The Homeseeker: Elemental Adventurer LitRPG [Isekai] (Series Complete!)

Zalan stared in bafflement, never having expected Aetheria to come right to them. He imagined he and his friends would take shifts staying away in the sky for days, watching every passing cloud until they happened to come upon it again. Furthermore, he didn't know if Aetheria stuck to a fixed path or if it changed day to day. It made his next step painfully clear. But he already dreaded it.

"It's here. That means we're going," Zalan said.

"Right now?" Magnolia asked.

"We do not know when another opportunity like this will come," Rep said. "Aetheria could be lost to us for days if we do not move atop it now."

"No time to rest?" Dimak asked, sounding disappointed.

"Anyone that does not wish to join us on Aetheria is welcome to stay on the hot air balloon," Gorb said.

"Won't it crash if no one is keeping it up with fire and air?" Enzo asked.

The crew looked to Zalan.

"I've never seen a hot air balloon drift to the ground. I wouldn't know," Zalan said, shrugging one and a half shoulders. The previously injured shoulder was partially healed by his gaining a Level.

"What do you mean 'how should you know?' You invented hot air balloons," Magnolia said.

"Technically, he did not invent them. He brought the technology from another world," Moss corrected.

Magnolia looked between Moss and Zalan with a few flits of her eyes.

"That begs more questions than answers," she said, exasperated.

"Look, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get you down safely, now who's staying behind when we go to Aetheria?" Zalan asked.

He expected to see a similar split from when he asked who would join him in jumping down at the dragon, but to his surprise, nobody looked prepared to remain behind. He stared between them, pleasantly surprised and a smidge confused. He was so sure he would lose one or two of them who wanted to heal.

"Are you all sure? I need friends I can trust when we're up against Morloch," Zalan said.

"Whatever reservations I had about you before melted away as soon as you killed that Elemental Dragon. You are clearly capable of incredible feats," Slauson said.

"My father would never forgive me for leaving this story unfinished," Enzo said, nodding his head firmly.

"I need to prove to myself that I can do more," Dimak said sincerely.

"The captain clearly sees something in you to have sent Enzo and me," Magnolia said. "I wish to prove him right."

"I have nothing better to do," Moss shrugged.

Zalan didn't need Gorb or Rep to say anything. He already knew they were on board no matter the circumstances. He beamed between them all, glad to have such an impressive group of fighters at his side. When he left Oriton, he thought the battle against Morloch would be with Rep and Gorb alone. Now he had a whole party of different Elemental Powers.

"I'm really grateful to have you all," Zalan said sincerely, looking between each individual with respect.

Everyone turned toward the approaching city in the sky. Hundreds of feet away, they still had a few minutes before exiting their hot air balloon. The buildings rose high above a floating platform, some of them looking as tall as three stories. Zalan was impressed by the size of the city. When he first heard of Aetheria, he thought it would be a tiny town miraculously held together, but he could clearly see farmland on the outskirts. They were a truly self-sustained city floating through the air.

Lowering his gaze a few feet, his eyes caught onto something that made him give it a double take. Then a triple take. For a perplexing few seconds, he was almost sure he could see a head poking out of the clouds that the city sat on top of. Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Zalan confirmed there was a face within the clouds, like a creature that shared its body with the vapor of the rolling white carrier. He turned to Rep, confusion written on his face.

"Do you see it too?" Rep asked, leaning over the basket.

"The face? Yeah, what's that about? Like a figurehead on a ship?" Zalan asked.

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"I know ships. That is no figurehead," Enzo said confidently.

"You have not realized what it is yet?" Rep asked.

Zalan shook his head.

"That is an Air Elemental," Gorb replied. "If I am not mistaken… It is carrying Aetheria on its back."

"It's… carrying the city?" Zalan asked, turning back to scrutinize the face in the cloud.

"Why?" Moss asked. "How long has it been doing that?"

"I know as well as you do," Gorb said. "But I distinctly remember the look of the Air Elemental that granted me my power. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the same kind of creature. It looked very similar to this one."

"I think…" Rep said hesitantly. "We just discovered how Morloch received his first power of Elemental Air. He managed to challenge the Elemental that Aetheria sits upon."

The others considered this information in a mix of fascination and frustration. Morloch had access to an Elemental in one of the most faraway places in the realm. They all had to travel miles to receive their respective Elemental Powers, sometimes getting so close to death they could almost taste it. It also felt hypocritical. Morloch was killing Elementals across the realm while benefiting from the one that kept his city in the sky.

"Do you think we should talk to the Elemental?" Moss asked.

"Why?" Zalan asked.

"Who knows what it may say about Morloch!"

"Too risky. Elementals are not social creatures. And we may irritate it and cause it to attack us. We are still helpless so long as we are on this balloon," Gorb replied.

"Fine, yes, but I still think it is a good idea," Moss said.

The city was less than a hundred feet away. Without prompting, Magnolia began to build a sand platform outside of the basket to take them across when they were close enough. Dimak created a few stairs within the basket, so they would be able to walk up to the floating platform, even with injuries.

As they drifted the last few feet across the sky, Zalan had the eerie feeling that the Elemental was watching him closely. He looked down and saw its eyes tracking him. Retreating quickly, Zalan felt disturbed by the attention. He thought there was some meaning behind it, but he couldn't read any sort of expression on an Elemental's face. They all gave him a feeling of being sinister and intimidating. But this one felt different. Perhaps hopeful.

"Let's get going," Zalan said, taking the rock stairs up and carefully making steps across the sand platform.

The basket wobbled dangerously as the last occupant left. Zalan leapt off the sand and onto the tiled, marble ground of Aetheria. He was surprised by how pristine the flooring was kept on the city, especially when he had never seen anything more than dirt or brick roads in cities in the realm. Each of his friends hopped onto the spaces closest to him, looking around and taking in the sight of being on Aetheria.

"This is incredible. We may be the first people to ever visit Aetheria from the ground," Dimak mentioned.

"Send out the balloon," Zalan said to Gorb. "We don't want to attract any attention this way. Especially when we'd be so easily recognized."

"Your arrogance precedes you. You think people in this city would recognize you when you are hardly a known figure on the surface of the realm?" Moss asked.

"No, but I think people who have lived in the same city all their lives would immediately know an outsider when they saw one," Zalan said.

Moss opened his mouth to reply, then closed it in thought. He nodded, conceding the point to Zalan.

"How do we intend to return to the ground safely?" Magnolia looked over the edge.

"It is much easier to slow a descent than make people rise," Gorb said. "I can safely take us to the ground. Given I am at full strength?"

"And if you are not?"

The implication was that Gorb might not survive the fight against Morloch. The question went unanswered, and Magnolia nodded to the balloon to indicate her consent.

Gorb let out a gust of wind, pushing the hot air balloon far beyond the edge of Aetheria. They all stared as their vessel left, suddenly feeling somewhat isolated in a city stuck in the sky. They watched it float by the city, as it fell behind. It drifted like a cloud that couldn't keep up with the motion of Aetheria. Magnolia turned to Moss, a hint of urgency in her voice.

"Would you be able to create another hot air balloon when we want to get down?" she asked.

"Given enough rest and enough time, I could make another one," Moss said confidently. "It would be ideal to have a Healing Rest, but I suppose we can not look forward to that among a hostile city."

"Yeah, let's be careful and try not to be seen if we can help it," Zalan said.

"Are we certain it is hostile?" Slauson asked, looking deeper into Aetheria. "There is a bizarre calm at the edge of the city. Like one could contemplate the workings of the realm while looking down on it. I could see tranquility entering the hearts of the people."

The sky cracked and exploded in a thunderous rumble, drawing all their attention back to the hot air balloon. A bolt of lightning raced down from just above it and caused it to explode in a fiery, electric blast. Zalan and the others watched it fall as a flaming ball of deflated balloon and ashes before being obscured when dipped under the nearest cloud. Wisps of smoke from its explosion remained, dissipating into the open air. The group turned back to Slauson with expectant looks on their faces.

"Oh, as though none of you have ever been wrong before!" Slauson snapped. "How was I supposed to know this city would treat the balloon like Zalan treated me in the tournament?"

"That was Morloch using my lighting, I'm pretty sure," Zalan said.

"So then, he is here. Not out hunting Elementals," Rep determined. Zalan nodded.

"Do you think he discovered whether it was a vessel that we entered the city with?" Enzo asked.

"I think it is more likely that he thought it was a monster, just as the guards in Wollstone did," Gorb said.

With that, the group ventured deeper into Aetheria, hoping they would be able to hit Morloch with a surprise attack on his own turf.