Soaring Through the Sky Together

Two months flew by in the blink of an eye. Being an adventurer in Rosenburg was still very simple.

As the largest city near the Asura Kingdom, its trade routes were extremely developed. Every day, vast quantities of magic tools produced by the Magic Tri-Kingdoms were exported to the Asura Kingdom, while large amounts of ore, grain, cotton cloth, and other daily necessities were exported to the Magic Tri-Kingdoms in return.

Because of that, security around the city was jointly maintained by the Magic Tri-Kingdoms and the Asura Kingdom. Larger Magic Beast nests were regularly cleared out by mages and knights.

So the adventurers working in Rosenburg were, on average, below B-rank. Since there were very few higher-level commissions, higher-level adventurer teams did not stay here.

Our party, Dawn of Ignis, made an enormous name for itself over these two months. Isolte's and my reputations also spread all at once.

People had already given us nicknames.

Mine was "Crimson Vortex," while Isolte's was "Azure Abyss."

I could not figure out how they had come up with that nickname for me. How strange!

It was not until one day, when I was drinking with other adventurers in a tavern, that I found out my nickname came from the fact that I often used water magic, but my hair was red. Isolte's was because her hair was blue, and when she used "Flow Perception: True Mirror," it reflected people's fear, making them feel as though they had seen an abyss.

As for why she had used a finishing move, the reason was that during the first month, we had basically taken every commission involving Steel-Toothed Boars and Snowstorm Giant Bears. This caused many adventurer parties who made their living from those jobs to challenge us. They believed we must have found some good method for hunting Steel-Toothed Boars and Snowstorm Giant Bears, and demanded that we make the method public.

Unfortunately, I told them the method, but they did not believe me.

In the end, we could only teach the challengers a lesson. At first, I had planned to knead together a Saint-tier spell to scare them, but using Saint-tier magic inside the city might get me wanted by the authorities. In the end, Isolte took the initiative and fought three small parties alone, twenty-five people in total.

After she used her finishing move, those twenty-five people, along with the adventurers watching the show from the sidelines, all looked as though they had seen a demon. Then they all ran off, and some even shouted for their mothers while running. It was truly funny.

But afterward, I thought about it. This skill really was similar to Orsted's curse.

Although we had stolen many people's rice bowls, after advancing to C-rank, due to efficiency issues, we stopped going to Hadora Forest to kill pigs.

Later, I led the party to Bushke Ice Lake to eliminate Icefield Giant Lizards. The lizards' scales were extremely valuable materials, and the task of collecting Icefield Giant Lizard scales reached B-rank. But after arriving at Bushke Ice Lake, we found that this task was not easy. Icefield Giant Lizards could dig holes, and the cave entrances were beneath the snow layer, making them very difficult to find.

Moreover, there was another creature there called the Ice-Snow Sandworm. It was a giant worm hidden in the snowfields, and it attacked any living creature that approached it. Because they were very difficult to detect, the unlucky Undine was accidentally dragged into a sandworm tunnel.

I barely managed to rescue her using advanced earth magic. But she was still severely burned by the stomach acid inside the worm. Only after I used the advanced healing spell Fountain of Life did I save her.

As a result, the young girl developed serious Demonic Beast PTSD. After returning to Rosenburg, she left the party.

The suitable rank-up commissions in Rosenburg had also more or less been taken, so I prepared to go to the next city. Perhaps because he had taken a liking to Undine, Fahn Calvin did not travel with us. He chose to stay behind and tend to the wounded heart of the young girl.

Isolte, Berion, and I set off together on the road to the next city, Sharia.

Party Name: Dawn of Ignis (dawn)

Party Rank: C

Party Members: 3

Party Mission Count: F 0 times E 10 times D 35 times C 10 times B 2 times A 0 times S 0 times

After arriving in Sharia, we followed the same process as last time: build good relationships with adventurers, gather information, and recruit party members.

Taking into account the previous incident with the Ice-Snow Sandworm, I decided to recruit a suitable scout.

In addition, based on my plans for the future, I also had Lilith buy a house in Sharia.

Isolte prepared to reproduce the same recruitment method we had used before in Rosenburg at Sharia's Adventurers' Guild.

But an accident occurred during the match. While we were waiting for the match to begin, a one-eyed burly man in the guild stepped forward.

"I am the captain of Void Pathfinder, Clark Evans. If you want to recruit people here, you need my approval first. If you want to find someone to spar with, then spar with me first."

Void Pathfinder was a powerful S-rank team. It belonged to the large-scale group "Thunderbolt," and this captain, Clark Evans, I remembered, should be a Sword Saint of the North God Style: Qiba Branch. This was truly unlucky!

"You two are Dawn's 'Crimson Vortex' and 'Azure Abyss,' right? I heard rumors about you long ago. How about making a bet with me? I'll compete against the two of you alone. If you win, I'll allow you to recruit people here. But if you lose, the two of you must join my team. How about it? Isn't that a good deal? Mine is an S-rank team, you know. I don't even want ordinary people!"

Isolte was enraged and prepared to draw her sword on the spot and cut down that one-eyed dragon.

I gently took her hand. Looking into her eyes, I said, "Leave it to me." Isolte obediently nodded.

"You over there, One-Eyed Dragon, do you think we're stupid? Does Sharia belong to your family? If you say I'm not allowed to recruit, then I can't recruit? Do you have the authority to stop me? Is this an S-rank team's privilege?

Even if you make trouble from the side, can't I just wait until you're out on a mission before recruiting people here? This match of yours has no basis at all. How about we change it?

I'll compete with you alone. If I win, you join our party for two years, and you're not allowed to quit within those two years. If you win, the two of us join your team and also don't quit for two years. How about it?"

"Haha, what a good suggestion. At first, I thought you were afraid! I didn't expect those to be the conditions. You, a magician, want to challenge me. I can't believe you can say that. Aren't you afraid of getting hurt? Since you're offering yourself up to be my team member, I'll accept. I agree to your match. All the adventurers present shall bear witness. If I, Clark Evans, lose the match, I will become your party member and serve for at least two years. But if I win, the two of you will have to become my team members for two years."

"Good. Isolte, please count down."

"Dolin, why won't you let me compete? You're a magician, so competing against a Sword Saint is far too disadvantageous for you. I can definitely beat him."

"No, I have a move that guarantees victory, so don't worry. It's not that I don't trust you. That one-eyed dragon is a swordsman of the North God Style: Qiba Branch, and what their branch emphasizes is using every means possible. Against opponents from the Sword God Style, who rely on swordsmanship clashes, I believe you can win. But against this kind of opponent with ever-changing methods, the Water God Style has a hard time dealing with them. Will you trust me?"

"Okay. I trust you."

3, 2, 1, the match began.

All I could say was that the one-eyed dragon had been far too careless. He actually did not attack first. He was probably thinking that no matter what magic I threw out, he would forcibly block it, then use an overwhelming method to make me admit defeat.

After all, this was inside the city. I had no way to use Saint-tier magic.

But I had made a two-year promise. I could not truly spend two years as an adventurer under him, because then my trial under Teacher Bradycond could basically be declared a failure.

So I directly used Invisible Wings to fly into the air, then used Wind Blade to carry out a saturated assault on him.

During the first few attacks, he still blocked them with footwork and slashes. But under my nonstop barrage, he was quickly decorated with wounds, more than five cuts appearing on his body. In the end, the one-eyed dragon even threw out his treasured sword, trying to knock me down.

But I had been guarding against that move from the start. Throwing weapons could already be called a symbol of the North God Style.

I raised my altitude. His weapon fell before it had even reached half my height.

After about five minutes of attacking, the one-eyed man shouted his surrender.

This magic of mine that let me fly through the air had definitely shaken everyone present. Isolte included. But with this many people around, I had no intention of explaining anything. I called out to the one-eyed Clark, "Tomorrow at noon, we'll be waiting for you at the Adventurers' Guild. You have today to deal with the matter of your old teammates."

I also shouted to all the adventurers present:

"Our Dawn still needs to recruit three teammates, as well as one scout. Requirement is at least advanced-level strength. We'll be recruiting tomorrow at noon as well. If you're interested, come to the Adventurers' Guild tomorrow and we can discuss the details."

Then I hurriedly left the scene with Isolte.

I had to get out of there fast. After all, the soft flesh at my waist hurt so much I was about to cry out.

Once we reached a place with no one around, I quickly grabbed her little hand tightly so she would stop pinching my waist.

"Talk. When did you learn this flying magic? Why didn't I know? Didn't you say I should trust you? You didn't even tell me about magic this amazing. How am I supposed to trust you?"

"Ow, my little princess, don't go shedding pearls. What a waste that would be! I really didn't hide it from you. When I developed this magic, the first thing I thought was that I wanted to tell you. But at the time, the magic still couldn't carry another person. I thought, if I was the only one who could fly, how lonely would you be? So I kept it from you all this time, all so that one day, I could give you a surprise, become your wings, and let you and me soar through the sky together."

After saying that, even I admired my own skill at coaxing girls. I really was turning more and more scummy.

After hearing what I said, Isolte stopped crying too. Like a woman who had fallen in love, she looked at me with eyes full of deep affection.

I didn't say much more either, and held her tight.

Then I cast the magic and brought the two of us flying up into the sky together.

While we were in the air, she held me even tighter. I did my best to use wind magic to form a shield of wind, blocking the wind that blew at us.

In the sky, while holding her, I pressed my lips to hers.

I didn't know if it was the suspension bridge effect, but in the air, she responded to me fiercely as well. Our bodies floated weightless among the clouds, her sleeves fluttering like butterfly wings, yet we clung to each other even tighter. My palm supported the back of her neck, my knuckles sinking into her hair, while her hands climbed over my back, her fingertips almost embedding themselves in my skin, as though if she loosened her grip even slightly, she would fall into ten thousand fathoms of mortal dust. The burning heat of our entangled lips and teeth formed a strange opposition with the biting wind of the high sky. Every breath exchanged trembling gasps, like two intertwined vines stubbornly living together in the wind.

That kiss lasted until my mana was nearly exhausted before it finally stopped. I flew with her back to the inn. As soon as Isolte landed, she shyly went back to her own room. Hopefully, she could slowly recover from it!

At noon the next day, the three of us from Dawn arrived at the Adventurers' Guild together. The adventurers had spread the news that I could fly, saying I was a divine child. It seemed that when facing things they could not understand, humans would imagine the answer in an even more superstitious direction.

The one-eyed Clark kept his promise very faithfully. According to him, he had no way to go back on his word in front of so many adventurers. If he did that, then he wouldn't be able to keep working in this line anymore.

Fortunately, it was only two years. He had explained to the group "Thunderbolt" that he would return to continue leading the team two years later. So his members had already been assigned to other group teams.

There was one exception, though. Clark also brought along a mature woman. Niki Marshall was probably Clark's lover. She was an extremely competent scout. In Clark's previous team, she had been responsible for scouting routes, but she could also do laundry, cook, prepare poisons, and many other things. She had even studied how to distinguish teleportation magic circles.

She really was a qualified scout. Of course, we welcomed talent like that very much.

Because I had shown off in front of all those adventurers yesterday, many adventurers came to sign up today. Unfortunately, adventurers at advanced level without teams were still relatively few.

I only recruited two mages.

Damon Hodgson was a local from Sharia, an advanced mage skilled in earth-attribute magic.

Gwen Gabriel came from the Millis Holy Country, and could use advanced healing arts and intermediate detoxification arts.

This lineup was already quite powerful now.

With veteran adventurers leading the way, we took far fewer wrong turns.

We accepted many missions that, although ranked very high, could be passed very easily as long as we prepared thoroughly.

It only took four months to reach A-rank. Among them, one mission to collect Snow Dragon Beast scales left a deep impression on me.

This Magic Beast had a strong restraint against both water- and fire-type magic. Earth-type magic was also hard to hit it with.

But I used wind-type saint-tier magic: Primal Veil Severance.

It created a vacuum field in front of us. All the Snow Dragon Beasts that passed through this field were sliced into pieces. The scene at the time was extremely cruel.

In that final adventure alone, we completed five A-rank missions.

Current rank:

Party Name: Dawn

Party Rank: A

Party Members: 7

Party Mission Count: F 0 times E 10 times D 35 times C 10 times B 10 times A 10 times S 0 times

After reaching A-rank, I decided to head to Forest Song City in the Heilier Kingdom as soon as possible. Counting from when we arrived at Red Dragon Upper Jaw:

It took one and a half months to arrive at

Rosenburg, the second city of the Basherant Principality.

In Rosenburg, we spent two and a half months rising to C-rank.

Going to Sharia took one month.

Rising to A-rank in Sharia took four months.

Nine months had passed in total, leaving one year and three months before the time limit.