The night was far too quiet.
Lusian had been awake for some time, staring at the wooden ceiling, when he heard the first snap outside the dwelling.
One step.
Then another.
He opened his eyes fully and remained motionless, sharpening his senses in the darkness. It wasn't an attack. The weight of the footsteps was too heavy for a predator in hunting mode, but too irregular and scattered to belong to a guard patrol.
He rose silently. Beside him, Elizabeth slept with slow, deep breaths.
Lusian stepped outside and walked several meters across the damp grass.
Then he saw them.
An entire herd.
And they weren't carnivores.
They came directly from the lower slopes of the savanna. Broad-backed deer, twisted-horned antelopes, and other hoofed beasts Lusian had never seen in his previous life advanced in a leisurely line. Some specimens bore small antlers covered in a faint auroral glow; others displayed natural runic patterns across their fur.
They weren't frightened or fleeing from danger.
They seemed drawn by an invisible magnet.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
"What the hell...?"
One of the creatures stopped only a few meters from him. It raised its head, inhaled deeply, savoring the scent in the air, and continued climbing the slope.
Lusian turned his gaze toward the dense stretch of newly formed forest. The plants surrounding the Mother Tree had undergone another unnatural growth spurt during the night.
And this time, he understood the cause and effect with absolute clarity.
It wasn't simply a search for food.
It was an addiction to mana.
The local flora was absorbing and concentrating an enormous density of energy. In doing so, it had become an irresistible feast for any herbivore in the region. The beasts didn't need to understand magical theory. Their primal instincts screamed that eating here meant evolving.
Lusian tensely rubbed a hand over his face.
"Perfect... just what I needed."
The herd continued its leisurely advance. One of the deer passed practically brushing against him, completely indifferent to his presence, and began chewing on the shoots of a glowing shrub.
Lusian let out a heavy sigh.
"No."
The deer raised its head, ears twitching.
"That's as far as you go."
The creature stared at him with large, expressionless eyes. Lusian pointed down the slope with an authoritative tone.
"You can eat whatever you want down there in the savanna. But from this boundary onward, not a single shoot."
The deer didn't even flinch.
"Don't look at me like that."
A silver-furred antelope approached from the flank and began chewing another branch. Lusian pointed at it with his index finger.
"You either."
The animals stood motionless, staring straight at him.
For one ridiculous moment, Lusian had the strange feeling that he was trying to negotiate the terms of an invasion with his own pantry.
"This is absurd..."
"Who are you talking to?" Selvryn's voice came from behind him.
Lusian pointed toward the tide of horns and fur.
"They want to settle here."
Selvryn assessed the beasts with the clinical gaze of an elven hunter.
"They don't want to settle here."
"They're crossing the perimeter."
"They want the concentrated mana."
Lusian glanced at her.
"That doesn't improve the situation at all."
Selvryn offered a faint smile.
"For them, it does." She took a couple of steps forward, brushing against the grass. "The plants are growing at an accelerated rate, and the mana density in their sap is twice that of the open savanna."
Lusian turned his attention back to the herd. The pieces fell into place. The savanna still had grass and shrubs, but these creatures had discovered a superior source of food.
A richer diet meant greater development of bodily mana; more mana translated into greater muscular and magical growth; and growth meant survival in a hostile ecosystem.
"So they're coming here to level up," Lusian summarized.
"Exactly."
Lusian sighed.
"They can't stay."
Selvryn looked at him curiously.
"Are you going to stop an entire migration?"
"Yes."
"All of them?"
Lusian looked at the herd and then at the dense forest guarding the Mother Tree.
"If we let the herbivores turn this place into their pasture, it won't take more than two days for the predators to follow them."
Selvryn's smile disappeared.
The logic was merciless: first the herbivores, then the packs of carnivores, and finally the calamities of the savanna.
The Mother Tree risked becoming the central watering hole of a wild and uncontrollable food chain.
Lusian stepped forward.
The herd retreated slightly as a sudden wave of pressure emanated from his figure.
"Listen carefully."
Selvryn raised an eyebrow, amused.
"I highly doubt they understand human language."
"I don't care."
Lusian pointed toward an imaginary line in the ground.
"This is the boundary. You can eat whatever you find down in the savanna. You can grow and become as strong as you want." He paused deliberately. "But if you cross this line..."
He drew Dainslein and drove the tip of the blade into the earth.
A tide of dense, frigid darkness immediately spread several meters around his boots.
The beasts' primal instincts reacted instantly to the emanation of death.
They recoiled as one.
"...you'll end up on a grill."
Selvryn stared at him, blinking amid the strange silence.
"On a what?"
Lusian blinked, realizing his choice of terminology.
"Nothing."
"You just threatened an entire herd with cooking them."
"It's an expression."
"I have no idea what that word means."
"I do, and trust me, it applies."
Selvryn let out a low, crystalline giggle.
Lusian looked at her sternly.
"It's not funny."
"A little."
At that moment, the alpha deer took a hesitant step forward.
Lusian's expression turned to stone.
"I'm not joking."
The creature froze with its hoof suspended in midair.
For several agonizing seconds, the warrior and the leader of the herd held each other's gaze.
Finally, the deer lowered its head, turned around, and began retreating.
The rest of the herd followed without hesitation, beginning an orderly descent back toward the lowlands.
Selvryn watched as their silhouettes gradually disappeared into the nighttime mist.
"Impressive. It worked."
"They'd better." Lusian pulled Dainslein from the ground and returned it to its sheath. "I'm not spending the next few months patrolling the perimeter just to scare off livestock that discovers the grass tastes better here."
Selvryn crossed her arms over her chest.
"Don't get complacent."
"Why?"
The elf turned her gaze toward the deeper darkness of the savanna.
"Soon, it won't be just herbivores following the trail of mana."
Lusian followed her gaze, looking into the distance.
The shadow across his face hardened instantly.
"I know."
Far away, hidden among the undergrowth where the light of the Tree could no longer reach, something had just snapped a dry branch.
It had no antlers.
And it did not feed on leaves.
It had stalked the herd from the steppe, and now its eyes remained fixed on the summit.
Lusian released a long, exhausted sigh.
"I knew this was too easy."