The two female explorers who called themselves pure-blooded Half-Dragons seemed to have little fondness for mages, and they made it quite obvious. But after spending a little time together, perhaps they realized that our group somehow suited their tastes in all sorts of subtle ways. Their initial rejection and coldness gradually faded. I also discovered that they merely didn't like us; there was no genuine hostility. Naturally, that made it easy to draw closer again. This was a good development.
Actually, I felt I shouldn't have bluffed about being a mage in the first place. Even making up some self-driving tour identity would probably have been better...
I got to see all sorts of interesting tools used by this world's natives, including the rope they had used to descend from the floating island. As expected, it was a living plant, though an artificial organism catalyzed through alchemy and druid magic. According to Sakina, this was essential equipment for explorers and anyone else who often worked in the wilderness. After climbing down from the floating island, they cut off more than ten meters from the newly grown end of the rope, wrapped the cut with strips of cloth soaked in a strongly scented potion, coiled it back up, and put it into their packs. Supposedly, after just a few hours, the rope would grow roots again. So long as it wasn't used on sandy ground, those roots would be strong enough to support the weight of two or three fully armored adult men. It was truly an astonishing magical creation.
Though Sandora and Pandora judged it to be a primitive tool in terms of effectiveness, the idea behind it was pretty impressive.
The floating island had landed right beside the only major river on the grassland. The moment Sakina and Sona