Ep. 324 Heading for the Summit Part 4 (Patreon)

Kechara looks at me curiously but she comes over like I asked, I turn my back to her and ask her to grab my shoulders. When she does I explain to her that I want her to see if she can fly while carrying me. As soon as I explain she starts flapping her wings and lifts me into the air with her.

It feels just like being in an elevator, except I can see the ground moving away from me. Kechara takes me around twenty feet up and hovers for a few seconds before we start going back down. From the way she is panting when my feet touch the ground I realize I am too heavy for her.

That is actually what I was expecting, she is a lot bigger than me but I am denser than she is. At a guess I would say I am actually pretty close to the same weight she is. I was hoping I could fly with her and I am disappointed but only because I wanted to fly.

Then I notice Bones standing and watching us, and he gives me an idea, he is all bone so he shouldn't be very heavy. Calling him over, I ask Kechara to try again with Bones, she grabs him and flies up without any problems. Even though she hasn't had a chance to catch her breath it is obvious he isn't a burden to her.

Waving her back down I explain I want her to fly around the mountain again looking for other barriers. She is to take Bones with her so if she finds any driders he can help her fight them. I also tell her I will take Asuna with me and continue following the path, she can find me fairly easily from the air.

Kechara nods her understanding and flies off with Bones held in her claws. I pick up Asuna and put her in the hood before walking back to the path and resuming my hike. While I am worried about Kechara and Bones I do my best not to think about what could happen.

Kechara can always fly away and Bones should be immortal, at least from what the description of the spell said. As long as they dont run into a large group of driders they should be able to handle things just fine. Thinking about their current fighting ability I think they can handle anything under fifty driders.

Although, since Kechara just ranked up she should actually be stronger now so maybe they could handle more. Of course it would also depend on the situation, but I am fairly confident they will be fine. Unfortunately, following the path is fairly boring so my mind just won't stop worrying.

To try and distract myself I move Asuna from my hood to my arms so I can pet her as I walk. After a bit I start talking to her and pointing things out, like Kechara she seems to understand easily. So I start talking about things to watch for and different ways to fight in each terrain I see.

Asuna not only seems to understand everything I say but as far as I can tell she is enjoying herself. We stop for lunch but it is just the two of us, I still haven't seen any sign of Kechara and Bones. I admit I am getting more and more worried as time passes, but I keep reminding myself that the mountain is huge.

In reality, even flying it will probably take Kechara several days to completely scan the entire mountain. It will take even longer if she finds driders to fight or barriers that need maintenance. While I am enjoying my time with Asuna, I would enjoy it more if I didn't have this worry constantly nagging at me.

Bones has gained a level!

While Bones gaining a level should reassure me, in fact it does the opposite, because it means they are fighting. Since Bones leveled up not to long ago that must mean they have been in several fights already. When Asuna is done eating I put her back into the hood so she can take a nap.

Then I continue on the path, but I am looking at the sky almost as much as I am watching where I am going. I blame being distracted as the reason I didn't spot the drider until it jumped at me. As soon as I see it flying at me I take a single step backwards, that is enough for the drider to miss me.

I watch the drider until it splatters on the rocks below, the path at this point is going along a cliff face. That is probably why the drider jumped at me, it wanted to knock me over the cliff with its body. I didn't get a good look at it but I am pretty sure it was an undead melee type.

Seeing more driders and undead coming out of hiding I reach back and draw blitz. They are coming at me in a semi-circle so I have nowhere to run and the cliff behind my back. Before they can reach me I throw out some wind blades to deal with the undead.

Now there are only five melee types and six caster types, all of them are the undead driders. Even with a cliff behind me I am not too worried at these numbers, all I have to do is watch my footing. Suddenly the melee types all charge forward and throw themselves at me, it seems they know they can't win normally.

Or at least whatever is controlling them has realized their normal tactics won't work on me. But their new tactic is even more of a mistake, I don't even have to swing Blitz, all I do is dodge. The five melee types all go plummeting to their deaths on the rocks below.

The six caster types freeze , they should have been the second wave but now it looks like they are getting new orders. Not wanting to wait and see what they might try next, I throw out three sets of wind blades and cut them all down. Just like that the fight is over, but now I need to see if I can find out where the driders came from.

Moving off the path I start following the drider's tracks, luckily they don't seem to know how to hide their tracks. Following the tracks leads me up away from the path and around a rock outcrop. As soon as I walk around it I spot the cave, but this one looks different from the others I have seen.

As soon as I step into the cave and my eyes adjust I realize why it looks different. This cave is new, it has only recently been dug out, and I can see a bunch of what look like large beetles. Counting them there are over fifty that I can see just from where I am standing.