Chapter 372: Setting Off 2
Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion
After staying in the estate for a few days, Garen hadn’t received any news.
But now, it was finally time to go on a quest.
Everyone in the Secret Service’s Crimson Team, under Old Man’s arrangements, had gathered at a fixed ce, that was therge clock tower, the tallest building just behind the Kingdom.
This was the stone wall of a cliff, with some green forests on top, and a smallke.
"Alright, let’s go down." Old Man nodded, and led the way to the outskirts of the jungle.
The others followed suit.
Garen followed at the very back of the team, not too fast or too slow, carefully scoping his surroundings.
All the trees in the forest were rather short, and a nce over them showed they were sparse as well, sunlight falling onto the green nket of nts, shining with a jade green glow.
The six of them entered the little forest one by one, and walked straight to the edge of the cliff.
Old Man led the way, and actually turned his step, walking down the edge of the cliff as though he’d just jumped off. It gave Garen quite a scare.
And others followed suit, Garen thest, all the way until he reached the edge of the cliff, where he looked down.
There were many intricate ck boxes built on the cliff under him, each smaller than a palm. That was when he noticed that there was actually a downward sliding staircase on the cliff beside his feet. Ahead of them, Old Man had already gone quite a distance ahead.
The stone steps stuck tightly to the cliff, like trenches dug out of the ck cliff, going all the way down.
Garen nced at Fox, who was beside him. She didn’t look surprised in the slightest, and as evidently used to seeing this kind of thing.
He hurriedly followed them down, following the stone steps one by one as they advanced towards the bottom right.
Holding the ck stone handle on the left with his hands, he felt a cold touching from his palm, and Garen continued down the steep stone steps.
On the left side of the stone stairs tunnel, a lot of cold wind due to the high altitude was blowing in, billowing up their hoods and making them flutter.
The six of them didn’t say a thing, walking down quietly.
On the ck cliff walls, the stone steps were like a split, stretching from the top of the cliff to the center.
The six of them walked on the inside, like ck ants crawling in the crack, soundlessly, inconspicuous.
After about two minutes.
The path ahead them opened up, into a wide circr hall. On the ground in the center was a huge bird’s nest, more than ten meters in radius.
The bird’s nest was woven out of dried, earth-yellow tree trunks, oval in shape, and had a giant ck bird crouched in the middle. The bird looked like an erged version of a crow,pletely pitch ck, with only scarily pearly yellow eyes, glimmering in the dim cave with a yellow glow.
The giant bird was more than seven meters long, crouching quietly in the nest, and it actually had a natural dent in its back.
Old Man walked over first, the ck light patterns under his feet disappearing after a sh. With a ding, his whole person leaped up lightly, as though he had springs on his feet. While in mid-air, the ck light formation at his feet lit up again, propelling him directly into the dent on the bird’s back.
"Everyone gets a ck Crow each, the ones at the back, make sure you don’t get left behind." He yelled loudly from that height.
In an instant, everyone walked towards the edges of the cave and walls, and saw that there were tunnels leading to other caves.
Garen chose one and walked over too, after following the tunnel for a bit, he found another huge ck Crow crouched in their nest. The ck Crow nced at him, a hint of viciousness in its yellow eyes, but it immediately sensed the special aura on Garen and instantly calmed down.
Garen touched the diamond shard ring on his hand, the ring was made from a ck metal, and had four diamond shards embedded in it to form a diamond shape.
"As expected of the three departments, they sure have many good things."
Garen touched his ring, and the same ck light formation shed past his feet as well, like a trampoline, exploding with a light and gentle bounce.
Borrowing this power to jump into the sky, Garen took another step in mid-air, the ck light formation circle shed again, and hended lightly in the dent on the crow’s back.
The dent was warm, and the area under his feet was soft, the swathes of feathers in front of him functioning as grips.
"Nineheads, you ready?"
Old Man’s voice came from his waist-pouch.
Garen opened the pockets on his waist, and took out a small round ck box, the voice wasing from here.
"Ready," he replied softly.
"It’s your first time riding a ck Crow, watch your safety, and always keep in contact," Old Man advised him.
"Why are you bothering with him, if he doesn’t even know that much, he should just scram!" For some reason Kitten just didn’t seem to like Garen very much, and kept geting annoyed at him.
"Then let’s go," Old Man agreed.
Garen patted the yellow diamond ring on his hand, and the ck Crow under his feet gave a slight jolt.
The ck Crow stood up in the nest, and started running urgently forward.
Tap-tap-tap!
After taking a few steps, the way forward lit up with a white light.
Whoosh!
That was the sound of the ck Crow opening its wings, its huge wings spanning more than ten meters as it pounced out of the cave.
On the ck cliffs, six ck Crows rushed out of the cave one after the other, and pped their wings, shooting into the sky. They created six round flight paths in the sky.
Woooo~~~~! Haha!!
Kitten’s whoops came from the left.
Garen’s eyes got used to the sudden burst of blinding sunlight, facing the strong winds as he narrowed his eyes to look around him.
He felt as though he was going diagonally up, the intense cold wind beating against his face, flowing into his nostrils and down his neck.
Everything around him was nting, and shook non-stop.
He gripped the ck feathers tightly, ordering the ck Crow to follow the ck Crow in front of it, and then just let it go on auto-pilot.
With a whoosh, Fox’s ck Crow brushed past on his right, and rushed to the very front with extreme speed. After that, Kitten caught up as well, the two of them chasing each other, and soon they became two tiny ck dots in the distance.
"The two of you, don’t break away from the team!" Old Man’s voice came from the ck box.
Garen nced downwards.
The whole Kingdom was now just the size of his palm.
The whole Kingdom was sunk in the middle of a mountain range, all alone with nothing around it, as though it was a city built on mountaintops. It seemed ancient and mysterious.
The Kingdom became smaller and smaller, further and further. Garen’s hood couldn’t stay on, and was pulled down by the strong winds, his long golden hair flying in the wind.
"Careful, we’re going above the cloudyer." Old Man’s voice came from the ck Box.
Garen clipped the ck Box onto his cor, and it happened to fit perfectly on the golden iris, hanging there securely.
Before the voices faded.
Garen had no time to reply when he felt therge swathes of white cloud mist assault his face. It was cold and moist, as though someone sprayed mist into his face.
Everything around him became a sea of white.
Caw!!
The ck Crow in front of him made a sound.
Caw! Caw!!
The ck Crow he was riding also cried out.
The ck Crows seemed to be using that to determine each other’s locations.
The cries rang out and echoed by Garen’s ear,sting an entire half minute.
Finally, with a whoosh, they went through the cloudyer in an instant.
The golden sun hung quietly in the distant deep blue sky, and below them were the sea of white clouds.
Some clouds sunk in, so they could see the earth and mountains down there, as small as grains of sand.
Some clouds protruded, like strangely-shaped pirs. Some clouds were just bunches of cotton.
Above the endlessyers of clouds, six giant ck Crows were like six sesame seeds, pping their wings and soaring almost indistinguishably.
"We need to keep flying for two hours, it’s a bit far away. Be aware of your own waist-pouch, don’t let it get blown away," Old Man reminded tirelessly.
Garen turned around and looked in the direction they came. He instantly felt a slight jolt.
In the sky above the Kingdom, seen from a distance, there was a grey-ck light all over the sky above the Kingdom.
That light was like a fog, floating and twining all above the Kingdom, there were even many ck tentacles poking out here and there, waving in the sky.
"Do you see that? Nales." Old Man’s voice came again. "That’s the Kingdom’s strongest tactical defense formation, without permission, no flying creature can go past the sky above the Kingdom."
"It’s quite the sight." Garen sighed.
The ck Crows flew forth in parallel with each other, in a V-formation.
The time passed, and soon half an hour had passed.
"Careful, everyone, we’reing up on the West Farm defense lines, there might be high-flying monsters attacking." This time it was actually Red Umbre’s voice, how rare for him not to be yawning.
Garen focused a little more as well, raising his guard.
It wasn’t long after the reminder that two strange birds immediately rushed up from beneath the sea of clouds.
Waa! Waa!!
Cries that sounded like children weeping came from in front of them.
The strange birds werepletely purple-ck, like bald eagles, with a snake-like neck, and four red eyes on the top of their heads.
The two strange birds were about seven or eight meters in size, but as soon as they rushed up and saw the six giant ck Crows, each more than ten meters long, the two birds panicked immediately, turned around and dove into the clouds again, disappearing without a trace.
"They’re Four-eyed Birds, one of the rare few bird-type monsters that can fly at altitudes above seven or eight thousand meters. They’re powerful, equal to a Form Two totem. But unfortunately, we’re riding on Giant ck Crows, which are even stronger. One Death re can kill those two in an instant," Old Manughed, in a light mood, but mostly he seemed to be exining for Garen’s sake.
"I wanted to taste what Four-eyed Bird meat was like, but they run so fast every time!" Kitten’s voice sounded disinterested.
"We need to go low in the area ahead, it’s that crazy monster’s territory, so everyone watch out and go lower with me," Old Man said loudly.
"Got it.""As usual, Red Umbre takes the rear."
Everyone replied one by one.
Garen was slightly curious as to what kind of monster could let the Form Three totem users from the Secret Service all decide to avoid it. But they were high in the sky, so he didn’t ask.
The ck Crow kept close behind the ones in front, and suddenly sunk, reducing their altitude and dashing down.
Whoosh!
They dove into the fluffy white sea of clouds in an instant.
After more than ten seconds, the cloud sea burst open, and below was arge sweep of white mountain ranges, dotted with dark green forests andkes.
The ck Crows rushed down, flying towards that mirror-likeke, theke-water reflected theyers of clouds, clear and clean.
A few giant ck turtles were basking in the sun, like so many ck stones, heavy and clumsy.
A herd of light yellow deer was drinking water next to a dried up and copsed tree trunk, taking tiny sips, their ears asionally twitching nimbly.
Whoosh!!
The six giant ck Birds suddenly rushed down, dipping past the mirror-like surface of the blueke, the gusts of wind causing the water to shake, creatingrge ripples.
The deer yelped in shock, and left theke in a hurry. The ck turtles immediately pulled their heads back into their shells, and didn’t move at all, ying dead.
Garen stood on the ck Crow’s back, watching thekewater retreat rapidly backwards, to be reced by forest. Many birds were spooked and took flight, escaping towards the left and right in flocks.
There were even three female campers surrounding a fire and barbequing something. Two of them heard themotion and immediately stood up, looking towards the sky, their mouth wide open and their expressions spooked.
"Wooo~~~!" Kitten was crying out again.
The six Giant ck Crows swept past the forest, causing the leaves to rustle.