Chapter 65: A Journey Through the Sky

Since Kreis was close by and I was already used to dealing with birds, I decided to head there to dispose of the hawks as well.

I arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild shortly after noon. As soon as I was allowed into the dismantling area, the butcher in charge came rushing over to me.

“Gentle Breeze—long time no see. How much did you bring today?”

“Pfft, Gentle Breeze, he says.”
“With a cute face like that, ‘Gentle Breeze’—whose little page are you?”

“Hey. I don’t know where you drifted in from, but if you keep saying stupid things around here, you’ll just get laughed at.”

The dismantler glared at them, and the men awkwardly looked away.

“Come over here.”

I was pulled to a workbench, where I stacked up the Chikki-Chikki Birds first, then asked whether the hawks could be bought as well.

“Hawks?”

“Yeah. They were attacking a flock of Green birds. After I downed one, they came after me, so I took them out while I was at it.”

“A flock of Green birds, huh. It’s breeding season, so they gather like that. If they were attacking them, those must be Battle Hawks. They’ll sell for a good price—put them out.”

He grinned broadly and rubbed his hands together. Looks like they’d fetch a pretty high price.

Since they wouldn’t fit on the workbench, I lined them up beside it.

“These are undamaged too—necks snapped clean… hmm? This one’s wing is broken.”

He tilted his head when he noticed two with broken wings, but he didn’t pry into an adventurer’s methods.

I lined up the Battle Hawks, then added Fang Dogs, Carrion Beasts, and a Horn Boar. That was everything.

“That all?”

“Yes. I’ve got other business, so I want to empty my magic bag.”

I was told to wait while the appraisal was done.

The birds and dogs were appraised quickly, but for the Battle Hawks they called over idle dismantlers and spread their wings, inspecting them closely. Apparently, the price drops if the feathers fall out.

“Are Battle Hawks good eating?”

“They say the taste is a bit worse than Runner Bird. Their real value is the color of the feathers and the presence they have when mounted.”

True enough—watching them spread their wings and stand upright, they had an intimidating presence you wouldn’t notice while they were flying.

“They’re rarely caught, and depending on the quality of the taxidermy, nobles and wealthy merchants will pay top coin.”

When I checked the appraisal sheet, the usual birds like Chikki-Chikki Birds and Runner Birds were priced as always—but the Battle Hawks were listed at 550,000 to 800,000 dara each.

The total came to 8,058,000 dara. I was stunned.

“This is…?”

“I averaged the Battle Hawks at 750,000 dara each. Seven of them, so that’s 5,250,000 dara. They hardly ever fly around here, and they’re tough to take down. This is earnings only someone as good at hunting birds as you could manage. They’re said to attack people without hesitation too, so be careful.”

That part is absolutely true.
If they hadn’t attacked me, I’d only have taken one.

When I said I’d like the full amount paid out at the counter, they looked shocked. A payout of over eight million dara at the guild is pretty rare, after all.

The clerk hurried off toward the back—probably to open the vault.

When he returned with a leather sack, the sub-master was following behind him.

“So it’s Gentle Breeze. Why’d you make this much?”

“I brought in about seven Battle Hawks, and the dismantler really went all out.”

“Seven Battle Hawks… where’d you find them?”

“Along the border between the plains and the forest, about an hour’s walk from the west gate.”

“Only seven, huh? There were more than that, right?”

“I think there were over a dozen flying around.”

The sub-master groaned at my answer, then took on a merchant’s expression, stroking his chin as he thought—probably picturing who he could sell them to at a premium.

I counted the coins—80 gold, 5 silver, 8 copper—no mistakes. Then tossed them into my magic pouch.

A low-rank group that had brought in medicinal herbs was staring open-mouthed at the exchange with the sub-master and the stacked gold coins.

“Make sure you keep earning.”

With the sub-master’s warm words at my back, I headed to the dining hall for a mug of ale.

I took my ale and skewered meat, turned around, and heard someone call out, “Leon, over here!”

The one standing up and waving… who was that again?

“You forgot already? It’s Farana. I’ve been practicing since then, and I’ve improved a bit.”

Right—she was the one who called herself Flame and Shield of Kreis.

“Long time no see.”

“I heard you caused a huge scene at the Warrens Trading Company. It became quite the rumor.”

Oh yeah. I’d completely forgotten.

“That incident? It was sub-master approved.”

“So I hear. The people who went with the sub-master talked about it, so everyone knows.”
“And apparently Warrens Trading Company collapsed.”
“They’re back to being a grain merchant, but they changed their name.”

Farana happily told me how her shorter chants had sped up her defenses, how she could attack continuously now, and how her earnings had improved.

There were two presences clinging to Farana. The spirits clinging to me were gone, so even someone skilled in presence detection wouldn’t notice them.

“Well then, if you work on it a bit more—since you can fire Stone Lance simultaneously with the chant, you should be able to form a shield the instant you pour in magic.”

“Eh…?”

“So Farana’s shield can be created instantly too?”

“Yes. If you can fire a lance immediately with shortened chanting, that means the moment you pour magic in, you’re forming and launching it. The same applies to a shield. The key is to clearly decide its height, width, and thickness the moment you think ‘shield,’ then release the magic. The shield you showed me rose slowly—you’re imitating the one you were taught, aren’t you? That’s because you don’t have a firm image of the shield’s form.”

“Hey—last time we met, you said you didn’t know much about mages and that observing other parties was useful. Why don’t you try hunting with us sometime?”

“There’s somewhere I want to go, so I can’t right now. But next time I pass through Kreis, I’d be happy to join you.”

“Got it. Make sure you call on us whenever you come to this city.”

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“Guildmaster, seven Battle Hawks have been brought in. From what I hear, there were over a dozen of them.”

“Where?”

“Apparently about an hour west along the Blange Road. What should we do?”

“We’ll report it to headquarters for now, but since it’s not certain, let only the high-ranked ones heading deep into the forest know.”

“Understood. I’ll tell them to report immediately if there are any further abnormalities.”

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While the sun was still high, I left through the west gate and headed west along the Blange Road. Before sunset, I veered off the road and took a short rest in the grasslands.

We had ended up walking quite a long way from the Spirit’s Hollow, so I decided to practice moving faster—not just flying, but improving overall mobility.

Waiting for it to grow dark, I created a perforated balloon about two meters in diameter and gently blew an Updraft! from the ground to lift it.
At a height of fifty centimeters, dust from the ground was kicked up, and even wrapped in mana, visibility was poor.

I raised it gradually and managed to secure visibility at around three meters, but that was too high.
Realizing that lifting a small balloon required an appropriate wind speed, I began adjusting the balloon’s size little by little.

At just over three meters in diameter—slightly smaller than the balloon’s maximum size—directing the updraft allowed the balloon to stabilize, and even at a height of about 1.5 meters, visibility was sufficient.

Once that worked, the rest was easy. I cut a V-shaped slit in the direction of travel and began moving forward.
Riding it felt no different from a hovercraft, a smooth, well-cushioned vehicle that glided comfortably across the grasslands.

Proceeding while monitoring the front with detection skills, I spotted the city of Adèle, but detoured and continued on.
By the time Heliant, Gerand, and Korche came into view, my concentration ran out, so I looked for a campsite and slipped into the dome.

Unlike flying at high altitude, traveling low requires constant care to avoid obstacles and wild beasts.

That said, goblins and dog-like monsters were easily handled by rising a bit and flying over their heads—but since I suddenly appeared and passed overhead, they panicked in confusion.

I think it took about four or five hours to fly from Kreis to Korche, the fourth town out. At this pace, I should reach Linus by tomorrow night.

In that case, it would be easier to fly at high altitude during the day, land in the forest, and then use the hovercraft to get close to the city.
Switching between the two makes travel a breeze, so I might as well tour the entire kingdom.

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Early in the morning, I rose into the sky and enjoyed a leisurely aerial journey, flying past Rosenne, Folka, Werner, and Randall, then descended into the forest to rest.

An idea struck me as I landed: weakening the updraft while descending, shrinking the balloon as I went, and finally transforming it into a hovercraft for a soft landing.

That meant I no longer had to risk falling while searching for gaps between trees, and takeoff and landing became smooth and seamless.

Even though I was slowly eating lunch and enjoying some tea, a High Orc came along to ruin things.

I gave it a quick spin with a Whirlwind then lightly poked the back of its neck with my short spear.

If other adventurers saw such a flippant subjugation, they’d probably get angry, so I should refrain from hunting big prey.
I’m fine being a softie called “the Gentle Breeze,” a carefree adventurer making money off birds.

After resting for a while, I rose above the forest through gaps in the trees with the hovercraft, inflated the balloon slightly, and shot back up into the sky.

Leon-chan soaring through the heavens—just kidding.

Beyond Korfults, the familiar city of Linus came into view. Seeing Linus from the air for the first time felt strangely surreal.

Mintz and Scott don’t go into the forest, so I observed the areas near the forest around Linus from above, but I couldn’t tell where they were at all.

If they were still together with Stive and the others, they’d be a six-person group—but six-member parties are common, which only made them harder to find.

With no other choice, I headed to a familiar, uninhabited area deep above the forest, activated full detection and presence-sensing, searched the surroundings, and landed.

Scanning the area in all directions with detection and presence-sensing, I passed through the forest by hovercraft, then began walking just before the view opened up.

Since Mintz and the others always stop by the Adventurers’ Guild before going home, I hurried and decided to wait just before the west gate.

As the sun began to sink and adventurers trickled back in small groups, I spotted a familiar face and stepped to the side of the road to greet them.