After instructing the others to stay back, I channelled power into my cloak, blending into the night, and started to move forward. I wasn’t about to get too close to the shapes I had stopped ahead, I simply had no way of estimating how perceptive they were so I wasn’t about to take any stupid risks. If I spooked the herd of unknown size, it would be dangerous even for me. Without knowing how far they might be spread out, or how many there were, I couldn’t be certain that we weren’t in the middle of their herd and trapped between them all, I’d likely be unable to escape. No matter how many additional levels I had, if I got smushed between two heavy objects moving with enough force, I would be squished.

To say nothing about the fact that, even with my levels, I only had the base vitality of an exceptional human. There was a level component to the Health-calculation, just like there was one to the Astral Power calculation, but I had no idea just how it factored in. I only knew that I now had four-hundred-eighty Health and Stamina and that I started with hundred-forty-one, while I had nine-hundred-twenty-six Astral Power, from a start of two-hundred-twenty-one, not including the third that was sequestered in my hair. In addition, I knew that the formula Astral Power formula also took into account Intelligence and Intuition, but I had no idea in what way, or if there were additional variables. I knew my Astral Power had gone up by twelve when I put that one point into Intuition and by around seventy points when I put the four points into Intelligence, so there was some complexity involved. Without a few sheets of paper, some time and a whole lot more data points, I wouldn’t be able to figure out the formula, if there even was one. I might be too stuck in considering the system as part of a game, and thus bound to relatively simple, mathematical formulas but who knew how it worked? I certainly didn’t, I had no idea how an ephemeral and nearly impossible-to-quantify quality like ‘Intelligence’ could be boiled down to a single number. Unless it signified some measurable quantity within the brain, something along the lines of ‘neuron-firing-speed’. Not that I’d have any idea how that qualified or how it would increase the ‘power’ of magic, but there was that. Delving into those fine minutiae would be a lot more involved than I could afford, even if the train of thought had been a welcome distraction while I quietly snuck closer to the cows.

By now, I was close enough to ascertain that they were that, cows, standing in the middle of the road and looking bored, or maybe asleep. I had no idea if cows could sleep standing up, I could see some lying in the grass near the road, but one of those on the road appeared to be moving, if only a little. Maybe chewing? I wasn’t sure, even my night vision had some limits at this distance.

Letting out a quiet, almost inaudible, sigh, I decided to move back and warn the others, before starting to look for a path that avoided the cows as much as possible. The others lacked my ability to move around undetected and I was, for now, unable to cast a concealment spell strong enough to cover all of us. Maybe if I gained a few dozen more levels, possibly also crossing the first divide, but for now? I just didn’t have the power, unless I wanted to conjure a cloud of mist and disrupt the senses of the entire herd. If they couldn’t sense anything, they’d be unable to sense us, but such a blockade might just stampede the entire herd, possibly getting us trampled in the process.

“There are sleeping cows ahead,” I quietly spoke up, once I was close enough to the others to speak without risking waking the cows. Sadly, while my own voice was quiet, the reactions of the others weren’t exactly that. They apparently had completely failed to notice me, even when I got close enough for our hands to touch if both sides reached out and my voice spooked them. They didn’t quite go shouting to the high heavens, but there were quite a few curses and something that sounded suspiciously like a squeak.

Letting out a quiet curse of my own, I immediately commanded them to move into the ditch, even taking action to facilitate their moving into cover by virtue of a few shoves. Lia and Silva helped me push the humans around and luckily, we managed to get them into cover before anything could happen.

There, hidden in the ditch, we all waited for the cows to go on a rampage from being spooked, only to wait. And wait.

Finally, after a good five minutes in the cold, soggy ditch, I let out a huff of annoyance. Maybe immediately taking cover had been an overreaction, though I would never agree that there was such a thing as being too cautious, not when your life was on the line and nothing could be gained by taking a risk.

“As I said, there are cows ahead,” I quietly repeated myself, noticing a soft, somewhat amused snort from Lia. “Apparently, they aren’t too easily spooked, but I’m not about to risk you wandering into them, who knows what happens if they wake up. I’ll go looking for a safe path, you guys wait here. You can move back on the road, but quietly. Girls,” I addressed Lia and Silva, “help them and keep watch.”

With that, I left them behind once more, quietly sneaking across the field and mentally noting where the cows had spread. And there were a lot of them, clustering in groups of five to ten, with a couple of dozen metres between the group, some lying and chewing, others standing around either dazed or dozing. Either way, from my observations, I couldn’t even guess whether the cows would manage to notice a group of humans sneak through, but I wasn’t about to have the others take the risk.

Instead, I moved back, approaching them just as quietly as before, only this time, I dropped my concealment a little earlier, allowing Lia to notice me. I was quite certain Silva had noticed me even with the concealment, at least once I was close enough, but the dog hadn’t warned anyone. Luckily, Lia was more courteous, giving the poor humans a quiet hiss of warning, preventing another loud disturbance.

“No way you can sneak past them, they are stretched out for hundreds of metres. Unless you think you can silently trudge through at least a kilometre of worked fields in the dark without making noise, that is. So, no way,” I judged, looking at the seven humans. “Luckily, you don’t need to, you just have to trust me to guide you,” I declared, desperately trying to keep the amused grin from my face.

“What’s the plan?” Cheng Hu asked, speaking just as quietly as I did.

“I’ll conjure up enough mist to prevent anyone but me from sensing anything. Unless the cows start rampaging around wildly, we’re golden. If they do, I’ll notice and you can take cover in the ditch, it should be safe enough,” I explained, not mentioning that, if the cows had no idea the ditch was there, they couldn’t avoid running into it.

None of them seemed to really like my plan, but the alternative was heading back, so there was that. Without another word, I settled down and started casting. For once, I didn’t include any damaging components to the mist, only adding runes for concealment and confusion. Instead, I added a Rune of Water, curious to see if the addition would fundamentally change my conjuration, while also hoping that it would be enough to activate my Titanic Ambition.

The smile on my face couldn’t have been wider when I felt magic surge into, and through me, powered by attributes far outstripping anything that should be remotely possible at my level. And yet, the effect was lacklustre at best. For the amount of power I was putting into the spell, it should do more, a lot more. Incompatible, a small voice in my head warned me and after a moment, I realised what the problem was. Normally, I only used the Mist-Rune as a medium, imbued with the effects of Darkness, Confusion and possibly Devour, with a specification to target Blood. The medium was always just the simple mist but now, I was messing with the medium, turning it from Mist into Mist and Water, causing me to falter.

In this instance, the excess amount of power provided by Titanic Ambition made it work, but it was something I needed to keep in mind for the future.

Soon, the Mist had spread far enough to make me feel comfortable and as I stood, I realised that it was far denser than normal. Likely a side-effect of the Water-Rune, or maybe just from the sheer amount of power I had pushed into it. Either way, we were ready to go, though I needed to know how to best accomplish it. If Lia could guide some of them, I could guide the rest. In addition, I realised that my Water Rune Mastery had gained a level, bringing it to a mighty two, and my Ice Rune Mastery had also levelled, to a much more impressive sixteen.

After quickly checking with Lia, I let out a quiet huff of annoyance, when she told me that she was just as blind as the other seven. Even Silva stuck to my leg as if worried she’d lose me in the billowing cloud before us, so there was nothing I could do but have the guy who used to be in the lead take my hand and, literally, create a procession of ducklings, with me as the leading duck.

In that, rather ridiculous manner, we waddled our way forward, moving slowly and cautiously, even when we were just a few metres from a ton of beef, that could easily plough us over. The joy of escort quests, how could I ever have forgotten it? How nice it was to know that some things never changed, even if everything else did.