Surprisingly the next seven days went by without any interruptions. Jill and Luke managed to visit their families, and Jill even set up some marks with them for easy teleport. Other than that, Mash did what his brother suggested and read some books. He studied what he could about the kingdom’s history and learned the reasoning behind some of its laws. Mash considered which of these he would want to implement but decided he wouldn’t do anything yet. The elders would certainly have established some form of order, and he had been able to track it too.

One of the things he had done in his free time left one of Priscilla’s bodies in the other world with the elders. He told Priscilla to inform him if anything crazy happened and to just keep watch over the people. It was a simple enough task and something that seemed unnecessary. The elders had seemed to have everything in order, and his world had been developing nicely. They kept to his request and didn’t develop any of those square efficient cities.

Mash even had the opportunity to show his siblings the world. Both had been very interested in seeing it. He remembered explaining the skill to them and tried to brace their expectations. Even still, they had been amazed by the tree. They met with the elders and saw the Kishiv but hadn’t been able to communicate. Mash acted as a translator for them, and Arthur was rather interested in the technology that the elders had. He had even gone so far as to pick up one of their weapons. The elders called the long tubes of metal a gun. The name had some special meaning, but they didn’t explain it. Arthur had grabbed some of the weapons and suggested that it might be possible to get a gun-related class. That would certainly be something to see.

Other than those things, Mash hadn’t really done much else. He did make some more enchanted items. It was something he should’ve done before, but only really found the time this weekend. He made many more staffs and javelins but didn’t bother with any swords this time around. He just didn’t think it would be as necessary. If he was fighting to kill, he wouldn’t be relying on items. The weapons would be best for limiting or restraining an opponent. At least that was what he planned on using them for. He did make a few shields, though they were for his friends. They relied on attuned items, but the items he made would be better suited for immediate use. Each of them had taken two shields and javelins. The weapons would be useful if they ever found their skills being sealed.

Once he was done with everything he needed to do, he just spent some time relaxing with his family. he talked with his siblings more often too. The others had used the time to relax wisely. They trained with their new skills. Mash did a little but didn’t really get as invested as he normally would. It felt like he had been overworking his mind, and he just wanted to let some of the stress bleed away. The only thing he really tested was coming up with new combinations for his forms with Priscilla. Some of which he hoped to test soon.

The four of them were currently in the air. They were just beneath the clouds and flying northward as his brother had suggested. Arthur had told them where to go and had said that they would know when they got there. It was a snowy valley that was contained by an almost circular mountain range. His brother described it as looking like it was made that way. It would be extremely unnatural with how perfectly enclosed the zone would be.

Mash stared ahead and finally saw something shift. So far, all he had seen was either forest or grassland. The occasional village or town was sprinkled on the landscape. Mash realized that his world was surprisingly bare, in comparison to the ones he had visited before. The elder’s world hadn’t had much-unexplored territory, and many towns and cities were cluttered over the world. There was a lot more space between the settlements here. He never would have thought about it like that without having seen another world.

In the distance, he spotted what looked like a wall of falling snow. It was a snowstorm, but the snow was moving so thickly that he could barely see anything. Flying through that would be fun. That thought popped into his mind as they closed in on the white powder. Mash was currently using his cat form’s wings as they used significantly less energy than the others. It also provided them with his most steady flight. The wyvern’s wings relied on a burst of speed and then gliding with the momentum that he built up. He could obviously use his wing affinity with either form, but this was a lot simpler.

The first thing they noticed was the chill air that seemed to grow denser the further north he went. Now the air felt frigid, and the cold buffeted them like crashing waves. The others would be worse off than him. He could regulate his body temperature easily and was able to withstand the cold pretty easily. The others weren’t so lucky. Luke and Jill especially suffering from the increasing chill. Red felt the cold but said that it wouldn’t really do any harm. Mash sped slightly ahead of the rest of the group, ignoring the call of Luke from behind.

“Give us a second. Going to grab the necklaces. Mash!”

Luke, Jill, and Red all bought these necklaces that would keep their bodies warm. Mash didn’t because it was something he would’ve needed to attune to, and that would be a waste. The others didn’t attune to the items yet either. They thought that they could handle the chill without them and hadn’t attuned to the items earlier. Mash guessed that they were going to do it now though. He wondered what items he wanted to attune to, but he didn’t actually know what the best option would be. There were a lot of attuned items that could be good, but nothing he felt he needed now.

Mash had purchased a preservation storage item. It was like his storage space but would stop what was inside from decaying. He figured he would need it if he wanted to store some monster corpses. He got a large one, so it should fit a few dozen monsters, though that would mostly depend on the size of the monster.

Mash crashed into the snow wall and was surprised to realize that it felt almost like a literal wall. Simple stone wouldn’t feel as strong as that. It kind of felt like he was slammed into the ground itself, but that changed once he was actually within the storm. Now the wind was spiraling all around him, snow getting thrown into the air in random directions. It seemed like the wind had no pattern, and he began to understand why his brother said that they would know when they got there. The way the snow was moving, the wind, and even the ground below were weird.

He was high enough to see the mountain range his brother had described. It looked more like a wall than a random mountain range. Within was the forest of large spiny trees. Snow covered the trees and the ground making it seem like a painting. The way the green of the trees cut through the white snow was almost idyllic. It was definitely unnatural looking. The falling snow seemed to swirl around the mountain range, making it seem like the forest was at the center of the storm. In an instant, he realized just what he was looking at. The storm and the mountains felt like they were a natural cage or container. It was definitely not something natural. He shook his head once and told himself to stop.

“Don’t think about it, Mash. You are here to fight monsters, not solve some weird mystery.”

Mash actually said the words aloud, needing to hear the reminder. It was probably dumb, but he found that it helped him restrain his curiosity. The way he was pulled toward those kinds of mysteries and thoughts was something he wanted to avoid at the moment. A simple task, a simple goal. That was all he wanted. He would stick to that and kill some monsters. Unless, of course, the others thought that there was something worthwhile here.

He shook his head again. Hoping that the others would feed his curiosity was stupid. As he thought of them, they punched through the snow wall too. He turned to see them and waved them over. Jill muttered something, but he couldn’t hear it. He had a pretty good idea of what she said though. It was probably something snarky about the cold. Once they got close, Mash gave them a second to take in the sight. That was the disadvantage of being the first inside. He was already over the initial mysticism of the sight.

“That is as weird as advertised.”

This time Jill was close enough that Mash could hear. He nodded along, thinking that his brother had undersold the strangeness.

“Let’s get down there. Seems like it won’t be as cold as out here.”

Luke spoke as he started descending toward the forest. He was probably right about the temperature, as the forest was free from the harsh winds. It really seemed like the storm didn’t touch anything within the mountain range. It blew some snow over the field, but he wouldn’t call it a storm. It was more like a gentle flurry.

All of them descended into the ravine and broke through the second wall of wind as they entered into the forest's range itself. Mash could only describe the experience as weird. His domain was going crazy, and he feel something floating in the air around him. Several somethings, and he noticed them clogging the space around him and his friends. He couldn’t see them with his eyes, and the others obviously didn’t notice them either. Mash thought about it and decided that speaking aloud would alert whatever it was.

[Priscilla tells the others and any idea on what it is?]

He got an almost immediate reply.

[No, I do not know. It almost seems like life had been given to the mana around you.]

Mash tried to see what she was seeing and understood what she meant. He could vaguely make the outline of the creatures and realized that they were kind of like fishes. They didn’t seem harmful. Honestly, they were like weirdly large fishes. They passed through and around Mash and his friends and didn’t impede them in the slightest. Mash reached out to one of those near him and attempted to move it with his energy. It was the simplest gesture one could do, and it worked. However, as soon as he touched one of them it flashed a bright blue. Everyone was able to catch a glimpse of the creature before it darted away. All of the creatures around him darted away. Mash almost dashed toward it.

“Stop. We’re here to kill monsters.”

Mash was the one to speak, but he was also the only one who had moved. The others were calmly hovering around him. The words were for himself though, and they managed to stop him from blindly chasing the strange creatures. He was getting paranoid, and he knew it. Man, it was hard not to overthink things.