abcnovels
Chapter 86 - Episode Nine
Chapter 86 - Episode Nine
Chapter 86 - Episode Nine
I and Mea huddled together, hiding behind a tree trunk.
A short distance away, there are gold coins scattered around. The one I had just thrown.
“Baaah! Baaah!”
A bird with blue-green body hair appears from the sky.
It has a large bill and scurrying eyes.
It is a monster known as a balm bird.
The danger level of a single one is F-class, but because it’s nimble that its subjugation difficulty level is two times higher.
It is a cowardly beast, and once it is alerted, it is said to be impossible to hunt for a day.
Many restaurants are coveting them because of their fatty flesh, so it is very important to hunt them, so It is a good magical beast.
There are three patterns of balm bird’s behavior that adventurers should remember.
The first is patrolling.
They patrol alone and look for prey.
A female with hatchlings will fly around the nest, sometimes for the purpose of early detection of foreign enemies.
The second is the alert stance.
This is what a balm bird will do if its life is in danger.
It will make a high-pitched, unusual sound as it runs away.
When a balm bird sees the balm bird in this state, other balm birds will also go into an alert state.
The third is the mating season.
The female spreads her wings like a madman and flies about with a shrill voice.
Caught by their voices, the males come together. At the same time, adventurers also gather there.
If this happens, they would be perfect ducks, but it’s not the right season, so it seems unlikely.
That balm bird is on patrol.
The patrolling balm bird has a habit of holding gold coins in its mouth with its beak.
So, if you hide and scatter gold coins, they will come down to the ground like this.
It can succeed even with silver coins, but the success rate is higher with gold coins. Copper coins would not be looked at.
For this reason, adventurers call them golden birds and gold birds.
The adventurer who failed to kill the bird with what little gold he had left was called a “gold bird” in the column of the Adventurer’s Newspaper.
This was probably a habit of attacking the eyes of the outside world.
Something small and light-reflecting. In that aspect, gold coins and eyeballs are identical.
I am glad I bought a newspaper after all.
It would have been completely different without it.
It was almost enough to gather information.
“You-, you’re really going to do it? The gold, will they take it?”
“It’s fine. It’s fine. Go ahead, Mea. Go kill that stupid bird.”
“Ah, yes!”
Mea nodded twice while shouting loudly and persistently.
…… I don’t think it noticed us, but I would like her to be a little more careful while we’re hunting.
She was so nervous that her voice just rubbed upwards.
Mea readied her bow and halfway out of the tree.
“A little more…… lift it up to your shoulder and then tighten, like this, stretch your arms out, like this.”
“Ah, yes…… I’m counting on you, Shooting Wyvern……”
In case you’re wondering, I’ve used a bow a few times in the Marren village, too. A few times.
I thought sorcery was faster, and I didn’t get any distance at all, so I immediately abandoned the practice.
When the arrow flew, the balm bird had just lifted the gold coin into its mouth.
The arrow flew to the left, well off the balm bird.
The balm bird noticed us, kicked the ground and took off.
“Baaah!”
“Ahhh! Ah, ahhh! The gold! Ahhh! Give it back! Please give it back!”
“Baaah! Babaaah!”
Mea fired a second and third shot but didn’t even graze it.
She hung her arms in disappointment and stared at the back of the balm bird with an exhausted face.
You shouldn’t be that disappointed for a single gold coin……
“Baaaaaaaaah! BAHHHH!”
A balm bird cries out in a high-pitched voice.
I see, so this is the alert stance.
The frequency is completely different from the previous one, and it also sounds strange.
It seems that magic power is contained in the voice in order to make it sound far away.
“Ahhh…… already, so far away…… I-, I’m sorry…… Because of Mea, your precious money.”
“Oh wind, form, blade”
I waved my wand and shot out a blade of wind.
It sliced through the branches of a tree that was an obstacle and hit the back of a balm bird.
“Bahaaann!”
The balm bird fell with a splattering of blood.
Scattered feathers fell after the body.
The balm bird is…… still alive, alright.
I tucked my wand away in my pocket.
“Alright…… What did you just say, Mea?”
“N-, no……”
Mea looked relieved and somewhat disappointed as she put the arrow she was clutching back into her quiver.
After all, in archery and sorcery, it’s not all practice, it also has to be put into practice on field.
I picked up the gold coins that I had scattered in the balm birdcage, and Mea ran to the balm bird that fell far away.
Mea grabbed the balm bird by the neck and lifted it up, smacking it on the head and making it spit out gold coins.
“Baah……”
The balm bird lets out a whimper.
“Oh…… this bird is still alive. I’d better give it the finishing blow……”
“Ahh, please just keep it up like that. I have a little something I want to try.”
“Something you want to try?”
Mea tilts her head.
“Yeah. If that balm bird is a female, it should have a unique call for a male during the mating season. If it’s the kind of call that is made with magical powers, maybe you can force it to come out with a little physical manipulation. It’s not the right time, but if the female calls, the male will probably come around. If it goes well, we can round them up. I have a magic stone in my pack for times like these.”
“Eh, what’s that? It’s scary.”
Mea turned a straight face.
She immediately shook her head and returned her expression.
“Ah, well…… but it’s weak…… and it’s probably going to die right away if I mess with it……”
“That’s why I’m going to heal it and bring it back to life. I’m going to wriggle it’s wings so it can’t escape.”
“Eh, ehhh…… is that okay? That’s bio-magic, right? You’re going to get caught in an ordinance or something……”
“It’s okay. These rules are all about not letting them out into the wild and messing with the ecosystem. If you dispose of them properly, they won’t get angry, probably.”
“I-, I see…… so…… it’s okay, right?”
“Yeah, it’s supposed to.”
I asked Mea to push the balm bird onto a nearby stump.
“Baaah! Baaah! Baaah!”
As if the balm bird had figured out something, it showed it’s last bit of energy to resist.
Mea says as she held it down, “I’m sorry……” lets out in a whisper.
“Sleep.”
“Baah……”
The balm bird went quiet quickly.
I close my eyes slowly.
Alright, let’s start the modification then.
For now, the first step is to investigate the flow and nature of the balm bird’s magic power.