Flower of the Wind

Chester thought for a moment and said, "After walking for another two days, we'll come to a small mountain. At the top of the mountain lives a flock of wind birds. They are masters of using wind blades, and there's a herb called Wind Flower nearby. However, they are very difficult to deal with, and you'll need to maintain your Lesser Mage Armor at all times."

"If you come across a dark mountain, you'll find a group of red-haired kobolds living there, skilled in fire magic. At the foot of the mountain are hot springs, and in the crevices of the surrounding rocks grows a herb called Firebell."

"Occasionally, a type of seaweed called 'flame grass' appears in the hot springs. It floats in the water like flowing flames and even glows faintly."

"If you encounter them, please do not kill all the kobolds there; let them remain at a certain size."

He pleaded earnestly.

Lou Le glanced at him: "Why? Did you raise them?"

"No, Lord Spellweaver," Chester said. "The kobolds there increase the chance of Firebell herbs appearing, and their teeth are more likely to produce fire spell patterns."

"If we kill them all, this resource will become extinct."

Chester explained, "So, please leave behind a portion of the kobolds, preferably enough to form a small tribe."

"Oh." Lou Le glanced at him and said, "I will do it."

Chester breathed a sigh of relief, bowed slightly, and said, "I thank you, esteemed Weaver."

After saying that, he took his leave and continued on his journey.

Lou Le ignored Chester and was content with getting the information he wanted.

Limera and I returned to the carriage, took out the Tree Fairy Saddle Mushroom, carefully cut it with a knife, and then went to find a tree to plant it inside the bark.

The tree saddle mushroom is somewhat special; it cannot be cultivated in mushroom cavities.

This made Lou Le sigh, but it was still acceptable.

During dinner, Lou Le and Li Meila had a picnic by the river.

They caught a fawn, skinned it, and threw its entrails into the river.

After dismembering the body, Limera cut it into long strips of jerky.

After cutting down tree branches and arranging them into a shelf, various items were taken out of the carriage and hung under the tripod.

Light the branches with green leaves and make them into smoked jerky.

The process was barely manageable, but there was no refrigerator in the carriage. If they wanted to store fresh meat, they would have to use an ice-freezing potion to freeze it.

It's a bit of a loss.

You can also freeze it using frost rays, but the flavor will be ruined.

Lou Le prefers smoked meat to frozen meat.

After the meal, Limera began the simple tanning of the deerskin. One traditional method is called oral tanning, which involves chewing the hide with your teeth to soften it. However, this method causes significant wear and tear on the teeth.

Alternatively, it can be soaked in hot spring water and then pounded; this method is called water tanning.

However, nowadays, even a little knowledgeable leatherworker knows how to use oil tanning, which involves tanning with animal brains or horse urine.

Limera used the oil tanning method, laying the fur on the grass, scraping off the fat on the back with a knife, and then rubbing it repeatedly with a deer's brain.

Finally, fold them together and pound them repeatedly until they are dried in the sun.

This process is repeated until the fur dries and becomes as soft as before.

The antlers and blood were stored away; they might come in handy sometime in the future.

That night, the two returned to the carriage to sleep.

As usual, after driving for two days, Lou Le finally saw the mountain peak.

It's not very high, but it's quite steep.

On the mountaintop, one could indeed see flocks of blue birds circling from time to time, and a slightly sharp aura permeated the air.

Maneuver the carriage to the right, where a small road branches off from the main road.

It seemed that people often came to collect wind flowers, so Lou Le had the carriage stop at the foot of the mountain.

"Limera, you wait here."

Lou Le did not allow Lime to follow him, after all, she was just an ordinary person.

Lou Le summoned a ball of flame that floated around himself, and then slowly ascended the path that had been trodden out by people before.

The flock of wind birds spotted Lou Le almost immediately. They squawked and circled as they rushed toward Lou Le.

Lou Le immediately transformed the flames into fire crows, scattering a dozen or so of them into the sky to attract the attention of the flock of wind birds.

Otherwise, with these wind birds constantly shooting wind blades from the sky, even Lou Le's mage armor, no matter how tough, wouldn't be able to withstand a barrage of attacks.

That's good, most of the wind birds are now attracted to the fire crows.

They squawked and the wind blades sliced ​​the fire crows' bodies into seven or eight pieces, but it was no use.

One was chopped up, and several smaller ones appeared.

Although its attack power is getting weaker and weaker, or even non-existent.

But that's enough; spells are never ranked by the amount of their attack power.

Occasionally, a few wind birds would launch wind blades at Lou Le, but Lou Le didn't care. His mage armor flashed and blocked all the wind birds' wind blades.

After finally reaching the top of the mountain, Lou Le discovered that there were many bird nests, but most of them were intact.

"It seems that the people who came to collect herbs in the past did not damage the bird nests here."

Lou Le speculated, "Perhaps these wind birds and wind flowers have a symbiotic relationship."

As she made this guess, she cast a Scrooge-like glance at the plant next to the bird's nest.

【Wind Flower】

It is the alchemical material for [Wind].

"A type of grass with four leaves that resemble small fans. They often appear around monsters that can use wind magic. They are a pale blue color, like the sky. People often try to use them as fuel, but they always fail."

(Note: When the Wind Flower turns deep blue, it will bloom with small flowers on its branches. It will only produce seeds after being pollinated by the Wind Bird. Its flowering period lasts only twelve days.)

"As expected, we need wind birds for pollination, but we can use cuttings to propagate it ourselves."

Lou Le thought for a moment, then began to dig out the wind flowers along with the soil.

There are probably hundreds of Windflower trees on the entire mountaintop.

Lou Le only dug up a dozen or so Wind Flowers.

"These things are probably quite important to the Windbird," Lou Le thought. "It wouldn't be good if I dug them up to extinction."

I glanced at the bird nests; some baby birds were chirping inside.

Glancing at the windbirds in the sky, who were already on the verge of collapse, she quickly picked up a few sickly baby windbirds that had fallen out of the nest from around it and then hurriedly left the mountaintop.