SSS Awakening: All My Clones Have Divine Bloodlines!-Chapter 44: BranLeaf 2

More than a month had passed since Evan had set out northeast from Lirath.

He had considered several cities as a destination, but BranLeaf quickly became his primary choice for one very specific reason.

It was considered the adventurers’ paradise.

If Lirath, by virtue of the Greystone Forest, was thought of as a small adventurer’s haven due to the wide variety of beasts one could find nearby, then BranLeaf was the adventurers’ paradise. It was the capital of the Greymark Duchy, one of the three duchies of the Kingdom of Solren, which made it not only far larger and more important than Lirath, but also considerably more powerful and full of opportunities of every kind.

Evan, of course, cared very little about any of that.

He had decided to travel and see the world with his own eyes, but also because growing stronger was still a priority, and what better way for someone like him to do that than by hunting increasingly powerful beasts?

So he headed there, and after just over a month, he finally arrived.

He could have made it a bit sooner, but he had taken his time along the way, hunting, exploring small villages and minor towns, never stopping too long in any of them, until today, when he finally reached the city.

"Well, that’s not something you see every day," he muttered, his expression somewhere between stunned and lost, his head tilted slightly upward as he stared at the city.

Which was hundreds of meters above the ground.

From a distance he had assumed it was built on some kind of elevated plateau.

It wasn’t. It was built on something far more bizarre and unexpected.

"In the name of the gods, what am I looking at right now?" he murmured to no one in particular, and received an answer anyway.

"Hahaha, it’s always like this with newcomers. Well, since you saved me, let me introduce you to BranLeaf." Rainer, the young man Evan had rescued recently, stepped forward with a grin. "What you’re seeing isn’t a flat mountain or anything like that. It’s a tree stump."

After getting lost several times, Evan had decided to use Shadow’s summons to cover more ground in multiple directions and finally found someone to ask, namely, this boy, who had been on the verge of becoming something’s breakfast. Now, thanks to him, Evan was finally here.

He just hadn’t expected to find himself staring at something like this.

He had been reincarnated into a fantasy world. He had a system, the whole package. He thought he had seen enough to stop being surprised.

Apparently not.

"A stump? Of a f*cking tree? How enormous did that thing have to be for its stump to look like this?" he said, his voice coming out closer to a shout than he intended, as he took in the sheer scale of the structure in front of him.

It was larger than Lirath. By several times. And it was just the stump.

His brain struggled to process the new information and nearly tipped over for a moment.

"Yeah, incredible, right? Not much is known about what happened to the tree, but it’s thought to be the legendary Tree of Life that existed thousands of years ago, during the Age of the gods. There’s no concrete proof, but with something like this, that hardly matters. Thanks to this, the city itself has become a heavily visited tourist area, making it one of the most prosperous cities in the kingdom," said Rainer, stepping forward and heading towards what appeared to be a steep little path.

They hadn’t built a road to reach the top of the stump where the city sat. They had used one of the stump’s own roots as a pathway.

Seeing him advance, Evan snapped out of his stupor and followed behind.

He had expected to see remarkable things, but this was beyond anything he had anticipated.

’Not a bad start,’ he thought. ’Not a bad start at all.’

They reached the top in a few minutes of walking, and after a quick check he was granted access to the city.

There were several things he wanted to do here, but one in particular came first.

Register with the Awakened Association.

The last time he had done it, he had used his clone, an identity he could no longer use, or more precisely, one he had no intention of using again if he wanted to avoid trouble. So this time he would do it himself, under his real name.

The Association’s building was located in the central district of the city, where all the important structures were concentrated.

In terms of size and appearance, the building was clearly superior. If the one in Lirath had been merely sufficient for the necessary work, this one was large and magnificent,

Upon entering, he found himself in a beautiful hall painted in shades of blue, a dome above sending rays of light that gave the atmosphere a magical feel, and before him, rows of reception desks, each staffed primarily by adventurers handling registrations or completed missions.

He took his time looking around, when suddenly he ran into someone.

"Ah."

Evan felt only a light nudge and didn’t lose his balance, but the same couldn’t be said for the other party, who nearly went down.

Evan looked at them with a slight frown. "Do you need something from me?"

He could tell the person hadn’t collided with him by accident, but had come for him. And judging by how it had gone, it clearly hadn’t ended the way he intended.

The person in question was a man standing close to two meters tall, with a heavy, muscular build that his adventurer’s clothes did their best but ultimately failed to fully conceal. He looked strong, probably E-Rank, but at this moment his expression was a scowl directed squarely at Evan.

"Something from you? You crash into me and then ask if I’ve got business with you? That’s some nerve, huh?"

Evan didn’t respond immediately. He looked at the man with the expression of someone staring at something mildly inconvenient.

He had spent his life in back alleys where confrontations like this were a daily occurrence. He could see exactly where this was going, but he wasn’t the type to let people walk over him without a word.

"Walk into you? I have better things to do than waste time like this." he said, his expression flat, his eyes fixed on the man in front of him.

Berthold, the man who had walked into Evan, had been ready to say something, but found himself frozen in place for a moment instead.

’Damn, who the hell is this guy? Did I misjudge him completely?’ he thought, a chill running down his spine under that gaze.

He was one of the regulars here, the kind who made a habit of targeting newcomers and squeezing them for money. Most fell for it easily. Others ended up on the receiving end of a beating. And yet here he was, somehow becoming the victim instead, which he did not appreciate in the slightest.

"You dare look down on me like that? I was going to let it go, but since you’re clearly asking for it, let me give you what you want," he said, his voice rising just slightly as he moved to attack.

He would have preferred to handle it quietly the way he usually did, but everyone around them had already seen him get brushed off, and after those words, backing down now would cost him face and reputation. He couldn’t afford that.

Not in front of someone who didn’t even seem to be at his level.

’Haa. I almost forgot there are idiots in this world too,’ Evan thought, sighing inwardly as he prepared to end the situation quickly.

The last thing he needed right now was to deal with a local thug. He had already had his fill of that at the manor and had no interest in finding new ones here, not when he could actually do something about it.

Just as he was preparing to respond to the incoming attack, a pressure descended on the scene, one that swept over both him and the other man, stopping them cold before either could act.

"Gentlemen. If you have a disagreement, I’d ask you to take it outside. You’re disturbing the other clients."

A voice cut through the noise, and a moment later a female figure made her way through the small crowd that had formed around them.

Less than a minute had passed and the situation had already deteriorated this far.

Evan looked toward the figure. So did Berthold, and the moment he did, he nearly went rigid on the spot.

’Damn it, why does it have to be her?’ he thought, and said quickly:

"Lady Elena, there’s no need for you to trouble yourself. He and I were just clearing something up. Nothing worth your attention."

His attitude had done a complete one-eighty. Evan could see he was trembling.

Curious, Evan looked toward the woman, and immediately noticed something particular about her.

Her vital energy was considerably strong. Approaching, in fact, the only person of similar presence he had encountered before, the B-Rank from Lirath.

She appeared to still be in her late twenties, and she had already reached that level?

’hmm, Not bad’ he thought, but unlike the man who was trembling, he said nothing and simply observed her with calm.

The woman, stepping forward, caught Berthold’s words and clicked her tongue immediately, reading the situation perfectly.

’What a pathetic creature. If you’re going to make a scene in the middle of the hall, at least have the spine to own it.’