[Sinseki Era - 21 Years Prior, Winter]
[Forward Outpost · Outside Fortress City Vorig]
"Faster, faster!"
Between the blue sky and white clouds, Serie continuously urged her disciple to increase speed.
The already extremely fast flight speed rose again, causing the vision of everyone on the ground to be unable to keep up with the two.
This flight speed was absolutely beyond what the rigid Flight Magic used by human mages in later generations could achieve, and even ordinary bird monsters couldn't reach it.
Because this was—Flight Magic belonging uniquely to humans.
The elf held in her disciple's arms looked down at the hills and wilderness rapidly passing below, her eyes flashing with wonder.
"It actually... really succeeded."
"With this rare talent..."
"Gut, teacher will take you to climb to realms no mage has ever reached..."
However, at this moment, Gut no longer had the energy to break through the wind noise to listen to what his teacher was quietly murmuring.
After all, forcibly pulling up speed inevitably came with a price.
Gut, flying while carrying Serie, felt the magical power in his body flowing out like a bursting dam. The magical power accumulated through doubled cultivation rewards from daily tasks was nowhere near enough against this terrifying consumption rate. In probably just another minute or two, he would have to land due to magical power depletion.
The elf beneath him naturally noticed this and gently patted her disciple's arm, indicating there was no need to continue sprinting—normal flight would suffice.
After receiving his teacher's instruction, Gut, who had been accelerating at full power, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He gradually slowed his magical power output, and as the propulsion continuously weakened, their flight speed gradually returned to normal range.
But just at this moment, the elf beneath him suddenly frowned and spoke somewhat uncertainly:
"Gut, stop at this position, then hold me tight."
"Hm?"
Gut made a surprised sound, but his hand movements were extremely quick. Before his form stopped, he had already tightly embraced the elf beneath him.
A moment later, the previous flight inertia disappeared, and Gut, tightly holding Serie, returned to the position where his teacher had told him to stop.
"What's wrong with this place, teacher?"
"Loosen up a bit first, I can barely breathe!"
"Okay..."
After responding with some apology, Gut slightly loosened his arms holding his teacher.
The elf first took several deep breaths, then calmed down to sense something. After a moment, her lips moved slightly, seemingly chanting some magic.
At this time, Gut also took this opportunity to admire the elf's absolutely beautiful face up close. As he watched, he suddenly felt a strange fire stirring in his lower abdomen.
Gut silently cursed, and was about to pull back his waist and hold Serie further away when he heard the elf suddenly command:
"Hold tight, I'm going to withdraw the Barrier!"
"Yes!"
Seeing the barrier his teacher had set up around them about to collapse, Gut couldn't care about anything else and directly pressed close to the elf's body.
The next moment, equally hot sensations came through, and Gut instinctively asked in surprise:
"Teacher, your body is so warm."
"Nonsense, I cast Body Warming Magic and Heat Preservation Magic on both of us. It would be strange if our bodies weren't hot."
"I see..."
Gut, now calm, also noticed the magical power swirling around his body surface.
The next moment, the Barrier Magic surrounding them both suddenly collapsed, and the cold winter wind from the high altitude blew straight toward them.
The elf beneath him couldn't help but shrink her neck, but fortunately there were other magics maintaining body temperature, so she didn't need to worry about hypothermia in the short term.
Serie closed her eyes. Without the Barrier Magic blocking her, her magical perception undoubtedly became more acute.
At this moment, she fully released her magical detection, quickly reaching and covering the hills and mountain areas below.
Gut was also surveying the scene below. Although he couldn't use magical perception to reach out like his teacher, with just his eyesight, Gut still recognized this place.
This was the Ob Hills area that their group had passed through a few days ago.
It seemed his flight direction had taken some backtracking. He needed to fly back before dark.
Suddenly, the elf beneath him moved.
Her gaze turned toward one direction, probably having locked onto the target that made her suddenly stop.
"Teacher, should I fly over there?"
Gut exercised his initiative and was about to enthusiastically carry the elf over.
But unexpectedly, the elf very seriously stopped Gut's actions and began preparing something earnestly.
"Could it be an extremely powerful opponent?"
Sensing that even the nearly invincible teacher Serie was being so cautious, Gut's expression also became grave. He secretly took several deep breaths, preparing his body for combat.
However...
The next moment, the elf produced a freshly hand-crafted Barrier Magic and wrapped them both up again.
Gut: ...
As Fire Magic flickered a few times inside the sealed barrier, the entire barrier immediately warmed up.
The elf also showed a comfortable expression.
Serie had made this arrangement during their previous flight.
Relying on the temperature and protection provided by Barrier Magic, this fragile mage could ignore the bone-chilling cold wind and strong air resistance in the cold winter high altitude, continuously demanding that Gut increase speed.
At this moment, it was merely a repeat performance.
The comfortable-looking elf also used her hand to point out a direction for her "vehicle," indicating that disciple Gut should carry her flying toward a location below the hills.
"Click"
With the stable landing of shoe soles, the elf stretched lazily and brushed away Gut's arms that were still around her waist after landing, beginning to look around.
"It should be around here..."
"Mm, looking for something that might cause considerable trouble for local residents in the future."
"Cause trouble?"
Looking at the somewhat barren hills beneath his feet, Gut was somewhat puzzled about what could threaten local residents.
"Found it!"
Serie's eyes lit up as she stopped beside a cluster of flowers.
"The source of the threat, found it!"
"This?"
Looking at these delicate flowers that were rare in winter, Gut was somewhat confused. No matter how he looked at them, they didn't seem like something that could threaten local residents' safety.
Thinking this, Gut simply crouched beside these flowers, wanting to examine them carefully.
Serie saw the danger and had no time to stop him verbally. One hand landed on her disciple's shoulder, and tremendous magical power instantly enveloped Gut.
Her other hand's palm aimed at this flower bed, and as a concentrated mass of magical power blasted out, the flowers were instantly blown to pieces.
"Gut!" Serie called out lightly.
"Is your consciousness still clear?"
The elf spoke while shaking her disciple's body, explaining: "This flower bed contains young Chaos Flowers. Although their current ability to spread Sleep Curse is still extremely weak, their surroundings are filled with extremely strong magical power..."
Serie's words stopped here somewhat, because...
Gut turned to look at her, his eyes extremely clear and bright, showing no signs of being affected by the Chaos Flowers.
So that's how it is. The elf shook her head helplessly. She had been overly concerned.
Her disciple could use Goddess Magic and had met the Goddess herself twice, so his resistance to curses was definitely not weak.
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Powerstones?
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