Danny waves to us as we approach.
“Not at all, I sure am happy to see you too. How do you like your new rides?”
Today he’s wearing a new long red robe with a light defense buff, just like the older man that greeted us on our way in here yesterday.
The two golden brown camels have a similar colored cloth over their humps with comfortable but lightweight-looking seating for two on each attached.
He speaks again.
“Hop on, I’ll take you to the other side of town to fill up on water and gear. My ride is over there too.”
Abby steps in.
“Your ride? What do you mean by that? Who said we’d be bringing you along?”
I let out a chuckle, then jump up onto the camel in front of me with an assist from some wind magic beneath my feet.
Danny replies.
“Well, hey… It’s not that I don’t trust ya. The village elder just said it would be a good idea for me to go along, you know, just to make sure the job gets done.”
Arie smirks, then hops up onto the second camel next to me.
“Makes sense, I don’t mind if you come.”
Maria nods happily, then jumps up onto the camel that I’m riding, hugging me from behind.
“Works for me too!”
Abby lets out a long sigh, then nods.
“Well, then it’s fine by me. Where’s this water stock-up station you were talking about? I’m pretty sure we’re set for supplies.”
She turns to me.
I nod in agreement. I have more than enough food and water for all of us.
Then Danny points off down the same road we came back from last night.
“Just around this bend, and the supplies aren’t for you. Come on, follow me.”
He begins to skip happily down the street. Abby follows on foot as Arie and I get a hand of controlling the camels down the semi-crowded sandy backroads.
Less than 2 minutes later we make it to the edge of the village, finding ourselves in front of a few small square-shaped huts that seem to be very recently built.
There are a few children running inside and outside the huts playing while some women clean and craft items. An old man tends to a camel gulping down water at an alarmingly fast rate from a tub on the sandy floor.
Danny waves and speaks up.
“Elder! These are the hunters I was talking about. We’re just about to head out. We’ll be able to go back to our home village soon, maybe even tonight!”
The older man with a horribly slouched back and half-closed eyes looks up at us with a blank expression on his face. It turns into a rehearsed kind smile, then he gets back to refilling the camel’s water tub.
Danny turns back to us, now walking backwards and looking up at me as we approach.
“The two you’re riding on are already set for water, over a hundred liters each! You should give them more as much as possible, but if worst comes to worst, they’ll be fine for a few days. Even a week or more in the worst circumstances. Best to keep ’em happy though!”
He smiles, turning around to pet the large camel behind him as it finishes the tub of water. The happy creature licks its lips and raises its head with a satisfied glimmer in its eyes.
I reply.
“I-uh- good to know.”
I look down at the short elderly man, then he finally talks in a low tone.
“Best of luck on your travels young ones. I appreciate you helping out my grandson.”
Abby hops up to sit behind Arie as Danny climbs up onto his ride.
I reply to the old village elder.
“You got it. The Dungeon will be cleared and Danny will be back in one piece before the sun goes down.”
He smiles, giving me a nod of approval then speaking to one of the older women behind him in a language I’m not familiar with.
Danny puts up his red hood and turns his ride to the open desert, pointing to a large mountain peak off in the distance.
“Let’s get moving! We should be able to make it there in under 3 hours if we hurry.”
On that note, we leave the village without looking back.
It was a fun stay, but our mission onwards awaits. Not only this break, but all 5 of the remaining ones. The more I think about it, the more serious these situations become.
The last break we faced got stronger while we were facing it….
This one is supposedly drying up nearby water sources and forcing natives to move out of their home villages. I really wonder what other interesting dungeons this desert holds.
As soon as we leave the cover of the desert town, the morning sun begins to rise higher and higher into the sky. My skin starts to feel the burn of mother nature yet again.
Abby and I both activate our earth magic abilities to create sun cover overhead. Danny seems to be used to the heat and is also properly dressed for the occasion.
Maria holds onto my midsection as we ride, and she activates a small amount of ice magic. The cool sensation covers my body, making it feel like we’re not in the desert at all.
I can hear Danny laughing up ahead of us.
“You 4 sure do travel in style.”
I grin and call back.
“Yeah, yeah. We sure do.”
After about an hour of desert travel, our first visitor shows its face.
A small dust cloud approaches. With my All-Seeing Eye, Inspect, and Appraisal skills active, I quickly deduce it’s another one of those Salamanders. A level 257.
Before I can get a word out, I watch Arie charge his bow and release a thin white arrow into the approaching cloud.
The attack pierces the monster’s head and it tumbles out of our way before we get anywhere near it. I call out to him, 5 meters or so to my left side.
“I guess you’re on Salamander duty!”
He shrugs.
“Sure, for now.”
Over the next hour, another half a dozen slimy red-skinned creatures come running toward us. They’re all between levels 250 and 270. Arie takes them out with no problems at all.
Another hour passes, and the base-level mobs just keep coming. Over 20 more have come crawling our way.
Danny speaks up as Aire shoots down another just 10 meters in front of us.
“I had no idea it had gotten this bad…. The break is really getting out of hand…”
He gulps, then points ahead to a small rock structure about 500 meters ahead.
It’s barely visible, but I can see it.
“That’s it, the cave entrance. We made it!”
I squint, looking forward, turning on my All-Seeing Eye.
I’m hit with a blast of intense mana readings, then speak up to my group.
“There’s at least a hundred of them down there, no, maybe more!”
The corners of my lips start to curl up as I activate my Inspect skill to scout out any potential mutants. To my delight, there are a few, but unfortunately, none are strong enough to put up a real fight.
One of them even approaches us now. A level 312.
This one is nearly 5 meters long, and I can see flames from its tails catch its whole back on fire. The monster’s red skin glows with a yellow tint and its Black beady eyes stare us down without a hint of remorse.
Arie stretches his bow back, taking aim, then Danny yells out in a terrified tone the archer releases an arrow.
“No it’s a mutant, wait!-“
The wide-eyed expression across the scrawny hunter’s face as he turns back at us waving his hands puts me into battle mode immediately.
I know Arie is more than capable enough to take out this monster, and Danny knows that too.
Why would he warn him to stop…?
I turn to Abby, to see she’s already turned toward me. Both of us jump off the backs of our rides.
I hand the reins to Maria in mid-air as I air-step over Danny in front of us.
Abby follows on a floating staircase of stone.
We both activate our earth magic and make a floating wall of desert sand mixed with summoned rock 5 meters in front of us.
This allows Aire’s arrow to pass, but blocks us from whatever danger Danny is warning us about.
It’s just a hunch, but the growing skin and intense flames of the mutant melt rock and sand beneath its feet. Combined that fact with the horrid expression on Danny’s face as the archer let his shot loose, it makes me think we just ran over a land mine…
Maybe we did.
As Arie’s arrow glides through the monster’s head, a bright red flash of light fills the air. I feel an explosion of extreme heat, then rubble hit the opposite side of the summoned wall.
Arie, Maria, and Danny come to a halt on the camels behind us.
A few seconds pass and the white and red lights fade. Dust in the air begins to settle and we let down the wall to reveal a massive 8-meter-wide crater in the desert floor. It’s full of molten rock and sand.
I let out a laugh, but Danny looks at it with widen eyes and a hunched posture.
“T-This is what happens every time one of those mutants is taken down. They… destroy everything.”
My laugh quickly fades as I realize the seriousness of his tone, then reply.
“We can handle the heat. Don’t worry.”
Maria points a finger down at the bubbling pit of molten rock and a stream of ice comes forth, consolidating the lava to stone instantly.
She grins as I hop back on our ride.
Maria whispers to me.
“Yeah. They’re hot, but their mana control is non-existent. These monsters won’t be much trouble.”
Carefully, we make our way around the now ice and rock-filled crater. Then, head to the rock structure we set out to find.
My only readings of any mutant-level monsters are underground now. There are none coming towards us on the surface. Only base-level mobs.
Arie takes care of them.
After a few more minutes, we finally make it.
A jagged light orange-brown rock structure juts out of the desert sand. It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to be here at all…
Over 20 meters wide, and about 7 meters tall, a mound of rock sits in the center of the desert.
The buzz of mana emanates from it very strongly.
We all stop a safe distance away and hop off our rides. I begin to walk forward mesmerized by the circular 3-meter wide cave entrance.
Rubble lines the inner walls, but the main path looks flat enough to safely walk through. Many hunters must have traveled down here before us.
I walk closer, staring in awe. A wave of heat hits me, but I keep moving forward. As far as I can see from the outside, this tunnel in the desert is most definitely not a normal one…
Instead of getting darker further in, the cave seems to have a light source at the end of it. There’s a bright yellow glow coming from deep inside. The orange stone walls reflect it off each other, causing the entrance to hum and shine with a warm hue, beckoning us to enter.