Chapter 203 Rear Vanguard 1

Jay watched the small creatures scutter under the sand and pluck the sticky fruit off the mushrooms.

For whatever reason, they could safely detach the dangerous red fruits from the giant mushrooms, undoubtedly stashing them away somewhere for their future food source.

With all of this in mind, Jay began to plan his next steps.

“Weird little creatures… Ok, I’ll walk along the edge of the desert and then cross, sending the skeletons first. Hopefully I can avoid whatever that grey beast was…” he nodded,

“I'll leave one skeleton here so it can alert me if the grey beast actually walks around the desert.”

The skeleton which Jay chose to stay behind? The choice was obvious.

“Sweeper,” Jay pointed to a large rock, “wait there and keep watch.”

The poor skeleton slowly climbed up the rockface, having some trouble with its one arm. Jay decided not to let Sweeper eat bones to heal as it was going to be left behind to watch Jay's tail. It would simply be a waste.

“Hmm, maybe I should make this a regular practice… Sweeper can be like a rear-guard of sorts – or at least an early warning system for when it dies…” he smiled, giving his arm a good scratch as it had been itching since he came closer to the desert.

Sweeper had clambered on the rock and was looking around like a sentry.

Jay sat back on his throne and was carried along the rocky slope between the desert and the mountains.

After travelling for a few hours between the natural narrow passageway between the mountain and the desert, the air became quite dry.

At this point, Jay's arm was only getting itchier and he focused on trying not to scratch it through the molodus coat.

“It will only itch the more I scratch it” he thought, as annoyed as he was tempted.

Thankfully, Jay noticed something to take his mind off it as his eyes drifted over the desert.

“Oh?” he raised a brow.

The desert sands were shifting frantically as if it were made from water – there was so much movement under the sand as it was thriving with more of these underground creatures.

Previously there was only a few of them, but here, where the mushrooms were thick, there were seemingly hundreds, maybe even one thousand of the underground animals.

They darted about erratically, harvesting the red mushroom fruits and even making the sand seem like a turbulent river.

With so many around to catch, Jay decided it was time for a little hunt as he had the skeletons place the throne down.

“Now's as good as ever” he thought as he sent his skeletons off, still sitting casually on his throne.

Each of them slinked off into the sand once more, their boney feet sinking into it. For a moment the skeletons simply stood there watching – they weren't sure how to go about catching something underground as they watched the little mounds and waves of moving sand pass by.

“It’d be easier if the helminth was here…” Jay thought as he watched the hapless skeletons.

After a while, the skeletons began slashing and stabbing at the sand – unfortunately the daggers simply weren't long enough while the swords were too wide to penetrate deeply.

The underground creatures were also going around the skeletons, avoiding them.

As for slashing through the sand, it went as well as one might expect. No creatures were harmed in the making of these orders.

Jay was shaking his head as the skeletons continued anyway – they were slowly digging a hole around themselves, only to be avoided even more by the underground creatures.

Jay ignored them for a moment and pulled out a bone pile as he began crafting.

His crafting choice? A spear – four of them.

The two handed weapon with a slender shaft will give themthe much needed penetration power.

Jay began crafting like usual, forming a long slender pice of molten bone.

Contrary to his expectations, it required a great deal of concentration, as the molten bone kept wanting to form a spindle shape rather than a long cylinder; he also had to keep it straight while doing so.

These two desirable qualities made it harder than a sword or even a shield to craft.

After all, he had to keep the molten material suspended in mid air.

Jay made it straight, but each time he did, the bone would pull back and blob to the centre. It was frustrating to say the least.

The long shaft of the spear was made, and he held it up to his eyes as he looked along its length. He rotated it slowly and to his annoyance there were some wobbles as it wasn't perfectly straight.

“Dammit…” Jay frowned, it was a small thing but he was a perfectionist when it came to crafting; he would keep trying until he did it right, and he began to channel his mana into it again – though he had an idea to help fix the issue.

To keep it straight, he kept it floating at eye level while making his mana swirl around it, spinning the spear as he looked down its length.

Almost naturally the spear shaft began to straighten out on its own, while Jay simply had to squeeze out the centre – using his mind of course.

In a few moments it solidified and was done, and he had a long spear shaft.

As for the spear head, he formed a thick triangular point, similar to an arrowhead but stretched longer like a needle.

Jay didn't want to simply kill the creatures under the sand, but to pull them out too, so he added some backwards pointing spikes to the bottom of the spearhead, similar to barbed fishing hooks.

As for attaching the spearhead to the spear shaft, it was as easy as adding some extra bone, some mana, and holding them together. The products fused and became one, and the spear was complete.

Jay considered adding some hand grips, but decided it wasn't worth his time. They would be going back into the forest soon, and the spears simply didn't suit that cramped environment.

With the spear complete, Jay analysed his grand design.

[Bone Spear – Level 1]

[6 damage – piercing]

[5% chance to stagger]

[Anti-charge – 50-200% bonus damage when braced against charge. Depending on the speed of enemies.]

[Anti-charge – 50kg of stopping power]

[Lifespan – Requires necrotic essence to maintain it’s form]

[Current lifespan: 4 hours]

As Jay went over the spear, he was surprised it was level one, though it was his first try. Now that he had the blueprint down in his mind, he could quickly improve it – and as he thought, the next three spears he crafted were all level two, dealing seven damage and having a six percent chance to stagger enemies.

Jay only crafted four spears; one for Blue, Red, Lamp and Handy.

Sweeper would have received one too if it wasn't quietly standing by a rock, alone and defenceless, keeping a lookout a few hours behind them.

Jay handed the spears out and the skeletons soon got to work, stabbing the sand and thrusting their spears violently into it.

In a matter of minutes, they had their first victim – Right next to the shade of a mushroom, Lamp had managed to stab one of the creatures, violently piercing it in the sand. It squirmed and kicked up sand in pain.

A muffled cooing sound came from the sand as it died before it was even pulled out.

[6 Exp]

Lamp heroically pulled its prize from the sand as it flopped lifelessly on the spear, gazing at it for a moment before bringing it to Jay.

The creature was like a lizard, though it had no tail, and instead of having scales on its back, it had a leathery soft tortoise shell.

Its paws had long slender claws which were all parallel and close together, however the most odd part about it was its head.

The mouth of the creature opened sideways, and instead of having rows of sharp teeth, it simply had a beak. A weird sideways-opening beak.

Jay thought it even looked like two hooves of a horse had been used to replace its teeth, jammed into its flesh without remorse.

It’s head had no eyes, and on each side of its head were four small holes which appeared to be its noses.

Jay couldn't see any other notable features, and it seemed that the creature relied mostly on smell to find its food.

[6 Exp]

Despite Jay having what he came for, the skeletons were as diligent as always as they killed more of the sand lizards.

A few more cooing sounds resounded before he had mercy on them,

“…Ok, you can stop killing them now” Jay said, and the skeletons returned to his side. While it was easy exp, he didn’t want to stop the lizards from removing all the red fruits for him; each mushroom having hundreds of then hanging, ready to trap its next victim. The lizards made a noticeable dent in the red fruits, but it was nowhere near close enough to creating a way across.

However with a lizards guillotined head, there would be a way.