Victoria says “Going from human to this? That must have been a huge difference to adapt to! I can’t imagine that it was easy.”

  “It wasn’t. At first I could barely even move and before I could figure anything out I was thrown into the pit. It was a fairly traumatic experience.”

  Victoria says “It makes me glad that my summoning was straight forward and simple. I would hate to go through something similar to what you did.”

  “It was horrible, but surviving it made me stronger. I wouldn’t have made it to the point I am at if I hadn’t gone through that. With risk and danger comes rewards.”

  Lin says “Don’t listen to him. He just uses that as an excuse for all the trouble he gets himself into!”

  “I do not! It is true! No matter how much you tease me about it, I am not going to stop taking the risks that I deem necessary.”

  Before long, Asuna joins in the teasing and the friendly bickering continues until we stop for lunch. As we are sitting outside eating, I spot King Vex arriving on a worn out looking beast. I thought that he was already with us, just riding in Amn’s carriage, but it seems I was wrong.

  He must have told Amn to go ahead and let the caravan leave and is just now catching up. There must have been more issues that he had to deal with than I was expecting there to be. I feel sorry for him, but it is his kingdom and he is the one who let it get to the state it is in.

  King Vex doesn’t join us for lunch, he heads straight to Amn’s carriage, probably to take a nap. We finish eating, get back on the road, and I go back to being a cuddly couch for the others. It is bad enough that I am half tempted to cover the seats in fur so they are soft and fluffy.

  I would need to farm some furry beasts to do so, but it might be worth the effort. Considering that I still need to get more essence to study, it would be killing two birds with one stone. Maybe three, if I take Lizzy out to do the hunting it would be a good chance to talk to her about changing the bond.

  Luckily, since we are moving towards the border with the beastmen’s lands, beasts should be more prevalent. I think that is what I am going to do tonight after Lin is asleep and I have done the soulscapes. When we stop for the night, I check with Lizzy and she is fine with losing some sleep.

  I set up the cabin, have a nice dinner with everyone, and then have some fun with Lin in the bedroom. I open the soulscapes as normal, make sure the puppy is sleeping, and then head out. I find Lizzy waiting for me, mount up, and have her head north to look for beasts.

  At first we don’t find anything, but when we move farther from civilization we start finding beasts. They are small and weak, barely a snack for Lizzy, but I still collect their essences. We do find a beast with really nice fur, it is something between a racoon and a squirrel.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Unfortunately, they are small and it would take hundreds of them to cover all the couches. However, Lizzy has a lot of fun chasing them down so I decide to get enough to cover one couch. Besides, their individual essences aren’t big enough to study, I need to let a bunch of them combine.

  The little things are really fast, but Lizzy is faster and she cheats outrageously. Anytime they run up a tree, ramps and platforms of earth rise up so she can catch them. I think I would get hit with fewer branches if I crashlanded in a forest, but Lizzy doesn’t care.

  She keeps going until we can’t find any more of the things in the area, she caught them all. By then she is fairly winded and finally stops to catch her breath and have a drink of water. This is when I decide to broach the subject of transferring her bond to Leylisha.

  Lizzy says “Well, I do like her. I just don’t know if I want to be bonded to her.”

  “I’m not asking you to decide right now. Just think of it as another option since you don’t want to be freed.”

  Lizzy says “If I did have you move my bond to her, would you still keep your promise to help me evolve and learn to fly?”

  “Of course I would! I am not getting rid of you or anything. This would be contingent on Leylisha agreeing to join us and return to the peninsula with us.”

  Lizzy says “Alright, I will think about it. Does this mean the hunting trip is over?”

  “No. We can keep going until morning, or until you want to head back and get some sleep. I slept last night, so I am good for a few days.”

  Lizzy says “Is it just tonight, or are we going hunting tomorrow night?”

  “Well, I do need more essence, and as we get closer to the lands controlled by the beastmen we should be able to find stronger beasts to hunt.”

  Lizzy says “In that case, let’s head back. I can do with less sleep, but if we are doing this each night I do need some.”

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  So, I mount back up and Lizzy makes her way back to where the caravan is camped. By the time we are back and she is settled down there isn’t much time before dawn. She is going to get a couple of hours of sleep at most, but she should be okay with that.

  She will be a little tired, but she can nap when we stop for lunch and she should be fine. I may want to limit our hunting to every other night though, I don’t want to see her make a mistake because she is tired. Especially if I happen to be riding her when she makes that mistake, that could be painful.

  That would also give me the nights in between to explore the hallway, I still need to level up my soul. Of course, planning is a little uncertain since I don’t know what will happen with the beastmen. Our meeting with them should be a peaceful one, but I can’t guarantee that.

  We have one more day of travel and should cross the border the next morning. Who knows how long after that it will be before we encounter the beastmen. I wouldn’t be surprised if they spot us immediately, but they may wait before making contact.

  I am not too worried about it, I just hope that I will be able to see Grimgar again. I am really curious about how he has been doing and how far he has progressed with his core. The fact that the beastmen apparently pushed back the human kingdom attacking them is a good sign.

  That means that Grimgar made it back and was able to teach his tribe the techniques I taught him. Now, my main question is if he survived the fighting or not, which should be answered soon. If he died, his tribe might not honor his promise, which would mean things might get tense.