The group got to know their new boat a little better and made more plans for catching up with Nathan. Sophia learned from the mayor of the city they visited that some of the prince's group had higher magic powers than most beastfolk. Thanks to that, the blonde could easily use her detection magic to find them because they'd stick out from everything else she’d pick up.

  “Should we split up again?" The following day, the girls were back on their new boat when Sophia looked at everyone. “I’m going to speedrun finding Anna’s brother today, so all I’ll be doing will be throwing one portal after another without any exploring or anything else of interest.”

  “I’m absolutely going to join you!” Naturally, Anna had no intention of letting her do that on her own.

  “Same!” Ari nodded a few times. “Not just because you two need a babysitter and supervision, but also because I want to see Nina as soon as possible.”

  “Nina or that puma-girl?” The princess smiled at her.

  “Yes!”

  “I think I want to put a few more levels into my sailing skills, so I need to grind some XP.” Steph lightly shook her head.

  “I kind of want to learn a little more about it, too.” Chloe looked at her dog-girl.

  “Sure, let’s learn more together!”

  “I think it would be best if I stay and make sure they don’t sink our new boat.” Maya had a bad feeling about the energetic couple. “Also, I want to give the kitchen a test run.”

  “That sounds like a good plan.” Ari glanced at Chloe and Steph before smiling at the cat-girl. “Also, please tell me about all the quirks of the kitchen afterward!”

  “Will do!”

  “Alright, let’s head out!” Once they agreed on whether to join her or not, Sophia clapped her hands to get going.

  ----------------

  Steph got the boat close to the shore because Ari refused to swim to land for some reason, and the tigers, together with the spoiled jaguar, got off to find the prince.

  “So, what’s the plan exactly again?” On dry land, the princess looked at her fellow tiger.

  “I’ll adjust my detection magic after every jump so that no one with regular powers shows up on it. I've already tried it with the trade city earlier, so that no one from there is visible to me. With that, I can easily concentrate on anything or anyone stronger. There shouldn't be much, if anything, showing up for me now while we travel until we find them.”

  "Ahh, okay, sounds like it makes sense!"

  “We still have to hope and be lucky that they’re still near the shore, right?” Ari’s eyes wandered between the ocean and further land inside.

  “That is indeed true.” Sophia nodded. “However, the range of my detection magic is massive. If I sacrifice some details, it easily has a radius of over 200 kilometers all around me. I was also thinking about doing shorter skips with the portals and jump further inland every now and then to cover a bigger area in a zig-zaggy way.”

  “I’d appreciate that so much!” Anna was very thankful for her suggestion.

  “Hehe.” She liked being depended on. "Okay, let's go that direction first!" The short tiger pointed at a 45-degree angle away from the ocean before pulling out one of her portal stones and throwing it in that direction.

  “And?” After the trio stepped through the portal and found themselves on a green plain in the middle of nowhere, Anna immediately looked at Sophia, who had her eyes closed as she seemingly concentrated on something.

  “Nope.” She quickly shook her head. “To be fair, they have a head start of like half a year. It will take a good few jumps before we get close. How much distance can normal people cover in a day? I’m not a good example, so I’m not going to take a guess.”

  “That really depends on how distracted you get.” Ari shrugged. “Also, on the terrain and weather. You won’t be traveling much on a mountain during the winter, but 50 kilometers a day on a plain with nice weather should be doable if you try. I’d say that’s the maximum for normal people.”

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  “Nathan also likes to chat with everyone he meets, and the fact that they stay forever in every city."

  “Woah, I sure hope so.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “While 50 kilometers isn’t much at all, that’s still almost 10.000 kilometers in half a year!”

  “There’s simply no way Nathan travelled 10.000 kilometers in half a year.” Anna vigorously shook her head.

  “Absolutely NO way!” Ari’s reaction was even stronger. “Totally impossible.”

  “That’s good.” The blonde let out a small sigh. “I’m not sure if I was mentally prepared for doing the portal skip a hundred times today.”

  “Rather understandable.” The jaguar couldn’t blame her for that.

  “Okay, time for the next one!” Sophia closed the portal they used to get there and picked up the enchanted stone before throwing it again. “Any bets on how many skips we're going to use?”

  “15!” Anna seemed rather optimistic.

  “I’d go with 20-something.” Ari felt like Nathan's group had gotten a little further.

  “Well, let’s see what door number two has to offer!” Saying so, the blonde stepped through the new portal with the other two following after her.

  “Oh, we’re back closer to the water again, huh?” The jaguar noticed the ocean a little distance away from them.

  “Yeah, I was planning to alternate between the coastline and a bit further inland so we can cover a lot more areas with little extra work, as I mentioned before."

  “So, anything showing up on your thing?” The princess got excited again.

  “Maya, Chloe, and Steph are still at the edge of my range, but I see nothing otherwise.”

  “Makes sense.” Ari nodded. “While there’s no way they walked 10.000 kilometers, I’m fairly confident in saying they made more than a few hundred kilometers.”

  “Time to pick the pace!” Sophia energetically raised her arm high in the air.

  “Let’s go!”

  ----------------

  Doing as promised, Sophia kicked into high gear, and the girls went through ten portals in less than 30 minutes.

  “Alright, if my calculations don’t fail me, which, uhhh… certainly is a possibility, we should be roughly a thousand kilometers away from our boat now.” The blonde scratched her cheek.

  “It’s so surreal just thinking about that number.” Ari wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  “It looks so different here, too!” Anna first looked inland, where a massive and lush green forest completely blocked their view. Then, focusing on the ocean, the tall tiger noticed many smaller and bigger islands not too far away from the shore.

  “Wow, the islands seem fun!” Sophia also liked the view. “Oh, looks like some of the bigger islands are inhabited, too." She concentrated her gaze on them for a moment. “I don’t sense anyone noticeably more powerful, though. Feels like regular beastfolk to me.”

  “That could be fun to visit with our boat!” The princess also got interested.

  “I like that!” The blonde lightly clapped her hands. “Let’s tell Steph and the others once we’re back~.”

  “Speaking of being back, how is it looking?” Ari got curious about whether their tracking tiger found something.

  “Nothing of interest." She shook her head. "However, I put my detection back to normal every time I threw the portal, so I wouldn't accidentally hit a group of people. There, I noticed that we skipped over quite a number of villages and cities. A few of them were rather big, too. If Nathan and his group stopped at all of them and maybe even stayed for some time in the sizeable ones, we should be catching up to them even faster now.”

  “That would be amazing if true!” Anna’s eyes were sparkling again.

  “Time to continue! Though, before that, let’s leave one of my portal stones here so we can find those islands later if we want to visit them.”

  "Is it really such a good idea to leave them all over the place?" Ari glanced at the enchanted rock before looking at Sophia. "You don’t really feel much, if at all, magic coming out of them if the portal is deactivated, but what if people accidentally pick it up and get curious once someone especially sensitive feels something?”

  “Well, they’d get confused, but that should be about it.” The blonde shrugged. "The regular beastfolk would need to pump a good chunk of their magic into the stone for it to activate, and even then, the portal wouldn't connect to anything. Only I can activate the portal on the other side remotely.”

  “Hmm?” The jaguar tilted her head. “The portals you gave us always lead back to your domain, though? Even without you around.”

  “The ones I gave you all are linked to portals in my domain that are permanently open for this reason.” The shorter tiger smiled at her. “Only yours are like that, though. Also, no one can enter my domain without my permission. So, even if I accidentally let a linked portal lying around somewhere, no one could get through it without me allowing it. Well, if both linked portals are outside of my domain, like the ones between cities, things aren’t quite as restrictive, but I also care less about that~.”

  “Your deep fixation on the most weirdest things will never cease to amaze me.” Ari was fascinated by how the blonde’s brain worked. “In good and bad ways.”

  “Thanks?”

  “You’re welcome~.” The jaguar smiled at her.

  ----------------

  “Ah.” The trio did another eight jumps when Sophia suddenly froze the moment she stepped out of the portal.

  “Stop that!” Ari reacted purely on instinct.

  “Fine, then I’m not going to tell you about what I just picked up with my detection magic.”

  “Sorry, it was a force of habit!” The jaguar instantly apologized.

  “Seriously?!” Anna got so excited that even her ears and tail began to twitch.

  “How strong are your siblings?” Sophia tilted her head. “Roughly similar to how you two were before I boosted your?”

  “Pretty much.” The couple nodded.

  “Let’s see.” The blonde closed her eyes again to concentrate. “There are two somewhat weaker magic spots right next to them that are still slightly above the regular beastfolk and roughly remind me of you two when I first met you.”

  “That sounds rather promising!”

  "Let's go IMMEDIATELY!" Anna was even more motivated than the jaguar and couldn't wait any longer.

  “Sure~.” Sophia just smiled at her.

  Afterward, Sohpia threw her portal stone one last time to get as close to the group that she had spotted with her detection magic as possible.

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