"OOOOOANNNNG" The Deathworm roared.
Of all things I could have encountered first in this damn desert why is it that thing!
The deathworm dives back into the sand, swallowing the sand and exiting through the space of its white bone like scales.
I activate Light Step and run full speed away from it.
The sand beneath me starts sinking as its teeth reared itself from beneath the sands. I activate [Brave] and jump as far as I could.
By hair's breadth I manage to avoid getting swallowed whole and almost stumbling down with just my right horn slightly scratched by its teeth.
By now I'm basically used to this pain with or without [Pain Resistance]. I continue run away as fast as I can with its shadow slowly getting larger and larger around me.
I look back and sees it falling from the sky like a limping... genital.
I avoid the falling behemoth by rushing to the left and pull out my greatshield to shield myself from the great wave of sand that follow suit from the impact.
Shit, how do I lose this guy?
Sand were in my eyes, fatigue were in my legs, and the system isn't responding.
And here I thought Neo was lying about the system not being universal.
Rather than panicking like I usually do, after fighting with the apes a bunch of times taught me that maybe... it's best to assess the damn situation instead of yelping everywhere like a retard.
I look around and saw nothing but sand all the way to the horizon with the crazy mountain and deathworm behind me.
"OOOOOOOOOAAAAANNNG" The deathworm roared, barely reaching the minimum requirement to burst my eardrums.
I desperately look left and right again and again until I see some sort of wreckage of bronze metal in the distance.
I don't know what that place is but it beats running aimlessly. I increase the output on Light Step rush towards the wreckage. On the way there I notice a disntict smell that was all too familiar.
Scorched bodies... Yeah I can use this.
I increase the output of Light Step again into five mana every two seconds. At this speed I can outrun anything back in the labyrinth.
My speed should be around three hundred and fifty, which should be more than enough to outrun whatever speed stat the deathworm has, leaving him in the dust.
I move around the wreckage, trying as best as I possibly can to track the scent only for it to grow stronger and stronger as I close in onto...
Hold up, is that a blimp?
It wasn't any ordinary blimp, because this thing might as well be a wrecked skyscraper from its size alone. It's entire body consists of what seems or looks a lot like bronze or copper.
There are lots of holes that scattered all around its body as if it was shot by giant bullets. There's also a symbol, barely intact, of an upside down hammer with gears surrounding it.
Whatever took this thing down was definitely not the deathworm behind me, heck it's small in comparison.
I return back from awe-ing when I catch the strong smell of the scorched bodies. The closer I get the more mechanical the wreckage get, and the hotter it did too.
Some of the wreckage are still on fire as I close in on the smell, which means whatever took the blimp down is still near here.
Best case scenario I can get whatever killed it the deathworm and run off Scott free.
Finally I arrive to where the smell was coming from. The smell came from messed up looking corpses littered everywhere around the wreckage. Some had their legs blown off, some looked as if it's skin turned into play-doh, but most look as if they were left inside a furnace.
What the hell happened here?
I can figure this out later, right now I should hurry up and get away from here before the deathworm catches up.
Before I go, I noticed that most of the bodies seemed a tad bit small to be called human, they can't be kids with those bear- wait...
Are they Dwarves?
I mean I know this is your typical fantasy world but goddamn does it feel amazing to see them with my own eyes, well... their carcasses at least.
I take one of the bodies, yeet them into [Storage Rift] and be off.
Hopefully, that deathworm'll forget about me while it's busy feasting on their corpses.
🔶️
Now that the deathworm's delt with, I have decided to stay around the wreckage for awhile.
Normally that would be dangerous with the deathworm lurking around, but this place was larger than ever like... holy shit.
And I thought the blimp alone was big, there's like hundreds of them scattered all around here. I moved as far away west from where the worm should be located at, feasting on said corpses I found.
I was honestly afraid of starving and death but luckily... the wreckage is filled to the brim with dwarven corpses for me to eat. The lack of water is my only concern since I'm in a desert.
The sun is scorching, sweat are raining, and searching for water I go.
I move from corpse to corpse taking whatever I can from the Dwarves. Spears, axes, hammers, compass, and bronze armor. Fortunately some of them has pouch or a leather skin where they keep their water. Some were damaged causing most of the water to leak out but I'll take what I can get and store most of them in [Storage Rift].
I continued scavenging for items until the sky went dark. Countless stars decorated the night sky, more than I've ever since with my own eyes back on earth.
There were also 3 moons present. All of which were moving away from each other, one to the east, one to the west, and the last one to the south.
Weird how there's not one moving to the north though.
I look for a good wreckage to take shelter in, I can't build a hole since this is a desert. One of the blimps despite being as damaged as the rest, still has most of its interior intact.
And just like everywhere else, there are also corpses left inside.
Ah... my feet feel so sore, I'll lay down a bit near the pilot room. This place looks good enough to be home for now. After scavenging as much as I can I'll continue my journey towards the mountain.
"Ugh... cough! Cough!"
!?
The sudden painful groan and cough caught me off guard, I thought all of them were dead?
I look around outside the window and see a Dwarf barely conscious, stranded sideways on the sand, tied to one of the metal seats present.
I could kill him and make my corpse count into fifteen, but finding out what happened here seems far more useful than adding another corpse into my plate.
I immediately rush out of the blimp and see him staring at me. His eyes widen and his complexion showed nothing more but fear.
"C-cultist! H-help! There's a Desert Cultist here! Som'one h- cough!"
A wha- what did he just call me?
"It can talk! Help m-" He stopped shouting as he noticed the corpses laying all around him.
"E... everyone's dead..."
Hey, so umm... what did you just call me?
I said using [Telepathy]. He snaps back to reality, his grasping for air and tries to move his arms to untie himself from the chair.
"Ack! Damn it's stuck!"
Do you need help with that?
I said showing my claws to him.
"S-stay back! Back!" He shouted.
Maybe healing him, will get him to calm down.
I walk over to him causing him to scream and shout all sorts of weird profanities I haven't heard off. He closes his eyes as my hand reaches him cast Heal.
Slowly his eyes shot open in bewilderment seeing me Heal his injured legs. His breath slowed down and the panicking stopped.
"Wh- what're you..."
I'm healing you that's what.
"But why..."
Look I get that I look terrifying as fuck but I am not whatever you think you said I am.
"Hugh... Y-you're not gonna skin me and sacrifice me to that Desert Wyrm then?"
The Desert Wyrm? You mean the huge Death Worm wannabe with white scales?
"Y-yeah... you're not gonna do it... right?"
Why the hell would I even do that?
"So you're not a Cultist... thank Dasmos..."
He let out a sigh of relief knowing I wasn't one of the cultist he's talking about. His face relaxes and his breath slowed down.
I stopped healing his injured legs lay down on the ground exhausted.
"You don't look like a desert critter to me, not even a Beastmen even. What're you?"