"Sure thing, the ropes are beneath the stairs inside the cabin. We use them during storms so make sure they're put back where they belong." The captain responded.
Nodding Chronos headed onto the deck and had the guard captain gather the men for the next step of their training.
…
"Aaaahh!"
By that afternoon the guards were cursing Chornos's name as another guard was blown off the deck and had to be dragged back on board by the safety ropes tied around their waists. Even if they knew they wouldn't fall far the sensation of free falling with nothing below scared them half to death every time.
"Come now! You can't expect to be airship guards if mere wind knocks you overboard during battle." Chronos yelled as the wind whipped his hair.
He was currently surrounded by the guards acting as a single powerful invader while the barrier was down. The men were doing fairly well keeping Chronos trapped but the fierce winds were pushing them around whenever they were slightly off balance.
Another forward guard stepped in his way as Chronos tried to get around them to hit the backlines.
They were doing a good job of stopping his movements and creating openings likewise the guards in the back were taking advantage of the openings to pelt him with aura arrows.
They were doing much better than a couple of hours ago when half of them would've gone flying with a strong gust of wind.
Seeing them gasping for air, Chronos decided to end the training for the day. Putting his training sword away he started complimenting them.
"Good job! You were able to keep me from moving freely while stopping me from damaging the ship. Captain, raise the barrier please." Chronos yelled up to the wheelhouse.
Nodding the captain pulled a lever and a light blue shield hummed as it covered the deck. The guards relaxed as the strong winds finally stopped buffeting them.
"Alright, it's time for a review. Your coordination has improved and your balance is much better than before. However, you can't take it easy yet. If you want to fight without worry, then you need to learn the [Adhesion] skill. If you can master it properly, then you could even do things like this."
Chronos walked straight off the railing of the ship and out of the barrier. The men gasped as they rushed to the railing but the expected sight of Chronos falling to the ground never happened. He was standing on the side of the ship like it was flat ground.
Watching the wind blow his hair around and his rapid movement in the bad environment they worried that he might fall off, but he never faltered despite having no protection or safety line.
As they watched him freely move around the outside of the ship their eyes sparkled at the speed and ease of movement that he showed them.
Stepping back inside the barrier Chronos saw their sparkling eyes wishing they could do the same.
"I won't lie to you, it's not easy to reach this level of mastery with [Adhesion] but if you can then there will never be a surface that you can't walk on. Whether that's a castle wall or the surface of a river it is the same to a master of [Adhesion]." Chronos concluded as the men's exhaustion was wiped away by excitement.
The guard captain saw their excitement taking over and decided to intervene before someone got hurt. They didn't have the same level of recovery as a werewolf and had just finished a full day of training after all.
"Before any of you get any ideas I want all of you to rest for the next hour. I'll have a practice area set up in a spare hold for training the [Adhesion] skill, I don't want to find out that one of you fell overboard because you overestimated your level of skill!" He shouted the last part at them while glaring just to make sure they understood.
"Yes, sir!" They shouted back before going inside for an afternoon meal.
Chronos approached the guard captain.
"You know someone is going to try and imitate me no matter how much you threaten them."
"I know." The captain said in exasperation. "I'm just waiting for one of them to try so I can give him the harshest punishment."
Chornos laughed as he walked off searching for Micheal, he eventually found him in the mapping room.
The room had multiple devices around its edges and a large table in the middle with a shifting earth map on it. Above the table was a ring with three glass lens' on it moving to shine a light on areas with lower spirit on the map below.
The shifting earth map was made of sand that would change its shape according to the lay of the land within 30 kilometers of the ship. This gave them a constantly updating map that they were transcribing onto parchment to make permanent copies.
The spell that was used to change the shape of the map wasn't something that could normally be done constantly but with a strong power source, like the ship's power core, maintaining the spell wasn't an issue.
"Micheal, how's it going? Found anything strange yet?" Chronos greeted him with a big grin.
"Wipe that grin off your face. There's nothing to attack yet." Micheal retorted.
"Oh, you know me so well. Still, I'd like to know what you've found just in case I need to prepare for something outrageous."
Micheal noted down several lower spirit areas on the map table before turning to him.
"Nothing outrageous yet but there are far more low areas than on our last trip. We haven't seen a drastic increase in monster activity either." He said as he walked over to an orb showing an illusion of the various monsters on the ground.
Chronos looked at the illusion for a moment before noticing something off.
"There are far more monsters than what this is showing. Are you only looking at monster nests?"
"Specifically, we're looking at monster nests in areas with lower spirit density, we don't have enough devices to scan all of them. We believe they're the most likely ones to have a tear in them as young monsters need strong guardians to protect them."
Chronos nodded, it made sense to only check the areas with lower spirit density as it would take far too much effort to check them all with just one airship.
Czzrt! Pop!
A strange crystal tower nearby sparked and whizzed as Micheal sighed in resignation.
"What's that?" Chronos asked.
"A magic item for tracking miasma or at least it's supposed to be. We thought it would help us find tears since they create a small amount of miasma in their immediate area but tracking it is turning out to be far more difficult than expected."
"Tears create miasma?" Chronos asked in confusion.
This was news to him as he had never smelled miasma when he approached the tears before. If the tears created miasma, then they should have smelled like a mixture of rotten meat and spoiled milk like those black robed priests he had hunted in Dracon Fen.
"Yes, but it's in such small amounts that it's nearly undetectable. We only found out by mistake when an archivist discovered miasma in the capital, he approved of our research mission and told us about it. If we succeed, we'll have a reliable method to track tears, certainly much more accurate than looking for low spirit density." Micheal grumbled.
"Oh, you might want to talk with Gregory then. He's a specialist in tracking targets and probably knows a few skills that could help you."
Chronos tried to leave to get Gregory but was stopped by Micheal.
"You stay here, Chronos. We're coming up on the first village after leaving the territory governed by the church, and I want you here in case of an emergency. I'll send someone else to get Gregory."
Micheal waved to a nearby apprentice and sent him to find Gregory.
So that was why the land under them had looked less cared for.
The church would regularly send patrols to every village under their care, but most nobles only occasionally sent patrols. Some of the distant villages would only see a patrol once a year during tax season.
This made the lands in most noble's territories look like wild lands unless they had a large population.
A sudden shuffling behind him caught his attention.
"What's going on?" One AA said.
"Are those ruins?" Another questioned.
"But there aren't any ruins near here?" The last one reported.
Turning to face them Chronos saw that a number of buildings had appeared at the edge of the shifting earth map. The map couldn't show living things, but any building or structure could easily be displayed.
And right now, it was displaying a broken wooden palisade along with a large number of destroyed buildings, possibly a destroyed village? But as Chronos watched, another building suddenly collapsed.
"Those aren't ruins, the village is being attacked!" Chronos yelled as he sprinted out of the room.