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

225 - Book 5 - Chapter 40 - Stuck in the Sky



Zalan led the way between the outskirts of Aetheria, trying to mess with a small ball of light in his palms, stretching it to a thin line as he moved. Rep glanced at Zalan's Elemental Light tests, looking around urgently.

"What are you doing?" Rep asked. "You are giving off our location by casting odd shadows in the area."

"I'm trying to bend the light. I might be able to make us invisible if light doesn't touch us," Zalan said, frustrated at his inability to figure out the power in his hands.

"Can it wait?" Rep asked. "We do not know when we will come in contact with someone."

"We won't have to worry about that if we're invisible," Zalan replied.

"Zalan," Rep said, his voice pleading.

"Fine, fine." Zalan let the light between his hands die out.

Glancing upward, he took in the sight of the new city. Buildings stood tall all around him, and their make up surprised him. They looked to be made of a mix of aging wood and stone. All the buildings on the front end of Aetheria's movement looked as though they had been scrubbed to soft angles, wind erosion having eaten away the corners. In a few places, Zalan saw sand filling in tight cracks in windows and infrastructure. He wondered what would happen if a building broke down in the sky. Was there a means for them to gain more material to build more houses?

Walking between two buildings, Zalan looked up and saw grapevines crawling down the ends of both rooftops, another means of providing food being integrated with the city. Once he had fully passed into the alleyway between the two buildings and emerged on the other side, the wind chill stopped biting at Zalan's back. He found Aetheria significantly more comfortable without the foreboding sound of wind at every corner and a cold whisper at his neck.

Slowing down, he took note of buckets placed at the front door of the building closest to him. There was a bucket sat down at the end of several vines and parts of the structure shaped into a slide. To Zalan's fascination, he saw a trickle of water draining into the bucket. The residents of the city got their water by collecting the passing water vapor from the clouds Aetheria passed through. Zalan couldn't help but be impressed at the ingenuity. He didn't know how else they could get water from up so high. They might have even been too high for rainclouds.

"Where are we supposed to be going?" Moss asked in a low whisper.

"I don't know," Zalan said. "I guess we should just keep going deeper until we hit something that looks like a base of operation."

"I see people out in the distance," Gorb said, his eyes focused on a point several hundred feet away. "It looks to be something like a main road through town. We should remain clear."

"What do the people of Aetheria look like?" Enzo asked, trying to get a good view in the same direction.

"Exactly like the people of the rest of the realm," Gorb replied.

"Let's try this way," Zalan said, pointing his chin to a tight squeeze between two more homes.

"I do not like this sneaking around. I feel exposed," Magnolia said. "We should have looked at the city from above to discover where Morloch resided."

"And get shot down in an explosion of lightning?" Slauson asked.

"No," Magnolia sighed, accepting his point.

When Zalan forced his way through the two buildings, he looked around and froze in place. Two children, a boy and a girl no older than ten years old, stared at him with wide eyes. They were holding broken shards of buildings that they were using to etch drawings on the floor like chalk. Dropping their artistic utensils, one of them breathed in deeply. Zalan put a hand to his lips.

"Wait, we're friendly," Zalan whispered urgently.

Gorb raised his arms, gripping them into tight balls and activating some aspect of his Elemental Power. Seeing this, the girl shrieked as loudly as she could, throwing her head back. The boy stood up and held a defensive arm in front of the girl.

"Back, savages," he said firmly.

"Savages?" Dimak asked, insulted.

The girl continued to scream, calling to every building in the vicinity.

"Gorb, what did you do to her?" Zalan asked, terrified.

"Nothing," Gorb said, his arms still raised. "I created an air bubble around us. It captures sound. No one can hear beyond a few feet."

Looking around him, Zalan saw that the nearest vines were dancing in the wind, while some at different buildings remained mostly motionless. Gorb had created a dome of silence for them, protecting them from whoever may have heard the girl's cries. Zalan nodded to him in appreciation. He then took tiny steps toward the children with his hands raised innocently.

"Hey kids," Zalan said. "We're friendly. I promise we're not going to…"

"I said stay back, savage! Keep away from us!" The boy ran forward with all the ferocity of a child having a tantrum and flung his arms around at Zalan.

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Zalan did nothing to react, allowing the child to strike him in a series of smarting blows. Normally he wouldn't have been affected, but he still hadn't fully healed from the Grimfangs and Elemental Dragon. He winced and took a pained step backward. Once his friends could see how much the small hits were affecting him, Magnolia created a small coating of sand to place over Zalan like armor, absorbing the blows. The boy continued to punch Zalan's legs and waist until he tired himself out, then stumbled back and held out his arms.

"Let her go," the boy said. "Just take me and leave her alone."

"No, Pico!" the girl cried, horrified.

"Run, Maryn!" Pico called over his shoulder. "Do not let them eat you!"

"Eat you?" Dimak said, offended for a second time. "We are not going to hurt you at all!"

"Run!" Pico exclaimed once more.

"Please do not make me! I do not want to leave you!" Maryn hugged her knees to her chest.

"Should I restrain them?" Dimak asked Zalan.

"I can make a cage," Moss added.

"Quiet guys, these kids are just scared," Zalan said.

Zalan walked up to Pico and knelt down to his height, smiling at him like he remembered his mother doing in the pediatrics part of the hospital. Pico stared with trembling eyes.

"Hey, buddy. My name is Zalan. What's your name?" Zalan asked.

Pico shook uncontrollably. Zalan dug into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, holding it up in front of his face.

"Have you ever seen a gold coin before?" Zalan asked.

Pico nodded his head slightly, his lips quivering.

"Do you want one?" Zalan offered it to him.

His face scrunched in tight confusion, Pico gently pulled the coin from Zalan's hand, turning it over in fascination. After a few seconds of scrutiny, he looked back up to Zalan.

"You are not going to eat us?" Pico asked.

"Of course not. We're nice. Why would you think anyone was going to eat you?" Zalan asked.

"Morloch the Magnanimous told us that the savages from below craved our flesh," Pico said.

"He… what? Morloch said that?" Zalan stammered.

"Yes. He said that the people of the general realm were brutes and wanted to kill us. And only those who resided above had any decency in their blood," Pico said, still watching Zalan cautiously.

"We're nothing like that," Zalan said compassionately. Then added, "Do you want to keep that gold coin?"

"Yes!" Pico said excitedly.

"No fair!" Maryn called, her fear replaced by childlike jealousy. "How come only Pico gets the gold coin? I want one!"

"You can have one," Zalan pulled another from his pocket and held it out for her to take.

Maryn jumped to her feet and charged over, snatching the coin before Zalan could change his mind. She stared at it, a gleam in her eyes.

"Sir Zalan?" Pico asked.

"Just Zalan," Zalan said.

"Zalan the Just," Pico corrected himself. "If you are not here to eat me and my sister, then why are you here?"

Zalan looked back at the others, uncertain on how to reply. Rep took a step forward, a pleasant smile on his face.

"We are here to speak with Morloch. Erm… the Magnanimous. Do you know where he may be?" Rep asked.

"I do not think you should do that. He has made it very clear that he will not hesitate to hurt a savage in order to protect us," Pico answered.

"And you no longer believe us to be savages?" Gorb asked.

"You gave my sister and I gold!" Pico said. "Not even my own family would dare give me so much wealth. I think it is too strange to call you a monster after that."

"Then you're wise," Zalan said. "And you're brave for trying to fight me off to protect your sister."

"He is not that brave," Maryn said, a side-eye of envy delivered to her brother.

"And you're brave too," Zalan told her sincerely. "To try and stay behind with your brother in the face of fear takes a lot of courage."

"Really?" she asked, her eyes falling to the floor in embarrassment.

"Of course," Zalan said earnestly. "Can you direct us to Morloch? We know the consequences of visiting him as outsiders."

"He will reside in the center of the city if he is in the city. Otherwise, he will be somewhere below delivering justice and saving the savages," Pico said.

"We are not savages," Dimak said, folding his arms across his chest.

"I know you are not!" Pico said. "I am talking about the others. You are some of the rare, good people from below."

"That is not what I mean," Dimak said.

"Save it," Zalan said, pushing himself to his feet. "Propaganda isn't cured in an hour."

"What does that mean?" Moss asked.

"It means these innocent kids have been fed lies about us and to try and talk him out of it would be a waste of time when the rest of his society would just convince him otherwise, anyway," Zalan said.

"That is what 'propaganda' means?" Moss asked, stunned. "What a complicated word."

Zalan opened his mouth to correct him, then decided to just drop it, moving to head toward the center of the city. He shuddered as he passed through the ball of wind that Gorb had kept ongoing, their conversation no longer kept in private.

"Are you certain it is safe to leave them to roam freely after seeing us?" Slauson asked. "I could freeze them in place, or perhaps we could have Dimak place them in weak shackles."

"If we're here on a quest to try and save the realm, I would hope that means all of the realm," Zalan said. "We don't need to hurt kids."

"Morloch has hurt children," Slauson replied. "The Beasts of Slumber massacred entire towns."

"Yeah, and we're definitely not Morloch," Zalan said. "We don't take lessons from him."

Slauson frowned, but nodded reluctantly. Moss walked close to Zalan.

"Can I have a gold coin?" he asked.

"Why?" Zalan looked at him.

"You gave it to the children you never met before. Am I not allowed to have one as well, as a close friend?" Moss asked.

"What? No."

"It was worth trying," Moss shrugged.

Passing into the next alleyway, Zalan stopped cold as his eyes came into contact with a bow and arrow pointed his way on a roof just above them. He unsheathed his blade and the rest of his companions reacted immediately, putting up various Elemental Powers of defense around them. The archer lowered her bow, peering at them with surprised eyes.

"Zalan? Is that you?" she asked.

"Yelsa!" Rep said, delighted.

"You can not be here!" she said urgently. "Quickly, follow me, we have to get you out of the view of the public!"


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