A guttural growl almost escaped Aaron's lips as he saw that horse, and even though he controlled it at the last moment, the horse turned its head to look at him with a puzzled expression.
'Huh? What did I do to you, snack-which-I-cannot-eat-untill-my-master-allows-me-to?'
This thought that appeared in the horse's head was instantly understood by Aaron, who had spent years carefully studying Teras' behaviors to know about their intentions and possible actions.
In this case, for the briefest of moments, a little bit of puzzlement had flashed across its eyes, after which its body had reacted aggressively as if it wanted to charge forward and burn him, just like the many times it had done so in those visions.
Yet, it had stopped and given a morose glance at its master, and all this had happened in barely a second.
Anyone else in the world would have missed it, but Aaron's trained eyes picked everything up and let him perfectly understand that this was a ferocious Tera which had been tamed by this man.
He had always had a knack for this: ever since he had found himself alone, he had been able to trust these instinctual feelings regarding Teras, and that had only been honed during the years spent with Woof.
Right now, the most worrying thing was that this information had also made it clear that this Tera's level of intelligence was beyond anything Aaron had seen so far, except for, maybe, in Woof's case.
According to what he had read in the Orientation Booklet, higher levels of intelligence was only seen in more powerful Teras, and although he didn't need to be told that this horse was powerful, this made his cautiousness increase to another level.
After all, there had been many cases in the jungle where insanely strong Teras that could even flatten them with a single attack had been defeated because they had not been very intelligent.
However, here…it could be said that power and brains was the 'killer' combination that was present in this man's Tera.
Aaron felt helpless after this deep analysis, as he remembered that this was only one of the man's Teras.
Well, whatever would come, he would just have to deal with it in the best way he could.
On the way over, he had already decided that he would use the A.A, which he had not been able to activate in time to see the details of all the fantastic Teras he had seen so far. So, he went ahead and asked it to scan the area now.
"Scanning. One Tera found in host's vision. Scanning TeraTome. Entry found.
Information unable to be displayed. Tera found to be of a rare sub-species, whose information has been deemed classified for all those who have not gotten clearance by making their allegiance known.
Please increase your Ascender level for more information."
Huh? Classified?
As surprise appeared on Aaron's face, a deep voice echoed in the area.
"Yes, classified. From the surprise on your face, I presume that you tried to find details about my Tera using my A.A. All details about rare Teras can only be obtained if you show yourself to be someone strong who is willing to pledge themselves to the World Government. In this world, everything has a price. And, of course, information is one of the costliest commodities."
With these words, the man turned to face them, and Aaron once again felt that same feeling that had appeared inside him a few minutes ago, when he had been in the room with the old man.
Only, because he was being seen from up close, it was so much stronger, and Aaron even began to feel a pressure that made him want to turn around and run away as far as possible.
Woof felt it too. It stopped that low growl, and slowly retreated to Aaron's side.
This meant that it had also decided that a frontal confrontation was the worst thing to do, and that it was ready to run.
Alas, they could not do so.
Thus, man and Tera stood together, defiant, while the old man beside them kept looking around with a frantic expression on his face.
With each second, the pressure increased, and as Aaron observed the sharp, rugged features of the man whose face also had a long, vertical scar running from his eye to his jaw, he realized that he was very similar to one of the strongest Teras they had ever seen in the jungle.
Aaron had only been able to name it a 'panther', as it had been a short encounter which ended with them running for their lives. It had been passing through their forest in search of something, and its every footstep had been so stealthy that it had been able to pass within a foot of where they were without them even realizing its existence.
The main reason he remembered that incident…was that when he had looked into its eyes briefly, he had noticed the same extreme callousness, which indicated that it was a being which did not care one whit about any and all existences under the heavens.
Thankfully, that pressure completely disappeared when another voice was heard in the clearing.
"City Lord, please control yourself."
It was shocking enough that the owner of this voice had somehow crept into this place without alerting either Woof or Aaron.
Yet, the thing which surprised him, even more, was the method in which this man appeared.
It looked like he had…stepped out of thin air.
Wh-what? What the f*ck?!
Even the old man looked extremely surprised, but he actually smiled after that.
As for the City Lord, he frowned and said, "You? For such a simple thing? Are you so free now, Gildart?"
The man who had appeared looked like he was young, yet his short beard obfuscated his age, not allowing one to accurately guess just how old he was.
He was built powerfully, with broad shoulders and a tall figure.
The thing that pulled Aaron's eyes, though, was a small creature on his shoulder which looked like a tiny version of a bear.
Still unwilling to believe that the A.A was completely useless, he asked it to scan again, and at least, this time, the answer wasn't like before.
"Scanning. One Tera found in host's vision. Scanning TeraTome. Entry unavailable.
Scanning other sources. One entry found.
Tera is similar to a rare species that was found on Earth before the apocalypse: 'Red Panda'."
A Red Panda?
The name was unfamiliar, but as Aaron watched it, he realized that its most striking feature was its eyes.
In those eyes…it was as if a galaxy was swirling, and as it turned toward him, he felt like he was being pulled in.
At the same moment, though, with a red flash of light, the creature disappeared, which allowed Aaron to return to his senses and sweat, as he had just realized that he might have met his death if the man hadn't recalled his Tera.
Turning to him, he said, "I'm sorry, that little bugger hasn't controlled his abilities completely, yet. Anyway, to answer the City Lord's question, I was assigned here because the World Government values the individual called 'Aaron', because he is a 'Survivor'."
With a humph, the City Lord said, "Ah, I guess I was unlucky that that guy is on duty. He always was sympathetic to these so-called Survivors because he is one."
The man did not reply, and he simply stood there with his hands behind his back.
A small smile played across his face, and with an expression of irritation on his face, the City Lord spoke up once again.
"All right, let's get this over with quickly. Yes, I played with that family, and it wasn't because I was bored. For anyone who is as old as me, the main priority is to find an heir, and I'm doing these kinds of tests to see the real hearts of Ascenders so that I can find one similar to me. While we were talking, I went through the memories of my 'test subject', and there was an incident where he did take a decision like I would have- he tried to steal and enslave that Lifeblood Tera, and weirdly enough, he wasn't killed. Right now, I will carry out another test to see whether he deserves to be one of my heirs. No lives will be risked, so you can be at ease, Gildart. Let us begin."