Okay, I've got a lot of complaints about being confusing, and introducing too many new characters, so I'm going to tell you explicitly (ie, I read it over and there was no indication of this. And I mean straight up nothing. I tell you that he had a dream, and that there were people in it. For all you know, that was the main characters.) that the last chapter was the Sand-Drinkers dream sequence.

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He woke up.

His belly was full.

He was no longer thirsty.

Someone, he knew, must have given him water while he was unconscious.

He thought that perhaps it was the person he saw in his dream.

Or the people, as there had been quite a few figures in his dream.

He wondered why they hadn’t taken him with them wherever they had gone.

Although his thirst was quenched for now, it would just be a matter of time until thirst took him once more.

He wandered aimlessly through the seemingly empty desert, until he found that he was right.

He needed more water.

He sat down, cupped his hands and drank.

It was funny, he thought, how lucky he had been to find an oasis right when he needed it.

He slowly realised that he didn’t recall actually seeing an oasis.

He looked down at the cupped hands he had been drinking from, and found them filled with sand.

’I’m going crazy.’

‘I’m dying from thirst, and I’ve started drinking sand.’

He dropped the sand and resumed walking.

However, whenever the thirst became too great for him to bear, he drank the sand.

Days passed, and he drank no water.

Days passed, and he survived.

[p=center]* * *[/p]

They were going to cross the desert.

To be precise, they were going to cross the Hell Path.

The name indicated only a small part of the pain the path could cause.

The heat in the path was even worse than the normal desert, and there was no way to get water on the journey.

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In addition, the monsters were of truly terrible levels.

Even high level characters such as they would not cross without the aid of priests and water mages.

With all their preparation, they were still shocked at the teeming mass of monsters that guarded the path.

Some of them even reconsidered their journey.

Then, all of a sudden, an archer shouted.

“Look!”

The other archers looked, and at first only they could see it.

In time, however, they all saw the lone figure walking out of the army of monsters.

He wasn’t fighting his way out.

They did not clear a path for him.

Rather, they simply did not notice him, and did not move to where he was.

He seemed just as unconcerned with them.

When he spotted their party he let out a woop.

They thought it might be a battle cry, and that he was a mob or NPC of some sort.

He ran up to them and spoke.

“Is there a city near here? I’ve been lost for so long. Where am I?”

Surprised, the leader stepped forward.

“Are you a player?”

“Yes! I’ve been in the desert for a month! Where are we?”

“What level are you?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Just answer the question.”

The leader wanted to know so that he could accurately judge the ability of the monsters on the path.

“I’m still level one.” he said, embarrassed.

’Liar.’ the group all thought to themselves.

All except the leader.

He thought ’Monster.

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