Frostbound

We planned out our trip on the map for a while longer but the markers were set and our destination was confirmed. The trip would take months and that required an entirely different level of planning.

My initial assumptions were that it would take around a week or two to get up to Minnesota but the map showed how misguided that thought was. I was thinking in my sprinting speed and the distance from before the world grew, not the speed of carts and the long haul the Earth's growth turned it into.

It quickly transitioned into a trek that we would need to be prepared for and a lot more planning was required. Stopping points would need to be planned out. Where to get water and food needed to be considered.

One of the first things we needed to do was figure out how far we could travel in a day. That decided almost everything else for our trip and we wouldn't be able to know that until we set out.

My plan for pulling the carts needed to be completely overhauled. If it was only a week or so, pulling them by hand didn't sound too bad. We had well over 30 people by now and only around 5 or 6 carts of material, it wouldn't be that hard to pull it.

People with high strength especially. The warriors would be doing the heavy lifting but magic could work as well, pushing the carts with whatever element you controlled. It was a mental exercise rather than a physical one but doable nonetheless.

Less than half of our mages had an element that could be used like that but it was better than nothing. Fire and light would sooner burn the cart than push it.

Also, during the trip, we needed to constantly be aware of our surroundings. Tracing out our path led us through some of the hot spots on the map where the mana was dense and plentiful. Monsters and beasts would be prevalent there which we would need to look out for.

I didn't miss much about the tutorial but not having Kathy to scout for us was becoming increasingly frustrating. It was so much easier to have her birds up in the air keeping lookout rather than having people rove around.

Plus, she would be able to tame a few animals to pull the carts for us.

Thinking of her made me kick the ground in frustration. I had offered for her to join us but she respectfully declined. While she was a college student here and lived here currently, she wasn't from here.

She was from a few hours south and she wanted to go down there to where her family and friends were.