The party discovered a plant whose scent can be used to repel insects. The juices of the plant were rubbed onto the tents and clothes. So they can be safe while sleeping or walking through the desert. The insects were bigger and nastier here. Everyone in the party mostly found the insects to be an annoyance while Luna was super squeamish about it. Especially with all the new flying types of insects around here instead of the land-only insects that could be easily dealt with. It was an amazing life improvement to not have insects buzzing around you or jumping onto you all the time. The miracle plant was named ‘repelis.’

Without the miracle plant, the party might not be able to go deeper into the unknown since Luna would rather die if she has to live with nasty bugs. Unless they drag the unwilling Luna with them.

A few new plant food sources were added to their diet. They didn’t taste as good as the cooked meat but with the propaganda of how having a diverse diet can improve your skin. All of the girls ended up eating them.

The two cats were also helpful in chasing away or killing mice and rats trying to steal their food. They wanted to pet the kitties but they were too aggressive. So Luna had cooked up an extremely delicious meal for the two cats Emi and Mi. She took her meat skewer and wafted in the air in front of the two cats staring at it. “ You want some? Please let me pet you.” Luna tried picking them with her other free hands but the cats were still hissing and scowling at her. They wanted to eat the meat but Luna’s pesky hand wanted to pet them! “ Please my little cuties.”

Just when Luna was about to pet one of the cats, it snatched the food in its mouth and ran away. Monica chased after it and caught Emi in her hands. The wild cat was wildly scratching all over Monica, leaving many bloody wounds, even ruining her pretty face, one of her eyes was slashed open, yet Monica didn’t flinch as she held it for Luna.

“ Let Emi go! Don’t hurt yourself trying to help me pet the kitties!” shouted Luna.

Monica let Emi go and it fled away with its prized meat. Blood was dripping down the many scratch wounds on her beautiful face and chest. “ It’s not a problem since master Stardust can heal me anyways.”

“ No! Even if he can heal you, you must not allow yourself to get hurt needlessly,” asserted Luna.

“ Pain means nothing to me if it gets me to my objective. I will withstand anything for you,” stated Monica.

“ Please don’t be like this Monica… I still don’t want you to get hurt and we can tame the cats with better methods,” pleaded Luna.

“ ...understood,” accepted Monica.

The next day, the cats were staring at the cooking meat. Since Monica was actively guarding it, they couldn’t snatch it like yesterday. All the girls but Remi eventually joined in to protect the food from all sides. They were going to finally tame the cats! Despite the few hours of a standoff between them, the hunger of the cats gave in and allowed themselves to be petted by the women. Then when they finally got the food in their mouths, they bolted away. It was only going to be a matter of time before the cats got completely used to living with the NPCs.

Life was peaceful in their new areas. They could live as nomads in this desert for the rest of their lives. But none of them wanted the shitty desert life and were willing to follow Stardust deeper into the dangerous parts of the desert in search of civilization or better resources. Although finding civilization in more dangerous areas certainly doesn’t make any sense.

They scouted a new area, thousands of giant cactus monsters were spread throughout the lands, they were much bigger than the ones they usually saw. They stood at an impressive 20 meters in height. All the varieties of desert plants couldn’t be seen in this new area. Not even wild animals or insects were here. The giant cactus monsters owned the land quite haughtily without anyone around. A big difference was these cactus monsters also had small eyes sparsely all over their body, unlike the smaller ones. The scouting party also felt as if the land was very different than usual. Weak traces of mana were flowing through these lands.

When Marla was only 200 meters away from the closest giant cactus monster. It angrily uprooted itself and took giant steps towards Marla. Marla quickly ran back, not daring to face its wraith head-on. It stopped moving and rooted itself back to its original location. Just one poisonous needle shot from that cactus monster would likely end Marla’s life in an instant. The poison from these cactus monsters was much deadlier than the ones from the smaller cactus monsters.

“ Looks like we won’t be able to go through this area. So this is the border between Desert Area 2 and Desert Area 3. Looks like Desert Area 3 has mana flowing in the air and the emergence of monsters,” said Marla. “ Even if I can’t use magic, I can certainly feel the difference in the environment over there.”

Lily ordered, “ Scarlett try using the bone shield to get past these cactus monsters. We will acknowledge your contribution if you succeed.”

Scarlett flashed a sinister grin at Lily.

“ No,” said Stardust. “ If Scarlett dies in the middle of them, it would be extremely difficult to retrieve her NPC core if it’s still intact. The bone shield could be useless against them too. Let’s try going around them.”

As the party traveled down the edge of the towering cactus monsters. Another monster emerged from the ground. It was a giant desert mole with its many whiskers protruding from its eyeless face. It seemed to have detected them before burrowing back into the ground. The cactus monsters don’t seem interested in attacking the mole monster either.

They felt the ground vibrating and it kept getting stronger as it approached them. The party members realized that the mole was going to attack them, and quickly retreated further away from Desert Area 3. The mole then popped up from the ground a lot closer to them but remained on the edge of Desert Area 3. It then used sand magic to shoot a ball of sand at high speed at Marla as she was the closest target. Marla barely scraped by as the sand ball gave many shallow wounds on the left side of her body. The sand mole monster soon retreated into Desert Area 3 as the intruders finally ran back. Stardust being the healer, healed Marla back to good health.

The party realized that surviving in Desert Area 3 would require them to all get stronger and possibly learn magic on their own somehow.

“ Hmm… let’s see if the party members with magical defense can obtain magical skills with the mana in the edge of Desert Area 3. Normally people can learn and use basic magic skills on their own while more advanced or specialized magic would require more guidance through books or an instructor,” explained Stardust. “ The NPCs without magical defense may have a harder time awakening their magical abilities but they all have the potential to gain strong magical skills.”

***** NPCS’ Magical Defense *****

Marla: 100

Luna: 20

Remi: 10

Lily: 0

Queen: 0

Rainbow: 30

Violet: 30

Scarlett: 20

Monica: 21

***** End *****

The party went further down the edge to not come across any of those mole monsters where they bask in the mana-filled air as they tried to obtain magical skills. Stardust was giving out tips for them to gain magical abilities as he used to be a magical genius. Unfortunately, all the guidance that Stardust gave to them went over their heads as they were advice for prodigies and not for beginners.

> (Stardust)

5 minutes later, the first NPC to awaken their magical power was Lily. Everyone was surprised because she had 0 magical power, 0 magical speed, and 0 magical defense stat. Stardust wasn’t surprised at all and thought of his wife as a magical genius like he once was.

“ As Stardust’s wife, it's natural that I would be the most talented NPC,” Boasted Lily.

***** Lily *****

- Magical Power: 0 → 10

- Magical Speed: 0 → 10

- Magical Defense: 0 → 10

***** End *****

Lily gained [ Mana Generation LVL 1] and [ Magic Mastery LVL 1].

Everyone congratulated her but became ever more eager to gain magical skills of their own.

“ Well done Lily,” congratulated Stardust. “ Magical power is like half of your capability and will be extremely helpful in conquering Desert Area 3!”

Normally these NPCs could awaken their magical powers without the mana in Desert Area 3 if they were much more natural geniuses. But it was much easier to awaken and master magical powers if you have access to the mana in the air or getting mana through other means. Once magical powers are awakened, your body can produce mana internally using your energy.

Lily could form a small ball of magic in her hands and shoot them outwards at a short distance. It could be used as a small shield as well. Next would be for her to try adding an elemental component to her magic to make it much stronger than its pure magic form. Or perhaps Lily could be a magical genius and use special types of magics that can be quite deadly or beneficial.

Another benefit to Lily’s magical power awakening is, [ Evil God’s Happiness LVL 1 → LVL 2]. At level one, this skill allows Lily to invert anyone’s value and belief. Now at level two, she can force any entity to cease its action for 24 hours but once 24 hours have passed, she has to cease her actions for 24 hours. For example, she can use the level two skill on Scarlett and she wouldn’t be able to move for 24 hours or be aware of what is happening for 24 hours. Then Lily would suffer from the same thing after Scarlett. It could be a very useful tool to help her in tight situations.

( Lily) >

Lily approached Scarlett as she was still trying to awaken her magical powers. Then she used [ Evil God’s happiness LVL 2] on her. As long as Lily was within 5 meters of her target, it would work. Scarlett suddenly froze up and remained standing there with her eyes completely void. Everyone around them was too busy to notice anything weird going on. Lily was about to place her hands onto her face so can use [ Evil God’s happiness LVL 1] to invert this bitch into serving her husband before Stardust grabbed her hands.

“ Stardust? What are you doing?” asked Lily.

“ I’m sorry Lily, but Scarlett asked me to stop you from touching her. I want to respect all of my NPC’s wishes,” replied Stardust.

( Lily) >

“ … I understand my husband! I promise you that I won’t touch Scarlett anymore!” smiled Lily.

Since Lily awakened first, she went to help Luna. Lily’s instructions proved to be much better than Stardust’s as Luna became the 2nd NPC to awaken her magical powers. Stardust’s pride was torn from how an absolute beginner can help a newbie awaken her magical powers much faster than the once genius magical prodigy like himself. But he was ultimately happy for Lily to become a useful member of the party instead of the frail self that needs others to care for her.

***** Luna *****

- Magical Power: 0 → 10

- Magical Speed: 0 → 10

- Magical Defense: 20 → 30

***** End *****

Luna gained [ Mana Generation LVL 1] and [ Magic Mastery LVL 1].

“ Incredible Lily! I can’t believe using magic was this easy and simple!” exclaimed Luna.

“ Aren’t I the best?” beamed Lily. “ Please serve my husband the best you can.”

“ Well of course I will help my bestie out but why does it sound like you are making me out to be some kind of slave?” said Luna.

“ No no, you’re overthinking it,” replied Lily.

Lily proceeded to help the other NPCs awaken their magical powers as Luna practiced on her own. Luna quickly learned [ Fire Magic LVL 1] as she was always making fire at the camp to cook up her food and controlling its temperature. She can form a small ball of flames in her hands. This new skill had Luna giggling excitedly at the prospect of becoming a powerful fire mage. But more importantly, she can use this fire magic to create fires instead of twisting dry sticks together.

Soon everyone realized that Scarlett wasn’t acting normally as she no longer moved. Stardust tried healing her but it was futile. Everyone tried all sorts of things to get Scarlett to respond but to no avail. So they set up a tent and left her inside to lay down.

The 3rd NPC to awaken was Marla.

***** Marla *****

- Magical Power: 0 → 10

- Magical Speed: 0 → 10

- Magical Defense: 100 → 110

***** End *****

Marla gained [ Mana Generation LVL 1], [ Magic Mastery LVL 1], and [ Magic Strength LVL 1]. The Magic Strength skill allowed her to turn magical power into physical power. Now Marla can be even stronger with all her physical skills.

Eventually, all the NPCs but Scarlett awaken their magical powers with the help of Lily’s superb guidance compared to the complexity of Stardust’s technical jargon. When they awaken, they all gained a +10 to magical power, speed and defense. They also gained [ Mana Generation LVL 1] and [ Magic Mastery LVL 1].

The 4th to awaken is Rainbow. She got [ Magic Mastery LVL 2].

5th, Violet. She learned elemental magic, [ Wind Magic LVL 1].

6th, Monica. She learned special elemental magic, [ Blood Magic LVL 1].

7th, Remi. She learned elemental, [ Darkness Magic LVL 1].

8th, Queen.

They all will eventually develop their unique type of magic to use. Because specializing makes more sense than generalizing as it could take a lot of effort and time to master skills at a high level. Although Rainbow would certainly love to have as many LVL 1 magical skills as possible. She will ask to learn all of her party member’s skills eventually.

Queen was the saddest as she couldn’t gain any different magical skills like the others. They comforted her and assured her that it had only been 1 day since they had been training.

At the end of the day, everyone set up their tents into the safer areas of Desert Area 2 where they would do more magical training tomorrow and hope for Scarlett to regain her senses.

The next day, Scarlett had regained her senses but had no memories of what happened. Now Lily was in a daze-like state just like Scarlett before. Everyone was deeply worried about it because a new sickness was spreading throughout the party members ever since they had reached Desert Area 3. A sickness that keeps you in a daze-like state for 24 hours. If only they knew that it was because of Lily’s God Skill instead of some unknown sickness. Stardust was worried that this could be some sort of high-level monster magic instead of a sickness. This sickness or magic can become disastrous to the party if multiple or all members were to be affected as they are traveling through the middle of Desert Area 3.

There was also a small debate on whether or not the party should even travel through the dangers of Desert Area 3. It ended quickly because Stardust used the ultimate propaganda that there could be food in there that can improve your skin and a potential water source that could enable everyone to wash themselves. Cleanliness and hygiene became a top priority for the girls. It wasn’t going to be a problem as long as they retreated into Desert Area 2 if Desert Area 3 proved to be too difficult.

Lastly, the 9th NPC to awaken her magical powers was Scarlett. She was a little bitter about it. She gained the special magic [ Mind Magic LVL 1]. She can send entities subliminal messages to their minds like some sort of weak hypnosis. At a higher level, she could read the minds of others and possibly alter the minds or even mind-control her targets if their magical defense was too low. Perhaps she will obtain memory reading and altering skills as well. Scarlett was specializing in some kind of social engineer to create chaos in her party for her amusement.