Chapter 434 - Guides

A day passes, and we are still flying. The rusty thing we are trapped in has not fallen down.

There were some incidents where guides had to rush towards somewhere in the center of the Deathtrap as we started losing height.

It looks like it's fixed now as we fly at the height from before.

I wonder what would have happened if we had crashed. Just how long would the power source last and keep up the inscriptions on the metal plates and the field around the deck? How long would it take for the white sand to grind us to nothing without it?

As pretty as the sand looks now, we also know how deadly it is.

***

A day goes by, and deeper into the Mana Desert, the attacks start.

Huge swarms of insects. Scarab-like monsters, each of them as big as a human head. There are dozens of them, each around level 150.

As far as I notice, they never touch the ground, and their chitin armor seems to be able to handle the white sand for some reason.

They attempt to land on the side of the Deathtrap and bite through the armor or damage it, but so far they fail to do so. All the groups currently on the deck start a barrage of attacks, even a few more support groups are called.

Most of the scarab-like monsters die even before fully approaching us, their bodies ground to dust as they fall in the white sand after being hit by our attacks.

But what's surprising is that there are some monsters down in the sand, their heads and tails poking out as they shoot projectiles that are either acid or poison-like, literally launching pieces of their bodies at us. For some reason, these monsters aren’t affected by the white sand.

The mood that was starting to get better becomes just a bit more sour, and it can be felt in the eyes of everyone aboard.

***

It's our turn on the deck, together with a few more groups.

I approach a tall man with four arms and bluish skin. He is wearing clothes made for someone with his anatomy, and each of his arms is covered in a dense set of white paintings, some of them with mana-conductive paint.

I wanted to ask, what is your race called?” I say as I move closer to him.

At first, he was about to put his guard up, but hearing my question, he smiles, glancing towards his group, who chuckle as well.

“Crazed human who walks around like a drunk and throws people overboard, why should I answer?”

He catches a small pouch I throw at him, and glancing at me, he uses his senses to examine it. Only then does he open the pouch containing a few mana batteries.

“Crazed human, my race is called thylarin.”

“And the little ones with scaly legs?”

“They are called vyssari.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“I will need more…”

“Don’t push it.”

His eyes meet mine, and I can see him thinking about it. His group even gets ready behind his back. For a long moment, I just return his gaze and wait. I don’t even bother to move kinetic energy or mana, knowing I can activate it quickly enough to deal with them.

“I was joking, joking with you, human,” he smiles in the end, waving his four arms defensively. “I won’t tell you much about thylarin, as one of them, I won’t share information that could give me a disadvantage. But I can say that vyssari are said to be a result of experimentation by one of the Rulers that is long since forgotten and replaced. They have a talent for elemental magic and are not that smart, if I have to say so myself.”

To that, the group behind him, most of them thylarin, laugh. This group also doesn’t seem to be that smart.

“Got it. One last thing.”

“What is it, crazed human?”

“A few hours ago, two of your group members left an item near our room. It was well hidden, with a mix of sleeping and poisonous gas. I got curious so I tested it a bit. It hurt a lot, even someone like me.”

The mood immediately turns quiet, and silence encompasses the deck.

“I swear I didn’t know, human. I…”

After I lift up my finger, he shuts his mouth, and I observe him.

(Is he lying?) I send through the link.

(He is not.) Izzy confirms.

“I trust you,” I tell the thylarin man, “but I believe you can imagine how unhappy I am.”

“Yes, human, yes… here, take your mana batteries back. It will never happen again, I swear.”

I take the pouch and gesture, “You can add that pouch on your waist as well. Not the one with stones, but the one with mana-conductive paint and some ground mana stones.”

“Sure sure, here, take it all.” he hurries to give them to me.

I do just that and nod, “Good. Now throw this and this thylarin overboard. They are the ones who planted the bomb.”

The tall thylarin stares at me for a moment, and I gradually start releasing my mana. Bit by bit, I loosen hold over my Mana Cycling, and it starts seeping out. It feels comfortable as my mana surrounds me, but I can see their reactions to it.

At first, he seems calm, but when I do not stop and my mana continues to increase without any attempts on my part to hide it, his demeanor changes.

He quickly shouts something, and the rest of his group jumps on the two thylarin I pointed out.

There is a little bit of fighting, and mana explodes into the air, but the two are quickly beaten by more opponents before they can cause any damage or fight back longer with more powerful attacks.

Both of them are thrown overboard, and I watch as they land in the sand, their bodies instantly pierced through by the white sand that washes over them. Even falls from such height didn’t cause them much damage, but the sand did. They both try to crawl on top of each other while their bodies get ground by sand blown by the wind.

Seemingly more durable than the man from before, they survive a bit longer, but they have no chance at all. Even trying to jump high in the air doesn’t help, as landing back down causes the sand to explode into the air and cause more damage.

As with the man before, there is soon nothing left of their bodies.

***

Another day passes, and a small group ends up fighting with Maya, Izzy, and Sophie, who delved into another part of the Deathtrap, the place Izzy wanted to explore, too bored shuttling between our room and the deck.

The attacking group was dealt with quickly at the place.

It’s just that the tension is high, as Izzy confirms later. Our group isn’t the only one that gets into fights like this.

The deeper into Mana Desert we delve, the stronger the monsters are, and the less mana remains after their shifts at the deck for defense. Some groups try to refuse to take these shifts or not to fight and waste their mana, but they are threatened by others.

In these situations, guides talk to more powerful groups and threaten, and smaller groups are dealt with and forced to cooperate.

There is another smaller group who still refuses to cooperate no matter what, most of the members were unlucky and had to rebuff monster attacks twice in a row while they were on shifts. Their mana reserves have noticeably dwindled.

Other groups can see that, and that group is bullied like wolves, surrounded deep in the ship and their things slowly taken away, knowing they cannot dare to waste mana.

So that group refuses to go to the deck.

Without mercy, they are thrown overboard, all of them.

One of their members is capable of levitating and slowly flies, screaming in desperation as the rest of his group gets ground down by white sand. Even as he flies, small particles of sand pierce his body. A single speck of sand every few seconds, sometimes a few more.

It takes minutes, but gradually he stops flying and falls into the sand, the damage the specks of white sand causes to his body enough to cause it. These grains burrowed through his head and brain, through his heart as if nothing, and that damage accumulated.

(What do you think?) I ask Sophie, who is standing next to me, watching it over the railing on the deck.

(I think you are right. It really felt as you said. But I don’t know how it will help. Even you wouldn’t be so crazy.)

(Anything can happen. Try thinking about it as well and tell the others.)

(Other than you and me, there is no one who is even close to doing that. It would take them months and probably years to get to the required level. Even you would probably fail.)

I just shrug my shoulders, and as she leaves, I stay and stare deep into the never-ending desert. It’s night again, the nebulas in the sky and cold air fighting against the heat the white sand collected during the day and now radiates.

The monsters here in the desert attack both day and night, unlike the ones outside. And I can sense another group coming. They are stronger than before.

I give them one more look and then leave the deck, letting the scheduled group deal with them.

***

The hours stretch into another day. The monsters are now closer to level 200 and over, and 4 more days remain. This time even our group got to fight while on the deck.

Forcing the rest of them to just save their mana, I take on the monsters together with a few more groups. I do well enough that no one dared to say a thing about the rest of group 4 just watching.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 53 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 54]

[Mana Crown - lvl 35 > Mana Crown - lvl 36]

It’s almost laughable how much mana there is still stored in my crown. Even with all this fighting, my training, and using it for the emblem, there is so much remaining.

The monsters die, killed by mana arrows as long as my finger. Each of the arrows boosted by a bit of kinetic energy and a bit of it infused inside to increase the piercing and impact damage as it hits the monsters.

***

A few hours later, one of the guides dies.

There were in total 7 guides, now only 6. Each of them over level 200, wearing thick robes even in this heat, and faces covered by white simple masks.

I watch with interest as panic ensues, as people push each other and stand over the corpse of the guide. There is no mana on the body, there are no wounds. Just the mask is broken, revealing the face of a human with a terrified expression even in his death. The corpse is unusually pale. Very, very pale, and I don’t think it’s because the man didn’t like the sun.

Izzy shares the emotions of the crowd with me, and I let them flow through.

Fear, a hint of panic, distrust, anger, opportunity, hunger. It’s overwhelming, so I cut it off, and so does the 11-year-old girl.

There is no mana remaining after the attack left on the body that I could examine. No matter how much I try, I can’t detect anything.

I glance at the guides who quickly talk about something together. Three of them standing there, while the remaining three are controlling the Deathtrap, the seemingly minimal number needed to do so. They cover most of their body, and I can’t see their faces, so it’s hard to guess what they feel, and Izzy says they are protected so she can’t do it either. But they seem to panic a bit.

There shouldn’t be anyone on this ship willing to kill them and risk their own life in the process. It’s strange.

The proximity of that many people and all the shouting gets the better of me, and I use my anchor, appearing back in our room.

I get back to my training and wait for the others to return, which happens a few minutes later.

Tess confirms I don’t have to do anything at the moment, so I continue and let them talk it out.

***

Some hours down the line, another guide dies, and together with him, a group of three men who got allocated to him for protection after the first guide died.

Just a bit less than four days still remain.

***

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