Chapter 08
On reaching the top of the tall mountain I had a great view; I took a moment with Bebe and Grandpa Doehring just to admire the wonderful view before I began scouting around. I cast my most powerful combination scouting spell again that was a combination of earth, wind and life style magic and poured as much power into it as possible to cover more area. I then had to take a few moments to parse out all the information I obtained. As I was going over the information, I discovered something surprising near the base of this mountain, more precisely at the valley it forms with the next mountain over in the distance. There seemed to be a crack at the base of the valley that went towards the central region of the mountain range and the really odd thing was that the crack seemed to be spewing out a steady stream of natural essence, almost like the concentration of the essences within the crack was higher than the surroundings.
This… could this be the foggy gulch from canon, my thoughts were racing as we quickly made our way down towards the crack in the valley. Once I was before the crack, I noticed that it was a few metres wide at the most and was getting wider as it propagated to the centre of the mountain range, it was also filled with a dense fog.
This was it… this was the place I was looking for. I could barely contain my excitement and only just barely restrained myself from rushing in to this odd region. I remembered that this place was filled with many powerful beasts and even the weakest of those that lived on the outskirts of the gorge were 6th rank at minimum. I took the time to convince Bebe to remain quiet during our exploration before casting my light-dark invisibility spell and the 'Soaring Technique' and then proceeded to gently float down into the foggy crack.
As I was descending slowly, I also took the time to look around carefully. The visibility down here was very poor and from the little that I could see, the walls of the crack I descended from seemed to move wider and wider away from one another. No wonder I could not find this place before, I thought it was just another ordinary valley. This was something else entirely as it was actually a valley within a valley, that sounded odd but that was the only way I could describe it. If seen from the side it would look like an hourglass as the slopes of the surrounding peaks came down and met at the cracked valley which was actually the neck of the hour glass. The region below the crack expanded again as the rock walls moved further and further away as one reached the base. This place was truly wonderous.
I made sure that my invisibility was still up and with a little application of wind and water mageforce, the dense fog did not give away my position. I carefully floated down lower all the while keeping at least one wall of the canyon I was descending in my line of sight; I had already lost sight of the opposite wall due to the fog as well as the gap opening up the lower I went. I was basically gliding down diagonally at this point. The density of the natural essences continued to climb as well and I soon spotted one of my targets for this trip. Not so much as saw but sensed, I still cautiously flew over to the patch of vibrant green grass that glowed with a slight blue light, this was Blueheart Grass. The very same herb that would let one safely ingest dragon blood and give those of my clan a chance to become Dragonblood Warriors. I quickly pulled out and stored the few patches into one of the lower quality spatial rings I was wearing before continuing to look around for more.
I found quite a few patches of the precious herb as well as many sneaky snakes along the rocky walls hiding among the thick green vines and other plant life. They were no ordinary small snakes either, these were Green Tattooed Pythons, a breed of magical beasts of the 7th rank from the snake race. They averaged around 30 metres in length and 1.5 meters wide, so they were the stuff of giant snake infested nightmares.
On the plus side the gap between our strength was not wide and I could also properly manoeuvre in the air so evading them would be no problem. I wasn't quite satisfied with just evading as I wanted to kill and harvest them too, I needed to be careful though as there were many of them around and they were not the only strong beasties here. I could not use the direct approach like with the pack of wind wolves, I needed to be stealthy like an assassin. I double checked my invisibility and layered another couple of self-invented spells on myself like the wind style 'No-scent' and the water style 'Water membrane' to hide my smell and heat signature to perfectly hide from the pythons. I then went about silently assassinating the pythons one by one, I started off slowly as I did not want to be caught by the smell of blood or something.
After my second successful kill and harvest I sped up a bit and soon I had killed and harvested half a dozen pythons. Just before moving on to the next, I noticed that the fog around me was reducing a bit and then it hit me, the pythons were maintaining the fog with a basic water spell. If I killed too many in one place the fog would dissipate and would indirectly expose my presence. That would be bad, so I added to the fog with a rank 1 water spell 'Mist Technique' that would last a while before moving to a place a little further off to continue my harvest of Blueheart grass and Green Tattooed Pythons.
This time I was careful to not to kill the snakes that were close by even if I was confident that I could kill them consecutively without an alert going out. I spread my targets out so the dissipation of the fog would not give me away and I also made sure to add to the fog myself every now and then. I took a break and rested every couple of hours when I got to half my reserves, there was no way I was going to risk waiting till I had barely any mageforce or stamina to rest. If things go pear shaped, I need to be in a ready state to make my get away so I made sure my reserves never fell below half. Thankfully the rich natural essence within the gorge shortened my recovery time by a little more than half.
I decided to spend a couple days in here to maximise my harvest, the higher the rank of the creature I killed the more powerful the magicite core, Soul, and other materials I harvested would be so I naturally wanted to make the most of this chance. These Python magical beasts seemed to share a few common points with their non magical beast counterparts as in they were lazy ambush predators. Though they could not be termed cold blooded, they preferred not to move around too much and that coupled with me completely destroying all trace of my victims with a death attribute decay spell ensured I was not found out.
My plans on spending more time to grind here were not to be though as Bebe had become impatient way before my set deadline. There was not much for the little guy to do in this situation and while I could train him a bit in ambush and assassination tactics, he did not quite have the sensory abilities or flying skills to navigate this terrain effectively. He would have to crawl along the cliff face the old-fashioned way which would risk detection, hence after nearly a day of hunting and over 50 dead Pythons later Bebe could take no more.
With a sigh I relented and prepared to make one last fly-by to inspect this place before heading back out of the mountain range proper. This place was truly amazing after all, I could hear the roars and calls of many powerful beasts down below and through the fog as they made this elemental essence rich gorge their home. I did not dare expand my sensory spell too much in this place for fear of attracting the wrong sort of attention and only used my more passive senses over my immediate surroundings. Even that was plenty as I was able to detect plenty of beasts to ambush, Blueheart grass to pluck and plenty of other rare herbs and ores. The high elemental essence in this region made it a treasure trove for valuable plant and mineral resources to grow and condense so any time I detected them I carefully dug them out.
As I was making my way around the place a little faster to do a survey I came to the edge of the Python's territory and approached the territory of other magical beasts. Normally different magical beasts did not inhabit areas so close to each other but the resources of this gorge made many of them form an unlikely understanding and not interfere with one another. This way, the Green Tattooed Pythons and the Dragonhawks that were normally antagonistic to each other were living side by side without too much fuss.
I could see numerous nests with Dragonhawks up ahead with many of them flying around as the fog was thinning. There were many other powerful beasts that I could actually see now like Pegasi, Thunderwing Pegasi, numerous Hawk type beasts, dragon type beasts- winged and non-winged. I did not dare to move further away from the edges of the foggy region and risk exposing myself as I scouted. Well, this was the place alright, I made a note of the layout of the area for when I would come back after I got stronger. Just as I was doing that, I noted that there were a handful of the Pythons coiled around a crevice in the canyon wall between the Python and Dragonhawk territories, they seemed to be trying to dig something out of the small crack but with little luck as they also seemed to be wary of doing any damage to the canyon walls.
This got me curious if they were after some sort of treasure that was inside the gap so I cast a quick short range detection spell to understand the situation more. Imagine my surprise when I found not some great treasure but a small and weak little chick huddling within the confines of the canyon walls. The little birdie seemed to have fallen out of its nest and become prey to the snakes, the other Dragonhawks seemed to not care which again told me that this was a cruel world and even though powerful magical beasts are as intelligent as humans they suffer the same flaws as well.
It did not take me long to convince myself to save the little guy, who knows I could also tame the birdie or even give it to my friends to raise, I wonder if Delia would like to raise it. Thinking such, I quietly cast the 'Mist Technique' a few times to give the place more cover for me to act and instructed Bebe to dive into the crevice and pull out the poor bird while I took care of the snakes outside. The three pythons lingering outside had no idea what hit them when three powerful rounds of my improved 'Shattered Rocks' that would better be called solid jadeite artillery rounds hit them, the heads of the pythons exploded in a shower of gore with a loud boom. I wasn't quite going for stealth this time as there were more targets so I just settled to finish it as fast as possible and make a break for it afterwards.
Bebe dove for the opening in the canyon walls the moment I cast my spell and within the few breaths of time it took me to harvest the magicite cores and Souls of the three Pythons, he was back out holding a tiny hatchling just a little smaller than him in his mouth. The little birdie seemed to be very weak and starving too but it still put a struggle with all it had, it was squirming like crazy and it was even emitting the occasional spark of lightning. It was only a few weak zaps that were hardly enough to deter Bebe or me after we noticed it so I quickly scooped both the small beasts in my arms and flew out of the gorge at the fasted pace I could, my last attack was attention grabbing enough and the denizens of the gorge had noticed me. They had just started to give chase but with my invisibility and other stealth abilities I lost them in the dense fog and by the time I exited the gorge proper, no one was on my tail. I didn't stop though as I flew a little further before stopping to rest and take stock.
I finally stopped when I had put around a dozen kilometres between me and the gorge. I perched up on a tall tree and set my wards up before checking my surroundings more carefully, I memorised the area and made note of all the landmarks so that I could find this place again in the future. Once that was done, I finally put my focus on Bebe and the little hatchling he had rescued, the poor bird was still struggling a bit but Bebe was doing his best to try and comfort it and assure it that there was no danger here. Now that I had the time to examine the little one, I saw that it was not exactly a Dragonhawk hatchling, I had spotted some of them in their nests before and other than a little resemblance in body shape and a few scales covering the body under its fuzzy hair like feathers, this seemed to be a different breed altogether.
For starters the little guy had a slightly bluish and white colouration instead of the browns and oranges of the Dragonhawks and although the general structure seemed similar this one seemed more bird like whereas the Dragonhawk chicks looked more reptilian or draconian in form. The chick even seemed to have another set of smaller secondary wings behind the first set that was different from its legs and it seemed to have a lightning attribute unlike the Dragonhawk's normal fire attribute. Whatever it's not like I particularly care what breed the bird was, I thought as I examined the little one for injuries and such. Although it was still a hatchling it seemed to have too many folds in its skin… scales? Almost like it was starved for a long time, it was also quite a bit smaller than the Dragonhawk hatchlings I had seen.
"It's ok little guy. You're safe now, Bebe and I are going to take care of you." I try and comfort the little one before casting a healing spell on it, I have no idea what the hatchling's gender is and don't want to take any chances right now.
"Chi… Chi…" It calls out weakly thinking it is under attack but after a while when all the small cuts and injuries it had heal up along with any bruising it calms down some. Soon after it passes out in exhaustion as it can detect no other threat to it and is somewhat assured by the fact that the one watching over it healed it so there was no intent to harm there.
"Squeak squeak…" Bebe conveys to me as he gently nuzzles the baby chick. He was concerned for the little one and is asking for reassurances from me if it will be alright.
"It will be alright Bebe, the little one is just exhausted is all. I will make a thin soup so I can feed it later so just rest up for now, you were amazing back there when you saved the little chick so fast." I comfort him.
"Squeak squeak!" He calls out and is figuratively puffing his chest in pride as I praise him. He just looks so cute that his actions earn him a round of head pats from me. I then gently tuck both the little magical beasts into my jackets inner pocket before taking down the wards and flying towards home.
I figured it would be best to head back as fast as possible now seeing as I have an injured magical beast hatchling on me. Besides it is getting close to the end of my school holiday and I don't want to cut it too close, who knows what may happen in this mountain range that could delay me more.
The journey back is faster as I do not stop for much besides rest every now and then. I keep my stealth and invisibility up so that I can avoid any and all interactions with other humans and magical beasts. So after four days of near non-stop flying in a straight line I see Wushan township in the distance and there is only little more than a day left before school starts for me again. Looks like I may have misjudged the distance I had travelled and would not have been able to make it to the Ernst Institute on time if I had spent another day exploring the foggy gulch like I had originally planned. Yeah yeah no need to rub it in Bebe, Grandpa Doehring.
-
There was a bit of worry in me though for the little chick I had rescued as the little one had still not regained consciousness and Bebe was also worried. I took the time to cast some life attribute healing magic on it every now and then and even just gently channelled some life attribute essence into the little one once in a while to help its recovery. I even stopped at one point and experimented by channelling life essence while cooking a thin soup, I then gently fed the soup to the unconscious hatchling which seemed to help as it no longer looked so thin and sickly. I took to feeding it a little every 3 hours when I stopped to take a break and it had now regained quite a bit of mass and resembled a healthy round ball of fluff like it should.
It was still not waking up even after all that though and I was starting to worry a bit. I even consulted Grandpa Doehring if he had any ideas as I was unfamiliar with this breed of magical beast, I wanted to know if he had any idea as to what it was and what more I could do to help it recover.
"I'm not sure what breed of magical beast it is myself Linley. It bears some resemblance to Dragonhawks as you can see from the few reptilian body structures and scales but it also has a more defined avian physiology as well especially in the wings and the colouration is more reminiscent to what I've seen in Blue-eyed Thunderhawks and Wildthunder Stormhawks. For all I know this little one could be a rare hybrid of those very same species." Grandpa Doehring explains to me.
"Woah, I had no idea that the little one was so amazing but Grandpa Doehring is there anything specific I can do to heal it up." I push on while filing away the heritage of the chick away for later.
"I don't think you can do any more than what you have already been doing, Linley. I dare say not many, myself included, could do better. Now all we can do is wait for the chick to regain consciousness by itself." He assures me and I just resolve myself to continue caring for the little bird.
I land a few ways outside the town after checking once more that there is no one around, I make my way to the nearest road and follow it into Wushan town proper. I've already changed my clothes from the tough black adventuring ninja gear to my more regular set of blue shirt, tan pants and thick brown jacket so I do not seem suspicious as I walk towards my clan house in the early evening. I greet the few people walking around as they recognize me and wish me in turn, all seems to be going fine in town, looks like Uncle Hillman has everything running smoothly.
Once I'm back in my clan's compound I make my way over to father's study, it is strange how I still refer to it as his study, his passing seems to have still not set in for me yet. I somewhat half expect him to just pop out and inquire how my studies are going while quizzing me on some random tid-bit of general knowledge as a test. I reminiscence as I walk to the study where Uncle Hillman has taken up office and seeing to most of the paper work that comes with managing a township.
I knock on the door and announce myself before making my way in to the room and see Uncle Hillman bent over some papers behind the desk. "Looks like you're managing things fine here Uncle Hillman. Everything going smoothly? Any issues or problems at all?" I ask him in case he needs my help with anything.
"Linley, you're back. You don't know how worried I was about you when you said you were going to explore the mountain range of magical beasts. No number of assurances you gave of your strength or the knowledge of your teacher watching your back would relieve me more than seeing you safe and sound with my own eyes." He said as he rushed out from behind the desk to give me a hug and check up on me. I just let him fuss over me a bit to get it out of his system and he continued saying- "I honestly don't know how I would face your father later if something happened to you on my watch."
"Sigh, I told you I would be fine Uncle Hillman, look… not a scratch on me." I turn around and do a few stretches to show that I was alright. I most certainly was fine right now but I had lost count of how many injuries I had actually sustained on my first few days in the wilderness, those first few run ins with large groups of magical beasts were particularly bad. It was like I was some chew toy being shared by a whole pack of rowdy mutts… ugh… thank God for the healing power of life magic.
"Regardless, like I told you before, I knew what I was doing and my teacher was watching my back not to mention I had Bebe here to save me if things got tense." I say as I point to Bebe who squeaks in agreement.
"It's good to know you are alright. So… I take it your trip was fruitful?" He asks me nervously towards the end eyeing the pack I had on my back. He was aware of the reason I was making this trip so suddenly and although he did not like to admit it, a little extra cash would do them wonders both to manage the clan's affairs and the town. Right now, most of the clan's funds were tied up and reserved for Wharton's education and even that would not last long so yes, money was tight.
"Rest assured Uncle Hillman, my trip was far more rewarding than I could ever have hoped." I tell him before swinging the backpack I was wearing around and placing it on the desk before opening it. I decided to withhold the spatial rings and a vast majority of the bling I had acquired so I had packed a few assorted magicite cores and gems into a sack which I placed in the bag. The value of the items in the bag were around 90,000-100,000 gold in value depending on the market condition so naturally Uncle Hillman's eyes bulged out when he saw it.
"This… This is… Linley this is too much." He loudly spoke his mind but I reassured him.
"Relax Uncle Hillman, I got really lucky this time around as I managed to loot a good number of assassins-" I started to say when I was cut off by his shout of "Assassins?!" but I continued on- "Yes Uncle Hillman, assassins. Don't worry though I was in no danger as I had my wards and other magic, in fact I may have gotten carried away at one point and hunted quite a few assassins myself. Whatever, the point being this is for the family, it was the main reason for me to even go to the mountain range in the first place so don't bother with fighting me over not taking it." I glare at him a bit to make my point.
He looks like he was going to argue some more but upon seeing my look he closes his mouth and nods in acceptance. "Good, this much should tide over Wharton for a decade or so easily with enough to spare for general expenditure for all of us including a bit of the town's expenses that will be difficult to cover with the taxes so use it well." I tell him.
We chat a bit for some more time and I look in to some of the paperwork before I am promptly chased away by Uncle Hillman to rest. He still seems to sort of coddle me but I can see that he is happy about my progress, he must feel guilty over not being there to help my father or save him when he was injured and is now trying his best to take care of me. I can appreciate what he is doing despite what it seems like, why else would I trust him to manage the town.
I actually had little regard for the town in general, sure there were plenty of people here that I cared for but ultimately it was part of the Holy Union and they were my clan's enemies. At most I would have Uncle Hillman keep up the ruse for a couple more years and then have father declared missing or something, the Union would then see to it that another proper qualified lord (more like whoever bribes them more gold) would take over managing the town. I would then be free to send Uncle Hillman over to Wharton to better take care of my little bro.
Anyway, I spent the remainder of my day back home by relaxing, I drew up a hot bath as soon as I left the study and just melted like I was boneless into the tub. I had a good home cooked meal before retiring to my soft bed for the night.
The following day I spent the first half helping Uncle Hillman with making arrangements to cash in the magicite cores and also streamline the issues he had encountered while managing the town. I decided to depart back for school after lunch that day as I would need at most half a day to reach the Ernst Institute by the 'normal and public' way of following the established roads.
I reached the school with plenty of time left till dinner and went to greet all my friends. They were of course all happy to see me, Delia especially greeted me with a hug that made both of us blush a bit. We had grown closer over the past couple of years even though we weren't dating or anything yet, hmmm… I need to ask her out soon, no use trying to delay it further. Regardless I decided to treat them all to dinner at the Huadeli Hotel as I had cashed in a few magical beast cores, I was no longer a poor penniless country bumpkin after all.
"Third Bro, this is too much. Let me pick up the tab." Yale told me as were finishing up the meal.
"Not a chance Boss Yale, don't worry though, I am no longer so strapped for cash. I may not be as rich as you or some other nobles but I recently acquired a considerable fortune." I told him. I had to share a few more details with them, no way I was telling them about my father's passing or my trip to the mountain range of magical beasts though. We all returned to our respective dorms later to rest as classes would officially restart the following morning.
I was putting away my stuff in my personal room of our shared dorm while still worrying about the little magical beast chick I had rescued. I had made a makeshift nest for the little one on a table beside my bed using some blankets and deposited it there for now. As I looked on and thought of what else I could do for it an idea struck me. Since the strain it had experienced was not just to the physical body but also the mental trauma, I wondered if I could use some of the refined Soul energy stored in my CD ring to help its recovery along. I did not see much use in just pondering about it so I took a moment to focus and began to draw upon the golden Soul mist in the CD ring using my spiritual essence and Death attribute mageforce. It took me a couple of tries to ensure that the golden mist did not dissipate or just get absorbed by my own spiritual essence but I worked with small quantities and eventually managed to get a small wisp of it to enter the chick.
The effect was as good as I had expected as the little one twitched a bit which was the first sign of bodily movement, I had seen it make after it had passed out a few days ago. I stopped after that though as I intended to give the bird to Delia and it would not do for it to wake up and bond with me instead, I already had an awesome magical beast partner thank you very much. I would wait till our group's private training the following day and have the chick recover fully in front of Delia, that way it would be more at ease with her and give her a shot at forming a bond of equals with it. For now, though I made the most of my discovery of being able to share the golden Soul mist and started to strengthen Bebe with it, the effects were more pronounced as Bebe's mind developed rapidly and he was now able to easily speak with me mentally.
"Big Bro… that felt wonderful." He told me over our link. I blinked my eyes for a moment to process this new development before responding to him in excitement.
"That is great Bebe, now just relax for a while and I'll continue helping you grow your spiritual strength. Just let me know if you start feeling light headed or something." I tell him and just like that I poured as much of the golden mist into my partner as I safely could before calling it a night and going to sleep.
The following day, after everyone in our group finished all their classes (who ever still attended them at least, by now I was not the only one doing more self-study and ditching class) we met up for our joint training in the wilderness behind the institute. I took the time to share with my friends some of the insights I had learnt from the book on the elemental laws and edicts I had picked up from my fortuitous encounter. I had finally got some time to calmly pursue the journal from the higher realm expert and I had already made significant gains from it. At the end of the training session though I asked Delia to stay back a bit as I wanted to ask if she wanted to take the magical beast chick.
"So, Linley. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Delia asks with a little nervous fidgeting and a light blush on her cheeks.
I can easily see what she expects something else, maybe for me to be more forward with my courtship with her. That was definitely on the cards but right now it was about getting Delia a shot at having a cute magical beast companion of her own.
"Delia, I have something here for you. You know how we are fairly close to the mountain range of magical beasts right; my town is also close by and I happened to come across this injured magical beast chick over the past holidays. It must have been abandoned while being smuggled or something and I thought I should ask if you wanted to take care of it? Who knows, maybe it could grow to be a powerful magic beast companion in the future?" I say my practiced sales pitch before pulling out the still unconscious chick from my inner coat pocket.
"Kyaa… it's so cute… but why is it still sleeping?" Delia all but snatches the chick out of my hands as I seem to have awakened some sort of mothering instinct in her. Really, I don't know how she was so fast but still gentle in her handling of the little chick, must be some secret technique of the fairer sex.
"Well, it is still injured and unconscious. I thought it would be best if whoever wanted to partner with it be available before I healed the chick completely as that would give them a better chance to form a bond with the little one." I explain.
"How could you delay healing this cutie Linley? Heal, now!" She all but commands me and I rush to follow her words as I am starting to fear the look she is giving me. I still take a bit of time explaining my original plan as well as how a Bond-of-Equals works before I go all out in using the refined Soul essence in my ring along with judicious use of Life magic to heal the little chick to rights.
After some time of continued efforts on my side, the little chick is starting to stir and regain consciousness. I quickly make myself scarce and hide nearby to let Delia and the chick bond. The chick soon becomes wakes up and it groggily looks around its surroundings again in worry while making 'Chi…chi…' sounds, all in all it looks very cute.
"Awww…" Delia coos at the chick's behaviour which seems to jog the mind of the little one into gear and with a slightly more frantic 'Chiii' it emits a few more lightning sparks in a bid to defend itself. Fortunately, Delia had taken my warnings about the little one's abilities and was also strong enough herself to not mind these attacks.
She spent quite a lot of time just trying to gently comfort and assure the little chick that everything was all right before the little one stopped making too much of a racket. Maybe it was the cute rumbling sounds from its stomach showing its hunger that made the chick quiet down but regardless Delia decides to make the most of it and uses the chance to sit down by the shade of a tree and feed it.
I had already prepared a small pot of meaty broth close by which Delia slowly spoon fed the little one. After a little hesitation and considerable sniffing around the chick happily let her feed it one spoonful of delicious broth after another and soon the entire pot that was twice as big as the chick was cleaned up. The chick gave some contented "Chii…Chii…" tweets and snuggled up in Delia's palms to show its gratitude causing a bright happy smile to break out on her face.
This followed for some more time and I just watched quietly from the side accompanied by Bebe. "Looks like things are going well big bro." Bebe mentally communicates with me.
"Yes, things are looking good. Now we just need to see to the chick's living arrangements. Can't risk some other random opportunistic buggering mage come along and steal Delia's new friend before they form a bond after all." I tell Bebe mentally.
Soon the chick was starting to get sleepy and I discreetly motion Delia towards a nest I had prepared among the branches of a small bush while still staying out of the chick's sight. The bush was considerably off the walking paths and hidden, I had also taken the time set up some wards around it to ensure even the most adventurous hiker from the institute will not randomly find the nest or its inhabitant.
Delia nods in acknowledgment and soon tucks the chick into the nest. She even goes the extra mile and sings a soft and melodious lullaby and the chick is soon fast asleep. She lingers by the nest some more just looking at the peacefully little bird until I quietly approach beside her. It takes a while for me to coax her to leave her cute new friend for the day and head back to the institute, even then she manages to rope Bebe into hanging around here to keep an eye on the chick. Neither of us mind much as Bebe can now better communicate with me mentally over distances so we won't really be apart, this would also be another layer of protection for the chick.
Over the next few days Delia spent a lot of time visiting her new friend to feed, groom and play with the little bird and they have both grown fairly close. What with Delia visiting the chick at least 3 times a day I wasn't surprised. Though eventually we had to clue in Dixie on exactly what we were doing as his super over-protective brotherly instincts would not let us spend so much alone time in secret with each other.
Honestly the guy was getting to be a bit too much now. He had not quite completely forgiven me for attacking them at the start of our second year at the institute and was now all but stalking me to all my co-curricular workshop activities and other places in search of any evidence indicating I was up to no good or out to hurt Delia. Delia and I were feeling very stifled by his constant hovering and were planning to sit him down for an honest chat sometime soon, that or planning to set him up with a date of his own so he would stop bothering us.
My relation with Delia had also progressed considerably and it could be sort of said that we were sort of unofficially courting each other. Though I had already confessed my feelings openly to her and she reciprocated, we were too young to be intimate or get physical so it was only puppy love you could say.
In the end it only took about a month or so before the little chick had grown close enough to Delia to initiate a Bond-of-Equals with her. Needless to say, Delia was overjoyed at getting her own magical beast partner so soon and at my encouraging she brought little Fey over for some light training with the rest of us. Turned out that the little bird was a female and despite her being too young she gave it her all while training after looking at all of us working hard. It might be thanks to some natural instinct to get stronger or because she still remembered how weak and helpless, she once was before I rescued her and wanted to get stronger so she would not have to go through that again. Whatever her reason, everyone in our group encouraged and supported her in training.
Training was progressing well for everyone, my dorm bros and Delia were progressing very fast, in fact they were progressing at the pace of canon Linley with Dixie maintaining a lead of about a rank and a half in magus rank over the rest owing to his massive head start.
Bebe's training had also been taken to the next level as we were now able to communicate more clearly with each other. I was now able to explain to him the more complex things like elemental theories, combat tactics, battle and cultivation techniques without fear of not knowing if he understood everything correctly or not. I also had feedback from him on what natural essence affinities he had other than darkness and after some testing we found he had affinities for wind, destruction and water as well, so I had a better idea while making a training plan for him.
He has seen massive progress and is particularly fond of one particular wind type magic skill that I taught him. He now uses it along with the complimentary battle tactics I told him about to great effect. It was just a simple variation of the basic Shield of Wind spell which normally forms a solid compressed barrier of air for the caster, I tweaked the spell to make the compressed air barrier sturdier at the cost of drastically reducing the size and called it Air Run. The point being that instead of having a large shield of over a meter in diameter one could create a few smaller but sturdier platforms they could walk or even run on the air for a bit.
What can I say, it seems that Bebe was kind of upset with only me being able to fly and move freely in the air and that last adventure through the foggy gorge gave him motivation. He was very bored with only piggy backing apparently while I was out having fun killing snakes. The technique had various methods it could be used in besides for limited travelling through the skies and with Bebe's small size and speed, the cost for using it was even lesser to cross longer distances. I also showed him a trick to releasing the compressed air in an explosive burst to blow away and damage enemies that carelessly approach the platforms, it might only stun or just distract stronger foes but it was useful all the same. I also showed him how he could also ese the platforms to trip up his opponents and mess with their footing, in the end Bebe was just having too much fun zipping through the air.
Seeing Bebe have so much fun, Delia and Dixie also approached me to learn this useful technique being the only others in our group with a wind affinity. This was a very useful spell after all and more versatile than the 5th ranked Floating Technique which only allowed one to levitate straight up. The irony was that since my modified spell was based on the Shield of Wind which was only a 2nd rank spell, it was much easier to use and a 5th rank wind magus could basically insta-cast my spell multiple times to better mimic limited flight.
I did not leave my dorm bros hanging though and taught them a few of my modified spells suitable for their affinities as well. I also took the time to teach them the underlying concepts and encouraged them to study the properties of the elements themselves so they may also replicate such feats on their own and build their own unique style of combat.
I also decided it was time to start studying blacksmithing techniques seeing as I might have need of it later and besides, I had plenty of quality ore on me and I could probably acquire more on my adventures easily. There was a student blacksmith association in the institute after all and despite the pitiful number of members, it was well stocked and furnished with a high-quality forge and workshop. The need for forges was not exclusive to warriors as magi also needed good magi-staves and by coupling enchanting with forging, the institute's blacksmith association produced some amazing quality products that were worth a lot on the open market. Naturally I had Dixie as my usual tail who followed to sign-up for any clubs and groups I joined, this was really starting to annoy me now but at least this might be useful to him as he had a fire affinity so I didn't call him out on it.
I decided to change up my training from now on as I started to focus more on these extra-curricular workshops and personal research rather than just focusing on improving my personal power levels. While increasing my personal strength quickly was important, I figured that rushing too fast bring too much unwanted attention on me, besides after reaching 6th rank as a warrior my progress from just regular exercises was giving lesser and lesser returns even under higher gravity. As for mage training, I was already ridiculously ahead of the curve at the peak of 7th rank and still progressing smoothly, the main requirement to progress in rank was spiritual power for which my special cultivation techniques like stone sculpting and Soul refining with the CD ring were basically hacks. Needless to say, there were no bottlenecks on the road of my magus path all the way up to Saint rank and I could afford to broaden my base further by learning stuff like magical blacksmithing.
Unfortunately, I was a complete noob at blacksmithing when I first began but I was persistent if nothing else and used my advantage of a powerful body to quickly improve my craft. My hard work paid off as by the end of the school year I was deemed capable enough by the workshop managers to be assigned a small private work station of my own. I could now start taking orders from the Institute and student body to earn a little extra pocket money and also sell some of my products for profit. The profits were not much compared to the vast fortune I had acquired on my trip to the mountain range of magical beasts seeing as I still had to pay a fee for continuous usage of the school's workshop as well as the raw materials- I didn't want to use the ores I had in my spatial rings as I had no way to explain how I got the stuff if the workshop managers asker, many were very high-quality materials after all.
Just like that another year at the institute came to an end and this time everyone in our group chose to graduate to the next grade. Enough time had passed for it to be considered natural and other than Dixie who moved up to the mid-levels as a 4th rank magus the rest of us smoothly advanced to the grade of 3rd rank magi. This was all only for show as all of us were at least 4th rank now with Dixie being a rank higher, he did not let his original advantage go to his head and worked just as hard as the rest of us if not harder to advance.
With the month-long holiday in sight, I started making preparations for another trip to the mountain range of magical beasts. I had not told any of my friends what I was doing yet and they all thought I was still just visiting home. I had also promised them that we would be starting actual combat training and spars from the following year. Everyone had made decent progress in both magi and warrior paths so I reasoned it was about time they got some actual combat experience from now on.
So it was that I headed out on the road towards Wushan town on the first day of the holiday but instead of actually going to the town, I left the main roads after I was a certain distance from the institute to circle back and head to the mountains via the wilderness. I changed into my black ninja gear and immediately flew off to my destination after casting my stealth spell set, I did not want to waste any of my holiday time.