Chris

Somewhere in the North

It was with a certain amount of excitement that I ventured forward. Sure, the past hadn't been all that fun in the grand scheme of things, but it had led me here, and that amounted to something at least.

My excitement stemmed from a few reasons, but the main one, and by far the largest, was that I had no idea where I was. The map I had acquired so long ago didn't actually show this far North.

I was treading on new ground, as Austin would say.

It was... sort of exhilarating, and I could see why Austin was so enthusiastic about it. My last trip up here was during Winter, and I hadn't come this far.

Every step was another that I was certain no one had taken before me. Well, no one after the Change. I was sure that someone in history had probably walked where I was.

Snow crunched underfoot. Actual snow, in the dog days of summer.

That was saying all it needed to for how far North I was. I had felt the mana gradually change as I neared it, and I couldn't help but smile as I overlooked a field of white, glistening in the sun.

It was quite bright, if I was being honest, but the pain it caused my eyes was nothing compared to the excitement I felt.

I had finally made it to the lands of Everwinter, if I were to take Vulwin's terminology for it. I usually referred to it as the Far North, or the Arctic Circle, but I wasn't actually sure where that started exactly.

For all I knew, I could have already passed it a long time ago, or it could be far ahead of me. I wasn't sure.

But Everwinter had a nice ring to it, and it was much easier to spot the demarcation between where it started compared to an imaginary line.

From how the elf had explained it, the land of Everwinter was any such area or zone that saw Winter continually. Kind of self-explanatory when you thought about it, but that didn't make it any less fascinating. Based on his explanation, I knew that there were two lands of Everwinter on the planet, the areas surrounding the North and South poles. It made me curious which one was colder.

Sure, I knew the South Pole was colder Before, but that could have changed for all I knew. The entire world had, what was to say that the poles hadn't?

Not that I would find out anytime soon. Traveling from Frostheim to St. Louis had already been a trip of months, and that wasn't even close to the equator, which wasn't even halfway. Additionally, even if Panama still connected North and South America, there was still the Southern Ocean to traverse, along with whatever dwelled inside of it.

Based on the monsters inhabiting the Bay and the Lake, I did not want to see what lived in the depths of the ocean. No, nope, not a chance. At least not until I was stronger and could confidently fight in an environment so unsuited to me. One would think water wouldn't be all that bad for me to fight in, considering I could freeze it into ice with my mana and skills, but that wasn't considering a few glaring factors.

One, the ocean was huge, even larger now than before, and there was no way in hell I'd be able to freeze enough of it. Two, in an area so heavily dominated by one element, the ambient mana would be hard as hell to change. It was easily seen in Frostheim during Winter. Rachel complained that her spells were harder to cast and it took more mana for the same effect. The ambient ice mana was resistant to any kind of change, and the higher the density there was, the more resistant it was.

Sailing in the middle of the ocean, any ocean, was just about as heavily water mana dense as one could get. I wouldn't be surprised if being far enough away from shore was even worse than standing next to Marcus's treasure.

That being the case, freezing even a small portion would be difficult.

But that wasn't even the worst of my problems. While freezing things or killing through hypothermia was something I could do, it wasn't my main way of fighting. That would forever be my strength and hammer. Being underwater didn't exactly lead to the easiest use of a hammer. There was nowhere to anchor my feet, nowhere to push off, and nowhere to gather strength from.

It would turn my swings from devastating blows of monumental force into something half that, if I were lucky. The drag alone wasn't something I even wanted to consider.

No, fighting underwater, against something that called the ocean home, was not on my agenda. I would if I had to, but I would very well make sure that the odds were in my favor, or when we had ships stronger than we did now. The ones we were using now were already improved, but they still got dinged up against lake monsters. I didn't even want to imagine them up against ocean monsters.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Nope.

That was the main reason no one was eager to cross water. Sailing on the river was already difficult enough, and the beasts were only getting stronger.

Case in point being the average level of the beasts I was encountering currently. The last time I was up here, the polar bears were the biggest threat, and they were well into D-rank the last time I was here.

The Mammoth's too, but I hadn't fought them.

Now, wolves, eagles, foxes, owls, and the rest, were all D-rank and above. Even prey animals were up there, deer, elk, stags, moose, reindeer, rabbits, and they leveled slower than carnivores.

They took in essence passively, and through the plants they ate, while predators took it in passively and from the beasts they ate. The essence they gained from other beasts was closer 'attuned' to their essence already, making the transfer more efficient.

The same reason was why we got more essence for killing other humans than we did for killing beasts. Not that I'd killed a lot of humans lately for that to take effect.

I had been level-capped when I attacked Lakeshore.

Still, they were growing swiftly, and in some cases, more swiftly than we were. I wasn't worried for Frostheim, but I could certainly see other cities having trouble dealing with the growing wildlife.

Those in what could be considered the 'frontier', especially. Areas next to a large swath of untamed lands would have it the worst, while cities that were surrounded by other cities would have it easier.

Velmara, Des Moines, and Storm City were all surrounded by other cities nearby, while Frostheim, Mountainside, and Yellowstone were all surrounded by wide areas of wilderness.

I'd also heard that the Bayou was considerably dangerous, but it wasn't like I'd been there to test that for myself.

Austin was well-versed in the dangerous areas of the continent, as it was a growing list of places he wished to visit. The Everglades, the Bayou, and what people were calling the Haunted Forest were all areas he wished to visit that housed some dangerous monsters or beasts.

I had only heard of the Haunted Forest when we were planning for Rachel's trip south, since the area was near where she was travelling.

There were other areas Austin was excited for, the Boreal forests northwest of Frostheim, the great plains to the West, the mountains running the length of the continent, all of them were sights he eventually wished to see, and I couldn't help but feel similarly.

The mountains, especially, as from what I heard from Jayla, made it seem like they were much different from how they used to be.

It also made me consider what the rest of the world held. If there were already this many areas in just one half of a continent, what about the entire globe? What kind of beasts were in Death Valley? The hottest place on Earth had to have some cool nasties living in it, right?

What about the Grand Canyon? Or the Amazons, for that matter. The rainforest had to have some cool things to see. Or the Himalayas, if what happened to the Rockies was anything to go by, what about something that was already a natural wonder?

The Great Barrier Reef, too. Or all of Australia, if I were being honest. If there was one area where the evolution of beasts was to be speculated about, that was it. It was already a land of death in more ways than one without magic and mana.

Islands would be freaky, depending on what inhabited them before. They would be left to grow in change while they were cut off from the rest of the world.

Oh, I couldn't forget about the Savanah desert, or the rest of Africa. That would also be something to see.

I didn't hold out much hope for Europe, sadly, as it was already heavily populated, and anything that would turn into something to visit would have been culled already.

Some things might have been able to have a resurgence, but I doubted the people there wouldn't have handled by the time cross-continental travel was up and running again.

Same for Japan. Sure, they had Mount Fuji, but the Island was quite small, even if it may have gotten larger after the Change.

All of this was strictly speculation, of course, but it was hard not to get excited by the possibilities. None of them would be as cool as the Arctic, in my opinion, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be fascinating in different ways.

New Zealand was supposed to have some of the prettiest sights, and I couldn't imagine what mana had done to a place like that.

I picked up an encroaching beast making its way toward me, and I held back a sigh as I cut off my fantasies. While it was fun to think about, now wasn't exactly the time.

Dispatching the stray beast was trivial, but it also came with a pleasant chime.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Oh, how I had missed that. The rush of essence cycling through me and increasing my strength was a feeling hard to describe. The power it held would never get old.

It had been a while since my last level, and with that chime, it made me halfway towards my first class skill. I was more than excited to see what would be offered.

[Tyr's Judgement] was cool and all, but it wasn't exactly the kind of skill I was going for when I picked Warden of the North.

The list that would be offered to me when I hit level 120 would give me a better picture of the kinds of things I could expect. I already knew it was a Warrior Leadership class, but that didn't exactly narrow it down.

The highest thing on my priority list was a friend or foe skill that would help with the collateral damage I caused when fighting. My style wasn't exactly... precise, and I was prone to some friendly fire if I wasn't careful.

If a skill could boost the Cold resistance of those under my command, that would be perfect! It would make it so I wouldn't have to fight alone, not that I was complaining.

Fighting alone was fun to me, but a way to fight with my army was an option I wouldn't pass up if it was offered.

That and empowering the Orders was what I was looking for, and the main reason I took the class over Son of Frost.

After [Tyr's Judgement], there were five slots to fill, and I couldn't wait to see what I could get.

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