The spires in the far distance were made of stone in a rather odd manner. No masonry he was aware of, did anything that resulted in quite such a precise and seemless stone slotting, unless, of course, the building were made with magic. A true master of earth magic could controll and move it around with a relative ease, allowing for such a result, though said endeavours would demand quite the mana reserves to be pulled off. Mana reserves that SS class entities would have, even with the apparent size of the building. Especially so if there were more than one builder with such a skillset.

Another hour later Mora spoke to him once again. "Look there in the distance." she gestured with her hand towards the spires. "The mage tower spire should soon come into your sight. It is the greatest monument of my people, watching over us, as well as housing the best and brightests minds of ours." a clear respect and even a smidgeon of longing resonating in her voice. Rex did not let that fact go unnoticed, and so he teased the woman he had learned a bit anout.

"My, ow my, is that longing I hear in your voice, hunter leader Mora? A crush, or desire to learn magic perhaps?" His teasing tone, as well as his sharp perception, did not escape the woman notice, earning an exasparated groan from her and a light glare.

"How comes you are this perceptive now, but seem as dense as rock when it comes to much more simple things?"

To be fair to Mora, Rex had indeed acted so, doing his damn best to ignore anything Argul related, or any of the male hunters, for that matter, making Mora quite annoyed at times. More than one of her questions had been disregarded, ignored in such a manner.

"For that is my nature. I cant be bothered to pay attention to things that do not interest me. And the condition, or perhaps ways that could help your male hunters grow, falls under said category. Had you inquired the same regarding the women, or indeed they had aproached me on their own, I might have had a thing or two to say, for the right price that is."

"Why does everything comes down to a price with you?" Mora asked the obvious question, having grown more and more interested in th reasoning of her temporary companion.

"That is quite simple Mora. Why would anyone do something that does not benefit themselves in the end? Not like we are friends, or family for that matter. At best, we are aquintances, sharing a road on our way towards the destination, which in your case is home, and in mine- a possible place of a mercenary contract. See, the very nature of my presence is based on a possible reward. Even more so I am not inclined to show any more goodwill than I already have, purely due to how the rest of your group is keeping their distance, as if I am the plague itself, or a feral beast that could lash out at any moment. Does that satisfy your desire for an answer?"

What followed was an akward silence, followed by just as akward nod of Moras head. A silence once again permeating the middle of the group, only some whispers being heard by Rex from the outer parts of the procession. Whispers that just proved his point even more, as the hunters whispered among themselves regarding the unsettling aura and mannerisms of their guest. Yet another thirty minutes passed by, as they finally reached a rather large and imposing stone walls, around eight meters in height, Rex calculated. The walls were made just as impressivly as the stone tower spire he had seen first, with quite well built parapet, enabling the archers to shoot while staying quite well protected.

The did encounter more the the hunter squads, as well as passed by more than one farming plots, but remained mostly undisturbed, their scouts clearly having informed the aproaching groups about their guest, as well as the dire news they were bringing back with them, for that was exactly what they were returning with- a knowledge of the tigermen horde awakening a decade too soon, or so the dragonkin had spoken.

"Welcome to Dragon Spires." Mora spoke with warmth and relief as they reached the gates, that opened as soon as they were in front of them. It was around midday, so they had a few choices ahead of them, and so Mora asked Rex how would he like to proceed, he was a guest of sorts after all.

"Would you like to rest for the day visit the council tommorow, or should we ask for them to assemble at their earliest concinience to converse with you? There will be an emergency meeting regardless, what with the news we have brought back with us."

"Hmm, a good question." Rex hummed for a moment, seemingly working over his options, then continiued "While I would like the time to explore the city for a while and evaluate what is there that your people can offer for my services, I asume the situation is dire enough that your ruling body should be more thna willing to fork up a much more generous offer to solve this issue, so I guess i should capitalize on that. So please, arange for the meeting as soon as possible."

"Understood." she replied and gave some instructions to one of her companions. Rex was sure that the general gist of his presence was already known to their council, as well as the presence of the tigermen, but like any proud society, they had their egoes that needed validation and a small modicum of flair to appease, so, the act had to be kept up.

"That reminds me, will your companions find their way to us, and would they not mistake your presence with us, causing some misunderstandings and an escalation?" She asked, remembering Rex mentioning a group that took care with the hundred tigermen they had spotted.

"Dont worry, they have their work cut out, dealing with the corpses of the tigermen, collecting their hearst and what not. They are well aware I will be gone for quite the while, scouting out the floor. Besides, if there is anything I cannot tke care of, they will get the fuck away. They know better than to waste their lives unnecesarly."

Mora nodded her head absentmindedly, the sight of the snake getting turned into a pincusion flashing in her mind. "Pardon?" she then stammered "Collecting their hearts? For whatever reason?"

"Emm, alchemy. Their hearts are quite the ingridient, capable of replacing any other SS class feline type monster heart. It is quite the valuable resoure, I will have you know."

"Ow, alchemy. Right, that does make some sense, though I doubt our alchemists have dabbled much with them."

"Now that is odd, seeing as you are the locals here, I would have expected you to have most, if not all the ingridients catalogued and figured out. Maybee a difference in philosophy or something."

"Easy for you to say, their numbers and monstrous strenght makes it hard to deal with them, often ending with very large casualities on our side, while the bodies of the fallen tigermen are quite mangled. They are incredibly tenacious. That said, how did your group deal with that advanced party, especially when it seems you treat it as if it was a simple walk in the woods?"

"Huh, now, that is for me to know and for you to imagine. No casualities on my side though. Of that I can assure you."

The following next twenty or so minutes the two walked in silence, Moras questioning glances moving Rex way every now and then, but he did not budge, not spilling the info she wa so curious about, untill they reached a ratehr nice looking two story house with a small garden in front of it. Rex had noticed that quite a few of the buildings had such gardens in front of them, either filled with some fragnant flowers or sometimes some domesticates fruit trees, not too large in the size though. At the door of the house, Mora stopped, and spoke.

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"This here will be your resting place for the moment and for the night, in case our council cannot accomodate you and hear our your proposal. I should probably tell you that it is advised you do not leave the territory of this small, but cozy, property without my guidance, lest your actions are percieved as an agression, all the previous goodwill nothing more than an act. Though I do have this glaring suspicion, from our talks during the travel here, that you are even more powerfull than we have assumed so far. I sense no hostility, or underhanded plans from you, call it my draconic sixth sense. Say, am I correct in trusting it?"

Rex chuckled at the words, a light smile adoring his face, though that would never reach Moras eyes, what with the disguise still concealing his features. "Well, I do not seek to harm your people as a whole, that is true, but I do have some selfish desires. Why else would I have offered my services, were that not the case. But that too is based on mutual benefits, no matter the payment I would ask for."

Rex thought for a moment, before asking the main question that was in his mind. "Since i cannot move around your city on my own, less I spark some unneeded conflict, can it be done while in your presence? I would like to see what kind of merchandise your people sell. Who knows, I might find something that could be used for payment. I do believe that me being aware of the stuff you have on offer could ease our possible negotiations."

This time Mora spent a few minutes musing over his suggestion, no doubt considering whether she had the rank to make such a decision, or not. Though from the bitter smile on her face, Rex was aware of her answer before she even spoke, though he silently waited for her to say it all the same.

"While I do believe your suggestion has merit, I am nowhere near the ranks where I could make a decision on the issue. Please wait in the building while I rush towards the nearest oficial with the apropriate rank. I should be back in less than an hour, so can I ask that you wait for me that long?"

"I suppose that is better than I expected. Sure, the stool there looks nice enough to laze around for an hour or so. Dont overexaust yourself for this. Would hate to see that pretty face haggard." Rex replied playfully, moving to said stood and sitting fown on it, his back ramrod straight as he closed his eyes and seemingly zoned off. He seemed so helpless, open to any and all ambushes, though that could not be further from the truth. His aura and mana formed a rather dense protective shell around him, ensuring nothing could actually reach his body, with a much thinner layers of both spreading out in a much larger area, though both were thin enough to not be noticed by anyone said expanded fields enveloped. Rex now had a perfect awareness of anything happening within a few hundred meters of him, painting quite clear picture of this current situation.

Each and every home around his temporary residence was packed with dragonkin warriors, all in scale mail armor and armed to the teeth. Shield on their backs, a sword strapped to the side and a large and quite sturdy spear at hand, the soldiers looked quite well trained and disciplined, their full attention on the house Rex was told to rest in. Each and every one was early SS class entity as well, though slightly stronger than Mora and Argul. Made sense to Rex though. They needed some capable people leading the hunter teams, while at the same time not weakening their army too much.

So with the hour that he had on his hands, he immersed himself in the exploration of both space and soul, ever so slightly deepening his understanding of both subjects. And while he was running a couple of paralel thoughts processes on both subjects twentyhour- seven, it was a much smoother process whne he focused on them with most of his being, leaving only a few seperate paralel proceses to ensuring his own safety, something he did subconsciously by now.

Aproximately an hour later, he sensed Moras aproach, though now she was in a carriage of sorts, acompanied by yet another dragonkin, another woman, if he sensed right. There was a slight difference between the male and female dragonkin when Rex's mana senses interacted with them, though he could not quite explain why it was so. Rex opened his eyes a few minutes before the carriage was before his residence, giving him enough time to inspect both the cariage itself, as well as the pack animal that was pulling it.

Rex could not call the beast in any other name but a horse sized raptor. Though there was one glaring difference. The raptor was feathered. Clad in pale gray feathers, with a small plume or red on its head. Rex had seen a couple of such raptors as they came upon the city- furvums, as Mora had named the species. She also had mentioned that the more of a single colour their feathers, the more noble and prized the furvum was. Seeing a specimen that was basicly single color, meant that the person Mora had brought along was quite influential, the mount speaking volumes by itself.

The carriage was similarily a single colour, a nice earth brown, with a silvery sigil adorning the side of its doors. Rex tactfully chose to ignore the coachmen that was controlling said carriage, more interested in the two passangers as well as the sigil. And since the carriage in question was still moving towards him, he focused his attention on the aforementioned sigil. A pair of draconic wings over a mountain, with a flame surrounding the round sigil. While Rex did not move his cosmic ravens into the city, the chosen form of his reconosaince unit being extremely foreign, he had a few of them high in the sky, outside the city walls, providing him with quite a lot of information as it was. He had spied quite a few similar carriages. Similary to furvums, he had noticed that not all of carriages were coloured in a single colour, most likely a form of status display, a hunch he had when he had noticed the disparity. A hunch that did prove itself to be correct soon after, as he noticed the rather puffed up chests and egos of quite a few youngsters that would disembark from said single coloured carriages on whatever trips they had taken. Rex also noticed that most of the peopel he had seen, within the city walls wore multicoloured clothing, with only a few he had noticed in a pure single coloured ones. Of course the same did not apply outside the city walls, where the colour was used to best support the hunters need to blend in, their outfits being still multicoloured, though with quite natural patterns and such.

And soon, the carriage was was in front of the house he was staying at, the coachman quickly jumped off his seat and opened its door. From the carriage out stepped Mora, no longer dressed in her hunters outfit. She now wore a rather elegant one piece dress, that covered her slender yet curvaceous form, accentuating her hourglass figure. With the lighter fabric dress, as earth brown as the carriage, the sky blue scales on her arms, up to the revealed shoulders and going behind her back, seemed even more dazzling, shining a new light on the feminine beauty that was quite well hidden in her hunting outfit previously.

Then the other lady stepped down from the carriage, a more filled out version of Mora, just as sky blue scales adorning the older woman. She too was dressed in an earth brown dress, though her shoulders were covered, but Rex clearly saw that she too had similar scales adrning her body, just like Mora. The two pair of yellow reptilian eyes looked at him as he admired both beautifull woman entering the small garden. Rex waited for them to come closer, enjoying the elegant beauty both radiated. They were incredibly modestly dressed, only their arms and Moras shoulders not hidden by their dresses. Even the cleavage was incredibly conservative, barely showing the collarbone of the two gorgeous women.

"My, my, Mora, If I didnt know better I would guess you are trying to seduce your guest." Rex chuckled as the duo aproached him, his rather relaxed and carefree atitude catching her a bit by suprise.

"I am doing no such thing!" she quickly spoke out, earning yet another chuckle from Rex.

"Please, dont tease my dear Mora too much, her maiden heart can take only so much." The older woman spoke, a light smile on her face, though through her focused gaze Rex could tell she was evaluating him quite strictly. "I am Xersia Heavenflame, matriarch of heavenflame clan and the governor of the western city block. Mora has brough your request to me, and I have deemed it necessary to take your measure before making my decision."

"Why dont we talk inside then, I would hate for all those poor warriors to try and listen in on our conversation then." Rex replied and enjoyed the slight widening of the two women eyes, understanding he was not supposed to be aware of their existance.

"Come now, did you trully believed that someone, who is supposed to be a scout for a group that considers the tigermen, an apparent threat to your people, as no more than a sport hunt, enough to offer to hunt a veritable horde of them, would not have the skills to scout mere hundred meters around him?" there was a slight amount of sarcasm in his voice, as he gestured towards the doors. "Shall we?"