Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert - Chapter 118
Sand Mage Of The Burnt Desert Chapter 118
Episode 118:
The Magic Stone Mine was the most important strategic facility in Neo Seoul.
If the supply of magic stones from the mine is cut off, all facilities in Neo Seoul will stop immediately.
There are cases where magic stones can be obtained from magic beasts, but it is extremely dangerous and not all magic stones contain magic stones.
Even if you kill dozens of demon beasts, only one or two magic gemstones come out. The efficiency was not very good.
The magic stone mine was the only place that could reliably supply large quantities on a regular basis.
For that reason, Neo Seoul managed the magic stone mine with particular care.
Awakened people were sent to subdue the demonic beasts that inhabited the magic gemstone mine area and the dungeons that suddenly appeared, reducing any risk factors.
Because of the situation, there was even a ridiculous rumor going around that the safest place except Neo Seoul was the Magic Stone Mine.
“Fuck! “It’s so damn hot.”
A blond-haired man with a bad look frowned and grumbled.
The man’s name is Logan.
He was an awakened person dispatched from Neo Seoul.
As a martial arts C-level awakened person, his main weapon was a large great sword.
Behind him, about a dozen awakened people riding in two buggies could be seen.
They were all awakened people led by Logan.
“I haven’t seen a single big horned hyena today.”
“There is a rumor that their habitat is moving south.”
“Really?”
“Other teams said that.”
The team members looked serious.
Big horned hyenas live and hunt in groups.
The leader of the group is the female, who is much larger and stronger than the male. It even has a mane around its neck like a lion.
It is a monster that is over two meters tall from its front paws to its shoulders, and five meters long from its head to its tail.
They live in groups of as few as a few dozen or as many as hundreds of animals. And many of them are offspring born to the alpha female.
It is a matriarchal kinship society.
Naturally, all big horned hyenas absolutely obeyed the orders of the lead female.
Each one is not very strong. However, when tens or hundreds of them gather together, the story is different.
It was a pack of big horned hyenas that exerted tens or hundreds of times more power under the leadership of the lead female.
In the past, they were mainly found quite far away from the Magic Stone Mine, but these days, one or two of them are appearing even near the Magic Stone Mine.
It was clearly some sort of scouting party.
“If you see a scouting party, it means that the main camp is not far away. “I may have to deal with a bout of measles soon.”
“Ugh! I don’t like packs like big horned hyenas or flame wolves. If you deal with them all one by one, you will get tired…”
The awakened people looked like they were already tired.
Logan chuckled as he looked at his subordinates.
Because he felt the same way as them.
It is better to deal with one strong individual. If you deal with groups of hyenas like big horned hyenas, you will soon end up with big and small injuries all over your body.
Most awakened people are reluctant to deal with big horned hyenas because life and death cannot be guaranteed if they are sometimes isolated in a group.
Logan also had the experience of being isolated and struggling with a pack of big horned hyenas. That’s why I was not happy with the rumor that a pack of big horned hyenas was moving south.
“If a real pack of big horned hyenas has moved their habitat near the magicite mine, it will be difficult for us to deal with them alone. “We need to mobilize all the awakened people who went on a business trip to the magic crystal mine.”
“That’s right, boss! “We can’t just use poison for no reason.”
“The pain must be shared. haha!”
The subordinates laughed at Logan’s words.
At that moment, Logan’s face hardened.
This is because the sight of a huge cloud of dust came into his field of vision.
Logan shouted.
“Everyone stop chatting and prepare for battle.”
Raising a cloud of dust to that extent meant that there was a large group or a large demon was moving.
“Fuck! “It’s not really a pack of big horned hyenas, is it?”
“no way?”
A look of tension appeared on the faces of the awakened people.
They got ready for battle, driving the buggy in the direction where the dust cloud was rising.
As the dust cloud got closer, the awakened people’s tension reached its peak. And when the dust cloud finally got closer, a broken sound came out of someone’s mouth.
“What is that?”
“What the…”
An expression of bewilderment appeared on their faces.
The owner of the dust cloud was a demonic beast.
It was a mammoth, a huge beast with a height of over five meters.
The problem was the baggage trucks that were lined up like candy behind the mammoth.
The wagons, which only had wheels but no power, were as large as warehouses. There were dozens of such luggage trucks attached to the back of the mammoth.
Logan muttered without realizing it.
“Kara…is it Laban?”
“A caravan?”
“I’ve heard a lot of stories, but this is my first time seeing it in person.”
Caravans visit without notice.
Because it did not come regularly, ordinary people rarely saw the caravan.
Even among the awakened people, not many people actually saw the caravan.
Recently, the number of caravans has stopped coming.
Because of that, there was no contact with other colonies.
Caravans not only carry out trade, but also act as messengers to deliver news between each colony.
Since the caravan didn’t come, I couldn’t find out the situation in other colonies.
As the caravan did not arrive for several years, people thought that the colonies close to Neo Seoul were wiped out.
However, it was not easy to send someone from Neo Seoul to check whether the colony was alive or not.
You need an excellent navigator to travel between colonies, but unfortunately, there was no such thing in Neo Seoul.
And there was no reason to pour manpower into checking whether other colonies survived.
This is because there is no problem with Neo Seoul surviving even without other colonies.
Logan was shocked to see a caravan that had not appeared in a long time.
“What a caravan. So does that mean there are surviving colonies?”
His voice suddenly trembled.
The fact that there was a decent colony in this damn world other than Neo Seoul gave him a strange sense of relief.
That you are not alone.
The fact that other human groups existed somewhere in this world gave him a strange sense of fulfillment.
The caravan saw Logan and the Awakened and slowly came to a halt.
On the roof of the luggage compartment, warriors who appeared to be awakened appeared one after another.
They were wearing protective gear and clothing that was significantly different from the Neo Seoul Colony uniform.
Logan shouted.
“I am Logan, dispatched from Neo Seoul. “The person in charge of the caravan must come out and identify himself and where he is from.”
At that moment, a man wearing a black robe appeared above the mammoth’s head.
The man opened his mouth.
“We are the White Bear Caravan from the Akutsk Colony. Is this Neo Seoul territory? “Then we have come to the right place.”
＊＊＊
“Xeon! Xeon!”
Brielle rushed into the house and looked for Zeon.
Zeon, who was enjoying his time sitting on the sofa, turned his head and looked at Brielle.
“I’m not deaf. “Sing quietly.”
“Did you hear the news about Xeon?”
“What news?”
“You haven’t heard yet.”
“What’s going on, making such a fuss?”
“Well, they say a caravan is coming in.”
“Caravan?”
Only then did Zeon show an expression of interest.
“huh! They say a caravan entered the magicite mine the other day. “I heard Neo is coming to Seoul this afternoon.”
“Where did you get that information?”
“At the goblin market.”
“okay? “Then it must be true.”
Zeon stood up.
Caravans were not that unfamiliar to him.
This is because we met once in the desert seven years ago. But most people didn’t.
I knew that other colonies existed, but since I had no direct contact with them, I had no way of knowing how they built, defended, and developed their cities.
As the caravan stopped coming, even the most precarious exchanges were completely cut off.
People thought that the reason was because the colony was trampled by demonic beasts.
Unlike Neo Seoul, which was protected by anti-magic powers, other colonies had to defend themselves with human power alone, which was an extremely difficult task.
Because of this, modern civilization could not be rebuilt like Neo Seoul, and civilization stopped somewhere between the Middle Ages and modern times.
It was no wonder that a colony that had held on so precariously was destroyed by a demonic attack.
If the caravan really came from another colony, it would have been contact with another civilization for the first time in many years.
It was no wonder that people were excited.
“You’re coming in the afternoon? “Then you can see it if you go out now.”
“huh! “Let’s go see the sights.”
“What about Levin?”
“I went outside earlier. “When the caravan comes in, it will show up on its own.”
“but.”
Zeon nodded and put on his robe.
The two went out into the street together.
The streets were quiet, as most people still did not know that the caravan had come into contact with the magicite mine.
Zeon and Brielle sat at a high place with a good view of the slum entrance.
Brielle, who was sitting next to Zeon and tapping her feet, took out a piece of dried meat from her bosom as if she had suddenly remembered it.
“eat this. “I bought it at the goblin market.”
“Beef jerky?”
“huh!”
Zeon took the beef jerky and put it in his mouth.
I couldn’t tell if it was dried rat meat or dried beast meat. But there was no resistance to it.
This is because it was obvious that most of the ingredients for food were available in slums anyway.
Of course, the story will be different when you enter Neo Seoul.
I was chewing beef jerky for a while when a sandy wind blew.
“Eight! “This damn wind.”
Brielle grumbled, pressing down on her cone hat with her hand as it was about to fly off.
Zeon thought as he looked at Brielle like that.
‘Still, it’s gotten a lot brighter.’
There were times when my eyes lost focus because I still couldn’t get over the aftereffects of the drug, but it has improved a lot.
At the same time, my personality became a little brighter.
It was a positive sign.
It was good, but Sana had to stay together for a while, but Brielle brightened up so there was nothing wrong with it.
It was then.
“oh! excuse me.”
Brielle suddenly pointed to the middle of the desert.
At the same time, Zeon’s head also turned towards the direction she was pointing at. Then I saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance.
Zeon’s eyes saw a huge mammoth approaching, raising a cloud of dust.
The mammoth, which was over five meters tall, was daunting just to look at. The luggage compartments that came one after another reminded me of a train from long ago.
“Wow!”
Brielle let out an exclamation.
“What is that?”
“mammoth? “It’s a caravan.”
“A caravan has arrived?”
People who belatedly noticed the existence of the caravan began to talk.
The mammoth was not an easy monster to see.
It was a gigantic magical beast that had never been discovered, at least in the vicinity of Neo Seoul. The appearance of such a magical beast was enough to startle people.
But what was more surprising than that was the rows of luggage compartments behind the mammoth.
From this, people realized that the mammoth was a magical beast under the caravan’s control.
“The caravan has arrived.”
“It’s a real caravan.”
“Wow!”
People gathered at the entrance to the slum.
It was a sight I had not seen in a long time.
The streets leading to Neo Seoul quickly filled with people.
People looked forward to the arrival of the mammoth-drawn caravan. But for some reason, the mammoth stopped a few kilometers away from Neo Seoul.
“Why aren’t you coming?”
“Is there some problem?”
People were buzzing.
Brielle was equally puzzled.
“Why isn’t the mammoth moving?”
“It’s because of Neo Seoul’s anti-horsepower.”
“Anti-horsepower? what is that?”
“It’s an energy that is completely opposite to that of the demonic beasts. That’s why demon beasts are reluctant to approach Neo Seoul. “Like that mammoth.”
“There was such a thing? I didn’t know.”
Brielle blinked her big eyes.
When the mammoth stopped, of course the caravan did not move either.
Instead, a person who appeared to be the leader of the caravan and several awakened people walked to Neo Seoul under the escort of a buggy.
Finally, they entered the main street of the slums leading to Neo Seoul.
It was my first encounter with the unknown in many years.
“Wow!”
People’s shouts echoed loudly through the streets.