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—This golden chain is heavy. We should have just went for the other hands instead, what would I even use it for? Tunnel vision while in panic mode does that to you I guess.

We were only able to loot the part of the shinies, mostly from hands on the right - those rings really didn't want to get off of its bloated fingers. Rose helped to tear them bloody things off, at least the bracelets unclasped easily. I couldn't get the thick chain from the slob's neck; the lock wouldn't open and there was no way to get it past those long barbed mandibles - so with one of the vines I grabbed the sword from the floor, and after pulling it into my waiting palm just decapitated the guy; all the while Rose ransacked this huge corpse for anything of value, including gems pinned to the vest and putting the more potent items inside my pocket spaces.

I was forced to throw out any useless trinkets I've been carrying around, to make some room even after the skill expanded after recent level increases. The Genie was loaded and most of the items were sized to fit his enormous size. Rune stones and tools were dropped to the floor, together with most of the purified demonic salt I kept even after not needing it anymore to keep the taint away.

That's when I felt the huge presence slowly approaching the tower, crawling through the sand outside, and immediately hightailed away from the Genie - valuing my life more the the rest of the treasures. I've felt my heart ache at the thought.

But I didn't run far. We are now sitting crouched at the top of the stairs leading to the basement - looking like a Christmas tree with all the gems and gold grasped in our vines, and only poking my head above the floor level while shrouded in every skill I had available to hide my presence. Watching the entrance, waiting without even the slightest move or jingle of golden chains. —Damn this thing is heavy.

-I need to know what is out there. The basement's vault ceiling is thick, should buy us time in case we have to run and we have an escape path into the sewer and even back outside if need be. The Blink Step is sadly on cooldown, but it should be fine even if we get discovered... The thing is slowly moving through the sand beyond, towards the broken gates, getting closer to the underground tower.

A sharp point of a rust colored, whip-like tendril pokes out of the sand that keeps spilling inside the room from the busted doors. This segmented appendage lazily snakes its way through the room waving in the air, tasting it. I hold my breath with eyes wide and following the tip as it sways left to right, then makes a move towards the corpse. With no hurry it wraps itself around one of the gold decorated, short chubby legs poking from under the massive belly at the end of the fat oblong body... and it pulls—

The huge 5m tall demon, gets launched into the wall of loose sand and past the broken gate in a blink of an eye. With the sickening *Crunch of broken bones and in an explosion of sand that erupts into the room together with more blood, the corpse is gone in but a moment. It could barely fit in the entrance yet it was dragged into the sand with almost no effort, like it was merely water instead of grit.

I notice a glimmer of gold flying off among the fountains of dust, but dare not even twitch. My eyes as wide as they can be, I wait while the presence moves away. And then wait some more...

—Not a Queen but an Empress, huh? The quest to get rid of the vermin might be harder than we thought Rose.

...The thing didn't come back.

——

I waited for a solid half an hour without making a slightest noise, there was a lot to think about anyway.

We are definitely moving down to the basement now and I will have to fix the gate. Even after learning about this thing being out there, lurking in the sand, I'm unwilling to abandon the ruin; we have spent a month in here already and nothing like this ever came close to us. This fat, rich bastard must have just brought it here from somewhere further away. These ruins are rather extensive, without a map I can't tell for sure but the canal seems to stretch for miles. —And we have grown attached to this place. I chuckle at that - we did, literally. The garden is growing fine and fast.

I get up from the staircase and begin to sift through the sand. There is some lingering essence in the area because of all the blood from when the guy died, and so we also gather what we can - it was a high level demon so even this much is worth something. The severed head is looking at me from the ground where it was left behind with its one remaining eye, now dull and vacant while we dig for its treasures.

Some more jewelry was dislodged from the corpse when it was being dragged through the sand; I can pick up magically enchanted pieces out easily with my senses but not everything he wore was filled with mana. Ah, the wonders of gold. Even in here it still remains brilliant and shiny - I guess it is valued highly for a reason, as I've seen mundane iron blacken in days after being brought to hell. Steel lasts a bit longer but also tarnishes if just left alone.

I pull a simple golden ring without any mana inside of it from the sand on the floor - the one I saw fly off earlier, just a decoration; while at the same time sending a root out, past the ruined gate to fish out a magic trinket my senses can pick up buried deep a few meters away behind the entrance. The royal pain in the ass clearly didn't care for these shiny baubles and wasn't very careful dragging the guy away, making them fall off.

The thought that there may be more gold and jewels left out there deep under the sands... makes me a bit giddy, I won't lie —Nothing like a little treasure hunt in the desert to fill ones heart with happiness. But that will have to wait as attracting Her Majesty's attention would be a disaster. We will need to figure out where it stays so this can be avoided.

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Never seen it near the nest we've found, might be there is another one that belongs to this monster or it was forced to move out of the sewers due to its size. Would wiping out the centipedes below us cause it to go on a rampage? Guess we will find out as I won't tolerate the nest for much longer.

If it can spawn creatures like this it has to go. Even if the tunnels get wrecked afterwards since if we can't have them, the centipedes won't either.

The root comes back with another bracelet, this one adorned with twelve small gems spread evenly on its circumference.

Ha!

> Ringlet of Seasons: Keeps the user comfortable no matter the weather.

This actually gave me an idea...

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The sand is slowly shifting under my feet as we stand on a tall dune. The weather is fine, only a delicate wind is moving the tiny grains on their way across the desert. But far on the horizon ahead I can see a wall of dust raising high into the air, a storm is coming.

I'm currently watching a shoal of 'sharks' slowly fly across the sky, a rare sight in the wastelands but they do show up from time to time. They are very high up merely specks on the firmament, so I'm not that worried, seen them many times before - Hell is crazy, what's the point of having wings with those things up there.

I decided to check out the secret passage's entrance to figure out where exactly in the desert it leads to. Climbing out of the canyon to get an idea wasn't that hard, the gray eroded walls offering plenty of support for me to grab onto while making full use of our increased dexterity. If the mountain to our left is the same one I'm familiar with - hard to say as I've never seen it from this angle, we are actually closer to the wastelands then the tower. Good to know.

The Pugs were already gone by this time, nothing left behind and winds blowing across the land erasing and traces of their passage. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of their wagons, but that is a thought for later.

> You suffer from Backlash, all attributes temporarily reduced by 66%. Time remaining: 2days.

Almost there, can't wait for this thing to be gone.

It's been few days since the encounter with the fat genie and the royal bug. I had a short session after we moved everything of value down into the basement of the tower, taking in the lingering essence and dealing with the level up. Fixing the gate was also a pain in the ass; it's not functional anymore but should hold the sand out and offer some resistance to any of its underground dwellers. Damn that guy for knocking it down, least he paid for the damages.

To ward off the centipedes from the nest from wrecking my garden, I went and got the bark armor for Rose and had the spawns inherit it. Not super happy about using the trait point for it but that got the job done; giving my flowers that extra oomph, to defend against some of the higher leveled vermin that now comes out. Watching them tear the bugs with this new ability brought a smile to my face - the thorns on those are basically daggers.

With all that done I could finally have some time for myself; the remnants of the essence from the Genie actually gave me three more points of magic and two for Intellect. Surprising boon considering that only its head and gore remained behind.

I slightly regret not pushing my Spirit to 100 after leveling as, but I didn't want to do it with backlash still active, and testing the Dexterity seemed like something that should be done sooner rather than later - if only to see the type of skills it unlocks and how worthwhile it would be to hunt the demonic spiders.

Having had enough of watching the skies of hell, we make our way back into the ruins. I hadn't forgotten my woe against the vermin, but there isn't much else to do but wait now. My plan seems to be working just fine and we've already noticed the difference, much less of them now roam the tunnels - It is just a matter of time.

The craggy rock walls of the canyon are much easier to traverse than the top part of the Rim and also not very tall in comparison. I jump down into the soft sand below from half way up, wings slowing down the descent. Can't fly with them but this much is fine.

―It was the Imp Magic skill that did the trick, after the flash of inspiration from the bracelet a devious plan was born. I'm actually surprised that it worked but won't complain about things going my way.

As we make it underground I'm again reminded about the dungeon. Waiting for Circa seems like a lost case for now, I don't know what happened but it's been 40 days now. Maybe could try to find a summoning circle out there somewhere and try to get some information about the outside; chances of getting randomly summoned by someone who would know what happened are rather slim though... Sigh.

Whatever, nothing I can do anymore.

On the way to our new base I take a peek at the nest. This area became rather cold these days, hehe. The temperature has been steadily dropping for the past week. An amazing application for the Dark Ice ability, for it to work in this insidious way makes me appreciate it even more.

I'm watching the swarm huddled together inside their room, not so vigorous anymore are they? Hell, at this point even frost started to cover the floors. It won't be long now.

Just a little party trick, and yet look at what it could accomplish given enough time. I was worried the bugs would just move out, but whatever they have there seems to be important enough to keep them here. Not only are the coldblooded fuckers slowly freezing but the ability drains their mana as well while at it, since they apparently count as targets for this magic.

That method of boiling a frog seems to work in reverse as well. Those ain't frogs but demonic bugs don't do well with gradual changes of temperature either.

A prank magic, to discreetly change the temperature in the room; best part about it is, that it's now self-sustaining - for lowering it to count as Ice Magic and trigger the core's ability was great news. Now I just have to wait.

Happy with how well it went, it's time to check on the roses. We were out for a bit after all.

There aren't any problems with the 'garden', the constant flow of Taint providing them more than enough to grow and spread. As I near the dark thorny barrier they open a path for us. A corpse of a centipede was entangled by the vines, not yet drained as I get the feeling that this flower Is currently full and can't even eat any more. Cute little monsters.

Well don't mind me, I have two days to kill. Might as well get some work done on my own growth. I grab the dead level 2 Chilopoda and bring it to the tower where I can have a little meditative session.

The basement room has changed quite a bit. I've brought some furniture from upstairs and even arranged a small stash for my shiny hoard. I'm sure it will grow in time - still need to figure out how to move everything from the old lair back here, could use some help with that. The storage ring looted from the fatso doesn't hold that much space either. There is also a thick metal hatch door now blocking the staircase, runes glow slightly with the mana we donated - just in case.

I look at my new ring with a smile. The gold band with a small ruby fits on my finger perfectly due to resizing enchantment. Accessing it is a bit unpractical but it's great for hauling stuff around.

> Storage Ring (medium): This ring connects to a small private dimension that can hold inanimate objects, up to one cubic meter of adjustable space is available.

>

> Content: Black Spear of the Guard, Black Scimitar of the Guard, Wand of Conjuration, Rod of Control, Vial of Flame x3, Exploding Rune Stone x7....

Yeah, very handy...

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