Published: September 9, 2025
※Corrected typos on 9/8.
This is Satou. The rodeo machine that was once popular for dieting—do people still use it at home? In my family’s house, it ended up serving as a laundry rack less than a month after it was bought.
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Under the cover of night, I left the Duke’s Capital.
After gaining sufficient altitude with skystride, I accelerated all at once using the air cannon. Then, I spread flexible shields like wings. To generate lift, I adjusted the shape of the wings using multiple flexible shields. It may be far from the optimal shape, but thanks to air control skill smoothing the airflow, the magic power consumption is less than just flying with skystride alone, and the speed seems to drop less easily.
After about an hour and a half, I arrived at the Grape Mountain Range, where the Orc’s Phantom Firefly Cave is located.
Although passing through the Phantom Firefly Cave would be faster, I decided to collect Oakstone and carbonated water for glassmaking while crossing the mountain range.
The Oakstone mining site in the Duke’s territory is about two kilometers west of the Phantom Firefly Cave. According to my map search, there is another Oakstone mining spot about 20 kilometers east in the mountains. There was also a place a bit further in where silica could be quarried, so I planned to gather some there.
Using earth magic, I quickly dug holes in the mountainside and extracted the necessary materials, storing them in the Item Box. The bugs underground were going crazy beneath my feet. I noticed in time and evacuated into the air. If Arisa, who hates bugs, had been here, she probably would have fainted.
Despite being called the Grape Mountain Range, there are hardly any grapes or other fruits growing on this mountain. Was it once a grape-producing region when the orcs lived here?
This mountain is home to a phantom beast called the celestial deer. I had ignored it before because I was traveling by boat, but I wanted to see it once, so I went to meet them.
These celestial deer possess a skill similar to skystride as a race-specific ability.
Yes, they run across the sky.
But perhaps running on the ground is faster because when I spotted them from above, about ten of them were running along the mountainside. Even though it was nighttime, they were moving—maybe startled by the noise of my mining?
The male celestial deer have antlers more magnificent than those of elk, but otherwise, they look like ordinary deer. The leader seemed nearly three meters tall, while the others were about the size of normal deer.
I wondered if they would fly.
Thinking that, I hovered a few hundred meters from the herd when suddenly my crisis awareness skill warned me, and I quickly shifted my position.
Then, the leader deer charged at me at incredible speed.
Flames burst from its hooves. Since its legs weren’t burned, the fire might only look like flames without heat.
The deer charged several times, but with my secret move earth shrinking, I easily avoided it. It seemed the leader was a decoy because the others on the ground ran away.
After dodging skillfully several times, I used earth shrinking to quickly get behind it, landed on its back, and tried riding it. A bit of mischievous impulse made me do it.
The celestial deer wildly flailed and jumped in the sky.
I used to play rodeo games quite a bit once, so maybe that helped, but I managed to ride it without much trouble. Or perhaps it was because my riding skill was maxed out.
Still, instinctively, the deer always kept its head facing upward just like when on the ground. Since they can fly, I wondered why they didn’t do flips or anything. Maybe thinking it couldn’t throw me off just by thrashing, it decided to fly into a thicket. Since I didn’t want to accidentally hurt it due to my little prank, I spread a flexible shield in front of the deer to protect it. When we neared the ground, I used the magic hand to restrain it.
Once calm, I gave it water to drink and soothed it. Now that I think about it, since I had the title tamer, I should have tried setting that and tested it.