THE FIRST LEGENDARY BEAST MASTER

Chapter 858  Dryads Don’t Like Heights

Karl dispatched a message to the Guild, letting them know that he was going to travel for a few days to check on some potential new hires, and received immediate indignation in return.

Neither Dana nor Lotus was pleased that he was going on a road journey without them, but they both had tasks left in the city. Even Thor and Rae were going to be remaining behind, in case Karl was slow to return. The only ones who would be coming with Karl on this trip were Hawk and Cara, as well as the reclusive Little Butterfly, whose trauma regarding the outside world left it unwilling to go outside its space.

No matter how curious it was about the world. After all, it could create illusions to interact with the world, and the illusionary Library would be fine, even if it were thousands of kilometres away. It had crafted the space to fuel itself, so it wouldn’t run out of mana, as long as it wasn’t heavily damaged. “Are we all going? Or just one?” Karl asked.

Rain vanished back into her workshop, and the older Dryad smiled at Karl. “It’s just us today. She is in the middle of a project, it would take more than curiosity to drag her away.”

Hawk exited his space to circle above them, and Karl picked up the petite Dryad before leaping into the sky to board the giant bird.

He sat with her between his legs, securely in place, as she belatedly realized that she was actually terrified of heights.

“Don’t worry, the protective magic won’t let you fall. It will be a longer flight, though. Likely five hours as we follow the river to the end and search for the appropriate city. But we will fly high enough that we don’t have to fear being attacked from the ground.” Karl consoled her.

“And what about flying beasts?” She asked. “Unless they are Totem Ranked, they won’t bother Hawk as he flies past. If it makes you more comfortable, I can make us invisible.” Karl offered.

The terrified Dryad nodded, and Little Butterfly extended her Totem Rank [Invisibility] over the group. Now, there wasn’t much that would be able to detect them during a rapid, high altitude flight. Indeed, while they were perfectly safe, the Dryad refused to detach herself from Karl to even turn and face forward. Though, after the first hour, looking out over the skyline didn’t seem so bad.

They were so far from the ground that falling wasn’t an immediate threat. She couldn’t even see the small details of the ground from here, and for a large part of the flight they were above misty swamplands, until the sun burned the morning fog away.

They traversed over the main force of the Leg Regiment, which was engaged in a immense battle with undead, and then a number of smaller battles either between local beasts and monsters, or between two villages’ militia forces.

Karl didn’t hear anything about a full-blown civil war going on, so these issues must be fairly common, or considered to be isolated. Or at least limited to the two villages’ personal grudges. But it did give him a lot of understanding about how unstable the rural regions actually were.

But as they flew, the nature of the region began to change. The land grew more arid, and the small villages gave way to larger farming communities along the river, and finally a massive city made entirely of log buildings.

“That must be Arurd. We’re a bit over halfway there. Arurd is the first of the Orcish cities that we will come across.

If you follow the road from here, it isn’t much different in distance from the river, and it will be impossible to miss Gazdri. It’s the second large city after leaving Arurd, but it’s still three hundred kilometres away.” Hawk changed course, ensuring that they wouldn’t have to search for their target across open grasslands. But also so that he could see what sorts of animals the local farmers raised. The power level in the wilderness towns was at least as high as in Drodh city, and Hawk could sense at least four Totem Rank beings in Arurd, even though it was well under half the size of the capital.

Even the farmers were mostly Monarchs out here, and each of the clusters of houses had an Overlord with them. Then, as they made their way down the road, Hawk sensed even more Totem Rank guardians among the small villages.

This place really was a dangerous one to be casually travelling. But it had to be, as they raised Royal Rank oxen for food, and there were Overlord Rank Giant Tigers in the forested areas.

[We might have to come here to find our next friend. Or even further west. They are strong.] Hawk praised the local wildlife.

[I’m sure that we can find a suitable friend somewhere. But there is no rush. Thor isn’t even at Overlord yet, and we just gained Little Butterfly.]

Karl felt Hawk’s voice shift, as he focused on speaking privately. {You know that Thor is going to need the [Evolution] spell, right? He made Monarch based on the new spell, but there is no way that he can make it to the Overlord Rank bottleneck. Even with the treasures we’ve found him, it’s not enough.}

Karl patted Hawk’s back. {Yeah, I will help him when we get back. He’s struggled long enough, and we don’t want him falling behind.}

Hawk mentally smirked. {You know if he got to stay with the Tessa, he wouldn’t mind. As long as he was one Rank stronger than her, that is.}

Karl laughed at the thought. The bird wasn’t wrong. Especially after she learned [Beast Form] to turn into a fully scaled Dragonkin, Thor had been smitten with their War Cleric. Everyone cheered on their romance, but nobody said it openly, for fear that they would find some nonsense reason that it wasn’t acceptable. Another medium-sized city passed beneath them, and Hawk spotted their target on the horizon. “Under a hundred kilometres to Gazdri. We will be there in half an hour.” Karl informed Misty, who was sleeping fitfully in his arms.

Too many hours of being terrified had mentally exhausted her.

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