The sun shone brightly as the wind blew across the sand dunes, creating an almost soothing view as far as the eye could see. Though, that was if you ignored the Sand Worm infestation, random attacks by Sand Elementals, and the rare Pit Gorgers that wanted to taste undead cuisine. Honestly, I was surprised by the concentration of 'Awakened' creatures in such close proximity to the fortress, though I was coming to understand that it was not all random.

I turned my avatar's skeletal head around 180 degrees to look at what they probably had been guarding. In truth, the fortress ruins looked like a time worn, mountain range suddenly poking out of the desert dunes. It wasn't surprising since I had come to the conclusion that hundreds of centuries had passed on this world since Neduzar had been sealed. Even that was on the conservative side, as it all based memories I had gleaned from my subordinates and from the memories Aida had shared. Still, it was all for the best, considering the condition of the fortress and lack any real defenses.

My head rotated back to the front as I sensed Slith below me finally finish playing with the sand elemental that had been aggrieved about an intruder suddenly hovering over its head... body... whatever. If it had been a week ago, I would have been amazed at the agglomeration of mana and sand used form the vaguely humanoid looking creature. However, now with my own mana spore farm starting to yield some results, I was kind of sick and tired of seeing formless, feature less creatures. “Eaatt!”

“That doesn't include you buddy.” Rolling my nonexistent eyes, I estimated how far I could go before I had to establish the Beacon. Looking down at my skeletal hands holding a basket ball sized sphere of mithril, that encased a small shard of Selentrium and a fist sized realm stone, I was still having a bit of a hard time accepting that this thing would allow me to cross long distances quickly. Though the reality was a bit more complex, considering the high tier spell that had been cast to create the Beacon. Still, the extensive stretch of just sand made finding a safe installation spot kind of hard.

Getting comfortable in my seating, I ordered Slith to move on, and the Wraith Slime rose in the air, his large body having regained its former mass over this past week. He reabsorbed his tentacles after shaking off some left over sand from his now obliterated toy, and we shot off over the next dune with me sitting on top of him like a bored tourist.

Meanwhile, back in the fortress, I was finally done exploring what was left past the research hub. Instead, I was busy trying to decipher the childish hand paintings.... hieroglyphics on a wall, leading to an old exit that was now completely blocked by sand. I felt like scratching my skeletal avatar's bony head as the graffiti seemed to blend into scribbles of Falashian that were barely legible. Anyone passing by would have instinctively ignored the mess, but the small font had caught my attention, even though it was so illegible, I could maybe make out every 10 words.

Thankfully, it was obvious who had written this mess, because the dozens of little stick figures carrying box like things that were no doubt books couldn't be anyone else. “Let's see... West... outpost... flee... books... safe.” I wasn't a master of interpreting abstract art, but it made enough sense to determine that the dark brownies had fled west with my inherited property. It was a good thing my other avatar was heading in that direction, though I doubted I would find the little thieves... my loyal servants so easily. However, something told me that Aida must have been involved in their plans, considering they hadn't exactly been masters of complex planning.

“Diee!” Looking towards a passageway leading further into fortress, I saw Bas dragging a long carcass as he waddled over. His skeletal structure looked as good as new, having regrown from the wreck that been dug out of the crystalline wall. It was one of those benefits of being a mid tier existence, though a lot more useful for undead and pure mana based creatures than others.

He tossed the carcass with a heave of his jaws, and the snake like creature's dead body sprawled in front of me. Around the length of three cars and about as wide as a reasonably sized coffee table, the mid tier Desert Viper was the last of the major guardians, who had occupied the fortress. While its crushed head proved it had been no match for Bas, it was annoying that it had taken so long to flush out the damn creature from its hiding spot. Bending down, I forcefully pulled out one its fangs that was about half the length of my tibia. “Hmm... kind of flimsy for a weapon..” Still, I wasn't going to complain, since I now had another mid tier soul to rebuild a mid tier body around.

Back in my throne room, I watched as my skeleton summons cleaned up the piles of bones, arranging them according to their type and gathered all the corroded armor bits together in one corner. Though the gloomy and decaying battlefield look had been been interesting for a while, I had gotten tired of looking at a bunch of skulls staring vacantly at me all all day. Instead, my skeleton summons were piling up mana crystals and bars of magic metals, so they were easily accessible. While I was allowing the metal eaters the opportunity to eat most of the rusting iron and steel that had been trashed, they had their restrictions on what they could consume, and I had conscripted them into miners in exchange for my tolerance of their presence.

Still, my other main reason of allowing them to exist was the other pile of.... well crap in a corner. Their excrement was a useful substance in creating alloys of magic metals, and while it was not as advanced as using magic, I figured I had little choice until I could get access to the right spells. Still, it wasn't as simple as just saying it out loud, since I had to rebuild a basic metal works and smithy to put the excrement to use.

Sighing at the how much time and effort I was going to have to invest, my sight finally fell on the realm stones being piled up near my throne and the two, dark blue stones in my bony hands. They were the real treasures retrieved from the disaster at the fortress core. The use of the realm stones didn't need much explaining, considering how important they were. However, the dark, blue stones were the equivalent of a mystery prize.

Feeling the inexplicable attraction I had for them, it was a bit disconcerting, but I didn't feel a threat from them. Rolling them in my hands, I realized I wasn't getting anywhere with hesitating. Deciding to finally take a chance, I stopped my rejection with one of the blue stones, and almost immediately, I felt something flowing into me. It was like gaining a memory except something much more concrete. When the stone finally dissipated in my hand, I found that I had a new high tier lineage spell in my soul.

“.” I knew the spell, since it was a common high tier spell that Neduzar had used from grimoires in the past. However, what left me in disbelief was that I had gained a lineage spell from some kind of stone, that had not existed in the past. It left me with more questions about what had changed in this world to allow for such a thing, making me realize that I needed to get to civilization as soon as possible if I wanted answers.