Chapter 88 Desert and Oasis

We woke up and, after eating a short breakfast, which was expanded to take longer because the prince wasn’t happy with what we were eating, we got back to our mission. Depending on how deep the corrupted dungeon was, we could find it today, or it might take up to a week. I doubted it would take that long, as I doubted many of the dungeons survived the corrupted dungeon reaching the border.

The mountain dungeon was much more dangerous than the swamp or forest dungeons. Mostly because Centaurs could think, they were a tribal people and could set traps, they fought or retreated if they knew they couldn’t win, but once enough gathered, they’d attack with hit and run tactics. Not only did they have an advantage in melee with their large bodies, but they could also continuously launch arrows while moving faster than most could catch.

That was how the dungeon managed to survive, as the lizardmen had to fight the entire way through the dungeon as they were pelted by arrows, only from the overwhelming difference in power was it made up; the piles of centaur corpses were just now being reabsorbed into the dungeon as it unlinked itself until recently. Dungeons needed to be connected to the dungeon and couldn’t be moved; otherwise, the dungeon would deactivate.

We had our first casualty as we walked between the split mountain and had boulders pushed down on us. The knights were just too slow; the prince would have died, but the knight captain picked him up and rushed forward at the same speed as the mercenaries. My wives, the adventurers, and I were at the front of the group when it happened, and we barely had to jog to avoid the ambush.

I breathed a sigh of relief once we were finally out of the mountain environment changed abruptly into desert sands. I felt the shift of leaving a dungeon pop after exiting, which meant that this area had its dungeon core destroyed. Nothing visible was going berserk, but who knew when we’d see our first enemy? All I knew was I wanted to see a fucking enemy to kill now.

Hours of walking through a desert with nothing to see, how the fuck did the corrupted dungeon find the core to destroy in this barren wasteland? I was bored out of my mind, which was one of the traps of the dungeon: large swaths of land with absolutely nothing, then the first enemy suddenly sprang up in the middle of a sand whirlpool.

The sandwyrm was an ambush predator, and its entire life would be spent in the same position, waiting for people to pass overhead before springing its trap. There was no fighting or killing this monster; it was just a hole in the ground that the sand led toward as a sand whirlpool formed, sucking people toward it. I could toss in the peppers I brought for my heat-loving wife, but then she wouldn’t have the peppers to eat.

We made our way out instead of trying to fight, which is more than I could say for some of the mercenaries. They were far stronger than this dungeon; there was no reason for them to die, as they were fast enough to escape, but the tentacle-like appendages that sprang out and grappled them so they couldn’t escape caught two of them off-guard.

The monster wasn’t worth fighting, and we lost two as they were pulled into the mouth, stopping the sand whirlpool, not because it was hurt, but because it was full from the two bodies. We kept moving, hoping we were headed in the right direction. If the corrupted dungeon shifted, we’d have to look for signs that showed they headed in a straight line. Olivia was in bad shape; she was a northerner, which meant she could handle the heat, but she was also an albino. We were taking turns shielding her, but she already had sunburn and blisters forming from the half a day of sun we walked through.

I was honestly happy when I saw an enemy we could fight, as a cluster of sandstone golems and sand elementals blocked our path right in front of an oasis. The golems were a straightforward fight, weaker than rock golems but stronger than my wicker golems. We outnumbered them, and every adventurer could take out two or three of the golems themselves without risking injury; only if they dropped their guard would they risk being hurt.

The sand elementals were a little harder; they dealt very little damage, but attacking them, no, just being close to them, would constantly fling sand in your face. There was a core moving inside the sand elementals that needed to be broken or removed for them to destabilize. It just didn’t make sense for me to fight the elementals, and people with projectiles started to take them out.

While we were mid-combat with the elementals and golems, a gigantic bird flew down and grabbed one of the mercenaries, flying away with them. The mercenary leader called out. “Are you fucking kidding me? The dungeon has a gods damned Roc miniboss!” It flew up hundreds of feet in a moment and dropped the mercenary.

We could see him flailing and hear him screaming as he came down hard on the ground. Most of the golems and elementals were dealt with by now, and most of us were more focused on the mini-boss making another strafing run. Leaf and the surviving mercenaries proved their worth as dozens of arrows and daggers struck at the wings, the Roc’s own weight dealing most of the damage to itself as it came down hard on the sand, spraying up sand in the process.

I was already rushing over to fight at the same time Marcus, the sheriff, was. Both of us smashing into the side of the Roc, my axe dealing almost the same damage as his single-handed sword. He was swinging almost three times as fast as I, ripping large lines of blood into the flesh just before its wings came back and trapping us. We both backed away.

The Roc was already in bad shape, but it was still gigantic. The sheer size meant that the damage we dealt wasn’t more than a flesh wound; it would hurt and make it harder for the Roc to move, but the injuries wouldn’t kill it. Tems ran up the back of the Roc while it didn’t even know she was there. The moment it flexed down and screeched in our direction, she had reached its neck, jumping off to dig a dagger into the Roc’s eye.

The bird flinched back from the pain, the bird reared up before falling back onto its wing, snapping it with its own weight. All of us were now available to fight, and with the damage already dealt to the miniboss, we made quick work as the Roc was overwhelmed by a flurry of attacks. The knight captain dug his spear into the opposite eye of the Roc to kill it.

He used a mace, sword, and spear so far, each appearing out of nowhere before disappearing from his hand once they were no longer needed. I was curious, but didn’t want to risk offending him by asking. I decided to ask Marcus about it after we bunkered down at the oasis tonight. I began setting up the safe zone. We had lost a good portion of our golems, and I had left some behind at the other safe zone, but I should have enough to turn a quarter of the oasis into a safe zone.