Chapter 50
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Fire-Swallowing Bird
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Numerous magic circles had unfurled, the fireballs flickering as if ready to shoot at any moment.
No, these guys.
I thought they were good companions, but they've all gone into hiding.
Of course, that's the right move, but it still feels a bit infuriating somehow.
"Swoong..."
From the start, wasn't Swoongie fine just staying put without taking any damage?
Or maybe not, since it's made of cloth, fire might be a little dangerous for it.
In that case, hiding makes sense.
Yeah.
Instead, if I moved around to protect the others, I might end up taking even greater damage.
I should praise them for acting this way.
Of course, more dangerous than cloth is my bare, featherless flesh.
Even from this distance, the heat was radiating fully.
If I took a direct hit from that, I'd turn into crow chicken on the spot.
A few feathers had fallen out, losing some of my black color, and now it seemed like it was trying to recreate that shade with overcooking.
Of course, I had no intention of just taking it.
The number of magic circles was annoyingly high, but I had a technique to dismantle them no matter what.
Just like Swoongie hid in my body, I could hide in the shadows too.
Fortunately, thanks to those fireballs, there were plenty of shadows now.
Tzzt.
I naturally slipped my body into the shadows and shifted my gaze to Moona.
Would he be okay?
Not turning into roasted kiwi or something?
"Hm, no need to worry about me. Since you touched the device, it'll only target you anyway."
That jerk.
So he knew and told me to poke it?
After this is over, I need to poke that plump butt of his.
With that, I hid in the shadows, waiting for the fireballs to fly off in the wrong direction.
Whoosh.
But the fireballs didn't move as I hoped.
They just hovered motionless in the air.
As if they knew I was hiding in the shadows.
....
No, is this even allowed?
Since I'm hiding in the shadows, they're just going to wait until I come out?
Those are fireballs, right?
Not some fire spirit or anything?
This is bad.
Shadow Form is a great evasion skill, but I couldn't maintain it forever.
That was part of my initial worry—whether I could keep it up until the attack ended.
But to just wait until I come out?
I could dodge the first few times.
But if they fired one by one to drain my stamina, I'd eventually get hit by those fireballs.
Dilemma.
"...Swoong."
Swoongie pulled out its reinforced acorn helmet with its short arms.
Planning to block with that?
The sentiment was touching, but now I couldn't cover my body with an acorn lid anymore.
Just agonizing like this was wasting stamina too.
Slipping out.
I emerged from the shadows, revealing myself.
"Cawww!"
Letting out a valiant crow cry, I charged at the fireballs.
Of course, just running straight would make me chicken a bit faster.
My plan was to evade as much as possible, only dipping into shadows when I couldn't dodge.
Not dodging one at a time, but multiple at once—that was my only shot at winning.
Roar!
As I abruptly changed direction, the fireballs' trajectories shifted too.
Even this is possible?
Roarrr!
Fierce flames surged.
I tried to hide in the shadows to evade, but I was a step too late.
The price of that mistake was brutally painful.
Because the scorching flames poured straight into my beak.
"Kek?"
...Huh?
"Swoooong?"
Swoongie poked its head out and tilted it in confusion.
What was this situation?
Before I could even panic, the other fireballs headed straight for my beak too.
Shoo!
Yes.
For some reason I didn't know, I had swallowed the fireballs.
"Cawww!"
I screamed again in sheer shock.
Roar!
The fireball came back up.
But this time, instead of hitting me, it shot straight in the direction I was facing.
Boom!
The fireball flew toward the area with the complex magic circles and devices, exploding with tremendous force and obliterating everything there.
The hut itself was intact, but Dorothy's trap was utterly wrecked.
"Shwoooong!"
Swoongie stared at my beak in astonishment.
"Peep!"
I was probably making a similar face.
Black smoke billowed from my mouth.
No, what?
How did I do that?
Swallow the fireball and spit it back out?
Was I always capable of that?
"Indeed, wind has always welcomed fire gladly."
The sage nodded as if he'd known all along.
So, I just ate fire?
Maybe I'm not actually a crow.
A bird that handles fire.
Like a descendant of the Vermilion Bird or something.
Or perhaps Dusk Wing Crows are birds that eat flames by nature?
Since Shadow Crows eat impure beings, it wouldn't be strange for their superior kin to have this ability.
But I don't have any trait or skill like that?
Skills
• Crow's Eye LV3
• Bird's Wisdom LV2
• Feather of Night LV1
• Shadow Flame LV2
• Twilight Feather LV2
• Night Call LV1
Traits
• Sturdy Beak
• Glow
• Shadow Form
• Flexible Bones
I examined my status window closely.
No sign of any fire-swallowing ability in the skills or traits.
...Wait.
Sturdy Beak
The beak becomes sturdy, allowing you to eat even things that can't be eaten.
Could it be this?
The first trait I ever got, the one I've never taken off: Sturdy Beak.
A simple trait that hardens the beak, but its performance was so good purely because of that simplicity.
And now, the part at the end of its description caught my eye.
It lets me eat things that can't be eaten.
Flames could be seen as something inedible.
So, maybe Sturdy Beak enabled this?
No way, does Sturdy Beak get to have this kind of power?
However, while the beak is sturdy, my insides aren't, so I couldn't store fire inside me.
Just now, I spat it right back out after taking it in my mouth.
Still, my insides were tingling fiercely.
Like I'd stuffed myself with spicy food.
But for a normal bird, the inside would have been cooked to a crisp, so a bit of spiciness was a blessing.
Why did it take me this long to realize Sturdy Beak lets me eat fire?
I asked myself that foolish question.
The answer came immediately.
Because a normal bird would never think to eat fire!
Last time my tail got singed, did I ever imagine eating the flames?
I didn't open my beak to eat the fire just now either.
It was more like the fireballs rushed into my beak on their own.
"Kek."
I exhaled one last puff of black smoke, and my insides calmed.
The ability to swallow fire.
Another reason never to remove Sturdy Beak.
Who would ever think I could devour flames?
If I face fire-wielding enemies later, this could be a great weapon.
Of course, I'd need to test what conditions make the fire fly into my mouth like that.
"I thought it'd take longer, but this counts as dismantling it. The witch wouldn't have expected her own magic to destroy the device."
Moona looked satisfied.
The originally complex magic circles and devices would have taken more time, but because I turned Dorothy's power against itself, it ended quickly, he said.
I wasn't sure if this was "quick," but as long as it ended well, that was fine.
"Wind, will you lift me up? I need to see what the witch is scheming."
With the fire chicken chaos disabling all the security devices, all that was left was to ransack the witch's hut.
She'd probably taken the valuables, but there had to be something left.
If she'd taken everything, she wouldn't have set up those magic circles.
I took my companions up onto the witch's desk.
"Ho... she had things like this."
It was a space that perfectly fit the phrase "witch's hut."
It was a bit messed up from the earlier clash, but it had all the stereotypical witch items.
A sparkling crystal ball, unidentified creature claws, a preserved frog corpse.
"Swoong..."
Swoongie was drooling at the frog.
It wanted to eat that, but somehow, I hesitated to allow it.
Looked like it'd cause trouble if eaten.
"Kek..."
My gaze went to the crystal orb.
I didn't know what it did, but it sparkled.
Something like that would be nice to carry around.
"Forced polymorph, otherworld summoning. Even chimera alchemy. She was plotting more than I thought."
Moona's eyes were on the journal and books.
As expected of a sage, he checked knowledge-related items first.
Of course, some of what he muttered was extremely concerning.
Especially the otherworld summoning part.
Why? The first new face I saw here was Dorothy.
Maybe Dorothy was the culprit who sent me to this world? I'd speculated that.
So that phrase stuck out, but there was nothing I could do right now.
I couldn't read the writing here.
So I left it to Moona and waited for his translations.
Of course, even his explanations had some tricky parts, but better than not reading at all.
Fortunately, our interests were all different on the surface.
Swoongie: food.
Me: shiny things.
Moona: knowledge.
We could split up and grab what each needed.
Peep, peep.
Swoongie's voice sounded a bit different too.
It was excited too.
Yeah, we'd conquered the witch's hut—it was time to loot.
"Caw!"
"Swoong!"
Peep, peep.
Huh?
I tilted my head.
Didn't I just hear peeps and swoongs overlapping?
Peep, peep, peep, peep.
Why is it speeding up?
"Oh dear, looks like our permitted time is short."
....
"Caaaaaw!"
It looks like it's about to explode!
I grabbed Swoongie and Moona in my beak and bolted.
Grab whatever's in front and run!