This dungeon was not an enjoyable experience as of yet. So far, they had seen nothing but desert, and it actually felt like it was getting hotter as the day progressed. Mash was mostly unbothered. Most likely, the combination of his inhumanity and the golden body was making him more resistant to the weather. Red seemed similarly unbothered, although her condition was a bit unique. Luke and Jill were not having as much fun, both of them were sweating profusely and looked very irritated. The past few attempts at conversation had earned him a series of insults. He was unsurprised to hear Jill start talking.

“Why can’t you just carry us? Make a nice shaded little shed and drag us. Actually, can’t you just make the mounts too?”

Jill was complaining again, as she had done several times on their walk. Apparently, she didn’t do very well with the hot weather. Her complaint though did get Mash to think about it. In his treant form, he could make imitations of Priscilla that sustained themselves by gathering their own mana. Making a sled with a roof would be easy as well. Honestly, it was something he could have done even outside of the dungeon.

Despite not wanting to give Jill any more reasons to complain, he nodded his head and began shifting forms. There was a loud smacking noise as Jill hit her own forehead in exasperation. Mash ignored it, more surprised by the changes to his own body. His skin had become an extremely dark shade of brown, and the texture had turned fully into bark. More interestingly were how his feet changed into wooden stumps and he lost many of the joints on his body. He still had all of his fingers, but they were longer and more like branches. Furthermore, the missing joints didn’t actually inhibit his movements but allowed him to bend his body in more unnatural ways. He would definitely need to practice moving with this body, as he found it strange to even take a step.

He put aside moving for the moment and instead started making the imagined sled. It wasn’t anything fancy. An opening in the front to see while blocking the sun from everywhere else. With how it was designed the sun shouldn’t fall on them unless they wanted it to. After the sled was made, Jill immediately teleported inside and heard her sigh in relief. The other two also went inside, though they watched Mash’s altered form with some curiosity.

Finally, Mash started to work on creating some imitations of Priscilla. This was the first time he used an imitation skill since getting his golden body. He felt excited as he did so and was disappointed to see that the imitations seemed unchanged. As he grew the imitation to be large enough to be used as a mount, he checked for any differences with his draconic domain.

Priscilla sounded a little like she was chastising him, and he only nodded in response. He was getting ahead of himself. It didn’t really make sense for everything to suddenly become different. He ended up making four imitations of Priscilla attaching them to the sled through wooden harnesses. The journey became a lot easier this way, and they rode in relative comfort for a few hours.

The first one to notice that something was amiss was actually Luke, who had noticed some indistinct mounds of sand in the distance. To Mash, they just looked like the rest of the desert, but he eventually caught what Luke had spotted. The sand rose unnaturally around where Luke was pointing, and Mash thought he saw it vibrating.

Curiosity drove him closer to the strange mounds, and as he grew closer, he got the impression that they were watching him. However, it was only when they were within his draconic domain that he was able to identify the thing. The first time he sensed it he felt it beneath the sled, and he only had a brief warning before it erupted from the ground. The mounds in front of them broke into the heads of some worm-like monsters. As it pushed the sand out of the way the creatures underneath pounced as well.

Dozens of heads lunged at the sled indiscriminately, but the four of them were able to dodge easily enough. Choosing to fly, they rose into the air as they watched the sled below. The sound of churning wood could be heard as the worm-like creatures devoured everything. Well, everything that was still on the ground. The sound of the worm thing’s teeth grinding the wood was awful. The sound made him take a closer look at the monsters. Why did worms have teeth?

One of the creatures lunged up towards him, and he got a good look at the monster. It didn’t have any visible eyes, ears, or nose. However, it had a mouth, and it was filled with teeth. Rows of sharp teeth that seemed to stretch for the full length of the monster. He wasn’t sure, but he felt like they were vibrating, or maybe rotating. Either one was nasty. And he noticed something more alarming within his domain. The monsters were emitting an anti-magic field that reminded him of the demons. It didn’t have the same unpleasantness of demon magic, but it still felt invasive.

[They are messing with the magic around them. The mana there is going crazy. I think it’s a weird form of anti-magic. Don’t teleport near them.]

He sent everyone the message, but it was only really meant for Jill. She was too used to teleporting at the last second, and he had the feeling there would be some problems with that plan. However, he didn’t know exactly what would happen. These creatures had anti-magic, though it seemed to be caused by warping the mana around them rather than canceling it out. Honestly, that made him want to try some things, and he fired a testing bolt of lightning.

He couldn’t track the magic with his eye, that feat would only be possible in the distant future. Still, he saw as it slowed around the worm, and rather than spread through the creature it changed colors and harmlessly bounced away. It turned green and bent when it made contact with the worm. It almost looked like grass at that moment. That was certainly unexpected, though only a small part of his concern. The worms lunged up at him and he realized there were only seven of them in total. However, they were extremely long and had mouths at both ends. Every two heads were part of a single worm.

He didn’t really worry too much and began changing into his dragon form as he let his wooden wings fall away. Red formed her hands into blades of blood, and they quickly grew into large guillotines that fell upon the worms. He expected it to fail, however, her magic seemed resistant to the worm’s weird effects. Her blades cut into the worms, tearing deep gashes into the flesh of the monsters. However, it didn’t cut clean through and didn’t do much damage in general.

There was a small stream of red blood coming from the cut, but the damage itself was a good sign. Mash fell towards the worms once his dragon transformation had finished and saw Luke heading down as well. Their descent was slow compared to Jill, who teleported in regardless of his warning. She didn’t appear right next to the monster and instead was far out of its range. She held her hand towards one head in particular, and the space around it warped for a second. Mash watched as it seemed to collide with the worm's own warping effect, and something weird happened.

The whole space seemed to change for a second, then it was just gone. The worm’s head just vanished along with all of Jill’s magic too. The worm thing didn’t die from the attack and swung at Jill with its headless body. She teleported away long before the head arrived. The exchange was quick, and Mash was glad he had been aiming for a different worm. Falling into that strange warping of space would have been risky.

Turning towards his own opponent, Mash saw the worm open its mouth to eat him and went in without hesitation. This close to the monstrosity, he realized just how large it really was. It was easily able to fit his entire form in its mouth, though his wings weren’t fully open. Still, the fact that the monster had swallowed him so easily was impressive.

Another surprise hit when he felt the mucous of the worm burn his scales. Or maybe soften was a better word for what was happening. he could feel them change enough that the teeth were actually beginning to tear into his scales. He froze amazed that something was actually able to break his scales. It wasn’t a magical process either. Pushing through the shock, he used his claws to dig into the worm’s flesh.

Teeth broke under his claws, and he was disgusted to realize that the creature actually had teeth throughout its entire body. They crunched as his claws broke through into the open air. Not willing to hold anything back, he dug his claws into its gummy flesh and ripped a hole in the creature. He didn’t stop spreading his wings in the process and tearing the creature in half. Still not feeling any kind of level up, he let out dozens of wooden spears. Many got stopped, but a few actually got more dangerous. Slowly, the worm got overwhelmed by the sheer number of wounds it had sustained.

Feeling the rush of a level, Mash launched himself at the next target. Taking stock of the battlefield, he checked on his friends. Jill wasn’t having much trouble, but her magic was inconsistent. It seemed like that first attack had been lucky, and most of her spells didn’t do anything. The strangest thing he saw from that battle, was the entire worm being teleported slightly to the right or left. It was a small nudge, but he noticed it all the same.

Feeling a little dizzy focusing on that fight, he looked toward the other two. Red’s blood magic seemed mostly unaffected by the worm. Mash couldn’t tell why but was relieved to see that someone was having an easy time with the worms. Luke was the worst off as most of his magic did not work near the worm. However, his buffs were working, and he was able to contend with the monster physically. Considering how Mash had been able to overpower it, that made sense. What he was really surprised to see was the ax. Luke was wielding an enormous ax cutting into the worm without trouble. Mash had forgotten about that item though Luke didn’t.

Moving like an arrow, Mash formed wooden tails that trailed him as he moved. He shaped the end like spears. It didn’t take long for him to have hundreds of thin strands of wood hanging from them. As he impacted with the second worm, he used them all to stab at the creature. Even if some failed, many still landed. It wasn’t enough and the worm slammed into him. Since Mash was on the side of the character, he got covered in a weird slimy substance as the worm’s skin collided with him. It softened his scales like the thing’s saliva had, and actually saw some of them crack from the force. His bones were fine though, and Mash was surprised at how much the scales had been weakened.

He still had the strength though, and overpowered the worms slam, pushing through it completely. He rolled on the ground and turned to face the monster. Although the worm didn’t get torn in half, it had been badly injured and started thrashing wildly. The rapid movements only tore the creature up more, and Mash decided to use this opportunity to tear a piece of the monster off. He reluctantly popped the piece into his mouth and gagged at the wetness of the creature’s flesh. The feeling was indescribable as it filled the inside of his mouth like a liquid. Not wanting to chew, he forced himself to swallow it. A new form wouldn't do a lot for him in this fight, but it might give him some permanent stats. The only thing he had left to try was his imitations, and he began growing his draconic imitation around him.