Alex was transported the next day on a type of sand glider. A sail extended above a thin, metal hull shaped like a dagger’s blade. The entire platform was only at most eighteen inches thick with raised lips along the perimeter of the hull. The edges were less than three feet high, which didn’t offer much protection for the speed the vessel traveled at. Alex felt like he was moving at speeds faster than a modern bullet train could achieve, and yet he didn’t slide along the sleek, sand colored metallic floor. It was as if the ground actively rooted him in place based off of the momentum of the vehicle.
Alex didn’t know how it worked, but he wasn’t going to complain. It cut his traveling time exponentially. He was able to traverse the desert in a fraction of the time it would take him otherwise.
It makes me wish that they had been supporting me like this from the beginning. I can’t even imagine what level I’d be if I had this kind of help the entire time.
He didn’t want to dwell on it too much as it put him in a sour mood. He would much rather focus on the good stuff. He was almost home, he could now grind out levels like there was no tomorrow, and he could take a little time to recover.
Alex had spent the night in a healing chamber. It was apparently a type of signing bonus for joining the Coalition, so every allied force had access to this technology. Again, he felt a little frustrated that he was only now gaining access to this kind of thing, but he was grateful nonetheless. The healing chamber had somehow accelerated his already unnaturally fast recovery. He was still removing some of the sticky blue liquid from random areas of his body, but it had done wonders. His limbs had grown back in record speed. He was still a solid foot shorter than he had been, and one of his arms hadn’t grown back at the same speed, but other than that he was in tip top shape. If he had been able to spend even more time in the healing chamber, he would be perfect.
Since there was a time crunch however, he and Krizzik had agreed that he would have to let his body do the rest while he traveled. He was traveling much faster than if he was on foot, but there should still be some downtime for him to recover.
It wasn’t long before Alex made it to his first stop—the oasis. He had to restock on his health bombs after all. He spent the next few hours decimating the population of plants and wildlife alike. When he was finished, the only ones left alive were the lower leveled ones of each species as they didn’t offer any experience and therefore he wouldn’t level up. Did the wholesale slaughter of an entire ecosystem weigh on Alex’s conscience? Of course. But, he also didn’t have the time to practice ethical hunting practices. The Saxans that were stationed on the sand glider with him assured him that there were more of most of these species in other parts of the planet as well, so that helped to make him feel better as well.
He didn’t gain much in the way of levels, but he did gain a massive amount of supplies to make his health bombs. He wouldn’t be running out anytime soon. He had even found a plant in the oasis near the clearing he had first seen that annoying Primate King. It was kind of a mix between a succulent and a lotus called a ‘Serapetra Bloom’. It was the first thing he had found that he had been able to absorb into his symbiotic armor since the Eonsteel. It was obviously not of the same caliber as the Eonsteel, but any bonus was welcome. It gave him a percentage bonus of +10% to his durability and strength stats. All in all, his time spent there was well worth the time. It had been so long since he had been able to absorb something, that he had almost forgotten he was even able to do that, so he was grateful for the reminder.
The next couple of weeks were spent much the same. Alex would rest up while they traveled from place to place. He would take as much time as he needed to clear out all of the significantly strong enemies in an area and gain as many levels as he possibly could. It kept up until he saw a sandstorm off in the distance.
“What do you guys know about the Sandstorm Djinn?” Alex asked the soldiers with him.
“Why would you want to know about them?” one answered before realization struck. “You do not want to fight them. They are much too strong.”
“You guys have been with me this entire time. I’ve been cleaning house with hardly any issue. I think I can handle these guys too. I just want a little more information so I can strategize. Plus, the one that I ran into a while ago was only level 70. I’m already higher level than that one.”
Alex had explained how his levels worked one time while he was recovering. He didn’t spend much time with the Saxans, but eventually their curiosity got the better of them and they started asking Alex some questions about himself. Alex didn’t think of them as beneath him, he didn’t really think of anybody as beneath him, so he had no problem sharing. He wasn’t going to give away any crazy secrets or anything, not that he really had any to give away.
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They told him what they knew of the creatures, but it wasn’t much. It was basically what Nagaar had told him when he had first run into them. That they were powerful creatures, essentially masters of the desert. They were thought to be able to grant you a wish, if you were able to catch them. If anyone had caught them, they hadn’t spilled the beans on whether or not this rumor was true or not. Alex, Nagaar, and the soldiers were in agreement—they didn’t think that anybody had been able to catch one. Heck, they didn’t even think that anyone who had seen these guys lived to see another day.
Alex wanted to be the first.
Since the soldiers didn’t seem to have anymore information than he already had, Alex just relied on himself to come up with some kind of plan. He had remembered that the Sandstorm Djinn had somehow been aware of his identify skill. There was no way to know for sure, but Alex assumed it had something to do with intelligence.
He knew that he only had stats because of his awakening and the Forge, but that just gave him a numerical representation of his abilities. Other creatures still had to have these stats, right? They just weren’t visible to them. They had to find out their strength or agility or whatever else the old fashioned way—trial and error. Can I lift this? Am I faster than this? Alex liked having the numbers. It made it a lot easier to see if he had seen any improvements. He still hadn’t really been able to quantify just how much stronger he got with each stat point, but who cared really? He knew he was getting stronger and that was all he cared about.
The sandstorm was drawing closer and Alex knew he had to come up with some type of strategy. If he went based off of how the Forge’s classes went, that meant the Djinn was likely some type of magic user. If the sandstorm offered any indication, that magic was sand themed. It was also an extremely large creature, that could mean it was also extremely strong. Alex was internally hitting himself for not watching the Djinn more closely to see what kind of abilities it had.
Then again, if I had stayed behind I would be known as another cautionary tale. No, that wouldn’t work for me. I want to be remembered. I want to live forever. I want to be immortalized.
Alex’s eyes went wide. The train of thought was so foreign to him. He hadn’t ever felt like that before. It wasn’t his own thought, not really. He did know where he had experienced thoughts like this before however. When he had first bonded with the Eonsteel, he had experienced snippets of King Nagaar’s life. These emotions were central to the king’s being.
Why am I feeling like this?
Alex was suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. What exactly was going on? He did not want to start melding his personality with the king’s. It wasn’t like the king had been an upstanding citizen. He was selfish and vile in life, and Alex wasn’t sure that he was much better in death. Not exactly redeeming qualities.
He didn’t have time to dwell on this unfortunately. That sandstorm was closing in much quicker than he had anticipated. He probably only had at most another two minutes before it arrived.
“Ok I’m going into the storm. You guys can head out if you’d like, but stay close,” Alex said to the Saxans.
He pulled out a signal flare type device that Krizzik had sent him with just in case he got separated from the ship.
“I’ll fire this in the air if I need you to pick me up, otherwise I’ll try to find you after this storm blows over.”
None of the soldiers argued. They looked antsy for Alex to get off the sand glider so that they could get out of there. The second he stepped off, the glider zoomed off blinding Alex in a dust cloud. He swatted at the cloud attempting to dissipate the plume. Not that it would make much of a difference with the giant wall of sand heading his way. He wasn’t going to be able to see ten feet in front of him in a few moments anyway.
Alex quickly guided himself to what looked like the center of the storm. He had remembered the Djinn had only shown up after he had passed through about half of the storm. The Djinn was likely what caused the storm, so it would make sense that it would be located at the center of it.
Not long after he positioned himself, the storm hit him. The wind was so strong it felt like he would be thrown from his feet. Last time he had dug into the sand and it had given him enough of a windbreak that he hadn’t experienced the full strength of the storm.
Alex instinctually lifted his arm to block the incoming sand. Technically, he didn’t need to since his suit blocked out all of the sand, but it was hard to fight years of instinct. He realized this, and yet continued walking forward, bracing himself against the wind and sand.
It felt like the wind was forming arms that were trying to pull him off his feet and away from his quarry. The whispers he heard were almost understandable, but lacked solidity. It was as though everything about this storm was designed to push him away. Alex formed spikes at the bottom of his feet with Eonsteel and continued trudging forward. Each step was a monumental feat.
Suddenly, just as before, the wind died down. Alex could see again and he knew that he had reached the eye of the storm. He knew this is where he would find the Djinn. He saw the figure in the distance as it approached him. Just as it had been before, its body was about fifteen feet tall and was made of ever shifting sand. A gigantic mirage given form.
Alex’s eyes went wide when he saw, as if from thin air, two more Djinn appeared on either side of the first.