Chapter 160: Chapter 160: Children of the Desert (5)

The aurora floating in the sky had already disappeared. In the dark desert night, only the cold air was drifting.

Unlike during the day, I placed the group under the protection of Winds.

Training is good, but rest is important too. Balance is necessary. Night is the time for body and mind to rest.

Moreover, we were now right in front of what we had been looking for.

‘Of course, this is just the beginning.’

Finding these pillars doesn’t mean it’s over.

On the map, it was marked right next to an oasis. This means we need to find the oasis through the seven stone pillars.

But there was no oasis visible anywhere nearby. The stone pillars we just discovered were only the upper parts.

As I had worried, they were clearly buried in sand as time passed.

“Let’s move our campsite first.”

I instructed the group to bring the tents we had set up earlier. There’s nothing else to do anyway.

It’s best if I, who has Winds, do the searching.

In the meantime, it’s better for the others to rest and move when something is found, rather than wasting energy unnecessarily.

While the others went to pack up, I started digging from the bottom of the slightly exposed stone pillars.

Soon, a huge hole was created around the initial discovery point.

The height of the stone pillars was about 15m.

Quite tall. It’s about the height of a 5-story apartment building. It was enough to make me feel a bit dizzy.

‘To find it, we’ll have to dig out about 15m of sand around it.’

It’s absolutely not an easy task. We have to check all directions around these stone pillars.

There were no patterns on the stone pillars to infer direction.

The same was true for the map. Even though we found the pillars, the structure made it impossible to guess the location of the oasis.

They were just standing in a heptagonal shape at regular intervals.

The only hint was that the oasis was at the end of one of the stone pillars.

That’s a small blessing in our misfortune.

‘It means we only need to search in 7 directions.’

I can estimate the distance using map reading skills.

We can infer the distance to the oasis based on the length between the pillars on the map.

But there’s no guarantee that it’s accurate. It’s an old map. I wonder if they made it that precisely.

I told the group to take a rest.

But they didn’t look like they wanted to. Everyone’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity.

Finding such ruins or treasures isn’t something you can easily experience, so it’s natural to be interested.

“Brother, can’t we just watch from the side for a bit?”

“You don’t know because you’re inexperienced, but this isn’t a problem that will be solved quickly. It usually takes months.”

“But we still want to watch.”

Namir shook his head at the children who were weakly complaining.

“The boss is right. Everyone come in and rest.”

Still feeling awkward, Jofor and Aron couldn’t strongly object and showed gloomy faces.

I comforted them a bit.

“I’ll wake you up right away if I find anything, so get some sleep for now. There will be work to do after we find it.”

The kids don’t know about these things. It doesn’t just pop out when you find it. There might be traps or it might be complicated to enter.

Or it might have already collapsed. The power of time is stronger than anything.

In the worst case, there might be nothing inside.

When, who, and with what intention this map was made – that’s something nobody knows.

‘It’s not like there haven’t been cases where someone who found something first made a false map.’

Theodore, the archaeologist working with Haisen, talked about a powerful desert kingdom that existed before the founding emperor.

But this doesn’t look like a map from that time. It was made after that, at least.

Of course, seeing that Denif got Mystic Power, it’s clear they couldn’t have taken that Mystic.

Even in the ruins of Leocran, Mystic chose Cedric among all those people.

Or maybe they just discovered it and planned to come back later.

Even Theodore is close to being an ordinary person. If you lack money and ability, you can only leave a map.

“I want to watch from the side.”

Unlike the others who entered the tent at my words, Denif maintained his stubbornness.

“Do as you like.”

I didn’t bother to stop him.

He’s not the type to listen even if I say something, and among us, Denif has the best physical strength.

The others were also watching me through the tent’s gap. I thought about saying something but held back.

They’ll fall asleep from boredom after about 30 minutes anyway.

‘Let’s start with this side first.’

I picked one random stone pillar and started using Winds to push away the sand dunes in front of it.

I didn’t think it would be a big problem. I had even caused a sandstorm in the southwestern plains before.

But it took more effort than I thought. It’s because I have to eliminate the terrain itself.

I was planning to push about 1km in a straight line. Moreover, I had to dig out about 15m of existing sand.

‘This is harder than a sandstorm?’

Once the sand was lifted into the air, it was easy to manipulate using Winds. Because it’s in the atmosphere.

But the sand on the ground is a different story.

It wasn’t easy at all to push Winds into the gaps between tightly packed sand.

It was a delicate and strenuous task as the Winds entering from the ground surface had to push out all the sand.

‘It might take longer than expected.’

We’ve found it, so we’ve shortened the time significantly compared to expectations, but the kids might have to wait for a few days.

It’s not something that will end in a day or two.

If someone sees this from around, they might faint from shock, so I should have Namir guard the surroundings during the day.

I’m monitoring with Winds, but I’m too busy moving sand to cover a wider range.

‘As expected.’

About three hours passed like that. There wasn’t much progress.

The group members who lost interest after 30 minutes were just sleeping.

Namir, who started sleeping early, was the winner.

The kids should learn from this. Denif might be excellent in combat, but he has childish sides.

Even now, he was yawning beside me.

At first, he watched with quite a bit of interest, but he lost enthusiasm a long time ago.

“Not yet?”

“Can’t you see? You should sleep too.”

I was also planning to sleep after doing a bit more. I need to consider the Worst Condition.

If Denif is yawning, I must be even more tired.

Anyway, I should see this as a long-term battle. I’m the one digging the sand, so my stamina is important.

“Hey, do you think I’m still here because I’m curious? I’m staying with you because you might get lonely if you’re alone.”

“What are you saying, you were watching because it was interesting at first.”

“Of course that’s true! But it’s different now, that’s what I mean. You know, when you’re tired and exhausted, being alone is annoying. These guys are sleeping while I’m working? You might think like that.”

Denif grinned and wiped his nose. Hmm. Come to think of it, it does seem true.

Even after losing interest, he lingered around me with a bored face.

He made sand castles with mana or caught dung beetles to play with, then swung his sword around for no reason.

When I told him to stop because it was distracting, he looked at the night sky with a sulky face.

“Alright, that’s enough for now.”

“Finally! Good decision.”

“Let’s go to sleep.”

“Yeah. Sleep well.”

Denif, rushing into the tent, grinned at me.

***

“Brother, you didn’t find it yesterday?”

Aron and Jofor asked me as soon as they woke up.

Osten and Mary beside them also had curious looks on their faces. Their faces looked so innocent that I didn’t want to say anything harsh.

“If I had found it, I would have woken you up.”

Disappointment spread across their faces. Well, this kind of thing does stimulate curiosity and interest.

“It’s going to take a long time. We need to be patient. Focus on your training. Denif.”

When I called Denif, he immediately nodded as if he understood my intention.

“Alright. Today is special training.”

“What?”

We’re waiting here until I find it anyway. Training is all we can do. If I leave it to them to train alone, they’ll be distracted by me.

Denif needs to keep them busy.

I started working again after having a quick meal. The group trained and Namir went on guard duty.

Two days passed like that.

On the third day, I was working on the fifth direction. It may look slow, but in fact, it was an insanely fast work pace.

1km in length with a height and width of 15m.

If we had used people to dig such a passage in the desert, it would have really taken several months.

Moreover, sand occasionally flowed down on its own. As the tedious work continued, I started to worry.

If it doesn’t come out in these 7 directions, we’ll have to extend the length.

‘Food and water are starting to run out too.’

It was just past 3 PM. The hottest time of the day. I felt a strange sensation at the edge of my Winds sense.

The feeling of pushing sand with Winds was different. A bit heavier and stickier feeling, I needed to check it out.

“Everyone gather.”

“Did you find something?”

“We’ll see when we get there.”

I called the kids and headed to the end of the fifth direction. It was about 900m away.

There was an area of sand that was a bit darker than the surrounding sand. Namir spoke.

“It’s quicksand. It seems a bit different from what I know, though…”

Quicksand. I had seen it in documentaries when I was on Earth. It’s like a swamp in the desert.

Usually, you don’t sink too deep.

More people die from not being able to get out than from being sucked in by quicksand.

But this was a bit different. When I pushed the sand with Winds, a very wide area of quicksand appeared.

It was about half the size of a soccer field.

Also, it wasn’t like the swamp I had seen on Earth. Although I had only seen one.

It wasn’t sticky like liquid and at first glance, it looked similar to sand. Except that the surrounding sand was being sucked in.

“It’s definitely different from normal quicksand, so there must be something. It seems like sand has buried the oasis.”

Namir said. On the map Toun Zaha gave me, it was marked right next to an oasis.

That means it’s around here.

“How about we dig here a bit?”

The moment Denif spoke, I felt a thread-like flow of air between the sand being sucked into the quicksand.

There’s air down there?

That meant there was something at the bottom. I immediately moved my Winds.

I thought, no way… but it was true. There was a space below the quicksand.

“No. I’ve found the entrance.”

At this sudden declaration, the group turned to look at me. Among the surprised faces, Denif asked excitedly.

“What is it? Where?”

I looked at the quicksand. Namir frowned.

“Don’t tell me this is the entrance?”

“It is.”

“That can’t be. If we go in the wrong way…”

“I’m certain.”

Objections were unnecessary for me who had Winds. However, uneasiness spread across the faces of the group.

It’s a natural reaction. Because we have to go into the quicksand.

What surprised me was the Denif in the game. It’s amazing that he came here and discovered this.

But how did he think of going down there?

‘It’s really impossible unless you’re crazy.’

Of course, he could have fallen in by accident. But I can’t imagine Denif making such a mistake.

He must have gone in voluntarily. Hmm. The Denif of that time was almost like a vengeful spirit, so maybe it was possible.

“Then can I go in first?”

My brief contemplation ended with Denif’s words. He must have just gone in.

I looked at Denif for a moment.

He really has no fear. Even I, with Winds, am a bit reluctant to go in.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s nothing.”

The last problem is that the Mystic here needs to go to Denif.

I’m fine because I can’t have two Mystic Powers, but the others aren’t.

Thinking about what happened in Leocran, it should go to Denif, but I can’t be sure.

I need to be careful about the order.

“We don’t know what’s inside. Denif will take the lead first. I’ll support with Winds, so don’t worry. After that, we’ll all go in together.”

“Got it! I’m going first then!”

Denif jumped into the center of the quicksand without listening to the rest. The quicksand swallowed Denif’s body.

I immediately protected Denif with Winds.

“I’ll check it out, follow me!”

Denif waved his hand with a smile while being half-buried and sucked into the sand.

The others were watching this scene as if they couldn’t believe it. Aron muttered to himself.

“Brother Denif is really…”

“A bit unusual, right?”

Jofor nodded. Anyway, 30 seconds passed after Denif was completely swallowed by the sand.

I felt Denif sliding and falling in a space after leaving the sand.

“Now it’s our turn. We’ll go in all at once.”

“Uh, that… boss, do we really have to go?”

The timid Osten looked around nervously.

“Then do you want to stay here alone?”

Osten, who had been looking around, finally seemed to notice my contemptuous gaze and hurriedly shook his head.

“N-no. I’ll go.”

“Denif got in safely. Everyone jump in. Now.”

“Yes, sir!”

Having regained courage after hearing about Denif, Aron and Jofor repeated my words and jumped into the quicksand without hesitation.

Author's Thoughts

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