That day, Rayria and Vlada were lightly dressed and in a picnic mood, leaping across the floating rocks in a mountain valley. Rayria's pet Aruru was tagging along.

Rayria's overall outfit is based on white and light green, and she wears short pants that are easy to move in. She wears a pouch on her waist, and a small knife is strapped to the back of her waist.

Vlada wore a one-piece dress in white and shades of red-brown and crimson, cinched at the waist, with the hem ending just above the knees. Strapped to her back was a baton-sized rod with small gems embedded at both ends.

Despite their light outfits, through use of "compression magic" they had packed quite a bit, shrinking their luggage to around a quarter size.

The weight of luggage compressed with compression magic has been reduced to about half, and since it is also smaller, it is much easier to carry than before compression.

They can have a Specialized Enchanter cast a compression spell on them and remove it themselves, but it will be difficult to compress it again.

This means that if they don't consume it, their luggage will become heavier on their way home.

"Look Rayria! A Sky Puddle!"

Vlada pointed.

A mass of water floats in the air, just as water floats in zero gravity. This is called a Sky Puddle.

"Ah, it's true! There's a fish!"

Strangely, there are two fish in the [Sky Puddle].

A Sky Puddle is a puddle that accumulates in a air space where gravity and gravitational force are balanced in the air, like a Lagrange point (*) in space.

*A true Lagrange point is a stable position in space where the gravitational forces of two or more celestial bodies balance, allowing an object to remain in place.

Gravity in Zielenbelt is unstable for some reason, and there are places where gravity is strong and places where it is weak, with a randomness similar to fractal noise.

Furthermore, this world is full of magical power, and objects with large mass have strong magical power, and strong magical power generates a gravitational force that attracts objects with magical power.

Therefore, in addition to the gravitational force directed toward the ground, gravitational force may also be generated against the side of the cliff. It depends on the thickness of the bedrock and the magical power that resides in it, but floating points often appear in the air in mountainous valleys due to the gravitational pull on both sides.

The Sky Puddle here seems to be an effect of the valley below.

"Hey, Vlada. Let's do some fishing. I'm getting hungry, and there are exactly two of them."

"Oh good idea! Those fish are troutmon right? They're delicious! But how did they get in there? Strange..."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Yeah, weird... Wonder how?"

"That's strange. Troutmon seems to live in clean water, and the water in the sky puddle looks clean."

"They sure look tasty! Anyway, let's catch 'em!"

Rayria, Vlada, and Aruru took a seat atop one of the fixed floating rocks tangled with vines.

Rayria rummaged through her pouch and took out a fishing rod shrunken by compression magic.

A miniature fishing rod is only about the size of a pen.

"Redomo!"

As Rayria incanted a spell, the fishing rod grew back to original size.

Fishing in mid-air would look peculiar to onlookers.

Using a pseudo-bait lure, Rayria reeled in one of the troutmon.

"Kinda cramped here, let's move over there."

Rayria, Vlada, and Aruru shifted to a more open area nearby.

Rayria skewered Troutmon with a tree branch and pinned it to the ground.

With a basic fire magic spell, Rayria could use it without incantation. Uttering "Vlam" subconsciously in her mind, small flames emanated from Rayria's fingertips, cooking the troutmon deliciously.

“Look, Vlada.”

On Rayria's hand was a 3 cm miniature barley bread.

"Huh? Tiny bread?"

"Redomo!"

When Rayria cast a spell, the bread returned to its size, four times its size, to about 12cm.

"Bigger than I expected!"

"Hehe, it’s good, right?"

Rayria grinned proudly.

"Want some too Aruru?"

Vlada asked, but Aruru showed no interest, lying down looking sleepy.

As the two were eating lunch, a large swarm of beautiful swallowtail butterflies, shining azure, danced in the sky.

"Wow, Vlada, look!"

"Beautiful!"

As Rayria and Vlada marveled at the gracefully dancing swallowtail butterflies, a sudden, high-pitched animal cry, resembling a kite or a hawk but distinctly different, echoed.

"Vlada, look! ... It's a 'Wyvern'. Why is it here?"

A dragon called 'Wyvern' with blue-green scales and a white belly soared through the sky.

The Wyvern had something resembling a horse's saddle attached, and it seemed like a person was riding on its back.

"Someone's riding it... Could it be... A Dragon Rider?! My first time seeing one!"

"Hey, we might want to hide... look, it's trying to land near the sky puddle we were at earlier."

"Oh... could this troutmon be..."

The two looked at each other and made faces that said, "Oh no!"

The Wyvern stayed on the floating rocks where Rayria and the others were fishing earlier.

Gaius, who rides the dragon, is a man in his early 30s with tan skin and a muscular physique. He wears scale-patterned shoulder and breastplates, has straight painted on his cheeks, and has long, wavy hair, giving him a wild look . He has a snake-pattern tattoo on his left arm, and wears a cane-like object wrapped in a "Magia Cloth", around his waist.

"Huh? Dammit... No fish left... that was bait for this guy..."

Gaius looks around. Gaius, who flies through the sky as a dragon rider, has good eyesight. He found traces of where Rayria and the others had eaten.

Gaius rides his Wyvern and lands where Rayria and Vlada were.

The fishing rod used by Rayria is on the ground.

"A fishing rod... Damn... So there are idiots fishing in a place like this?"

Gaius looked around again, clicked his tongue, mounted the Wyvern, and flew away.

"Phew..."

"That was close..."

Rayria, Vlada, and Aruru came out from behind the bushes.

"Um, Rayria, let's head back to the village?"

Vlada had become uneasy.

"Huh... after coming this far?"

Rayria looks in the direction of the Crescent Ruins.

"I've come this far, so I'm going. I have a reason to go."

Rayria started walking, and Aruru followed.

Vlada hesitated, furrowing her brows with puffed-up cheeks.

She was dissatisfied with moving forward, but going back alone was not an option.

"Geez!"

She cried, chasing after Rayria.