Chapter Fifty-Three

He continued flying until the tower became a dot in the distance, yet he felt he was still within his territory. How big was his territory? Normal city territories were a fraction of the size.

Also, how could they hide something so massive? Simply removing it from maps wouldn’t be enough. He found it hard to believe many people wouldn’t stumble upon something so massive.

Though few could travel far without a lot of money for supplies or transportation. There had to be another reason it remained hidden. It wasn’t the only hidden area if his mother was to be believed.

The answer to his questions came sooner than he expected. One second he flew over a dense stone forest, the next a flat desert with a scattering of trees not unlike the village he grew up in.

That was when realization struck. He flew a little further and spotted a familiar walled city his parents took him to several times. From his vantage point, the city seemed small. The walls always felt imposing on the ground, but in reality, it was just a small city at the edge of Magna Vita Urbs’ influence.

Now that he had a point of reference, he orientated himself westward and continued flying. Despite being in bird form, he skirted around the city, but it didn’t seem to be needed as the wards didn’t activate, allowing him to fly by without trouble.

He still didn’t get how his mother slipped by the city. As far as he knew, she was a regular desert elf, but he thought he was one as well. Maybe there was more to her than he knew. He knew there was more to her than he knew.

On that thought, he continued toward a familiar gathering of villages. Far faster than his parent’s sand geyser travel, he reached his home village soon after.

He circled above the village, elves below not paying him any attention despite how rare a bird of his type was in the area.

A frown formed as he spotted empty sand where his family’s house should be at the edge of the village. Not wanting to draw any attention to himself, he spiraled downward as slow and graceful as he could, then touched down.

Shock radiated up his legs, but the sand cushioned most of his rough landing. It was much softer to land with his humanoid legs. His little bird legs were pretty much useless for anything other than perching and grabbing things. He didn’t get how birds did it.

Probably because it was all they ever knew, so they got used to it and he probably would too, eventually.

Like from the sky, everything seemed perfectly smoothed out, but he knew his parents left some sort of clue. They wouldn’t just disappear without some clue to why.

He doubted they were in trouble. More likely, they disappeared either to make him fend for himself or to avoid him questioning them. Probably a bit of both. He was sure he would find them eventually.

His guess turned out to be correct as his small bird feet felt a hard spot in the sand. The temptation to shift sprouted, but in case someone was watching, he didn’t want to risk it. Just because the villagers focused on themselves, that didn’t mean they didn’t spy on each other if for only gossip.

Plus, it had to be eye-catching for a house to vanish into the sand with no trace. He had no doubt his parents did just that, as they loved to show off.

Since using his wing to brush away the sand would look a little too off, he flapped his wings as if to shake sand out of them. In reality, he focused on blowing the sand away. Grain by grain, a small flat stone no bigger than his palm revealed itself.

When fully revealed, he tucked his wings in and acted like he was resting them as he peered downward. The writing was almost too small even for his excellent bird vision to read, though that might be because his vision focused on long distance clarity.

“Congratulations Ardy! Audy and I are so proud of you! I know you have questions, but your father and I need to take a trip for a while. If you want to learn more, I’d suggest heading to Magna Vita Urbs. I’m sure with your talents you will have no problem getting into Magna Schola Magica.”

A sigh escaped him as he used his beak to flip the stone, expecting something on the other side and he was right, but he almost wished he hadn’t. “Also, good luck with that little snake. She is a handful in more ways than one.”

Something told him their meeting wasn’t by accident. It wouldn’t surprise him if they planned at least the first part of his dungeon delve. The cards they gave him were suspiciously useful. Even the Dispense Spore card came in handy in the Fungi Trial.

He almost didn’t want to visit Magna Vita Urbs just to prove he did something without their influence, but doing that would still be under their influence.

Besides, it was the right move to at least check out Magna Vita Urbs. He wasn’t sure he wanted to enroll at Magna Schola Magica, though. Too high of a concentration of highborn and scrutiny.

Though he already shared a territory with one and even if he didn’t want to broadcast it, he was technically a noble himself as he owned territory. Plus, that wasn’t even considering his prime status.

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Suddenly, it seemed a lot more dangerous to delve into that den of vipers even if he brought a snake with him. At least he had his territory card to escape, though that proved inadequate already.

Despite the risks, he needed to find out more, and that place was the best place to check unless he found some hidden library in his territory.

Even if it existed, there was no way he would find it with how massive the territory was. It took him hours flying in one direction to reach the border, and that was flying. Walking would probably be days of travel if one didn’t get lost by the never-ending identical stone trees.

Maybe they didn’t need as much defenses as they thought. Magna Vita Urbs conveniently gave them a couple of defenses and then the natural size helped them.

Still, just in case, they needed to defend the core. Once the tree grew bigger, it would be a beacon to anyone who had a high vantage point like that tower. Said tower was also a major weakness he only temporarily dealt with. They probably had a map of the tower’s location, so eventually they would investigate.

They needed a more permanent solution.

To make it worse, that was only what he discovered by traveling in one direction. What else hid in the rest of their territory? Maybe their territory wasn’t as dead as they thought.

Suddenly energized, he flapped his wings and took to the sky. He did one last look at where he grew up, finding the stone vanished like his home, leaving no evidence they ever lived there.

A pang of sadness hit him, but he pushed it down. His family was what mattered, and he was sure his parents were fine. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise him if they watched him right now.

At that thought he spread his senses outward, feeling each melody and mana auras. Just at the edge of his perception, he felt two familiar auras, but they vanished before he could focus on them.

That discovery proved they watched him. He wasn’t sure if his discovery was a sign of his progress or intentional on their part.

Before the frustration got to him, he flapped his wings and took off eastward, back toward their territory. As he flew over the small city, the temptation to check it out sprouted, but now that he knew where he was, he was better off traveling to a bigger city. Especially since he could fly. The desert felt so much smaller from the sky.

As a kid, it felt massive, especially when his parents dropped him in a random spot, tasking him with returning home. Now that he flew over the top, he realized he had never been in danger. He was never far from help, and he was sure his parents hunted any dangerous creatures.

That didn’t mean it would be the same in the future. He couldn’t expect the world to coddle him. There were many dangers out there. If he allowed himself to become soft, he wouldn’t last long.

He allowed himself to fall into a dangerous situation in the tower. It could have gone wrong in so many ways. What if they attacked him the moment they noticed him? He wasn’t arrogant to think he could survive the combined attack of five trained fighters, especially in his fragile bird form.

No, he needed to be more cautious than ever. That didn’t mean he shouldn’t take risks, but they had to be calculated risks.

On that thought, he flew past the city, eyes on a swivel, looking for threats. Even with his senses on high alert, he didn’t sense the border of his territory. One moment he was flying over a sparse desert, the next nothing but stone trees spread in every direction.

Refusing to be beaten, he circled back and flew as slow as he could while listening for anything with every sense. Just as his surroundings shifted and the city came into view, he felt a single note from the melody. It was so soft he almost missed it. Just to make sure he didn’t imagine it, he tried again confirming what he heard.

Another thing he noticed was the sudden shift of mana. Outside, earth ambient mana filled the air, but inside there was nothing. Maybe the shift hid the enchantment, or whatever it was. He didn’t know enough to figure out more, so he moved onto his next course of action.

With his gaze focused inward toward his territory, he flew along what felt like the border. Sometimes accidentally crossing over to find himself in a different location, which helped him map out his location.

The further he flew, the clearer their territory was. He only flew a small part of its circumference, but based on the cities he saw each time he crossed over, he knew where they were.

They weren’t as isolated as he thought. In fact, he would consider them in a fairly central location, with a couple of major cities not far away.

That was both good and bad. Easy to gather supplies, but if anyone found out, they would be swarmed or maybe not. At least for now, their territory was just a massive dead stone forest. From the border, it still looked dead, but if someone scouted deeper, they may find the green.

He kept flying but occasionally peeking outside, but it only confirmed his understanding. As he went, no other structures stuck out to him within their territory, but that didn’t mean much as he couldn’t see the tower from the border either.

It would take a long time to map out their territory, but it had to be done. There could be a bunch of hidden dangers they needed to know about. Fortunately, he was the perfect person for the job.

There were limits to his flying, though. Soon, his wings felt sluggish. Even pumping mana into them didn’t help. The temptation to use his territory card to teleport back built, but he pushed it back. He didn’t want to risk needing it during the one-day cooldown. Even if he had the trial dungeon teleport, who knew if it was open? For now, it was best to save it.

Instead, he turned himself toward where he felt the core and pushed through the discomfort.

His body had other ideas. A sharp pain speared through his right wing. It seized up, sending him spinning downward.

At the last moment, before he hit a tree, he transformed, allowing him to grab a branch. He transformed back, but no matter how much he tried, his right wing refused to work. Even twitching it sent spasms of pain through him.

With reluctance, he focused on his territory card and willed it to teleport him to the core. As much as he wanted to save the cooldown, it wasn’t worth walking back.

Like the border of their territory, one moment he sat on a branch, the next he stood in a clearing filled with color. Color?

His eyes ran over the ring of flowers of many colors laid out along the edge of the clearing right at the tree line. It took him only a moment to feel the poisonous mana wafting off the plants, causing flashbacks to the poison trial.

Well, that was one way to protect the core. Like a moat, but much prettier. The little snake had been busy.

Said snake was nowhere to be seen.

While scanning the clearing further, another change presented itself. The trees bordering the clearing weren’t stone trees anymore. They still looked dead, but he had a feeling that would change.

Also, the density of the mana within the clearing was several times denser than when he left. So dense he felt a warmth within him as his body took in the potent mana.

No wonder the Ash Forest recovered so quickly. The ambient mana cracked into grade two.

Hopefully, he would join it in the ascension soon.