Leaving the giants behind was quite the liberating experience. I hadn't really noticed just how stressful escorting a band of territorial giants had been. Sure, there had been quite a few emergencies in which I had been forced to focus and use some of my sizable focus to bring them back to task, to keep them from attacking something or another of their kind, or even to wander off and similar moments. But those moments hadn't been constant, just a few each day, alongside the regular maintenance that kept the giants moving in the right direction, or the lessons I tried to teach them during their downtimes, transmitting images and visions directly into their primitive minds.

Now that I had time to think about it, it was no wonder that I had been so stressed out these days, to the point that I hadn't even noticed a number of regular levels I had gained at some point, bringing me to level one hundred twenty four, nor had I realised a few increases in my skills. Namely, the skills needed to maintain the giants and improve them, Blood Magic, Mind Magic and even Soul Magic, with Mind Magic taking the cake in terms of points gained, despite the fact that it was also my strongest skill at eighty-nine. Even Astral Meditation had gained some skills, making me wonder just when I had used it all that much, other than to make sure we were still going in the right direction.

Maybe that was part of it, the fact that I had essentially kept a toe in the Astral River at all times, giving me an easier time to maintain the constructs I used to direct the giants while also giving me a fixed point to orient myself towards so we didn't lose our way. Yeah, that had likely been it, a constant, low-level exposure, instead of the full dives where I was completely focused on the Astral River was something I hadn't tried before. Maybe I should try to see if I could incorporate this process with my regular magical sensing, giving me a better idea what I was looking at, as it might allow me to compare and contrast what my senses were telling me in the physical world with what my senses were telling me about the impact the physical world had on the Astral River.

It was an interesting idea, and if it worked out, it would give me another tool to analyse the world in a slightly different, hopefully more objective, manner. Somewhat like the difference between weight and mass, for everyday usage, they could be used interchangeably but one was more objective than the other. Maybe I could do something similar, though I had a feeling it would take a good amount of effort to achieve anything this way.

So, another thing that could be studied and experimented with later, once we weren't hiking across a massive stretch of gravel, sand and crushed rock, all pushed down the mountains by the inevitable and unforgiving force of the glaciers above us.

The valley we were in was quite interesting. When looking from above, my mind immediately insisted that it would have a river running through it, large enough to have carved it in the first place. Still, when we actually reached the area and I could see it with my own eyes from the ground, I soon realised how wrong my initial assumption had been.

It hadn't been carved by a river, at least not one of water; it had been carved by a glacier, and likely some of its runoff, so an occasional river, alongside the massive amount of crushed rock the glacier churned out and pushed down the mountain. Those processes had created this wide, meandering valley, allowing us to slowly make our way through and into these mountains without having to try to climb them one by one. While a part of me was tempted to try reaching the top of these mountains and touch the glaciers up there, just to immerse myself in the ancient Ice sitting on their freezing tops, I wasn't about to put my family through that effort just to enjoy myself.

I was tempted to manifest my wings and simply try flying up, but there were enough monsters in these parts to make me a little leery, especially the occasional large birds we saw high up in the sky. I was fairly certain one of them had been carrying a moose, giving a bit of perspective to help me judge its size. And anything that big, fighting in its very element, was a daunting perspective, a challenge I wasn't about to jump at without having some backup at hand.

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Sure, the wildlife hadn't bothered us as a group, but that only made them smart enough to recognise our power, possibly while waiting for one of us to separate from the rest so that they could strike. Ambushing singular targets was one of the oldest hunting strategies in the book, and there was a reason for that. It had worked for hundreds of millions of years on Earth and would likely continue to work for a hundred million more. Or until all life was gone, whichever came first. Maybe the last life-form would be the last ambush predator, striking at the second-to-last and turning it into their literal last meal. Who knew?

While the lack of predators brave enough to feel attacking us was the smart thing to do was generally a good thing, the rest of nature wasn't as accommodating. With it being mid-September, the summer was already on its way out and, quite clearly, winter was coming. Or maybe the mountains were always this cold, or the Nexus was making its presence felt. I wasn't quite sure what caused the significant increase in Ice Astral Power in the environment, but it certainly lowered the overall temperature. Not quite freezing during the day, but at night, the temperature dropped below zero.

It was a good thing we had managed to get into the area now, I had a feeling that in a month, this would be significantly more difficult. At least for Sasha and Luna, the pair was relatively vulnerable when it came to freezing temperatures. Silva and Lia were better equipped to withstand the cold, thanks to their high Endurance. But even those two would be troubled by large snowdrifts, sudden storms and hail.

Though to be fair, those were a problem already, especially the sudden storms. The mountains were quite demonstrating that they could get angry suddenly, with clouds racing in at speeds that made me think the sky was undergoing a time-lapse. We even had to stop travelling during the night, even with my excellent Night Vision, we just couldn't detect incoming bad weather quickly enough. After getting caught in sudden storms and getting pummeled by hail for our troubles while I was frantically carving a hideout into the nearest rock wall, we switched things around and went during the day. Sure, that meant Lia had to hide under a parasol once more, but compared to hailstones the size of my fist, that was a sacrifice we were all willing to make. Granted, it was only Lia who really had to sacrifice, but luckily, she was okay with that.

However, even during the day, there was one occasion during which I had to hustle. Thanks to the light, we had a much easier time seeing the storm rolling in and yet, that only helped so much. It took maybe ten minutes to go from blue sky with nary a cloud in sight to an entirely black sky as if somebody had turned on Night Mode. In that time, I just managed to rip an opening into the mountain next to us, scattering rock and dirt all over the place in my hurry before we had to take cover.

Then, as I was digging deeper, to get us out of the splash zone, the weather switched once more, the rain turning to hail, with heavy chunks of ice crashing down outside. I wasn't sure if the weather had been that bad and insane in the area before the change, but I had a feeling that anyone below level hundred would be in serious trouble now, even if not a single beast tried to take a chunk out of them. The weather was easily as hazardous as any beast might be, only with fewer teeth.

Still, we slowly made our way deeper into the mountains, not necessarily climbing the hills but moving through a slowly ascending valley towards the centre of the mountain range, following the quiet draw of the Nexus.

Eventually, the rock and gravel were replaced by snow and ice until the ground below us was completely gone, replaced by the glacier covering the entire area. Now, we had to consider how to continue our journey through what some might describe as a hellscape of rock and ice. Even I was a little intimidated by the peaks that towered around us, like the jagged teeth of an impossibly large beast, just waiting to swallow us. Or maybe the sky, which would put us in the gullet of said beast, not a pleasant image to contemplate.

But the Nexus awaited, and I wasn't about to turn back.

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