The eastern walls and gate were similar in design to their southern counterpart. They loomed over Wesley's party like the open mouth of a behemoth, ready to swallow unscrupulous warriors. The only thing different about the Eastern Gate was that there were no Outers, only patrolling guards with weapons in their hands. They looked ready for a fight.
There was a sliver of excitement in Wesley, this was going to be the first time for him to enter the city. He had always wanted to enter, but out of fear of Grog and his uncle, he decided to stay as an Outer.
Wesley found himself slowing his pace and let Desker lead him forward. He felt surreal as his footsteps touched the shadow of the gates. The entrance was being manned two guards whom had similar outfits to Desker's group.
'Is it a type of uniform for the guards.' Wesley was left pondering.
'Hey Desker, you are back so early?' asked one of the guards.
'Yeah, we met a beast in the late body refining stage. After killing it, we decided to return'
'Haaha. Congratulations on your cultivation breakthrough. It's hard to take down such a strong beast.' The guard commented . He knew Desker and his brothers were just first level warriors in the bone refining stage and could not kill a beast of that level. That meant Desker had improved in his cultivation since he had better qualifications than his brothers. He was jealous but he could not do anything about it.
'No…. noo…. it was already injured when we found it. But I thank you for your good words. I will take them as an encouragement and strive to break through.'
From the way they bantered against each other, Wesley realized that they were not friends. He made a note to avoid this man in the future and with his infant soul, it was like he had photographic memory and could remember things easily. He looked at the man carefully in order to remember his features.
Desker chortled, 'Seren, I have things to do , so farewell and ooh, this man is with me' he waved and passed Serene without ado. He did not give the guard a chance to question Wesley.
To Wesley's sharp senses, he saw that Seren was trembling and knew the man was angry,
Seren gave them a dark look and gritted his teeth, 'hehe, I will get you soon enough'
….…
When they were far away from for Seren, Wesley asked Desker. 'who is he?'
'Oh, you mean Seren, he is just a poor loser. Forget about him' Wesley was not convinced, to him Seren's stare was like that of a viper waiting cold and patient, it would wait for its prey to make a mistake, that would be the time it would strike.
'Not to sound like a drag, but be careful, he looks to be a patient type'.
Desker was surprised at the comment, he did not take the boy to have such sharp senses. 'thank you for the concern Lesley. Let me take you to the captain.'
'hmm' Wesley let it go like that.'Desker probably knows what he is doing' he thought and decided not to over think Seren.
As they passed the over arch and left the gates behind, the space opened up abruptly and Wesley saw blocks of houses. They were built in square grids with passages between them, some were shops and he could hear people selling their wares, outers in their dreary gray robes were either loitering or lying on the cobbled path ways.
But the most surprising thing to Wesley was that, there were fewer people than he had expected. The place also did not have a natural source of light, it was not yet dark but this place almost looked like night had already claimed it. The entire place let out an oppressive atmosphere. Wesley tilted his head upwards to look at the clouds, there was no inkling of any light coming through them just blackened clouds hovering over them.
The only light illuminating around was from glowing balls of light that were mounted on the walls above them.
The people he saw looked like they had nothing to live for, they lacked a spark of hope in their eyes.
Even the warriors they passed looked grim.
At this time Desker, nodded to the other two and they split off. Wesley did know where they were going and didn't ask.
'What is wrong with these people, they look wrong' asked Wesley in bewilderment. He was shocked , if this is what the city was offering, he would rather remain an outer.
'What do you expect when a city has lost its light, those who can leave have already abandoned the city. The only ones who remain are those that want benefits and those who call this city home.' Desker said sadly.
'They say the mutant beasts originated from the mines but the city lord still forces the mines to continue operating. When the beasts became a menace and it looked so bad for him and was ruining his reputation with the other city lords, he decided to let in the outers. The problem is that even in this first ring, beasts can still attack, no one keeps pet beasts anymore since they have mostly all mutated apart from those in inner rings. '
'Inner rings?' Wesley questioned.
Desker hesitated a bit and took a peek at the boy discreetly.
'Yes, if you look beyond you will see another wall separated from this area. We are in the first ring which is the worst ring to live in and then there are the other four other rings separated from each other with high walls. The fifth ring is where the nobles and the city lord and his co-leaders stay. I hear it has not been affected much by the mutated beasts.' Desker explained to him.
'hmm, this boy sounds like he has never been to this city, may he is really a wanderer.' Desker thought as he continued to lead Wesley through dark passages
And as Wesley stepped into the city, a blood red bead in the fifth ring started glowing intermittently.