[Sand Worm, based on my prior experience, should be considered to be a creature of high Class 4. Covered with hard scales, its body is completely impervious to the natural dangers in the environment. However, if attacked in the mouth with great Fire magic, it is possible to wound…]

Gerald held a notebook while recording his experiences. He finally had some time to himself, so he took this opportunity to relax and focus on his more analytical side. Recording the creatures he met in a book was something that just had to be done.

If nothing else he might as well fill the gaps in knowledge people of Myrtana had.

He was currently sitting in a saddle under a shade made of white fabric while riding a lizard across the Great Desert.

In some strange twist of fate, the mounts Dug hired were actually Earth Dragons. It hadn't been even half a year since he lost his hand to one of them, and now he was actually riding it.

To say he felt no emotion towards the beast would be a lie, however, he has long since come to terms with his situation, so it was fine. And besides, it wasn't like they were responsible for it.

They were simple beasts of burden that served as temporary mounts to carry them across this scorching wasteland. Counting him, there were ten men in total, each riding his own Earth Dragon while they made their way further south.

After the Sand Walkers left and Gerald collapsed, the people of the Wailing Canyon took care of him like he was some sort of mythical hero.

Gerald felt awkward with all the attention, but he nonetheless let them take care of his wounds and took that opportunity to rest and recover.

After everything was prepared and he could walk again, they departed a few days later. Their group shrank once again as one of the warriors was in a bad shape and couldn't travel, so they left him back in the canyon to recover.

Rolf promised to take care of him, so the guy should be in good hands.

And now they all rode on top of these giant lizards, creatures made for heat and dry sand. But as only Dug steered his mount and the rest simply followed in a line, they had plenty of free time on their hands.

After finishing taking notes, Gerald decided to try Cultivating once again. Despite the body recovering quite quickly, his Soul lagged behind. The damage was great, and as his Soul was getting bigger, it also took longer to heal.

He decided to speed up the process manually.

Closing his eyes, he gradually sank into his mind, beginning the meditation required for Cultivation.

The mist-like black Soul slowly appeared in his mind's eye, with all its damaged, torn, and corrupted-looking parts.

He didn't think it was possible, but it seemed even worse than the last time. Many small tears and cracks crisscrossed the entire surface as if something was trying to pull it apart.

Perhaps it wasn't just his imagination. Quite possibly this was the effect of exerting himself over the limit multiple times, damaging his Soul in the process. It didn't seem to be affecting him much, but that's because his Soul was rapidly expanding, growing faster than the damage itself.

However, this expansion was filthy and unguided. Like a bodybuilder during a dirty bulking season, he wasn't watching what he ate. And now he was all bloated and feeling like shit.

Oh, and the few hundred Souls of the Sand Walkers he just recently finished absorbing also didn't help to sort out this mess. He could still feel their emotions and fragmented thoughts and memories that were slowly decaying into nothing.

No matter who or what was originally responsible for this mess, the responsibility was now on him to fix it. And so he did, or at least, tried to.

First things first, he tried condensing his Soul a tiny bit. Currently, its density was way too low to even do anything.

After doing that, as the misty body was compressed, he started kneading it like a piece of dough. All the damaged, corrupted, or straight-up rotting-looking pieces were separated from the healthy specks and moved to the exterior.

In his mind, his Soul was like a sphere, and he tried to extract the bad parts while leaving the core as clear as possible. It was difficult and time-consuming.

As if trying to separate bread dough from dirt and stones after it fell on a gravel road and was then driven over by a convoy of trucks, Gerald's task was anything but simple.

It was grueling work that took a lot of patience and concentration to be effective

After what could be considered 10% of the work was complete, he suddenly felt someone shaking his body and waking him up from the trance he was in.

As he felt his consciousness returning to the outside world, about a quarter of his work came undone mere moments after his control was removed, like a rubber band after having tension on it released, it tried to return to its original state.

Four steps forward, one step back.

It happened for the second time already, having been rudely awoken in midst of Cultivation, and Gerald was pissed.

But then he noticed it was already dark outside. An entire day already went by and he hadn't even noticed!

"Gerald? Sorry to wake you up, but I thought you might want to eat something…" Dug handed him a bowl of warm broth with an apologetic smile.

"And the lizard was getting restless with you still sitting on it."

Gerald nodded absentmindedly and took the bowl wordlessly. His head felt odd and he was somewhat groggy. Possibly the consequence of an interrupted Cultivation. He jumped down from the lizard and then joined the group by the fire.

While the guys chatted merrily as they ate, he didn't feel like talking as his mind was elsewhere.

It took him most of the day to clear out a just tenth of his Soul, so if he focused only on Cultivation it should take about a week to finish that step. Two weeks if he did it only during the daytime. He had to sleep too since the entire process was quite exhausting.

And if he got continuously disrupted, it might take even three weeks or a month in the worst case.

He did feel slightly better though. It seemed that pushing the bad parts to the edge of his Soul was the right move. At least it wasn't aching as much anymore.

They still had a few days of travel ahead of them before arriving at the Fiery Plateau where the Phoenix was last sighted. Or at least, that was the last information Dug got. Quite possibly the bird already moved away from the area and they would have to search for it.

Optimistically they would need about two weeks before even attempting an attack. Dug and Gustav didn't share more than that. As to how they were planning to fight the legendary bird, they didn't say. But they seemed confident, and Gerald didn't particularly care, so…

He decided to take a good long nap and then start Cultivating early in the morning the following day, hopefully achieving some good progress.