The First King of Beasts

After a while of travel, Victor arrived at the city, Calcit. He get off his dragon while he was still very far away from the city so as not to drag any attention to himself.

A huge city like that would surely have guards standing on the walls always, and it will have people moving in and out of the city with the surrounding being busy. It was better to track the remaining distance for him.

The place Dustin had stopped in was pretty much a forest, and from there he walked towards the city. There was no need to run for now as Rea who was with him would not be able to keep up, plus he wanted to scout the surrounding area to see what kind of beasts or monsters the place inhibited. He did this for some reason.

"You seem to be looking out for something?" Rea asked as she noticed Dustin looking around a bit, definitely more than he normally would.

"Nah, not really."

While walking Dustin stopped for a moment, as he thought he had heard sound of footsteps coming from a certain direction. After a few seconds, Dustin could hear the steps clearly, and he could even pick up what they were saying and discussing.

Apparently, he was right not to continue any further with the dragon, as the three approaching him were arguing quite enthusiastically about it.

Instead of hiding or doing anything of the sorts, Dustin simply used his illusion skill and made himself less present around the area. Soon enough, the three arguing came by and passed him while they continued in their different paths.

He and Rea continued on for a while more until Rea started complaining lightly about being tired. Before Dustin allowed her to follow him, he asked her to strengthen her body as he would not want to travel around with someone who couldn't protect themselves. Rea who naturally had a very frail body and couldn't build physical strength much really tried so that she could go with Dustin. In the end she did improve with Dustin's help of course, but it wasn't really much compared to another adventurer.

"We've been at it for roughly three hours now. Guess this is your limit." Dustin said. His words never really carried any emotion, and when they did it was never much or at least enough. Rea always had some tough time figuring out what kind of mood Dustin was in, and in a way Dustin wanted that.

He didn't want to build a kind of relationship where she became too dependent on him, as he was sure he couldn't create that kind of emotional bond. He needed her to be be able to fend for herself in the actual world.

She was already somewhat tough, but that was different, plus, there was actually a catch, something Dustin only came to know of after they began travelling together.

At that point, Dustin had to carry Rea on his back, and this time her wasn't going to be walking either. After picking her up, he gave her some time to adjust, and then he bolted. Of course, he couldn't really move as fast as he would want, and not nearly as fast as he was capable of, but it was still faster than walking.

In the same three hours it carried them to cover only so much, Dustin used it to cover a really big distance, and by the end of it they had reached the entrance of the city, the main gate.

Rea could not stop herself from stealing a glance at Dustin from time to time. She knew he was powerful, but she didn't know he was also some Olympic champion. Honestly, she had no idea how others were, so she immediately thought that every other person was similar and could achieve the same feats Dustin could.

Even after carrying her and running all that distance without break, he didn't seem to even be tired at all, and his breathing reassembled someone who had just gone for a mild jogging.

They smoothly processed their documents and all with the guards before been allowed into the city. They came as adventurers who had yet to register, and from the reaction the guards gave, it seemed like that wasn't out of the ordinary. Dustin was told that he would have to register as an adventurer once he arrived at the city if he wanted to enjoy the privileges. He did enquire about what kind of privileges he would be enjoying, but after learning about them, he deemed them not too exclusive, but he decided he would get it nonetheless.

"What do we do now? Did you make preparations before hand?" Rea asked. She wasn't the type with the happiest or brightest personality, so both of them fit each other quite well. It was also getting dark outside, and the street lamps were turning on, and they did so on their own too.

"We will find some hotel to sleep in first, then tomorrow or along the week, we can find a house." Dustin said.

"You mean an inn?"

"Is that the only way they refer to it here?" Dustin asked.

"Well yeah, pretty much. I wouldn't know well anyway." Rea responded, as she looked around a bit and moved closer to Dustin.

"Well let's go then."

Both of them roamed around for a bit without finding one for themselves. Rea had gotten hungry too, so they stopped to eat. All Dustin had was wine, and since they ate at a very good restaurant and not some bar or tavern, the drinks were really good.

After they were done eating, Dustin took the opportunity to ask the waitress for a good place where they could spend the night.

The waitress was kind enough to provide them with good information. Maybe it was because they they ate there and Dustin bought such expensive wine, the Inn they found themselves standing before looked to be quite the expensive one. From the name, exterior design, to everything, even the service, one could tell how expensive it would be.

Luckily for both of them, Dustin was stacked up with cash, so much of it that literally didn't know what to do with it. Spending a fraction of it was nothing.

If there was a better benefit than ranking top in the rankings, it was that every area Dustin raided the amount of points awarded was simply insane and enough to make someone not want to ever live the life of an adventurer anymore.

"Are you sure this is ok? We should look for something within a better price range." Rea said, and she sounded a bit worried genuinely. She knew Dustin was not one to want to impress the likes of her, but seeing him deciding to book a night in such an expensive Inn made there think if his flaw was wanting to live the life... heh. If only she could see the points he had.

"Don't worry, this should be ok." He said before walking inside, and in the end Rea had to follow as there wasn't much she could do.

That night would go on to surprise Rea as Dustin would go on to book two separate rooms since he didn't want them to share one considering they had to take baths and all. He really didn't mind it, but for the sake of the lady.

The price for a night in one of their individual suites was a whooping 250 coins per night, and Dustin paid for two.

[One coin equals 100 US dollars]

In the end, back at the beginner town, they were being ripped off hard, and they didn't even know it. To think there were still people living terrible lives there without knowing that there existed other currencies.