The sunshine glows from the east, dispelling all the darkness that engulfed the forest on the previous night. Animals woke from their slumber, quickly leaving the nest in search of food. The silent forest gradually filled with various noises.
Despite all the rustling noises, Adrian remains undisturbed. He is definitely not a morning person. In his dream, he finally gets to the good part. He won't give up on his dream.
"Chirp" "Chirp" "Chirp"
The bird's chirping sound feels very close to his ears. As if there is a speaker beside him.
[Master, wake up!]
Aries's panicked voice vibrates in his head. Her voice was so loud that Adrian abruptly opened his eyes with annoyance. What greets him in the morning is not the healthy morning sunlight, but a bird that was right in front of his face.
The bird is looking at his left and right sides, inspecting him with great concentration and interest. It reminds him of his father who brought him to an expensive restaurant for the first time.
Adrian's eyes darted wildly to search for his fellow dunirrs. Unfortunately, none of them were seen in the nest.
'Don't tell me...'
[Don't worry, they're still alive and on the ground, fending off the bird. However, they are in a pinch].
He sighs in relief. It would be a disaster if he returned to Adrianopolis with four lifeless bodies.
'Aries, tell me how I end up in this situation.'
[These birds mistake the nest you guys build as their own. When they come, both Haja and you were in a deep sleep. The other three manage to wake up Haja but not you. Then, they distract the birds' attention toward them instead of you and lure the birds to the ground. I don't know if your luck is bad or it is merely coincidence, but the last bird comes later and...it is right in your face].
Adrian laughed with low enthusiasm, "Great! What a way to start a new day. Maybe it is a mistake to make a temporary shelter by imitating a cup-shaped nest."
[Or maybe your luck is low. I don't have the capability to measure and transform it into numbers]
"Shut up, Aries! I was thinking about how to get out of this deadlock circumstance." For some reason, Adrian can picturize the image of Aries sneering at him.
For a few minutes of silence and staring into each other, Adrian's brain is racking with a plan.
He suddenly jumped from a height of ten meters. He can't produce a large quantity of earth out of his body all by himself. If he wants to manipulate and invoke earth magic in a large and wide scale, he gets in touch with its respective element. And there's no way to get it to touch the ground aside from jumping.
[A crude and rash decision I would say...]
"You talk too much today, aren't you? At least I can get to the ground."
[At least several of your bones will be broken the minute you touch the ground by my estimation.]
His action caught the bird off-guard. The bird then spreads its wings and dives. Being a bird and all, the speed it descends naturally faster than Adrian.
The closer the bird gets, the faster his heart beats, "Come on, come on, come on..."
Adrian held his arm out with mana already channelled from shoulder to fingertips. Immediately as his palm touched the ground, the mana flowed out of his hand.
'Soft Soil!!'
He releases as much mana as is available to the ground. Consequently, the ground below him starts to loosen from the surface to several centimetres deep under the influence of mana. The soil turns soft which provides him with a safe landing due to the shock absorbed into the ground akin to the life net firefighter used.
With no time to catch a breath, Adrian turns his body around to face the incoming bird and casts another spell.
'Earth Cage!'
Multiple pillars of the earth rise from the ground, forming an arch. The bird seems to realize the direness of its situation. It begins to seek an escape route but the pillar continues to rise and form a dome-like structure.
Adrian only lets his guard down when he confirms the bird is completely trapped.
[Wow! I am amazed by your quick thinking]
Aries expressed her astonishment. She took a peek at Adrian's thoughts earlier and was so sure Adrian had no plan whatsoever when he jumped off the tree.
"I will probably be in deep trouble if there was no rain yesterday. Aries, scan this bird for me."
Letting her use his [Internet Access] skill is more efficient rather than him searching for answers all by himself. With his total mana reserved getting larger and larger every time he levelled up, he couldn't afford to waste a single mana.
[Scanning...]
[Accessing the internet...]
[Searching...10%...35%...78%...99%...100%]
[Ding! Result found!]
[Bird name: Crested goshawk; A predatory bird that can manoeuvre among trees thanks to its long tail and short, broad wings. It has a length between 30 to 46 centimeters. Based on its browner head and not a dark brown crown, it is safe to say that this bird is a female]
"Damn! This is one hell of a bird!"
"Chief! I don't sense any mana from it. What should we do about these birds?" Tucsa asked. He failed to hide his disappointment. They're all waiting for his verdict.
"Let's see...Aries, can I somehow tame this bird?" He asked in a low undertone, barely audible to their ears.
[Taming is a very rare art associated with magic. People who practice them are so few and most of them are treasured by the rulers. In short, I've no deep knowledge about taming except for the surface of it. From the gist, you can try to use mana to exert your strength and mess up its brain. It's a crude way of doing things. And considering its intelligence is not as complex as civilized species, it would be hard to put them into subservient.]
"Ohh!? Let me try it first." Adrian lets his mana flow and slowly reduces the size of the cage by flattening the arch. The bird flounders as the space it can freely move decreases.
Baffled by his action, Aries asks. [Why do you do that?]
'You said I can use mana to mess with its mind right? Did you know that the more desperate the living being is, the more susceptible they were to an outside influence? To make my job easier, I drove the bird into the corner and caused it to panic.'
Adrian begins to insert his mana around the bird's nape. He thought the process would be relatively easy. Contrary to his expectation, the bird starts to writhe in pain on the ground.
'What the...'
[It tries to reject your dominance which results in excruciating pain.]
'Now, everything makes sense. Rejection is always painful. Even so, I won't show you any mercy. In this forest, its survival of the fittest.' Adrian increases the intensity of the mana.
The bird begins to quiet down. Its whole body remained motionless despite his attempt to wake it up by kicking it several times.
'Damn it! Did I kill it?' He was far from remorse.
Soon thereafter, the bird starts twitching again. This time Adrian was not faced with an aggressive attempt to attack. Instead, the bird stays where it is. To further test the outcome, he uncaged the bird to see its reaction.
'I guess it worked!' exclaimed Adrian after seeing the bird doesn't rush at him or try to run away.