Seeing the craggy hills ahead, I realized that the sand was finally beginning to give way a more firm terrain. It was a good thing too, since I was reaching the maximum range the current Beacon could broadcast its location. It was a test platform that I had thrown together, and if it worked like it should, then creating a network of similar sized Beacons extending outwards from the fortress was going to be next step. While I was kind of iffy with the magic details involved, it was clear that the Beacons operated like cell towers, handing off mana based signals to one another until they connected with a central node that operated as the origin point for the portal spell.

The teleporters in the fortress had been multipurpose constructs, acting as both beacons and nodes, but building a teleporter required metal processing spells that I did not have access to for now, thanks to my ever so loyal yet missing servants. So, I was instead stuck with creating basic enchantments and constructs for now. However, I wasn't complaining as the temporary design left me in direct control of the future beacon network, as I would be the one powering the portal spell from the throne room, where I had constructed the central node.

“Eatt... Fooooodd...” Slith's warning drew my attention, and I noticed a rock formation up ahead shifting and moving. Sand slid off some rocks as they rose out of a ground a little before moving almost like they were wiggling.

“A Pit Gorger, huh?” Following my commands, Slith rose up further in the air and sped forward, until we were floating near the circular stone formation that formed the lips of the large, tuber like creature that lay underneath the surface. It must have sensed our presence, as the creature shifted underneath the earth, causing its maw to open wide. Jagged formations of rock and hardened flesh became visible in a pit like mouth, that was large enough to swallow a van whole, and dozens of hardened whip like formations of sand shot up from the creature.

Unfortunately for the immobile creature, Slith's tentacles were a lot more powerful as the Wraith Slime literally ripped apart the sand whips, and he got ready to teach the Pit Gorger the meaning of pain. “Stop!” My mental command stopped him short of sending four lance like tentacles plunging into the Pig Gorger, and we withdrew out of range from the creature's reach.

Watching it rumble and send sand whip formations twisting about to look for us, I rubbed my bony jaw as I considered its usefulness. “Better than nothing for a guard dog...” So, skirting around, we reached the base of the rocky hill just out of reach from the Pit Gorger, and I located a nice little boulder in which to install the Beacon.

Backing away, both Slith and my skeletal avatar waited on the hillside for the portal to open, as I began casting the spell back in the throne room. It was an mana intensive spell to cast and to maintain, but I only needed to keep it open for a short while. So, as I neared the end of the spell, I pointed at the crudely made, ring shaped node set up in the middle of my throne room. While I could have made the node in any shape I wanted, I figured I might as well make something familiar from Earth.

“!” Though my mana dropped by nearly a third, I nevertheless felt gratified as a blue vortex formed in the center of the large, mitril ring. The vortex widened until it completely filed the ring, and then the blue distortion cleared up, giving me a view of the rocky hillside covered in sand and of Slith and my avatar floating a short distance away. Back in the hills, my skeletal avatar's sight of the portal forming had been about the same, except for the vortex forming in the middle of the air above the Beacon before widening into a large circular surface that soon revealed the throne room and my lich body pointing at us.

One of my skeleton summons standing by in the throne room immediately stepped through the portal, appearing in the rocky hillside. Even as the skeleton tumbled down from the boulder, I had Slith grab it and throw it back through to the throne room. The double test ended with the skeleton summons standing back up in the throne room without much trouble and without any damage from what I could sense from its soul.

From beside the throne, I stepped forward in my new, mid tier body carrying two more Beacons. The new, mid tier body was designed about the same as the old one with the long dead heroes' bones and a mixture of basilisk and Desert Viper flesh encased in Basilisk Hide and Desert Viper skin. Instead of a heavily armored knight, I looked more like I was wearing light armor. However, my bad taste in using the horns, curved spikes, and jagged extensions on my new body was no different.

As I stepped through the portal in my new body, I felt a chill pass through my soul for a second before I found myself slipping off a boulder on the rocky hillside. I let the portal spell collapse at that point, shutting it down and tested the mana flow between the soul portions of my two avatars and my main soul in throne room. I sensed a bit more of a mana drain to support the two avatars at such a long distance, but it wasn't anywhere near being serious. However, I knew that only testing things out in actual combat would reveal the true strain on my mana reserves.

As my mid tier avatar continued west with one Beacon in search of any signs of my missing servants, my low tier avatar and Slith began traveling north in order to set up another Beacon in that direction from the fortress. Expansion and exploration was always tedious, but somebody had to do it... even if it was just me, myself, and I. “Sigh...”