novelraw Chapter 88: A Scorching Hot Surprise
Chapter 88: A Scorching Hot Surprise
Once we reached the Rift of Scenarios, we immediately joined the line. Thankfully, it was far shorter than it had been two days ago when we’d rechallenged the fourth scenario. Perhaps most divine warriors had already attempted the new scenario and were now regathering their strength to face the next one within a week.
Whatever the reason, we soon found ourselves greeted by Elysia with her usual serene expression. “Welcome, divine warriors. Do you wish to challenge the sixth scenario?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.
She nodded once. “Be warned—the trial ahead is not for the unprepared.”
Of course, we knew that. I, more than anyone, understood the weight of her warning. From the sixth scenario onward, the difficulty would take a sharp turn upward, even though it was still counted among the tutorial ten scenarios. Proper preparation wasn’t just important; it was the deciding factor between survival and demise.
The dark portal then flared open, its surface rippling like disturbed water. Without another word, the three of us stepped through.
The familiar pull of displacement twisted my senses, and then—heat. A wave of scorching, dry air slammed into us, stealing the moisture from my throat in an instant. Beneath our feet, the ground was sandy, threatening to swallow our footing with every little movement. A glaring sun blazed overhead, its light turning the horizon into a mirage. The only shade came from sparse, spiny cacti that looked more likely to stab you than offer shelter.
“Is this… a desert?” Michelle muttered, already squinting against the glare.
Boris sniffed the air, his expression tightening. “Hot. Dry. Feels familiar.”
Suddenly, a sharp chime rang in my ears, and a translucent blue screen materialized before my eyes as the System’s cold text cut through the sweltering heat.
Scenario #6 [Endless Desert]
This is the land where the sand never ends. The dunes shift with the wind, erasing all trace of your path. Food and water are scarce, and the monsters here are born of heat and hunger, stalking the living until exhaustion claims them. Survive the searing days, endure the freezing nights, and uncover the secrets buried beneath the endless sands—if you can.
Mission Type: Survival
Difficulty: E+
Time Remaining: 48 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds
Reward: 3,000 Soul Coins
Penalty for Failure: Death
Extra Conditions:
1. Kill 50 desert-dwelling monsters. (0/50)
Reward: Gimmel-Tier General Lootbox
2. Kill 100 desert-dwelling monsters. (0/100)
Reward: Two Gimmel-Tier General Lootboxes
3. Discover the Oasis of Memory. (0/1)
Reward: Unique-Grade Armament Voucher
The dry wind whipped sand against my new armor, but the Predator’s Stalker Hide neither snagged nor weighed me down. Its serpent-skin coating seemed to shed the sand like rain off stone. I unhooked the magic waterskin from my belt and took a careful sip—the liquid that poured into my mouth was cool, fresh, and already worth its weight in gold here.
“Let’s stay sharp,” I said, scanning the sunbaked horizon. “There might be monsters hiding in plain sight.”
“We’d better find shelter before the heat cooks us alive,” Boris rumbled as sweat beaded across his brow.
Michelle shaded her eyes with one hand, scanning the dunes. “No cliffs, no trees… nothing but those sand hills in the distance.”
“Then we head for the tallest one,” I replied. “From higher ground, we can get a better view of the surroundings. If there’s an oasis—or at least somewhere less exposed—we’ll spot it from there.”
With that, we began our trek across the blistering expanse. Each step sank slightly into the soft sand, forcing us to expend more energy than we’d like this early into the scenario. But as Gimmel-rank divine warriors, our bodies far surpassed those of ordinary humans, yet even so, the unrelenting sun pressed down like a molten weight, and my armor radiated heat like a forge fresh from the fire. Every so often, a dry gust swept through, stinging our skin with sharp grains of sand.
I estimated the temperature here to be well above 50 degrees Celsius. If not for our strengthened physiques, we’d have shriveled into dry husks within minutes, void of any moisture.
“Be careful…” Boris warned. “This desert is more dangerous than any on Earth.”
About half an hour into our march, I caught sight of a strange shimmer in the air to our left. At first, I thought it was just a mirage, but then the distortion shifted against the wind.
“Movement,” I said sharply, raising my buckler.
Boris instantly went into battle stance, and Michelle already had an arrow nocked. From beneath the sand, something erupted, sending a spray of grit into the air. A massive desert scorpion with a sun-bleached carapace emerged in a violent lurch. Twin pincers the size of shields snapped menacingly, and its segmented tail, tipped with a thick, venom-dripping stinger, arched high over its back. Its many black, bead-like eyes fixed on us with cold, predatory intent.
[Poisonous Desert Scorpion – Lv.55]
A deadly predator perfectly adapted to the endless sands. Its sun-bleached carapace acts as natural camouflage, allowing it to ambush prey from beneath the dunes. The scorpion’s pincers can crush bone with ease, while its tail delivers a fast-acting venom capable of paralyzing even large monsters and killing small monsters within moments.
“A scorpion monster,” I muttered.
The creature lunged, scattering sand in all directions from its sudden burst. Boris stepped forward to meet it head-on, his fist colliding with one pincer in a blow that cracked like a gunshot. Michelle’s arrow streaked through the air a heartbeat later, burying itself deep into the creature’s arched tail, forcing it to snap back with a shrill chitter.
I circled to its flank, slipping past its snapping claws. My blade flashed, slipping between the joints of its sun-bleached carapace to carve into the softer flesh beneath. The scorpion convulsed, its limbs thrashing as it kicked up a gritty storm around us.
In less than five seconds, it was over. The monster collapsed in a twitching heap, half-buried where it fell, as Boris gave the finishing blow. Against the three of us, the Bet-rank scorpion had never stood a chance.
We stored the scorpion’s carcass in our inventories. While a Bet-rank monster’s materials weren’t particularly valuable to us anymore, they could still fetch a decent price in soul coins. More importantly, the poison sac in its stinger had versatile uses, and Michelle had specifically asked to keep that part.
“Let’s keep moving,” I said, sliding my sword back into its sheath.
The trek toward the tallest dune was grueling. Not only was the air swelteringly hot, but each step was also heavier than the last as the sand shifted treacherously beneath our feet. The ground seemed determined to drag us down, swallowing our boots inch by inch. The occasional gust of wind brought no comfort—only a fresh assault of sharp grains that scraped across our skin and stung our eyes.
We kept our words to a minimum, saving our breath for the climb. The slope was steep and unstable, forcing us to dig in with each footfall to avoid sliding back down. Boris forged ahead like a living bulldozer, powering upward without hesitation, while Michelle’s lighter frame let her pick her way up with less sinking. I followed in their wake, my mind half on the climb and half on the possibility of another ambush.
By the time we reached the top, the sun was hanging lower in the sky, yet it felt hotter than ever. The view, however, made the climb worth it. From up here, the desert stretched endlessly in every direction—a vast ocean of gold under an unforgiving sky. Dunes rolled like frozen waves, their shapes changing subtly in the wind.
I scanned the horizon, narrowing my eyes against the glare, and spotted an irregular line far to the northwest. It wasn’t much, just a darker smudge against the shimmering gold, but it broke the monotony of the landscape.
“What’s there over there?” I asked, turning to Michelle, whose eyes were sharper than either mine or Boris’s.
She lifted a hand to shield her face from the sun, squinting toward the distant shape. “Looks like… maybe a rocky outcropping. Could be natural… or maybe man-made.”
“Could be worth checking,” Boris rumbled. “If it’s solid ground, we can camp there without worrying about getting buried in our sleep.”
I was about to agree when Michelle suddenly tensed up and crouched slightly, pressing a hand to the sand. A few seconds later, I felt it too—a faint, rhythmic tremor beneath our feet, far below the sand dune.
“There’s something moving deep under the dune…” she murmured.
Her Forest Sense skill might have been useless in this barren wasteland, but Michelle had other tracking skills that worked beyond woodland terrain, allowing her to sense the disturbance.
“More of those scorpions?” Boris asked, glancing warily at the sand
“Too far to be certain,” I replied. “Could be something else entirely.”
Michelle frowned. “I think it’s bigger. Much bigger.”
That was all I needed to hear. “Let’s get off quickly. Head for the outcropping.”
Boris also gave a curt nod, and we started descending the opposite slope in haste, but the way down was treacherous; each step sent loose sand cascading beneath us, threatening to throw us off balance. Behind, the towering dune loomed, hiding whatever was burrowing beneath.
Fortunately, we made it off the dune without incident, the faint tremors fading into stillness behind us. The terrain ahead was flatter, but the sand remained just as loose, and every step seemed to sink us deeper into the oppressive heat radiating from above and below. Our target—the distant outcropping—looked no closer despite our steady pace.
We moved in silence, conserving our breath, occasionally sipping water sparingly—Michelle and Boris drawing from their inventory, while I occasionally took a cool, measured drink from the magic waterskin at my hip. The desert was already a battle in itself, and surviving for two full days felt like a long, arduous chore.
Halfway to our destination, Michelle suddenly froze mid-step and raised her arm to stop us. “Monsters. All around us,” she warned. Instead of reaching for her bow, she slid both axes free, looking at the surrounding sand.
Almost on cue, the ground trembled beneath us. Rings of disturbed sand spiraled outward before bursting apart, showering grit into the air as hulking shapes erupted from below.
[Poisonous Desert Scorpion – Lv.55]
[Poisonous Desert Scorpion – Lv.56]
Five—no, six of them, their pale exoskeletons gleaming under the sun. Each was easily three meters in length, with armored pincers snapping hungrily and tails curling high, stingers poised to strike with lethal precision.
“Boris, left!” I barked, breaking into a sprint toward the right flank to split their attention.
“Right on! Adamant Flesh: Steel Body!” Boris’s skin took on a dark, metallic sheen as he crashed into the nearest scorpion. Its pincer snapped toward him, but he caught it mid-strike, twisted with a grunt, and wrenched the limb clean off in a spray of green ichor.
Michelle, already in position, switched back to her bow and loosed an arrow with pinpoint accuracy. The head punched straight through the eye of the second scorpion, killing it instantly with a single shot.
I seized the opening, closing in on another scorpion with a burst of speed while activating Heavy Slash. My blade swept in a deadly, precise arc, striking the soft joint between its carapace segments. The creature was unable to dodge before its body split apart, collapsing lifelessly into the sand.
You have hunted [Poisonous Desert Scorpion Lv.55].
You have gained 650 EXP.
It was over in moments. Six scorpions lay scattered around us, each of us taking down two without breaking stride. For us, dispatching monsters of this level had been almost routine.
But for most divine warriors who had only recently advanced to Gimmel-rank, this would have been a nightmare. The scorching heat would have sapped their stamina within minutes, the loose sand stealing their footing and speed. Against enemies adapted to the terrain, every movement would have been a losing trade. And a single sting from those barbed tails would be a death sentence.