After a long night, morning came with a blue sky as clean as the ocean. The sun, which is slightly inclined to the south, slowly rises from east to west in a parabolic path. I knew from the start that this land, which was my habitat, was a land far to the north. I also wouldn't be surprised if apparently, this is at the north pole. After all, in this area, the winters are long, while the cool summers are short. The air here is also dry and the ground often freezes. When winter comes, all the land on the mountains and even the tundra ecosystem will be covered with snow, and when summer comes, the land will bloom again, even though it is only covered with vegetation that is usually found in tundra ecosystems on earth. Still, it's very cold even in summer and frost often occurs at night and early in the morning. I call this summer simply spring, the season when the tundra ecosystem comes to life or the season when our hunting activities become more fluid.

All of these are characteristic of the polar lands of the world. And certainly, this area is a region that is very far from any human settlement. This means that if I want to go to a region that is at least habitable for humans, I have to take a long journey to get out of this arctic ecosystem.

It's been almost a year since I was born into this world as a fox. The air has also been getting colder lately. As usual, I still live in the nest my mother made, while my mother and my two brothers have gone somewhere. For the mother, who was originally the original owner of this territory, it was as if she was handing over the inheritance of her territory to her youngest daughter. I didn't mind, so I happily accepted. Sometimes we do see each other, even if it's just a brief greeting without any touching feelings of reunion. Well, it's a good thing since we're not enemies despite coming out as a family. And the good thing is, they created their own new territory adjacent to the old nest, which is now my territory maybe. So since their territory surrounds this nest, it's a godsend that they become the natural guardians of my territory.

Now it looks like winter is coming again soon. The sun is increasingly leaning south, the air is getting colder is proof.

After my three months of practicing magic, I've gotten used to living the easy life as a white fox. Until now I spent a lot of time getting more proficient in controlling freeze and heat magic, which I can rely on as a weapon in the future. So after one year of this life, I'm thinking is it time for me to get out of this comfort zone? My two brothers may have long since departed to travel the world, while I am still languishing in my mother's nest. Well, it's because I'm still worried about the dangers that I don't know outside of this comfort zone. So until recently, I decided to take more time to study magic.

What I learned were of course 'freeze magic' and 'heat magic'. In 'freeze magic' there are many techniques that I master, for example, the technique of cooling the air around me to lower the temperature of the air around me to below its freezing point. It would definitely come in handy against creatures that couldn't possibly stand the cold. Or I can make tiny ice needles floating in the air, which I make by crystallizing air. But since the air here is dry, I can't use many ice needles.

For now, the core attack method based on freeze magic is just about how I freeze things. If I'm near a water source, I can form various forms of ice for self-defense depending on the situation and conditions. Or with just a reckless choice, I'll stick to the enemy to do as much freeze magic as possible until they freeze.

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In 'heat magic', I can create a fire if there is fuel available. After all, fire is created because of a source of heat, oxygen, and fuel. But here, in a land covered only by ice, fuel was scarce. Even though there are gaseous fuels like hydrogen, I have no way of distinguishing them and collecting them from the atmosphere. So for now 'heat magic' can only be used for everyday needs. For example, heating water, heating meat, or heating a room, even if it's all useless.

But if freeze magic' and 'heat magic' were combined, I could create a better technique. For example, the cold wind tornado that Mother used to defend her territory. The fusion can also be used to create a storm like I used wind magic. The wind is created because of differences in air pressure, and that air pressure can be created because of differences in ambient temperature. So just like using wind magic, I can create a storm if the scale of the difference in air pressure is enlarged. Manipulating the weather is also possible, but it's beyond my reach and there seems to be a shortage in terms of magical energy.

Even so, there is one technique that I still don't understand how it works. That is the body augmentation technique, which was used by both my mother and her enemy back then. How it works, I don't know. I've tried to eat a lot and tried to imagine temporarily accelerating body growth with the food I eat, but can't. No matter how much I try, I can't do the body enlargement technique. Thus, I only surmised that the technique might require several years of accumulated growth to be able to learn such a technique.

For the current matter of defense, I'll just figure out how to handle magical energy efficiently to cast the most suitable magic technique. However magical energy is limited, if it runs out, I will be exhausted and unable to use magic. Luckily that energy limit grows every day and can be accelerated by continuing to practice using magic and eating enough food. Still, that doesn't mean energy is unlimited, if I don't get food, which is used as energy recovery when my magical energy runs out, I'll definitely die. That's why I have to find a way to use magical energy as efficiently as possible.

The expenditure of magical energy would depend on how hard the laws of nature were bent, the easier the concept, the less energy was used, and conversely, the more difficult the concept, the more magical energy was required. So to maximize self-defense, but with minimal energy consumption, some of the techniques I use are creating thin but very sharp ice needles. By shooting ice needles into the enemy's eyes, it was enough to defend me. But the air humidity above this ground is so low, that I can only make very thin ice needles. Although it is also very useful because it becomes sharper.

It will also be a choice of timing for my itinerary when I decide to leave the territory. That's when winter comes.

With the arrival of winter and snowfall, nature seemed to turn into a natural defense for creatures like me, who prefer cold weather. That's why I want to travel during winter when it snows.

In search of human settlements, it must be in the south direction. Because after all, this place was the northernmost region of the world, so heading north would only lead me to land all white, cold, and filled with ice. West and East are also futile because they do not lead to conclusions. So just by looking at the certainty, then the South is the right answer.

As I said earlier, the plan was for me to leave after winter came or it snowed. It will help me in my natural defense.

In search of human settlements, I will also follow river paths. A river has its head in a lake near this area and that would surely lead me to a livable place. After all, the river will also be my natural weapon. So I'll follow the river's course no matter what shape it takes while still making sure I head south.