So while I am taking a break I close my eyes and enter my meditation to take a look. It doesn't take me long to figure out the problem, the mana sack only stores mana. Unless I fill it manually, it will just sit there empty, which is rather annoying.

Luckily, I have had a lot of practice lately in creating mana conduits and channels. In this case, all I need to do is create some conduits to allow the sack to absorb ambient mana. Along with at least one channel to prevent the mana from overflowing.

Creating those only takes me a couple of minutes and after that I fill my mana. Then I try to force more mana into the sack, which causes me intense pain. I slow down, but I continue pushing mana into the sack to try and force my mana pool to expand.

Mana Pool +1!

It worked, but the pain is intense and doesn't fade quickly, so not something I want to do often. However, unless I find another way to increase my mana, I am going to have to do it. A little pain is a small price to pay to be able to use magic again, at least in my opinion.

Once the pain fades a little I end my meditation, get up, and get moving. The longer it takes to find my way back the more the others will worry, and the more they will punish me. I do my best to keep heading in the same general direction, although it isn't easy.

All I can do is hope that the general direction I chose is the right one, otherwise I could be lost for ages. Now that I am in this situation all I can think is that I should have asked the beasts if they had a map. Or I should have at least asked for tips on navigating down here.

Although I have been to underground worlds several times it is normally just big caverns. This kind of tunnel maze is not something I am used to, it is annoying. I speed up, since I am just taking random tunnels there is no point in going slow.

The part that slows me down the most is when I run into dead ends and have to backtrack. These are natural tunnels, not the ones dug by the spiders, so they wander a lot. Although I will admit that there are some really beautiful sights down here, but I don't have the time to enjoy them.

After hours of wandering randomly through tunnels I come across a battlefield. It is in a small cavern and it looks like a patrol of beasts ran into a group of spiders. The few surviving beasts are working on cleaning up the battlefield when I arrive.

Because I just randomly pop out of a tunnel the remaining beasts all take combat stances. Luckily, their leader is one of the ones I helped evolve into a sacred beast and he recognizes me. He lets out a few barks and the rest of the beasts relax and go back to work.

Hopefully, once they are done they are going to return home and I will be able to follow them. So I start grabbing corpses and tossing them on the pile to help speed things up. Several of the beasts, including the leader, try to talk to me but I don't understand any of it.

At first I thought their language would be fairly simple, but as I listen I learn that I was mistaken. While it is only made up of barks and other noises, there are many inflections involved. As we work I continue to listen to try and figure out some of it, but I fail miserably.

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As I had hoped, once the bodies are dealt with the beasts return home and I follow them. Somehow we end up arriving at the city from a completely different direction than when I left. If I hadn't run into the beast patrol I would have never found my way back.

As soon as I enter the cavern where the defensive wall is I am spotted. Kechara flies toward me but I don't see the others, they must be at the other walls. When Kechara reaches me she wraps her body around me and starts licking my face.

By the time I manage to calm Kechara down and free myself Asuna and Myria arrive. While I am calming down and reassuring Asuna, Myria just stands there staring at me. From the look on her face she is obviously relieved to see me, but she is trying not to show it.

Kechara says "I'm glad you are back safe, dad!"

Asuna says "Me too, me too!"

"I'm sorry if I worried you, but I am fine!"

Myria says "So, did it work?"

"Still have the organs and back over two years of time."

Myria says "What about the controller?"

"I'd say power on par with a god. We won't be messing with her, it is better to just cripple the spiders."

Kechara says "What about freeing Core?"

"Unless we all become a lot stronger, it just isn't possible."

Kechara says "Then I will get stronger!"

Asuna says "Me too!"

"Do your best, but don't push yourselves too hard."

Myria says "You should practice what you preach!"

"Other than the controller being stronger than I expected and getting a little lost, everything went according to plan!"

Myria says "Whatever. Kitara is waiting to give you a message."

The three of them follow along as I head over the defensive wall and head for the city. When I arrive at the square in front of the council building I find it filled with beasts. They are all lined up and are practicing with weapons under the eyes of the guards.

Kitara says "Lord Ash, it is good to see you unharmed!"

"Thank you, Kitara. Myria said you have a message for me?"

Kitara says "Yes. When I was visiting Pol a messenger arrived from Leonarr looking for you. So I received the message to bring to you."

"Alright, what's the message?"

Kitara says "As ordered they sent a raiding party after the slaver camp. The camp was wiped out completely. However, the leader of the camp was guarded by imperial soldiers."

"So, it would seem Pine is gaining influence within the empire. It looks like a war with the empire is getting more likely. We need to hurry and unify the tribes."

Myria says "Are we going to have time before the empire attacks?"

"I doubt Pine has that much power in the empire yet. We should have time."

Myria says "So we'll go ahead with the planned journey?"

"Yes, absolutely!"

Kitara says "Before that, the elders wish to speak with you."

"Oh? Alright."

So we head into the council chamber where the elders are all sitting at the table. When I enter they all get up and bow which gives me a bad feeling. They have never shown me any kind of respect before, I guess they finished arguing.

Alger says "Welcome back, King Ash!" and the others echo him.

"Is this the decision you have reached even knowing I won't be able to visit very often?"

Trynt says "It is. You have already done a lot for our people and proven what type of a man you are."

Alger says "We elders will continue to care for our people in your absence."

Vyken says "You have proven your strength and the warriors all respect you. No one opposes you becoming our first king."

"If that is true, why did you all argue for so long?"

Ekeerr says "The argument was about whether or not we needed a king and if we wanted to aim for returning to the surface. Once we decided we wanted a king there was no further argument."

"Well, this certainly wasn't part of my plans, but I accept!"