Traveling in a cage through a desert is not an easy thing. And the reason because of that was the quality of the cage that Arvin was sitting in. There was a suspension in the cage. So Arvin was able to feel every bump and every stone that came in the way of the cage. And that was very very annoying and frustrating.

The second thing that was annoying about this travel was the absence of a bathroom. It was expected by a cat-like cougar that he would piss and poop in the carriage and stay there with his feces. That was very disgusting as Arvin noticed later that the cage was littered with feces of the cougar that he killed. It was very smelly and the fact that the cage was covered with cloth didn't help at all.

​​

But some parts of this journey helped Arvin stay calm and cool. And that was the part the camels pulling the cage were following behind the camels of Xander and its men. There was no carriage driver. That gave Arvin a little bit of freedom…

Camels have a distinct property that they follow the camel that was walking in front of them in the desert. They were like sheep, they also follow the sheep that is walking in front of them. That is why there was no need to have a carriage driver for Arvin. The two camels following Xander and his men made sure that they were on a right track.

So pass the time, Arvin opened the lift up the cloth covering the cage a little from behind. From this sunlight as well as came pouring into the cage. Then Arvin turned back into a human, took out a book, and started reading it. As there was no carriage driver, so Arvin didn't have to worry about someone checking up on him abruptly. So he thought that it would be a good idea to conserve his mana reserve.

So Arvin turned back into a human and got lost in reading the books. Seeing Arvin this invested in reading books, Lok also volunteered to helo Arvin. Loki kept a watch on Xander and his men. He would alert Arvin when they come to check on him and also he would concentrate on what these guys were talking about….

Eventually, around noon, Xander and his men came to check on Arvin. Because of Loki's heads up, Arvin transformed back to a cougar and lied in the cage. Those people removed the cloth of the cage and opened the cage. Seeing the cage open Arvin used his four legs to get out of the cage.

This was the first when Arvin had turned himself into an animal with four legs. That is why he had trouble walking at first. This turned favorable to Arvin as seeing him walking weirdly those men assumed that this must be because of the cage ride.

As Arvin got out he saw that these guys have stopped near some rocks and had made camp in the shadow of the rocks. Arvin trotted like a horse near the camp for a little bit. He wanted to get used to his four legs as soon as possible. He also observed that these people didn't mind no matter how far Arvin went. That showed that maybe that cougar might be a trained cat. That is why they didn't mind.

So after trotting here and there for about 15 min Arvin returned back to the camp. Then like a cat, he lied down on his four and started staring at the people that he came herewith. There was, of course, Xander who sat in a corner and was cleaning and was busy cleaning his saber at the corner while the three guys were setting up the tent and the last guy was making food…

'So what did they talk about when I was not listening?' Arvin asked Loki.

{Nothing much. These guys are going to palm springs. It seems that they have some guy there. And then from there, they would go to the Grand Canyon.} Loki said.

'Grand Canyon? What is this Texas?' Arvin said making a joke.

{Grand Canyon is in Arizona idiot.} Loki said.

'Arizona is a city in Texas.' Arvin said confidently.

{No it isn't. Arizona is a state.} Loki said.

'How can you be so sure? I am from the earth, not you…' Arvin said.

{One of my previous apostles was from Arizona. That is how I know.} Loki said.

'You have other apostles? That is weird… How come you never mention it before?' Arvin said.

{There was no need to know all that stuff when you are here on the second floor.} Loki said.

'I feel like that you are mocking me…' Arvin said.

{What was your first clue?} Loki said

'…'

{Idiot…} Loki said.

'Is there anything else that I should know about?' Arvin asked.

{No, I was not able to hear anything interesting. But from what I have heard it seems that Palm springs are some sort of resort or oasis. Xander didn't talk much during the whole trip. While the four goons constantly spoke about how they would want to visit some casino and watch the dance of some hot girls…} Loki said.

'Palm springs must be an oasis…' Arvin said.

{So what is your plan? What would you do when you reach Palm springs?} Loki asked.

'I don't have any specific plan. When I would reach the oasis then I would think further.' Arvin said.

{I think you should dump the body of that kitty and then dump this Xander guy too. I think you should go on your own and forget about this sacred temple… this is just bullsh*t.} Loki said.

'I know what is going on here… You want me to go and see the belly dancers in the palm springs. That is why you saying that I should ditch these people…' Arvin said.

{Dude do you think so little of me.} Loki asked.

'Yes.' Arvin said straightforwardly

{….}

…

After resting and sleeping for a little bit, they started moving again. Arvin was given a big piece of flesh to eat. The only problem with that it was raw. Arvin pretended that he loved the meat and took it outside of these people's view. He then stored the meat in his inventory and came back after some time.

Arvin observed that these people would repeat the cycle of traveling and resting over and over again. They didn't mind whether it was day or night. They kept traveling. From this Arvin presumed that maybe they needed to do something very important in Palm Springs that is why they were hurrying.

Arvin understood if these guys went straight to the ascending tower to intercept the black fox. After all, Xander already had the information that the black fox would be going to the third floor with the people of Grahmin Clan. So was he heading towards Palm springs?

There must be something very important in that city that is why these guys are traveling so fast. And this was making Arvin more curious as to what could be the reason that these guys would be going to a place like this in a first-place….

…

It took three days' worth of travel to finally reach Palms springs. And these were not easy days for Arvin. Every day Xander and his men would give Arvin some big piece of meat for him to devour. While Arvin would take that meat and put it in his inventory. Arvin would then snack on the food that he had stored in his inventory. But that was a major miscalculation from Arvin. As he ran out of food just after one day.

He had a lot of meat stored in his inventory. But none of it was cooked. It was just raw meat. As Arvin could not light a fire in his situation he was stuck in a place where he had no food. Thankfully he had a lot of water because there was no way in hell he would even consider drinking water from a bucket that these men used to feed the original cougar.

So from time to time, he would drink from his water reserves but the lack of food didn't make things easier for him. He was literally stuck in a position where he had all the food that he needed but he was not able to eat it. In the end, due to being hungry for 2 days, Arvin had started considering that maybe eating raw meat would not be the worst thing in the world. At least he would not be hungry anymore.

But lady luck showed her magic and Arvin eventually arrived at the Palms spring at the dead of night. Hungry and very tiered when Arvin started hearing Xander's men started saying that they reached Palms springs Arvin felt like he had conquered the way of life. Now he would finally be able to reach Nirvana right now…

But he forgot one little detail… Lady Luck likes to play with him a lot.