Tec Mage Chapter Thirty Seven: Duke Crowfeather
Baran village had 500 households and seemed to be peaceful, children played on the streets while the adults lively did their work, an old man in shabby clothes was sitting on his porch just nodding his head as if all was right in the world, in the central square of the town was a pine tree and beside that was a statue of a beautiful stone goddess, flowers, fruit and copper coins were placed at the base of the statue, it was clear that the people of this village worshipped this goddess
Atlas walked around the town, there wasn't anything special about this place, Atlas bought a couple of thing in the shops but that was it, when Atlas talked to the towns people about the floating city of heaven none seemed to know about it
Alison had said it was directly above this town but when Atlas looked up all there was were clouds and sky
"Should i get higher and get a better look" thought Atlas
Atlas had a small thought about hot air balloons, if he had enough skilled workers who could handle cloth well it was possible to make a hot air balloon with him as a heat source but that thought was quickly expunged out of his mind, the village didn't have the resources or judging by what they sold in the shops they didn't have the skill, it was after all just a small village
Atlas sat down, it was time for the little rainbow spiders feeding, the red eye of the dead rainbow queen had been drained and Atlas was now feeding the spider a orange eye, when Atlas open the box holding the spider the little beast had it's fangs raised and was ready to pounce but upon seeing the eye in Atlas hand it calmed down and carefully climbed on the eye to feed, the little rainbow spider had grown 20% and one of it's eyes had turned to a deep blazing red colour, it had absorbed the queen's eye and now it was part of the little spider, this spider species practiced matriphagy or mother-eating
Atlas was fearful of this spider, it's growth was too fast and it was so very fierce, when rainbow spiders were born they would eat and absorb their mothers strength, thousands of baby rainbow spiders would eat their mother thus absorbing a small part of their mothers strength but Atlas baby rainbow spider had a all you can eat buffet with out the other baby spiders competing, it's strength wouldn't be comparable with other rainbow spiders
The only compensation was when the baby spider was full it would quietly go back in it's box on its own accord, while feeding the baby spider Atlas sent his cloud of mana sparrows to search for the city of heaven, the sparrow cloud flew into the sky and then split into 4 smaller clouds and then even more smaller clouds as they dispersed in the sky
Atlas had gained a small crowed of boys with his feeding of a spider, when the little girls came closer to see what Atlas was doing they screamed when they realised that Atlas had a giant spider, with the load vibrations of the retreating girls the baby spider freaked out and chased the fleeing girls, this caused the boys to also run and make the baby spider freak out even more
"Awww look at him, he's having a good time" Forge was looking at the baby spider as it chased the human children like a proud parent, Atlas was wondering if Forge was mistakenly hearing the terrified screams of the kids as part of a game
Atlas grabbed the baby spider and ran out side the village, he was sure that the baby spider had mentally scared a few of the children and when the children told their parents either they would think they were lying or most likely go looking for Atlas, this baby spider was a lot of trouble
Out side the village the sparrow returned to Atlas, searching though their memory Atlas could see the sparrow was flying though clouds until it hit something hard, the small mana sparrow had taken some damage but still existed, it fly up past the upper layer of clouds in to the bright rays of the sun, when looking down the sparrow saw a huge land on the clouds
Braking away from the sparrows memory's Atlas looked up, in the sky was drifting clouds but one stood out, a huge cloud formation hadn't moved at all
"That's were it is" said Atlas
Just then Atlas could hear the parents of the children that were chased by the spider rush out with spades and pitch forks searching the streets for the baby spider, they couldn't allow even baby spider monsters to live in their village
Atlas was thankful that he had left the village, it was now impossible for the people of this village to make a hot air balloon for Atlas, the baby spider had alienated both of them
Atlas moved away from the village until he was satisfied he was safe, it was strange most people entered villages to be safe but Atlas had to retreat away from the village to feel safe, what was he going to do know, he had to reach the city of heaven, he had even seen it though the eyes of a mana sparrow but he had no way to reach the new lands
Atlas released the mana mouses from his bag to scout the area, as the mana mouse started to look in every hole and crack a mana sparrow flew down and picked up a mana sparrow, just like the mana sparrows the mana mouses didn't weigh anything and it was a odd sight watching a sparrow carrying a mouse, after all the mana mouses were the same size as the mana sparrows
Atlas had a wonderful idea, he would make the sparrows carry him to the city of heaven, Atlas searched his bag, he was looking for string but he could only find a small amount, Atlas had a lot of metal wire but it would be too heavy
"Damn, not enough string" said Atlas
"Hmm, you need string no problem" said Forge
Lifting the box that held the baby spider Forge opened it, like always the baby spider had it's front legs raised and fangs barred but when it saw Forge it lowered its fangs and walked out of the box with out spazzing out, the baby spider walked up to Forge and tapped Forges nose with its long legs, there was no hostility
"Hey little one, make me some thread would you" explained Forge to the baby spider
Just then the baby spider did it's little dance and bounced along the ground, Atlas thought the spider was losing control again but the spider jumped up a tree and span a single piece of tread from the branch to the ground
"I can't believe it" said Atlas "it did what you asked of it"
"You only need to ask" replied Forge
Though out all of the baby spiders feeding Atlas had talked to the spider but it never did what Atlas asked
"What kind of relationship do these two have" thought Atlas
With the spider's silk and the mana sparrows Atlas stuck them together, the spiders silk was amazing, it had enough strength to support Atlas but weighed almost nothing, to help with his own weight Atlas enchanted the sleeping bag that was made by the gnolls with weight reduction enchantments
When the thousands of mana sparrows lifted off the ground with Atlas trailing behind in a sleeping bag the scene looked like a bunch of sparrows had found a huge caterpillar and was carrying it off to it's nest
In the air Atlas steady him self by countering the wind by using his magic spell gust, as he floated higher he could see the entire village below him, it looked like that they were still searching for the baby spider, Atlas could only say his apology to the boys and girls of the village
Higher and higher went the sparrows and with them was Atlas hanging by a thread, they passed the first layer of clouds, the feeling of coldness and being wet was refreshing, the water from the clouds stuck to the silk threads that were attached to the sparrows making drops of water glisten and sparkle, higher and higher Atlas went, at this height Atlas had to use even more magic to counter the natural wind but Atlas had plenty to spare
Atlas was coming to the unmoving giant cloud that he knew had the the city of heaven on it, as he passed though the outer reach of the cloud he felt hot instead of cold water, looking down Atlas could see the giant floating continent, it wasn't resting on clouds but it appeared to be expelling steam from the bottom, this steam was mistaken as clouds and hide the land from view below
As Atlas passed the land the heat from the steam caused the sparrows to fly faster, with an up draft the sparrows had increased their speed, with increased speed Atlas found him self on solid land in no time
On the city of heaven there lives a species that looked like birds, standing on two legs, they have small eyes and a great wingspan, they are known as Avians, when Atlas landed many of the bird creatures surrounded Atlas
"Owwwhh a new visitor"
"He looks like a worm"
"Yummy"
As Atlas landed he released him self from his sleeping bag to the disappointment of the Avians, Atlas noted that even though all the Avians had the same body's there head took the form of other birds, each head was different
Atlas was just about to greet the Avians when his flock of mana sparrows landed, each mana sparrow started to groom them self to free them selfs of the silk thread of the baby spider
"Are.... are they sparrows" asked a young Avian that had a face of a robin, the feathers on the Avian that was once fluffed up in excitement was now flat and drab
Atlas could see that the Avians were scared, when Atlas used his Soul Perception skill he could see the glowing soul in each and every Avian, each Avian souls were different colours depending on their emotion, when they first saw Atlas they were excited and their soul colour was orange but now that they had spotted sparrows and was scared their soul colour was yellow green, Atlas thought he had shown disrespect by making a bird life form, as Atlas tried to apologise for this the robin Avian explained it to him
As Atlas listen he got why the Avians were scared of the mana sparrows, to boil it down sparrows had the mind set of a tiger, they would fight anything even things much bigger than them self, you couldn't reason with them or bribe them
Even though they were small they would fight to the death and in packs of thousands, some Avians had tried to recruit the sparrows Avians into the army but they didn't follow orders and if there wasn't anyone to fight they would fight and kill there own species, it didn't end there, no one was safe, the young, old, unborn, kings or peasants would be targeted and killed
Sparrows were the berserker of the bird world but no one knew what would set them off, the Avians had witnessed sparrows and sparrow Avians eating peacefully with plenty of food around them but suddenly the sparrows would fight, there was no way that other Avians would even chance being around any sparrows
The Avians that had surrounded Atlas didn't even dare to run away, who knows if that would cause the sparrows to kill, instead they all moved towards Atlas and used him as a shield
Atlas ordered his mana sparrows away, the Avians were shocked, each one of them knew how untameable the sparrows were but here was a stranger that was ordering sparrows about and the sparrows followed the orders, they didn't know which one was scarier wild sparrows doing as they please or unified sparrows following the word of one
Avians were a cheerful people but witnessing the sparrows made the whole group tense, the Avians showed Atlas the way to the city, when Atlas step over the city bounders he didn't receive any notice of achievement letting him know that he was the first player to enter the city, this meant that some one had already discovered the city
In the city news quickly got around of a new stranger that had tamed many sparrows, Atlas was looking though the stores and asking questions about magic users to gain any information about the hidden magus when he was greeted by a platoon of Avians wearing brown armour with a black crow feather on the breast plate
"Are you the controller of the sparrows" asked the captain, his voice was a soft chirpy sing song tone that didn't match his station as a captain
The captain knew Atlas was the man he was looking for after all Atlas was the only new comer on the floating city at the moment
"Yes" Atlas didn't hide it, after talking with the Avians though out the city he found that none were physically strong but instead of power they held speed and the ability to fly, Atlas didn't believe he was in danger
"Duke Crowfeather would like a audience with you" explained the captain
Duke Crowfeather Atlas had read that name before, it come from the amour he had found in the nest of the rainbow spiders
"Is this a Quest" thought Atlas
Atlas wanted to see where this was leading, if he was lucky he could gain information leading to the hidden magus, Atlas followed the platoon of Avian shoulders, far in the sky Atlas sparrow cloud followed them
Atlas was lead to a sort of mansion made of straws and sticks, a grand home but it was spoiled by twigs and lose straw poking out of the walls, Atlas couldn't expect much more after all Avians were bird people
In side the mansion was a hall with a nest sat at the end like a throne, on the nest was a small black crow Avian, this was the Duke, beside him was his personal guard made from the stronger species of Avian
Atlas had learned that not all Avians were equal, smarter birds such as crows lead as dukes, Ravines became kings and the smaller birds such as robins became merchants, eagle Avians were bodyguards or drafted into the army
Atlas could tell by their species how smart or strong a Avian was, so armed with this info Atlas knew that the Avian sitting on the nest was smart
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Duke Crowfeather moved his head around, his small black eyes focus on Atlas, his feathers ruffled and then he opened his beak, unlike the soft singing voice of the captain the duke's voice was harsh like a crows call
"Sparrow master" the duke was calling Atlas sparrow master "How did you do it, how did you master sparrows" the duke was interested in Atlas ability to control sparrows, if he could find a way to control sparrows he could swell his personal army with fast breeding berserker sparrows and take control of the kingdom, maybe even the world
"Magic" answered Atlas, the single word was the truth but when the duke heard it it sounded like Atlas was keeping it a secret
The duke wasn't used to this, most Avians bowed to him, his feathers ruffled again, looking to his side the Avian bodyguards nodded
Before the Avian body guards could react Atlas spoke up "Duke Crowfeather, do you know anything about this armour" Atlas pulled out the shiny slightly blue tinted armour he found in the rainbow spider's nest
The duke's eyes bulged a little "my son's armour"
Atlas didn't know that the armour he had presented to the duke was from the duke's son, years ago the duke's son had left to find and exterminate their mortal enemy giant spiders on a right of passage mission but had failed and become the food for the rainbow spider queen
A human might cry for their lost loved one but the Avians laid a egg a day and had many offspring, no the duke wasn't upset for his lost son but more at the news that his son had meet his end at the mouth of giant spider
"What happened to the spider that killed my son" demanded the duke
"Dead, killed by adventures" answered Atlas
The duke turned his bird head so a eye directly stared at Atlas "any proof"
Atlas unpacked the spiders queens heart, Atlas unrolled the heart on to the straw floor, when the heart hit the floor it made a sickening noise
All the Avians turned there heads to look at the heart, without a doubt this belonged to a queen giant spider, the size alone verified it
The beaks of all the Avians in the hall watered as they saw this giant heart, giant spiders would eat birds, Avians and any living thing that had blood but Avians would do the same to spiders as well
"I see, you have done us a great service and brought us a tasty treat, this pleases me" said the duke with out taking his small black eye away from the heart
Atlas didn't give the heart away but as long as the duke was on his good side he was willing to trade the heart for information leading to the magus
Just then the baby spiders box rattled drawing the attention of the duke and his guards, Atlas grasped the box to stop the rattling but instead of stabilising the box it rattled harder
"Bring that here" the duke had taken interest in the box
A guard walked out to receive the box, Atlas held up his hand to stop the guard, with one less hand holding the box the baby rainbow spider burst out of the box jumping in the air with it's fangs raised
With a neat little landing the baby rainbow spider landed on the dead spider queens heart, moving from side to side the baby spider marked the heart as his
"Oh you brought me a treat as well" said the duke, his beady black eye was staring hard at the baby spider, with a gesture of his head a guard stepped forwards to capture the baby spider
"No, wait, it's not a gift, I'm raising it" said Atlas
"Don't be stupid, giant spiders are our food and enemy, by bringing it here means you are gifting him to me or declaring war on us" explained the duke
"What small minded bird brains you are, just because the baby spider is here doesn't make it yours and it doesn't mean that we are your enemy" explained Forge
The hall fell silent, the Avians didn't even think that Atlas red scarf could be a Imugi, all the Avians stayed silent, if giant spiders were food and enemy's of the Avians then snakes and Imugi's were demon kings, all Avian knew what Forge was, only imugi's snakes could talk
The difference between giant spiders and imugi in the eyes of the Avians were that giant spiders could be hunted with out too many loses but the Imugi caused huge loses, lives and equipment would be snuffed out with one move of a adult Imugi, hunting a Imugi wasn't smart, if a hunt for a Imugi failed it was even worse for the town people of the attacking group, with there high intelligence Imugi's would visit the town of the group that had attacked and cause such complete Armageddon
Avian's had a justified fear of Imugi's, they were a natural enemy to the bird species, but unlike normal snakes their power was godly
"HO...HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT HERE" the duke had stood up from his nest, he was pointing directly at Forge, "GUARDS KILL BOTH OF THEM"
The eagle Avians rushed forwards with murder in their eyes, with just one word spoken from Forge Atlas reputation with the Avians had drop to the lowest possible level
"KILL THEM" screamed the duke
Atlas activated his skill Perceptual Chronometer, in his mind time slowed down giving Atlas time to think
Fighting this many Avians at once would be difficult on it's own but Atlas was caught totally unprepared, it didn't help that the floor was made from sticks and straw, this made Atlas main weapon useless, Atlas couldn't use his spell clay hand and his fire spell would light up the whole mansion, this was Atlas main weakness, if he didn't have the correct materials in the right environment then his magic was useless
Atlas wanted to slow the guards down but even the the gust spell would do little against a species that used wind as easily as breathing, even his ability to control metal couldn't be used, Atlas could change a metal moving targets direction but the faster the metal was the harder it was to take control, if the Avian were slow moving or standing there he could control the metal to his advantage but the Avians were so much faster than any of the monsters Atlas had fought before, if it wasn't for his Perceptual Chronometer skill then Atlas wouldn't even have time to think these things
One of the Avians took a swing at Atlas with a strange weapon, the weapon looked more like a rake, Atlas stepped back to avoid the swing, on his shoulders Forge protected Atlas back from the advancing Avians, the mane on Forge's back burst into flames and he extended his wings, fire flowed out of Forge's mouth with every breath
The advancing Avians froze, they didn't want to fight a Imugi even if it was still a young one, Atlas sensed how afraid the Avians were, taking a page from Forge book Atlas concentrated his mana to the fire ring on his ring hand, a blazing light extended from the ring, fire erupted from the ring using Atlas mana as a fuel source and in Atlas hand was a katana blade made from fire, Atlas wasn't completely fire resistant but with his bonuses from his class as a magus, crafting skills and his equipment he was 97% resistance, if it was a NPC then even this would be too little to stop the pain but Atlas only felt a tiny amount, only players could do this, with less pain and more fire resistance Atlas was able to wear the fire ring all the time, there was even benefits too, with constant damage being done to Atlas his Endurance and fire resistance stat increased incredibly fast
With a fire katana in his hand and Forge taking care of his back the charging Avians stopped completely, this was the time to press forwards, Atlas collar flared up as a burning fiery cape burst out, it spilt in to two, one half waved in front of Atlas like a whip while the other half did the same but for his back, unlike his fire spells Atlas had complete control over the fire blade and cape
With the fire cape reaching out like tentacles the Avians started to step back, Atlas threw the now empty spider box at the baby rainbow spider
"GET IN THE BOX" shouted Atlas
The baby spider just wobbled on top of the giant heart as it tried to defend it
"GET IN THE GOD DAMN BOX" shouted Forge
The baby spider stopped dancing on top of the heart and with it's head lowered it jumped back in to the box
Atlas had a sudden flash of insight, the baby spider saw Atlas as the mother, being fed day by day and a person to play with and test wills with but Forge was the father, when the dad said to do something you did it or received the wrath of dad
The box the baby spider lived in was enchanted against fire to protect the baby spider from Atlas Avatar of fire skill, he would be safe there so long as the Avians didn't get a hold of him
Atlas ordered his mana mouses to pick up the heart laying on the floor and the box containing the baby spider, while Atlas pieced the stick and straw wall with his fire katana, Atlas wasn't going to walk though the mansion just to get ambushed, no he was making his own way out, burning the walls down Atlas controlled the fire to only burn a space big enough for him to leave
At this point Atlas mana mouses had picked up the heart and moved it closer to Atlas, just then a clawed black foot stamped on one of the mana mouses, this belonged to the duke
"KILL THEM ALL" shouted the duke
The Avians just looked at each other, what could they do, to attack a Imugi and a fire mage they knew that they couldn't win, if it was a wind or water mage then it would be easy but a Avians weakness is fire
The hole in the wall was almost finished when Atlas bag erupted, out flowed a mana mouse wave, sensing there brother being squashed they came out in full force to teach them a lesson, at the same time mana sparrows poured though the windows in a cloud of angry chirps, the colour in the feathers of the duke drained out of him
"SPARROWS, SPARROWS" yelled some bystander
"Protect the duke"
"Save your self"
The duke was scared out of his mind, giant spiders, Imugi's, mouses wave, fire, and sparrow cloud, all of these were weakness to the Avians, never before had he lost control like this
"CRAW CRAW CRAAAAAAAWWWWWW" the duke cried out
Just like that Atlas lost all intimacy with the Avians, the hall was chaotic, the sparrow cloud were picking up the Avians and dropping them, while the mouses wave ruined the Avians feathers, weapons and armour, screaming Avians ran about as they were pecked from the sky by the sparrow cloud, the mouse wave spilt and left the hall only to return when they found something worth gold, the mouse wave sort a way to hurt the duke even more for the lose of their brother, Atlas didn't want them to kill but he didn't say anything about stealing the duke's treasures
Forge had a long breath of fire coming out of his mouth that looked like a massive tongue lashing at any Avian who was brave enough to even come close to Atlas, as this was going on the baby spider's box rattled in excitement
As the hall way reached the height of chaos it all became quite, the curled up Avians looked up to the sky for the sparrow cloud and along the floor for the mouse wave, nothing
As fast as it happened it ended Atlas was nowhere to be seen and with his disappearance so too did the mouse wave and sparrow cloud disappear
The duke found his feet, he was surrounded by his guard, the duke looked at each one of his guards, every feather on their body had been bitten until nothing was left, they all looked like uncooked chickens, each guard had done their duty and protected the duke with their body's but how could they protect the duke from the mouse wave, every little space was taken advantage and the mouse wave had reached the duke as well, he was as bold as the rest of them
If anyone saw the image of these Avians standing buck naked with out any clothes or feathers a fit of giggles would erupt
"Duke what should we do, should we go after them" asked a guard
The duke had gained his senses, at first he was full of him self, then as he talked to Atlas he felt anger but now with the cold wind blowing though the broken window and his naked body receiving the full force of the cold wind it was clear to him
"A full house arrest on all who live in the mansion" the duke couldn't afford word getting out what had happen
"Don't you want to arrest that freeman" asked a naked guard "it's still not to late to gain the secrets to controlling the sparrows"
"CAN'T YOU SEE HE PLAYED WITH US" shouted the duke, there was no deaths but everyone was nude as the day the hatched from their eggs
The duke couldn't afford to go head to head with some one who could cause such destruction, if he used his force's to capture Atlas and lost most of them then other powerful Avians could take advantage
The house arrest was to stop any rumours leaving the mansion and give time for their feathers to grow back
"Let it be known that any one who helps the freeman known as Atlas will be punished" the duke still wanted to punish Atlas but at this time this was all he was willing to do
After thinking about it the duke made a new proclamation
"Let it be known that mouse waves will be put on the natural disaster list, under Imugis, sparrows and insect shortage" the mouse wave had left it's mark on the dukes heart
End Of Chapter Thirty Seven
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Hi all, a new chapter for you, i wrote this chapter when i was sick but didn't have the brain power to prof read it
I also wanted to call this chapter"the wrath of dad" but it was only a small part of the chapter so i didn't
enjoy