Watching yet another small critter make its way towards the shoreline, I couldn't help but grumble quietly under my breath. The strange, sound-based magic soon started to batter the magical shields I was using to keep myself safe, trying to find cracks to start pulling on my mind. The shields were a work in progress, a lot more complicated than the original one, where I had simply blocked all sound from entering. By now, I was starting to lessen the silencing effect more and more, adjusting to find the spot where the shield blocked the confounding effect without impeding my ability to hear incoming trouble. It just wouldn't do to shield myself from this sound-based attack and fail to hear some sort of predator sneaking up on me and catching me off guard.

When I noticed the critter getting completely confounded by the effect, I let my own Mind Magic fade, allowing it to perceive the world around it as it was, not as I wanted it to be perceived. The critter's reaction showed just how powerful the sound-based effect actually was; namely, there was no reaction. I had been working hard and killing quite a few hares, foxes, and other small animals during my experiments, trying to figure out how to compel animals to move as I wanted them to, ignoring their instincts that shouted at them to flee.

The solution, as it often happened, was a little more complex than simply overpowering the critter's survival instinct. Trying that only led to the critter going into complete panic, until its brain turned to mush and the critter died, just like those first two. Instead, I had to quiet the instinct first, influencing their perceptions so they saw what they were used to, before adding an impetus to move in the direction I wanted, without realising they weren't going where they thought they were. It might be overly complicated, but making a fox see a hare run away from it across an open field, only for the hare and the open field to be nothing but an illusion, worked quite well to have the fox go where I wanted it to. Namely, where the illusory hare was running to, even if that meant running too close to the ocean and the monsters lurking in the shallows.

Just as always, the monsters were leaping out of their camouflaged positions, catching the critter completely off-guard and, moments later, there was nothing left but some bloody chunks of fur. My current experiment happened at that very moment, right after these creatures finished their bloody feast. It was an attempt to take advantage of any possible lull after the feeding, when their apparent bloodlust was sated and their bellies a little fuller than before.

Above them, in the sky, circled one of my scrying constructs, flying lazily above their perception. But not too high for me to channel magic through it, allowing me to reach one of these creatures and apply some of my recent advances in Mind Magic to influence the creature. Just like the illusions and manipulations I had developed to draw hares and other small animals out of the forest they used to hide, I was now manipulating this creature to leave the icy mud it had been hiding in.

The effect was curious, the creature wasn't as influenced as the other animals had been but it readily followed my guidance, moving away from the shore and the protection provided by their strange magic and the presence of its brethren. Step by step, it drew closer to the tree I was using as my perch, until it was well beyond their sound-based mental manipulations. Well outside their protection, ready to be caught and studied.

At that moment, I activated Overflow and channelled a massive burst of Mind Magic into the creature, not trying to break its mind but simply stunning the thing into unconsciousness. It instantly keeled over, and the lack of notifications told me it wasn't dead, merely out cold. Curiously, despite its apparent unconsciousness, its skin was starting to blend into the snow of the open area I had drawn it into, making me wander. And making me even more cautious, who knew if the thing was truly out cold or if it was faking it, trying to draw me close enough for it to leap and attack.

Just to add additional precautions, I let the raven I used to channel my magic dip lower, so I could easily influence the snow the creature was lying on. With a bit of Ice Magic, the snow soon changed into a cage made from Hard Ice, hopefully strong enough to keep the thing from attacking me. Then, I magically moved the cage across the snow, dragging it close to the tree I was perched on, while my eyes were quickly panning around the area, making sure that nothing was sneaking up on me, just in case.

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Finally, once the unconscious monster was caged beneath me, I could look at it from up close with my own eyes. My first direct and personal impression was that this was one ugly monster. It was roughly the size of an adult human, maybe a little smaller, which surprised me. Previously, their hunched-over posture and essentially four-legged gait had obscured their actual size, making them appear much smaller. Its head was vaguely humanoid, though its maw was a lot larger than usual, and I was pretty sure the same was true for its dentures. Curiously, its hands were quite similar to those of the Sasquatch I had seen before, its fingers usually curled in to protect the claws while these creatures walked on their knuckles.

Nodding to myself, I decided to use Observe to learn some additional information. The blue box appearing before me identified it as a Qalupalik, with a fairly unspectacular level of fifty-eight, making me wonder if I had been overestimating these creatures. Or perhaps I had simply observed them in their natural habitat, where their unique traits gave them a massive advantage. Similar to the way I had been able to overcome a few foes nominally much stronger than me on Mundus, by being sneaky and attacking them when they couldn't defend themselves, these Qalupalik were doing something similar. The important difference was that they created a situation in which their foes were unable to protect themselves by utilising their weird sound-based mental influence and camouflage. In contrast, I had relied on stealth and infiltration to strike my enemies when they were unprepared.

After a moment of consideration, I decided to relocate the Qalupalik to a safe location further inland, where I could assess its capabilities to my heart's content. Lifting its icy cage with my Ice Magic was trivial, allowing me to quickly leave the area around the bay behind and dig a small cave for my experiments. It wasn't glamorous, but it had sturdy doors made of stone to keep predators out, and even a nice, deep hole into which I built the cell where the Qalupalik would be dumped. That way, the Qalupalik would have to climb four metres of smooth, vertical wall to leave the cell area, if it was somehow able to break through the door I used to seal it in. Maybe that was overkill, but I wasn't about to take any unnecessary risks.

Once that was done, I placed the monster into the newly made cell, created a few scrying constructs in the corners so I could observe its actions and made the cage fade away, leaving the Qalupalik lying inside. While I would be able to reawaken it with my Mind Magic, I didn't care to do so; instead, I used the time it remained knocked out to prepare the cave for continued use.

The most important part of that had, amusingly, nothing to do with the cave itself. Instead, I spent a good amount of time grounding myself, memorising the Astral River around the area and creating anchors inside the cave, allowing me to emerge from the shadows here, after stepping into them far away. This way, I could sleep at the cave near the giants, or even at my tower, and essentially commute to work, as long as I wasn't taking anyone with me.

Just to make sure it worked as intended, I ran out of the cave, moved some distance away and stepped through the shadows, easily making it back. Then, as a more challenging test, I stepped over to the cave near the giants and back, nodding to myself when it worked just as well. I briefly considered visiting my tower, or maybe even Jademoon Tower, but decided against it. I wouldn't have time to hang around at either location, so there wasn't any real incentive.

Instead, I continued to work on the new cave, slowly turning it into a comfortable base of operations, just in case I needed it, until the scrying constructs I had left in the cell demanded my attention.

What I saw made me pause in disbelief. The Qalupalik had awoken, but it didn't look particularly well. It was scratching at its skin, its claws tearing bloody gashes, and then, all of a sudden, it launched itself at the wall, striking it with enough force to make its hands bleed and even ripping out one of its claws, trying to destroy solid stone. It was as brutal as it was insane, and I instantly channelled magic through the constructs, knocking the thing out again. This would require a lot more effort than I thought, especially if I had to keep the creature from harming itself while I was working to understand its abilities.

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