Chương 29: Chapter 28

While moving through the blazing desert heat and shifting sands, Adam kept glancing between his inventory and the endless dunes ahead. His eyes never lingered anywhere for long before flicking back to the Mana Battery's danger indicator. Taking it with him might have been a terrible idea. At the moment, it wasn't helping them at all. It was just a constant source of anxiety sitting inside his inventory. But its effect was too absurd to abandon.

Near infinite magic energy, with the tiny downside of possible nuclear fallout. The pros outweighed the cons. Clearly. He didn't believe that for a second. No sane person would. Which was exactly why he couldn't stop staring at the potential bomb tucked away in his inventory.

"I should just bury it in this desert," he muttered as he reached into his inventory.

"Stop," Mei said immediately.

"Don't throw it away. It could be incredibly useful. Besides, it says it won't explode unless its capacity is overloaded. And it also says it has near infinite magic capacity. Do you really think you're going to fill it any time soon?"

"Well… when you put it that way." That eased his nerves slightly.

"Okay, remind me again. Where are we going?" he asked.

"I was a little distracted when you explained it earlier." Mei trotted through the sand with a carefree spring in her step, as if the entire nightmare with Lord of Flesh had never happened. Adam envied that about her more than anything else. No matter what happened, she always managed to find the bright side of things and keep moving forward with a smile. Even though he knew her thoughts weren't always happy ones.

She constantly carried the weight of her missing family on her shoulders, yet somehow still kept her spirits high. Most people would have collapsed under that kind of pressure by now. But not Mei. She was honestly kind of like a superwoman.

"We're going to start the main questline."

"Kill the demon king…? I know we just beat a nearly impossible boss and got downright absurd loot, but I doubt we're ready for the final boss already."

"No, no." Mei wagged a finger at him.

"Start the questline. Killing the demon king is the end goal. We're still at the starting line. First, we're following Granessa back to her village to get supplies and procure a boat."

"A boat? Why?"

"To cross the sea, obviously." She looked at him like he was suffering from heatstroke. To be fair, with the desert sun beating down on them, he actually might have been. Still, even if he did get heatstroke, his new gloves would probably heal him back to perfect condition within seconds. He'd already experimented a little with the five hundred percent regeneration boost. At one point, he tried cutting his finger just to test how quickly he healed. The cut regenerated while he was still making it.

He hadn't realized that at first, which meant he'd sliced his finger eight or nine times before noticing there wasn't even a drop of blood. At this point, he was fairly confident he could regenerate entire limbs. He also had absolutely no intention of testing that theory. Mei shook her head.

"I told you before. Granessa and I already talked about it. The human kingdom is on the other side of the sea. We need to get there if we want to reach the midpoint of the main quest." Adam nodded slowly as everything finally clicked into place. Every tutorial had a different layout, but the main quest was always the same. Defeat the demon king before his army overran the human kingdom.

"The sun is setting," Granessa said from a short distance ahead.

"We'll need to find a place to camp and start a fire."

"Why?" Adam asked. That would have made sense if they were normal people crossing a desert. The freezing temperatures at night could be just as dangerous as the scorching heat during the day. For them, though, heat and cold were becoming less and less relevant. Their bodies were already on the path toward becoming something beyond human.

"The ghosts will appear at night."

"G-ghosts...?" Mei asked, her voice trembling slightly. She wasn't afraid of ghosts. At least, she would never willingly admit it if she was.

"Yes, ghosts. Also, skeletons, zombies, ancient pharaohs, pyramids. Things like that." Granessa spoke so casually that it sounded like she was listing groceries.

"Oh, and desert bandits. The fire will keep the ghosts away, but it might attract the bandits."

"Wait, back up. Pharaohs? Pyramids? Is this Egypt?" Adam asked.

"I don't know what that is." Granessa shook her head.

"This is the Desert of the Dead. The only reason we haven't run into any undead monsters yet is because the sun is still up. The other reason is that worm's skills affected such a large area that it scared everything away." Mei subtly edged closer to Adam, her eyes darting suspiciously across the dunes.

"Will they jump out of the ground? Is that what was buried around that oasis?"

"Technically those were sand golems, not undead. They guard the entrance to the largest and grandest pyramid in the Desert of the Dead." Granessa pointed vaguely toward the distant horizon.

"That oasis is actually located at the tip of the pyramid. You'll see it later."

"A whole pyramid was under the oasis?" Adam asked.

"That dune was the size of a mountain, it took us half a day to scale down it. Yet, that was just the bit of sand covering it?"

"Yeah," Granessa answered simply again. Adam and Mei exchanged a glance before simply taking her word for it. The temperature had already begun to drop as the sun slowly sank toward the horizon. The brilliant golden sands lost some of their luster beneath the fading light, while long shadows stretched across the dunes. A wind began to stir from deeper within the desert. It was coming from the direction they had traveled. Turning around, they watched a massive sandstorm taking shape in the distance.

Towering walls of swirling sand rose into the sky, swallowing the horizon.

"Should we run?" Adam asked.

"That looks dangerous." Granessa shook her head.

"No. The sandstorms never leave the inner regions of the desert. We'll be fine. From the sand, anyway. Less so if we happen to run into a horde of undead." That wasn't particularly reassuring. The storm continued to rage behind them as they searched for somewhere safe to spend the night.

"Can't we just keep moving?" Mei asked.

"Travel through the night and avoid stopping?" Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"We cannot. Besides being dropped into the deepest and deadliest region of the desert, the pharaoh's tomb. If we continue forward after dark, we'll be overwhelmed. The undead here are drawn to any signs of life, aside from fire. They gather in hordes numbering in the thousands." Mei didn't argue any further. A few minutes later, Granessa pointed toward a partially buried sandstone formation protruding from a nearby dune.

"Look. That should work." The structure consisted of two naturally formed sandstone shelves. One rested horizontally against the sand while the other leaned diagonally over it, creating a crude shelter that would block much of the wind and blowing sand. It wasn't much, but it was better than standing exposed in the open desert. And it was only about fifty feet away. An easy walk that wouldn't take more than a minute to reach. Or at least it should have been.

Halfway there, skeletal hands suddenly burst from the sand beneath their feet. Two shot upward and grabbed Granessa's ankles. The massive orc barely even reacted as she continued walking, dragging the grasping skeletons several feet through the sand. It was unknown if she had even felt them grab her. Another hand lunged for Mei. She jumped straight into the air with a vertical leap that would put NBA players to shame and a startled yelp.

"Don't touch me!" Adam, meanwhile, accidentally stepped directly on the skeletal hand that had been reaching for him. The bony fingers clawed uselessly against his sneakers before finally wrenching themselves free. The owners of the hands emerged moments later. Sand cascaded from hollow ribcages and spilled out of empty eye sockets as four skeletons clawed their way out of the desert floor.

Ancient scraps of cloth hung from their bodies, and each carried a rusted, broken weapon that looked as though it should have fallen apart centuries ago. Skeleton - Lv. 55 Technically, they were higher level than Lord of Flesh had been. Yet none of them radiated even a fraction of the terrifying presence that monster had possessed. They looked less like high-level mobs and more like extremely aggressive archaeological discoveries.

Granessa unstrapped the massive battleaxe from her back while Mei drew her pistol from the chest holster on her combat vest. Adam stepped in front of them.

"Could I fight them on my own?" he asked.

"I'd like to test out my new..." He glanced down at the gloves covering his hands.

"Weapons."

"Sure."

"Go ahead." Mei reholstered her pistol while Granessa planted the head of her axe into the sand and rested both hands on the pommel. Adam stretched a hand toward the skeletons and instinctively cast a bubble-shaped shield around himself. Then he frowned. Because it didn't feel right. With a thought, he dispelled the shield. He paused, trying to remember how Granessa had fought earlier. She threw fireballs from her fists. Direct. Aggressive. Simple.

Nodding to himself, he attempted to imitate the concept using a shield spell. A translucent fist materialized in front of him. [Fist Shield] By shaping magic shield barriers into fists, the creator of this spell hopes to find his path. This is not it... Effect: Nothing really The magical fist immediately sagged and flopped face-first into the sand. Silence followed. The four skeletons stared at the spell. Then they slowly turned their empty eye sockets toward each other.

Adam couldn't prove it, but he was fairly certain they were asking the same question. Is this guy for real? He coughed awkwardly.

"That was just the first draft, next one will be better." Behind him, Mei cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Ganbare, Adam! You've got this, babe!" she shouted.

"Show them what you're made of!" The encouragement was mortifying. Unfortunately, it also gave him an idea. Show them what I'm made of...? His eyes widened. That's it! My magic isn't solid. It's fluid. No, not fluid. It has no form, its freedom itself. He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet like a boxer warming up before a match. The motion felt oddly natural, especially considering his current outfit, or lack thereof.

"Fluid. No form. Freedom," he muttered. Then walked directly into the skeletons' attack range. The undead tilted their skulls in confusion. A second later they rushed forward with the clacking rattle of ancient bones. Rusted swords and broken axes swung toward him with surprising speed and force for creatures that didn't even possess muscles. Adam made no attempt to dodge. The decision startled both the women behind him and the skeletons in front of him. Their weapons struck.

Rusted blades carved across his arms and chest, opening long bloody gashes through flesh and muscle. Pain shot through his body. The wounds immediately began closing on their own, flesh knitting together at a visible pace. Still, that wasn't enough. With a snap of his fingers, every injury vanished instantly, leaving behind pristine, unmarked skin.

"Again," Adam said with a grin and a slight wince. The skeletons stared with empty eyes as their jaws shifted downward. Somehow they looked offended. The four undead raised their weapons again and swung with even greater force. The air split with sharp whistles as the blades descended toward his completely unprotected body. This time, however, the result was different. Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting. The weapons bounced harmlessly off his skin as though they had struck solid steel. Adam's grin widened.

"My body is the ultimate weapon." [Body Shield] By flooding your body with mana and coating your skin with a hardened barrier, become impervious to physical attacks for a short time. Effect: Immune to physical attacks for three seconds"Oh!" Mei shouted excitedly, clapping her hands together.

"You became a monk class!"

"Something like that." Though if he was being honest, he wasn't entirely sure what he was becoming. That uncertainty didn't stop him from moving forward. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the Class Advancement Ticket. Without hesitation, he lifted it overhead and ripped it in half. Liquid mana poured over his head like glowing water. A blinding radiance erupted from his body, flooding the darkening desert with white light. Even the skeletons recoiled and raised bony arms to shield their eyes.

Despite not actually having eyes. Class Advancement Begun! Please guide the direction of your desired class using your will and mind's eye.