“So what’s the plan?” Shia asked as they made their way out of the Sacred Forest. As one last parting gift, Erik had pointed them in a direction that was free of any monsters, so they were making good time as they walked. They’d had to wait a few minutes to allow Shia to run back to her house and grab some essentials like a cloak and a travel bag seeing as she hadn’t known she’d be joining them, but they hadn’t minded the wait.

  “Well, I have to return back to my people ideally by tomorrow evening,” Vin said, trying to figure out a timeline in his head. “In two days the System is going to bring a thousand people from my original world over to this one, and I promised I’d be there for it. I think our wave arrived sometime around noon, so hopefully the second wave won’t be until noon as well.”

  “Strange that your world is having people sent in waves instead of a single fragment,” Shia said, somehow willing the brush and branches in front of them to shift out of the way just enough not to impede them.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Alka said, floating along beside the two of them. Ever since she’d gained the ability to speak again, she’d barely spent any time echoing Vin’s form. Vin could tell by her twitching fingers she desperately wanted to grab the sword and hack down all the foliage in their way, but out of respect to Erik and the Sacred Forest, she managed to contain herself. “I’ve been to his camp and seen his people. Buncha weirdos if you ask me.”

  “Again, my world didn’t have magic or monsters or anything like the System,” Vin sighed, shaking his head. “Other than in video games I guess. This was all very sudden and quite a lot for most people from my world to take in. You should be impressed that we managed a semi-functional camp at all.”

  And I hope it’s still standing when I get back, he added silently to himself. He hadn’t exactly liked the vibe he’d felt when he left, so he could only hope Spur and the rest of the council had a handle on things. Now that he had some experience working with and detecting magic, he had a theory he wanted to test when he got back as well.

  “So we’re heading back to your camp then?” Shia asked.

  “Not yet… I was actually tasked with exploring the six fragments surrounding our own, and I still have two left on my list,” Vin explained. “The goal is to hit those two really quick and do our best to determine if either are harboring a bunch of people that want to kill us, or giant monsters that plan to treat us like chew toys. Once that’s done, we’ll run home just in time for the second wave!”

  “Let me get this straight. You were given a time sensitive mission to complete by your people… and then you spent nearly half that time learning magic in our village?” Shia asked, rolling her eyes as Vin blushed in embarrassment. “I guess I shouldn’t expect anything else from a magic addict.”

  “Hey! Magic is awesome!” Vin defended himself. “And Erik asked me to wait for him to get everything ready! What, was I just supposed to say no and walk away?” He paused, thinking back to their last encounter with the dryad. “Actually, what did he need to get ready exactly? I figured he just pulled these artifacts out of a tree vault or something.”

  “That would be this,” Shia said, indicating the pouch nestled securely against her hip. “When I ran home to pack, Erik met me there and explained what my role in this quest was to be. He provided me with a large quantity of magic seeds he’d prepared that will help us on our journey.”

  “Oh, well that’s good.” Vin thought back to his first conversation with Erik, remembering that the dryad had explained the companion he’d be traveling with would handle sending magical beast corpses back to the Sacred Forest. Honestly, he’d kinda forgotten all of that during his magic lessons. “Anything we should know?”

  “I think it will be more fun to be surprised,” Shia said, flashing him her pointed smile.

  The three of them walked, and floated, through the rest of the Sacred Forest, chatting about their previous adventures. Shia talked about some of the hunts she’d participated in over the years, while Vin and Alka worked together to get the newest member of their party up to speed on the fragments they’d visited so far.

  As one might expect from an elf that had never left the dense foliage of the Sacred Forest, Shia seemed most excited about the ocean fragment that Vin had literally poked his head into for a few seconds. Vin hadn’t thought about it too much, but the Sacred Forest didn’t really have any standing bodies of water; just a few streams and meager rivers running through it here and there. The thought of a gigantic area of water miles wide was apparently quite enticing to the elf.

  Before they knew it, they hit the end of the Sacred Forest and found themselves gazing upon the next fragment bordering Vin’s starting one. Unlike his previous expeditions, the Sacred Forest was thick with trees, so he didn’t see the abrupt change in scenery until the very last second. One moment he was walking through trees and grass, and the next, he found himself standing on sand.

  New fragment discovered! 500 exp gained.

  Vin stared in shock at the desert landscape extending out into the distance before them. Unlike deserts back on Earth, the sand seemed to have a distinct pinkish shade that grew darker the higher any of the dunes before them reached, to the point where the tops of the dunes looked nearly blood red. The massive sun hanging heavily overhead looked to be nearly three times larger than it was mere moments ago, and the heat hit him like a punch to the gut as the temperature rose what felt like fifty degrees the moment they entered the fragment.

  “What… what is this place?” Shia asked, sweat already dripping down her face as she shielded her eyes from the sun and looked around. “There are no plants! No life! Not even the color green!”

  “Yeah, welcome to a desert,” Vin said, already cursing the fact that he didn’t have a cloak like Shia to protect him from the sun. “I’ve never actually been in one, but my world has plenty of them.”

  “Never seen one myself, but I’ve heard of places like this back on my world that only the bravest of traders would dare to cross,” Alka added, completely unperturbed by the blistering heat. “I think I’m starting to see why.”

  Vin briefly considered backing out of the hellish fragment and skirting around the edge of the Sacred Forest and their primary fragment to get to the next one before deciding against it. They were on a time crunch after all, and the entire point of his exploring was supposed to be to determine threats. He couldn’t very well say he accomplished that just by poking his head in here. The ocean was one thing, but he couldn’t exactly use that excuse twice.

  Sighing, he hefted his pack and started walking. “Come on. The sooner we start moving, the sooner we’ll be out of this place.” Despite his high endurance, he didn’t dare try his luck running in these extreme conditions. The last thing he needed was to give himself heat stroke and collapse in the middle of the desert.

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  The three of them made their way deeper into the fragment, trekking from one sand dune to the next, keeping their eyes peeled for any threats. Thankfully, Shia had packed a spare cloak, so Vin was able to get at least a little protection from the beaming sun. Erik’s waterskin quickly became Vin’s favorite artifact as well, as he and Shia traded the artifact back and forth regularly, forced to spend a bit of mana each time due to how frequently they needed to drink.

  To Vin’s surprise, the longer they walked, the more he discovered that the desert wasn’t entirely barren of life. Similar to deserts back on Earth, they would occasionally spot small critters burying themselves in the dunes, or tiny lizards camouflaged to blend in with the pinkish sand as they hunted down insects. They even stumbled upon a few small trees every so often that looked like stubby shrubs with large flowers decorating them. Vin was curious to see if they could tap the trees for liquids like you would a cactus, but not curious enough to risk poisoning himself to try.

  Blinking at the sudden realization, Vin glanced down at the crook of his arm, closely examining his arm for any sort of rash or irritation. Seeing Alka’s raised eyebrow as he checked on his unblemished skin, Vin chuckled, waving her away.

  “Just checking on something I’d completely forgotten about in all the craziness that’s happened.”

  Note to self, remember to try some of those honeysuckle looking plants next time we’re in the area. I bet Shia has some sort of spell to cure poison anyway.

  After an hour or so of walking in blistering heat, they crested a dune and stopped at the welcoming sight before them.

  “An oasis!” Vin shouted, grinning at the first natural drop of water they’d seen since entering the fragment.

  Nestled between a few of the reddish dunes was a thin valley with a small pond in the center. While he didn’t spot any of the stubby shrubs that dotted the desert, there were a few other scraggly looking plants jutting up out of the ground all around the water. With his high focus, Vin could even make out a few of the familiar lizards enjoying the free bath.

  But as his eyes finally left the welcoming sight of water, he froze, halting in his tracks and holding up a hand for Shia to do the same. He’d missed them at first, but he could clearly make out a small handful of tents erected a short ways away from the oasis.

  “There are people down there,” Vin whispered, pointing out the tents to a squinting Shia. “We should probably be a bit more careful moving forward.”

  “Should we just avoid them?” Shia asked. “We don’t actually need the oasis with your water skin after all. No sense risking a fight we don’t actually need to have.”

  “Vin’s supposed to figure out if they're dangerous,” Alka pointed out, shaking her head. “Can’t exactly do that if he doesn’t talk to them.”

  “Alka’s right,” he nodded. “Thankfully I don’t see any human heads on spikes or anything like that from up here, so hopefully they aren’t bloodthirsty marauders.”

  “I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind some bloodthirsty marauders right about now,” Alka grinned, eyeing the sword on his back hungrily. They’d discovered that while Alka could interact with the sword, holding onto it for too long ended up draining her somehow over time, and she had a hunch that it would destabilize her entirely if she held it long enough. Not wanting to spend the hours needed to reform herself, they’d decided to leave the sword with Vin until she actually needed it to fight.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Vin muttered, shaking his head. “For now, how about we go in peacefully? Maybe don’t stab anyone unless they stab first?”

  “You’re no fun,” Alka whined before floating back into Vin’s frame, echoing him once more.

  “That is still so weird to see,” Shia said, eyeing him warily. “She just floats around inside you? And you don’t feel anything?”

  “Actually, it does feel kinda chilly when Alka is echoing me,” Vin said, grinning at Shia’s wide eyes and jealous look. “I normally don’t even feel it with my high endurance, but I can definitely feel it now that we’re in a desert!”

  With Alka hidden and Shia cursing him from behind, the two of them made their way carefully down the red dune before slowly approaching the cluster of tents. There were only a few set up, but as they got closer, Vin gradually became able to make out some marks on the ground. Luckily for them there didn’t seem to be any wind in this fragment, and there certainly wasn’t any rain, meaning the marks were just as fresh as if they’d been left only a few minutes ago.

  A quick check of the tents which consisted of little more than a handful of hides strung up on poles confirmed that they were all empty other than a few ragged blankets. Vin took a few minutes to go over the marks surrounding the tents, receiving an unexpected notification for his efforts.

  Tracking increased to lvl 5! 500 exp gained.

  Oh nice! He thought, grinning at the chance to improve his first skill again. He hadn’t had a need for his Tracking abilities since hunting down the missing stone villagers.

  “There were a lot more tents here originally,” he explained, gesturing to a few different spots where the sand was unnaturally disturbed as he stood up, brushing the sand off his pants. “Hard to say how many, but at least two or three dozen. Not sure what happened or why, but as far as I can tell, everyone just picked up and left. No clue why they left a few of the tents behind.” Seeing Shia’s raised eyebrow, he laughed. “I have the Tracking skill.”

  “Oh, good pick,” she nodded. “I almost went with that one, but ended up going with Hunting instead. It’s less broad, but better for finding animals in the forest.”

  “You people and your non-combat skills,” Alka said, drifting back out of his body once they’d determined the camp was empty. “If it doesn’t help you kill monsters, is it really worth wasting a skill point on?”

  “This might come as a shock to you, but there’s more to life than fighting, Alka,” Vin said, shaking his head. “Anyway, we can’t exactly determine if these people are friendly or not if they aren’t here, so I say we move on.”

  “Don’t have to tell me twice,” Shia said, shooting a hesitant glance over at the pool of water. “Though while we’re already down here…”

  “Weren’t you just berating me for wasting time at your village when I’m on a deadline?” Vin asked, laughing at the elf’s growing red face. To be fair, both their faces were already rather red from the heat, but he could tell she was embarrassed.

  “You spent days in my village! I just want a minute or two to cool off!” She argued, throwing her cloak behind her and striding toward the water, staff in hand. As she approached the water, the handful of lizards happily bathing let out startled little squeaks as they bolted from their slice of paradise. Careful not to cut herself on the prickly looking plants surrounding the oasis, Shia stepped into the shallow water and sat down, fully immersing herself from the waist down.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing!” She called out, her pointed teeth shining in the harsh sunlight.

  Rolling his eyes, Vin left the tents behind him, moving to join the elf in the water and get out of the heat. But before he could even make it halfway across the abandoned camp, the ground began trembling violently beneath his feet, and he was nearly thrown headfirst into a nearby dune.

  “What the hell?!” He yelled, struggling to maintain his footing as the sand began moving all around them. His eyes widened as the shifting sands revealed something large and fleshy under the strange looking plants surrounding the oasis, and he screamed.

  “Shia! Get out of the water!”

  “Huh?” She called back, raising an eyebrow as he stumbled around drunkenly. She clearly wasn’t able to feel the vibrating ground from within the oasis. “Why would I-”

  That was all she got out before the monster’s mouth she was sitting in slammed shut, swallowing her whole.