There is no gradual shift of terrain, one second it is plains the next it is sand. It is not a straight line, but the edge of the desert is a sharp line cutting through the ground. The weirdest part is that even though the wind is blowing, none of the sand crosses the border.
Something is obviously interfering with the natural order here, but that doesn't mean it is alive. I land just shy of the desert and as soon as I do a patrol of soldiers comes rushing towards me. They look like they are ready to fight, but I shapeshift into human form and hold up the medallion.
The soldiers slow down, but they don't stop until they are close enough to see the medallion. Once they can see it they change from being hostile to being friendly and offering to help. I get some information from them about the beasts they see and where the outposts are.
It seems that the beasts rarely appear outside of the desert, maybe once or twice a month. The patrol is not responsible for fighting the beasts, they simply spot them and send up a signal. According to them, it takes an entire battalion to confront and defeat a single beast.
As the emperor said, the troops never try to fight the beasts until they have left the desert. From how the soldiers describe it, the sand somehow empowers the beasts. Fighting them in the desert is considered to be suicidal, but it makes me curious.
I wait until the soldiers leave and then I enter the desert to take a look around. The first thing I do once I am standing on the sand is scan it with my mana. However, as far as I can tell it is just normal sand, there is nothing strange about it.
Thinking it might be because I am close to the edge, I walk deeper into the desert. I keep scanning as I go, not only checking the sand but also checking for beasts. Of course, I am also keeping an eye out for any useful materials, even though I don't have much storage room currently.
After walking for a while I notice something else that is odd, there are no sand dunes. The sand is flat, as if the wind never blows, but it is blowing right now. There is also no sand being carried on the wind, which shouldn't be possible.
Leaning down I grab a handful of sand and let it trickle through my fingers. Despite the wind blowing, the sand drops straight down when it leaves my hand. There was no resistance to me picking it up, but somehow it is immune to the wind.
My scan is still telling me that the sand is perfectly normal, but that can't be true. Before I can investigate more, my mana detects a beast entering my range. It is an ant and it is heading directly at me as if being guided by something.
It is moving quickly and will reach me soon, but I am curious so I don't run away. Despite being told not to fight them in the desert, I want to try it out and see what happens. Maybe if the sands are giving the beast power I will be able to detect something.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
However, I don't have long to think about it because the ant reaches me quickly. It looks just like an ordinary red ant, except for the fact that it is the size of a bus. As soon as it is close enough it tries to bite me with its mandibles, but I dodge to the side.
The sand makes dodging a little difficult since it does not provide good footing. However, I decide to fight as a human for now and so I draw my two swords. Before the ant can recover from its miss, I slash at it with both swords.
Unfortunately, while I manage to hit it with both swords, all they do is leave scratch marks. Its exoskeleton is apparently much harder than I was expecting it to be. The ant recovers from its missed attack and immediately goes to bite me again.
Due to the poor footing I am not able to dodge it completely, so I parry the mandibles with my swords. However, the nice swords that I got at the auction in the Magic Kingdom shatter. The odd thing is that they shatter as soon as the mandibles touch them.
The mandibles aren't slowed down at all and rip straight across my chest. My shapeshifting clothes and the angel's armor that I always forget I am wearing also shatter on contact. Luckily, I am able to lean backwards enough that the wound on my chest is only about an inch deep.
Still, the instantaneous destruction of my items is more than a little surprising. As it is happening I notice that the ant is absorbing the mana from the items. However, the ant does not keep the mana, instead it moves through the ant and then into the sand.
While I am still trying to figure out what just happened, the ant tries to bite me again. Dropping my shapeshift, I return to my normal form and grab both of the ant's mandibles. The ant is a little more than double my size, but my strength still proves to me enough to stop the mandibles.
It is good to know that all the effort I put into farming stats wasn't wasted. With a surge of strength I start forcing the mandibles further apart. The ant doesn't seem to have any other attacks, it just keeps trying to force its mandibles to close on me.
After a minute of struggling, I manage to push the mandibles beyond their limit. With a loud crack the mandibles tear free from the ant's head, but the ant doesn't make a sound. Flipping the mandibles around I stab them into the ant's head and they go in easily.
1 Empowered Red Ant Worker defeated! 100,000 Exp gained!
'Wait, this thing was just a worker? Yet it was worth so much exp? Was it being empowered by the desert? Is that why it could take the mana from my items?'
Despite coming here to try and satisfy my curiosity, I now have even more questions. I scan the area, but there is no sign of the mana that was sent into the sand. Although I do spot something weird, the sand at the border seems to be evaporating.
About a foot worth of sand at the border just disappears into thin air. I was told that the desert expands when the beasts win, but no one said if it retreats when they die. Maybe it happened because I killed the ant while it was empowered.
Grabbing one of the mandibles, I flip the ant over and use the mandible to cut it open. A quick scan allows me to locate the ant's core and I cut my way in until I can remove it. Once I have the core in hand I eat it, but I am disappointed when nothing happens.
There is no change to my core's progress and I don't gain any stats from it. With the ant being such a good source of exp, I was really hoping that it would be useful in other ways. Not quite willing to give up yet, I cut the ant's heart out and eat it as well.