Chapter 450: sand warrior

“Are we safe yet?”

Hearing the quivering voice of the tourist who came with his 3 sons for this dangerous expedition, Mr. Sandstorm nodded gently while motioning for him to reduce the volume of his voice so as not to disturb the other tourists.

After a whole night of getting to sleep normally, the tourists finally recovered most of their spent energy but most of them were still asleep.

The series of encounters that they experienced the previous day not only left them with physical damages, some of them also suffered psychological damages of different degrees.

The only thing keeping them sane was their innate tendency to seek thrills.

At this moment, only a few of the tourists were awake, who was Mr. Sandstorm, the tourist who came with his 3 sons, the 2 mercenaries who participated in the treasure hunt, and all the other locals who were their guides.

The others were all still asleep, including the lady mercenary.

Though Mr. Sandstorm reacted fast to tell the tourist to lower his voice, the slight sound was still able to startle the other tourists, disturbing their sleep.

A few minutes later, all the tourists finally woke up. Due to the nature of the expedition that they were in, they didn’t have to have their bath so no one made a fuss about it, not that they dared.

Only a tense atmosphere suddenly descended in the huge mechanical pipe.

Amid the other tourists stealing nervous glances at the female mercenary, Mr. Sandstorm cleared his throat before speaking with a raised voice.

“Madam, can we move now?” He asked carefully.

The lady kept quiet for a moment. She stood up while secretly confirming the existence of her treasure again, then she turned and directed a stern glance at the other tourists before nodding her head.

As a 3rd rank high-grade mercenary, traveling with such tourists was originally below her but she knew that traveling here without an experienced local was suicidal. She could only tone down her ego and move the normal way.

Her original intention was to keep a low profile but as her strength was already exposed, she didn’t mind bossing around the expedition team.

After getting her consent, the other tourists heaved sighs of relief and finally stood up to arrange their stuff.

Amid the arrangement, they finally saw the corpse of the creatures that were killed outside the metal pipe. Seeing such a sight made them freeze in fear, but seeing the calm Mr. Sandstorm made them relax.

They didn’t ask blatant questions about the corpses, they knew that their guide would explain the needful to them.

In a few minutes, they were ready to move but Mr. Sandstorm stopped them to address them solemnly.

The tan-skinned middle-aged retired soldier quickly explained their current circumstances and the dangers that were liable to follow taking their current route.

According to him, this pipe was an escape route that was made by the city of the desert. They led to different underground passageways that could take them to their destination faster.

He didn’t explain more in-depth about the circumstances of the pipe and how it was created, that was a knowledge that was exclusive to him and his city.

The only problem he revealed was that taking the underground route made them vulnerable to even more dangers.

Just like other special earth locations, danger filled every part of the great Sahara Desert but patterns were already formed on how to bypass the most dangerous parts on the surface. The problem this time was the pattern.

Most creatures in the land of gold were more active underground. Despite the countless efforts put in by the locals, there was no pattern to follow to avoid danger here, every step of theirs from here would be stemmed with danger.

Underground, the dangerous creatures moved in such random patterns that it was virtually impossible to form a viable plan to counter them. And underground, they were faster and stronger.

Pigxies, mutated spiders, mutated desert foxes, desert snakes, mutated desert hounds, this was just a small list of the numerous dangers underground. Also, the underground was the main home of Scavenger rats.

For the option of going back up as the Scavenger rats were gone, Mr. Sandstorm directly shot it down before any tourist could suggest it.

According to the experienced locals, when Scavenger rats cross like a plague, Scavenger Ostriches follow closely behind them like a shadow.

He was pretty sure that if they decided to go back up, they would encounter a horde of Scavenger ostriches which were even more dangerous against humans compared to the rats.

In the end, he finally said what he wanted to say. “We have no choice but to continue our journey underground and face the dangers that follow unless you guys are ready to return and abandon the expedition”.

The tourists fell silent, pondering for minutes as one of the mercenaries asked. “What are our chances of going through to our destination safely?”

“50/50”. Mr. Sandstorm raised his right hand while spreading his fingers to form a five. “I can’t tell. At every step that we take, we may encounter danger immediately, or we may not even encounter any till we pass through”.

“Does that mean we’ll be relying on luck?” A tourist asked, scared.

“Yes, luck”. Mr. Sandstorm nodded firmly. “So, if any of you no longer wants to continue the expedition, you can indicate and you’ll be allowed to leave”.

Hearing that, most of the tourists revealed fearful expressions on their faces as they pondered about the way forward. In the end, despite the dangers involved, leaving everything to luck only increased the thrill derived from the journey.

And for thrills, every tourist here was a thrill seeker.

None of them decided to leave, they decided to continue with the journey and seek thriller adventures till death. At least even in death, they could die with pride having fulfilled a life-long dream.

As soon as the tourists made their choice, Mr. Sandstorm solemnly acknowledged it like he already expected it.

Without hesitation, the expedition team started preparations to continue their journey. Mr. Sandstorm confirmed the 15 tourists remaining in the team, then he finally took the lead towards the end of the metal pipe.

On getting to the front of the transparent glass wall, he expressed his intention to leave and a deep scan was immediately performed on his body.

The next moment, green words appeared in the glass wall.

[Sand Warrior Recognized!]

[Sorry for the recent release rate, I'll try to return back to the normal as soon as possible.]