After that, I open a second soulscape and have some quick fun with the goddesses. Then I disentangle myself from Brightfire and sneak out of bed then head outside. As expected, I find Lizzy and Leylisha waiting for me, but I open a gate instead of getting in the saddle.

  I wait for Lizzy to go through first and then follow behind her, closing the gate once I am through. Then I drop shapeshift and shift my armor into a saddle with two seats. Lizzy sighs, but then shapeshifts into human form and climbs into the saddle, Leylisha is already mounted.

  I give the two of them just enough time to get settled and then take to the air. The gate brought us to the base of the mountain where I left the platform and now I fly over the mountain. I am not going to attempt to rescue Bull just yet, but I want to scout the interior of the mountains.

  Besides, I want some more giant essence to experiment with and I want to defeat one. I want to eat its heart and see if Devour will trigger, I also want to see if Absorb will work. Aside from that, I also want to see what else lives in here and if there are flying enemies.

  If there aren’t, then getting to Bull should be fairly easy, but I doubt I will be that lucky. Besides, now that I have permission, of course I am going to come explore and see what’s here. I just have to make sure that I am back by the morning to avoid getting in trouble.

  Brightfire isn’t as scary as Lin is, but I’m sure she would tell Lin as soon as she returns. So, I plan to avoid all of that and gate back at dawn at the latest, but until then it is time to explore. So, as soon as I clear the mountain I head down and look for a place to land.

  However, as soon as I drop lower, I notice that the mana density is skyrocketing. The lower I fly, the denser the mana gets and that is the opposite of normal mana movement. The mountains may keep the mana from flowing into the surrounding areas, but that doesn’t explain everything.

  Normally, the mana would be denser higher up in the sky, so something is keeping the mana down low. It should be some kind of barrier, but I didn’t sense anything even though I flew through it. Even though I am now looking and scanning for it, I still can’t sense the barrier.

  That means that it is either more advanced than I am, shielded from detection, or both. If I can’t find the barrier, then I would need to find one of the nodes or the main origin point. If this covers the entire mountain chain, then the origin point should be close to the center.

  If it has nodes, then they should be scattered around the edges of the barrier in the mountains. However, if I was the one setting up the barrier and trying to hide it, I would have shielded the nodes as well. Meaning my best chance is finding the origin point somewhere near the center of the mountains.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  That is where Bull is trapped, so I can put off looking for it until I go attempt to save him. Besides, I doubt that I can make it to the center of the mountains with the limited time I have. For now, I land and let Lizzy and Leylisha get down so that they can explore and hunt.

  “We are going to split up and hunt separately for a bit. I want to experiment on some corpses, but I don’t want to take away from your experience.”

  Lizzy says “Alright, but summon me if you get in trouble.”

  “If I get in trouble, then you would probably die. Don’t underestimate how strong I have gotten. Physically, you are close to a match for me, but I also have magic.”

  Lizzy says “Fine, but save me whatever is left of any giant corpses you experiment on. They are my new favorite food!”

  “Sure, I can do that, but I only plan to kill one or two things.”

  Lizzy says “We will be killing way more than that!”

  “I figured. Do what you want, I will catch up as soon as I am done experimenting.”

  Lizzy says “Okay!”

  However, before they can rush off, I notice that both of them are taking deep breaths and smiling. It only takes me a second to realize that it must be because of the high mana density. Come to think of it, my body is also absorbing the mana at an increased rate.

  It is like every pore on my body is wide open and sucking in mana like crazy. Although, I’m not sure how that would work since my body is covered in scales. I guess scales wouldn’t really stop mana from passing through, but it is really distracting.

  “Hey, make sure you don’t let the mana density go to your heads. Also, the beasts that were born here will be much stronger than those outside. Be careful and call me if you get into trouble.”

  Lizzy says “Yeah, yeah. I am going now! I want a challenge!”

  Lizzy takes off heading northwest before I can respond, so I just start walking southwest. However, I swing more to the south and start climbing the mountain looking for the barrier. I manage to find out where the mana density ends, but even then I can’t see the barrier.

  Even when I am standing with my body half in and half out, I can’t sense anything. I can see where the mana is stopped by it, but there is nothing there that I can see. Just as I am thinking that I have mastered magic and am all big and bad, something like this happens.

  It is a very humbling experience and not one that I was looking for, but maybe I needed it. As I am standing there wracking my brain to try and think of another way to detect the barrier, I get another one. A snake bites me on the ankle, I had detected it, but I ignored it since it shouldn’t be able to hurt me.

  I reach down and cut the snake’s head off with a flick of my claw and then peel the head off. The holes heal up just as soon as the fangs are out of the way and the poison does nothing to me. Still, it was just a normal snake, not a beast, it shouldn’t have been able to pierce my scales.

  That means that most likely everything in here is going to be able to injure me. It also probably means that everything is going to be harder to injure than normal. Now that I know that, I am thinking that splitting up probably wasn’t the best idea.

  Forgetting about the barrier for now, I start heading north to look for Lizzy and Leylisha. Like me, Lizzy is fairly cocky and is probably going to underestimate her enemies. It is a natural consequence of not being able to find a challenging fight for a long time.