Looting the corcs was a speedy affair. Their core was housed at the base of their skull. It was hard to get to if you tried reaching from above, the closest point of approach. But certainly much easier to get to from below. Ajax learned that the reason they were so confident in taking out the group with only the melee members as well as support from Jones was because they knew the exact variant. This variant also had a weak underbelly making extracting the three cores easy.

Taking the two regular crocs that had housed cores and the boss apart was the exact opposite. Ajax did his best to learn from the scout and hoped this may increase some of the skills he had in the field but it was hard work that took twice as long as the battle did.

Despite the massive time sink in the middle of the desert and the hard work the entire team was excited. The skin of this variant was apparently only decently valuable in terms of their regular defense. Where they really shine however was the extreme comfort they could provide as well as the poison absorption effect it had. Higher level variants were always preferred but even prominent members of ducal houses would be wearing ones in the level forty to fifty range due to their scarcity. The only ones this was too good for were the main branch of a duke’s family, the archdukes and the royal house.

“Lets hope there are more of them” the scout said, having finished his job on the last croc with a core.

“I wouldn’t mind but especially a few more bosses.” Bobby chimed in.

“Hey kid, what are you doing?” the scout called out as Ajax was busy skinning a fourth croc.

“You said their skin could absorb poison right?” Ajax asked in return.

“Yeah, it's what makes it so desired. It even works on mana infused poisons.” he answered. “ But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

“Anything I ever read about any desert mentioned snakes or their eight legged twin-pincered poisonous tailed insect brethren.” Ajax smoothly lied while also not mentioning that he doesn’t actually know the word for scorpion. He was basing all of this on his knowledge from earth that seemed to be mimicked here if with more exception cases due to mana getting involved.

“Yes, snakes and scorpions are a staple.” Nelly confirmed while also giving Ajax the word for scorpion.

“Well, I looked through those supplies packs you have me carrying around,” he continued. “Saw some health and stamina potions but that's about it. I’m not about to take my chances with possible venom twenty levels higher than me with only my resistance skill when there is perfectly good poison absorb that will disappear anyway.”

Ajax had no problem mentioning his poison resistance. Besides it being a common skill it was one of the easiest to be found out as long as anyone really looked into him hard. The guards had been looking out for him by keeping his involvement with the vampire on a need to know basis but anyone even a little motivated would find out about it and know almost for sure he had the skill.

As their journey continued throughout the day they ran into two more vulture groups. Both were made of only five flyers but these had bosses. Not that it helped them much as the team was prepared to deal with them and handled them even easier than the first group now that they knew more about the speciase. They also stored the body of one of the bosses intact for the Reavers.

Besides the two vulture groups they also found another oasis. This one housed a different type of crocodile, much to the team's displeasure, but they were just as easy to dispatch.

Stolen story; please report.

The biggest danger they ran into during the day was a small nest of giant rattlesnakes. This particular breed not only used their rattle to try to spread illusions to all who heard it but had also managed to adapt chameleon-like camouflage through their use of mana.

The team was ready to deal with them, especially since all saw Ajax’s point and had made a poorly fitted layering for their armor from the extra croc skin. Ajax was especially annoyed that the snakes only used the camo as a way to prepare for the ambush, he would have liked to get a glimpse of them activating it in hopes of replicating the process.

Their most annoying enemy of all came a quarter of an hour after night fell. The team was heading towards a rocky area in hopes of finding a good place to set up camp when they ran into a small herd of camels like beings.

To say that the camels were strong would be a massive over exaggeration. What they were was fast, not only that but their preferred mode of attack was mana infused spitting. Jones had directed the ranged members of the team to deal with them as they used hit and run tactics under the leadership of a boss.

This ranged team included Ajax, and together with the other rangers and Nelly it had taken them four run by’s to finally take out the boss. Without their leadership the rest of the camels didn’t stop attacking but they only moved to dodge immediate threats that left them open to being easily approached and killed.

“What are we looking for?” Ajax huffed as they reached the rocks. A whole day spent under the cruel sun in a mana infused place all while carrying heavy bags that got heavier with every encounter they had.

“ Any sort of solid shelter with cover.” Jones answered him. “We want to make sure nothing can come at us from above or below, the rest we can keep a lookout for.”

The search didn’t take too long before they found a small cave that had two large nests inside. The crying of the hungry chicks had actually helped the team find it in the dark.

“Oh for fuck sake.” the scout cursed.

“What's wrong?” Ajax asked as he took on a defensive posture, one he relaxed when he saw nobody else react.

“The eggs are just hatched, you can ignore our money hungry scout, he’s saving for a new pair of boots.” Bobby teased the scout.

“What do you mean the eggs are just hatched?” The scout complained and one of the melee fighters quickly gutted all the chicks and threw out the nests to make space for their new camp. “There were easily ten eggs here. Do you know how much nobles are willing to pay for a chance at a bond with flight?”

“Stop complaining and go check the surroundings.” Jones cut off what seemed to be an old rehased argument. “Make sure we don’t have any upset parents or neighbors we don’t know about.”

“Don’t have to worry on the parents' front.” the scout said, taking a much more serious attitude when it came to his job. “We got rid of them already, they were the second group we ran into today.”

“Oh?” Ajax was surprised to hear that. “ how do you know that?”

The moment he heard the claim he had already started looking around the cave for anything he might have missed that could lead him to that conclusion but turned his eyes back to the scout after he stayed silent on the topic.

Looking at him he could see a conflicted look upon his face. In the end the scout turned to Jones.

“We already know about his magic and [Spot Weakness]. I would say go for it but it’s still your choice.” Jones told the scout who nodded.

“I have a rare skill [Know Thy Enemy].” the scout said. “It helps me identify and differentiate between different species. Not only does it do that better than the uncommon version of [Beast Lore] but it also lets me make connections to anyone or anything that I faced recently. Something like the stray feathers that were left behind in the nests by the vultures.”

After explaining his skill the scout didn’t hang around and got to work scouting the surrounding area. This interaction left Ajax with a few things to think over as well. Clearly the team was still holding back some of its more unique skills, something he understood as anything he learnt he could then leak at any point, even after they split up.

The other thing he was considering was knowledge type skills. Hatchet had mentioned them in their training but he also noted that they had nowhere near enough different types of similar species available to even attempt to unlock any of the skills for him. Even [Plant Lore], which was one of the easiest to get was out of their reach to attempt as in a forest the dominant herb of its type would spread and take over.

“Boss, over here” Donny called out from the back of the cave.

As the whole team converged to find what Donny had found deeper into the cave they turned the corner. Past the corner they ran into a dead end consisting of a small room a quarter of the entrance to the cave. In the middle of the room was Donny and the remains of a weirdly built nest strewn around him. Right in front of him however stood the dungeon obelisk.

“Well, it’s good that we found it.” Jones said. “We’ll talk about everything else in the morning, outside of the night shift everyone needs to rest after today. I hope it goes without saying that nobody is to touch the obelisk.”