That greatly opens up the middle of the palace and it means that Maximus has room to move around. It still isn’t as much as I would like, but it is much better than it was before. At least at his current size he has some room, but there is no way I can feed him yet.

Still, I feel quite a bit better about leaving him in here when I don’t have time to visit. I can’t really tell if he is happier or not, but it makes me feel better about the situation. Unfortunately, I don’t have any time to spend with him right now and I quickly leave the soul palace.

Unfortunately, I took too long and Mercy is already up and moving when I open my eyes. That means that I missed her attempts to wake me up, which I could have used right now. After all of Leafa’s teasing, I was really looking forward to having some morning fun to relieve the stress.

Mercy quickly informs me that we need to get moving, the caravan needs an early start. Amn wants to make good time today so that we can reach the capital tomorrow afternoon. He apparently wants a chance to talk to King Vex and get things in motion a little sooner.

I am not opposed to that plan, just disappointed that it means we don’t have time for some fun. It turns out that the caravan is ready to go and just waiting on us, so we will be eating in the carriage. It turns out that I spent way more time wandering lost in Soul City than I realized.

Once the caravan is underway, as we are eating breakfast, Mercy asks why she couldn’t wake me. So, I tell her about my visit to Soul City and I am honest about everything, including Leafa. Surprisingly, Mercy doesn’t ask anything about Leafa, instead she bombards me with questions about the city.

Apparently a dryad trying to seduce me isn’t as interesting as the sights and occupants of the city. Still, since that is what she is interested in I answer as many of her questions as I can. Unfortunately, I did not pay enough attention to fully answer all of her questions.

She still has more questions even after we are done eating, so I create a soulscape. I recreate Soul City to the best of my ability and invite her to come explore for herself. Even though I can only recreate about twenty percent of the city, it is enough to distract her.

I set the soulscape to normal time, so we manage to waste several hours exploring the city together. Even though I created it, I still manage to get lost several times, which amuses Mercy. The city is just that confusing, it's almost like there is a spell to make people get lost.

I have no idea how people manage to learn their way around, maybe they just spend that much time there. I would like to do the same, but I don’t have that kind of time to spend right now. The time I would spend exploring the city would have to be taken from getting stronger and making more coins.

Maybe once I can’t get stronger from exploring worlds I will have the extra time to learn the city. For now, getting stronger needs to be my priority so that I can survive the battlefield. When Mercy finally gets tired of exploring, I end the soulscape and it is just in time for the lunch stop.

After lunch, once the caravan is moving again, we just cuddle and watch the scenery. I am just glad that she hasn’t come up with any more questions and enjoy the peace and quiet. Just as I am feeling safe and secure, Mercy suddenly asks a question about Leafa.

She manages to catch me completely off guard and I answer honestly before I can even think about it. Normally that would be fine, but Mercy asked me if I wanted to sleep with Leafa. Since my honest answer was yes, I have some explaining to do and I know this won’t be the end of it.

Even if I manage to satisfy Mercy, she is still going to tell the others in the soulscape tonight. Luckily, Mercy doesn’t seem mad, she just seems to be curious about why that was my answer. Not that the answer would have changed if I had time to think, I would have just phrased it differently.

I have quite a bit of trouble explaining my attraction to Leafa since I don’t really understand it myself. Still, after much stuttering I manage to satisfy Mercy’s curiosity, for now. After that, Mercy starts teasing me about collecting both gold and women to sleep on.

I’m not too worried, the girls won’t really be mad at me since nothing happened. At most, I will face a lot of teasing from all of them, but that isn’t anything new. If anything, the teasing will lead to the girls being even more affectionate, which I will never complain about.

We reach a city about an hour before sunset, but Amn decides to keep the caravan moving. It means we will be camping, which doesn’t bother me at all, but others do complain. Gremshow is of course the loudest of the complaints, but that is to be expected.

Luckily, once the caravan is moving again I can’t hear him even if he does keep complaining. I will probably have to hear it again when we stop to make camp, but it won’t last long. Tomorrow we will reach King Vex’s capital and we will probably stay a couple of days.

That should put an end to the complaints, at least for a few days, but probably not much longer. At least when we leave the capital we will be beginning the last leg of this long journey. When things are over, I will gate all of the rulers back to their capitals, not more traveling.

We could probably use a gate to skip the last leg, but I will wait to hear Amn’s plan first. It will also depend on how the raid on the island goes and if I manage to hit level twenty. I would prefer to be max level and have that out of the way before arriving at the Magic Kingdom.

Who knows what they have planned or if I will need the extra strength from leveling up. Having my angel could also prove to be useful if I can manage to summon it before we arrive. I am also curious what the goddess plans to give me as a reward for clearing the island.

There are just too many factors to make a plan right now, I need to wait and see what happens. That makes it easier to put all those thoughts aside and focus on enjoying my time with Mercy. We stop and make camp as the sun sets, then Mercy and I join the rulers for dinner.