the team parted from the capital no more than a week after their first meeting with Baili, during those days the team trained and prepared. aero had several more meetings with her and scientists, who were very interested in the other world knowledge aero possessed. aero was mildly impressed by the pride they all possess, he didn't hesitate to chip at the ones who were close to or already drawing the beast's attention.
despite his best attempts throughout the week aero still hasn't figured out the way to determine if someone has a connection to the beast, the helper informed him there was a good number of that kind in the city. and he tried many things, such as empowering his senses to the point his eye's almost bleed. along with trying to configure the energy in different ways, while this made him see things. he saw nothing he wanted.
'i still don't get the wings or the faces,' he saw so many things but most of them didn't make sense to him. well, he had a suspicion about them, everything he saw was in some way related to pride. something might be a representation of what they took pride in, maybe even how pride made them feel. seeing how the energy was emotion-based.
'how much do emotions affect the state of pride?' this sounded philosophical to him. but seeing as he was the lord of pride, he probably would have to get philosophical sometimes. 'would I even be good at it,' that kind of thing required a lot of thought. which wasn't something aero did a lot of, 'well not in that direction.'
aero put a lot of thought into his combat, training, and his plans when they came to him. but most of the time he didn't his thoughts wander, determined, and focused on a goal that he was chasing. 'i guess I have to let them wander more... I don't this is something I can make happen.' aero grumbled turning back to his cart as he loaded the final object. a bag of medicine, he wasn't going down against babbits again.
it didn't take long for all of them to pack up their carts, settle the payment and start heading out of the town. their destination was pretty far so they wanted to get as much time on the road as they could. on the way, they discussed a general battle plan.
it was mostly keeping an eye on each other so the winged creatures didn't drain them of blood. or chew on their bones. they also talked about aero's universe-level job, but he didn't explain any details. but told them he meet certain requirements which got him the jobs months back, "it's largely a work in progress. lots to learn and I need to get stronger to do it right." he didn't mention how dangerous the job was.
"at some point, I'm going to leave the planet and explore the universe, if you want you all might be able to come with me." that was probably the closest he would get to admitting he enjoyed their company in this time frame. aero would probably improve on this at someone, but he wasn't going to push it.
"I can't tell if I'm afraid or excited to see what aliens look like," loir spoke, bouncing in her spot. "do you know?" aero shrugged," according to my tutor there are as many species as they are planets and stars." the team looked up, the sun had recently set so they couldn't see the stars.
they all spent enough nights camping to know how they littered the dark sky. aero explained not all of them were stars, and what stars were." giants balls of fire, that mildly comforting." aero wasn't sure if Gailia was being serious or not but he deiced not to ask and instead spoke more about stars.
"yeah, real comforting knowing that one day that sun will grow to the point our planet will be devoted." okay now he knew Gailia was being sarcastic and it wasn't Idit's snickering that clued him in. so aero rolled his eyes," we'll all either be dead or moved from this planet by then. besides space travel will problem advance enough long before that point." the team took in the information before realized something he said.
"we might be dead in billions of lower in the future? how would we not be?" aero paused before deciding he wasn't going to answer that right now. " I don't know, but the universe is really big and what you believe are the universe's limits probably aren't close to its actual limits.
"alright time for bed," Tilia said going over to her cart because she learned a lot of mind-boggling knowledge tonight and she wanted time to digest that. even with how early in the night it was, the rest of the team decide to take after her example with aero taking the first watch.
'fine by me I've got some training to do,' aero thought as he stretched out before going through the recommended workouts. he saw finishing his physical stats would be the thing he finished first. also short term it would be the thing that helped him the most.
that didn't say he didn't do mental work, arithmetics was a thing he could do. though he's never needed anything above what was needed for purchases. there was something called geometry and physics that the helper said would help with his medleys. he got the physics after the helper spent some time explaining what physics was.
geometry, on the other hand, points, and lines didn't seem that helpful to him. but he trusted the help and still made the explain himself, which kind of took a while but he understood, the helper belive spacial warping was possible from the medley. From how they described it, it was hazardous, and even an attempt required solid groundwork.
'it's will help either way,' excising his mind at the least. his turn for the watch came to a peaceful end as he traded with idit to lay down in the pack of the cart in his bed. he removed the restraints of the beast before going to sleep himself, he dreamed of red with the beast invading once again.
'it's not winning,' aero grumbled as he jerked awake. a quick check showed the begging of sunrise, which was a fine time for the lord to get up. Tzllia was still on watch but she waved at aero as he climb out and started stretching followed by going to the river, it was like 8 petals away from camp. a workable distance, he returned to camp where everyone who wasn't already up was still dreaming.
"you take a nap," he told Tzllia throwing some twigs in their dying came fire," for what the next petal. I'll wait until we start moving to rest!" aero shrugged but let her have her way. things were quiet between them while the sun rose in the sky and the rest of the team woke up.
the sun was 3/4 above the horizon before everyone was up a getting ready for the day, some moving slower than others. but they moved out encouraging their creatures to pull the carts down the forest road. aero spent a good portion listing to his helper and his team, the helper had a report from Xoqax.
the scientist has been running tests for a while and was sharing more information with him, while there wasn't anything big or combat-useful it was still information the young lord would need, in turn, aero showed what he's learned about the sight of individual pride.
he wasn't sure how much that information would help, but the information was information. after the transition of information was complete aero tuned into his team sharing stories about their weirder hunts, "-so somehow this 9-foot creature thought it would be able to hide behind a 2-foot rock. so I spent several moments staring baffled while I truly believed that it had escaped my vision."
"by the zalts! what did you do?" idit asked Lior, who struggled." what else would I do but take it done and move on with the hunt. I did feel kind of bad, it looked so confused how I saw it." the girls giggled while aero wonders how that must have looked.
so he asked and Lior did her best to describe the creature's face, her attempts getting giggles and slaughter from her teammates. Tzilla took her turn after telling the story of how she competed with another hunter over a mix-up they had been hunting two different creatures that look remarkably alike. this led to a small argument and a short fight, mostly cause of the pride they gains.
but they were able to sort it out and hunt their respective goals, turning them in in the same town. "you know we still exchange letters sometimes, though she lost an arm last year had had to retire." that brought on a slight sober mood, which Tzillia immediately tried to bring up" but I think it was more of her first child being born then the arm, she can still fight pretty well!" the axe thrower paused for a moment." hey aero is there a way that she could gain an arm back."
when aero directed the question to the helper received several answers, "yes in terms of the universe. but with our current scientific level not really." that dropped the mood," but melodies offer a different solution.' not that aero knew the specifics about this, he could send several lengths of paper to the capital to get them to study and craft the right kind of medical melodies.
of course, his statement leads to just the potential that their melodies had, while it was commonly known that melodies had a great amount of power and potential this was rarely brought out. partly health concerns and experimental concerns plus the lack of need for that kind of power. as the helper once put it.
all living things on Augustine were mortal!
this he now understood as them not transcending past the limits, which he was working towards. aero talked to his team about what kind of melodies he would use if he didn't have to worry about after effects," and of course, they all sound like something that will show people you're not to be messed with a show of skills."
"Is there a problem with that?" Aero turned his gaze towards Inna. who nervously laugh, she could tell aero was getting defensive. not something she wanted to deal with as that could result in him getting violent if pushed enough. when he saw that she wasn't going to push aero dropped the conversation as well, instead turning to a conversation that advancing their scientific level would greatly help their planet.
"according to what I've been told, our technological level isn't bad. but we could improve in several places. I would love a metal quarterstaff or more variation in our diet," that second part caught their attention and suddenly there were talking about food. while jells came in an array of flavors.
they only had one texture, soft and melt in your mouth. not bad never been a problem, but the chance to feel other kinds of food sparked interest throughout them all. aero also brought out mundane things like clothing, music that didn't cause near magical effects, and dances that wouldn't reshape the earth more something that fascinated them.
"All this sounds both like complete creatures shit, but at the same time I can't wait to see it." aero reminded them they would need a spaceship." can we get one, like buy one from a different planet."
"We don't have the money for that," thought he vaguely remembered a plan to buy a vehicle in the form of a cart. which he could still do, he had a better idea of the value of his energy to sell. but that gave him an idea of the amount of energy that he would need to purchase, decent size space ship would require him to store a planet-sized sphere of energy.
'well, what the helper calls decent,' according to what they explained to him. it was a spaceship caple of housing thousands of small to large lifeforms for generations. it could take the force of an exploding star, and escape the gravity of a micro-black hole. a particle cannon, "what the hell is a particle? What's a cannon?"
from what he understood the ship that the helper believed would be best for his needs, was one of the cheaper options as well. not there were ships with less to them, smaller simply transport vehicles. but the helper has expressed that he would need for them to survive, a cosmic lord attracted attention.'
there was also the influence of his pride, aero understood that the couple probably gets something small. it would arrive sooner and wouldn't take as much work. but aero was far from afraid of work, he also wasn't that willing to settle for something too below his standards.
'i've never seen a space ship and yet I have standards for them,' he could almost laugh as the team moved over a river where something with fins and eyes glared at them. they glared right back, but neither side attacked as the creatures moved on. it children following after them.
"so how could we help make the money?" aero snapped round to look at Inna," what?"
"I just didn't think about others helping me," which opened some options that were largely avoiding aero. he didn't notice that his team rolled their eyes behind him, before tzilla spoke up, " okay so are there any options that come to right now?" aero shook his head.
"What I'm seeing right now doesn't have a definite worth and I can only produce it, I haven't looked into much of what our planet produces but on a galactic scale it's probably worth less than what we pay for it."
"What are the supply and demand like on that kind of scale?" aero blinked looking at the pu doa user for a moment. he took a moment to answer her," thanks to faster-than-light travel methods location make a smaller difference but the effort to acquire said item to sell makes a bigger one. some planets are straight out dangerous to live on."
"so not all planets are habitable?" Gailia asked, aero knew this answer as it was a question he asked Tova," plants are rated by how easy it is for life to bloom and thrive on these planets." he thought back more to that lesson and considered what else they might want to hear." on a scale of 1- 10 Augustine is currently rated at an 8. that will probably change up or down considered what they dig up about our planet."
"so how bad or bad is that?"
"a ten is best for life, while 1 means anything that comes from this planet is dangerous on the level beyond mortal." while there was some mixing context he got an idea of how much power that was, "like the zaltess and zalts," aero stopped turning to face idit.
"exactly like that," when he gave it more thought he realized the zalts probably couldn't take something from a 1-rated planet. not many of them were known for their combat ability. of course those stories were ancient and living as long as they have probably left time to pick up skills. 'i should probably ask them what they can do.'
'i don't want to.'