The edge of the sandy expanse.
People sat or crouched in small groups of twos and threes. Some leaned forward with hands on their knees, panting heavily, while others leaned against the rocks with their eyes closed in silence.
A pungent, burnt smell filled the air, mingled with the corrosive, acidic stench of the worm's fluids.
“Twelve people dead, and we only killed a single worm!”
The Baron stared at the grayish-white ruins in the distance, his voice incredibly dry.
“Richard had followed me for twenty years... He didn't die on the battlefield, yet he ended up miserably filling the belly of a bug.”
His back was held straight, but Rosie could see his hands clenched tightly at his sides.
Losing an elite knight in such a baffling manner weighed heavily on the Baron's heart.
“I am sorry, My Lord. It was my negligence. I didn't expect there to be more than one worm,” Knight John said, blaming himself.
“It's everyone's first time here. It's only natural that we didn't expect it,” Rosie comforted him.
The Baron sighed. “Exactly. Don't blame yourself, John.”
“Damned bugs!”
The dwarf sat on a boulder, using a small knife to scrape the dried brown stains off his axe blade. After a couple of scrapes, he looked down at his remaining, patchy beard and cursed under his breath.
“Thank you for your help just now, Miss Rosie,” Anna said to Rosie.
The hem of her robe was coated in a layer of dust, but her posture remained calm and composed, as if the previous chaos hadn't affected her in the slightest.
“You're welcome. You are the only mage in the group; protecting you was the most logical choice,” Rosie said.
Anna nodded, letting the subject drop.
She turned her gaze to the distant sand. The sandy expanse had returned to a peaceful state, and even the previous worm's corpse had disappeared.
“With those worms around, we won't be able to reach the ruins.”
The dwarf spoke up, “But we can't just give up because of a few bugs, can we? I, Ginli, have crawled through more holes in my life than the roads you lot have walked. I've never backed down when treasure was right before my eyes.”
Rosie's gaze swept across the sand, extending all the way to the ruins in the distance.
The ancient ruins were surrounded by sand on all sides; there was simply no way to bypass those subterranean worms.
If they wanted to get across, they had to deal with them once and for all.
Recalling the positions where those worms had burst out earlier, she silently counted them.
“I counted earlier; there are about ten worms. We can continue using Ginli's method to bait them... A few more rounds of baiting should allow us to clear them all out.”
“Who will be the bait?” Anna calmly posed the question. “Are we going to send our dwarf master again?”
The surroundings fell silent for a moment.
People looked at one another before casting their gazes back down.
One worm was manageable, but now there were ten, or perhaps even more.
“I'll do it,” Rosie spoke up. “I'm faster.”
Anna glanced at her. “But...”
“No one here is faster than me,” Rosie said. “If I can't do it, no one can.”
Although the worms were lethal, their recovery time after an attack was too long. With her speed and reflexes, she would be completely fine.
Furthermore, she had her Charge Combat Skill.
The Baron was silent for a moment before nodding. “Very well, let's do it that way.”
Rosie continued, “I need weapons. Those creatures' fluids corrode weapons, so I need spares that I can swap out at any time.”
“Take your pick of our weapons,” the Baron said.
“Then we're good to go,” Rosie said.
After speaking, she removed her helmet, placed it on a nearby rock, and reached to unbuckle her plate armor.
First the gauntlets, then the breastplate, greaves, iron boots, and socks were removed one by one and laid on the rock.
The metal plates gleamed dimly under the light of the crystals overhead, still marred by dark spots scorched by the corrosive fluid.
In the end, Rosie was left in only her linen gambeson.
She rotated her shoulders and arms, bent her knees, and tried a series of rapid lateral movements and turns.
Without the restriction of plate armor, her movements were indeed much swifter. She even felt like she could perform maneuvers she normally couldn't.
She hung her meteoric iron sword at her waist and chose a knight's spare longsword to hold in her right hand.
“I couldn't tell before, but you have quite a nice figure.”
Anna stood at the edge of the sand, her gaze resting on Rosie.
Rosie grinned. “Just regular exercise.”
“Some places can't be grown through exercise, just like how some people's legs will never grow any longer,” Anna teased.
The dwarf turned his head away, pretending not to hear.
Anna then turned serious and said, “Draw them out, and I will attack. Focus entirely on dodging.”
Rosie glanced at her, then nodded. “Understood.”
She exhaled slowly, adjusting her grip on the sword, and stepped onto the sand.
Stepping barefoot onto the grains of sand made her senses even more acute.
When she had walked about twenty meters out, the sandy surface beneath her feet trembled slightly.
It was very faint, like something rolling over beneath the sand. The vibration traveled up through the grains, reaching the sensory nerves on the soles of her feet.
Rosie stopped and stood in place.
The vibration did not stop.
It persisted and grew increasingly distinct, as if something was moving beneath the sand.
She couldn't pinpoint the exact direction; it seemed to come from ahead, yet also felt like it was right under her feet.
The grains of sand leaped slightly, driven by the vibrations, producing a faint rustling sound.
Rosie remained still, sensing the shifts in the vibration.
Then, she suddenly lunged to the side.
Almost at the exact same moment, the sand where she had been standing violently bulged upward and split open.
A massive head burst from the sand. Its gaping maw snapped shut on empty air, producing a dull thud.
The creature shook its head, spraying sand and slime in all directions. Its body writhed on the sand before sinking back beneath the surface.
Before that one had even fully disappeared, the vibration beneath Rosie's feet returned.
She didn't run back; instead, she kept moving continuously across the sand.
Sidestepping, rushing forward, and then turning...
She drew irregular tracks across the sand, her body incredibly agile.
The vibrations beneath her feet felt like drumbeats, rising up in waves from the front, back, left, and right, telling her there was more than one creature beneath the surface.
Rosie ran for a while, estimating that she had lured out enough worms.
Suddenly, she made a sharp turn and stood firm.
The vibrations converged at that very instant.
In the next second, the sand split open all around her.
Four massive, dark brown bodies erupted from the sand simultaneously, shedding grains of sand like a torrential downpour, their giant maws gaping wide.
Her Charge Combat Skill instantly activated. In a flash, Rosie reappeared further away.
Boom!
A deafening explosion erupted behind her.
Rosie didn't look back, continuing to charge forward.
Then, a wave of heat caught up with her, slapping the back of her neck with a dry, hot wind.
Only when she dashed onto the rocky ground did she stop and look back.
A massive fireball hung in the air above the sand, enveloping all four worms in flames.
The flames swirled, the intense heat distorting the air and making the four writhing bodies look as if they were swaying underwater.
In an instant, all four worms caught fire, light from the flames leaking through the cracks and folds of their skin.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Four loud explosions rang out almost in unison.
The four burning bodies suddenly exploded, sending shattered flames and combusting fluids raining down across the sky like a spectacular shower of meteoric fire, pelted onto the sandy surface.
A scorching current of air brushed past Rosie's cheek, carrying hot sand and a burnt odor.
Rosie turned to look at Anna, her voice tinged with surprise. “What kind of magic is that? Why is it so powerful?”
Anna's gaze rested on the burning sand in the distance as she spoke in a matter-of-fact tone:
“This is merely a standard ‘Fireball’ spell. The reason it was so powerful... is because the corrosive fluid inside those worms happens to be highly flammable. Once ignited, it triggers a chain reaction.”
“So that's how it is. Miss Anna, you are truly knowledgeable,” Rosie praised sincerely.
As expected of a mage; not only was she powerful, but she was also incredibly knowledgeable.
“We mages are different from other professions; we must constantly study and explore new knowledge to progress,” Anna said.
“That's true, but it's precisely because you mages love researching bizarre things that this once-fertile land was turned into a barren desert!”
The dwarf, standing to the side, interjected rapidly in his booming voice.
Anna turned her head slightly. “Is there any wrong in exploring the truth? Only through failure can there be success.”
“Oh sure, failure, failure, and you end up turning a perfectly fine piece of land into this,” the dwarf grunted, gesturing toward the sand with his chin.
“Alright, you two, now is not the time to debate philosophy,” Rosie interrupted. “We have work to do.”
She turned to Anna, paused for a moment, and then asked, “Miss Anna, how many spells can you cast in a day?”
Anna pondered for a moment, her tone carefully measured:
“A mage's spells are divided into different tiers. High-tier spells consume more mana, so they can be cast fewer times, while low-tier spells consume less mana and can be used frequently. However, mana recovery must also be factored in, which depends on one's individual constitution...”
She rattled on and on, yet revealed absolutely no concrete information.
In the end, Rosie came to a conclusion: she had listened to a whole lot of words that amounted to nothing.
It was obvious that Anna did not want to reveal her true strength.
Rosie didn't press further, switching to a more direct question. “Can you still cast Fireball?”
Anna nodded. “Yes.”
“Alright, let's do it one more time, then we'll rest,” Rosie said.
Anna nodded again. “Okay.”
Rosie stepped onto the sand once more.
This time, her steps were a bit more agile than before, and she ran a little further.
After some effort, she once again drew the attention of the subterranean worms.
This time, however, only three worms were lured out. After some maneuvering, they were once again consumed by Anna's flames.
The three bodies exploded into fragments...
Rosie returned to the rocky area to rest, waiting for her stamina to recover before continuing.
They repeated this process for several rounds.
The scorched black patches on the sand grew more numerous, and Rosie had to wait longer and longer for the sand to tremble again.
The creatures hidden beneath the sand were becoming fewer and sparser.
On the final attempt, Rosie walked on the sand for over ten minutes without sensing any movement.
She even grew bold enough to run right up next to the grayish-white ruins.
Yet the surface of the sand remained still, without a single tremor.
She waited a little longer before turning and walking back to the group.
“It seems they're really all gone,” she said.
Everyone let out a long sigh of relief.
“Or maybe they've grown smarter and aren't falling for it anymore,” the dwarf said.
The expressions on everyone else's faces instantly soured again.
“Don't listen to this dwarf's nonsense. These worms act entirely on instinct. If they truly possessed intelligence, it would have been impossible for us to succeed after the first two times,”
Anna's voice chimed in, dispelling everyone's worries.
The Baron nodded, his voice finally relaxing. “Assemble the column, prepare to move out.”
The soldiers began packing their gear, and the workers started organizing the supplies.
Meanwhile, Rosie put her plate armor back on.
While light gear was good, heavy armor provided a much greater sense of security.
“Ah! I hope the harvest this time is worth my precious beard,” the dwarf grumbled.
Anna walked over to Rosie with light steps and whispered, “Don't let your guard down. For there to be so many sandworms, it also means there must be enough food to sustain them.”
Rosie nodded. She had thought of this as well.
This was a biological weapons facility, after all; anything could appear here.
Once everything was ready, the column set out toward the ruins in the sand.
The grayish-white structures stood quietly in the sand, maintaining a forgotten silence under the light of the crystals.
Rate on N.U.
