If that is true, then the possibility of there being much stronger giants is pretty high. If I do find a way to go exploring in the mountains, I am going to have to be careful. If there are giants that have maxed out their cores, or even become sacred beasts, they could threaten me.

  Of course, that just makes me want to explore the mountains even more, but I would get in trouble if I did. Besides, most of the night has already passed and we are going to have to head back soon. However, I almost change my mind when I crack open the giant’s core and extract the essence.

  It is the biggest, most detailed essence that I have ever collected and I can’t wait to study it. However, this is not the time or place to do so, so I quickly put it in a container and put it away. As soon as I move out of the way, Lizzy takes a big bite out of the giant and chews it.

  As soon as she swallows, she quickly takes another bite, it seems she likes the taste. Leylisha and I stand off to the side and wait patiently until Lizzy has eaten her fill. Getting between Lizzy and her food is never a good idea, she is an aggressive eater.

  Luckily, she eats enough of the corpse that the remainder will fit into her pouch. I should probably upgrade her pouch again, but that can wail until tomorrow. Right now, I really want to go closer to the mountains, but it is getting awfully close to dawn.

  Bull says “Ash? Ash! Ash, can you hear me?!”

  “Yes, Bull, I can hear you.”

  Bull says “Oh, finally! I had started to doubt that you would ever come within range of this thing!”

  “What? The communication necklace should have enough range to cover most of the continent. I should have been in range for over a month.”

  Bull says “I have no idea about that, but I’ve been trapped for months and trying to contact someone every day!”

  “Trapped? What happened?”

  Bull says “I accidentally pissed off a tribe of giants. They chased me until I took shelter inside a building. Since then, they have been camping outside waiting for me to come back out. I’m embarrassed to say that I need you to rescue me!”

  “Alright, hold on. I will try to use your communication necklace to get a fix on your location.”

  I quickly send a pulse of mana through the connection with Bull’s communication necklace. Then I send out my senses to try and feel where the pulse goes off, but it doesn’t work. That tells me that Bull isn’t in the mountains near where I am, but the idea is still good.

  I try again, sending a stronger pulse of mana and stretching my senses out to the limit. This time I do feel something, but it is faint and pretty far off to the west of my current location. It looks like Bull is trapped somewhere in the middle of the range of mountains.

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  “I am on the eastern end of the mountain range, it will take some time for me to reach you. Can you hold on for a few more days?”

  Bull says “Actually, I am fine. I can hold on for years if I need to. You can wait until after whatever brought you back to the main continent is handled if you need to. I may be trapped, but the giants can’t possibly get to me.”

  “I’m on my way to the Magic Kingdom for a conclave of the leaders of all the nations of the continent. Do you really have enough food to wait until after that?”

  Bull says “Oh, I ran out of food a while ago, but I can sustain myself through meditation. There are just too many giants outside, otherwise I would deal with them myself.”

  “How many giants are we talking about?”

  Bull says “There are over a hundred in the tribe. I can at most take five at a time.”

  “How tall are they?”

  Bull says “The chieftain is thirty-five feet tall, the rest range from twenty to thirty feet tall. They are strong, so be careful when you do come.”

  “Alright, I will keep that in mind. I will try to get to you before I head to the Magic Kingdom if I can, but that will depend on my wives. I was ordered not to enter the mountains. They are worried I will get lost in an adventure and not return in time.”

  Bull says “That is an understandable fear. You do have a habit of getting yourself into trouble. Also, you don’t have a good record when it comes to ancient ruins from the stories that I heard.”

  “I get enough of that from my wives, I don’t need to hear it from you too! Anyway, I will come back and contact you once I have spoken to my wives.”

  Bull says “Alright. Just being able to talk to you is quite a relief! I can wait for quite a while if needed.”

  I say goodbye to Bull for now, then have Lizzy carry us quickly over to the base of the mountain. Once there, I bury a gate platform in the rock of the mountain and then open a gate back to camp. We didn’t encounter any more beasts, so Lizzy looks a little disappointed as she goes through the gate.

  If she is lucky, she will be able to nap for a couple of hours before everyone starts to wake up. It isn’t quite dawn, but the horizon is starting to light up so it isn’t far off. I head into the cabin and find that Lin is still sound asleep, but the puppy isn’t.

  Not only is he awake, but his eyes are open and he is looking around at everything. He freaks out a little when he sees me, but that only lasts until he catches my scent. Once he can smell me, he instantly calms down and moves towards me, so I pick him up.

  As soon as I pick him up, he starts licking my hand as he stares up at me with his blue eyes. They are a light blue that reminds me of the color of a clear sky and they are hard to resist. I go ahead and feed him, but the entire time he is eating he stares up at me.

  I am glad to see that he doesn’t seem afraid of me even though I look nothing like him. As he is eating, I check and find that his teeth are coming in nicely, he should be able to eat solid food soon. I am looking forward to that because I am not sure this milk is giving him the nutrition that he needs.

  He has doubled in size since I took him out of that crate, but I was actually expecting more. He is growing slower than the rest of my kids did, except for Ekard and Mushu. That could be because of his breed, or it is because the milk I am feeding him isn’t good enough.

  I am hoping that once I can start feeding him monster meat his growth will catch up. Most dog breeds that I am familiar with from my world grow quickly in the puppy stage. I can’t think of any reason that his breed would be slow to grow, it isn’t good for survival.