Chapter 117 - 113 : Sahara Desert

Ink Snow and Gotze got stopped by the carriage at the entrance of Sahara Desert which was actually a natural "gate" formed by two small hills. They were wearing only cloth armor and had a glowing green amulet on their necks. Even as they stood in front of the entrance, they both felt a heat wave stroking their faces and making them feel a bit uncomfortable.

Sahara Desert was a large map that had a wide variety of desert creatures lurking within. As it was located at the Southern part of the main continent, it wasn't the hottest desert but it's temperature was still burning.

The Sahara Desert was very large with it's dimensions on a wide scale. Simply put, it was like prefecture of it's own. With such a huge size, it was really strange how it was a level 5 map but in fact, it wasn't. Sahara Desert's true level was that of a level 45 and above map. It was only the outer region that was a level 5 map as most of the weaker creatures dwelled here, away from the stronger ones. The continuous gathering of low levelled monsters together with their constant breeding, resulted in the outer region of Sahara Desert that was facing Lavissen Town, to become a level 5 map[1]. Despite being such, the difficulty here was quite high as not only would players have to face strong monsters but they would also risk the chance of a high level monster abruptly appearing but that wasn't even the worst problem; it was the area's climate.

The entire place was a desert and not the cold kind of desert. Because of that, players had to cope with the harsh hot weather. Even though it wasn't the hottest in Infinite Realm, it was still hotter than your average house. The result of this hot weather was that players would get tired faster, losing Stamina and energy at a a rate that hasn't been seen before. That wasn't even the worst of it all. Mages experienced the worst part as the mana density here was very low that they couldn't regenerate mana as quickly as they did in other places. Though the fire type Mana here was one of the purest, meaning that fire type attacks would deal a bit more damage than usual while water type magic would be weakened a bit, having to suffer from slow regeneration in mana wasn't a good thing for players neither was losing Stamina at a much faster rate.

As a result of the combined issues of unanticipated attacks by high level creatures plus hot climate and low Mana regeneration speed, most players in Lavissen actually avoided Sahara Desert and headed to other level 5 maps close by.

To be able to stay here, not only would players have to lessen their clothing but they would also have to purchase a lot of supplies to prevent their body from losing moisture after all, the humidity in the air was at an all time low for most of these players. They all lived in good environments so experiencing the sensation of a desert here in Infinite Realm, was definitely a first for most of them. The green amulets the two wore was to solve the issue of rapidly depleting stamina and moisture.

After admiring the scenic view of the entrance to Sahara Desert, the duo then walked in deeper, past the gate and into the desert territory. Even though it was a level 5 map, there wasn't a guarantee to spot monsters at every step so the two had an almost safe journey. The reason for the 'almost' was because the hot sunny weather wasn't really making things easy for them.

"Hey. Over here."

After having walked for more than 5 minutes, the two heard a voice reaching out to them. Turning their heads towards it origin, they saw a human figure waving at them.

"That should be Panda." Ink Snow uttered. As the captain of their team, she obviously knew the shape and size of each and everyone of her teammates so recognizing one of them from a 1 km or so distance wasn't so hard.

"Yeah." Gotze nodded.

The two then hurried over to the human figure that was supposedly Panda the Paladin.

"Captain, little Gotze." Panda them once they arrived. He nodded at Ink Snow but smirked when he 'greeted' Gotze.

"Tch. Who's little huh? Don't you know you're the one who's huge?!" Gotze barked at him.

"Still makes you little."

Turning to the person who just spoke, Gotze whipped out a dagger and yelled "Do you think I won't kill you here?! And what's with your 'four eyes' look?"

Herald who was walking over nudged the eye protector he had on. It was colored black and looked a lot like regular glasses.

"Hmph. I never expected less from someone as dumb as you."

"Says the closet pervert. Don't force me or else-"

"Alright!! Alright!!" Herald frantically yelled, interrupting Gotze from completing his speech.

"Hmph. I always knew men were useless but you two are worse." Purple Winter also walked towards the group but slightly behind Herald. Just like her name, she wore a purple garment with white lines drawn around it. The energy the clothing actively released was on par with a Upper tier Mortal rank. The black staff in her hand also exuded the same aura and if that wasn't enough, the necklace she wore also had the same energy. 3 Upper tier Mortal rank equipment! Not even some guild experts had such flamboyant attire.

"Ah...it's the distinguished feminist." Gotze muttered under his breath, afraid that she would hear him.

Even though he too, had an Upper tier Mortal rank weapons, compared to Purple Winter, he only had 1. Plus she was also ahead of him in terms of level. She was a level 7.  Despite her being a Cleric, Gotze was still scared of Purple Winter both because of her personality and also her talent.

The only reason Purple Winter became a Cleric was because the team lacked one. She was much more suited to be an attacking type mage and if she had actually chosen the [Elementalist] class, Gotze knew that without a doubt, Purple Winter would be able to decimate him to ashes even if he was the one with 3 Upper tier Mortal rank weapons while she would have only one. After all, she had proved this before in Conquest.

"You guys improved a bit in your levels."

Seeing Purple Winter at level 7, Ink Snow guessed that they must have had some battles here and grind a few monster to gain some experience points and pass the time.

"Yeah. At least with this much, we are a bit ahead of others." Purple Winter nodded with a smile.

"Compared to the luck of those players in 4-leaf clover towns, we are still weaker." Herald sighed.

As a beginner town(AN: Towns where players are spawned) with nothing so special about it, the average level of players here in Lavissen was between level 4-5. This was while that of Riverdale Town was level 5-6. The blame couldn't be placed on the players though, but rather their locations and the opportunities tied to it. Riverdale's players were able to experience the Goblin siege and that led to a rise in the average level of players, making its players the ones with the highest overall levels. Of course, some other Towns had fortuitous encounters but they were few and far in between and they became known as '4- leaf clover towns'. Lavissen, sadly, wasn't one of such towns and so, level 6 was already high and level 7 players could be counted with one's fingers and they were all below the 30% mark.

"Let's forget about them. So, where is it?" Ink Snow asked. She always had a direct personality and usually likes to get to the point rather than waste time in pointless chats.

"Here." Purple Winter projected her map through her system interface and made it visible for all to see.

"It's a bit deep into the desert so it's filled with perils and dangers. Herald had managed to spot the location 7 miles away but that was all he could do. Getting closer wasn't an option."

"Why?" Gotze asked.

"Because the area was blocked off by a few high level monsters. There were Sand scorpions and because if the new upgrade to the [Inspect] skill, we couldn't ascertain their level. But thanks to Herald's [Sefiris' eye], we discovered that the sand scorpions were between level 12 and level 15. If that wasn't bad already, the two protectors at the temple were level 25."

"Sthhh." Gotze inhaled loudly in shock.

Mainstream players were still level 6 at most! Even the top pros like Sato were level 8 at best. Against level 12 - level 15 monsters, they are toast. Against level 25 monsters? Let's not even go there. Lasting a second against them would already be an achievement one could boast to their grandchildren about.

Meanwhile, [Sefiris'eye] was the eye protector equipment Herald wore. It was an accessory with the rating of Upper tier Mortal rank. He had gotten it from a Rare Steel chest the group had came across during one of their exploits. It's most special feature was to gauge the level and ability if something from the mana it radiated silently. Purple Winter's staff also came from the Rare Steel Chest and had very impressive features, akin to Fudo's Black Alder Staff.

"So...do we give up for now?" Gotze asked carefully. As the monsters guarding their target destination was far more powerful than they were, there didn't seem to be any other option other than to leave the mission till they were much stronger. It would be nothing more than a pipe dream to think they could get past such monsters.

"No, we can't just stop like this. The least we need to do is to see it for ourselves. At the very least, we need to scout the place and have an idea of what we would face. A clever rabbit digs three burrows. It's possible that there isn't only one entrance in. If we're any lucky, we might find another entrance." Ink Snow replied. She obviously didn't want to stop after just coming this far. As every regular human would be, she preferred to see the problems ahead rather than fear it from afar.

"Who knows, it might be easier to enter than we think."

"Ah. Like the saying 'Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it'[2] right?" Panda grinned.

"...yeah, let's go with that." Herald nudged his glasses.

"Let's go." Ink Snow smiled as she shook her head.

AN :

[1] Please do remember that Level 5 maps have their upper limit at level 10 or so.

[2] I think it's a Chinese saying about fear.. Interpreted as: sometimes the fear we have would be greater than the actual problem at hand.