Rachel says "Hm, it seems I misjudged you Ash."

Koko says "Honorable."

Emelia says "Yes, Koko, he is."

Justin says "Alright, we are with you."

"Great! Brother Raven, if you don't mind can you describe the terrain of the mine and its surroundings?"

Brother Raven describes the mine as a great pit being dug into a mountain with no regard for the surroundings. As he describes it I can't help but think humans are destructive no matter what world they are in. He also describes the surrounding terrain, which is all mountains and hills.

That means we should be able to take out their patrols without raising an alarm. The trick is going to be dealing with the remaining guards while keeping them from using the slaves as a shield. If we can manage that the rest should be pretty easy.

Brother raven's description of the terrain is useful but we are going to need to get close and take a look ourselves. A lot of the things we need to know are things that a bird has no interest in. So we decide to head out and do some scouting of our own, the other heroes all assure me Koko can handle the scouting without a problem.

Great Mother Wolf says "If you have decided then I will send brother raven to guide you there and have the beasts I promised meet you there. When you are ready to launch the attack brother raven will go and prevent reinforcements."

"Thank you very much! All this will help immensely."

Great Mother Wolf says "This is all the aid I plan to give you in this war. In the demon war I will come and fight by your side."

"It will be an honor to fight with you!"

Great Mother Wolf says "Take care of yourself, Ash. I foresee many adventures and battles awaiting you between now and the demon war."

"I will do my best!"

We quickly break down our camp and clean up, making sure everything is just as we found it. Then we take care of our mounts and set off northward following brother raven. Since we are limited to the horse's speed it will take us about a week to reach the area of the mine.

'Drog, can you hear me?'

Drog 'Yes, master. What's up?'

'First, I need you to tell the others I am going to be gone for an additional couple of weeks probably. Then I need you to go to Mercy and play relay so I can inform her of what's going on.'

Drog 'The girls want to know if you want us all to come join you and help out?'

'Unfortunately, I am so far north that it would take you guys a month to catch up, everything will be done by then.'

Drog 'Understood, master. They aren't happy about it though.'

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'I didn't expect them to be. Let me know when you are with Mercy.'

Drog 'Okay, master, I am here.'

'Tell her I am preparing to attack the kingdom's mine and free the slaves.'

Drog 'She says be careful and asks if you need anything.'

'Tell her I will, and I need her to start preparing to take the slaves in. Ask her to ask Zamart to open a temporary portal to up here to move them.'

Drog 'She says she will take care of it.'

'Okay, tell her thank you and be polite!'

Drog 'Yes, master.'

When I finish my conversation with Drog I find the heroes are all staring at me so I end up explaining what is going on. Which of course means I have to explain more about Drog, and then I end up in a conversation with Emmy about contracts. After the first few hours of riding Lizzy starts to get restless, she probably isn't enjoying having to go so slow all the time.

After telling the others to keep going I turn Lizzy away from them and let her run. After traveling at a slower pace the speed of Lizzy's run feels great, she is enjoying the freedom as well. I get the feeling that when we are traveling alone Lizzy will be much happier.

As I ride along just enjoying the breeze I decide I should do something productive. So I draw Blitz and imagine soldiers surrounding Lizzy, I map out the best way to fight against soldiers on the ground and start practicing. Lizzy turns her head to look back with one eye and see what I am doing, then she goes back to enjoying her run.

She doesn't seem to mind me swinging Blitz around on her back at all, guess she was trained as a war mount after all. Then suddenly Lizzy shoots up to her top speed, almost throwing me from her back. Her neck is out straight and her head is low to the ground as she races towards something.

It is hard to judge but my best guess is we are going around fifty miles an hour. Then I see something white flash above the grass ahead of us and I realize Lizzy's sudden rush is because she is hunting. As we quickly get closer I am able to get a look at what she is chasing, it looks something like a rabbit but is the size of a panther.

The rabbit thing is fast enough I know I could never catch it on foot, but Lizzy is able to catch up to it easily. She catches it mid-jump and kills it in one bite, her speed and accuracy make me glad I didn't fight her. Lizzy slows and then stops to eat the rabbit, she devours it in a couple of bites.

After seeing her in action I am really curious as to how the humans of the ancient empire managed to tame her species. Unless they used some seriously powerful magic I can't think of any way they could have done it. I guess they could have used numbers to slaughter them and take eggs to raise in captivity but the losses would have been horrendous.

Or maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, maybe they used magic to create them instead of taming them. If they are a created race that would explain how superior Lizzy is, I almost think she would be on par with the drake if matched it in size. Either way it turns out that through a simple coincidence I have gotten myself an amazing mount.

Since Lizzy is done with her meal I turn her back towards the north and get her moving, but I let her choose her own pace. We have plenty of time before dark and she can easily cover the distance ahead of the horses. Since brother raven is with them as long as I get there first and set up camp he will lead them to me.

Convinced I don't need to worry, I lay back in the saddle and enjoy the wind and sun. I wake from a doze when Lizzy stops, I sit up to see what's going on. Lizzy is looking off to her right and then glances at me, when I say okay she turns and heads off through some trees.

After a few minutes we come to a field covered by short bushes that have red fruit hanging from them. Lizzy starts to eat the fruits one at a time, curious I hop down and pick one. It smells delicious so I pop it into my mouth, and as soon as I bite down my mouth is filled with an amazing tasting juice.

It is like all my favorite deserts all rolled into one, it is too delicious to properly describe it. I happily sit down and continue eating the fruits one by one, making sure to savor the taste of each one. After I finish eating my tenth fruit I get a surprise.

All stats have increased by +1!!

'These fruits can increase my stats? How?!'

It suddenly reminds me of the fruit of the stone tree, it seems plants in this world can be quite special too. I glance at Lizzy who is still happily munching away on the fruits, since she is eating them it should be okay. Wanting to see if the benefits continue I resume eating the fruits one at a time.