Master Of None

The entire party stopped and looked at the almost flickery wind golem made to speak to them. The true wind sage had given them a warning that a dangerous nest of silver bugs would be ahead and that they were moving right toward them.

It was a little odd that they were being given a clear and concise warning like this. ”What? I am bringing you in to my home. I explored your entire world here and there. I know that being nice to a guest matters to almost every race in the world. Here, not so much for every race.” The giggle laughing felt more like the wind was trying to replicate laughter.

There was a genuine feeling from the words though. One that made it clear that they were all able to believe and should expect truth from the true wind sage in matters like this. ”We will change course now then. What do they look… nevermind I see a small one ahead.” Walker had spotted a smaller fist sized streak of silver trying to move through the air ahead.

The place where the fire mana stopped reaching and spreading was just the same as the last time they had been within the wind elemental plane. Clouds made of pure wind were acting as the ground, the terrain that could have been called ground, was not the same here. But then again. The fire elemental plane had ground too, but it was all purely fire elemental materials condensed in to different forms based on the area, not actually anything to do with earth mana at all.

’Silver bug

Not to be confused with silver fish, silver striders, or even the other species of silver hued monsters throughout the world and the elemental apnea, this silver bug is called silver due to the wind mana it uses having a silver hue to it. It is caused by the fact that its species consumes high amounts of wind iron ores through the wind elemental plane. They will search it out and make nests within the places that it naturally forms.

They can grow to be in the hundreds of thousands and also reach the size of carriages if they have the time to grow. They often fight one another using the sind mana within their body to strengthen their wind iron carapaces. They will use their extremely sharp legs to cut away as much as possible.

This isn’t the real danger when facing them. The real danger comes from their wings which are made with the sharpest and the densest wind mana utilizing the wind iron ore they consumed. They are able to fly in to their opponents and cut through them dealing extremely high damage. Their speed also makes them extremely hard to keep up with when they swarm in the hundreds of thousands.

While the materials their bodies are made of are very valuable to many of the wind elemental affinity races, they are only captured during their dormant season after they have already consumed too much of the wind iron ore and are too slow to be able to swarm and chase down predators…’

”So they just channel their wind mana and tackle people to death. That just sound so… pleasant.” Remey wanted to hurl fire at the one they saw but Gil held her hand back. He pointed out the other small silver dots well in the distance. To Remey, they were just silver smudges, to Gil’s sharper eyes, they were very large silver bugs capable of fighting them and even attacking all of them at one time.

”And that’s why we are going to move to the right so we don’t need to spend the next two or three days fighting an entire swarm of these things.” Walker and Su led the way. It was easy to see that they were not even going to entertain a long drawn out battle like this.

Walker also noticed that the true wind sage had clearly also made the wind amna shaft slightly. It was pushing the sliver bugs away from them so that they would not be noticed. ”Thank you for the warning and the help. We had to butt heads with the true fire sage a little since we had to make sure we were not just allowed to come here to be used.” This was somewhat of a little test from Walker too, to see if the true wind sage was going to push them toward another dangerous place.

”What you do here is up to you. I would like you to meet the sky crow race. They are like your harpy race but their feathers are blue in the day and back in the night. They are one of the only species that left the world many years ago, developed in to an intelligent race, and kept their ability to change their feathers with the time of day, something that doesn’t really happen in the wind elemental plane.”

”They are still connected to the world?” It was Onyx who asked this in surprise. He was simply focused on the fact that this sky crow race might be unique like him. Onyx could still hide his body in his shadow, meaning that even in a palace without shadows so to speak, he had access to the uniqueness of his skill. It made him wonder if it was a connection to what dark mana was as part of his body or a connection to the way the world worked in terms of shadows.

’That might be the case. I thought you could study them a little and see if they want to go to the world. They are fighting me on every attempt. They turn away the guardians and refuse to move an inch. Even with the new wind plane added nearby, they don’t see the issue with new monsters to fight in their territory.”

The true wind sage did have an issue with the nearby new elemental plane, but they didn’t want the party to fight and fix it. Instead, they wanted them to convince the sky crow race to come to the world and to see where their species originated before they became sentient. To potentially become the next race to join Genesis.

It was still a little more demanding than just exploring, however, the true wind sage wasn’t hiding what they wanted. ”Why don’t they leave if it’s safer?” Since Alice was asking the most important question, that was that, they had to see and what the answer themselves.

”They won’t let anyone of the guardians in to their nest now. They call their village a nest and they always remain on guard. Instead of becoming the villain and forcing them out I will be the ones to send you to them. You are from the world and not under my care and orders. You can see the truth of the matter. And If I am the one in the wrong… so be it.” The true wind sage clearly wanted for the best. However, Walker understood that they did accept being the evil villain if necessary.

With this as a goal and the silver bugs getting left behind, the party had stepped in to the wind elemental plane. However, something that Walker was letting his mind dwell on was the sky crow race and their connection to the world.

If their feathers still changed with the flow of night and day because that was how they once survived as a species of monster within the world, then that meant their connection might be very unique.

It also brought up the potential that connections to the world through more than just the bridges to the world from the elemental planes could be possible. There had been connections made due to warping space mana and that has caused issues, but this might be a connection like the way that Mordant could delve in to the darkness of shadows and move himself further distances.

Many dark dragons had gone in searching through the shadows of the world to try and get to the dark elemental plane. Therefore, they had rushed in to the unknown and chaotic manas never to be heard from or seen again. While sad, it was a possibility that someone if they were strong enough might be able to get through that chaotic space.

The origin beings did so and survived to drag back elemental planes. Thus, it was possible for a skill with some minute connection to the world to be able to continue on. Meaning that the sky crow race could still be in tune with the world even though they had mostly developed within the wind elemental plane. That they could survive going to the world and being around the mixture of manas dangerous for other races of the elemental planes.

.…

….

….

Please say no to piracy! Don’t take part in crime! Don’t patronize thieves!

Drop those golden tickets!