It took us several hours to reach our destination, even though we were focused on getting there as quickly as possible, it still took us several hours, the sun was rising over the horizon when we arrived in the city.
The state of the group is in shit, Zephyrus and by far the worst he's barely conscious as he's carried like secondhand luggage on Gloria's shoulder who is quite pale and out of breath. Neither one of us is in a good state, if we had been unlucky enough to have to fight along the way I don't think we would have made it this far without stopping to rest for several hours.
We were greeted by a small squad of knights who were extremely tense and even some trembled in fear when they saw the pillar of black smoke that was like a black tower that starts from the ground and rises to the clouds in the sky. Even though they don't know what's happening on that mountain, it's obvious to everyone that something very bad involving powers far superior to yours is happening in this aria of the realm.
And how they are the soldiers with the duty to protect this city that must be the biggest city next to that black column that serves as the target of imagination and fear of all the citizens of the city.
We were escorted to a room in the town hall where there were generals, the mayor and the head of this branch of the adventurers' guild to my surprise there didn't even seem to be a representative of the royal family here, there was also another handful of people but not one of them was really very important as they were not people in leadership positions but were in their capacity to help and offer help to the people who will make the decisions of how the city will lead on this new catastrophe that is plaguing the kingdom now.
Upon entering the room, I was stared at by everyone in the room, all conversations and dictions would come to an end when I walked through the door being followed by Hilda and Gloria, Alice stayed behind to take care of Zephyrus who completely passed out when he was thrown on a couch at the front desk of the building by Gloria.
"Hi?"
"You must be the group that was near the owl forest, right? From the report I received earlier, you are students who are doing missions in the region when the alpha beast woke up, weren't you?"
"Yes, but there are small details that must be corrected in your intelligence, we weren't near the owl forest but in it completing a mission about recovering part of the storm owls, we were on the mountain when the alpha owl started to level up. "
"I don't know much about alpha beasts, but from what we can tell she should have been alive for a long time, and several hours ago she started evolving and not waking up. Due to the sounds and the way that the coals will proceed, the alpha beast must have got a good natural treasure and after consuming it he evolved his level."
A new wave of dictions awoke in the room, but they were whispering and not yelling like they used to, they don't want to get in the way when the mayor or one of the other leaders in that room asks my team their questions for more details.
"So that alpha beast is evolving its alpha beast smoke level from level three to four. That's bad news, but the phenomenon she caused on the mountain more compatible with her evolving from her level than her awakening."
"But how did you get off that mountain without losing a member of your team? Not wanting to underestimate you or say you're weak, but it's pretty unusual for you to have managed to survive in the region where the alpha beast has leveled up. Even though we are so far away from the mountain we can see that a firestorm formed on the mountain and destroyed the entire region surrounding the mountain, how did you survive?"
"Simple, we weren't exactly there when all this shit happened. We were very lucky because by the time we completed our mission on the mountain, the beast should still be starting to prepare to advance, when we noticed that something was happening in the forest and accelerated our exit as we were very close to the end of the forest, when the flames they will be born after the lightning storm that happened before her, we were already a good distance away from the mountain."
"We covered that distance quickly because our team was built around the word mobility, as you can confirm with our examiners, we all have the element of wind. Combining our wind element with our wind element mage's support magic our speed was much higher than the average speed of a group made up of gray core people."
"Our maximum speed that we can maintain for a long time should be compatible with a team with good mobility with orange core fighters, so the reason to be safe after being so close to the alpha owl is the combination of our abnormal speed and ours. lucky that there was already a good distance between us and the mountain when the firestorm started to rain down from the mountain."
There isn't a single change in the mayor's face, but the face of the master of this guild's branch told me he was surprised by my report.
"So, it was like that? Looks like you guys are really lucky to be able to escape without suffering a single loss."
"To be precise we were hit by some flames that dispersed through the air, we could barely block a small sample of the flames that were created in that forest. The defense set up by the cooperation of the entire team was almost completely destroyed by just a small flash of flame."
The guild master made a point that I didn't think was very important, but that must be the reason I thought it was important.
"Young man, did you say you hear a lightning storm before the flames? I would like you to say what kind of phenomenon you felt before the firestorm happened, I need you to explain in small detail and the exact order that each thing happened."
"Okay, first it was an extremely loud roar and then there was an unusually loud and powerful owl cawing, when that happened, we were still inside the forest, after that there was a windstorm and then the lightning will join the wind. A great concentration of the element wind and lightning exploded in the forest and fire appeared afterwards."
"That was the exact order of events, I'm sorry I couldn't go into more detail, but we were more focused on running than studying the events that were happening in the forest."
"What does this mean Dimas?"
"Mr. Mayor, if the young people's report is correct, it was not just a simple advance and an alpha beast, but a complete evolution. The alpha storm owl must have evolved to complete its existence, maybe it's not even an owl anymore."
"From what the boy heard, the white beast fed on another powerful beast to trigger its evolution, and because of the difference in sound between them and obviously it has different species, but the elements that caused all the problems we saw here will originate from the storm of the elements that a storm owl has, it would be great to have a sample of the flames produced by the owl's rays and wind or the wind that destroys the mountain as it advances."
"We could either create a tracker or be sure of the alpha beast's power level by the mana signature we could extract from the sample. Any mutations the owl has undergone would be pretty easy to detect with a sample of the mana when the magical beast has finished evolving, when will the scout group come back?"
One more chance to earn some good money.
"Mayor and Master of the Adventurers' Guild I believe I have what you so desperately want."
I pulled out a purple box with several runes etched into its surface from my backpack, everyone's eyes focused as the crimson red light was released as I opened the box.
A fist-sized wisp of fire surrounded by a light layer of my elemental energy became the center of attention for every warrior and mage in the room.
"She's a little weak, but should it contain enough owl mana for a powerful mage to streak an owl mana signature?"
The leader of this branch of the guild Dimas took the box from my hands and poured his mana to analyze the fire wick from the box.
"It is more than enough young man; I will make sure to record your contribution and report to your examiners. Being able to extract and preserve this streak of fire shows that you are strangely prepared for this event."
"It's just that after the owl forest we were going to investigate the suspicious deaths that must be being made by a magical beast in a village near the mountain that maybe doesn't even exist anymore. I rented this magical tool to use during this investigation, even if the beast managed to flee in the end with a sample of its mana saved, the mission might not be considered a complete failure for the examiners."
"So that was your plan B for this fact-finding mission, stop luck is smiling on us now. The team sent from the city must be having great difficulty getting a clean sample of the alpha beast's mana, the more time passes since its evolution the more difficult it becomes to get your information through your mana, this fire wick was created a long time ago. time, but as it is preserved in the box it maintains its properties and information without being deteriorated."
"You guys should rest no more walks you can help us, prefect, I'm going to take the flame to my lab and analyze it and use it to create the tracker for the alpha beast. When everything is ready, I'll make sure the elimination group is ready to hunt down the flying alpha beast."
"Yes, master Dimas, everything will be ready when the tracker is ready."