12th of the Black Star

(2 Days before the Banquet)

Since Gaffron’s unexpected arrival at the laboratory, the Devil Doctor spent most of his time concocting the potion and focusing on treating the old mage. He would occasionally inspect the two bodies, but he didn’t dissect them like the rest.

They were precious resources, so he had to record every little detail and conduct a lot of tests. However, with the ever-present Hashashin standing guard near the door and Gaffron present, Sephron opted to wait for a more solitary time.

It was a night like any other, at least until the ceiling at the front-left corner of the rectangular laboratory started to shake.

At first, a bit of rubble and sand fell, then a massive creature slithered down only to be hit by the Devil Doctor’s magic and get slammed against the wall.

Although he subdued it instantly, Sephron was surprised to see a Sand Worm crawl its way here. It was supposed to only dig through the soft dirt and sand, so its abrupt arrival here was abnormal.

As he saw it twitch then proceed to move again, the Devil Doctor extended his hand and applied more force, which tightened around the hideous monstrosity.

After a couple of seconds, it ceased all movement, its large body thudding against the stone ground, seemingly lifeless.

Sephron approached it, his eyes carefully probing it. In addition to its unusually high concentration of Mana inside of it, its body was barely scratched even after getting hit by his Magic twice.

“Could it be a mutated Sand Worm?” Asked Gaffron Gaol, who sat on an old and creaky bed, his face sickly pale and his hands shaking from time to time.

“It must’ve been affected by the remnant energy in the ruins.”

The Devil Doctor poked it but wasn’t able to pierce through its squirmy sand disgusting skin.

“An intriguing specimen, to say the least.”

He tried to put it in his storage ring, but it didn’t work, which confused him even more.

This whole situation undoubtedly warranted suspicion, but mutated beasts wasn’t particularly uncommon around the ruins outside the laboratory.

Sephron spent a couple more minutes examining the dead Sand Worm before he left it there, planning to research it more later.

The Mana inside of it was slowly dispersing, so it was most definitely dead. There was no reason to pay it any heed.

…

‘Good.’

Arthur had not wasted any time as he ejected his minuscule parasite body out of the Sand Worm. It did leave him extremely vulnerable and defenseless, but it did trick the Devil Doctor.

Furthermore, he spotted some corpses all around the laboratory. Most of them couldn’t be possessed, but there were some decent candidates not far away.

Unlike his possessed hosts, Arthur’s real body, which was the size of an ant, if not smaller, tumbled down from the worm’s large mouth and soundlessly fell to the ground.

‘It’ll take some time to crawl to one of the bodies. Still, he reacted really fast.’

The Sand Worm was resilient, but it had limited moves and, the passive skills effects notwithstanding, Arthur couldn’t have used it to retaliate. Nevertheless, this outcome wasn’t that bad.

Gaffron’s presence here didn’t surprise Arthur, but he did think much about it. He had more pressing matters: Reaching one of the bodies and possessing it.

Thus, the Parasite started his excruciatingly slow crawling. He was like a snail as he dragged his body across the stone ground.

‘One Hashashin and the Devil Doctor. They’re strong, but I can probably take them on with a human body. I just need to act fast and not let them react.’

Arthur’s original plan was to dig through the sand and find the Devil Doctor’s hideout. As luck would have it, however, he stumbled upon his destination within an hour.

[Magick Sense] and [Magic Beast] should have helped him notice the danger ahead of time, but the entire underground place was filled with so much Mana that it was practically impossible to distinguish between anything. Arthur had purely relied on the worm’s sensitive hearing and his digging to find an open underground room, which turned out to be this laboratory.

“It’s morning and Arthur isn’t back.”-Chris

“Master can take care of himself. We should continue the search.” Responded Evelyn as she handed Charles and Isabella some food.

Arthur had left his storage artifact before possessing the Sand Worm.

In fact, he was able to make use of [Magic Beast] to inject some Mana into it and take out a body, but the artifact was small and, while digging through the sand, there was a small probability that he could lose it.

“We haven’t searched that area.” The apothecary pointed Northwards, toward one of the smaller Rocky Mountains.

“We’ll start there, then.”-Evelyn

Christopher approached Isabella and whispered,

“Hey, could you like… link yourself with Arthur? See where he is?”

“I still don’t know how it works. It’s usually random… but I can try.”

The young girl took a deep breath, closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

After a couple of seconds, her face turned red and her body shook. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. It only made her gasp for breath.

“Well, he’s probably fine.”

“Master is capable of taking care of himself. Knowing him, he likely went ahead to explore.”

“You don’t sound that convincing, Evelyn.”

“I wasn’t trying to convince you. Let’s move.”

…

The four spent half a day going from one place to the other. The hot temperature and barren sandy place made the search very exhausting.

At dusk, they stopped near a somewhat covered area.

“We searched the entire place marked on the map. There’s nothing.”

Charles wiped the sweat off his forehead and unbuttoned his oversized robe, his voice dry and showing signs of fatigue.

None of the other three fared any better, and although none answered him, they all seemed to agree that there was nothing but randomly scattered boulders and sand in this region.

“We can try climbing the mountain.”

Isabella pointed at the relatively small mountain, which was steep and definitely not easy to climb.

“Climb? I and Charles can barely walk. How about you, Evelyn? Want to try it? We’ll wait for you here.”

The maid didn’t respond, she just shook her head.

“Then what? The only alternative is my teleport Spell. Ehm…”

Chris looked at Charles and Isabella then added, “You come with me, Evelyn. I can’t take either of those two.”

“We haven’t decided to use your method yet.”

“But we have no other choice. Have a little bit of trust in me, ‘kay? I promise I’ll concentrate.”

Evelyn let out a heavy sigh and hesitantly nodded her head.

Before they proceeded with the reckless plan, the group went to a relatively safe place.

Chris grabbed Evelyn’s hand and closed his eyes. His [Mana Control] skill notwithstanding, he wasn’t adept at Magic cast, nevertheless, he tried to focus on the thing beneath the sands. Additionally, he didn’t use all of his Mana when activating his spell.

When a flash of light surrounded the two of them, Chris said, “We’ll be right back, you two!”

Thereafter, he and Evelyn disappeared, leaving an apprehensive Isabella and an anxious Charles.

A minute later, Charles paced around while nervously biting his nails

“D-do you think they’re gone?”

“They are gone, actually.”

“I mean…”

“I know what you mean. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Another minute passed before a flash of light appeared close to the two.

Chris, with a smug expression plastered on his face, beckoned the two of them.

“Come on! I did it!”

He grabbed both of their hands and used the skill again. The three reappeared in somesort of an oddly-shaped room, one which was definitely man-made.

The walls were immaculately pristine, pure white, and emitted faint light.

“I told you I can do it! Hehehe!”

“You did not!” Evelyn, appearing visibly irritated, raised her voice.

“We were falling into that abyss!”

She pointed at a large square-shaped hole in the middle of the ‘room’.

The place was split in two half with the hole in the middle.

Christopher and co were on the left side, standing on a relatively small edge made of the same white material the walls were made of.

On the right side was another edge, but beyond it was a particularly wide staircase that led to a large and majestic golden gate.

“These are the ruins?”-Charles

“Aren’t ruins supposed to be old and destroyed? This place looks brand new and very unsettling.”-Isabella

The girl approached the wall and tentatively poked it, but there was no reaction. It was unnaturally smooth and warm to the touch.

“The problem is: How do we cross to the other side?”

Evelyn walked to the edge and looked at the many pillars erected from the abyss-like hole. There were no less than a hundred of those pillars, but they had different shapes and color.

“Anyone can read this?”

Chris pointed at a golden plaque embedded into the white ground.