Chapter 599. A World of Swords and Magic

Alex followed the guards, his mind briefly whirling over who could have sold him out. There were only three suspicious possibilities on his list. The two guards at the town gate, the general store owner who might have found him suspicious, or the blacksmith who had actually turned him in.

In the end, Alex shrugged. He didn’t particularly care.

“Surrender your weapon,” the guard at the entrance to the town hall ordered.

Alex complied, handing over his sword. It was just a realistic prop anyway, and he had never trained with a sword. At most, he had learned knife fighting, mostly so he could counter someone armed with a knife using his bare hands.

“The rest of your belongings as well,” the guard added, a sinister gleam in his eyes.

Alex complied again, surrendering his backpack. It was locked anyway, and no one but him and Rotom could access its biometric controls. At most, they might find its metallic material suspicious.

He was then led through the town hall and up to the third floor, where they brought him into an office. A man sat waiting behind a desk, roughly forty years old with a neutral expression. The office had an antique feel to it, with luxurious carvings covering the furniture. It all suggested that the man was rather well off.

That, or there was an exceptionally skilled craftsman in town. Alex considered the latter unlikely.

“Alex Wattson, correct?” the mayor asked, leaving Alex standing in front of his desk. “Do you know why I called you here?”

“Probably to order me around?” Alex replied with a shrug.

The guards standing behind Alex on either side scowled at his casual response, clearly taking offense on the mayor’s behalf. Yet neither moved, showing that while they were loyal, they were also disciplined. Alex had to give the mayor credit. He had good subordinates.

“Ten days ago, a monster appeared in the forest. It was expected to come and destroy the town, but it mysteriously vanished,” the mayor said, watching Alex’s face for a reaction and finding none. “We investigated the site and found clear signs of a battle, but all we could determine was that it was a Fire type, four-legged beast that delivered the finishing blow in a single strike. It was a truly powerful magical creature.”

A flicker of desire appeared in the mayor’s eyes, one Alex recognized immediately. The man was some kind of trainer, which meant he probably wanted to get his hands on Arcanine.

“Apart from that,” the mayor continued, “we found suspicious tracks in the forest that appeared to belong to an expert, likely someone at Rank 4. I’m wondering if that person might have been you.”

“You’re telling me I’m powerful enough to kill that monster, somehow hide its corpse, wait ten days somewhere you couldn’t track me, and then come here today specifically?” Alex asked, each part of the question sounding more absurd than the last.

“I’m merely asking,” the mayor said, though the look in his eyes suggested he had already drawn his own conclusion. “Otherwise, I’ll have to investigate you thoroughly. If I can’t verify your background, I’ll have little choice but to suspect you were responsible.”

“And you firmly believe you can control someone that powerful? Assuming I was the person you’re looking for, of course.”

“I have my ways.”

“If I were the person you were looking for, what would you want from me?”

“I’d like to know all of your secrets, of course,” the mayor said, leaning back with complete confidence. “Out here on the outskirts, resources, treasures, and opportunities are scarce. So when an opportunity presents itself, I’d rather take it, even if it lies beyond my usual means.”

“Quite the greedy fellow. Are you sure you can chew what you bite off?”

“It all remains to be seen.” A gleam appeared in the mayor’s eyes. “In any case, you’ll remain under suspicion until your background investigation clears you. It shouldn’t take long. The messenger will return in two weeks. Until then, I request your cooperation in staying at one of our accommodations.”

‘Meaning prison,’ Alex thought with a sigh.

“Well, I was going to do this eventually, but I didn’t think I’d go wild this soon,” Alex said, putting everyone in the room on alert. “You really only have yourself to blame for being too greedy.”

Auras immediately flared from the mayor and the two guards behind Alex. The guards were roughly on the low end of the Expert rank, while the mayor was at the high end. It was quite shocking for Alex, as this meant there were greater powers in this world than he had expected. Still, it wasn’t a problem he couldn’t handle just yet.

Before the guards could draw their swords or the mayor could fully rise from his chair, the room was engulfed in suffocating darkness.

“A Mystic!” the mayor shouted, but his voice never made it beyond the room.

The two guards were pinned in place, unable to move as darkness wrapped around their bodies and restrained them. The mayor, caught halfway out of his chair, was forced back down as Alex approached. Darkness exuded from Alex’s body, engulfing him in a churning mass of black energy that obscured his form. His eyes were completely black, like whirlpools of endless darkness.

“Gardevoir, take control of the town hall and search their memories for me,” Alex commanded. “Make sure no one outside realizes what’s happening. If anyone seems suspicious, capture them as well. Be careful not to leak your energy or leave any tracks on the ground.”

In the barracks next to the town hall, Gardevoir, Gothitelle, and Espeon emerged from the backpack. Using their Psychic energy, they took control of everyone within the premises while simultaneously monitoring their surroundings for anyone who might have noticed. Finding no one, they began searching through the memories of everyone present, including those in the mayor’s office.

Gardevoir teleported into the room, comforted by Alex’s Dark type energy permeating the surroundings, and approached the guards. After tapping each of them on the forehead, she floated over to the mayor and did the same. A few seconds later, she nodded and sent Alex a report on the situation.

Supernatural powers existed in this world beyond Pokémon. Humans were broadly divided into 5 types: Peasants, Tamers, Knights, Mages, and Mystics.

In terms of their natural physical potential, they were all essentially the same. Without outside influences, humans were ordinary people who could reach the peak of human potential. Those who practiced with mana, or Infinity Energy as Alex knew it, could only reach lifespans of up to 200 years.

Peasants were the weakest, generally reaching no more than Novice rank in strength. Their average lifespan was only around 60 years, largely due to poor hygiene and living conditions, and they made up roughly 70% of the population.

Then there were Tamers, who made up around 20% of the population. Physically, they were little different from ordinary Peasants, but they had managed to tame a magical creature.

Magical creatures, or Pokémon as Alex knew them, weren't inherently rabid like the Pokémon of his world, nor were they inherently peaceful like those in some other Pokémon worlds. They were simply territorial and behaved much like normal animals. They usually formed communities, rarely gathering beyond their own egg groups, though they could form larger groups and swarm when faced with a significant threat.

They could also be tamed, but doing so required an incredible amount of luck. A person had to find a Pokémon naturally willing to accept them, and communication was primarily through body language. There was no inherent bond between a Tamer and their Pokémon, which made the process extremely difficult. Most people who attempted to tame a wild Pokémon ended up dead. As a result, most Tamers relied on Pokémon that had been bred specifically for the purpose rather than those found in the wild.

Next were the Knights. They ordinarily reached the peak of Novice rank, but through the use of specialized breathing techniques, they could temporarily strengthen their bodies during combat, allowing them to reach the physical strength of Pokémon. They made up roughly 9% of the population and served as the armies and guards of the world.

Mages were similar in that they relied on specialized training, but rather than breathing techniques, they accumulated mana through meditation. Their abilities were expressed through spells, essentially hard-coded patterns of thought that produced specific type-energy phenomena. They made up roughly 0.9% of the population and required considerable intelligence and natural talent. Both Knights and Mages required talent and restricted knowledge to reach their respective levels of power, which was one of the reasons they remained relatively rare.

Lastly, there were Mystics.

They made up the remaining 0.1% of the population and were fundamentally different from the other groups. They didn't require specialized knowledge, which made them difficult to control. Mystics possessed an innate talent for manipulating Infinity Energy from birth, allowing the energy itself to bend to their will. This made them the most naturally powerful people in the world.

That didn't mean Mystics were born all-powerful, however. Like everyone else, they still needed practice to properly control their abilities, and their potential was limited by their innate talent. Not every Mystic had the ability to reach the very peak of power.

As for the ranking system, Peasants were limited to Novice rank. From Adept onward, Ranks 1 through 10 corresponded to every 10 levels of Pokémon strength. Rank 9 and Rank 10 were equivalent to Master rank, and only a handful of people on the entire continent were publicly known to have reached that level.

At least, that was what the public knew. There could very well be dozens of Masters hiding their true strength.

Ranks 7 and 8 were equivalent to Champion rank and were generally the leaders of major organizations. Ranks 5 and 6 were Elite rank, the upper echelon of most armies and other powerful organizations. They were a definite cut above the masses who couldn't break through the threshold into what was considered absolute power.

Everyone below that consisted primarily of local nobles, small businesses, and other ordinary organizations. Most adventurers fell into this category as well.

The 5 types weren't mutually exclusive, either. A person could theoretically become a Knight, Mage, and Tamer at the same time, while a Mystic could possess all 3 abilities as well. The problem was that each path required its own specialized training and talent, and humans simply didn't have enough time to master everything within their limited lifespans. As a result, most people focused on a single path, with those capable of combining multiple disciplines being exceptionally rare.

In essence, Alex had found himself in a relatively powerful world of swords and magic, one where humans could manipulate Infinity Energy and Pokémon were treated as magical creatures.

“The girls and the kids are going to love this,” Alex said with a mischievous smile.