Reign and the others ran as fast as they could as the monsters started rising from the sand. The giant figures of the monsters were still covered up by the sand that was falling down from them as they slowly rose as if they were just waking up from their sleep.
Reign used his lightning and grabbed M'azgara who was slower than the rest before speeding off while the rest used their abilities and skills to boost their speed to its fullest.
Seconds passed, but they seemed like hours to Reign and the others who were nervously looking around while running, concerned about the dramatic change in the area.
What they previously thought was an empty desert devoid of any life turned out to be a death trap with numerous powerful monsters who were all stronger than they were. Had they stayed here any longer and not made their way back immediately after reaching the beach, the chances of them escaping would have been dramatically low, perhaps even impossible.
Explosions occurred in the desert as Wolf used his flames to propel himself forward, Ilamen used a similar tactic, turning around, he extended his arms forward and used his flames to push himself back with incredible speed.
Each time Wolf and Ilamen did so, the sand that was in front of them would turn to glass thanks to the high temperature the flames produced, but it was a shallow layer that was turned to glass as most of the sand would be blown away from the explosions that occurred.
Greenie simply ran at full speed, while the other monsters did the same, using whatever they had to boost their speed in order to reach the mountain range before the monsters became active and started attacking them.
In the end, they managed to do so. The nearer they came to the mountain range, the fewer monsters could be seen rising from the sand, while the area about 400 meters in front of the mountain range was devoid of any monsters at all.
They quickly went up and reached the peak of the mountain that was standing next to the desert and stared at the desert, looking at the enormous monsters that had appeared.
Giant worms whose bodies were about 3 meters wide and over 20 meters long rose from the sand before burrowing back and repeating the process.
Giant beetles that were as big as a school bus walked on the sand and some of them started fighting against the worms and the giant scorpions that had appeared from the sand.
Large snakes tried coiling against some beetles and large foxes and sheep that appeared from below the sand while enormous lizards hid in the sand before exploding upwards and stabbing monsters with the numerous bone spikes that were on their backs.
Each and every one of the monsters present was huge, much larger than their normal counterparts, not to mention hundreds of times more powerful. The monsters were ruthless and the desert soon became a giant battlefield where monsters were getting slaughtered every single moment.
"What the hell man, how is this even possible, how many of them even are there?" Wolf asked as he stared at the desert with a shocked expression, and he was not the only one as every single person was doing so.
There were simply way too many monsters that appeared, and more were still showing up. The desert was seemingly filled with giant monsters who were Tier V at the very least, and no matter how many were killed, more appeared to take their place and fight.
Reign was sweating. He could sense the mana of the monsters, but that was not the reason why he was sweating. He could sense that there were more of them, many more of them below the sand, each one slowly rising and their mana emanating from them.
He could sense hundreds if not thousands of mana signatures in front of him, making him know that the entire desert, except for the 400 meters in front of the mountain, was filled with monsters.
'How was I unable to sense anything before, when there were so many of them right below us?' Reign asked himself as this was the first time something like this had happened. Of course, there had been monsters that could hide from his senses in the past, but those were monsters that were masters in stealth, not hundreds of them that all had their unique powers and abilities, of which almost none had anything to do with stealth.
To miss a couple of monsters was nothing major, but for him to have been completely oblivious to thousands that could be found below the desert was something that should not have happened, even if the monsters were of a higher realm than he was.
'What the hell is going on here, how could there be so many of them in the desert, if this is how it has been from the beginning of the game, how is it possible that most of them had not already died?' Reign asked himself a very good question. Just by looking at the carnage that was in front of him, he could see that hundreds would die before the sun rose, and if that was what would happen each night, then the number of monsters here should be much lower compared to now.
'Aethion, do you know what –'
"No, sorry," Aethion answered before Reign was able to even ask him the question, making the latter raise an eyebrow.
'I see, alright.' Reign answered as he was certain that Aethion wasn't lying, he just knew what Reign was going to ask and answered immediately.
"Sorry kid, but this scene in front of us is nothing special, there are many planets that the system has an influence on, and these kinds of scenes could be seen at many of them, so the reason why there were so many monsters in one area are numerous, there is no way of telling why it was so without looking deeper at it, which is impossible for the current you."
'Got it, thanks.' Reign answered before turning to face the others.
"Well, this was a huge waste of time, a dangerous one." Reign smiled a bit as the others all nodded seriously. They knew just how dangerous the situation they were in was as they were mere seconds away from the monsters waking up fully and attacking them.
The monsters were stronger than them, that much was certain, they just didn't know how much stronger they were and what realm they were in.
"Let's go back, this little trip of ours was a complete failure, well, not completely as we now know about this desert, but we have gained nothing from it, we should explore some other areas tomorrow, there are many on the other side of the castle that nobody has explored, hopefully, some should be good enough for you." Reign said as he looked at M'azgara who nodded her head at him before they made their way back.
It was nighttime, so they simply went back and rested. They would pick up Beast in the morning and then they would explore the other areas, hopefully, some of them should have some Tier III monsters there.
Since Reign and the others had been the first ones to explore many of the surrounding areas around the castle, the players there didn't need to do much exploring. Each of the areas was enough for them, and even with the players from Doncaster, there was never a big crowd in one area thanks to how many there were.
As they went to the elven hospital to pick up Beast, they were pleasantly surprised to find him outside of the hospital, already wearing his gear. He was speaking to some elves, most of which were girls, and he smiled warmly at Reign and the others upon seeing them.
He excused himself and made his way over to them, only for Reign and Wolf to place their arms around his shoulders and stare at him with wry smiles.
"Wh- what?"
"What do you mean what, you dog?" Reign asked with a wry smile.
"You just got out and you're already flirting with some girls, you really have changed Beastie," Wolf added from the side as he shook his head in disappointment.
"A wolf in sheep's clothing, that's what he is." Reign said with a nod while Beast chuckled weakly.
"I wasn't, they just wanted to talk, so I talked with them."
"Mhm." Both Reign and Wolf nodded their heads at him before letting go of him and smiling.
"We're planning to go to the castle and explore the areas we haven't explored before, our goal is to try and find at least one area that has Tier III monsters."
"Alright, but, can I ask for a favor first?" Beast suddenly asked Reign who looked at him with slight confusion.
"Of course, what's up?"
"Could we go to the lake first, the one where the flood dragon is?"
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