81 - baptism of sand

Saralisa, who was our guide, seemed to be a rather taciturn woman.

After the initial greeting, she hardly speaks at all, but only shakes her head in reply.

She pointed out the wilderness to Thor and the others, who were ready to leave even now.

I suppose he was asking us to choose which way to go.

"I think there are three paths, aren't there?

I don't see any roads. Sola, are you all right in the eyes?

"No, the roads are not like those in the city. I don't know what to say.

"When someone walks, that's a road, mu."

"Oh, Torchan. That's kind of cool!"

The cloth is unwrapped and a brimmed hat is put on him, and he jumps to Thor, his purple eyes shining like a cat's. He is so happy that Thor is so happy that he has found a place to live.

"Oh, you're okay with that?　It's kind of sneaky!"

Sora, who had deftly gathered her hair with a white cloth, clung to the other arm, imitating a child.

With the two hanging from either side, Thor turned his head toward the east with the sun at his back.

As Thora had said earlier, there are three routes in this wilderness.

The northbound route, which is full of strange, wind-carved rocks.

The southbound route, which passes through a number of canyons that run like cracks in the earth.

The east route goes straight through the wilderness.

Since the north and south routes take a large detour, it takes an average of one and a half days to reach the depths of the wilderness.

However, if you take the east route, which is shorter, you can reach the wilderness in less than a day.

The ideal itinerary is four days, including one or two days to search for dungeons in the backcountry and one day to return home.

It is said that the maximum stay in the D-rank wilderness is four to five days at most.

The wind blows constantly and monsters attack in the terrain.

Dealing with these and carrying food and tents on one's back for a long time can easily exhaust one's body and mind.

In the past, many parties disappeared because they overexerted themselves too much, and because of this, it was decided that nowadays the search is limited to four days if it is supervised by a guide.

The rental of carriages for transportation is also restricted to four days due to the high number of reservations.

The rations for the guides and the horses' fodder were loaded only for that amount of time, and they would leave easily when the time was over.

So, even if you are lucky enough to come back after the time has passed, you may find yourself without a carriage for the return trip.

The central route chosen by Thor this time is the shortest, but it is said to be the most difficult.

After two hours of travel, the group realized the full significance of the route.

"Which way are you facing now?

"To-chan, Moo is too dizzy. You've got to pick him up and hold him.

"Here, hold on. Is Mr. Uril okay?

"Yes, yes ......, I can probably still walk. This wind,...... is more powerful than I thought it would be."

It is indeed a nasty wind, but not to the extent that it would seriously impede walking.

The problem, however, was its direction.

Just when it seemed to be blowing from the front, it suddenly turned into a sideways blow.

When we staggered back, it suddenly pushed us on our backs, and so on and so forth.

Thor was supposed to be in the front and shielded from the wind, but it was so rough that it made no sense at all.

The light-weighted Moo and the others were darting from one place to another at the mercy of the wind.

Moreover, the wind was filled with white sand, and Thor and the others had already turned completely white.

"My eyes are feeling a little shiny, Thor-chan.

"Kuhuhuhu, Sora-neechan's face is pure white!"

Moe's long eyelashes, which he pointed out, were also covered with white sand.

The girl and the child looked at each other and giggled.

"I heard that the winds are irregular in the center, but this is more than I expected. And there is a lot of sand."

Strangely enough, the wind across the wilderness does not move outward much.

The white sand that winds up in the wilderness seems to gather in the center of the wilderness.

In fact, we could feel a gradual sinking sensation under our feet.

The direction of the wind was irregular, and the visibility and footing were uncertain.

In such a difficult situation, we were about to encounter a new obstacle.

Saralisa, who had been quietly following at the tail end of the boat, suddenly raised her voice.

"I think it's time to pay attention..."

"Torchan, there he is!"

The guide's voice was interrupted by the words of Moe, who had somehow sent a purple snake into the air.

He was holding onto Thor's shoulder and pointing to the ground diagonally in front of him.

Thor put the child down, pulled out his sword without a sound, and looked behind him to Sora.

The girl nodded and strode toward what appeared to be nothing more than the ground.

As soon as her leather boots stepped on the soft sand, something grew rapidly from the ground right below her.

In an instant, the white stick-like object reaches Thor's waist, where it suddenly stops moving.

Or, to be more precise, it was stopped.

The speed was too fast for ordinary people to notice, but the girl who was waiting for her caught the surprise attack from under the sand.

--

Poking out of the sand was what appeared to be the head of a monster the size of an adult's torso.

The face, covered with white, rugged protrusions, looked like a mass of multiple rocks.

The lump was open at the center, and opened up at the top and bottom.

The open edges were irregularly lined with conical protrusions.

The long neck was covered with smooth, fine scales in contrast to the rocky head.

With its face fixed in midair, the monster shook its body as if it were struggling.

Suddenly, its long neck, which had been stretched out, suddenly shrunk, pulling its body, which had been hidden in the sand, closer to the monster.

From beneath the ground emerged a body covered with a skin that had also changed into a rock-like substance.

The long neck disappears as if sucked into the sturdy-looking body.

Thor, however, is not a man to let this go unnoticed.

As if sliding around on the sand, the iron sword flashes one after another.

The monster's neck is almost shredded in half after being slashed repeatedly in the same spot in an instant.

Then the weight of the torso is applied, and the flesh and skin come apart with an unbearable crunching sound.

The split torso again raises up sand, and the remaining head falls as soon as the effect of the wears off.

"That was good, Sora, Mu."

"Moo is a good boy who always does what To-chan says."

"Hehehe, but I was surprised that you were faster than I thought you would be!"

Before they left, Thor had asked Moe to search the surroundings every fifteen minutes with an electric probe.

Thor lightly taps the head with the tip of his sword to make sure it does not move, and looks at the monster's face.

Its large mouth seems to be able to suck the limbs of an adult easily.

Its fangs are not very sharp, but its bite is probably very strong.

I tried to put a knife for dismemberment against its rocky skin, but it did not seem to pass through at all.

Even with an iron sword made to its maximum sharpness, the blade hardly dives into the skin, indicating that the strength of the knife is very high.

Moreover, the eyeballs, which are supposed to be a soft weak point, are nowhere to be seen.

They may have degenerated to hide in the sand.　

"Wow, rock lizards are this big!"

"This is what was hiding under the sand. That's amazing."

Convinced that they are safe, Sola and the others come close by and look into the body buried in the sand.

When the wind blew away the sand covering it, its entire body was revealed.

If we include the tip of its tail, it is taller than Thor.

However, it is not very thick, and its body is flat.

What was interesting was the structure of its neck.

It can be folded and stored in the body part, and is extended at once only when it attacks its prey.

Only the neck was covered with small scales, and its texture was clearly different from the rest of the body.

"Only the skin of this neck was usable," he said. The body is too heavy to carry.

"Yeah?　It's meat, Thor!"

"Meat, To-chan!"

Again, the two men who had been dancing around in the wind and gale raised their voices in protest one after the other.

Then the calm voice of Yuril sounded as if to calm them down.

"I heard that rock lizard meat is tough and hard to eat. And there seem to be a lot more of them out there.

"Yes, that's right. I think we're going to stay a little bit further today."

".................. Eh, yes. At this speed, it will be another hour or so.

Perhaps he was stumped by the sudden question, the guide answered after a short delay.

It was mid-afternoon when we departed, and the sun was already beginning to set.

"Well, let's just collect the neck skin and tail and move on. Moe, make sure you have plenty of room for the electric probe."

"Yes, sir!"

The rock lizard's tail is proof of defeat.

Thor secretly attaches the shredded skin with and quickly removes it with his knife.

It is quite slippery, but the blade manages to penetrate only the neck, so the work does not take too long.

Saralisa is gazing at the back of the knife and is filled with a sense of bewilderment.

The scene that had just occurred to her had been so impossible.

The rock lizard's surprise attack from the sand was so unexpected that even a C rank, who was used to it, could only manage to avoid it.

I had guessed from Thor's footsteps that he could move quite well, but even so, I thought it would be difficult for him to move at first sight.

He would struggle to avoid fatal injuries, and would probably choose to retreat.

However, this expectation turned out to be wrong.

Saralisa had never seen or heard of a magic technique that could suddenly stop a monster in mid-air.

And even though it was its only weakness, the neck skin of a rock lizard was very slippery, making it difficult to slash it properly.

But Thor managed to slice it in half in an instant.

As far as Saralisa could remember, she had never seen such sharpness in a mere sword fight, which was not a martial art.

And this is what surprised me the most, rock lizards are not easily detected by .

This monster usually sleeps in the sand and its life activity is almost dormant.

It awakens when it hears the sound of its prey's footsteps, so an electric search, which detects electrical signals emitted by other creatures, can only determine its approximate location.

The child, on the other hand, clearly pointed out the place where the creature was hiding.

And this time it was an inexperienced child.

But her assumption that this would be a similar case was easily betrayed.

Saralisa did not know.

As a matter of fact, the effectiveness of an electric probe is greatly influenced by the specifications of its user.

The more sensitive a person is, the more he/she can pick up even the smallest signals without missing them.

And the young child who was frolicking in front of me had the experience of sharing his senses with adults for almost two months.

Thor's eye movement to get to the point in an instant.

Sola's spatial perception with unusual dynamic and deep vision.

And Ulir's extraordinary hearing, which is unique to his race.

A lightning rod that amplifies them several times over.

Mu's senses, sharpened through the massive amount of information, were about to reach a level beyond that of ordinary people.

No one, including himself, was aware of this, however.

The party easily kills the first one and starts to move on the sand, again against the wind.

The guide watched the party's back as if he were watching them intently.