The trip to Goldcrest City was uneventful even though, Ben had passed more traveling merchants than he had previously seen along this stretch of road.
He had continued to make his treetop platforms to spend the night on and then during the day, Ben would speed down the road using his Whirlwind Technique without bothering to stop when he passed travelers along the road.
If there had been any troublemakers or bandits looking to target him by the time they noticed him approaching he would blow past them before they could even think to try and step out and ambush him.
He was now presently standing in line outside the Goldcrest City gates waiting to gain entrance. The guards were up ahead of him currently searching through merchant and trader carts and asking them what they were bringing into the city today. Ben occupied himself by listening to music that only he could hear thanks to the system storing all his gaming laptop's hard drive data.
While relaxing to music, Ben kept himself busy by looking through everything currently in the Warehouse back at the fortress and trying to decide what he would sell and for how much.
Before he knew it he was near the front of the line which allowed one of the guards to spot him standing empty-handed behind a loaded merchant cart. The guard saw he was by himself and wasn't bringing anything into the city, so he waved Ben through the gate.
Being partially distracted while listening to his music and thinking about everything he needed to do now that he arrived, Ben did not notice the guard on duty looking him up and down when he stepped from behind the merchant cart.
Just like his followers, these people had never seen armor that would cover every square inch of someone's body and it looked to them like it must have been made by a master armorer. Ben's armor didn't have a single hammer mark on it anywhere and it was even more reflective than the polished copper mirrors sold in the stores.
When Ben stepped past the guard who waved him through, he did not hear him ask him to wait. He had gone through this routine a few times already and was now used to it so he was lost in his thoughts about going to rent a stall and scouting prices of the local stores.
After, he walked another ten feet without stopping the guard thought he was being ignored.
"You there in the shiny blue armor halt!" The guard yelled out loud enough to draw the attention of everyone around and even Ben.
Ben turned off the song he was listening to and turned around to look at who was being called out to.
When he stopped and turned to see what the commotion was about he saw that the guard who just waved him through was now walking over to him with his face twisted into a scowl. When the guard had approached him, he walked around Ben while stopping to reach out and touch the fur cape he was wearing.
"Just as I thought this is the fur of a Hemic! They haven't been seen on the continent for over a hundred years. Hemic were hunted to extinction because their fur was so sought after by nobles and kings for decades. These days the only people with the money and influence to buy Hemic fur are the kings of this continent. You are obviously not a king even though you are dressed like one. You do not have a cart, servants, or any type of military escort. Merchants, nobles, and most definitely kings do not travel alone in the wilderness. I am shocked you even made it here alive from where ever you came from by yourself. So tell me truthfully where did you get the Hemic fur and that armor from?"
The whole time the guard was talking to him he was looking at Ben with disgust and questioning him in an accusatory tone.
Ben's eye began to slightly twitch because his anger was gradually rising. He didn't do anything wrong and now this guard was literally in his face and treating him like he just got caught robbing half of the people in this city.
He did not want to get on bad terms with the guards here because this city was a current source of income for him so he took a deep breath and began to tell the guard what he had told his followers.
"I am from a country on a distant continent and have recently arrived here. This armor and my sword were made by master craftsmen of my country. As for the Hemic fur, I killed it myself in the central forest wilderness."
Ben used the story of being from another continent just as he had told other people so it could explain any strange things he did was due to being from another culture. He chose to tell the truth about the hunting the Hemic though. Since no one ever went into that forest anymore and it stretched hundreds of miles it was possible that there would still be Hemics surviving there today.
When the guard heard what Ben said he looked at him like he was an idiot.
"So you came from another continent and just decided to take a casual stroll through the Wayward Woodlands and hunted down a Hemic all by yourself while you were taking in the scenery?"
The guard continued with his attitude not believing anything, he heard while Ben's temper continued to rise as he listened to the condescending guard.
"Let me tell you this, anyone who has ever walked more than a mile into the Wayward Woodlands has never come back out again and that includes parties of experienced scouts and warriors. Then another thing from the stories I have heard about the Hemic it would be impossible for one man to kill one! If they bit into you just once they can slowly steal your life essence through your blood until you are a withered shell. They are a profound beast with the strength of a low level cultivator it would be impossible for a young kid like you to kill one!"
The guard explained with a smirk as if he had just caught Ben in a major lie.
"Now I want to know truthfully where you got that Hemic fur and armor from! There is only one explanation that you must have had somehow steal it from a royal vault or had someone on the inside help you gain entrance to steal it yourself!"
Ben was now thoroughly pissed off as he began to display a look like he wanted to beat the crap out of this guard in front of him. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he snapped back at the guard.
"Who the hell are you to judge me! You have no idea who I am or what I am capable of! Have you ever seen me fight? Do you have any idea how strong I am? Here you are making assumptions and falsely accusing me of crimes. I was the one who killed this profound beast and skinned it myself! I ended up with a broken arm and could have died because it ambushed me from behind while I was distracted! So don't you dare come over here and get in my face when you have no idea what the hell you are talking about!"
Ben was so mad at this guy he didn't hold back anymore. He figured if he continued to try and play "the nice guy" this guard would just continue to incriminate him.
The guard was momentarily shocked, he was not used to people screaming at him like this. He was a guard of the city and people would often curry favor with him. He was one of the guards who decided who entered the city and who was turned away so even if people did not like him they would show him respect and even occasionally pass him bribes.
Now he had some young kid that looked like he wasn't even twenty years old yet screaming at him in front of everyone while he was in uniform and on duty. Even if the guard could not prove he stole anything, he was ready to drag Ben down to the jail and lock him up for a few days. The guard thought if he locked Ben up he could get his armor and the cape from him and even if he couldn't keep it there should be a large reward for its return.
"Alright, that enough out of you I'm taking you down to the holding cells until I can verify your story" The guard yelled out while drawing his sword.
Ben no longer cared if he was banned from this city there were other kingdoms he could sell his goods to and they were just a bit further of a distance than Goldcrest.
There was no way he would let himself be locked up and falsely accused. He had a good idea of what a primitive dungeon would entail. He could only look forward to cold stone floors to sleep on, rotten food, a bucket to relieve yourself in while rats and bugs bit at you while you tried to sleep. No thank you!
He did not want to fight this guard because he would probably kill him. So he used the method that he remembered from the old-man cultivator in the city market.
Ben closed his eyes and focused on the guard who stood yelling at him. He thought about how he had projected his cultivation aura last time. This time though he directed forward to engulf this guard.
When he was ready, Ben opened his eyes and struck out just as the other guards were walking over to find out what was going on and why this guard had drawn his weapon. Before the responding guards could walk over to them the offensive guard was suddenly slammed to the ground.
It looked like a huge invisible hand had come slapping down from the heavens to swat this guard confronting Ben like a fly. The guard let out a painful cry and spit out a mouthful of blood.
The other guards were worried when he had collapsed and came running over to check on him, but when they reached the edge of Ben's aura they all began to feel a crushing pressure which increased as they got closer.
Before they could reach the injured guard and even realized they had run straight into Ben's aura the responding guards were driven to their knees.
Ben did not know that the reason they fell to their knees was not only due to the pressure from his aura, but they all knew what this force was that they had unexpectedly stepped into. This was the aura of an high-stage cultivator and they were all too familiar with it.
All the Goldcrest city guards were trained before they could become a city guard once and all of them had been subjected to a cultivator's aura at one point in time. They would often need to hold mock fights while under its effects as a form of training. Another reason was so that they would know what a cultivator's aura felt like when they met one in the future.
In this part of the world, there were only a few cultivators and those who were cultivators were treated with the utmost respect. A strong cultivator had the strength of a hundred men and a couple of them could turn the tide of a battle. The kings of every kingdom would bestow noble titles and land to cultivators depending on their current cultivation stage. Every king wanted to keep cultivators in their kingdom and offered them noble titles and rewards so that they would help defend the kingdom in times of war.
Ben being from another world had no idea about any of this and the old man who had confronted him was so ecstatic about the spirit food that he thought it would be possible to finally break through the bottleneck holding him back the past few years. With a sack the size of a garbage bag full of, Ben's spirit food the old-man paid for everything and went directly into closed-door cultivation.
He could have explained all these things to Ben back then if it were not for him only focusing on wanting to break through. The old cultivator had been thinking that the spirit food was the reason this young kid was at a higher stage than him so how could not be excited. If the old cultivator raised his cultivation stage he would grow stronger, extend his life, and reap more rewards from the kingdom.
The city and palace guards who had been trained in a cultivator's aura were only subjected to the aura of a low staged cultivator generally with a stage one or stage two cultivation at most. A high stage cultivators aura was too much for a normal mortal to withstand let alone train in without being internally injured or even crushed to death.
Alny high stage cultivator would not be used as a simple training tool for troops they were all pampered by the kingdom, even on the battlefield they could attack how and where they wanted without needing to follow commands.
Now, these city guards were kneeling on the edge of this young man's aura and were not even experiencing its full force, but they could tell by the guard who was groaning in pain on the ground that even though Ben was a young man he was extremely formidable.
The guards forced to their knees realized they were in a cultivator's aura. They had flashbacks of their training as a cold sweat ran down their backs. All three of them placed their hands over their hearts while looking down in some type of salute that Ben was unfamiliar with.
One of these guards while still bowing his head spoke to Ben.
"Please forgive him, my lord! I am sure he did not know you were a cultivator! All the city guards know each of the few cultivators from the kingdom by name, face, and title. I humbly apologize for not recognizing you my lord, may we have the honor of knowing your name?"
Ben's anger was suddenly shattered by this guard's humble words. He was confused at their sudden change in how they acted towards him. Every time he had visited this town they had never so much as glanced at him and now they went from treating him like a thief to a noble.
As he released his aura and was trying to figure out what was going on here, he began to here the citizens gathered around him talking.
Among the gathered people some had recognized Ben and were calling him the spirit food cultivator. Many people had bought food from him last time he was here and the shock of buying that miraculous food at such affordable prices that benefited them in so many ways was something that they would never forget.