Chapter 86

I and Mea huddled together, hiding behind a tree trunk .

A short distance away, there are gold coins scattered around . The one I had just thrown .

“Baaah! Baaah!”

A bird with blue-green body hair appears from the sky .

It has a large bill and scurrying eyes .

It is a monster known as a balm bird .

The danger level of a single one is F-class, but because it’s nimble that its subjugation difficulty level is two times higher .

It is a cowardly beast, and once it is alerted, it is said to be impossible to hunt for a day .

Many restaurants are coveting them because of their fatty flesh, so it is very important to hunt them, so It is a good magical beast .

There are three patterns of balm bird’s behavior that adventurers should remember .

The first is patrolling .

They patrol alone and look for prey .

A female with hatchlings will fly around the nest, sometimes for the purpose of early detection of foreign enemies .

The second is the alert stance .

This is what a balm bird will do if its life is in danger .

It will make a high-pitched, unusual sound as it runs away .

When a balm bird sees the balm bird in this state, other balm birds will also go into an alert state .

The third is the mating season .

The female spreads her wings like a madman and flies about with a shrill voice .

Caught by their voices, the males come together . At the same time, adventurers also gather there .

If this happens, they would be perfect ducks, but it’s not the right season, so it seems unlikely .

That balm bird is on patrol .

The patrolling balm bird has a habit of holding gold coins in its mouth with its beak .

So, if you hide and scatter gold coins, they will come down to the ground like this .

It can succeed even with silver coins, but the success rate is higher with gold coins . Copper coins would not be looked at .

For this reason, adventurers call them golden birds and gold birds .

The adventurer who failed to kill the bird with what little gold he had left was called a “gold bird” in the column of the Adventurer’s Newspaper .

This was probably a habit of attacking the eyes of the outside world .

Something small and light-reflecting . In that aspect, gold coins and eyeballs are identical .

I am glad I bought a newspaper after all .

It would have been completely different without it .

It was almost enough to gather information .

“You-, you’re really going to do it? The gold, will they take it?”

“It’s fine . It’s fine . Go ahead, Mea . Go kill that stupid bird . ”

“Ah, yes!”

Mea nodded twice while shouting loudly and persistently .

…… I don’t think it noticed us, but I would like her to be a little more careful while we’re hunting .

She was so nervous that her voice just rubbed upwards .

Mea readied her bow and halfway out of the tree .

“A little more…… lift it up to your shoulder and then tighten, like this, stretch your arms out, like this . ”

“Ah, yes…… I’m counting on you, Shooting Wyvern……”

In case you’re wondering, I’ve used a bow a few times in the Marren village, too . A few times .

I thought sorcery was faster, and I didn’t get any distance at all, so I immediately abandoned the practice .

When the arrow flew, the balm bird had just lifted the gold coin into its mouth .

The arrow flew to the left, well off the balm bird .

The balm bird noticed us, kicked the ground and took off .

“Baaah!”

“Ahhh! Ah, ahhh! The gold! Ahhh! Give it back! Please give it back!”

“Baaah! Babaaah!”

Mea fired a second and third shot but didn’t even graze it .

She hung her arms in disappointment and stared at the back of the balm bird with an exhausted face .

You shouldn’t be that disappointed for a single gold coin……

“Baaaaaaaaah! BAHHHH!”

A balm bird cries out in a high-pitched voice .

I see, so this is the alert stance .

The frequency is completely different from the previous one, and it also sounds strange .

It seems that magic power is contained in the voice in order to make it sound far away .

“Ahhh…… already, so far away…… I-, I’m sorry…… Because of Mea, your precious money . ”

“Oh wind, form, blade”

I waved my wand and shot out a blade of wind .

It sliced through the branches of a tree that was an obstacle and hit the back of a balm bird .

“Bahaaann!”

The balm bird fell with a splattering of blood .

Scattered feathers fell after the body .

The balm bird is…… still alive, alright .

I tucked my wand away in my pocket .

“Alright…… What did you just say, Mea?”

“N-, no……”

Mea looked relieved and somewhat disappointed as she put the arrow she was clutching back into her quiver .

After all, in archery and sorcery, it’s not all practice, it also has to be put into practice on field .

I picked up the gold coins that I had scattered in the balm birdcage, and Mea ran to the balm bird that fell far away .

Mea grabbed the balm bird by the neck and lifted it up, smacking it on the head and making it spit out gold coins .

“Baah……”

The balm bird lets out a whimper .

“Oh…… this bird is still alive . I’d better give it the finishing blow……”

“Ahh, please just keep it up like that . I have a little something I want to try . ”

“Something you want to try?”

Mea tilts her head .

“Yeah . If that balm bird is a female, it should have a unique call for a male during the mating season . If it’s the kind of call that is made with magical powers, maybe you can force it to come out with a little physical manipulation . It’s not the right time, but if the female calls, the male will probably come around . If it goes well, we can round them up . I have a magic stone in my pack for times like these . ”

“Eh, what’s that? It’s scary . ”

Mea turned a straight face .

She immediately shook her head and returned her expression .

“Ah, well…… but it’s weak…… and it’s probably going to die right away if I mess with it……”

“That’s why I’m going to heal it and bring it back to life . I’m going to wriggle it’s wings so it can’t escape . ”

“Eh, ehhh…… is that okay? That’s bio-magic, right? You’re going to get caught in an ordinance or something……”

“It’s okay . These rules are all about not letting them out into the wild and messing with the ecosystem . If you dispose of them properly, they won’t get angry, probably . ”

“I-, I see…… so…… it’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, it’s supposed to . ”

I asked Mea to push the balm bird onto a nearby stump .

“Baaah! Baaah! Baaah!”

As if the balm bird had figured out something, it showed it’s last bit of energy to resist .

Mea says as she held it down, “I’m sorry……” lets out in a whisper .

“Sleep . ”

“Baah……”

The balm bird went quiet quickly .

I close my eyes slowly .

Alright, let’s start the modification then .

For now, the first step is to investigate the flow and nature of the balm bird’s magic power .