Chapter 434

The carriage moved smoothly along the hard-packed dirt road, its reinforced wheels barely making a sound even as they left the paved stone.Outside the tinted windows, the vast grasslands stretched out toward the horizon like a sea of gold, gently swaying in the breeze.

It was a very familiar sight to Nick, and it helped him relax.

Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was calm and cozy. Nick sat near the window, closed his eyes, and let the steady sway of the carriage lull him into a deep state of meditation.

The past week had been pretty boring, since he’d been completely at rest, and the couple of days after had been too busy with meetings and preparations. Only now could he reflect on how much the latest adventure had changed him.

More than the new levels, stretching his soul to encompass the Tower had brought major changes to his inner structure. Now that he was finally fully healed, he could feel that his soul wasn’t just a vessel for the wild energies and the Tree of Life, but a more solid entity, and he suddenly realized that he had completed his crystallization.

The process was mostly completed in the Sunlands, thanks to his somewhat reckless approach to the Dungeon Guardian, but it still lacked the final step, which he believed would happen once he reached level one hundred.

Now, his soul looked like a geode, reflecting the colors of his elemental affinities in a thousand different shades, and he suspected it’d be easier than ever to develop more complex spells.

When he focused on his mana coils, he noticed that the quality of his mana had also changed. It was as if its natural density compressed the energy, making even the smallest part of his reserves more powerful than they were a month ago, and ready to be used at any moment.

It would take some actual practice to see if his assumptions held any weight, but Nick eased out of his meditation with a satisfied smile.

Across the carriage, Devon had a bundle of folded parchment resting on his knees and was speaking in a low tone to Sonya, filling her in on the situation they were walking into.

After all, the poor girl was about to meet her future mother-in-law.

“You will find Floria quite different from what I might have described to you before," Devon explained, tapping the top letter. "Mother sent this with a merchant caravan last week, and apparently, the town has grown well beyond its old boundaries.”

Sonya listened carefully, almost as if she wanted to jot down notes. “I imagine the population mostly increased due to refugees coming from the northern front?”

“Refugees, but also displaced farmers and opportunists from all over," Devon confirmed. "When the fighting in the North escalated, anyone who didn't want to get caught in the crossfire started moving south. Floria is the furthest major settlement, so it became the natural place to run to, given that it’s very unlikely for the war to reach it. Apparently, the population has nearly quadrupled in the span of a year.”

Nick hadn’t known that. Or rather, the few letters he received did suggest that the town was growing, but since he was not the Heir and had shown no interest in ruling their fief, it seemed his mother mostly kept the boring details in letters to his brother.

"That seems like a massive strain," Sonya noted. "A quadrupled population puts pressure on the local water, sanitation, and food resources. How is your mother handling all of that on her own?”

"Barely," Devon admitted, offering a tired smile. "Father is still stationed up North, so she has been managing the fief entirely on her own. She organized a series of sprawling camps on the outskirts and convinced the local lumber guild to start building semi-permanent housing after it became clear that the new districts weren’t enough. But the real issue is security.”

Nick opened his eyes, suddenly more interested. He knew his mother was a capable leader, but managing a frontier town was very different from running a booming trade hub.

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"Darien is still leading the soldiers, I assume?" Nick asked.

Devon nodded. "He is, but his men are stretched incredibly thin, and there are only so many recruits he can take in to absorb the loss of the veterans that went north. And it isn't just refugees coming down the road. Major merchant consortia are setting up bases in Floria to buy up monster parts from the Green Ocean and cheap land. And with the merchants come mercenaries, and with mercenaries come disputes. Darien is apparently running his guards ragged just trying to keep the various factions from fighting in the taverns every night.”

"The local Adventurer's Guild branch must be overwhelmed, too," Sonya pointed out. "A larger population inevitably attracts more monsters from the Green Ocean, and while there will be adventurers among the newcomers, I doubt it’s enough.”

"Exactly," Devon said, folding the letters and tucking them away. "That's part of why I'm glad we're heading back. I can help Darien with the guard training, and having a few powerful people in town should help ease the pressure once we make it clear no funny business is tolerated.”

The last part was for Nick, and the two brothers exchanged a knowing look. In their father’s absence, it was likely that more than a few people had started to get bold, so it would fall to them to remind everyone who the ruling House of Floria was.

Before they could explore the topic further, the carriage suddenly came to a stop.

The heavy wooden frame settled, and the sounds of horses snorting and stamping their hooves drifted back to them. A moment later, Xander's voice carried clearly through the small speaking grate near the roof of the cabin.

"We have company," the Grandmaster announced in an observational tone. "A flock is hunting near the road, and they’ve caught our scent.”

Nick reached for the Shard, expanding his senses, and saw that indeed, they were being tracked. He pushed the door open and stepped onto the dirt road, with Devon right behind him, his hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of his broadsword.

The sky above the grasslands was a clear, brilliant blue, but a cluster of dark, fast-moving shadows was circling high above the carriage.

There were about two dozen Razor-beak Vultures, their wingspans nearly eight feet wide. Their feathers were a dull, dusty brown that would help them blend into the dead grass, but their beaks gleamed like polished iron. Nick knew from experience that these birds wouldn’t leave simply with a show of force.

Furthermore, the fact that monsters were hunting near the road to Floria was simply unacceptable, so even if avoiding the fight had been possible, they still needed to hunt them.

The Vultures were mid-tier predators in the grassland, mainly dangerous because of their numbers. To a typical merchant caravan, a flock this size would be a serious threat, capable of ripping apart wooden wagons and taking pack animals in minutes, even overpowering most rookie adventurer escorts.

To Nick, they were barely an inconvenience.

"I'll clear them out," he said, stepping away from the carriage to get a better angle.

He planted the base of his staff in the dirt and began drawing upon his lightning affinity. The ambient ether around him immediately responded to his call, and the air pressure dropped as the electrical charge built for a wide-area , one strong enough to fry the entire flock out of the sky in a single strike.

“Stop." Xander stepped down from the driver's bench, landing lightly on the road.

"You are wasting far too much power, Nicholas," he said.

Nick paused, allowing the gathered mana to safely dissipate into the ground. He looked at the Grandmaster, somewhat confused. "A single will deal with them all at once. You can't get more efficient than that.”

"It will," Xander agreed, his gaze fixed on the circling birds. "And it will use more of your mana than you need to spend. You have recently gained significant power, and I have seen many mages experience a sudden leap in their level, and they all make the same mistake. They start relying on raw output to solve every problem until their technique becomes sloppy.”

Without further explanation, he shifted his focus to Devon. "Draw your weapon.”

Devon unfastened the leather peace-tie and drew his broadsword. He immediately began cycling his mana, his muscles tensing as the faint white glow of his aura flared.

"None of that," Xander ordered bluntly. "Drop the aura and the physical reinforcement. You will fight them with nothing but the steel in your hand and your footwork. I taught you enough that you should be able to do that much.”

Devon blinked, surprised by the restriction, but he didn’t argue with his master. He exhaled slowly, cutting off the flow of mana to his active skills, and the white glow faded.

"Nicholas," Xander continued, turning back to him. "No area-of-effect magic or massive elemental discharges are allowed. You will use the minimum amount of mana needed to kill your targets. Show me that you’re more than a one-trick pony.”

Nick looked up at the flock, analyzing the fights within the handicap's parameters. The vultures were highly mobile, heavily feathered, and had surprisingly dense bone structures. Killing them with minimal mana meant he couldn't rely on concussive force or burning them out.

He would have to be precise about this, perhaps even rely on some of the spells that had been neglected in the past.

“Alright,” Nick finally said, thinking this might be a fun experiment.

“Seems like they had enough of waiting," Xander observed calmly, taking a step back to lean against the side of the carriage. “Now get to it.”

The flock shrieked in unison, the sound echoing harshly across the plains. They folded their wings and dove steeply, targeting the two humans standing so foolishly in the open road.

Devon acted first. Without the quickness fueled by his aura, his movements seemed slow to Nick, but against this type of enemy, it was still more than sufficient.

As the first vulture swooped down, its iron-hard beak aimed directly at his face, Devon stepped off the center line and raised his broadsword, angling the blade to block the vulture's beak with the flat of the steel.

The impact hardly moved his arms despite the significant power behind the dive, and Devon let the momentum carry the bird past him. As it sped by, he rotated his wrists and struck a cut across the vulnerable joint of the vulture's wing, severing the limb.

The bird crashed into the dirt next to him, and Devon didn't pause to finish it. Immediately pivoting to face the next diving shadow, his boots scraped against the road as he found a new defensive stance.

Nick watched the sky, tracking the paths of the remaining birds. He reached into his soul, pulling out a tiny sliver of his wind affinity, and compressed it, hardly needing to flex his will to do what once would have taken him several seconds of focus.

Forming three thin , each no thicker than a knitting needle, he directed them upward with a gesture of his hand, not bothering to use the Shard.

The needles pierced the first three vultures cleanly, scrambled their insides, then passed out the other side and dissipated into the atmosphere.

The birds went limp mid-dive, their wings going slack as they fell from the sky and hit the ground with heavy thuds.

Nick didn't stop to admire the results. He smoothly gathered another sliver of mana, repeating the process as he fell into a rhythm, tracking the flock’s chaotic movements as it tried to reorganize, analyzing their speed, and taking down his targets with cold precision.