Chapter 56: First Flight

Taking the hired carriage to the East Gate and exiting through the adventurer’s passage, I headed down the Orvenne Highway toward Ledion.

Once there were fewer adventurers on the road, I decided to turn toward the southern forest.

As long as you head in a direction where east, west, south, and north are clearly recognizable, you won’t get lost even in a new place.

Avoiding adventurers and small animals caught in my detection range, I continued on. Since we were still close to the royal capital, there was a strong presence of adventurers everywhere.
It was a hassle, so I dove into a tall patch of grass, created a dish-shaped dome, and decided to take a nap.

The weather was good, and inside the transparent dome felt like a greenhouse—too comfortable, and I fell asleep.
But I woke up shivering from the cold.
It was already completely dark outside—I regretted oversleeping, but since this was just time-killing hunting, I released some mana and went back to sleep.
Lying on my bed and releasing mana toward the starry sky… Wait—has it increased?

I ended up falling asleep from mana depletion, and it was still dark outside when I woke again.
Remembering the near-depletion, I thought:

Do spirits multiply?

Their presence flickers like fireflies, coming and going, so I never counted them—but it felt like I had more than back when I fell into that hole.

They’re not ghosts; if there’s a presence, then they must have a real form. But I can’t see them—that’s strange.
Even with mana-coated eyes, I can’t see them… nope, I can’t think of anything. I gave up.

Well, as long as the spirits don’t harm me, I don’t care how many there are.
One day I’ll probably visit the elf village—might as well ask their elder then.

While boiling tea with Flame for warmth, I had a revelation!

This is it—THIS!

When you tilt a cup, the tea stays level, but the rim lowers where you drink from.
If I tilt the rising wind supporting the balloon—no, weaken just one part of it—then the balloon should move in that direction, just like the falling rim of the cup.

Since it was still dark outside, I decided to try it.

I lifted the Holey Balloon! with a gentle Updraft! to about three meters, then tried to weaken only the front section of the rising wind.
But I couldn’t weaken just one part midway through—only from the start.
Once the wind was already flowing, making only one point weaker was impossible for me.

I tried it many times; I could weaken the overall wind, but that made the balloon unstable, so I stopped.

The pre-dawn cold chilled me to the bone, and I hurried back into the dome—when making the exit, a second flash of inspiration struck.

I wanted to try it immediately, but I was freezing, so I wrapped myself in my robe, warmed up with Flame, and grinned at how clever I was.

When the eastern sky grew bright and no more starlight was needed, I created a new Holey Balloon! lifted it with an updraft, and reshaped the rising wind along the balloon into a V-shape.

Just as expected.
Changing the wind shape was as easy as making an opening in something I create—just like making doors in domes.

Inside the V-shaped gap, the airflow stopped, and the surrounding wind pushed the balloon forward.

At 5 meters altitude, I skimmed over dew-covered grass.
Below, the strong rising wind whipped the grass violently.

I quickly added mana and shifted the V-notch slightly right—resulting in a slow right turn back to my original spot.

After releasing the balloon and updraft and making them disappear, I rushed into the dome, packed my camping gear into my magic pouch, erased the dome, and cleaned all traces of my camp.

Time to depart.

Inside a new Holey Balloon! I shivered with excitement.
I slowly increased the updraft, adding mana to both the balloon and the wind, ascending steadily.

The eastern sky grew gradually brighter until I was bathed in full sunlight.
Below me the land still waited in darkness, but ahead was dazzling with light.

Sounded like a mid-teen protagonist moment, but since being seen would be bad, I moved deeper into the forest.

I told myself:
To get away from the capital, head toward Ledion—but avoid the city; fly north-northeast.

In a buoyant mood, I turned northeast.
Going too far north-northeast would take me too far from Ledion; I didn’t want to go deep into the wilderness.

Cold wind poured through the balloon’s opening.
I pulled out my robe and wrapped it around me, thinking nonsense like “If I rode a broom, I’d be a wizard”…
Oh right—I am a wind mage.

I descended until I could see the treetops clearly and scanned the entire area.
No adventurers, only some distant beasts—no threat.
I looked for an opening in the forest and descended.

Standing inside the balloon and wearing only a robe was freezing, so I created a Dome! the moment I landed, floated several mana-charged Flames, and warmed myself up.

Walking kept me warm, but this was dangerous—I could freeze to death.
Again, I appreciated the usefulness of a proper cabin and the enchanted clothing worn by high-rank adventurers.

While eating a warm breakfast, I checked my location and decided I needed to hunt seriously to afford magic clothing.

With the sun high, I ascended again to check my position.
I had flown northeast from slightly east of the capital, so if I faced south, I should see the Orvenne Highway and the city of Ledion.

Facing south, I lifted my Holey Balloon! with a gentle updraft above the treetops.

Ahead was endless treetop canopy, left and right the same—so this is what “sea of trees” meant.

I slapped my cheeks and climbed higher.

Among the endless forest, I saw two distant cities—one to the right, one to the left. Both similar in size.

If I flew northeast and now faced south, the right should be the capital—but since they looked similar, the right was likely Ledion and the left Cassandra.

I had no idea where I was anymore.
If I headed south, I’d probably reach somewhere between Ledion and Cassandra, or just west of Cassandra—but I couldn’t judge the distance.

My altitude was… high. That’s all I knew.

I tried to return to my original spot, planning to hunt while heading back to town—but while sightseeing from above, I’d been blown by the wind.

Without the ground anchoring the wind, drifting was inevitable.
Now I had to wander around looking for somewhere safe to land.

There were signs of beasts but no signs of people, so I slowly descended and walked toward the beast’s presence.

It seemed to be alone, and since it didn’t feel like a bear, I approached carefully—only for it to come toward me on its own.

While I hid inside [Dome!], a jet-black tiger appeared—far more intimidating than any cat, with a thick tail.

I used Appraisal, but all it said was “Tiger,” so it was probably a Black Tiger. Either way, prey is prey.

I let it approach at a leisurely pace, then blasted it with [Whirlwind!] and opened a hole in the dome so I could shoot an arrow at point-blank range.

I don’t exactly want to hunt big game, but deciding that I was prey was its fatal mistake—I even posed a little nihilistically at the thought.

Ever since I flew through the sky, I feel like my personality changed a bit.

I stuffed the Black Tiger into my magic bag and continued south.

Over three days, I killed two Red Bears, three High Orcs, and nine Forest Wolves. That felt like overdoing it, so I just blasted the rest away and left them.

Besides those, I got two Big Elks and two large Horn Boars, along with lots of Chiki-Chiki Birds, Green Birds, and Runner Birds.

Persistent Rush Wolves, Black Wolves, Fang Dogs, and Killer Dogs—I wiped out entire packs of those.

Instead of flinging them to the far sky, I figured I might as well kill them, but wiping out the whole groups made me reflect a little.

On the seventh day of walking south, I finally sensed people—meaning a town was close—and I instantly felt more cheerful.

I had originally flown northeast, but now that I tried to walk the same approximate distance, I realized just how far I had flown.
But then again, flying over the forest means moving in a straight line, while walking through rough terrain takes much longer… so it made sense.

Seven days walking directly south… If I’d used the road it would’ve taken maybe half that. Still, that means I flew quite a distance.

I should probably fly along the road once and measure flight time and distance.

Near the edge of the forest, adventurers began appearing on my detection, so I avoided them.
Then on the grasslands I found a group collecting medicinal herbs. I approached deliberately so the lookout would notice.

He must have given a warning signal because the whole group turned to look at me at once.

I asked the man who seemed to be the leader,
“I entered the forest from Ledion, but I got lost. Could you tell me which town is closest to the road?”

“You’re alone?”

“Yes. There are too many adventurers around the royal capital—it gets noisy. So I entered the northern forest from Ledion, but…”

“If you keep heading south, you’ll reach the Orvenne Highway. Go right and you’ll get to the town of Carcas.”

Carcas, huh? The third town from the capital… I had really flown far.

I thanked him and headed toward the road, but their voices carried clearly on the wind behind me.

“He said he entered from Ledion… That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”
“But look at that—his short spear looks like magic steel.”
“And his clothes—those are way better than anything we own.”
“A guy that young, going solo…”
“Skill difference or not, to walk the forest alone at that age… he’s really skilled.”
“Stop envying him and pick more herbs or we won’t eat tonight.”
“Yeah, true.”
“Still, walking through the forest with just a short spear… that’s something to admire.”

Hearing the word admire made me feel a little embarrassed.