Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 506

Chapter 506

—Kruooooong!

Moder let out a grotesque scream.

Its chest had been deeply slashed by the Lightning Blade. But its breath had not stopped.

Instead, enraged, it tried to fire a destructive beam at Levin.

At that moment, Tesserina shot a Flame Cannon straight into its mouth.

BOOM!

With a thunderous blast, Moder’s head snapped to the side.

From the collision of the destructive beam and the Flame Cannon, the mouth attached to the human torso was charred pitch-black.

Even so, the creature did not die.

As expected of an undead, it did not feel pain.

Chuuhaaaaak!

Suddenly, thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of roots burst from its body.

The roots writhed like snakes, striking at Levin, Tesserina, and the others.

Just then, Zeon’s voice rang out.

“Sand Mixer!”

Sand surged in from every direction, swallowing Moder whole. And then, it spun violently.

Gaaaaaarrr!

A chilling sound, like a massive sawblade grinding, echoed over the seed storage.

Moder’s roots were shredded entirely inside the Sand Mixer.

The creature tried to open a force field to protect itself. But Tesserina and Levin didn’t let that happen.

“Lightning Blade.”

“Flame Cannon!”

They unleashed the same skills again.

The two skills, intertwined with the Sand Mixer, produced an overwhelming synergy.

The powerful undead Moder was vaporized in an instant.

Tssss!

Where Moder had been, only a hazy plume of smoke rose; not a single fragment remained.

It had been wiped clean off the face of the earth.

A rather unceremonious end for a high-ranked undead monster that had dominated an entire region.

But considering the combined strength of those present, it was inevitable.

Zeon and Tesserina went without saying, and even Levin could easily handle most monsters on his own.

With the three of them joining forces, no matter how powerful Moder was, it had no chance of withstanding them.

Its core had been utterly destroyed, leaving not even the faintest possibility of resurrection.

As Moder vanished, Brielle was the first to run toward the seed storage.

“Wow! The inside is unharmed!”

Brielle checked the interior and burst into cheers.

Despite the overwhelming force of the skills that had swept through the area, the inside of the seed storage was perfectly intact.

Partly because the storage had been built sturdy from the beginning, but mostly because Zeon and Tesserina had adjusted their skill ranges with pinpoint precision.

Thanks to that, aside from the bottles that had already been broken beforehand, nothing in this attack had been damaged.

Zeon, Tesserina, and Levin followed Brielle into the seed storage.

“That’s a relief. I was worried it might take at least some damage.”

“I put up a shield around the storage so it wouldn’t be affected.”

“No wonder the mana felt weird earlier.”

“Hehe! I’m a dragon, remember? Casting two spells at once is nothing for me.”

Tesserina lifted her shoulders proudly, looking triumphant.

“That’s amazing, noona!”

Levin gave her a thumbs-up.

Tesserina’s smile deepened even more.

Even a dragon couldn’t help being weak to praise.

Zeon approached Brielle, who was already inspecting the glass bottles.

“How is it? Anything usable?”

“Half the seeds spoiled because the bottles broke. And among the ones still in intact bottles, another half are dead.”

Brielle frowned.

If the seed storage had been operating normally, it would be different. But it had been abandoned too long without power.

Even if the bottles survived, many of the grains inside had gone bad.

Fortunately, the storage was quite large, so there were many seeds preserved.

Many were rotten or ruined, but unexpectedly, quite a few were still viable.

Brielle carefully examined each bottle of seeds.

Sorting them one by one took considerable time.

“These are alive, these are half-and-half, and these are completely rotten.”

Every time she found a living seed, Brielle’s face bloomed with joy.

By the end, she had gathered more than fifty bottles of viable seeds.

They were all different kinds of grains.

If brought to the High Elf village, they could harvest fifty new types of crops.

Obtaining seeds like these was a tremendous stroke of luck.

“Whew! We really got an incredible gift.”

“Is it that good?”

“Of course. For us High Elves, it’s the greatest treasure.”

“Well, same for humans. We just don’t have anywhere to grow them.”

There were only three places left where these seeds could be grown:

The Primordial Forest, the High Elf village, and Neo Seoul.

The Primordial Forest and the High Elf village could grow them naturally, but Neo Seoul would magically modify them.

Transforming their properties to fit mass production in food factories. Naturally, the taste would also change.

Beyond those, there were no places left where humans could cultivate plants.

For everyone’s sake, the best place to grow the grains was the High Elf village.

＊＊＊

After spending a night in the stone forest, Zeon’s group departed early the next morning.

“Hehe!”

—Kyarururu!

Brielle and Liri giggled the entire way.

Brielle was overjoyed by the unexpected fortune of acquiring seeds, and Liri rejoiced simply because Brielle was happy.

Spirits were always sensitive to their contractor’s emotions and were strongly influenced by them.

Seeing the two, Levin chuckled.

“They look like twins. Well, at least they’re both happy.”

Zeon nodded in agreement.

At that moment, he noticed Tesserina frowning slightly.

Zeon quietly approached her.

“What’s wrong? Something troubling you?”

“No!”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“There’s… a slight issue with my main body, but it’s nothing serious. Don’t worry about it.”

“……”

“It’s really nothing.”

“Alright. But if something actually goes wrong, tell me immediately. We’re teammates.”

“Yeah.”

Hearing her answer, Zeon didn’t press further.

If it truly became something she couldn’t handle, Tesserina would certainly ask for help.

Zeon shifted the topic.

“How much farther?”

“Just about five more days of walking.”

“Not much left, then.”

“From here on, be a bit tense. Monster habitats are scattered everywhere. The closer we get to my lair, the stronger the monsters will be.”

“Got it.”

Zeon nodded.

If Tesserina described them as strong monsters, they were no doubt extremely dangerous. Yet, for now, everything remained peaceful.

All they saw was sand, and no monsters were in sight.

Even so, Zeon didn’t let his guard down.

A monster could appear from anywhere.

Monsters hidden beneath the sand could be sensed before they attacked, but flying monsters were different.

Those could strike before Zeon even detected them.

The more monsters concentrated in an area, the more flying types would appear as well.

“Levin!”

“Yes, hyung.”

“Keep an eye on the sky. We don’t know when a flying monster might show up.”

“Don’t worry. I’m already on alert.”

Levin pointed at his own eyes as he answered confidently.

Seeing his assurance, Zeon nodded.

Listening to their conversation, Liri chimed in:

—Don’t worry. I’m watching too.

Liri was a spirit.

She did not tire, nor did she sleep.

As long as Brielle didn’t dismiss her, she could remain nearby and keep watch for approaching monsters at all times.

She was the ideal sentinel.

Brielle, who had always had extraordinary affinity with spirits, now had mental strength strong enough to keep Liri summoned all day long.

Liri hovered near Brielle, chatting nonstop, even inserting herself into Zeon, Levin, and Tesserina’s conversations.

She was an absolute chatterbox.

Zeon muttered with a dazed expression:

“Are spirits normally this talkative?”

“Liri is special.”

“Really?”

“Most spirits can only communicate at a child’s level. Not because they’re dumb, but because they don’t need speech. They can communicate with contractors just through thoughts. So they rarely make actual sound. Most people never hear a spirit’s voice their entire life.”

“So she’s just a chatterbox.”

“That too, but she’s definitely changed because of Brielle.”

“She does have a much stronger presence than other spirits.”

Zeon nodded.

Liri resembled Brielle—unlike typical spirits, she was curious, proactive, and overly meddlesome.

Aside from being a bit annoying because of that, everything about her was fine.

Zeon continued walking while chatting about this and that with Tesserina.

“Mmph.”

Then Tesserina frowned again.

“Another problem with your main body?”

“A little!”

“It’s not ‘nothing,’ is it?”

Tesserina was the chimeric avatar of a dragon.

If someone who shared senses with her true body made a face like that, clearly something was happening.

Yet she still didn’t seem inclined to tell Zeon what exactly was going on.

Tesserina relaxed her expression and said:

“It was just a sudden pain. I’m fine! Let’s go.”

She walked ahead as if nothing happened.

Seeing her unwillingness to explain, Zeon quietly shook his head.

‘So it’s that dragon pride of hers, huh?’

He understood.

Every dragon he had ever met possessed an ego of overwhelming magnitude.

Forged across unfathomably long lifespans, their immense sense of self did not allow them to show weakness to others.

That was why, even with an issue affecting her real body, she refused to reveal anything to him.

Even though they would find out as soon as they reached the lair.

Zeon clicked his tongue at the incomprehensible minds of dragons.

Aside from Tesserina frowning from time to time, there were no other issues.

They continued walking until the western sky turned crimson.

The sun was beginning to set.

Zeon said:

“That’s enough walking for today. Let’s camp here.”

“Okay!”

Brielle reacted the most enthusiastically.

She wanted to examine the seeds she’d gathered from the storage as soon as possible.

Zeon immediately manipulated the sand to create a space for the four of them to rest.

Preparing the meal was Levin’s job.

There wasn’t much to prepare—he simply had to take food out from his subspace.

Thanks to that, they could sit comfortably and enjoy a good meal.

As soon as dinner ended, Brielle pulled out the glass bottles to carefully examine the seeds.

“What’s this one?”

In her hands was a bottle filled with tiny, bead-like seeds.

Even as a High Elf, Brielle couldn’t identify the grain just by looking at the seeds.

It was her first time seeing such seeds.

Brielle turned to Liri.

“What do you think? Do you know?”

—I don’t know either. But they’re definitely good children.

“Good?”

—I feel warmth from them. They’ll be beneficial for elves and humans, for sure.

“Really?”

Brielle tilted her head. Liri giggled brightly.

—Hehe! If you listen a little more closely to the children’s voices, you’ll hear them too.

“All right, I’ll try.”

Then Zeon suddenly stood up and said:

“We’ll have to save the effort for later.”

“Why?”

—Monsters! A lot of monsters are coming!

Seeing Brielle’s puzzled expression, Liri flailed her arms frantically.

Tesserina and Levin also stared ahead with grim expressions.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

A colossal rumble and vibration erupted from beyond the horizon.

Countless monsters were charging toward them, tearing through the black curtain of night.

Tesserina muttered stiffly:

“It’s begun moving!”