“What makes something a monster? That they have skills and abilities beyond a normal animal,” I said.

“No. That is not what makes them a Monster. That is the result of being a Monster. What makes them a Monster is the fact they have a Monster Core. From that monster core comes their abilities and sometimes affinities. Some creatures, like Trolls and Griffons, are born monsters, which means they are born with a monster core. Other creatures like the Dire Wolf or Sabertooth animals grow a monster core over time. There are many ways this happens, such as eating a lot of monster meat or making their den in a place of high spirituality. The key is they need to imbibe lots of spiritual energy over a period of time. This means they get stronger and more intelligent and can develop affinities. Affinities only manifest when the monster core does.”

“But not Trolls?” I asked.

“No Trolls are born with a monster core and usually an affinity. They only get stronger as they age, with stronger regeneration. So we are going to eyeball this Troll. How do we do that without it sensing us? What are its strong and weak senses?”

I thought about the mark in the tree. “It has a good sense of smell.”

“Yes, and?”

I shrugged.

“Okay, first, its sense of smell is not just good; it is remarkable. It is probably as good as a journeyman-level olfactory sense or even a master level, depending on how old the troll is. It has good hearing, but it is not exceptional. Its main weakness is its sight. It is very shortsighted. Because it was born with an ice affinity, it may well have developed the ability to sense through ice. That is one of the things we need to try and find out.”

Yoboc indicted into the troll territory, “We are going to stealth in to see the troll. What are you going to do if your stealth is not good enough?”

“Run,” I said.

“Yes, and trolls are not fast creatures, but what is their best sense?”

“Smell. So it will track me. I need to hide my smell.”

“More than that. We are going to hide our smell when we go in, but if it senses you, you need a way to change your scent so it loses your trail.”

“What about leaving the ground and using the trees?” I asked.

“Your smell will linger in the air, and there is not much breeze today. You always run downwind to minimise your smell to the troll, and with your Olfactory sense, you should get an idea of where the troll is behind you. There is another big factor. What is it?”

It was like light bloomed in my thoughts as I realised the answer he wanted, “Stay off the ice.” The light blooming in my mind was Monster Lore being added to my Status.

“Yes, ice,” Yoboc said, “Even if it doesn’t have an ice-sensing ability, its affinity is ice, and it will manipulate ice to kill you. That is why the commander wants to attack it soon. In summer, ice is at the minimum; therefore, an ice troll is at its weakest. There is always ice in this area, and the Ice Troll will retreat further up the mountain to stay near ice during the summer. Here, take two of these.” Yoboc handed me two round bladders of liquid.

I gave him a questioning look.

“Home-made stink bladders,” Yoboc explained. “To combat scent tracking, you use powerful smells. These are only to be used in an emergency. The object is to sneak in, observe, and get out without being noticed. However, you should always have at least one escape plan, preferably more. That one is made from crushed stink beetle, and the other one is from a sea slug, that is also mildly poisonous.”

We circled the troll’s territory to be downwind, even if there was only a light breeze. We muffled our smell with the smell of crushed pine needles and placed them in our armour.

I had the stink bladders in a belt pouch, and it occurred to me that they would also be a good weapon to use against me, to confuse and restrict my ability. I need to watch that.

Yoboc’s stealth is way above mine. I kind of suspect he has some sort of advanced skill. He has left me to make my own way into the troll. This is obviously a test. He can cheat as Shiela will already be flying over and looking at the troll, and we probably don’t even need to go in ourselves, but this is training, and as training goes, it is very real.

I wish for more wind, as it will tell me where the troll is quicker. My stealth is Apprentice level, and this will stretch it. It is not just about moving quietly—that is novice-level stealth. This is about using the environment to hide and break up your profile and using shadows and obstacles to hide your movement.

You need to watch the sun and be sure of where your shadow falls. In some spaces, you need very slow and careful movement, whereas a quick sprint can be the key to other terrain. Sometimes, I am crawling, and sometimes, I am Sprinting, and everything in between. Knowing when and how to move is what matters, and under all that, it is silent moving and not disturbing the ground or leaving tracks.

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I am getting better, and my skill is moving steadily to the Journeyman level. Getting all this right will get me to Journeyman. Then what is the master level of the skill? Is Journeyman level and above actively countering skills that are hunting for you? It would make sense, and I guess we will see when we get there.

I moved carefully, catching the occasional whiff of the same smell as the claw mark had. I could not tell if it was the Troll or another mark it had left. Maybe it was just where it defecated.

As I move up the mountain, the snow and ice are getting harder to avoid. I do start using the trees and low branches. As I worked forward, I considered the difference between Ice and snow. Mom had a snow affinity, and the Ice Cats and trolls have ice. Ice is frozen water, but I remember Mom saying snow was frozen air, including moisture content. Mom’s snow affinity was somewhere between ice and air affinities, with some cross-over. She never explained it properly.

Would an Ice Troll be able to sense through snow? Another question is what is the range of the ability if it has one, and how sensitive would it be? I guess those answers would be a question of what level the skill is.

How much information am I going to be able to get with my Identify skill at barely apprentice level?

I see the troll in the distance, but I can’t make out any details, and I can't use Identify. Maybe if I got Farsight, it would sync with Identify and other skills. Farsight is a requirement for scout-type classes. Scouting is not really my thing, but Identifying threats in the distance is useful, and I can then choose to engage or avoid them.

When I next saw it, the troll had moved. It was squatting under a rock overhang, which still had icicles hanging down, even though they were dripping.

It was taller than I was and bulkier. I couldn’t tell very well how tall it was while it was squatting. Its arms seemed longer in proportion to its body than they would be on a human, more like ape proportions. It had wicked claws on its fingers. The legs were short but looked powerful, and the feet had similar claws. Its obvious male feature was hanging prominently between its legs.

Its face was flat like a human’s, with no muzzle like a bear's or wolf’s. Its mouth was wider than a human or dwarf. The teeth were sharper, like mine. It was gnawing on a bone. It had a very prominent nose and quite large ears.

It was covered in long, matted, white fur. As I watched an icicle drip and hit the fur, I realised it had turned to ice. The fur was matted but also frozen with layers of Ice. It is going to be very hard to penetrate ice-reinforced fur.

I detect movement in my peripheral vision and turn to look. It is Yoboc. I think he deliberately broke stealth, so I saw him. The Commander's lessons about keeping watch are paying off, and I am much more aware of my surroundings.

Yoboc indicated I should join him on the ground. I looked at the snow he was standing on and raised my eyebrow in question. He reiterated that I was to join him, so I dropped from the low branch I was on to land beside him.

“What happened to staying off the ice?” I whispered.

“It is snow, not ice, and any ice sense will be severely restricted by snow.” He whispered back, “Ice sense works best through solid layers of ice, so snow restricts the range. Plus, there is bare ground between us and the troll, so Ice Sense will stop at the edge of the snow where it is standing.”

That would have been good information to have before now.

“What can you determine from what you see,” Yoboc asked.

“If it stood, it would be maybe a half meter taller than me. It looks strong, and the icy fur will be tough to get through.”

“You noticed the ice-matted fur, good,” Yoboc said. “The size of the monster tells me it is early adult and probably in the middle of the power range. Look at its mouth. The length of the teeth confirms this, particularly the fangs on the edge. They and the claws grow with older age, but the claws are unreliable indicators as they are often broken in fights. What else?”

“It is staying out of the sun.”

“Yes, but that is not the only reason it is under the rock,” Yoboc said, “They normally have their lairs in a cave and are mostly active from twilight. There is no real twilight this time of year, but their biggest predator is Griffons. It has poor eyesight, so it will not venture into the open often. It prefers rock, as you see, but in the forest, it is fine as well, away from the open sky.”

I could understand that. In the open, it would not see, hear or smell an attack coming, and griffons diving from the open sky would leave it with little defence. “Can it generate its own ice?” I ask.

“Yes. They have strong Physical Attributes and strong Spiritual Strength. They have weak Mental Attributes. The Level of its Spiritual Perception will determine if it has an Ice Sensing ability and how strong it might be. Can you Identify it from here?”

I shook my head.

“Move in until you can identify it, and then come back.”

When I used it on the dwarves at camp, I would normally be able to sense their main class and its strength, e.g., Goldie was a Level 11 Forrester. I didn’t know what other classes she had, but I sensed she had high physical attributes and moderate mental and spiritual ones, whereas Undoth had high spiritual and mental attributes.

I got very little from some people, like the Commander and Yoboc. Yoboc told me that is because they had mental defences powered by high Mental Strength.

I got in range of the Troll, and it didn’t have high mental attributes. The impression I got from Identify was that the troll was highly dangerous to me. It had high Physical Strength but only moderate Physical Agility and Perception. I got the impression that it had high Spiritual Strength and poor Spiritual Agility and Perception. I didn’t get the impression of any skills. I headed back to Yoboc and reported what I sensed.

Yoboc nodded, ”That is good for your level. I assume your Identify has moved to Apprentice level?”

I checked and nodded.

“Good. It confirms what I also sensed. With the poor Spiritual Perception, I would think this troll does not have an Ice Sensing ability, or if it does, its range is really close. By far, its strongest skill is Ice Armor, which is powered by strong Spiritual Strength. With poor Spiritual Agility, it will not be throwing ice spikes or anything, so it will only be throwing raw hunks of ice, but they will probably be large ones. See those tracks?” I nodded, “They lead to its cave. Goldie is checking that out so there are no surprises, like a mate. It would be unusual as they usually mate in winter, but these things need to be confirmed. Trolls are normally solitary creatures, but it always pays to check. We will head back, and as we go, think about how you would fight and kill such a monster.”