Jason and his companions all stumbled into the oasis bleeding and injured followed by a coyote that was as tall as Jason’s waist. Selene’s left arm was broken and there was blood seeping out from the bottom of her mask. Caleb had multiple shallow cuts over his body which were all bleeding Jason was the worst off of them all and yet seemed the most chipper.

His chest was ripped open to the rib cage and his left arm was broken. He had multiple lacerations everywhere, a hole in his right arm, and another hole in his stomach. He was also the one among them who had found the oasis.

“How… did you… find this place?” Caleb questioned Jason as he himself flopped down next to the small lake. Selene, likely too tired to say anything sat down next to him as well. Jason, unlike the both of them, kept standing and looking around in case more monsters chased them here.

“I chose a direction and started walking,” Jason replied as Caleb gave a strangled yell.

“But you s-said that safety was this way. You sounded so s-sure.” He brought out his water skin and started to wash all the blood off of his body. Selene got up and stumbled away from Jason and Caleb facing her back towards them before taking her mask off and doing the same.

“I was sure. I had full faith in my luck.” Caleb just kept applying the water to his various cuts and also drank a small health potion that he kept on him to help the cuts heal themselves.

“I hate it when you gamble our lives like that.” After Caleb finished with that he laid down on his back half in sand and half in some type of bush. Jason after he was sure nothing was following them also sat down and started to eat hearts letting his body regenerate all its wounds. He had found that most of the creatures in the desert his body wanted to eat.

The scorpions which dug up from the sand and ambushed them his body wanted to eat. The shahulod, worms that could open their mouths like a flower opened, had tasty hearts. The sand vipers and the kanunnahs also had hearts that could be eaten. Speak of the devil.

Level 20 Kanunnah

“One incoming. Get the cub to safety.” Jason informed the group as he got up ready for the inevitable fight. What happened instead was a poison lance to shoot right by Jason’s ear and strike the Kanunnah in the face. After three seconds the entire head of the beast was melted and it was dead.

Jason turned and saw that Selene had an empty potion bottle in one hand that was outstretched toward the Kanunnah and she was pressing her mask against her face with the other. She then proceeded to fall face first in the sand.

“Shit! SELENE!” Jason ran over to check on her condition and breathed a sigh of relief with what he found. Despite her head wound she was just unconscious. It was actually probably the pain of having to raise her broken arm to fix her mask in place that knocked her out. Or she just ran out of mana. Either one. Jason turned to look at the dead Kanunnah and found that Little Cub had already started eating.

The damn thing is already level ten. It’s been what? Six days. Absolute bullshit. Jason conveniently forgot his own speed in leveling when he was level three or even level fifteen as he said this. It doesn’t even contribute in fights just keeps pace with us and eats the corpses.

Jason went over to the corpse and shooed Little Cub away from it. Jason gutted the beast and without even bothering to remove the guts shoved his hand into it all the way up to his elbow. Eyes squinting to the sky and tongue slightly sticking out Jason moved his hand around as if he was searching under the couch for something. Then it seemed he had found it because he grasped and then suddenly yanked his hand out of the body splashing blood everywhere, including his new kanunnah fur. Holding the heart in his hands he ate it. Watching as it gave his stamina and health regeneration a boost of fifteen points per hour each.

A kanunnah looked to be a mix between a tiger, dog, and fox. It had a dog's body and a fox head with the color of a tiger and the stripes of a tiger down the back half of its pelt. Jason had found that he had run out of clean wolf skin outfits. So he had simply skinned a kanunnah and started wearing their pelts.

It looked the same as the wolf skin outfit with some slight difference. Jason hadn’t even bothered making a proper vest as it was too hot for even that in the desert. All he had were pants which he made by patching together multiple kanunnah skins and a cape that had a kanunnah head hood. Admittedly Jason thought that they were very comfortable. He had left his feet bare as it was easier for him to feel the vibrations in the sand without shoes. Any vibrations meant that scorpions or shahulods may be coming.

After taking his heart Jason allowed Little Cub to continue feasting as he wanted to. Jason went over to the still unconscious Selene and after forcing one of the dozen health potions they had down her throat he put her mask on firmly and laid her down facing up. Then he looked around and took out some monster meat.

The desert is a great place to dry out meat. Only leave it out for two hours and it always makes monster jerky. After Jason hung up all the meat to dry out he took out some already dried meat and started eating that as well. Hearts were well and good, but sometimes Jason just liked to eat regular meat. I’ll never eat any rabbit food, but regular meat hits the spot sometimes.

Since Little Cub was eating his fill, Selene was out for the count, and Caleb seemed like it would take him a few minutes to get up. Jason decided that it was time he set up camp. All he had to do was set up the tent and bedrolls. Right now the tent would just cause them to collapse of heat exhaustion because it traps the heat, but at night it would be freezing so any trapped heat is good heat.

After that Jason sat down and looked at the array of hearts he had in his pouch wondering why he could even eat so many. None of these creatures have anything in common. The scorpions have hard exoskeletons and do puncture and poison damage. The shahulod and vipers have more in common but both of those are drastically different from the kanunnahs. So it’s not a physical aspect of the animal.

If it’s not physical then I guess it has to be more spiritual… or manatual… that’s definitely not a word. Either spiritual or an aspect of mana. Or maybe it has to do with genetics… not really a thing I was good at in school. Stupid Punnett squares. Jason sighed and laid down on his kanunnah cape. Then he started on his favorite downtime activity. Listening.

Jason started to love nature after his weeks in the caves. Every little plant or tree now inspired love in his heart. If he was on earth he would’ve been an environmentalist in an instant. Jason also suspected his therianthrope nature affected this as where would an animal be comfortable if not within nature. What he loved even more was his strange ability to listen.

He loved the music he heard. The trees and flowers singing. The desert had been frightfully bland with only a small reed instrument being played in the background at a constant slow melody. It wasn’t even particularly loud; it was just slow and constant like the heat of the desert. The oasis on the other hand was nice and loud. At least the animals gave the desert some sort of uniqueness. I mean there was a bit of variety in there at least. A lot of rabab… wait. Jason sat up and stared at the kanunnah corpse. All the animal hearts I’ve been able to eat in the desert had rabab. Jason stared at Little Cub. He also has rabab. So the coyotes and all the desert animals have had rabab in their songs. Maybe… maybe the music tells me what I can eat. Jason grabbed his head and rolled side to side in anguish. BUT WHAT DOES THE MUSIC EVEN MEAN?!

Eventually, Jason stopped being dramatic and just laid down and enjoyed the music. Then hours after that Selene and Caleb awoke to find Jason snoring on the sand arms and legs splayed. After dragging him into the tent that he had apparently set up the two of them curled up in their bedrolls and went to bed knowing that freezing night would come very very soon.

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A few hours later the group was once again roaming the desert. They had the same formation as they agreed on before with Jason in the front and the other two staggered behind him with Little Cub added in between the back two.

“Shahulod incoming behind Selene,” Jason informed the rest in a monotone voice. He was tired. They were all tired. The heat, the walking, and the constant ambushes had really started to wear on them. Ultimately though when Jason gave his warning the team sprung into action. Selene rushed forward as Jason rushed backward so that she would be protected. Little Cub didn’t truly understand what was said, but with everyone moving he got the message and ran so that he was once more behind Selene. Caleb on the other had only backed up a meter or two and nocked an arrow.

Jason when he got in front of Selene crouched down trying to feel the vibrations with more accuracy. He found that they were growing in volume and small bits of sand were actually starting to fly up a centimeter or two off the ground.

“In two seconds.” Like a prophet what Jason said came to pass. Two seconds later the shahulod burst out of the ground right in front of them. Its flower mouth opening and revealing three rows of sharp teeth and a bottomless abyss for a mouth.

Level 24 Shahulod

Jason launched into action by throwing a hard punch to the Shahulods body. The punch didn’t do more than tickle the monster. Right after that an arrow whizzed by and struck the exact same place that Jason’s fist had hit. The moment the arrow hit the shahulod it started to bleed. The arrow had barely opened up a wound after Jason pulled it out but it was enough to get a grip on.

The shahulod wasn’t a creature to take all of this laying down though. Opening its maw wider than it already was it dove toward Caleb creating a beautiful arc in the air. Unfortunately for it Jason was faster than it was at full speed. Getting in front of Caleb Jason shoved him out of the way.

Seeing the monster incoming Jason made a dive to the left and watching the shahulod as it hit the empty area next to him. He kept watching it as its body raised itself in an arc from its last hole and dove into its new hole. It only took a second for the twenty-meter long worm to fully transition.

“Great. We made a small mark in the skin and before we could even use any corrosion it just bailed.” Jason swore under his breath.

“Well breaking through the skin is the hardest part. It puts e-everything into Endurance I b-bet. Also Jason the save was unnecessary.” Caleb got up and looked around. After finding nothing he put his bow away and wiped his sweaty face. “I h-hate this heat.” Selene came back with Little Cub and once everyone was back in the group they started moving again.

Not even an hour later Jason spotted something in the distance. It looked like a building of some sort.

“Hey, guys there’s a building or something in the distance over there. Do you all see it or is it a mirage?”

“I see it.”

“Same.”

“Alright then.” Without another word, Jason changed his path slightly and started heading towards the building. When they got closer Jason noticed that it looked surprisingly similar to a ziggurat. It was very blocky with levels that got smaller and three long staircases leading to the second level and one leading to the top level from where the three staircases met on the second level.

It was also falling apart and wasting away with one of the staircases missing a whole chunk of its middle that had apparently collapsed and destroyed the building portion below it. Rubble was everywhere and almost every surface had marks on it from where the stone used to be. Jason could also feel something fill the air as they got closer. It made him squirm slightly.

“It’s a dungeon.” Selene breathed out softly. Jason whipped around to stare at her.

“How do you know?” All Jason saw was an old sand temple of some sort. Selene gestured around herself to the very air.

“Do you not feel it? The mana. It’s getting denser by the second as we get closer. That means that we’ll be able to breakthrough in this place. Although since it’s a dungeon we all need to agree right now that we need to use extreme planning and be extremely careful. No entering this place until we have ironed out a plan.” Jason considered it for a second and although he didn’t very much enjoy the idea of plans he figured they were a good idea in this case.

“Alright s--” Jason cut himself off as he felt rumbling beneath his feet. He crouched down and was about to put his hand on the ground when he saw that the sand particles were being knocked half a meter into the air. He immediately got back up and started running toward the ziggurat.

“We DO NOT have the time to plan. There are a bunch of shahulods coming. I bet they were called by our cowardly friend earlier.” The other three were running behind Jason although they were drastically slower. Once Jason got to the stairs he turned and saw that the other three would be another few seconds. Behind them, he saw that four shahulods burst up from the ground.

Level 28 Shahulod

That’s all Jason had to see. The others went past him and he brought up the rear. Going so far as to pick Selene up because he thought she was being too slow. He grabbed Caleb’s arm with his free hand and practically drug him up the stairs. Right when they got to the very very top of the ziggurat where the opening into it was Jason felt something on the back of his neck. A tingling of some sort. Throwing Caleb and Selene into the entrance Jason dove to the side. A lightning bolt flew right past him.

Looking down he saw that the level twenty-eight shahulod’s mouth was smoking slightly.

“Fuck that.” Without wasting another second Jason threw himself into the entrance of the dungeon.