Things are too complicated for me to even guess about what is going to happen. At this point, I don't even know if a war with the empire is going to happen or not. My first priority when I get back is going to be to finish unifying all of the beast clans.

Only with all of the clans working together will we have enough forces to fight the empire. I would really prefer not to fight them, I don't want to waste my troops. If we do enough damage fighting each other, we would basically do the demon's job for them.

I am fairly confident that Illium and the kingdom will ally with me against the demons. I just don't know if they will be willing to fight against the empire with us. If we are on our own, that means that our casualties will be that much higher.

One option would be for Lin and I to use our magic to level a city or two. That would likely terrify the empire enough to make them reconsider going to war with us. However, the amount of innocents that would be killed would be in the hundreds of thousands.

I don't want to do that, I don't even know if I could live with myself if I did. Even if I could, I doubt that Lin could and I am not sure if I could live with her if she did. All in all, I don't want to find out the answers to those questions, I will just avoid it altogether.

The top of the volcano is only about twenty feet above sea level, but the volcano could erupt again. The lava in the caldera has not cooled enough to solidify, so it is still active. The island formed around it is still small and the rock is still steaming.

Glancing down at the volcano, I can somehow feel that it will soon erupt again. However, I can't feel anymore of the energy within it meaning I have no more interest in staying. So, after figuring out the right direction I take off and start looking for the ship.

If I only slept for a few hours, the ship should be easy to find, but if I slept longer it will be a problem. I am assuming that I slept for at least a couple of hours, so I fly west along the coast. The ship should have had enough time to detour around the volcano and resume its original course.

I could have just gated to the ship, but in my worry about how long has passed I don't even think of it. Luckily, the ship comes within sight after I have been flying for less than thirty minutes. From that, I at least know that I haven't slept for days, it should be less than a day.

I quickly catch up to the ship, land on the balcony, and shapeshift into beastman form. I walk through the cabin, exit onto the deck, and head up to the bridge.

"Athena, how long was I gone? Did you encounter any problems?"

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Athena says "You left the ship five and a half hours ago. We got hit by some big waves from the eruption, but no damage was done to the ship."

"That's good. I am relieved. Oh, what's our current position?"

Athena says "We are currently here. We should arrive at the island you selected within the next two days."

"Alright, perfect. I want to arrive at the island around noon, so slow down if needed."

Athena says "Understood, master."

With that sorted, I head down to the cabin and then enter into the castle. When I enter the main room I find Lin and the kids sitting at the table eating. Based on the kids talking about the shadow plane, I am guessing that they are eating dinner.

"I'm back!"

Lin says "Welcome home, darling! How was it? Did the volcano help you?"

"Yes! Quite a bit actually. It was definitely worth the trip. Did anything happen while I was gone?"

Lin says "Nope. It has been quiet."

"That's good. So, did you miss me?"

Lin says "Of course I did! You'll see how much later."

"Oh, really? I will look forward to it!"

Lin says "Aren't you hungry? Why are you still standing there?"

With a laugh, I walk over, sit down next to her, and start eating some dinner. Only when I start eating do I realize how hungry I actually am, it feels like I haven't eaten in days. Even after Lin and the kids finish eating, I am still hungry, so I continue eating.

By the time I feel full, I have eaten about three times as much as I normally do. I didn't feel any changes in my body, but apparently something about the volcano used up my energy. Even though I only got evolution points from it, it was certainly worth it.

When I finally finish eating I realize that my mana is finally fully recovered. Since that is the case, I head downstairs to take a bath and use it all on my core.

Core Upgrade Progress: 60%

As soon as I am done, I head up to the bedroom to relax and wait for Lin. To pass the time, I read some manga and before I know it Lin is jumping on me. We kiss and cuddle for a while and then we show how much we missed each other.

Despite sleeping in the volcano, after three rounds with Lin I am tired enough to fall asleep. I wake up about four hours later, but Lin is completely wrapped around me. It takes me a few minutes to carefully untangle myself without waking her up.

Once I am free, I make sure she is in a comfortable position and cover her with the blanket. Then I head down to my workshop and start making more mana storage crystals. I end up having enough materials to make ten move crystals, giving me a total of twelve.

It would have been more, but my experiments used up the other crystals. Still, twelve crystals should be more than enough for what I want to do with them. With twelve full crystals, Lin and I could create a spell that would level a country.

I don't actually plan to go that far, I would prefer not to use any spells that large. If nothing else, that would definitely get the attention of all the gods and goddesses. At most, I would use them to cast high damage spells in quick succession.

Even that would attract more attention than I want to deal with, but I will if I have to. Of course, that is assuming that I can figure out how to charge them up. I think I can come up with a formation to gather mana and then an enchantment to purify it.

No, wait, I already have an enchantment to gather mana, I should use that. Then all I need to come up with is a formation to engrave on the crystal to purify the mana. I already figured out how to enchant things so they stop gathering mana when they are full.