Aside from the skirmish with the bandits a little over a week ago, there wasn't much else that had happened. I was actually surprised by the end of the fight that none of the merchants or mounts were injured despite the number of bandits.

I guess that just goes to show how outmatched they were without strong summons. It's one thing to be aware that I was now stronger than non-summoners and that my summons were even stronger, but it was something else to see how quickly we devastated the numerically superior bandits.

Aside from the bandit leader's tier 4 summon, there wasn't any creature or person that was able to put up a challenge. I would feel bad except they proved to me that they were undoubtedly awful people judging by the last words of the leader, just thinking about his smug yet scarred face talking about killing and stealing because he could, makes me want to throw up.

We had just been traveling steadily to the South American continental city, and now we had reached what seemed to be the border of the desert biome that we would have to go through in order to reach the city. The weather had begun to get hotter and so we switched into our newly purchased cloaks to keep the sun and heat off of us.

The hot weather was making me wish for the marsh, believe it or not. Despite the muggy conditions and mud everywhere, it was at least cool and we didn't have to worry about water. Now we were going to have to get water wherever we could in case we don't find a source anytime soon, I would say the aside from the tundra, the desert would have to be the harshest climate in existence.

I mean cold nights and scorching days along with a lack of water and vegetation doesn't exactly make for a safe or welcoming environment. The only reason that the tundra would be even worse is the bitter cold that would only be made better with fire, unfortunately, there isn't exactly a lot of fuel to use in that biome.

Luckily our storage watches would take care of any resource issues, and each of us had filled our watch up a bit with extra bottles of water and enough firewood for a few nights. We likely wouldn't be in too dire a need of them, but it was better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Getting to this point was a pain, but only because it took so long to travel, other than that the trip was fairly pleasant and the seats even had cushions on them instead of having to ride on a hard bench. The only other thing of note was that we would end up occasionally getting stuck in the mud, which either Jareth or one of the dragon-kin summons would have to help out with getting it out of the mud and back on the road.

Since we were in the human plane, there were only animals around us, but most didn't bother us during the journey so far, probably because we had at least one tier 3 if not tier 4 summons out at any given time. Just because they were only animals didn't mean they weren't predators, and they could absolutely pose a threat to any of the merchants with the caravan who only had regular human level strength.

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Fortunately for us, most monsters wouldn't be a challenge for us much less normal animals, so they kept their distance and neither of us bothered the other. I was just fine with respecting that, and aside from occasionally sending out Brutus to hunt for some easy game for our meals, I didn't have much to do with them.

........

"It's soo hot out!!" Alexis couldn't help but scream out to the wide-open sky with not a cloud in sight. This would usually be a great sun, however, in the desert you desired as little sun exposure as possible and clouds went a long way to making it bearable.

Unfortunately for my ears, the lack of shade was making Alexis irritable and I couldn't help but secretly agree with her. Not that I would ever tell her, I had a reputation to maintain after all and whining wouldn't exactly do me much good.

The desert we were now traveling on continued into the distance with only large mounds of sand being able to be seen. On the plus side, the scenery was beautiful with many various shades of red and yellow sand dotted throughout the landscape, it almost felt like we were walking on a large picture that was meant to be looked down on from the sky.

The going was slower due to the sand massively slowing the carriages due to their tendency to act like water and how uneven the ground was. We were honestly just grateful that we hadn't fallen through a pit or off a ledge, which could absolutely happen in such a treacherous environment.

We were all tired of eating meat, sweaty, dirty, and about done with warm weather for quite a while. Normally we could take a bath, but we had to conserve every drop we had, so bathing was out of the question. As a result, our hair was all greasy and wild, only some deep scrubbing and efficient soap would cut through the oil slick on our heads.

.....

Luckily the desert wasn't encompassing the entire region, and after a few grueling days we had made it through. The first thing we did after finding a stream was taking long baths in the refreshing water, it did wonders for making us feel human again. A shower would have been better, but there was just something about starting your day off clean that made you feel better for whatever reason.

What was between us and the city was a large field full of small trees, shrubbery, and lots of flowers and grass. It looked like paradise, and my words wouldn't be able to capture how beautiful it looked. If there were more apple trees I would have thought it was the garden of Eden.

It took a solid three hours to make it to the imposing gates, and all of us were grateful at what that represented. Despite us riding the carriages most of the way we were exhausted physically and emotionally, and the only consoling thought was that now I would get to rest and explore the city later.

I hadn't ever really traveled that much when I was young and especially not as an orphan, so this was a new and exciting experience for me. I had no idea what to expect and couldn't help but make wild theories.

I wasn't such a bumpkin that I thought they would be aliens or anything, but a lot of their culture and society would likely be very different, just thinking about it excited me and was the motivation needed to continue on foot towards the gate while the merchants were waiting in line to bring in their goods after inspection.