42 Entering Bryarmont Town End (1/2)

On hearing this sentence from the old man, Anissa folded her hands and grimaced before beginning to do something that puzzled Aaron.

She looked to the side, and acted as if the old man wasn't standing right in front of her.

The old man, who had made such a domineering entrance, had no option but to smile sheepishly and scratch his head as he saw this.

After a moment, he spoke out.

”Are you still angry that I didn't let you directly go to challenge that City Lord? There is an order of things, Anissa! If I let you get overconfident, you're the one who'll be regretting it later!”

These words had no effect, though, and Anissa even began to hum a casual tune as if she was bored.

Although Aaron was intrigued by this dialogue, he still had part of his attention on that corner from where the old man had walked out of.

Woof was the same. Its fangs were bared, and it looked like it was ready to pounce forward at any moment.

A second later, the reason behind this became clear.

Materializing exactly like how the old man had just done, a Tera that as dark as the night languidly walked toward them while yawning.

It looked extremely lazy and laid back, but the danger felt by Aaron and Woof only increased.

Instantly, they began to inch back, as they could tell that this was probably a foe they couldn't beat.

However, it looked like this Town was destined to keep surprising him.

”Here, Cathy. You did a good job!”

Saying so, the old man took out a green ball the size of a fingernail from his pocket and threw it in the direction of the Tera, whose eyes lit up the moment that ball was exposed to the air.

It leaped up and caught the ball before swallowing it and then landing beside the man. Munching on it with a very happy expression on its face, it joyfully purred and then rubbed its head against the man's leg.

W-wasn't this supposed to be an advanced Tera with high intellect? Then why the hell was it acting like it was some kind of garden-variety beast that hadn't even evolved to become a Tera?

The old man spoke out, dispelling Aaron's doubts.

”Oh, don't be so surprised. This is a Shadow Leopard that was born with a brain defect. It has the simplest of intellect, and according to what I read in a City, its a lot like a cat from before the Apocalypse. What I fed it was also catnip, that was made by my secret recipe. I'm training it as a utility Tera, as even though it's simple-minded, it has a special knack for learning skills.”

This was the first time that Aaron was seeing that something like this was even possible.

When he thought about it, though, he realized why that was the case.

If a Tera was born with some kind of defect like this in the forest…it would die long before reaching adulthood.