Lin says "I know, I have heard such stories and worse from others. The saddest thing is that humans will enslave other humans. The people that would do such things shouldn't even be considered human. I would happily kill them on sight."

"I agree with everything you said. I constantly have to remind myself that not all humans are bad, some are innocent. To be honest, I hated most of the human race even when I was one. In my world there were no other races, so the humans only had other humans to commit atrocities on. That never stopped them. In fact, they came up with worse things than slavery, things you don't even have words for."

Lin says "Are you saying there is no hope for us?"

"No, I'm not. Humans are also capable of great good. They are capable of both extremes, good and evil. Both the truly good and truly evil are fairly rare. Unfortunately, the greedy ones are far more common, they will do horrible things just for money. The slavers are a good example of this type."

Brightfire says "I'm confused, are you saying that I should hate all humans, or not?"

"You should not hate all humans and neither should I. Not all humans are bad, in fact not even the majority are bad. It is just that those that are good or neutral are less likely to travel. They stay home and take care of their families."

Brightfire says "I guess that is true. Lin is proof that there are good ones, but she is the only one I have met."

Lin says "Thank you."

"When we reach the peninsula I will introduce you to other good ones. However, right now, we have work we should be doing. You guys need to explore and I need to start digging."

Brightfire and Lin say "Alright."

The girls join Bones and the kids and spend a few minutes figuring out how they should work together. Meanwhile I start thinking about what I want my elemental form to look like. Since it is an earth elemental I picture it as a humanoid made of rock.

Form added: Elemental, Earth

When I shapeshift the others all turn to look at me with various expressions on their faces. What surprises me is that as soon as I shapeshift, all my pure mana gets converted to earth mana. While it doesn't bother me, I just wasn't expecting a shapeshift to affect my mana.

That means that while I am in this form I won't be able to use anything other than earth spells. On the other hand, my earth spells should be way more effective than normal. Since that is how I am planning to dig, it should end up being a good thing.

However, I realize that my thoughts have slowed down, the others have already left. Even though I didn't think much, the others had time to leave while I was lost in thought. It takes me a couple of minutes to decide to walk away from the spring.

I need enough distance from the spring to create an angled tunnel down to the cave. Otherwise I would have to spiral down which would be far harder to do. The ground shakes with each step I take, but this form moves really slowly.

It takes me a full minute just to leave the camp and walk past the spring. It takes me another ten minutes to move far enough away from the spring to start digging. However, when I go to start digging I find that the dirt moves on its own.

It is like the dirt hears my will and moves the way I want it to without me using any mana. This allows me to easily get the tunnel started, but when I hit rock I find it doesn't move. So, I start using my mana to break up the rock and then move it by hand.

It isn't very fast, but I am making progress and it is faster than it would be in my normal form. Still, at this rate it is going to take days for the tunnel to reach the cave. However, at the moment I can't think of a better way to dig the tunnel.

I completely lose myself in my work and I don't notice the passing of time. It is like my brain just shuts down until suddenly I get hit by a water spell. When I stop working and look around I find Lin standing there with a worried look on her face.

I try to ask her what she is worried about, but I find I can't speak in this form. So, I drop my shapeshift and as soon as I do I realize that it is night time. The tunnel is about twenty feet long, but I should still be able to see light from outside.

"Lin, what's up?"

Lin says "I was trying to get your attention for over ten minutes!"

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in my work."

Lin says "That's obvious. Come on, it's time for dinner."

"Okay."

As I follow Lin I feel like I have just woken up from a long sleep and my mind feels fuzzy. While the elemental form is good for working on the tunnel, I don't like its other effects. The entire day passed and I was completely unaware of it, that is dangerous.

The worst part is that if the others had called for help, I probably wouldn't have noticed. If that had happened, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. Luckily it didn't, but that doesn't mean that I want to risk it a second time.

That means that before tomorrow morning I need to think of another way to work on the tunnel. When we reach the camp, everyone else is already gathered around a fire. As soon as I join them Lin starts handing out dinner to everyone.

However, when she gets to Bones she looks confused, but Bones just waves her off. Everyone else is eating like they are starving, but I don't feel very hungry. Albion is probably the worst, he is on his third serving before anyone else finishes their first.

"How did the exploring go?"

Brightfire says "It went pretty good. Albion killed a whole bunch of plants and we killed three more of those cat-bug things."

"Did you have any problems with them?"

Lin says "No, Bones did a great job of keeping them controlled."

"Good. Did you bring back the corpses?"

Brightfire says "Sure did. I broke them down just like you taught me. I even broke down the one you killed last night and left lying there."

"Oh, right. I forgot about it."

"So, we should have a total of five bodies. Give me the bones from the four you have, please."

Brightfire says "Sure. What are you going to use them for?"

"I am going to remove the essence from them and give it to Bones. It allows him to grow stronger."

Lin says "You can remove the essence from the bones? Isn't that necromancy? Which reminds me, how come you have a skeletal knight?"