For long and boring hours, Tercius and Lucky kept going east at a trot, sticking close to the canyon, and still they remained on the southern side of it. As no narrow point in the canyon came, Tercius had to acknowledge that erosion or some other factor had taken its toll.

That left him with two options.

Cross the gap directly by flying over it with telekinesis or go further east into the mountains and cross there with mundane means.

Instead of choosing either, Tercius decided to stop for the day. There were still a good half a dozen sunlit hours left in the day, but it was time he started preparing their safe shelter for the night.

The first thing he did was to choose a good location for their shelter. Moving away from the canyon, Tercius held a spear in one hand and, leading Lucky by the reins, they went into the forest. The flora and its innate magia would mask their magia signatures from all but the best magical senses. That obscurity was paramount for having a good night's sleep.

He stood on a rise and {Stone Sight} lit his eyes with neon-gray veins. The world turned to darkness and gray clouds. The gray cloud directly below him was blindingly bright, but he quickly focused on narrowing the sphere of vision so that only the surface sources of stone were visible.

A few moments later the gray veins receded. Tercius moved deeper into the forest. He surveyed the land on a couple of locations, but he finally found what he sought. Tercius nodded, satisfied. The valley below him had stone aplenty. No digging would be required. Tercius led Lucky down there and unburdened the animal first. With that done, he focused on a natural crevice between three massive rocks, where thick roots of a tall tree had wiggled into from above.

That tree had to stay up there, which meant he had to reinforce the structure in a way that it didn't collapse on them. The space had to be tall enough and have enough width and length for Lucky to go in, turn around and lie down comfortably. It had to have space for him, the saddle, and the saddlebags. The wall that would be his entrance and exit had to be thick enough, just in case they were unlucky enough to be found.

An index finger tapped the tip of his nose. So, what to build, what to build…

A two-slope tent-like structure seemed optimal. Some of the weight of the rocks and the large roots would be offset simply by using that shape.

His eyes narrowed, {Visualization} aiding him in laying over a blueprint over the crevice.

As the blueprint reached the height he needed, he realized that he would have to remove some of those roots… Or perhaps they could stay. He needed some air vents and he could easily conceal a few around the roots…

Tercius took a deep breath and let it all out.

His hands rose towards the crevice and his mind reached out to the stone. His fingers clenched as {Stone Shaping} grabbed a small layer from the top of one side of the crevice. Slowly, the stone that his Skill merged with turned to liquid. Like water, under the magic of gravity, the stone flowed down the side until it reached the bottom. Why waste magia, when nature itself would help him?

Tercius let the liquid stone settle in the holes there, making the beginning of a flat surface there. In tiny bursts of magia, he liquified the stone on the top and as he progressed downwards he took more and more stone from the sides, pooling it all at the bottom. The crevice slowly enlarged into a rough triangle.

The process went well until a loud crack in one of the massive stones made him stop. With a crack, a good chunk of rock separated from the top and fell down onto his newly made flat surface with a deafening crash. Tercius covered his head and turned around as rubble sprayed everywhere.

A cloud of stone dust and dirt rose, and Tercius moved away from the construction site.

“This might take a while…”

*** *** ***

Surveying his work in the fading light of the day, Tercius found himself nodding with approval. The triangular cave was about seven meters long and about as wide at the base, and four meters tall in the very middle. All in all, there was more than enough room for Lucky and him.

Each wall, be it vertical or diagonal, was two meters of solid stone. Original untouched rock, earth, and tree roots were there as well. No one was entering his stone tent from above, below, from the back, or the two sides, not without some major stonework. While taking the stone down was easy and cost him small bursts of magia, putting it back up as he liked was much, much more cost intensive. His channels were nearly empty and it would take hours for his magia to regenerate.

Everything had a price, after all.

Tercius harvested some fresh foliage and covered a large space on the cold stone floor. He took the saddle, the saddlebags and stored everything into the shelter.

He turned to the ram that rested right outside.

“Lucky, come,”

The ram’s head rose to look at him.

“Come.”

As soon as Lucky was in and down on the bed Tercius made for him, which took quite a bit of cajoling and some bribery, he turned to the entrance.

His mind reached for the stone piles left on the sides of the entrance. With a mental push, a large chunk of his remaining magia liquified the stone. Tercius’ shoulders sagged and his breathing turned labored, but he pulled at the flowing mass with a singular focus and refused to let it settle downwards as it wanted. The veins on his face popped as the stone rose into the air and moved inwards.

Within moments, the entrance was a solid wall of two meters of stone.

{Stone Shaping} [43] is now {Stone Shaping} [44]

Tercius gagged, his stomach churning. In the near darkness, he ambled to the bed he made for himself and fell down on the blankets, his limbs sapped of all strength to stand. His eyes and ears were burning and he leaned on the cold stone.

His channels were empty.

Lucky bleated.

“Calm, Lucky, calm… Shhh…” Tercius whispered as he made himself comfortable. “Go to sleep buddy…”

Tercius followed his own advice almost immediately.

*** *** ***

Tercius’ blinked awake to the darkness of his shelter.

From outside, barely audible grunts and hisses and thumps sounded. A bestial roar, oddly muted yet clearly filled with venom and frustration, followed soon after.

Cold shivers ran through him as his hands patted around the blanket for his knife belts.

As the fear shook him fully awake, Tercius glanced at where the ram slept. Lucky was not stirring at all, and Tercius thanked Mistress Kalina for her foresight. The special treats were a lifesaver, quite literally. Being trapped in an enclosed space with a panicked beast of Lucky’s size and pure strength was far more dangerous for him than those things outside.

He was confident that his turtle shell of stone would hold out till first sunlight and more, if it had to.

Still, just in case something unanticipated did happen, he reached for the spear at the base of his handmade bed and positioned it to a better spot for a quick grab. One by one, he pulled out all eighteen knives from the belts and arranged them in a semicircle on the bed. Each hand grabbed one. Mentally, he reached out to his magia and found it around halfway restored. From that alone, he knew that he had slept between four and five hours and that the night still had about that much till first light broke it.

A long time to wait with the heart in his throat.

But wait he did.

The grunts, hisses, thumps, and roars continued, unrelenting.

The first hour was the worst for him, mentally. After that… It was a strange experience, Tercius reflected. He kept expecting serious trouble to start at any moment, yet he spent hours while a whole lot of nothing happened. The whole thing started out as fear-inducing and it became mind-numbing.

Yet he knew better than to allow the call of complacency to lull him into a false sense of security. His shelter might be proving itself as sturdy enough that whatever was out there could do nothing more but keep him from going back to sleep. Yet without his shelter, he was not sure how long he would last against the things that were outside— even if he were to remove the limits on the use of Skills that he and his Mentor settled on. A potential victory depended on many factors he only knew from second-hand accounts, and he was not going to jeopardize his stay on the mountain to learn more on his own, nor did he want to.

The only thing that truly mattered to him was getting Rona and Septimus out of these mountains alive. In and out, that was it. Nothing else was his concern, nor should it become.

And on that matter, he had some decisions to make and perhaps even plans to alter.

Going further east to cross the canyon would take days. More, since he intended to spend hours making his own safe shelters each night. Assuming his shelters remain empty after he vacates the premises— and they should, since he planned to seal them after departure— on his way back, a significant amount of time less would be required. When all was said and accounted for, he estimated that going into the eastern mountains would take between six to eight days, if all went well.

That timeframe was unacceptable.

Crossing the canyon here would have to do.

But not with telekinesis, no. Telekinesis left unmistakable traces. That was too risky.

His eyes blinked in the near-complete darkness of the shelter he made. He had other options. One of those options was keeping him safe right now. Like his Mentor said, all he had to do was think, and things once difficult would only get easier.

Tercius’ green eyes gleamed. Should he try his idea to see if it would work?

Even before the first rays of sunlight streamed through the small air vents he made around the thick roots, the noises from outside stopped completely. The restoration of silence finally made him relax completely.

Instead of leaving his safe space, Tercius began on the first step of the plan forged in the night. First, he made a long visit to his anima. There, he went on a rather sizable harvest of energia, binding it all with crystal clear commands to only spread itself within the boundaries of his anima. Under no circumstances was any of it to enter his body.

{Energia Manipulation} [41] is now {Energia Manipulation} [42]

“Find the Core of {Stone Shaping}. Enter the Core of {Stone Shaping}. Hold position.” Tercius commanded and released his mental hold on the energia.

The enormous white star surged into the gray fog with a whoosh, disappearing from view in moments. By the time he rested from the harvest and let the {Distant Mind} fade, Lucky was awake.

“Let’s make ourselves a crossing, shall we buddy?”

*** *** ***

Tercius stood on the cliff overlooking the wide steep-sided canyon, his eyes intently watching the other side. The river’s stone carving efforts were about to go down the drain and he at least wanted to preserve a good visual memory of the before.

Through {Stone Shaping}, his mind reached across the wide gap and latched onto the stone that was just a few meters above the water. With a mental push and a large burst of magia, a small volume of stone liquified. Tercius took a deep breath and pulled. With a plop, the mercury-like mass fell into the rushing river and Tercius let his control slip. No need to waste magia unnecessarily.

He took a good look at the newly made hole.

Only a tiny chunk was taken out really, but it was only the first of many. Even giants fell, he knew, once enough of their foundation crumbled away.

The distance made his magia consumption exponentially larger than if he dug into his side, but Ciron had taught him to always start with the hardest job first. His cliffside would have its turn.

{Stone Shaping} [44] is now {Stone Shaping} [45]

The first notification came mere minutes after he started and it brought a tiny smile to his face. Each level brought a little more use to every pulse of his magia. His magia kept rising and falling, but he always kept it above the halfway point.

{Stone Shaping} [45] is now {Stone Shaping} [46]

The second notification came nearly an hour after the first and it made Tercius smile widely. It worked! He had his cheat back! Half of it, at least. His magia regeneration rate was the same as normal. Still, the half that he had back was more than enough. With renewed vigor, he continued chipping away, one piece at a time.

{Stone Shaping} [46] is now {Stone Shaping} [47]

{Stone Shaping} [47] is now {Stone Shaping} [48]

{Stone Shaping} [48] is now {Stone Shaping} [49]

Tercius welcomed the additional levels with a warm smile. Each of them meant a little more work done for the same amount of magia spent.

Time crept onwards and the morning turned to midday, midday turned to late afternoon. In the late afternoon, not a single level came and Tercius suspected that the energia he sent was spent, but he didn't go to apply another harvest to the Core of the Skill. It was too risky to spend an hour or two completely insensible to his surroundings.

His effort had borne fruit. From where he stood, the result of his work looked as if a giant had tried to carve out an upturned smile— a smile easily half a meter thick. A meter or so deeper into the bedrock, the dig slowly curved upwards.

Audible cracks happened each time he took a piece out, the weight of the rock and dirt working in his favor. Huge chunks of rock and freshly disturbed dirt were already making a small peninsula in the river below, forcing the flow to alter itself.

A shudder went through the soft rock and plumes of dirt and stone dust puffed out everywhere. The cliff sagged a little.

Tercius scrambled to stand up and run away towards the trees. Across the canyon, roots snapped, land parted, and the soft rocks crumbled as a huge chunk of mass slid out of its spot and crashed into the rushing water, spraying a shower of water, dirt, and rocks everywhere.

Lucky, the insatiable beast that had spent the day gorging itself on the local flora, ran to stand behind him.

After the initial rush, there was minor movement everywhere for minutes, but then it slowly settled. The landslide had filled out over half of the river's width. Tercius observed the work and nodded. A human could climb up the remade feature in the terrain with some difficulty, but Lucky would jump up that incline as if walking on flat land.

“Tomorrow, Lucky,” Tercius whispered to the beast, as he patted the giant muzzle. “Our side topples. Now let’s go and reinforce our tent, just in case. That thing is likely to bring friends tonight and we better make some adjustments for that.”

Lucky bleated and Tercius chose to interpret the sound as agreement.

“I completely agree,” he nodded. “There is no such thing as too much preparation.”

*** *** ***

{Stone Shaping} [49] is now {Stone Shaping} [50]

{Stone Shaping} [50] is now {Stone Shaping} [51]

As the second massive piece of land fell and Tercius observed it settle into the canyon, something occurred to him. The dirt there was likely very loose. If Lucky stepped on a pocket of trapped air or a loosely covered hole, his leg would fall through. In that scenario, the best he could hope for the ram was somewhere along the lines of a minor scrape and a bone break. He himself might have the same fate or something considerably worse.

Tercius looked up at the sky, considering his thoughts. The dark clouds above the eastern mountain peaks seemed pregnant with rain. If he knew that they would come his way in a day, or even two for that matter, he might consider waiting and letting the rain deal with the potential problem.

In fact, if rain came his way, he would have to stay and hide regardless of the problem. Those beasts that had visited his shelter two nights in a row only feared the sun. To them, a stormy day was as good as night.

As it was, he had no clue as to where the clouds would go and he would have to watch them carefully. If they headed his way, he would have to create a safe shelter and turtle up fast.

For now, the midday sun shone brightly where he stood and that set his mind at ease.

Pushing unneeded thoughts aside, Tercius surveyed his work once more.

His side had gone down a whole lot faster than its predecessor. Be it Skill levels, proximity, or simple experience as to what he should do to complete the work quicker, each had a part in that speed. The two landslides had met in the middle of the canyon and, as a result, they had blocked the waterway completely. A small lake was already accumulating.

However, within the next minute or two, the landbridge he made would be under water.

Chewing on his lips, Tercius mounted Lucky and urged the beast to move down.

With a few quick jumps that moved Tercius’ heart to his throat, Lucky was walking down the landbridge.

“Slow, Lucky. Slow.”

His eyes were covered with gray veins as he steered Lucky away from the dark gaps in the gray clouds. Every few seconds, he took a look at the rising water and he saw plainly that a slow and steady policy would not get him across in time.

“Go.” Covered with cold sweat, Tercius squeezed the ram’s sides. “Go! Gallop!”

They blurred forward.