The Dreadmire Desert was similar to the endless forest stretching far and wide for hundreds of kilometers, filled with creatures of various Ranks and areas of unique nature filled with opportunities and unknown dangers.
Alex was making his way toward one such unique location (Eclipse Dunes), a place that was cloaked in pitch-dark clouds for centuries, not having seen a speak of sunlight while hardly any useful public information was available about its terrains and the creatures that dwell in it.
The Dreadmire Desert was not a nice place as its golden sand reflected the sunlight like a mirror, creating relentless scorching heat, and sandstorms ravaged the place and got stronger and more frequent the deeper one went.
Deadly creatures lurked hidden deep in the shifting sand or in plain sight, making every step a potential risk to one's life.
Alex had only traveled around the edges of the desert in his previous life, so venturing deeper was a new experience, and it was not pleasant.
After a few hours of experiencing harsh conditions and relentless attacks, Alex arrived at the Eclipse Dunes.
The sight that greeted him was both awe-inspiring and eerie. The dunes stretched for tens of kilometers, and the once scorching sun was hidden by an unnatural phenomenon – pitch-dark, silent clouds that blanketed the sky as far as the eye could see.
It was as if night had descended upon a section of the desert with a transparent wall separating the dark from the broad daylight, and the clouds could be seen breaking and forming at the edges, creating a beautiful sight but not edging even a bit from their place.
Alex admired the ominous atmosphere before drinking a night vision potion and moving toward the areas he planned to explore to locate the hidden entrance to the underground city ruins.
Alex ventured deeper, and the little light illuminating the edges was gone, and what was left was the eerie silence cloaked in the pitch darkness.
The atmosphere felt heavy, and an otherworldly sensation hung in the air, making it feel like the place seemed to hold secrets long forgotten by time itself.
After reaching the general area where he knew the entrance was located, Alex took out a fifth Rank magic scroll that he had bought in bulk before coming here, he used the scroll, and as it was activating, he turned around and ran as fast as he could.
Alex stood high in the air, far away from his previous location, and after a few seconds of eerie silence, a massive shock wave came ripping apart the giant dunes as the scroll with the recorded magic spell (Seismic Pulse) activated.
Alex quickly arrived at the location that now had a gaping hole going hundreds of feet deep, but unfortunately, he didn't find what he was looking for, and a bit disappointed, he moved toward the next location.
Alex went from place to place, repeating the process, combing through the areas, experiencing the howling wind, and getting ambushed by Giant scorpions, venomous snakes, and elusive sand leopards every few minutes.
Alex was not able to locate the city entrance even after a few hours, but he was having fun blowing sand dunes to smithereens and tens of creatures with them farming exp by burning through expensive scrolls.
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[Seven Hours Later]
'Now this is what I like to see,' Alex thought, standing high in the air with a smile, looking down a hole getting filled by the sand, and at the depth of it was a shimmering red energy barrier, it being the entrance he had been searching for.
Alex wasn't searching for any physical entrance but was trying to locate the area of the vast stretching energy barrier that covered the whole of the grand city ruins that was closest to the surface.
The scale of the underground city ruins was unknown even till the day of Alex's return in time, and the reason for that was the horrifying creatures dwelling in various areas of the city, but it was well known that the city ruins stretched for tens of kilometers.
The city was completely cloaked by a deep red energy barrier that protected it from getting completely buried in the sand, but the energy barrier was not even, with small sections of it being very close to the surface while most of it being hundreds of meters deep.
Alex quickly took a magic scroll out and threw it into the hole, and after a few moments, a shimmering blue magic circle appeared amidst the sand before a wave of ice froze everything in and out of the hole stopping the sand in place.
Alex then took out a second scroll and threw it on the exposed magic barrier, and a moment later, a pulse was released, destroying a small area of ice, but more than that creating a gaping hole inside the barrier, granting entry into the pitch darkness.
Alex catapulted through the opening, free-falling for a few heart-pounding seconds before gracefully landing on the rooftop of a towering building.
As he surveyed his surroundings, he was greeted with a mesmerizing sight of the vast stretching labyrinthine city ruins sprawled before him, shrouded in the enchanting dim glow of crimson red emanating from the energy barrier.
The sand had consumed some areas in the distance, swallowing whole city sections into a bottomless abyss with massive chasms, deep and unfathomable, dividing the city into fragmented islands, each stretching for hundreds of meters.
The red energy barrier illuminated the city hauntingly, casting eerie shadows on the ancient structures and revealing a faint outline of the city's former grandeur.
Amidst the darkness, Alex could make out the remnants of colossal buildings, once marvels of architecture, now reduced to partially crumbling ruins.
The ruins housed thousands upon thousands of creatures, each more exotic and terrifying than the last ranging from dark abominations with twisted features skulked in the shadows, their eyes gleaming with malice.
Enigmatic creatures with shimmering scales slithered through the sand, leaving barely a trace of their presence, and undead and ghouls shuffled through the streets.
'It would be harder to locate the blueprints than I thought, but then again, there are plenty of strong creatures wandering this place, ready to be hunted,' Alex thought, listening to the distant cries and growls of the creatures echoing through the silent streets.
Alex didn't know exactly where the blueprints were located, but he knew they were somewhere in this section of the city.
Alex descended into the city's ruin, carefully navigating the treacherous terrain to get an understanding of his surroundings before he started hunting the creatures and exploring the areas for the blueprints.
As Alex carefully navigated the city, he came across vast courtyards and plazas, now overgrown with twisted vegetation that had adapted to the darkness.
It didn't take long for Alex to engage in his fist battle while exploring the very first unique building he entered to explore, against an enormous spider with razor-sharp fangs lurking in the shadows.
The shadow tarantula had eight gleaming eyes fixated on him as it tried to trap him with webs and used various shadow and poison abilities, but the battle ended quickly, with Alex decapitating the creature's head before continuing with the search of the building.
Alex left the building having found nothing and moved on to explore a section of the city to update his system map, and while he encountered some creatures, he avoided most of them, and those that could sense his presence and attacked, he quickly killed them and moved on.
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