Chương 19: Chapter 18 – Airlift

The next morning, Daniel lifted off towards the city, carrying Kai along like the goblin he had fetched for demonstrative purposes. Lena was still dealing with her injured leg and was generally not inclined to engage with the city again, so she stayed behind. She certainly wouldn't be bored – Daniel had taught her the basics of the Brandt Box, and she would be able to build the base product with a bit of experimentation, leaving only the important, but less time-consuming fine-tuning to her father.

So, the two men went on an impromptu father-son trip. Both of them carefully, albeit slightly awkwardly avoided the topic of sorcery. Kai had little to say on the matter, and Daniel didn't seem interested in expanding on his own experiences. Not that it would help me much, Kai thought to himself. I can't imagine that his Concept is anywhere close to mine.

"Kai, look", Daniel spoke up, pointing towards the main road far underneath them. Kai strained his eyes, but could make out very little besides a parked car and silhouettes circling it.

"Perception five, Dad," he sighed.

"Oh. Right." They dipped lower, and the view became clearer. A car was standing on the road, and multiple people inside were panicking and screaming. The reason was obvious – five creatures stalked menacingly around the vehicle, occasionally tapping on the windows, howling like dogs and laughing like hyenas. They looked – well, they looked how they sounded. Bipedal dog-like humanoids with long snouts and blood-red eyes. Drool dripped from their jagged teeth, and they were clearly enjoying the humans' fear.

Kai inspected one of them. ~ Gnoll, Level 11"What the fuck."

"Gnolls," his father simply replied.

"Pack hunters. They tend to play with their food."

"... I can see that." Thinking of humans as monster food felt alien. Daniel dropped them even closer to the ground, and just when the first gnoll raised its snout to get a look at the new arrivals, he cast a single spell.

"[Chain Lightning]." Blue light. Ozone. Goblins– No. Gnolls. Gnolls melting. A moment of silence, then the car fled with screeching tires. Kai shook off the lingering queasiness from seeing the casual annihilation of creatures four levels above him. They stopped a few more times along the way to help the many people fleeing into or out of the city. Cars held up by groups of monsters – mostly goblins or gnolls – were a common sight, but the Wizard made short work of them.

Kai contributed little outside of picking up monster cores and making conversation, but nobody had more than a few clipped words of thanks for their savior. When the city came into sight, the scale of the issues became visible along with it. The roads were jammed with vehicles, there was a large fire somewhere downtown, and fear and panic hung over the streets like smog.

"[Chameleon Field]," Daniel chanted. Kai felt a veil of magic settle over the two Brandts, but he could only guess at its purpose from the spell name.

"Invisibility?"

"Almost," his father replied.

"We probably look like a patch of smoke from below. No need to draw too much attention here."

"Are we going to help out?" Kai gestured vaguely to the chaos below.

"Only if it's on our way. I don't like it, but I have to prioritize. And every minute spent in Lindenfeld is vastly more productive than haphazardly playing the hero." Kai understood his father's argument on an intellectual level, but that didn't make it easier to ignore the pandemonium in the streets. Wait, is that a gnoll?

"Dad, there's a gnoll next to the mail van." Daniel looked down and spotted the creature instantly.

"[Mana Bolt]." The monster splattered against the pavement. The lady it had been sneaking up on yelped in fear.

"Another one behind the park bench."

"[Mana Bolt]." Splat. They flew through the outskirts, occasionally taking potshots at monsters brazen enough to hunt in broad daylight. Apparently, 'if it's on our way' had a fairly generous definition when the problem was solvable without slowing down. He must have gotten that title somewhere, I guess. Oliver's apartment was located right across the street from a small pharmacy.

The queue, easily two hundred meters long, wrapped around an abandoned tram and blocked a few cars from passing through, but nobody was willing to risk their spot by moving to the side. Thankfully, Oliver was home. He did not intend to stay long though, judging from the jam-packed sports bag waiting next to the front door.

"Kai?" he asked, astounded.

"Glad to see that you're alive, but what are you doing here?" ~ Fighter, Level 7 Figured. The HEMA instructor wore an unadorned longsword on his belt, together with the same leather armor set the idiot Marauder wore. Probably the Fighter starter gear, Kai mused. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Looking for you, actually. Would you like a job?" Oliver scratched his bald head in confusion.

"Uh. I appreciate the offer, I guess, but no thanks. I'm getting the hell out of here. And you should too, along with your… uh. Brother?"

"Father," Daniel corrected matter-of-factly.

"Oh. Uhm, nice to meet you, Mr. Brandt," Oliver replied awkwardly.

"Likewise." Kai quickly retook control before things derailed further.

"Where are you planning to go?"

"To the South. I heard about a few safe villages there, and most of the refugees come from the North." Rumors already?

"You're probably talking about Lindenfeld. That's where we live. We still got power." Oliver perked up.

"Oh, that's great! We can travel together, then. Safety in numbers, and all. Did you get your Classes already? Ah, wait, let me check. …Uh. What do the three question marks mean? And 'Hero of the Northern Marches'?" Ah. I should probably get Dad to hide that title.

"It means my level is much, much higher than yours," Daniel interjected, his patience running low.

"The short version is: I used to be an adventurer in another world, then I came back." So much for easing him into it.

"... I swear I've read a manga with that premise," Oliver chuckled after a brief moment of stunned silence, then shrugged.

"I mean, there are monsters in the streets and my neighbor killed one with a fireball. I don't have the luxury of disbelief."

"Great," Kai clapped his hands, "let's get back on topic. We need someone to teach the village noobs how to fight. We pay in food, electricity, and monster cores. And you can crash in our guest room until we find you somewhere to stay." Oliver raised his eyebrows.

"I'm in. Well, uhm, that's what I'd like to say, at least. Not to sound ungrateful, but… Do you think you could find something to do for Chris and Jenny as well?" Christoph and Jennifer, two of the senior club members. Kai shot a quick glance at his father, but instead of the silent conversation he wanted, all he got was a head tilted in confusion. Damnit, I miss Mom already.

"Do you think they'd be up for teaching?" Oliver shrugged.

"Yeah, probably?"

"Then, sure. More instructors won't hurt."

"Awesome!" Oliver clapped his hands together.

"I was just waiting for them to show up. Should be any time now. We can leave as soon as they arrive. We might make it by evening if we stick to the roads."

"We're flying."

"Huh?" Oliver turned to Daniel.

"What do you mean? Sir."

"Four people plus luggage. I can transport that much," he shrugged.

"Won't take long."

"Uh, okay. Great." There was some disbelief in his voice, but he wasn't about to question the titled high-level Wizard. Probably better this way. Still, it wasn't long before Daniel began impatiently fidgeting around.

"How long will they take?"

"They're just getting their stuff. You know, documents, Jenny's meds." Daniel nodded, but his foot tapped against the floor in constant intervals. Kai decided it would be better to distract him so as to avoid complications.

"So, Dad, I'm trying to decide if I should go for Swordfighter or Hermetician next." He immediately had Daniel's full attention, while Oliver stuck his head out the door with a grateful nod towards Kai.

"Swordfighter will be more useful in the immediate sense. We'll still need to work on your Hermetics, anyway. That said, have I told you about Spellblade?"

"... Spellblade?" Kai very much liked the sound of that.

"That class is the saving grace for your unconventional build," Daniel explained.

"It's… more of a gimmick, generally speaking. I got it because, well."

"Because it sounded cool."

"Yes. And because it was pretty cheap for me given my other classes."

"So, how do I get there? It doesn't show up in my list yet, just like Hermetician."

"It's not particularly complicated. Give me your sword, please." With some reluctance, Kai drew his blade and handed it over.

"It's a focus blade, so it's optimally suited for the task. Doing it with a normal sword would be much more complicated." The blade lit up, first in Kai's mana sense, then to his eyes. Daniel had flooded the blade with mana through some sort of spell construct. Feels like it's Arcane aspected, Kai noted to himself. With a flick of the Wizard's wrist, one of the apartment's windows opened. Then he unceremoniously slashed through the air. A crescent of mana formed where the tip of the blade passed.

The spell – was it a spell? – then zipped out of the window with a soft crackle, cleanly severing a street lantern on impact.

"Oops. [Displace]." The debris was teleported away before the queueing people in the street even noticed something happened. Kai was left staring outside in wonder.

"I want that." Daniel gave him a rare smile and handed the sword back.

"The technical requirements for the class aren't complicated. You need Wizard and Fighter, you have both. But, as usual, you also need to experience the," he desperately fished for a word, "... qualia of the class to become able to buy it. Pushing mana through the blade in a relaxed, non-combat situation might be enough, with any luck." Oliver pulled his head back inside the apartment.

"I think I heard them."

"We'll talk later," Daniel promised. Kai felt a pang of disappointment, but realized that this probably wasn't the time for experimentation.

"–come on, we're almost there! Just… hang on!" Kai heard Jennifer's voice from outside, tinged with fear and desperation. He sprinted over to the door to see what was going on. The wiry woman had slung Christoph's arm across her shoulder, guiding the visibly wounded man towards the apartment. His other arm hung down at his side, blood dripping down on the ground despite the tourniquet wrapped around his bicep. He was missing several fingers.

"Shit, Chris!" Oliver ran over, followed closely by Kai.

"What happened?!" He took Christoph off the staggering Jennifer, and she took a deep breath.

"Gnolls," she rasped, voice hoarse.

"We need to get him inside. You have a first aid kit, ri–""Out of the way," Daniel commanded, already pulling a potion out of his mantle pocket. Jennifer responded by placing herself even firmer between the Wizard and Chris.

"Wha- Who are you? Why should–"" Move." Despite the word not being aimed at Kai, he felt the weight behind it. It was not a simple command, and with his new senses, he could tell that there was magic in it. Sorcery. Jennifer stumbled to the side, face contorted in shock. Daniel poured half of the potion over Christoph's hand, then forced the rest down his throat. The bleeding stopped, but his breath was too shallow and his face was too white.

"Get your bag, now," Daniel ordered, taking the wounded man off Oliver's shoulder. Oliver complied as fast as his feet could carry him. The second he was outside, Daniel cast.

"[Mass Levitation]." The five people and their luggage rose into the air. Kai was used to it, but Oliver and Jenny weren't. Their screams of panic alerted the crowd below, who began staring and shouting.

"[Flight]." Kai quickly realized that their pace towards the city had actually been quite leisurely. The city below instantly zipped away, replaced by a blur of fields and meadows. Merely a minute later, he could see Lindenfeld on the horizon.