Chapter 252: Critical Period (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
*WOOO*
The steam whistles coming from the humongous airs.h.i.+ps echoed in the sky.
The three wooden airstairs were disconnected from the airs.h.i.+ps and dropped to the ground as soon as all the wizards completely boarded the boats.
The airs.h.i.+ps slowly flew away from the platform, leaving a trail of green energy particles behind.
They started moving toward the north of Nola. All the wizards were standing beside the railings without saying a word, looking at their friends and families that were still on the platform.
They just stood there. The only noise Angele could hear was due to the green energy particle flows that helped in propelling the airs.h.i.+p upward.
The platform gradually looked smaller as the airs.h.i.+p’s alt.i.tude increased. The people standing on it now looked like countless tiny black dots.
Angele was standing beside the railings as well.
The platform was now the size of his palm in his eyes.
One of the six white signal obelisks was right up ahead that looked like a slim stick that was stabbed into the ground from the boat.
There was a relatively large city called Alava beside the obelisk, with about eight trading towers built around it. From the sky, its entirety looked like a piece of nail. (ED Note: Nailed it.)
The city was surrounded by a sea of vivid trees.
Angele looked to the north and saw the trees there that were covered by white snow.
Frigid gusts of wind blew across his face and the airs.h.i.+p he was in had nearly reached the maximum alt.i.tude it could sustain.
He turned around and started observing the gondola.
The gondola was connected from below the envelope. It was painted in black and its size was average.
The gondola’s appearance looked identical to the ones used by the fish men.
The cabins were built under the deck. Only wizards were allowed to board the airs.h.i.+p, as others wouldn’t be able to handle the radiation from the strong defensive magic matrix. Mortals, wizard apprentices, and even knights could easily die in the airs.h.i.+p.
It was a problem brought by the extremely dense energy particles.
The deck was about 15 meters long and its surface was elastic for some reason.
There were several wizards standing beside him, including the tall slim man. His long sharp ears were eye-catching. He was standing at the right side of Angele.
The man was talking to a young female wizard using energy particles. The female wizard was very polite to him. It seemed like she was just answering the questions that he had asked.
"Three airs.h.i.+ps. Ten wizards on each airs.h.i.+p. You’re looking at the captain of our boat, master Baron." A deep male voice came from the left side.
Angele turned to the left quickly.
It was a middle-aged man with a long white beard. The man was about two meters away from him.
The man had a gentle smile on his face. He was wearing a thick white coat with a cloak on the back. His messy brown hair looked like a bird’s nest.
"Master Baron?" Angele repeated the name twice. "Is he stubborn? I’m just judging him by the serious expression on his face."
"Stubborn? No, not just stubborn. The man’s mind is dead, he won’t accept any change." The man shook his head and communicated with Angele using energy particles.
"My name is Perry. I think we can be friends." He smiled at Angele and stopped using energy particles to communicate. "This trip is dangerous and not many wizards will survive it. We need to help each other so the chances of us making it to the other side will be higher, don’t you think so?"
Angele glanced around. There were two other light wizards standing by the railings. One was male and the other was female.
Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
‘Scanning the mentality waves…’
Rows of data were displayed beside the three people in Angele’s sight.
He looked at Perry first.
‘Wizard. Weak force field. Breaking the forcefield for detailed information.’
The female wizard also did not reach the Gas stage, but the male one was at the Gas stage. However, Zero could not provide details due to the force s.h.i.+eld. Nevertheless, he acquired the basic information by a.n.a.lyzing the mentality waves they were releasing.
"Nice to meet you." Angele put his right hand over the chest politely.
"Nice to meet you, too." Perry smiled. "Why don’t you come have a chat with us? If you have time."
"For sure, thanks."
The two walked to the two light wizards.
They were chatting about how to increase the spell casting speed. They stopped talking as they saw Angele walking to them.
"Coach." The female wizard slightly nodded.
"I’m Nopel." The male wizard introduced himself as well.
Perry introduced Angele to them and the four wizards started chatting about simple spell models by the railings. They also exchanged information about the trip.
Angele was glancing toward the other wizards on the deck as they chatted.
The captain named Baron was still chatting with the female wizard.
There was also a couple on the opposite side that were communicating using energy particles.
The number did not add up to 10. Some might have already gone back to the cabins.
"Master Perry, I have a question, what if the airs.h.i.+p is destroyed by some strong creature? Even the wizards can’t survive a height like this," Coach asked in a low voice. "Sorry, I really don’t know too much about those things. I just broke the limit about 40 years ago.
Coach was wearing a long white robe and a v-neck s.h.i.+rt, revealing her charming breast. Although the lady had an average-looking face, her s.e.xy body was still eye-catching. Most of the female wizards would modify their bodies to fit their needs after breaking through, especially the light wizards. Dark wizards, on the other hand, would rather spend the time learning high-damage spells.
Perry smiled. "Don’t worry about it. The envelopes were built with the best materials you can find in Nola and they are enhanced with multiple spells. Even the beaks of the strongest eagles can’t penetrate them."
Perry looked like a gentleman with a handsome face. His long white beard made him look like a leader of a n.o.ble family.
"However, we still need to be careful if the Cloud Bees attack us," Nopel interrupted. "The envelopes will be fine, but we need to stay alert."
"Cloud Bees? What are those?" Angele had never heard of such creature.
"Let me explain." Perry turned to him. "There are five dangerous points during our trip. The Cloud Bees are the first one. They usually hunt birds in the sky and they appear in groups. A Cloud Bee is about two meters tall and one meter wide. They will attack with freezing breath and sonic waves. Cloud Bees are horrifying. It was created by the ancient wizards using the power from other realms by accident."
"Wait, there are five dangerous points? Is this the best route?" Nopel scrunched his eyebrows.
"Yes. This is already the safest route. You’ll meet the vipers on most of the other routes. Trust me, you don’t want to meet any of them," Perry explained in a light tone.
"The vipers…" Coach and Perry gasped at the same time.
Angele’s expression turned serious as well.
"You mean the ones that live in the acid swamps on the mountains? They have black scales and they have only one eye on their foreheads."
"You’re correct. That’s the viper we’re talking about." Perry nodded. "I read it on a book in my family library. They changed the route once and encountered a whole group of vipers. The viper had the size of a boat and its talent ability was to poison everything within its range. It’s like firing countless acid bombs at you. Good thing is that they retreated successfully without anyone getting hurt. After that, the route has then been restricted to the one we’re using now."
"They can wipe out the whole team easily, I believe." Angele nodded slightly.
His silver string strike could deal about 67 degrees of damage to one target and his defensive s.h.i.+eld could take about 60 degrees of damage. Angele survived the fight against the Crystal stage wizard named Olive back in the forest and he injured the old man severely with the signet. He would lose the fight if he did not activate the signet at the right time. The amount of mentality and mana the Crystal stage wizards had was unbelievable.
The petrification caught Olive off guard. The old man had to use the energy particles to stop his body from being petrified. He did not even cast a level 2 spell yet. Angele doubted if a fully activated signet could help him win the fight.
He did not want the people from Dark Wizard Tower to find out about his secret, so he deactivated the signet quickly. The signet still had many limitations and the great harpy was losing its power. Entering the Nightmare Realm consumed the energy of the ancient bloodline.
"The vipers won’t be a problem to us for now, but we need to prepare for the fight against the Cloud Bees," Perry advised. "One Cloud Bee by itself is weak but a whole swarm of Cloud Bees will be a huge problem. Those creatures also have the advantage since we’re not familiar with the sky."
Coach took out a crystal orb from one of her pouches and threw it in the air.
*CHI*
The crystal orb floated in the air and started spinning, creating a light screen in front of the four.
A map with a twisted route marked on it slowly appeared in the image.
Most areas on the map were white. Snow covered most of the trees. The route in the center was flas.h.i.+ng and there were five black dots on it. Tiny characters were written beside each of the black dots.