Salem was surrounded by his advisors, he looked at the map, Idons to the south and Koftas to the north. There was a scar of death to the east of the mountains, his crows had brought back information about the surrounding area.

Hundreds of miles of forest and hills surrounded the mountain, towns, and villages were scattered about the lands to the west, north, and south. Everything to the east was dying, the people either ran away or were devoured by the undead horde, Salem could tell there was something else causing the death of the land.

tracing his finger across the map, still mostly dark, his crows were fast and agile but could only remember so much. There were no maps that covered great distances if anyone had one they were being very stingy and hiding it away.

There was only one other large city he had heard about but it was farther to the east, settled along the coastline, and he had sent letters to both Koftas and Idos asking if they had sent for aid. The response they had gotten was proof that they were not welcomed in other human cities, the letter they received only asked one question, were elves still being enslaved by both cities.

At the time the answer was yes, so they had not sent back a response, they had sent a rider for aid declaring that the elves were to be freed and placed under the elven house Belegast for protection once they reached an agreement.

Salem's eyes burned bright as he remembered how elves who had been slaves were brought to him, weak and tired, some out of their minds from working as a toy for so long, and there were more slaves they were hiding from him.

His little spies had already crept into the cracks of homes and watched from above as they tried to smuggle his kin away. He had marked down every safe house in both cities and the vile scum who had assisted them in hiding them. This would be the second time he had given them a chance to survival yet they threw it in his face!

No more, if they wished to go to war with the Belegast clan, then they would have their war.

The guards within the palace could feel the rage just beneath the surface of their bond. Salem felt a slight shiver on his arm, coming back to himself he comforted the little creature wrapped around his arm him.

Calming down, Salem looked over the reports and started issuing orders, he would need to rescue his kind first before he would strike a blow against these traitorous dogs. They had never given him proper respect, nor had they taken his warnings to heart.

Salem headed to his mind space and looked upon the two volumes laying upon the altar, the first was the wraiths codex which held information about their language and ways to cast spells by integrating spells through their wraith weapons for a greater impact. He absorbed the book quickly and gained insights into his meditation technique.

The language he was forcibly learning was, intense to say the least, it would not need to be spoken like most languages. Thinking in this language would help his intellect grow, even when he spoke the language he could make it seem as if it were the human tongue with a little spell he had just learned.

"Master Salem, this next book will be very painful to absorb. It contains vast knowledge on gravity magic and methods to combine conflicting energies, both of these tomes brought great amounts of knowledge and research material for me so your reward will be added to your current balance of points. Be careful master, it will take ten minutes of pain similar to what you went through to absorb all the knowledge of that tiny book."

After leaving that daunting message Salem looked at the little book, how much knowledge was stored in such a tiny thing to make it that painful, remembering the pain from when he gained his previous body he could feel the sweat on his back.

ten times longer, he thought, he could handle that. Right? he was much stronger than before and he knew the system wouldn't give him something that would kill him, he hoped.

Nope, it was definitely trying to kill him. Was the last thought he had while his mind shook from the overwhelming pain. He passed out, woke up and screamed until blood came from his eyes, mouth, and ears before passing out once again.

Waking up in his bed, he felt bandages around his eyes and other parts of his body, he began to remember what he had learned, and what he had done. He had clawed at his own head and body from instinct trying to get away from the pain.

Thankful that his girls had restrained him until he had passed out from the pain, they cleaned and bandaged him and watched over him. This was becoming a bad habit of his, those he wished to protect were still taking care of him, from self-inflicted wounds no less. Taking off the bandage on his eyes and looked at his girls.

The girls were asleep around him, he woke them up and brought them in front of him, "I am sorry

for not telling you about what was going to happen. If I had known that it would get that bad I would have warned you. I let the arrogance of my success and small strength blind me, and I am sorry for making you go through that."

Salem bowed to the five girls in front of him, hoping they would forgive him.

Five pairs of arms embraced him, he could hear quiet sobs and feel the light shaking from the latent fear from that horrid scene of him clawing his own flesh and screaming in madness. He hugged and kissed them, telling them he was fine and that he would tell them if anything like that was remotely possible of happening again.

They stayed together comforting one another for the entire morning, Salem hugged them once again whispering that he would be more careful in the future. They bathed and ate breakfast together trying to remain as close to one another as possible.

After breakfast it was time to get everyone back to work, even he was wishing to just let the world pass them by while they enjoyed themselves. He gritted his teeth and passed out the orders he had been able to make yesterday before he went and touched that little beast of a book.

He finished giving the orders to his five girls and took the twins and their apprentices with him into the forges, they began forging weapons and armors. Salem was standing over dozens of gold rings, each had a gemstone of similar size and were covered in runes.

These gifts were for all those who had refused his warnings, they were "thank you gifts" for releasing his kin. each and every one of the clans would be getting one. Once they wore the ring it would gift them power, but it would also give him access to their minds and souls.

He would brand them and turn these men into slaves, just like how they turned his own into mindless servants. Let them suffer, as my kinsman has suffered.