A Rattling Monster

Chapter 28: I don't like sand

Ahmad is stressfully waiting for the cloaked ratman to reach the peak of the nearby dune and disappear. Only after losing sight of him he finally relaxed. That was a situation too dangerous for the second prince that was currently staring at him with murderous intentions. Of course, he wouldn't begin to talk before he was sure that the threat was away. So he signaled the prince to wait and climbed the dune. Only to see the ratman far away.

"Ahmad, now better start talking immediately! If you weren't my most loyal companion and the one that has served me for many years, you will already be dead for insulting me."

"Yes my prince, I accept any punishment that you find acceptable. My conduct was only to save all of us. If for that I have to be condemned, I will gladly accept it."

"Why are you saying we were in danger; it was only one human. A short one, maybe it was a dwarf."

"It was neither my prince, it was a ratman."

"Foolish idea, the ratmen are just legends. They are the monsters of this world but they don't exist."

"My prince they really exist; it is just that they were supposedly dead. And we, the djinns of the Sand Empire, were one of the few races to be spared by their vile plans. We don't have a core like monsters and our constitution prevent us from catching diseases. Only some poisons and toxic substances can harm us. That's why we were not touched. You were not born during the Portal War. But the king and some of the ancient Eternal Guard like Tompas were."

"Even if they existed, their power can't possibly be at the same level of those legends. I mean resisting the assault of all races of this world for more than a decade. Destroying the eldest Treants of the elven kingdom. Wiping out 2 human kingdoms. Making the proud and ferocious dwarves lost 2 of their five mountains kingdoms."

"It is true, everything is true but fortunately, they were never really interested in the desert. Not enough food, water, monsters for them. And it was even a blessing for us. The Lizard tribes of the East, our enemies, were decimated for their cores. But that's logical that you took them for mere legends. They were supposed dead and they were unrelated of the current problems. But please my prince, if you ever see a ratman, be polite with him, even if you are a prince. And if he asks you where you can find anything just point him toward the Tomb Kings."

"Like you did."

"Exactly, they are merely an empty shell of their previous power because of the ratmen. I would say, our empire would have never been that powerful if the Portal War hadn't happened. Our two enemies were exterminated for the Lizard, and greatly harmed for the Tomb Kings. And even the new group of humans hiding in the old ruins in the South, they are not enough to threaten us. Now my prince let's hunt this Western King."

"Yes, you are right. That was a great encounter I would say. Do you think my two brothers would have known more about ratmen? They are more intelligent than me but even for them, they have no reason to think that the ratmen were more than just legends."

"I have no idea, my prince. But you should warn the king when we are back. That would be a great deed."

After this discussion, the group of hunters began to walk again in direction of their prey. A few hours later, they stumbled on it but they didn't expect to find it that way. The scorpion that has controlled a huge area of desert and loved to ambush anything in his territory was already dead. But no marks of weapons were found on his body. It only looked like his eyes exploded and blood fell from his mouth. If it was a normal occasion, none of them would have found the right answer. But after seeing a supposed legend walk in front of them, they quickly added the two elements. And that time, even the non-believers recalled their encounter with fear.

Damn desert. I never thought that I will miss the forest. But right now, I don't know where I am going. Everything is alike. I didn't find a single thing. Only sand, sand everywhere. I begin to hate sand. I don't like the sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating but walking in a mindless way is really getting on my nerves. And the worst part is, I didn't manage to kill a single sandman. Yes, I tried to make them sick but apparently, I failed. So they are really resistant to that, they probably don't even have blood. Or they have sand blood. Which is weird. Probably only my new poison, an acid that can melt sand, will kill them. But since he is from royalty, killing a prince, in a desert, in an empire ruled by sandmen, is a pretty stupid idea. I can't have my aura permanently.

But now I am walking in the direction that they showed me. I really wonder what is in the end. I really hope humans but I think it will not be as simple as that. The only bad thing that can happen is nothing. Like a direct line out of their empire and nothing will be found before I exit the desert. Which is not that bad, now that I think about it. At least there will be more living things than here. There is nothing, oh, no I spoke too soon, I see a dead scorpion.

It has been 5 days; I am tired of the sun now. There is no shadow, nothing to prevent it to hit me. My clothes are burning. Like literally, at one moment I had to prevent my sleeve to take fire. But the evolution was nice, they gave me a set of clothes. Because running naked would have been bad. I am mentally getting thirsty. Because I really feel that my body doesn't need to drink, but in my head, I just want a freezing soda or a glass of fresh water. The next time I see any djinn, I will kill him. No, the next thing I encounter will die. No matter what is it.

And it is a skeleton. A living skeleton of a dead human. It's weird each time I really think about it. But I will make him die another time. Only after I am 10 meters away from him did he noticed me. Either his sight is really bad, what I think, or I am really discreet, probably not to that point. He moves slowly and even without really doing anything I dodge his strike. After he tries to stab me, I dodge again. Seeing everything failed, he tries to approach me and grab my clothes. I activate my aura. I can see him melt, even his old broken sword share the same fate.

That was the most basic undead created. A sword, slow movements, reduced intelligence. Shortly after, I spot a group of them. I calmly walk towards them and when everyone is close enough, my aura begins to slaughter them. This time, since not every skeleton was in range, I had to activate it for 6 seconds. My mana is really low now. But the good thing is, two of the abilities related to magic have improved. [Magical Restoration lvl3] and [Magical Efficiency lvl 3]. My spells cost less mana, even the aura and that mana lost is recovered faster. Only the [Magical Handling] stay the same. Probably because of the absence of casting time.

The quality of the undead is too low to improve anything else. As for eating the bones, if it is not a real monster or high-rank undead, I won't do it. Since only if the attributes are improved will my [Scavenger] be activated. That was the result of my research on little rabbits, back in the forest of Ronta. And one scorpion. The wood that I used to form my spears had a better taste. And was more useful.

But I guess that if I keep going that way, maybe a lich or at least something better than a skeleton will appear. Why am I thinking that? Simple. Why, a skeleton would be here, if not because of something else. Well, there is still a chance that it was the field of a previous battle, thousands of years ago and the souls of the warriors have not found rest. And they decided to roam the battlefield one more time. But first, the bones don't look like they have been standing many years in the sand. Then, if any monsters were passing by, they could crush the weak undead in seconds. So those djinns didn't just make me leave their empire, they even throw me to the local undead. Well, I will gladly oblige, I have a very good memory of the undead, especially if there is a lich.