The sun loomed high in the sky, scorching the expanse of pale golden sand which made up the seemingly lifeless dunes. An arid breeze blew across the dunes, passing the towing and horizon-spanning sandstone cliffside made from the pale golden sand. Within the cliffside stood a massive cavern sheltered from the scorching sun, and on the roof of the cavern hung a massive metalic bronze platform.

Constructed from various but mostly bronze scrap metal, the platform was home to a colony of buildings, with some of the buildings, being made from the very same material as the platform itself. a bronze pully elevator slowly crept its way up from the surface to the city atop the platform. A tall, tanned, young adult male leaned on the railing of the elevator as he looked upon the expansive sea of sand outside the cavern.

(Kiou looks like a tanned human; super long reflective dark grey fluffy/scruffy hair with dark purple outer space-looking ends [which made up twenty percent of his hair] tied behind his head into a low ponytail with a torn-off piece of his scarf, glowing dark purple eyes with diamond-shaped gradient-coloured pupil [right one is dark royal blue, purple/magenta and rouge red, and left one is black, pale green and white], and has two fifteen cm long jagged dark purple metal horns)

(Kiou is wearing: a dark purple skin-tight sleeveless shirt, dark grey hiking trousers, black scale hiking boots, black gloves, and a meter-long ragged black metal thread scarf wrapped around his neck which is covered by a dark purple glow which seems to float around as if it were in water)

"Honestly... to think that place didn't even have any leads. What a waste of a solo expedition," Kiou murmured mentally. Kiou's horns twinkled, and Kiou glanced his eyes to the side as the murmuring of the female duo grew into slightly loud arguing.

"How can we be so hopeless? At this rate, I think it would be better if we just became couriers or something," the annoyed girl said.

"It's not my fault-," the other girl said.

"It quite literally is, every time we find the monster you shriek like a child and scare it off!".

"It's not my fault though, those things are just so disgusting and slimey.". The originally angry girl went silent before hanging her head low.

"... I know, but we accepted the material collection request. So, we have to find a way to get those centistrophe scales by tomorrow?" the now upset girl murmured. Kiou sighed as his hand became covered in a dark purple glow and he pushed himself away from the pully elevator's railing. Kiou raised his glowing hand as one of the girls noticed something hurtling towards the pully elevator.

"Hey, isn't that a-.". The girl abruptly grabbed her friend before they ducked to the floor of the elevator.

"What was that for?". Before the girl could respond, a strong thud shook the elevator as the sound of panicked screeching. The two girls looked up, and a shiver ran up their bodies as they saw the human-sized centipede covered in metalic bronze scales.

"So, how many did you need?" Kiou asked the squeamish duo as they squirmed in place at seeing the wriggling centistrophe.

"I think the request was the permanent one where the reward is based on how many scales you bring in...," one of the girls stated as her face turned pale at looking at the centistrophe.

"Oh... that one," Kiou stated. Kiou raised his glowing hand to the centistrophe before plunging two thingers into it. The girls mentally screamed at seeing rainbow-coloured liquid spill over the side of the elevator, and the two covered their mouths. The centistrophe flailed around before going limp as Kiou pulled a rainbow-coloured crystal sphere with a one cm radius. Kiou pulled the centistrophe onto the elevator as the glow on his hand travelled off his hand and covered the centistrophe.

"You can have it then," Kiou stated. The girls blinked at him before taking a quick glance at the centistrophe corpse.

"You sure?" the duo asked.

"I just wanted its zythorite core," Kiou stated before he tossed the rainbow-coloured crystal in his mouth. One of the girls flinched at seeing Kiou eat the zythorite core while the other noticed Kiou's horns.

"Didn't expect to run into a humanoid aurora beast...," the girl thought as she stared at Kiou.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Is there some liquid zythorite on my face or something?" Kiou asked. The girl frantically shook her head and did jazz hands at Kiou.

"N-no... and thanks for assisting us without us even asking. Though I do have to say something.".

"Which is?" Kiou asked.

"I don't think we'd be able to carry it to the Scavenger Bureau Building though.".

"You sure?". The girls defeatedly sighed and effortlessly lifted the centistrophe covered by a dark purple glow.

"Huh?" the two uttered together as the elevator reached its destination. The girls carried the centistrophe over their heads before everyone got off the pully elevator. The girls thanked Kiou once again for his help before they hurried off past the European-themed buildings made mostly from steel and silver marble. Kiou watched the duo walk away before he glanced at his hand.

"But why?".

A few days ago, Kiou sat at a table with four other people.

(Mezunola is a human-looking, kid-sized teenaged female goblin with a slightly scrawny body; she has chest-low bright pink hair with two braided parts on the side of her head, reflective golden-coloured eyes, pale pink skin, slight pointy goblin ears, and two golden antler-like horns on her forehead)

(Mezunola is wearing a ragged white sleeveless trench coat with a large hood and golden trims all over the coat, a pearl necklace with tennis ball-sized silver pearls, a grey headless and handless bodysuit, fuzzy pale pink fur trousers, and grey sandals)

(Atlaso is a kid-sized, adult male half-gnome/half-elf; she has long spikey red hair tied behind his head into a high ponytail, an orange-red right eye and yellow left eyes, pale skin, slightly pointy ears, and the appearance of a kid)

(Atlaso is wearing an elbow-low dark grey wizard robe, a red shirt with wrist-long sleeves, fluffy dark grey trousers, and dark grey hiking boots)

(Onivous is a tall, muscular young adult half-human/half-snakling male; he has spikey hair with the right half being pure white and the left half being Persian green, reflective silver eyes with snake-shaped pupils, fair skin, and pure white snake scales over his body [his hands, forearms, lower legs, and feet], and a long pure white snake tail which goes down to his knees)

(Onivious is wearing a black trench coat with a hood, and black fur shorts)

(Zokeina is a tall, busty and slightly toned half-human/half-demon female; she has elbow-low scruffy bronze-chestnut hair, purple eyes, tanned skin, two purple arched horns on the side of her head, and a long thin purple tail with a diamond-shaped tail tips)

(Zokeina is wearing bronze circular book reading glasses, silver knight-like monk robes, golden plated shoulder guards and hip guards, silver trousers, and golden fur hiking boots)

"So... you wish to kick me out of the group?" Kiou asked perplexedly. Atlaso frantically shook his head as he placed his hands on the table whilst he stood on his chair to barely match the height of the normal-sized people.

"That isn't even remotely close to what we said," Atlaso stated worriedly. Atlaso tapped his thumbs together and sighed.

"It's just whenever we, as a group, encounter any form of obstacle which would push us, you would effortlessly deal with it before we get the chance to even try to deal with it ourselves," Zokeina stated as she pressed up her glasses.

"Like when?".

"The time when we were in those ruins, and I tried to open that large tablet door thing before you punched right through it," Mezunola stated assertively whilst her ears flopped around as she moved her head which only the top half could be seen from behind the side of the table.

"I told you the locking mechanism wouldn't work," Kiou stated. Mezunola quietly grumbled as she rested her chin on the arm of her chain.

"Yeah-yeah, old man, you said you were there when the things were made so you know we would need a key or whatever.". Zokeina snickered at Mezunola's sulking.

"But Kiou's reaction to you punching him was pretty funny.".

"More like lack of reaction," Onivous remarked. Atlaso sighed as the other three members began to talk amongst themselves before Atlaso looked over at Kiou.

"We're not saying we want you to leave just to split up for a bit to see how we'd fair on our own, and, hey, you'd be able to have an easier time looking for those uber rare Calamity Cores you mentioned when we first met," Atlaso recommended. Kiou slowly nodded with a hand on his chin.

"Are we in agreement?" Atlaso asked.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, though I can never understand the whims of the contenter races," Kiou remarked with a perplexed tone. Atlaso amusedly exhaled as he sat back down in his chair.

"We can't all be on high alert thirty-eight nine, now can we?" Atlaso remarked in response.

"Seeing as we were planning on going to The Dunes of Erosions, why don't we regroup at the city of Oasis since my sister is there?" Atlaso remarked, with the group agreeing.