It was hair-raising, and not just due to the cold, clammy mist I had conjured. Amusingly, it was only I who truly knew just how close we got to the cattle, the mist was dense enough to dampen any scents and the concealment runes I had imbued into its creation meant that even sounds were deafened. I could pierce through it, it was still my magic, and thus I could perceive the cows which nervously twitched but didn’t dare to move. They likely wouldn’t, unless they were able to perceive a threat. I just had to make sure they didn’t.

After a tense hour of walking through dense mist far too slowly, I was finally confident that we had passed the entire herd, the mist slowly moving with us thanks to my Ice Magic. I was drained, the Water-Mist-Mix far harder to move than I had anticipated, and my Astral Depletion didn’t help matters. But we had managed, and now, I could feel the mist brush against the first buildings. In town, we could dodge the cattle far easier, if necessary, so I mentally let go of the mist, letting it slowly disperse. It would last long enough to get us to safety, and that was all I needed. For a moment, I considered experimenting with it further, maybe sending it back to the cows and trying imbuing additional magic into it, some Mind Magic to drive the cows into a blind stampede, but decided against it. Sure, it would be an interesting experiment and this many enemies might even net some EXP but it wasn’t worth the risk. Not while I was escorting someone, not while I was severely magically depleted.

“Thank god,” Cheng Hu muttered, barely audible, when he finally stepped out of the mist. I had to hide a grin at that, knowing he had nobody to thank for but me, though I couldn’t deny a small shudder of delight running through me at the idea. To be praised as a god, there were some parts I completely disagreed with, mainly those parts that required interaction with followers and servants, but the sheer power to earn the label? That sounded wonderfully attractive. Maybe something to aim for, now that I wasn’t bound by a time limit, a long-term goal, so to speak. Likely very long-term, but why not shoot for the moon? Even if I missed, I would be in the perfect void of space and deeply immersed in the Darkness Element. Maybe deep enough to become something else, not a god, but a titan? My grin only got deeper at the idea, until I had to hide it away when the humans became a little antsy.

“We still got some distance to cover, do you need a break?” I asked the others, curious how well they had weathered the mist. They looked a little pale but I wasn’t sure if that was just a trick of the darkness or their actual pallor. That their skin colours ranged from a rather tanned olive to a pale caucasian white with multiple shades in between didn’t help matters, only made reading them more difficult.

“Give us five minutes, please,” Cheng Hu asked, after looking at the other six humans.

“Certainly. Young One, on me,” I commanded Lia, before stepping a bit aside and returning to my previous lecture. There were still so many things she needed to learn, from magic, to fighting, to hunting and even feeding, there was so much I had to teach her, and so little time. I wasn’t confident I would be able to sustain her by myself, nor was I sure I even wanted to do so, but if I wanted to keep her around, she needed sustenance. Draining other humans was a measure of last resort, as it would rapidly destroy any goodwill I had gathered with the local survivors.

Hunting Shattered might be possible but that came with their weird resistance to Blood Magic. I had no idea how Lia’s feeding would ultimately work, but I could only guess that it was along similar lines. Thus, feeding on Shattered would likely be difficult, if not impossible.

However, one thing I was considering was whether the feeding required actual ingestion. If my assumptions were correct, she primarily needed to take in Astral power and drinking Blood was simply the easiest way to get it. If she was able to use Blood Magic, she might be able to simply drain her opponents of their magic and siphon said magic off into her body, maybe by touch or something along those lines. If nothing else, I might be able to test that by using the Sacrifice-Rune, draining Blood and Astral Power from a target and letting her experiment with it. If nothing else, it would give her something to drink.

Finally, the others were ready to continue and we moved on. There were still a couple of Shattered around and the large group appeared to be almost a beacon to them. If it was only Silva and me, we never had to fight this many, they simply kept coming.

I was tempted to stay back and let Lia fight but throwing her into the deep end, just to see if she would sink wasn’t the right call, not in my eyes. Sure, she was stronger than she had any right to be, and likely just as hardy as the Shattered but I wasn’t about to expose that to the other humans. They looked at her with suspicion already, no need to confirm their ideas and have her labelled as a monster just yet.

Instead, I decided to forgo any EXP they might get and simply let Silva lead the way and had her rip apart the Shattered. It caused a slightly amusing effect, the humans managed to turn even paler than before, to the point that I was wondering if any blood would come out if I cut into their faces, but I wasn’t about to voice that thought. Instead, I made sure that none of the Shattered came close to us, easily ripping them to pieces with my frozen shuttle or conjuring up a hailstone and breaking some bones.

“Monsters,” the guy from the farm muttered under his breath, likely trying to make sure nobody could hear him. Sadly for him, my twenty-two in Intuition was well up to the task, though his words only made me grin wider. On the other hand, Silva seemed to have heard him and once she finished tearing through the Shattered she was fighting, she bounded back, muzzle bloody and tried to clean it off on his shirt. I was busy trying not to burst out laughing, while killing a few more Shattered, so I just couldn’t even try to stop her. And, truthfully, I didn’t want to try, the look on his face was just hilarious.

With such a strange combination of merriment and gruesome slaughter, we continued on our path. Even with the amount of Shattered, we made good time and about an hour before the sun threatened to rise above the horizon, we were in the neighbourhood of the gym.

This time, I didn’t need to worry about the guards noticing us, with nine people and a large dog, there was more than enough noise to alert them, though it also meant that a quick glance was enough to have them ascertain that we weren’t Shattered. So far, it seemed that no people had started to cause trouble in the area and humans were deemed safe. Hopefully, that would last but deep down, I knew it wouldn’t. At some point, somebody would decide that they wanted to be king, that there were no more laws but that of the jungle. Mrs Wu and her fellows had managed to hold that off at the Gym but eventually, it would happen.

And then, it wouldn’t just be Shattered that killed off survivors, it would be survivors killing off survivors and with my penchant for social trouble, I would be one of the first to be targeted. Unless I managed to get to the point that even the idea of targeting me and mine was enough to make even the wildest megalomanic consider it suicide. Though, at that point, I’d likely get into a different sort of trouble, with people trying to drag me into their squabbles.

But it was a bridge I’d avoid at that point, maybe by freezing the river it crossed.

“Stick with me, young one,” I reminded Lia, “Cheng Hu, I believe my task with you is complete. Could you please ask Mrs Wu to meet me at my quarters once she is up?” I asked him. He gave me an affirmative nod and after a quick goodbye to the people we had escorted, I walked right back out of the gym, Lia and Silva in tow.

“Your quarters?” Lia quietly asked once we were moving through the neighbourhood again.

“I don’t feel comfortable staying with this many humans,” I admitted, noticing a strange look on her face, “I believe you’ll feel similarly, it is easier, more comfortable, to keep some distance. They can come to us, especially during the day when it is better for us to rest, and we can easily move around at night, without disturbing them,” I explained.

Soon, we reached the house and inside, I made Lia an offer she just couldn’t refuse. I offered her a shower, possibly earning her eternal gratitude.