"Even this bleak landscape is so refreshing."
"..."
Cecile let out her thoughts as she looked at the rocky mountain.
But I felt some spite in her words.
I, sitting in front of her on the B-rank Bird, endured it silently.
There was a reason for the situation.
Ten days ago, I discovered the Iron Golem.
I declared to my friends that we were going to defeat 100 of them a day with passion.
On our first day, it took us 15 hours to defeat 82 Iron Golems due to a lot of trial and error trying to find out the most effective way to defeat them.
We took breaks in between by escaping to the 5th Floor hall and trying again.
I believed that what I did was obvious: more efficient and in less time.
But my friends thought differently.
It took them a while to even understand what was happening.
They didn't understand why I was enjoying it, but Cecile exploded at our hunting routine, which lasted over ten hours per day.
They all crowded me to ask what it was all about.
When we were in the Academy dungeons or when we were in the S-class dungeon, it was normal for us to be active for around 10 hours, but they said that just hunting for 10 hours was insanity.
I tried to increase the number of breaks, brighten up the dimly lit rooms with magic tools, and built a bath on the 5th Floor, but my friends wanted a break.
I thought of hunting alone in the dungeon, but discarded it as I wanted to hunt with my friends if possible.
Then I thought about finding a way to take a break.
That day was not just about break though, we had a few other errands to run.
Still, my friends and I went to a ragged mountain.
For that purpose, too, Kiel and Merle did not accompany us.
"Ah! There it is!"
Kurena, flying in front, shouted loudly.
Kurena was probably the one who was looking forward to our destination the most.
On her back, instead of the large sword she always carried on her back, was a large meat that looks like it belonged in a manga.
"It's true. Everybody off!"
I ordered our descent in response to Kurena's shout.
And we were getting closer to one of the things we went there to do.
"What? It's so big, how can it get that big in a year or so?"
Dogora was surprised to see the huge white creature.
"Haku has grown a lot."
The white creature was Haku, the White Dragon, whom I had named when it was just an infant.
"Master Allen!"
"Grrr!"
When we moved closer to get a better look, the White Dragon bared its fangs and gave a small snarl.
"What do you think you are doing to Master Allen!?"
B-rank Dragon was furious at Haku for threatening me.
"Kuh-uh-uh."
(It is squealing like a dog.)
"It's getting really big. Is this the White Dragon's child?"
"Yeah, it's huge!"
Cecile was curious too.
We had a few things to do that day, including checking on Haku, so we were in the White Dragon Mountains.
The White Dragon was growing up nicely, partly because the B-rank Dragon was taking care of it.
It had already grown to about five meters tall in less than a year.
It was over two meters when it was born and had doubled in size.
It had a voracious appetite and ate any prey hunted by the B-rank Dragon.
"Come out, Orochi."
"Oh!"
I summoned an A-rank Dragon.
I was changing Haku's guardian from B-rank Dragon to A-rank Dragon that day.
Up until then, B-rank Dragon had been taking care of Haku, but I was thinking that A-rank Dragon, with its higher status and five heads, could take care of Haku better.
For the time being, the idea was to have B-rank Dragon and A-rank Dragon take care of Haku together, and eventually switch to only A-rank Dragon.
(Tsubame is really useful. Well, all A-rank summons are useful. Their range of activity has expanded quite a bit, hasn't it? Or rather, I can now fly. Hmmm...)
There was a swallow on my shoulder as I was thinking so.
It looked like a swallow, but it was an A-rank Bird summon that I had named Tsubame. {TLN: Tsubame means the barn swallow.)
Tsubame was quite small and weak compared to my other summons, but its abilities had tremendous potential.
I had participated in the war of Rosenheim, and had met numerous strong individuals like Hero Helmios outside of the Latash Kingdom.
And I had placed B-rank Dragons and B-rank Spirits in various places where I knew someone.
However, summons could only be active for 1 month at a time.
So the summons that looked after Haku, or were placed as liaison between countries, or helping to develop the Rodan Village, would return to my Holder as cards after 1 month
For that reason, I used to send my B-rank Dragon and Spirit summons that could fly to Rosenheim, the Latash Kingdom, and the Empire of Giamut in advance.
Some of the places required 15 to 20 days of travel time and could only perform their task for the remainder of the time.
I was convinced that I had to continue doing so.
But at last, a summon who could solve that problem had appeared.
That was the A-rank Bird that looked like a small swallow and was on my shoulder.
[Species] Bird
[Rank] A
[Name] Tsubame
[Strength] 200
[Mana] 8000
[Attack] 200
[Endurance] 200
[Agility] 10000
[Intelligence] 10000
[Luck] 9000
[Blessings] +200 [Agility], +200 [Intelligence], <Flying>
[Special Skill] Nest Building, Nest Transfer
[Awakening] Homing Instinct
I found one thing about A-rank summons as a whole.
That I always got 3 [Blessings] from my A-rank summons.
They contained two status increases and the other was a resistance or a skill that I could use even if that summon was only a card.
The A-rank Bird's [Blessing] had a skill called <Flying> that allowed me to fly on my own.
I was able to fly freely like Helmios could with his skill.
My flying speed depended on my [Agility].
[Nest Transfer] was A-rank Bird's special skill that teleported only me to the point pre-determined by [Nest Building].
And it could be used as many times as I wanted.
A-rank Bird's awakening skill [Homing Instinct] teleported all of my designated allies within a 1 kilometer radius to the point designated by the [Nest Building]. Cool down time was one day.
[Nest Building] could only be used once by an A-rank Bird. And if I were to <Delete> the A-rank Bird then I wouldn't be able to teleport to the 'Nest' that it had made.
I named the point where I would be teleported to 'Nest' after the special skill's name.
I needed an A-rank Bird for each Nest that I wanted.
According to what I heard from Merus, the creator of summons, that he prioritized the things he thought I was missing, or things that I wanted, and made them into special skills and such.
The rest of the details were based on rank of the summon and other details.
When I had fought Helmios using my B-rank summon, I admired Helmios' <Flying> skill.
Merus also told me that the reason he chose the <Flying> skill was because I was having a hard time during the war in Rosenheim because of the time it took to travel.
Note that when I told Merus that I wanted the <Appraisal> skill a lot too, he told me that getting the <Appraisal> skill for A-rank summons and <Summon> Level 8 was pointless and a waste.
Because what I really need to appraise were S-rank magical beasts and Demon Generals who were very strong.
I didn't need to appraise A-rank or lower ranked magical beasts.
However, an A-rank summon probably wouldn't have been able to appraise an S-rank magical beast.
It also seemed that it was impossible to appraise Great Demon Generals.
It made sense to me that my summons wouldn't be able to appraise them, as Helmios also wasn't able to appraise that my summons gave my [Blessings].
"Haku. Here, it's meat. Eat."
"Gruu."
Kurena was about to feed Haku a lump of meat.
She had brought the meat from the Rodan Village.
Kurena held the meat out with a twinkle in her eye.
(Is this what you call maternal instincts? Kurena had it too?)
I thought something rude while looking at Kurena.
I remembered how she had enjoyed listening to me talk about Haku's growth.
Haku, who always received fresh meat to eat from B-rank Dragon, looked troubled as Kurena presented it with dried meat.
Fearfully, Haku ate the meat that Kurena had given it.
"They grow up a lot."
"..."
"So, can you tame it?"
"It might be difficult as it is now."
I asked Merus while looking at Kurena.
The Demon King was said to have power over all magical beasts.
"But I have seen many magical beasts that have had egos before."
The first one that popped into my mind was the Madegarsh I had defeated when I was 10.
He killed humans for fun, but he didn't seem to have lost his ego.
The same was true for the White Dragon we had defeated before.
If the Demon King had taken away the White Dragon's ego and the White Dragon had been consumed by madness, I didn't think Kurena Village would have existed.
"The Demon King gives power to magical beasts and controls them at will. If he manipulates them individually, Haku won't be safe.''
"I see."
I somehow understood what Merus was trying to say.
Kurena is beside me, listening and looking worried.
After confirming Haku's growth, we left the place on B-rank Birds.
I rode on a B-rank Bird with Cecile because <Flying> consumed continuous mana.
So, I decided to use <Flying> only in fights.
"Are we going to the Armored Ants Nest now?"
Cecile questioned me from behind.
"Yeah, there's an Armor Ant Nest nearby. I'm going to experiment to see if I can find something."
Armored Ant's armor was harder and lighter than steel.
But they were inferior to Mithril.
I planned to start an experiment to see if we could breed the Armored Ants and form a farm.
The mining of Mithril ore had just begun in the Carnell Territory, which was ruled by Kiel.
Since the Fire Goddess' Divine Artifact had been stolen and time was running out, it would be difficult to manage the territory without Mithril.
With that said, Allen and his friends headed to their next destination.
