Chapter 641: Cost
Chapter 641: Cost
Dama was still rolling on the floor when he saw the silhouette of the huge avian beast covering the sun.
As if all his pain had vanished, he became dead still. The same was true for Ramu.
Leo also looked at the beast.
How come a spirit is like a physical being capable of blocking the sun’s rays? Leo wondered. Since he didn’t know the answer, he pushed the thought to the back of his head while turning towards the other people who had come alongside Dama and Ramu.
"I suppose we don’t need to carry you people." He pointed at both the beast masters, who were completely in disbelief when they recognized what type of avian beast was descending.
"You two!"
Both jerked up and looked towards Leo.
"Bring the other people on your eagle. I don’t want them lingering in the city even a minute after we depart."
Leo then turned around and waved towards Lily, signalling her to stay back in the city to keep Sera company while he, Kaelion, Vintage and James went to Milti City.
He then proceeded to tightly bind Dama and Ramu with vines in such a way that they couldn’t move a muscle.
By now, the Skyreaver had already stepped onto the ground. Leo used the wind element to lift James, Kaelion, Vintage, and both fat-bellied men.
He himself landed beside Kaelion, after which the Skyreaver flapped its wings and took flight.
Leo looked back to see Niri waving at him with a jovial smile, so he also waved back to say goodbye.
"Muuffh! Mff!"
Both fat-bellied men tried to speak something, their eyes saying that they only wanted to curse, so everyone else simply ignored them while the Skyreaver expanded its body and wings to gain greater thrust through its wing flaps.
Uncharacteristically, this spirit beast, whose physical body was supposed to have very little effect on the environment, was actually coming in handy. Leo also noticed during all this time that even if a beast was called a spirit, it had a highly defined physical body, and the stronger they became, the denser their bodies happened to be. Almost as if they were trying to form a real physical body.
Nonetheless, the Skyreaver’s wingspan reached nearly 120 meters—nearly 4 times greater than Agnivar, even though their strength rank was the same, Low 4-star. This was the benefit of a real avian beast meant for flight. Having lighter bones and muscle mass in comparison to a Wyvern, it could have a greater body size to somewhat compensate for its lower power level.
Vintage looked at Dama and Ramu, then back at Leo. He couldn’t believe Leo had become this capable.
He also couldn’t believe that he was flying at such high speed that if the Skyreaver hadn’t deployed a wind diversion barrier, he would be obliterated in a second.
Ahhh... Gods finally helped in taking revenge for my father...
He then looked towards Leo.
I will forever be indebted to you, and make sure that your name goes down through multiple generations of mine. It’s the least I can do for helping me out so much.
Vintage made a decision internally.
As they talked amongst themselves, Leo came to know something surprising.
"20 Gold Coins for being teleported from Thalor to Milti? That too for each individual?"
James nodded.
"This is the reason we were never able to go to the city, and the avian beast rides are even more expensive. If I were to call someone to pick me up from Kendru and drop me at Milti City directly, which is around 55,000 kilometres away, it would be 440 Gold Coins."
Apparently, the distance between Kendru and Thalor was 50,000 kilometres. Kendru and Milti were 55,000 kilometres apart, while Thalor and Milti were 10,000 kilometres apart.
The cities weren’t lined up, but were in a triangle sort of formation.
Leo raised his brow in surprise.
"What about the cost if there were a teleportation waypoint at Kendru and we could directly go to Milti?" Leo asked.
James thought for a while.
"110 Gold Coins."
Leo nodded.
"That’s the standard price across the Empire," Kaelion spoke from the side.
"You might have got things wrong because the academy provides a 60% discount for students in teleportation waypoint transport. Normally, 1 Gold Coin allows an average person to teleport 500 kilometres through built arrays, and if someone like Senior Ishan—who transported the Bisons—were to teleport us between two free places without arrays, it would be 1 Gold Coin for 62.5 kilometres for an average person... I bet the academy must have charged you more for your good height."
Leo finally understood things, but he still had some confusion.
"Why would teleportation be cheaper than beast rides? Teleportation saves time, no?"
Leo’s previous world had a quote—’Time is money.’ So if anything saved time, then the cost should be more, rather than being less.
Kaelion shook his head.
"We need to see the cost of operation and service hazards too. A beast will naturally require more resources to function and is much more prone to attacks in the wild. But that’s the secondary part." He continued.
"The first is, for teleportation to be successful, the mage would need to have already visited that place so that he doesn’t make a mistake and kill someone by making them appear underground, in a tree, or something. But a beast can be ridden freely and anywhere, and it’s not like they are slow."
Kaelion gestured towards the Skyreaver, who was ripping through the skies at Mach 7 and sometimes even Mach 8.
"And in this vast expanse, it will actually take more time to look for a spatial mage who has actually visited the place you want to go. And naturally, teleportation through arrays should be the cheapest for the city to keep earning money, or else who would go for teleportation?"
Leo shook his head in understanding.
The only place he found them expensive was in the case of free-place teleportation that mages like Ishan did. Which was understandable since one could have larger things teleported in an instant, which would be difficult to carry by air or ground.
And he also scratched his head awkwardly when he realised people were capable of living way longer lives, even millennia. So saving time was not important after all.
By the time they were discussing these things, they had already reached Thalor. Using it as a landmark, they turned in the direction of Milti. Leo had already made Dama speak up about the details of the direction since they were regular travellers.
Who would waste 80 Gold Coins when there was only 1 hour of travel left at the Skyreaver’s speed?
But Leo had to give Dama and Ramu credit for their dedication. If not, they had travelled over 4 times to Kendru, that too with 16 people accompanying them.
But then Leo realised that the Skyrend Eagles must belong to them to offset the cost.
After a while of flying, a large city appeared on the horizon.