I awoke from my trance at around 3 AM and opened my tent to see Skoll and Hati poised at opposite ends of our camp.
A sight that forced a proud grin to stretch across my face.
I pulled a few slabs of meat to reward them for being the good boy and girl they were. Then, I released Pora Bora from my shadow
to increase the company while I tore down my tent and served myself a bowl of stew.
With a quick look into my shadow, I saw that the octopus and the orcas still had yet to turn, but the ambient energy of my pocket dimension was assuredly being absorbed by their bodies; though, how they would use that energy once the transformation was complete was beyond my current knowledge. I was unsure if I could've influenced it in any way, but I was also sure that I didn't want to. As the mystery behind it, proved to be quite addictive.
Additionally, there was the matter of the Menagerie's powers as a whole. Not their unique abilities, but the ones they shared as shadow creatures.
Could they shadow step? Could they create darkness? Or scry through shadows? It was obvious they became stronger in darkness, but how weak were they in the light? More so, they didn't need to eat, but could they grow stronger or heal after a good battle or meal? Lastly, what happened when they died?
Those were only some of the questions that burned the brightest in my mind while my body tended to its meal in the canopy. Questions that I set out to find answers to at once.
'The more I learn the more questions and experiments I have." I released Roger with a heavy sigh; though, not out of despair or frustration, but from satisfaction and excitement.
After all, living in a world where there was nothing to learn, wasn't living at all.
It took just under an hour to test each member of the Menagerie, minus the new additions of course. I learned that the collective could indeed shadow step, but could not create darkness nor scry through shadows. Most interestingly of all, I learned that it wasn't that they had an aversion to light. They abhorred it. They hated the light with every fiber of their being, yet shied away from it all the same.
Sadly though, the other questions would have to wait for a later time. So, with that done, I lit a smoke with the Flames of Moil to dim the light, only to inadvertently imbue my belated wake-and-bake with a menthol-like effect.
'I'll take it.' I shrugged, then turned my sights to the gray-clad woodlands around me.
Due to us being so far from the territories, the forest was an unnamed and lawless expanse. According to the map, however, parts of it were frequented by travelers, adventurers, and merchants due to the lack of checkpoints, changing laws, and fees that came with passing through subsequent territories. That said, we passed the main road leading to the southern parts of the empire around two-thousand klicks back, and our destination was an equal distance ahead. Putting us in the middle of a vast, peaceful, autumnal wilderness that I could gaze upon for hours.
But sadly, only one passed before I heard something.
It came from roughly a kilometer to the northwest. Heavy footsteps trotting through the woods at a dutiful pace. After focusing on it further, however, I heard three distinct sets of footsteps in the characteristic rhythm that all but denoted them as quadripedal creatures. In turn, I felt for the variations in the gravitational waves cascading around me to distinguish a relatively small creature, perhaps a juvenile, from a pair of massive creatures escorting it directly to our camp.
I was unaware of any bear-sized animal that hunted in groups. Regardless, I assumed it had to be a pack protecting their territory from intruders.
Or, we were simply being hunted.
Whatever it was, I wanted to find out. So I conjured my Artificial Well and fell through the air on an intercept course.
It didn't take long to get there and it took enough time for me to finish my smoke before their movements started to change.
They became wearier and wearier with each step closer, eventually stopping around fifty meters away to try and hide just inside of a brush to study the assuredly strange creature floating above the forest floor, studying them just as intently.
They had red-rimmed eyes with vertical pupils filled with suspicious aggression. And they were massive. Nearly twice as large as a bear and with the same domineering posture as well; but, covered in feathers. With the face of an… owl.
"What the fuck are you?" I spat in disgust.
As one would expect of wild beasts, the two big ones commenced the battle with an ear-piercing shriek before rushing in a line. I, however, was serious about my inquiry, so I infused shadow mana into my body to activate the Wraith Form and closely studied the first one trying to barrel right through me.
As much as I hated to admit, it couldn't have been anything other than… an owlbear.
I was unsure of how or why something like this even existed but it made me feel… uneasy. Offended, even. Bears were mighty, but they were nowhere near as regal, elegant, and deadly enough to be blended with the divine likeness of an owl. These… owlbears were crude. Barbaric, even. They were an abomination that needed to be eradicated, and a stain on the Menagerie should they be captured.
I wouldn't stand for it. Not even their corpses should live.
After the first owlbear skidded against the trees behind me and disappeared behind the brush, the second one lulled to a halt to stand on its hind legs to tower three meters above the ground and pierce the night with another ear-shattering screech before slamming 800 kilos of unbridled aggression onto my umbral form.
Backstepping out of its arm, I cast aside the shadow mana within me to pull mana from my Well, guide it through my Space-Time Core, and pool it into my right hand. Then, with my intention and a name confirmed in my mind, I lunged forward to palm the owlbear's feathered arm.
As if the floodgates had been opened, the space-time mana gathered within my hand surged through the owlbear before draining back into my body and concentrating into a fine point that dwelled around my core; in turn, causing the owlbear's feathers to gray and its hulking frame to sag in sad fashion before my eyes.
Still, it retorted with a lazy back-pawed swing. A swing that inadvertently flung a multitude of harmless mottled feathers through the air as if it was a follow-up to counter my dodge.
[Time Splitter. +20 Years.]
As if to ruin the glee that came from the new spell's confirmation, the little one came out of the brush to my side with a pathetic screech to snap its beak at my knees.
Sneering at the sight, I filled my finger with gravity mana and flicked a bullet at the little bastard.
The beast backpedaled after my spell made contact. Transferring all the energy needed to lift it off of the ground just before its limbs unnaturally snapped into its body, forcing a pathetic screech from its lungs that competed against the sounds of wrenching bone and spurting blood.
With a final, pathetic screech, the relentless pull of gravity crushed the owlbear into a dense sphere of dripping flesh. Not wasting any more time, I flicked a bit more gravity mana at the owlbear ball, then spun on my heels to pitch an imaginary baseball at its aged parent.
The owlbear ball rushed past my shoulder in the next second to crater into the grayed beak and continue on through its body to shred the patch of forest behind it while the powerful gust traveling in the ball's wake ejected the mangled flesh in every direction. Coating the destroyed flora in a thick layer of blood and viscera.
After turning about once again, I saw that the first owlbear had recovered and had spent the time thus far lumbering back to the battlefield at a cautious pace. With the beast's family now dispatched, however, such caution was thrown out the window. It charged at full speed, shoulder checking tree trunks and upturning the earth with each thunderous step in my direction.
With a final kick off the ground, the owlbear tilted its head and lunged its beaked maw at my unguarded throat. Only for its face, head, and spine to be obliterated after coming into contact with my Void Skin, leaving two steaming piles of blood, organs, and feathery limbs to tumble to a violent halt behind me.
Unfortunately, the spell also managed to destroy my clothes. Leaving me stark naked in the middle of a gory patch of silent woods.
I decided to test another experiment while I changed and let a few members of the Menagerie out. Namely, Jake, Gero, Roger, Stewie, and Kit, all of whom turned to devour the scattered remains the moment they stepped out.
Answering one question, and adding another.
With that done, I recalled the troops and took to the air to read through the contents of my new spell while I fell back to camp at a leisurely pace.
[Time Splitter - The life expectancy; or lifespan, of a creature, is split, or reduced by a length of time determined before casting, and stored within the user. Leaving the target with the difference. The spell can then be used in reverse to give that stolen time to another, or yourself. Extending your or their natural lifespan.]
[Stolen Time: 20 Years.]
As intended, it was basically my Leech Hand but with Space-Time magic. Only, my touch had a sort of forced-aging effect rather than draining my target's health on the spot. With it, a juvenile creature like the owlbear would live on for only a few more years before the complications of old age started to set in; inversely, that remained true for its second use. Wherein an elder human with a life expectancy of six or so decades would stay healthy for many decades to come.
With that out of the way, I closed my spellbook and sped towards the camp to find the others shuffling around in the dark.
After noticing me, Roheisa jogged to my side to squint intently through her glasses and ask. "What were those noises?"
"Owlbears," I off-handedly said. "They're dead, so you all can go back to sleep."
"Owlbears?" She recoiled in confusion. Only to shrug the matter aside a second later. "Well, dead or not, they served as a good wake-up call. I doubt any of us can go back to sleep."
So saying, Roheisa gestured to the others, eating breakfast, conducting morning hygiene, or tearing down their tents in the pre-dawn ambiance. Judging from that alone, I assumed they'd be ready to leave in under fifteen minutes. Placing us at our destination at around nine or ten in the morning.
"Alright then. We'll take off when everyone's ready," I waved over my shoulder. Then stepped through the shadows to return to my perch and lounge for the half-hour it took for the others to ascend to my altitude and hover in place.
"Alright." I stepped onto my chair as if it were a boat docked at the moor and got settled, then turned to face the others. "We'll travel on a south-southeastern heading to intercept the road connecting the hamlet with the territories further south. From there, we'll turn on a direct heading and come to a landing a few dozen klicks away from their borders to walk the last leg."
"Klicks." Repeated the Princess. "You keep saying that."
"It's an easier way to say kilometers." I shrugged. 'Unless you wanna measure things in twelfths.'
So saying, I spawned my artificial well to ascend and accelerate and embark on much the same journey as the day before; only, one with a few more biomes to study from afar.
The woodlands became denser and denser the further east I looked until it turned into a chokingly thick alpine forest that stretched as high as the clouds. To the south, the woods thinned out to form an expanse of rolling plains that continued on for thousands of kilometers to the furthest reaches of civilization.
They were beautiful sights for sure, but ones that could only be gazed upon for so long before boredom set in.
With my Eternal Eye's digital library, however, most of the transit passed seamlessly. Making the trip nostalgically reminiscent of the many plane, shuttle, and spacecraft flights I've been on in my past life.
Naturally, such thoughts evolved to mental images of such feats of engineering existing in this vast world. Things that I fully intended to replicate with magical materials and enchantments. If not for the sake of a contingency, then for the sake of the weaker subordinates I'll inevitably take under my wing down the line.
After a couple of hours of creating blueprints and designs, my attention was grabbed by Toril, waving and pointing to a winding worn road parting the rolling forest below. So I sent a signal to the others behind us to begin the descent, then leaned forward in my seat to study the road ahead.
Coming from the south, the road wound and curved until it terminated at a wide platform that sat at the base of the vast mountain range that covered the entire continent. From what I could see, no other roads broke off from the main one for several thousand kilometers where the road forked to turn south and to the edge of the western territories respectively.
Luckily for us, there was limited traffic, if any at all, so we skimmed the trees for a bit and eventually came to a landing at a sharp bend in the road.