After hearing the howls of Gravehounds while in the shadows, we moved as quickly as possible without completely abandoning our vigilance. If the hounds were after us, we didn’t want them to happen upon us while we were in battle, that might be the one case where they could cause us serious harm. Otherwise, they were simply too fragile to withstand concentrated strikes from my Darkness Magic but if I didn’t notice them coming, they might get us.

Luckily, the few beasts roaming the field at night kept well away from us, not even trying to challenge our group. Granted, Lia, Silva and I all let our auras radiate out unrestrained, making it so that everything knew there was danger coming, and that had the effect we hoped for. Everything avoided us, as no enemies were willing to challenge groups of people who had crossed the first divide just yet. Maybe in the future doing as we did now would turn into a death sentence if everything capable of challenging somebody at our level prepared ambushes to harvest some tasty EXP, but for now, it worked just fine.

What was somewhat fascinating, and almost made me slow down, were the fields. Just after the change, the fields had been pretty boring, just the recently tilled earth as far as the eye could see but over the last few months, that had changed. The farmers must have planted just before the change hit, or maybe there were some seeds still in the ground from the previous year, I wasn’t sure, but either way, the fields had certainly proven fertile. Only, instead of the usual endless golden rows of wheat and other grains, there was now what I could only call a mess. Sure, the majority of the plants were still grain, but there were all sorts of other plants sprouting in the fields, from small trees to shrubs to grass, Nature was swiftly taking back what farmers had cultivated before. I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but I had a feeling that in a few months, maybe during the next year, the fields here would turn into something of a savannah, a mix of shrublands with a few trees thrown in. Or maybe it would turn into a forest, I wasn’t sure, but what I could see was that the plants grew far quicker than I thought possible.

After briefly stepping into the shadows to make sure there were no Gravehounds closing in on us, I took a moment to inspect the plants a little closer. I was curious how much of the crops were unchanged, still producing the grain humans had bred them to grow, or if they had been changed like everything.

The result was, amusingly, that both had happened. The few stalks of grain I snapped off still had the ears filled with grains but when I looked at the plants using my Magic Sight, I recognised that the grains weren’t just nutritious, there was something else within. It wasn’t quite like the tiny organisms I had seen in the water but it was close enough to remind me of them, only not as active. It made me wonder if the wild grains would somehow infect people, or if there was something else, maybe something more along the lines of propagating the species by attracting creatures to eat the grains, carry some small part of the seed forward and sprout after… evacuating at the end of the digestive process. That had been the original evolutionary advantage of fruits, so why wouldn’t it make a magically charged comeback? Though, I wasn’t sure I wanted to experiment with this, not as long as i wasn’t sure whether the magically changed grain was similar to the Withered, only waiting for some unsuspecting soul to eat their grains.

It would be interesting to observe just how the world had changed and would continue to change. Not only the large changes, those were fascinating but fairly obvious, but the small ones. Those could be just as important, only that they couldn’t be observed as easily. Something to keep an eye out for and learn more about during our travels.

We reached the forest with a lot of time to spare, enough to make me comfortable and look for the best possible spot. While we didn’t need a freshwater source, I wanted to have a somewhat defensible position, if possible dug into a small hill or under a large tree.

Just looking at the forest, I had a feeling we would be spoiled for choice. The forest, just like the fields, had undergone a major change since the, well, change, had hit, turning from the cultivated rows of trees into something more primal. The rows were still there, the pattern only broken where quite a few of the trees had been knocked over by something, but between the trees were now rapidly growing vines, shrubs and grasses. It was an utterly wild mess, making me think that travelling through that mess would be a challenge in and of itself. Not even Silva, with her four-paws-drive, could readily make her way through it, there was simply too much stuff in the way.

Amusingly, it was Lia who demonstrated the obvious trick to it, happily running up a tree with inhuman grace and agility, before pushing off and landing against another tree, making her way through the forest like a giant, flying squirrel. Granted, she caused a lot more disturbance, some of the trees bending or swaying under the impact of her weight, but she didn’t let herself get slowed down by that. She was fully in her element and enjoying herself greatly.

Sadly, I was the only one who had a chance to copy her, and even I had to cheat with my magic. Wind Magic helped with the jumps, while Blood Magic allowed me to momentarily push my muscles further than normally possible, granting me strength and speed beyond what my already high attributes could do. It was a wonderful experience, one that made me yearn for Lenore, the memories of flying with my dear friends bringing with it bittersweet memories of Sigmir. One day, we would be together again, that I swore to myself.

But for now, I needed to prepare shelter for the night. By leaping between the trees, I quickly found a good spot, a small hill I wasn’t sure had been there before the change, with a single massive tree up top. I highly doubted that it had been there before the change, certainly not in its current form. Its size was more reminiscent of the redwoods I had seen in some documentary but the shape was completely wrong and its short, thin needles didn’t fit either. Feeling the world around me, I made sure that no troublesome magic was originating from it and was relieved to find nothing bad. Just a somewhat higher concentration of Life, Water, Earth and Nature, making me feel unexpectedly comfortable. Maybe the tree could be used to guard our shelter in some way, though I wasn’t sure what was possible in that regard. There were some ideas in the Zevarrah Agha, but I hadn’t looked at them too closely just yet. The book was filled with knowledge, containing far more than I had thought possible, something I was grateful for.

After sending Lia back to collect the others and guide them here, I began to work, slowly opening up a small cave beneath the hill, making sure I didn’t accidentally damage the roots. It was fascinating how different working with the Earth here was compared to working with the Earth in the city or near the marshy lake. In the city, the Earth had felt somewhat cold, almost similar to the Ice I usually used, while the Earth near the lake had an almost fluid feel to it as if it was about to run through my hands like water or sand.

Here, in these almost primal feeling woods, there was a different sort of solidity, not the sterile strength of concrete but a warmer sensation, one that drew my eyes to the tree towering above me. The sensation wasn’t quite like wood but there was a certain connotation to the feeling I got from the Earth, one that was only reinforced when I paused, closing my eyes to focus on tasting the air.

The sensation made me realise just how much I didn’t know about magic and the different elements, or domains as I had begun to think of them. There were nuances everywhere, small differences in sensation and most likely in application that turned out to be deeper than I thought possible, opening up avenues I hadn’t even considered before.

It would be up to me, and all the other spellcasters coming after me, to plunge into those depths, to explore the nuances and make our own path.

As I continued opening up the small cave I wanted to make our temporary home, I noticed that my lips had curled into a smile. Just knowing that I was back to exploring brought me more joy than I had anticipated, maybe becoming sedentary truly wasn’t for me. Maybe I would have to explore myself, too, not just the magic around me.

What did Sun Tsu say about that, ‘Know yourself, and know your enemy and you must not fear the result of a hundred battles’? Maybe I should get to know myself, as well as the world around me.