Chapter 250 - 1,400 kilometers a day

Turning into birds was perhaps the best idea they were ever presented with. The Arctic Tern had evolved to fly such great distances, regardless of how severe the temperatures around it might become, so all-in-all, this species seemed like their best option, their best mode of transportation!

It was easy to turn into one of them as well. The system showed Timothy a video of how an Arctic Tern looked like, and he was able to replicate its form himself, by shapeshifting into one! The team followed suit, and it didn’t take any of them more than five minutes to shift, regardless of how they had mammalian bodies just a moment ago!

“Fuck, I look a lot like a seagull! I just cannot understand why I hate seagulls so much.” Tim chirped, he was irritated.

“Is this why you made us shapeshift into sailfish? Was it because you didn't want to look like a seagull?” Skendus asked, and he asked this question, because he knew his friend rather well.

“Eh, partially. But also, sailfish look really cool.” He admitted.

Anyway, regarding the species they turned into, they discovered that Arctic Terns had an interesting body. They looked small when they were on the ground, because their bodies were around a foot long (30 cm), but their wingspan, however, was greater in comparison, more than double their actual body size, stretching at around two-point-four feet long (75 cm)!

When Timothy stretched his long, thin wings, he felt like a giant eagle! This species was truly built to travel great distances, and when the system listed out some statistics for him, he could hardly believe that he weighed so little, with a wingspan this big! He didn't even weigh half a pound, but rather, he weighed zero-point-twenty-four pounds (110 grams), which was absolutely unexpected!

“With a body as light as this, I could fly to the fucking moon!” He grunted.

[You've made a very good decision turning into an Arctic Tern. This species is known to eat, and sleep all while in the air, on the count of its specific bodily features. You can float up in the air, without exerting much energy, meaning that you would only need to slow down occasionally, to hunt and eat fish, but other than that, you can make great distance without the use of your powers!] The system explained.

“If we use our powers, we can probably travel two-thousand kilometers a day! This is mad!” He celebrated.

Afterwards, the team prepared to hit the sky. They've already slept for a few hours, while their bodies had been in hibernation mode, so they didn't mind flying the moment they got the opportunity to do so. It was midnight, and it was cold, but the latter didn’t bother them as much now, because their bodies were made to endure the arctic winter! The temperatures around them right now were hardly bothersome.

Timothy didn’t want to leave Arvena out in the open, however, because the cold elements would guarantee the death of her. The campfire they started would only last so long!

Using the Bone Multiplier ability, he dragged Arvena across the sand, by pulling on her skeleton with the said ability, and he moved her in a ditch. He then surrounded the ditch with a bone-based structure, which isolated her from the elements completely. She’ll be a lot warmer in there, and after a couple of days, she won't be needing this bony structure at all, so the calculations he made were proper, regardless of how his new bird brain had sunken his IQ to only sixty points. He made the right call!

…

The burden of long-distance travel has been swept away from the team's shoulders. Ironically, their new bird shoulders carried all of the burden now, and they did so with ease.

After a day's worth of travel, the team made it across a stunning distance of fourteen-hundred-thousand kilometers, in a single day! They flew for about twenty hours, with little to no pit stops, and they even slept while they were flying, which were two of the main features of why they made it so far!

Another reason was that they used their magical abilities while they were in the air, which of course made them fly even faster. Surprisingly, they were not in a mana deficit either, but actually managed to accumulate quite a lot of it, because they didn't use their powers as frequently as they did when they were fish, no, they used physics to their advantage instead.

For example, if they were high up in the sky enough, they could just gradually dive towards the sea below them, which almost doubled their average speed, and pushed it at 70 km/h!

When they weren't diving, they were floating. Floating required little to no energy, because their long wings did all the work, they just glided across the air rather than flapping through it. Floating was a very good way to conserve energy, though, it kept their average flying speed at 35 km/h if they weren't using their magical abilities.

A few times throughout the day, they would use their abilities to double their flying speed, while floating, sometimes even tripling it. This low effort, low mana-usage choice helped them make great distance, and in the occasion where they would dive towards the sea, while also using their powers at the same time, their top-speed would tower at 120 km/h! However, that was also where it maxed out, they couldn't fly any faster, because their bodies weren't built for speed, and the air around them was starting to deafen them, not to mention push against them.

It was an interesting journey to say the least, and they were very happy with the progress that they were making. At this rate, they'll be able to make it to the North Pole after a few more days! They were very excited, and the only thing that was holding them back was the food situation.

The team had to fish a couple of times a day at the very least, as they had to eat. This wasn’t too much of a task, but it was dangerous, as there was no telling what could be lurking below the sea surface. Other than such delays, they were making great time!