Pillar of Yita

Some say that Fenris’s morning breeze is sweet.

For the air is filled with the scent of Luxury Honey Flowers, a type of annual herb with panicle blossoms, which is an important source of sugar in the Cloud Sea Region.

But in truth, Luxury Honey Flowers are only planted in the plains, where golden seas of flowers undulate along the coast of Karl Heyn Corner Bay, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

But in the mountains.

The morning breeze brings a hint of chill, mixed with a whiff of iron and blood—a barely discernible scent of gore, and the odor of embers still smoldering.

Tianlan slouched on the platform, his face smeared with blood.

Gita lay exhausted next to the massive crossbow machine, breathless.

”Man, that was exhausting, we almost bit the dust,” the former sighed faintly.

The Lion Paladin stood, leaning on his sword, his fiery red mane flowing in the wind. He picked up his pipe, struck a match, and the flame flickered weakly.

”Did you know, Ade, the wind carries stories,” he said.

”Does it? What stories did it tell you, Mr. Reed?” Fang Hong turned to ask.

The Lion Paladin took his pipe, placed the mouthpiece between his large jaws, and contentedly closed his gray eyes.

Only after a few sparks burst from the pipe did he smile it didn’t seem to bother him a bit: ”Darkness lurks within the forest, combat and adventure, clash of swords, a fight for life and death, young man.”

At these words, Fang Hong couldn’t help but grin.

He stretched lazily, yawned at the vanishing ink-like darkness of night, and said, ”Hardly a matter of life and death, Mr. Reed, nowhere near as troublesome as what we encountered at Dolifen.”

”If they had come an hour earlier, that might not have been the case.”

Fang Hong paused upon hearing this, nodding solemnly. There was truth to those words; if the Night Lizard People had retreated even a moment later, they might indeed have failed to hold the line. But there was no helping it, being attacked twice in one night was preposterous no matter how one looked at it.

”Perhaps we were too conspicuous a target.”

”You’re not thinking of selling Mr. Greyrock, are you, Brother Ade?” Tianlan asked anxiously.

”No, that won’t be necessary.” Fang Hong shook his head. In the wilderness, the utility of Beasts of Burden was obvious. Ordinary Adventure Groups might manage without, but for an Alchemist, there was nothing more desirable than having a traveling Alchemy laboratory in tow.

An Alchemist is a profession built with money; tools can enhance the skills bonus of Alchemy, and labs can boost the environmental bonus of Alchemy—and the higher-end the construct and Magic Guided Conductor creation, the more high-end the conditions required.

Tools, devices, environment, and the Alchemist’s own skills and knowledge, none of these are dispensable.

For the later stages, large-scale crafting, an Alchemist even needs excellent assistants. Those top-tier constructs and Magic Guided Conductors, they aren’t something that one Alchemist can complete alone unless he has an infinite amount of time to squander.

Of course, in the early stages, a single Grey Ridge Burden Beast would suffice for him, but in the later stages, if one wishes to obtain a suitable crafting environment during travel, an airship is required.

And it had to be a big ship—

”But indeed, a Beast of Burden draws too much attention; if we can’t solve that, we’ll need to figure out a way to reinforce the platform’s defenses. That way, we won’t be in a panic when facing more enemies,” he mused.

”Do you have any ideas then, Brother Ade?” Tianlan inquired.

Fang Hong shook his head.

Not far away, Luo Yu stood with her hands on her hips, looking helplessly at the charred right rear carriage that had taken a hit from a Wizard’s Fireball Technique during the last night’s combat. Fortunately, the carriage had been empty at that time, so they only lost some resources.

”How much did we lose?” Atira asked him.

”Two beds turned to ash, a few rolls of blankets, and some personal items. Parker says he lost his newly purchased short sword, and then there were the supplies temporarily stored here—mainly food,” he replied.

”His short sword is lost again?”

Luo Yu just shrugged.

Fang Hong walked over just in time to hear this, and couldn’t help but touch his nose.

Luo Yu continued, ”Beds are easy to replace, I’ll make a couple more, we still have plenty of materials. There are spare blankets as well, but it’s hard to make up for the lost food.”

”Will the remaining food be enough to get us to Cloud Harbor?” Elf Miss asked.

Luo Yu nodded, ”It should be enough, but if we run into another incident like this, that’s uncertain, Miss Atira.”

Fang Hong frowned as he looked at the scorched carriage—its entire outer wall and upper parts almost completely gone, leaving behind an empty gaping hole, while the rest was charred black.

In Eteliria, Elemental Spells and Magic Guided Spells are divided into eleven ranks, with every three ranks forming a classification; the Fireball Technique was precisely a fourth-rank spell. Given the destructive power of intermediate rank spells, ordinary wooden boards could not possibly withstand it. Their only option was to fit armor plating on the outer platform.

But the issue was Mr. Greyrock’s load-bearing capacity; having already modified the platform to its current extent, they had used up nearly all the available load capacity. Further structural reinforcement would likely mean reducing the amount of supplies the platform could carry.

Yet this contradicted the team’s original needs.

”Luo Yu, how much load capacity does Mr. Greyrock have left?” he turned to ask.

”Less than 500,” Luo Yu answered using data from the Summoners System.

Fang Hong grimaced.

The 500 was quantified data within the system, encompassing not only load-bearing but also a spatial conversion ratio. Simply put, that minuscule load capacity was insufficient to retrofit even a single carriage, let alone prioritize protection.

Besides, the platform couldn’t operate at full capacity; they had to reserve excess load-bearing for unforeseen circumstances, like injury to Mr. Greyrock’s feet. It wouldn’t do to be stranded at a critical moment, would it?