.

"Huh, your first time at a bar? I'll bring it right up, just take a seat." The lady asked with a laugh before walking toward the back kitchen.

Seeing the barkeeper turn around and get busy, Ain felt a little confused and made his way to a small empty table he spotted earlier.

He wondered if his behavior was unnatural somehow, as the lady saw right through him. In the end, he could only attribute it to the barkeeper's keen intuition.

Ain took a seat on the wooden chair, whose craftsmanship was even lousier than his own old chair at home and continued observing the surroundings.

As a Rank-1 Spirit Tamer, Ain's perception was still rudimentary, but he could still tell that everyone here was a spirit tamer, even though no spirit pets were summoned.

Some of the spirit tamers seemed even stronger than him, obviously having surpassed Rank-1. Since the tavern was too large, Ain's passive perception only covered a portion, but it was still a unique sight for him to see so many powerful spirit tamers acting so casually.

Straight across from him, on the opposite end of the tavern, he spotted a figure covered in a black cloak, waiting quietly with a beer on the table.

Although the figure was out of Ain's perception, for some reason, he felt uneasy gazing upon it. Looking around, he realized that the others seemed not to care, going about their own revelry.

Ain wasn't foreign to this feeling, as it was a faint sign from Premonition. Premonition usually only responded upon immediate signs of danger, but it could also faintly remind of dangerous individuals, as it was the case when he first encountered the Rank-1 Bruce on the day of the Spirit Awakening Ceremony.

Ain only kept his gaze on the figure for a couple of seconds before looking away. It was none of his business, so it was better to just avoid it.

A few minutes later, a large, chilled beer was placed on Ain's table, along with a plate of skewers. Despite the rustic and crude vibe of the tavern, the bar hand delivering the food brought along a modern scanner for him to pay.

Of course, Ain paid readily and began munching on the skewers while taking a sip of the beer.

As soon as the beer entered his lips, Ain's mouth twitched at the bitterness, and he was tempted to spit the drink back out.

This was his second alcoholic drink, with wine being the first after his previous trip to the Duskfield Forest. Because of the wine, his expectations for beer were vastly different from what he experienced.

Taking a breath through his nose, Ain swallowed the drink before taking a bite out of the skewers with suppressed haste. The skewers were well-seasoned, serving to alleviate the bitterness.

After finishing one of the skewers, he looked down at the still-full mug of beer in contemplation. But before he could think further, a sudden silence took over the originally noisy tavern, taking him by surprise.

He looked up and noticed that everyone was looking at the entrance of the tavern, and he subconsciously follow their gaze.

What entered his vision was a tall man, seemingly in his late twenties, surveying the tavern with his hawk-like yellow eyes as his dark red hair was scattered behind him, like a lion's mane.

As a tavern, there was always traffic moving in and out of the establishment, so this wasn't a sight that could hush the entire place. The real reason why the surroundings reached stillness was due to the uniform adorning the newcomer, as well as his blatant display of his spirit energy.

The uniform consisted mainly of black, with red and gold highlights. A golden, shield-shaped badge, with a fist outlined by a rising sun, was proudly displayed on the man's chest. Even regular civilians were aware of what this represented.

The Law Enforcement Agency.

The peacekeepers of Duskfield City, and the entire Dawnstar Federation.

Moreover, the power surrounding this man surpassed anything Ain had sensed before. With his limited knowledge, he was unable to form any conjectures.

Amidst the silence, the man glanced around the tavern before his gaze settled on the black-cloaked figure Ain spotted earlier. After some scrutiny, he approached the figure with heavy footsteps.

The black-cloaked figure seemed to be unaware and just quietly stared at the table.

When the red-haired man arrived at the table, he stood there like a mountain and stared at the black-cloaked figure and spoke coldly, "Not even trying to hide anymore?"

Hearing this, the black-cloaked figure finally turned his face, revealing the lower half of an old man's face as he smiled creepily. "Hehe, my location is being tracked by the mark, where can I hide?"

"So you've given up? That makes it easy, come with me quietly." The red-haired man asked with a hostile smile, squinting his eyes.

"About that… how about no?" The old man replied and suddenly lifted his head completely, revealing his ghastly red eyes, as well as a large burn mark on the upper region of his head, almost maiming his eyes. At the same time, bright-red blood suddenly condensed around him, turning into numerous sharp spears before stabbing towards the red-haired figure.

"Hmph!" The red-haired man snorted as a burst of green flames with golden highlights suddenly surrounded his body, burning away all the blood spears and rushed towards the old man.

Before the flames reached the old man, he melted into a pool of blood, which then moved away from the fire swiftly, reforming into the old man again a few meters away.

The exchange took only a couple of seconds, and the surrounding spirit tamers finally reacted.

As expected, most spirit tamers bolted for the doors or the windows in an attempt to escape from the troublesome situation. But unexpectedly, a few suddenly dashed towards the red-haired man, ambushing him.

Various spells suddenly bombarded the red-haired man. There were various attributes among the spells, including the blood attribute like the old man.

At this moment, one of the escaping spirit tamers shouted, "Run! It's the Order of Blood Origin!"

Hearing this, everyone hastened their steps, wishing they could grow another pair of legs. Even the few spirit tamers that wanted to secretly spectate turned around and ran. The Order of Blood Origin's atrocious reputation was known to many, as the organization was filled with desperate lunatics.

Boom! Boom!

The various spells exploded in the tavern, shaking the entire establishment as Ain jumped out of a broken window.

As soon as he landed outside, he spotted a group of spirit tamers rushing into the tavern from the doors, and some even through the window he had just jumped out of. They all sported a similar uniform to the red-haired man.

'More spirit tamers from the Law Enforcement Agency!' Seeing this, Ain realized that he couldn't have chosen a worse time to satisfy his curiosity and visit the tavern. From the occurrences so far, he had encountered an operation being conducted by the Law Enforcement Agency.

Sounds of fighting and spells filled the tavern, as lights of various colors bloomed. Amidst the shouting, voices and roars of various spirit pets also sounded.

Ain had just turned his back toward the tavern to run when Premonition suddenly gave him an intense warning. Due to the soaring and chaotic spirit energy behind him, his senses were heavily impeded, so Ain could only act on instinct and fall onto the ground.

As soon as he fell sideways onto the ground, something flew over his body with remarkable speed and crashed into the building opposite the tavern.

Boom!

Dust and debris flew about, covering the small area.

For his safety, Ain stayed in his position and didn't move. His eyes turned toward where the explosion had just occurred.

Among the debris, pieces of a broken wall flew away as a figure stood up. It was the black-cloaked old man. At this moment, a thick, red snake was coiling around his body. Green-gold flames surrounded the debris, but they failed to approach the old man as they contended against the blood-red aura in the old man’s surroundings.

But this wasn't what grabbed Ain's attention. As he secretly observed the old man, he saw something stealthily fall from under the old man's cloak before the snake's tail, which reached the ground, subtly pushed it under the debris.

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