"Slavers? They don't know this place has fallen. They must be planning to make a delivery."

Pol says "What are your orders, Lord Ash?"

"Ambush them, kill all the slavers and guards. Free the slaves, we will take them with us to the rebellion."

Pol says "With pleasure!"

Pol runs off and the fifty beastmen follow him, more join them before they reach the road out of the mines. In total around three hundred beastmen run up the road, all eager for blood. I almost feel sorry for those slavers, almost.

Lizzy wanders over to get some scratches, it is almost like she is telling me she wasn't worried. Since there really isn't anything for me to do I spend the time the beastmen are gone giving Lizzy a good grooming. About an hour passes before I see Pol returning.

There are only two hundred beastmen with him, worried about losses I head over to see what happened. When I get closer I see about fifty of the beastmen are ones I haven't seen before and they are in rough shape. I'm guessing those are the freed slaves, but that means about one hundred and fifty beastmen are missing.

Pol says "Mission accomplished, Lord Ash."

"Did you take a lot of losses?"

Pol says "Oh, no. They will be along with the wagons and corpses. We didn't suffer any casualties, and all the enemies are dead."

"Excellent! Get these guys through the portal so they can get proper treatment."

Pol says "Yes, sir! Right away!"

Pol rushes off shouting orders and the newly freed slaves are quickly taken through the portal. About thirty minutes later the rest of the beastmen arrive with three wagons full of corpses. The corpses are quickly stripped and tossed on the pile, then the wagons are filled with loot and positioned to go through the portal.

Once again I am impressed with how smoothly things are accomplished. Ever since that roar I haven't seen a single instance of beastmen of different types arguing. Maybe it really is possible to break the tribes and forge them into a nation.

Being a king is not what I want to do, but it is starting to look like I am going to have to. I will have to keep Pol close, he has good organizing skills, the kind that will be useful if I become King. If I am going to end up being a king whether I want to or not it is better to be prepared for it.

From my knowledge of history from my old world the most important thing for a king to have is someone loyal to watch his back. In my case I will also need people who can handle paperwork and other boring stuff that would drive me insane. Before I become a king I want to surround myself with competent people I can trust.

Of course I already have the girls, and I trust them. I will need to figure out what other skills they may have besides combat. Although if I am to be king of the beastmen I should make sure I have a good number of beastmen among my people.

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If I have nothing but humans around me the beastmen will think I am a racist. I should also keep from favoring any one tribe over the others, playing favorites never ends well. To be fair I should try to have one from each tribe, Pol is my wolf and Myria is my bunny, so I will need to find others I can trust.

There is no rush though, I won't become a king for quite a while if I have anything to say about it. Once everyone is safely through the portal the next step is to go to Illium and check things out there. From the looks of things it will be tomorrow morning before the beastmen are done going through the portal.

Since I have some time to kill I think I should work on leveling up my soulscape. After everything the dragon told me I am really interested in exploring other planes and raising my soul level. The problem now is how to raise the level of the skill, just creating soulscapes will take forever.

Maybe creating more complex soulscapes will help me level up the skill. I recreated a cityscape once but that was when I was already in the soulscape, maybe I will try that. So I picture the city I lived in, I put in every detail I can remember.

'Create Soulscape!'

The city surrounds me exactly as I pictured it, but nothing else happens. I didn't expect to level up on the first try but I thought there would be something. I am trying to figure out how to strain myself to make leveling up easier. Maybe it isn't about the details, maybe it is about the size.

'End Soulscape!'

'Create Soulscape!'

This time I was imagining the rocky mountains, and I felt like my imagination wasn't strong enough. It looks like I was only able to imagine a part of the mountains, but this is what I wanted. If I keep pushing and making it harder to create, maybe I can raise the skill faster.

'End Soulscape!'

For the first time creating a soulscape actually leaves me feeling tired. I guess pushing it uses more mental energy, which makes sense. Now that I know the soulscape isn't just inside my mind it must use the soul's energy to create the illusion.

Now that I have figured out the best way to do it, all that remains is the time to practice. At the rate it exhausts me I figure I can practice once or twice a night before I rest. It may take weeks or months to level up but eventually it will max out and I can explore other planes.

From everything the dragon told me about soul levels, no matter how long it takes it will be worth it. For now though I need to get some rest so I walk over to Lizzy and lay down using her as a pillow. This is getting to be a habit but she seems to enjoy it so I may as well keep doing it.

She is comfortable to sleep against and I know her senses are better than mine so not much can sneak up on her. When I wake up in the morning Pol is sitting nearby waiting, I am starting to wonder if he even sleeps. As I sit up and stretch I notice there are only a few beastmen in sight.

Pol says "Morning, my lord."

"Morning, Pol. How are things looking?"

Pol says "One group left to go and then you and I will be the only ones left."

"Good. All the resources are through? And what's left is set to burn?"

Pol says "The last of the resources went through yesterday, and everything else is ready."

"Good."

Pol stands up and waves at two beastmen, they both come running over. One is carrying a small tray with food on it, the other is carrying a large tub full of meat. The tub of meat is set before Lizzy as the other beastman hands me the tray, then they both bow and leave.

Lizzy and I eat our breakfast and watch as the last group of beastmen go through the portal. Pol and I are the only ones left and as I am finishing my food he is preparing a bunch of torches. He seems quite eager to set this place on fire, but that's understandable since he was a slave here for so long.

"All set?"

Pol says "Yes, my lord."

"Then burn it all!"

Pol says "Yes!"

Pol quickly lights his torches and runs off like a kid running off to play. As I saddle up Lizzy I hear the fwoosh of a building going up in flames. By the time I mount Lizzy all the buildings are burning and Pol is waiting by the portal with one last torch in hand.

As I ride Lizzy over to the portal Pol turns and throws the torch onto the pile of corpses. Pol takes one last long look around before stepping through the portal ahead of me and Lizzy. Lizzy balks at the edge of the portal and refuses to go through until I assure her it will be alright.