First Aerial Patrol

Adrian emerges from his house with a dark circle under his eyes. In his hand, he had a saddle he's been working on. He moves his feet to the east gate. His bird is supposedly there. Along the way, he meets with dunirrs who also started heading outside the city.

Naturally, he greets them courteously. Being a new chief, he needs to build up his reputation and avoid hatred from 18,000 dunirrs.

It didn't take him too long to reach his destination. He found the birds were nicely put in a cage made of earth magic. The dome-like cage resembles the one he made previously in the forest.

Around the cage, there are some dunirrs who curiously want to take a look up close. They didn't realize Adrian's presence until he came closer to them.

"Chief!!?" They were startled, afraid that they had done something wrong.

"Alright, everyone. Please continue doing your job. It's dangerous for you to come near them since you guys aren't their owner."

Dunirrs is quick to believe his words.

When Adrian looked at the cage, he felt proud of whoever built it. "Look at these people, they try to imitate me. Though it's a bit crude, I have to give some points for their effort."

Adrian stretches his hand outward and touches the cage. Mana flows through his hand to the cage. A part of the cage slowly opened up, forming some sort of entrance. The goshawk obediently walked out of the cage without making a fuss. It curiously yet with caution looked around. Most likely because of the new environment it's in.

At least, the bird recognized its owner which saved him a lot of time. He expects this test to finish smoothly without any problems.

Once outside the cage, Adrian promptly put on the saddle he made the previous night. It consists of two parts worn through the left and right sides. Each of them has a hole for the wings to go through. The two parts will be connected in the middle. As for the stirrup, it was made as an attachable item.

"Flap your wings." He instructs his pet. Both of his hands made a flapping gesture to let the bird understand.

Lucky for him, the bird gets his message and begins to follow his order. It flaps for several minutes while Adrian keeps staring at it. Fortunately, he found no problem with the saddle he made. The bird itself has no hint of discomfort in its movement.

"Now, fold your wings and walk around."

The bird does as it was instructed. It steadily walks circulating him multiple times. Again, he checks for any abnormality that might occur. To his relief, he found none.

Time to move on to the next test, flying. Let's see how well he can move in the air.

Adrian immediately hops onto the back of the bird. Both of his feet were comfortably placed on stirrups. He looped the rein made of leather around his pointer, middle, and ring fingers and loosely held it as per instructed on the internet. With his body leaning to the front a bit, his current riding posture is no different to the people who ride a sportbike.

"Now, fly!!" He pulled the reins with enough tension, just to let the bird know his intention.

"Chirp!!" Wings on his left and right spread as far as they could.

The bird begins to flap its wing. Slowly, it started to lift off from the ground to a higher and higher altitude.

Seeing their chief slowly rise in the air is a sight to behold. Every dunirrs there put their work on hold.

Within a minute, he reached the height where he totally escaped from branches and green leaves that constantly shade over him.

He momentarily squinted his eyes. If that wasn't enough, his hands unknowingly prevented sunlight from radiating to his face. After a few minutes, his eyes finally adjusted to the brightness of the light.

"Whoaa!!" For the first time, he sees a clear blue sky. Beneath him, the greenery of the dense forest that lies as far as eyes could see. He thoroughly enjoyed the unpolluted view in front of him.

Adrian didn't stay up there for too long though. He can always come up here for the view. His intention for seeking a comfortable ride is never for enjoying the view. The main purpose is for scouting and mapping the area.

He dived back into the dense forest and activated his [Mental Mapping] skill. A map appears floating in his vision. There's more blank space than filled one.

"Aries, which way do you think I should start?"

[Why don't you start with the vicinity of the city? Then, move along the river first going farther from it as humans have done over centuries.]

"Good idea, let's do that."

Adrian kept his satellite-like map open as the birds flew around the Adrianopolis, then its vicinity. Once an area was mapped out, he could see all the details and features. This skill may not be as overpowered as one may think. In case he was looking for a specific plant, he can't simply type in and search for it on the map. Instead, he has to zoom in to take a look. It's such a hassle. Adrian might not use it for that purpose at all.

Moving on, his next intention is to fly over the Zheqas River. The river was so wide that it may look like a sea if he observed it from ground level. Dunirrs with their size may not even think of crossing this river in their entire lifetime. Even with a ship, they would like to think twice. No one knows what kind of dangers lurking beneath the calm water.

He flew over the river relatively quick.

Thankfully, nothing suddenly emerges from the water trying to bite him like in dinosaur park movies.

Checking his map, Adrian swear by accident, "Holy sh*t!! This river is 9.66 kilometres wide. That's on par with the Amazon River."

[Eyes forward. There's some smoke rising. My assumption is that there's another dunirrs settlement ahead.]

Aries's warning caused Adrian to let go of his astonishment. Once he got near the location, his goshawk landed on top of the tree branches. They're currently right above the crude yet large village.

"Aries, can you estimate their total population?" Whispered Adrian in a low voice.

[Sure...]

Adrian's eyes emitted light out of nowhere and pierced the ground below. The light moves from one end of the village to another. Aries seems to take over his eyes without giving him any warning.

Not only him, but the dunirrs below were also panicking by the sudden appearance of blue light.

A few seconds later, the light disappears. The villagers could even attempt to detect its source.

"How many are there?" Being impatient, he asked immediately.

[Estimated Population: 21,000 Dunirrs]

"21,000?!! That number way exceeds us. Hmm...Let's leave them alone for now and continue mapping. We might as well find another settlement."

The goshawk flaps its wing and resumes the flight. Adrian flies for another 25 kilometres to the west and finds another dunirrs settlement with an 11,000 population.

Feeling he had explored far enough, Adrian decided to return home. On his way, he finds another dunirrs settlement. This time, it was far lesser than he previously encountered. A mere 2,900 dunirrs.

Overall, he had mapped all places within 32 kilometres of Adrianopolis. So far, he found no serious factors that could endanger his city except the dunirrs themselves.