The NPC is aware

Alexander and Roland transported out of Carrion and returned to the portal bay inside Sygard Academy’s campus. Alexander couldn’t find Roland, so he must have transported somewhere else.

Anyway, since he had gotten what he came for, he needed to test out what a primal variant is capable of. Wearing his mask, Alexander made his way to his next destination without gathering too much attention. For that, he needed to find a place outside Sygard Academy’s campus.

Going outside of Sygard’s territory, Alexander headed to the slums. As this wasn’t a place he’d visited before, Alexander couldn’t just teleport using his dark magic.

“Place your bets!”

“Ten gold on Pyra!”

The shouts of the crowd were deafening, but Alexander continued inside with an annoyed expression. This place served as an arena open to the public, allowing people to freely challenge each other and even earn some money in the process.

“Give me a match,” Alexander approached the organizer.

The organizer looked him over. There was no such thing as a matching system in this arena, so they just based it out of how many victories a person has gotten. Since this was his first time here, it was inevitable for Alexander to get matched with someone weak.

“Go to field G,” the organizer said before leaving.

Alexander noticed the faint glow in the organizer’s eyes. “An assessment artifact,” Alexander figured.

He went to the assigned field and large man with tattoos all over his body. A hammer was placed beside him, brimming with magical energy.

A set up.

“Oh?” Alexander raised an eyebrow.

Due to his mask being an artifact that was capable of hiding his identity from appraisers, the organizer pitted him against a powerful opponent despite have no victories under his belt.

“Thank you for the explanation,” Alexander said as he drew his sword.

“Any last words brat?” the man said as he picked up his hammer.

“There’s no need.”

Purple aura shrouded Alexander's legs, then he turned into a blur. Shooting past his opponent, Alexander lowers his sword as his opponent’s head fell to the ground. It didn’t take long for the reaction he was waiting for to happen.

People from the crowd began raising their weapons and creatures were summoned.

“Time to get started,” Alexander summoned the primal frost ankylo.

“What’s going on?!”

“What is that thing?!”

The crowd began to panic as Alexander’s summoned creature took effect. A blizzard raged within the building, confusing everyone and causing chaos.

“Get yourselves together and kill the summoner!” the organizer he met earlier yelled.

They began charging at him with their weapons and creatures beside them. “Tail smash!” Alexander called out.

His Ankylo wrapped its tail in purple aura before slamming its tail on the battlefield we were on. The lifted field collapsed, causing the thugs lose their balance. Alexander had jumped into the air, then shrouded his sword in aura before he dove.

“He’s up there!”

“Too late!” Alexander yelled as he unleashed an aura slash that cleaved through his enemies.

As he landed, Alexander remembered what he came here for.

“Ah...” he turned to his summoned creature that was busy fending off other creatures and thugs.

Alexander summoned his wyvern, making the enemies approaching him to step back. He got on and began observing the chaos from above. His frost ankylo was mentally connected to him, so it adapted a defensive combat style focused on counter attacking.

It used ice magic to freeze its already slowed enemies and use earth magic to create stone walls to block attacks. To finish them off, it would use an aura infused tail swipe strong enough to send chunks of ice and debris flying.

“Die!” a thug riding an avian creature charged at Alexander.

He pointed to fingers at the thug. “I was busy.”

A compressed blast of flames shot out, piercing through the thug’s chest and leaving a fist sized hole. Alexander turned back to primal creature and continued observing its might.

------

“How long till the trading system appears?” Irelia asked as she looked over all the creatures she recorded today.

“Based on the timeline of the game, it should appear after the first main scenario quest,” Michelle answered.

“When does it start?” Irelia asked.

Main scenario quests were an important part of the game since the contents of it varied significantly depending on which love target the protagonist is involved with. The setting of the quest was in Carrion’s Fairy Meadow. An evil organization will attack the students and try to kidnap high-ranking nobles. The main target and the difficulty would be determined by which love target has the highest affinity with the protagonist at the start of the quest.

“But the protagonist only interacted with Alexander Pendragon,” Irelia pointed out. “If their target is him, wouldn’t they need to be hella strong?”

“That’s not actually our biggest concern,” Michella said grimly. “This isn’t a game with a fixed path. What if all the scenarios take place?”

“Who cares about them?” Irelia responded, catching Michelle off-guard.

“Pardon?”

“They’re fucking weak,” Irelia stated. “Let’s be honest here, the entirety of the combat portion of the game is carried by the creatures we get or by God’s mercy, Alexander Pendragon, the only love target that’s combat oriented.”

“Diantha’s combat oriented too,” Michelle pointed out.

“Yeah, but she’s not an Aura and Magic character like Alexander Pendragon,” Irelia reasoned. “Then there’s Alexander Pendragon’s ace creature.”

Michelle sighed. “I guess we could leave the other love targets to the other players,” Michelle gave up. “They should know about the main scenario, so we should just focus on the protagonist. What is she even doing?”

“Studying,” Irelia answered.

“Pardon?”

“She just studies all the time for the past few days,” Irelia stated. “Sometimes she does some tasks to earn money.”

Michelle looked bothered. “Seriously? Is she getting stronger?”

Irelia shrugged. “It’s been a week. How would I notice if she got stronger that fast?”

“You have point,” Michelle agreed.

------

Alexander walked over the ruins left behind by the massacre he committed. He turned to his summoned creature. “I’m impressed. I’ll need to learn more about the details of the combat system in their game to find out how exactly you were used against me.”

The sound of marching caught his attention, signaling the arrival of the city’s guards. “Took them long enough,” Alexander commented before vanishing.

Alexander reappeared in his dorm room where Alfred waited for him. “Was your trip eventful, young master?”

“I’d say so,” Alexander replied. “How’s the investigation on the group attempting to attack during the school trip?”

“It seems that a stronger force is backing them,” Alfred answered. “They’re goal is more than gold.”

Alexander rubbed his chin. To be fair, only Alexander would be the only one present from the three great families during the school trip. If they attacked at full force, they’d get some results.

He also couldn’t ignore the possibility of the enemy having a primal variant. Now that he had seen the power of a primal variant first hand, he couldn’t disregard their existence. There’s also the chance that an invader is aiding them, giving them information on how to proceed with their attack.

“Find Roland Verin.”

“Understood.”