What if the quest came up because the only way to win is to unify the peninsula? I think that I can handle the demon lords, but who knows what tricks they have come up with. If I am wrong, then I would be the one responsible for us losing the war.

Odds are, that isn't why the quest came up, but can I afford to take that chance? I feel like now that I have gotten the quest, I need to complete it or something will go wrong. Luckily, I don't have to make a decision right away, I have some time to think about it.

Once orders have been issued to all the units, there isn't much that needs to be done. We get to sit around and wait for reports to come back, which leaves me with too much time to think. Getting lost in my own head is a bad idea, I need something to distract me.

"Leonarr, I am going to meditate. Only disturb me if we get a location for Pine or the troops run into something that they can't handle."

Leonarr says "Yes, sir!"

I head back to my room inside the fort, sit on the broken bed, and start meditating. Then I do something that I haven't done in a long time, I enter the hall of doors. I haven't forgotten what the dragon said, if I want to defeat the controller I need a stronger soul.

It is just hard to find the time when I have so many other things that I need to do. However, right now there is nothing else that I can do until something happens. So, I figure this is a good time to do a little more exploring of the hallway.

I remember that the last door I explored was the one with the battlefields. However, there was nothing there to kill for experience, so I go past it and open a new door. After all, my goal is to increase the level of my soul, so I need things to kill.

So, I move past that door, open the next one, and step through it. On the other side I find myself in a forest. As I start absorbing mana to form a physical body I notice something odd. Unless I am tiny for some reason, these trees are absolutely huge.

However, the other plants that I can see around me look normal sized. So, I am guessing that I am also normal sized and the trees are just giants. As soon as my body is done forming, I pick a direction and start exploring.

I make sure to watch for attacks from above, these big trees make me nervous. Most of them are over a hundred feet tall, which makes me think something is strange in this world. Then again, most of these worlds have been strange in one way or another.

After walking for a few minutes I spot the first creature, which is a massive bear. Other than its size, it looks like a normal bear, no extra legs or anything. The fact that it is at least fifteen feet at the shoulder is a little worrying though.

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However, exp is the reason I am here, so I am not going to just walk away and ignore it. That doesn't mean I am going to just charge the thing, it looks like it will be a hard fight. It looks like it has really thick fur, so I am doubting my normal fireball will do much.

Instead, I decide to go with lightning since it has a better piercing ability. Besides, if I am going to choose lightning as my primary ability, I should use it more. So, I prepare a lightning bolt in each hand and compress them as much as I can.

When they are ready, I throw one at the bear to see how well it works. From the way the bear roars after the bolt hits it, I at least managed to piss it off. Not wanting to waste any time, I go ahead and throw the other bolt at it.

As soon as it leaves my hand, I start creating another pair of them. The second bolt hits the bear in the shoulder and makes it stagger a little. At least I know it is having an effect, so as soon as the next two are ready I throw them as well.

The bear obviously wants to charge at me, but everytime it tries it gets hit with more lightning. I feel kind of like Zeus as I keep throwing bolt after bolt at the bear. In the end, it dies after the tenth bolt hits it, it was tougher than I expected.

1 Great Bear defeated! 1,000 Soul Exp gained!

Well, that was more exp than I was expecting, but it was definitely worth the effort. While ten lightning bolts used up a decent chunk of mana, it is acceptable. I should be able to kill a few more bears before I have to start worrying about my mana.

The corpse of the bear doesn't dissolve, which should mean that this is a physical world. From what I have learned about the planes, this should be on the same plane as my world. Or at least that is what I think, but that doesn't mean that it is true.

After all, I am going off of what people have told me, there is no guarantee that they were right. I already know that even gods can be wrong, so it is hard to trust anyone's knowledge. Out of them, I trust the dragon the most, but even he can be wrong.

Although, where the world is in relation to mine doesn't really affect anything. It is mainly my curiosity that makes me think about things that I don't have real answers for. It just likes to torment me whenever I can't provide it with the answers it wants.

I am just glad that my curiosity is a part of me and not a separate thing that can talk in my head. That would be guaranteed to quickly drive me completely insane. As it is, it has driven me to do some pretty stupid things to try and get answers.

These are the thoughts that are running through my head as I wander around looking for another bear. However, the next animal I spot isn't a bear, it is a very large, angry looking tiger. I can't help but wonder if I am going backwards and will run into a lion next.

Regardless of my random thoughts, I prepare and start throwing lightning bolts at the tiger. Unlike the bear, the tiger reacts and moves quickly after the first bolt hits it. It even manages to make me miss a few times, but it doesn't reach me before it dies.

1 Great Tiger defeated! 800 Soul Exp gained!

Well, it is worth less than the bear was, but at the same time it was easier to kill. Although, it does make me wonder why both the bear and tiger were called great by the system. It kind of makes me want to kill a squirrel to see if it is a great squirrel.

Unfortunately, I don't find a squirrel, nor do I find a lion, but I do find another bear. This one is slightly larger than the last one and it proves to be harder to kill. To keep it from reaching me, I have to keep backing up until it finally dies.

1 Great Bear defeated! 1,000 Soul Exp gained!