#T/N: For the sake of clarity, the monster “Balloon” will have its first character capitalized to differentiate it from literally any other time Naofumi mentions various kinds of “balloons”.
“One try for 100 silver coins, it’s a monster egg lottery!”
Well, I bought an egg to try it out.
I chose the one that was next to what I had intended to pick. After that, we moved to Riyute village after various things happened. And the next day…
“Oh, it looks like it’s going to hatch.”
I, too, checked on the egg. Before long… what I thought was a normal egg turned out to also be part of the monster itself. The object we thought was an egg flipped itself around with a shake before swelling up.
“Chomp!”
“Is this…”
Slight yellowish with a familiar shape. An obviously balloon-like figure.
“Chomp?”
“A Balloon… huh.”
Looks like I got a miss, it seems. Oh well, that’s just how a Gacha works anyway.
The balloon then began floating before flying around Raphtalia and me, lacking any sort of hostility as it did.
I can also check its stats. They’re pretty low.
It would have likely sold well if it were an Usapil or the like, but I really doubt Balloons would even sell with them pretty much being the weakest monsters.
I tied a string to the Balloon and let Raphtalia hold it. It is now living up to its name, literally.
“Umm…”
“What are you doing? Let’s go hunting.”
“Ah, yes.”
It seems like monsters would become more of a fighting asset once you raise their level, so it’s better than not having them. I feel like I ended up with a very expensive purchase for a cheap product.
“What are you going to name this child?”
“Since it’s a Balloon… we’ll just call it Fuu after its namesake.”
#T/N: The name「フウ Fuu」is taken from the first two characters of「風船 Fuusen (lit. Balloon)」, practically the same as what he did for Filo’s name.
With that in mind, I took Fuu along and went out to raise our levels with Raphtalia.
Even though Fuu isn’t fighting much, its level rises quickly and grows to 15.
“Chomp!”
Unlike wild balloons, it seems to have some attack power. It killed a monster near Riyute village by biting its head. Well, it’s a bit grotesque, seeing Fuu just chowing down on the corpse.
“Chomp!”
I do wish it wasn’t smiling at me so proudly with those bloodied fangs of its.
In such a way, we brought Fuu around and raised its level, reaching up to 25.
“Umm…”
“Yeah, I know what you want to say.”
“Chomp!”
Fuu… is clearly getting bigger. At first, it was about the size of a ball, but within a short period of time, it grew to about two meters wide.
The villagers were also surprised at first, but it seems like it had properly grown into a monster with a name that was pretty much a joke, an Ad Balloon.
“It sure is huge.”
With it looking floaty and out of place, Fuu was flying around the sky as if it were a string being carried away by the wind.
You know… it looks like one of the underlings of a certain turtle.
That dog-like iron ball. That’s pretty much what it looks like.
#T/N: Naofumi is referencing the Chain Chomp from the Mario series.
It immediately notices the monsters that appear and bites them to defeat them. It’s convenient, but it doesn’t click with me.
Just like that, a week passed.
“It’s hard to say this, but… isn’t it really strange?”
“Well… yeah.”
Fuu had grown even larger. And now, even if I’m holding onto the string, Raphtalia and I would be the ones getting pulled by it and float.
“Let’s try tying a basket to Fuu. We might be able to fly.”
So I got a wooden box from Riyute Village, tied it to Fuu, and went inside the box.
“Chomp?”
“Fly! Fly high to the sky!”
“Why are you trying to act cool!?” Raphtalia retorted. I don’t even think we can fly. Well, that’s what I thought.
“Chomp!” Softly, Fuu began to fly high into the sky with us on board.
“Whoa!” It’s pretty shaky. Still surprised, we got on Fuu and started moving.
So… A balloon is able to move on its own to some extent, but it has the characteristic of getting blown away by strong winds.
Fuu, who was in an Aerostat-like state… called a Gondola Balloon (Temporary), rode along the wind and carried us with it.
Although, it looks like we can’t get off since Fuu was riding on the wind.
It has reached the point where we’ve seemingly crossed what looks like the border of Melromarc.
I can somewhat see arrows and magic being shot towards us, but the wind flowed so strongly that Melromarc disappeared in an instant from our sight.
Raphtalia loudly protests against Fuu, but it doesn’t look like we can do anything about it.
It’s reached so high that falling down would be lethal, though having said that, Fuu doesn’t seem to be able to descend on its own either.
And so began our life of being adrift in the sky.
The world sure is big… Everything seems small from up here.
“There might be a castle in the sky.”
It is another world, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a castle in the sky or something else that’d stir the romanticism?
“Naofumi-sama? Stop trying to escape from reality and think of a way for us to somehow land onto the ground!”
“Right… hm?”
I saw something behind the clouds. And it’s getting closer.
Is that… a Balloon with a crown on it? A monster named King Balloon?
That’s not good, we’d be screwed if we carelessly engage into combat like this.
That’s what I thought, but the King Balloon was friendly and gave Fuu the crown.
Upon receiving it, Fuu began to grow even more… becoming a legendary monster known as the Hinden Balloon.
Hinden Balloons are able to descend and land on the ground on their own.
#T/N: It’s likely a reference to the Hindenburg class rigid-airship. A blimp basically. Naofumi references the Hindenburg Disaster in New-Reprise WN Chapter 1030 when talking about the Legendary Hinden Balloon.
Right now, we’re traveling through the air on Fuu’s… airship part.
I ended up making a good purchase.
Oh? There’s a sky blue colored filolial looking up at us from the ground.
“Gua!”
I uncharacteristically wave my hand.
I feel like the sky blue colored filolial is yelling in frustration… must be my imagination.
—
Conclusion: Acquired a convenient means of transportation.
