"Hello everyone, I've brought a newcomer! Please don't bully her~" Ida's lively voice was clear even from a hundred meters away. Behind her was a tall dragon girl, gripping a magic book tightly with a somewhat nervous expression. "Huh? Is no one here?" The building was empty, with only the soldier on the roof grimacing and gesturing for them to be quiet.
"What are you all doing?" Ida and the dragon girl looked on in confusion as they spotted a group sitting in a row on the rooftop of the backyard, each holding a fishing rod. "Can you really fish here? Or are you holding some strange ritual?" The dragon girl looked even more anxious, suspicion evident on her face as she thought, "Are these weirdos going to be my teammates?"
"Shh~ We're fishing for Huihui~" The black mage lifted his fishing rod, releasing a rich aroma from the grilled fish tied at the end. "Huh? Is this a strange game?"
"No, Huihui often hides from us, so we're trying this method..." A shadow flashed in the corner. "It's on!" Knight Ruga pulled the rod with all his might, and the little dragon girl, who was suspended by her mouth on the grilled fish, swayed in the air with the movement of the line. The dragon girl watched the surrounding group with a look of suspicion, seriously considering whether she should inform the Yellow Cloak Team and the Vortex Army about these strange adventurers.
"Chomp chomp~" With no fear of heights or discomfort from swinging in the air, the little dragon eagerly devoured the fish meat, moving herself up. Finally, she "spit" out the almost chewed-up "hook" and pounced toward another target. One had to admit, her jumping height and speed were quite impressive; even the shortest white mage's grilled green tree toad legs were snatched away and eaten by her.
"Huihui is a blue mage, and she might not speak much due to her long time spent with magical creatures, so please don't harm her. I'm afraid…"
"How adorable~" The dragon girl hugged the little dragon tightly, rubbing her soft face. "!!!!" A golden halo almost instantly appeared in the little dragon's pupils, and the azure dragon scales began to ripple, almost transforming back into the azure dragon and taking down the one clinging to her neck. "Alright, don't scare her." Fortunately, the soldier managed to pull the newcomer away just in time; otherwise, she would have experienced a vertical takeoff followed by a high-speed parabolic descent of 90 degrees.
"This is Miss Dana, the new member. She's an astrologer and also a summoner."
"Oh, welcome!"
"That means we now have a full team of eight, right?" The team leader looked around. With a warrior, a knight, a catgirl bard, a rotund white mage, a human ninja—or rather, a dual-wielder—along with the black mage and blue mage Huihui, and now this dragon girl who moonlights as a summoner and astrologer, they had precisely the right composition for a full team. "So, all we need to do now is wait for Sider to finish preparing the bait island before we can launch our operation against the Cloud God?"
"Cloud… God…?" Huihui tilted her head, looking completely confused. What were they talking about? What were they going to fight?
"It's the Cloud God Bismarck," Ida said. "A giant fish-shaped barbaric deity that lives in the sea of clouds." Huihui didn't quite understand what a barbaric deity was, but she did grasp the word "fish." "...Is it tasty?"
"...I've never eaten it," Ida said after serious contemplation, and it must be noted that the two of them seemed to get along well, even though a normal person's reaction after hearing the name of a barbaric deity would likely not be, "Is it delicious?"
"Shark fin and vermicelli!" The vocabulary Huihui learned the most was the names of dishes. Of course, this was related to her being a special chef and VIP customer at the Bismarck restaurant. Simply put, Huihui's food expenses mostly came from her predatory activities in her azure dragon form. Recently, the monster-hunting quests in the Sea of Clouds had decreased by nearly 80%, leading many adventurers who relied on hunting monsters for a living to change their careers. For the first time, Huihui realized that other people paid for her meals. She understood the concept of "money" as a substitute token that could be exchanged for food. Moreover, the scraps left over could be cooked into something delicious, allowing her to trade for even more quality food. For the little dragon, this place was practically paradise!
However, there were some downsides. She couldn't stay here for too long. Others thought her transformation into a dragon was due to the mimicry technique of a blue mage, but in reality, the human form she maintained in Eorzea was the effect of the mimicry. She would eventually be expelled after a certain period of time and could only return after a while. Without the blessing of the Light of Aether, she depended solely on the power of her job crystal, which provided insufficient strength to withstand the massive aether flow for extended periods.
This was the main reason she appeared and disappeared so mysteriously, making the light soldier and the others resort to "fishing for Huihui." After all, the mimic class excelled at disguising itself by altering both its physical form and soul. They could replicate the powers of monsters and also imitate their appearances. This ability wasn't restricted to living beings; inanimate objects could also be mimicked in terms of their aether flow and form to obtain corresponding powers. This made it very difficult to pinpoint when and where they had gone. The group understood that Huihui had an enormous appetite and needed to go out hunting from time to time to fill herself up.
"By the way, since we have a newcomer, let's tackle that backlogged quest for the wanted monster."
"That giant Demon Flower?" The Demon Flower was known as the Eorzean killer for newcomers, the main reason first-time adventurers often failed in their initial quests. So far, it had never been surpassed, famous for its special corruption breath that could inflict numerous abnormal statuses on adventurers: blindness, paralysis, sluggishness, silence, and more. However, ever since Huihui joined, the difficulty of defeating the Demon Flower had significantly decreased...
"Wait, we're going to hunt the Demon Flower right off the bat?"
"Yep, don't worry! Huihui is our secret weapon now, but it might be a bit... intense... "
"Intense?" The dragon girl looked bewildered at the little girl happily munching on pastries, unsure of what that meant. Was it the kind of intense that could lead to a high-stakes situation? Soon, she would understand what it meant to engage in a "thrilling and energetic monster hunting tactic."
"Yi!!!!!!!!!" Being grabbed by a gigantic dragon claw and lifted into the air was not a pleasant experience, but compared to being dropped from a high altitude, it felt quite gentle. In contrast, Light and his teammates were much more composed, drawing their weapons midair and preparing for battle. "Whoosh!" The knight's longsword and the warrior's great axe struck down in swift alternation, cutting through two long tendrils of the Demon Flower with the impact from their descent. As the bard began to sing a praise, a volley of arrows rained down, combined with a black mage's lightning and fire, instantly disorienting the Demon Flower. "Huihui!"
The mighty dragon charged in, and the teammates quickly rolled away to maintain their distance. They watched as the Demon Flower was pressed into the ground by the dragon's claws, its six shockwave wings slashed down in an X pattern, instantly severing the massive flower head. "Quest completed!" Huihui dug through the remnants of the Demon Flower and pulled out something resembling a fruit.
"Huihui, don't eat it all! Leave me some materials~"
With a crunch, she bit into it. Although it smelled unpleasant, it tasted exceptionally sweet, akin to durian.
"Newcomer, don't daze out! This is just a regular Demon Flower; the big one hasn't shown up yet!" The summoner dragon girl finally snapped back to reality and summoned the phantom of the wind god. When she landed, a white mage used magic to pull her safely down, or she might have become the first casualty of "Huihui Air Delivery." That's right—Huihui strongly disliked having people hug her neck or ride on her back, so she only preferred to lift them with her claws and fly.
"Flying this way is quite uncomfortable, but if you get used to it, you'll find..." Light's cheeks twitched slightly. "It's really uncomfortable." Huihui flew high and fast; the fierce wind almost felt like it was tearing at their faces. Before they could even adjust, they were experiencing freefall-like weightlessness. However, if one didn't consider the comfort of the flight, purely in terms of speed, Light thought this might be the fastest way to travel across the continent of Eorzea. They reached the Black Shroud from the Sea of Clouds in less than 20 minutes—something that would take several days by chocobo carriage.
Using aether teleportation would obviously be faster, but that costs money and can only transport them to places marked by the Light of Aether. Given Light and his companions' current financial constraints, they had to opt for Huihui's aerial travel. On the positive side, they wouldn't have to worry about the risk of falling off a floating island when hunting cloud gods in the future. But on the downside...
There wasn't much to say about the process of hunting the giant Demon Flower. Huihui pinned it down to prevent it from using its breath attack, and the rest of them happily dealt one-sided damage without any pressure. The petals of the Demon Flower were not only materials for alchemy but also seasoning that Huihui was collecting. Of course, whatever she cooked could be swallowed down easily by her, although she could also make human-friendly dishes, like chilled cheese paired with shellfish grilled meat.
The demon flower hunting quest, which would usually take a regular adventurer team several days and entail considerable risks, was completed just like that. Along the way, they also helped the Ghost Cry team deal with a rampaging herd of wild boars. Yes, it was a pity that the new continent didn't have the Great Wild Boar King. Huihui was very interested in these giant wild boars. If the Black Shroud hadn't been so far away, they would likely have disappeared from the Ghost Cry team's hunting list very soon.
"Is Huihui's Blue Mage really that strong?" The dragon girl stared at the little girl perched on the shoulder of Knight Ruga, who was munching on jerky quickly like a squirrel, feeling a bit incredulous. The previous quests had mostly been completed thanks to Huihui; to be precise, the monsters were suppressed by Huihui and didn't pose much of a challenge compared to the training ground's targets. That said, there weren't many things that could move under the weight of a whole thirty tons.
"Well, she's not exactly strong. Huihui never takes on insect-type monsters, and she can't deal with incorporeal beings like ghosts either. Plus... she consumes more in food than what the quest rewards pay," Light replied. Yes, to everyone's eyes, Huihui's dragon form was a high-output, high-energy-consuming mode. For ordinary quests, her expenses probably wouldn't even cover the "fuel costs." This time, they were doing these taxing quests at a loss just to help the newcomer get accustomed to their combat style and Huihui's presence.
"But apart from imitating dragons, doesn't Huihui know any other Blue Magic?"
"Um, no, not at all. It seems she doesn't absorb the power of monsters normally; she simply eats them." This had been confirmed by Queen of the Forest and all of the Dawn members. The basic conclusion was quite similar: Huihui was driven by instinct when she consumed monsters, rather than absorbing their powers. Therefore, she couldn't gain any skills from them.
"By the way, about Huihui, don't touch her neck or hug her from behind; you might get bitten," the cat girl said. She had been bitten before, and it happened while Huihui was in dragon form. Luckily, Huihui still had her wits about her and only playfully "nibbled" on her. As a result, the white mage had to use healing magic to barely save her life. Huihui's dragon fangs were much longer than those of an average Thunder Dragon; typically, the teeth of a Thunder Dragon are nearly invisible. You can only see a circle of fine teeth if you look closely, but Huihui's dragon fangs were conspicuous, shining with a sharp glint—getting playfully bitten by her was not unlike being slashed by a chainsaw.
"Besides that, you can touch her tail or ears freely~" The cat girl casually stroked Huihui's long, forked tail, while Huihui entirely ignored her and focused on eating. Unlike other dragon folk, where ears, tails, and horns are considered places to be left alone, Huihui was different. Her neck and back were off-limits, but her tail and ears could be touched without any issues.
"What an interesting little creature~" the dragon girl marveled. Just then, she saw Huihui suddenly lift her head and jump off Ruga's shoulder. "What's she doing?"
"Oh, she's going to look for food. Don't worry; she'll come back by tomorrow before dinner." Light and the others were used to this; Huihui quickly transformed into her dragon form and disappeared into the sky.
"How unfortunate~" The cat girl warrior trudged despairingly through the wasteland, her broken sword reduced to just a hilt. She had been surviving on grass and the occasional small fish caught over the past few days, looking disheveled, almost like a beggar. "Whoosh~" High above, that strange dragon they had met before streaked by, knocking down a herbivore dragon and roaring at a Sandy Dragon. Although... the soft, high-pitched scream of the dragon seemed to be completely overshadowed by the imposing presence of the Sandy Dragon. After a bout of roaring, the Sandy Dragon retreated. It had previously clashed with the peculiar flying dragon, and the outcome had been that it was thrashed and had to hide in the swamp to escape the fate of becoming "Sandy Dragon-style Beggar's Chicken."
Huihui tilted her head as she examined the unfamiliar cat girl, letting out a soft chirping sound before soaring away with a large chunk of rib meat, leaving nearly half of the herbivore dragon's carcass behind. "Hey, was that meant for me?" The cat girl looked a bit bewildered as she watched Huihui fly farther away. She quickly set aside her thoughts and hurriedly ripped off two large pieces of dragon meat from the carcass. With a bloody and pungent body lying here, it wouldn't be long before a pack of scavengers gathered around. The cat girl didn't think she could fend them off without any weapons.