Mage says "So, the time out of your body is limited?"

"No, not that I have found. However, time still passes in my absence and I have responsibilities in my world."

Mage says "I understand. I will spread word of you, so don't be surprised if when you come back you run into people looking for you."

"As long as they don't attack me, I won't attack them."

Mage says "You shouldn't have to worry about that."

"What, you don't have any enemies in your world?"

"No, we do. Not only are there beasts, but there are evil sects and factions as well. However, we have no record of them ever entering this realm."

"So, either they don't know how to get here, or they do and they also know how to hide from you?"

Mage says "I suppose that could be true. However, unless they have spies in my faction they won't even know about you."

"Alright, just don't blame me for defending myself. That also includes anyone wanting to take me as a subject for experimentation."

Mage says "You sound like you have had bad experiences before?"

"Let's just say I have seen how humans are when they let their greed control them."

Mage says "I can't argue with that. However, those in my faction that have reached this level are not the type to do that. I know all of them and will vouch for every single one of them."

"Well, I don't know them, so for now I will take your word for it. I will see how things go when I return. I have been gone too long, so for now this is goodbye."

The mage doesn't argue anymore and say goodbye as I head back to the gate. Luckily, when I open my eyes I find that the elves are there waiting for me. That means I don't need to try and track them down, so we can leave immediately.

Before I open the gate I give Silverstream her new armor and take a look at her weapons. Like most of the elves Silverstream carries a bow and it is good enough for me to enchant. Unlike the others she doesn't carry a sword, instead she has a pair of daggers.

Unfortunately, they are too low quality for me to enchant them so she will have to wait. While the elves eat breakfast I enchant Silverstream's bow for her, then I open the gate. The platform works as intended and it only takes me about a minute to locate the ship and open the portal.

Once we are through, before I can even close the gate, Brightfire and her team arrive in my cabin. They are all fully equipped and ready to go through the gate without me saying anything. Not wanting to argue, I simply warn them about the undead and send them through.

However, I stay on the ship and close the gate once they have all gone through. Then I take Silverstream with me and find Stillwater to get an update on anything we missed. I also double check our course and position to make sure we haven't drifted.

It turns out we have drifted off course, but only a little, which is no real surprise. It most likely occurred at night since navigating by the stars is a lot more difficult. Considering this is the first time the elves have sailed any distance, it is not a big deal.

A slight course correction is all it takes to fix the problem and after that I head to the lower deck. After collecting some materials I return to my cabin to do some crafting and enchanting. Not only am I making another communication amulet, but I am also making a set of daggers.

The daggers I am carving out of bone since it is the easiest material to work with. Once the daggers are done and enchanted I track down Silverstream and give them to her. Then I open the gate and return to the island, of course Brightfire is nowhere to be seen.

So I take to the sky and start looking for her, the elves can't have gone too far. Or at least that is what I thought, but surprisingly they have already covered ten miles. They are still running north when I spot them and they only stop when I land in front of them.

Brightfire says "Ash? What's wrong? We haven't even started hunting yet!"

"Nothing's wrong. I just came to give you this. If you run into trouble contact me. Otherwise, I will call you when it is time to leave."

Brightfire says "Oh. Okay!"

She snatches the amulet from me and then runs off with her team following her. I notice that the elves on Brightfire's team do not look anywhere near as enthusiastic as she does. Brightfire is turning into a leveling maniac and her team is just getting dragged along.

While I feel slightly bad for them, it is not enough for me to act on it. The warriors chose to join the elite team, now they have to live with that decision. Now that they have a way to contact me I don't need to worry about them.

So, now the question is what do I want to do with myself while I wait for them. I am fairly sure I got most of the flying beasts so I am not too worried about that. For now I take off and start flying south, I may as well check on the humans.

Surprisingly, everything is quiet in the human town, even the undead aren't attacking. This makes me curious so I continue flying south over the jungle looking for the undead. I have messed with the maker a couple of times so she is probably up to something new.

However, when I fly over the clearing the cabins are there but there are no undead. Meaning all the undead have gone somewhere, now I need to figure out where. The only reason I can think of for her to stop attacking the humans is that she found someone else to attack.

Unfortunately, undead don't leave much in the way of tracks, so I have to fly around looking for them. If I can find them I might get the chance to steal some more energy. Even if I can't steal energy, I want to see what the maker is up to this time.

When I can't spot them in the jungle I turn and fly east to check the mountains. Maybe the undead found the beast in the mountain and the maker is sending everything she has against it. However, when I fly over the mountains I don't see any sign of the undead here either.

So, I continue east to check the other side of the mountains to see if they are moving north again. Going around the humans to attack the orcs would allow the undead to greatly increase their numbers. Yet once I am past the mountains I still can't find any sign of the undead.

This leaves me confused and unsure where to look next, just where did the undead go? It is daytime so the maker and the generals shouldn't be active, but the rest of the undead should be. There are so many undead, I should be able to spot them easily, especially if they are all together.