Chapter 384: Really Stepped in It

"Where've you been, slowpoke?" Ares wanted to tackle his foolish younger brother for daring ask this question! Ares only left the area they were supposed to meet up in because this guy had arrived late himself and now he was complaining?! Ares leapt into action and put Aejaz in a headlock and dragged him towards the exit, rubbing his knuckles against the doofus' head until it was ingrained into him not to ask silly questions! Ares eventually let go though because he wanted to skim through a leaflet, given for free at the city exit, detailing the area immediately outside the gates and on the way to the Riddlemyd. Apparently, there were hotbeds of monster activity that were best avoided if you weren't confident in your own strength. Over to the east there were monster dens where you could brave danger and find rare treasures the monsters looted off corpses and took back to their lairs. Shiny treasure hunters is what they were, like dragons hoarding wealth, but there were a lot of them and going there was generally considered to be a death wish if you weren't fully prepared.

Over to the west... Was mostly unknown, actually. It was where the Fellahin typically roamed, searching for the most dangerous of all Xascan monsters to put down so everyone within the city could stay safe. All the big and spooky monsters gathered over in that direction and they were all proverbial kings of the dessert. No amount of preparation was going to save you if you walked into a foe on that side of the desert and you weren't a highly capable cultivator. Few people ever went in that direction and few people, other than the Fellahin who were well versed in desert combat, travel, and camouflage ever actually returned. For the most part, it was better to stick to the middle path where the weakest monsters were. 'Weak' is a tricky term though because some monsters would always defy their labels and go above and beyond in the nuisance category. There were typically only ever weaker monsters down the middle but sometimes more dangerous foes would be lurking in the dunes and waiting to ambush you when you thought you were safe. Also, even the weakest monsters in this place had traits that made them annoying to deal with like poison or the ability to hide under the sand. In other words, everything between here and the Riddlemyd, that had a decent amount of security stationed outside it, was monstrous no-man's land. There was little reason for anyone who wasn't a cultivator to brave these dry and desolate lands but if you wanted to travel to another city, or set up a business near the Riddlemyd to make moolah off adventurous cultivators, then this was a journey you'd have to make at some point.

Fortunately, there was a sort of unwritten system in place here for the more timid cultivators, shopkeepers, and mortals who wanted to traverse the desert. Every hour, on the dot, a large caravan of sorts would set off. Stronger cultivators would willingly help out, sometime for free, sometimes for money, and only depart for their destination when the clock struck the very next hour. 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, etc... These stronger cultivators would carve a path and keep everyone else safe from harm if possible. Of course a 100% success rate wasn't guaranteed but that was the risk people had to take for free aid if they were on a budget. Of course if you were willing to fork out some extra stardust there were companies that specialised in this service and could offer some really strong cultivators as bodyguards, all around the transition realm typically.

This was where things got complicated though because these businesses would often feel incensed whenever anyone got free aid instead of having to pay them. This led to frequent fights between the businessmen's goons, who would intentionally give free travel guides trouble to disincentivise them, and people who were just trying to help out of the goodness of their hearts. The reputations of these businesses were in the gutter for the most part but, on bad days when nobody wanted to risk angering them, and all the kindly adventurers were gone for whatever reason, dead or resting, such businesses were the only available option. What made this even worse was that there had been plenty of scandals in the past regarding disappearing citizens. Who's to say the people escorting you wouldn't take fancy of your expensive gear and leave you for dead out in the middle of nowhere or, worse, do you in themselves and feed your corpse to a monster? If you were relying on them in the first place it's typically because you couldn't brave the sandstorms and the giant scorpions by yourself. If you couldn't defend yourself from those monsters how could you possibly ever stop cultivators capable of killing them? They were the real monsters at that point! Long story short, it was all risky! east path, west path, center path, in the company of others or all by your lonesome... The desert was particularly excellent at claiming lives and never even having the decency to spit their bodies back to their loved ones to bury.

Ares wasn't daunted by any of this because there were no monsters along the main path that could realistically ever pose a threat to him and he would feel comfortable walking over to the east all by his lonesome too if he had too. Where things got complicated was the west side because, honestly, nobody had any clue what sort of horrid creatures lived over there. The Fellahin weren't eager to share the details of stuff they found over there but they often, repeatedly, warned against going in that direction even if you were at the transition realm. Juggernaut, one of the best cultivators in Sheryashka, had said that there were a few places even she dared not tread carelessly and there was one particularly monster she had to run from deep in the desert. It only appeared at night but it was a creature that defied logic and was downright an alien abomination not of this world. The Fellahin typically put up barriers in the west of the desert or had people stationed there to turn people back while they worked on thinning out the dangerous monsters that got too close to the city. On occasion, if you were in the rough area, you could see hundreds of Fellahin fighting a gargantuan beast if you were lucky enough and it was quite the sight.

All this to say that, unless you were on a suicide mission or had an unavoidable reason to go there, the west of the desert was better left well enough alone. There were no treasures, no hidden pathways, and nothing at all worth exploring... Which also made it the perfect place to hide a secret base... Ares could only hope the scavengers really weren't hiding out over there because he'd have to go into uncharted territory and risk his life. You'd think after whacking a wyvern soul around left and right he'd feel a bit more confident but Ares could tell there were some impressive beasts in that direction as the western side of the desert contained a very discernible aura. It was a fluctuating wave of pressure generated off the backs of hundreds of disastrous creatures all freely roaming those lands. Maybe they'd lived long enough to evolve into something truly horrifying or maybe Sevorus' influence on the area had caused things to go to shite. Maybe even both! Regardless, spooky monsters definitely existed in Xasca so treading carefully was a must.

Ares' little notebook from the Transmit lady contained a few descriptions of some of monsters people had claimed to have seen at some point or another but there were so many descriptive traits that were the exact opposite of one another... As in some creatures were rumoured to be both landlocked and capable of flight at the same time! This wasn't the lady's fault, she wasn't the presumably drunken blabbermouth spewing oxy-moronic garbage at the local inn to anyone who'd listen. If anything, Ares was impressed she managed to even find this much information, regardless of how accurate it was, as the number of rumours she'd need to have overheard to fill out this notebook would be considerable. Maybe it had something to do with the constantly-bragging adventurers and cultivators frequenting Transmit to try and bed her... Either way, any information on the western creatures was mostly incomplete and based solely off unverifiable information.

The eastern and central path, however, had in depth descriptions and drawings of just about everything you could possibly find there. Double headed vultures, the aforementioned giant scorpions, and even... Mafia cacti? Ares had to stop and do a double take on that one! Apparently these things were regular cacti but they could shuffle about in groups and turn their t-posed 'arms' into spike gatling guns... They were named mafia cacti because there was a distinct mouth shape on their head region and there was a spike buried in it that looked kind of like a cigar from far away... Also, though this was completely irrelevant, there was a fun fact penned at the bottom of the page that informed Ares somebody had once captured some of these monsters and put on a play with them, forcing them to wear hats and act out a role live on stage... Or, perhaps it was more accurate to say they tried to put on a play... For very obvious reasons, this went poorly and the act of using mafia cacti as actors or stage props has been explicitly forbidden since then...

Ares had to put the book down... There were some seriously whacky creatures and stories in there and he would wind up like a kid in a book store scrolling through page after page of bad jokes while he waited for his parents to pick out more respectable reading material for themselves. The book was addicting! It had been a while since Ares sunk his teeth into an informative book regarding cultivation society, or in tis case the monsters that lived around cultivators, and so he had to stop himself. He wanted to curl up back in the palace and engross himself in it from front to back, so he could get an advantage over the wildlife out here, but that could be done later! For now he had to set off otherwise he might actually get stuck in this city forever. There was a reason he flicked through the leaflet without taking off immediately, however, and that was because he opted to help people for free! As a sect master, still pending, he needed to leave a good impression on foreign lands so if these people spread word that Ares was benevolent it would do the sect's reputation good things no doubt! It's not like the journey would take too long anyway and Ares wanted to get a feel for the path regardless in case he wanted to speed through it later during an emergency for whatever reason. If he was at the riddlemyd and found out Oasis was being attacked then not getting lost as he returned in a hurry was preferable. He'd look like a right idiot if he accidentally sped off towards the western side of the desert because he got blinded by a a bit of sand or something equally dumb...

Ares walked over to a caravan outside the gates where people were resting on boxes that would be loaded soon so everyone could depart. There was no official method to this guide thing, unless you were hiring a business proper, so it essentially just boiled down to talking to people and seeing who the strongest person was so they could valiantly lead the way. It was always in this one spot, in the shade just behind the tall gates, but the people that showed up for the meeting could be literally anyone! Sometimes you'd have ten expert cultivators ready and raring to kick butt, sometimes you'd have to sit around and wait multiple hours until a single shady cultivator with questionable strength and intentions 'conveniently' appeared. Right now there was a cultivator at the peak of bloodline awakening who seemed to be calling the shots as well as someone else unaffiliated with him, a few cultivation stages lower, milling about. Based on the looks and attitudes of the civilians present, they weren't exactly too happy with the leader for whatever reason but the other individual was well liked in comparison with people constantly striking up conversations with her.

Of note was that the woman appeared to be a Fellahin, if their choice of clothing was anything to go by, and so she was actually likely stronger than the loudmouth guy despite the cultivation deficit thanks to her innate talents and home-field advantage. Even so, if Ares was understanding the situation correctly, she willingly stepped aside and let the loudmouth lead. In the end it didn't matter too much as they were both strong enough to take on just about anything you would normally find in the central path. It was only if a rare enemy showed up, and they both wanted to give orders, that things would get messy but that was uncommon and they were powerful enough in their own right to still manage even in such a situation. Ares could get a feel for their rough strength without even having to really check in detail because the Fellahin woman glanced in Ares' direction, the second he showed up, and silently acknowledged his strength... Comparatively the loudmouth seemingly thought another random civilian was going to come and crawl before him, begging him to be a 'hero' and take him where he wanted to go. At this point, Ares had his own aura to him that was pretty much on par with a legendary creature. He would hide it usually but in situations where he couldn't be bothered to explain his strength, despite his low cultivation, he just let it do all the talking... Unfortunately the loudmouth was currently doing all kinds of talking himself and not paying attention to the imposing destruction aura looming right behind him. Whatever, it didn't matter! Ares wasn't going to pick a fight with him anyway and walking along with the rest of the group wouldn't cause any problems as long as he ignored the guy's ramblings and didn't feel the need to agitate him. He seemed prideful enough to pick a fight and Ares just wasn't interested in wasting everyone's time so he would keep his inner revenant, that wanted to ceaselessly hound the guy, at bay...

"Aejaz... No! Bad Aejaz!" Ares had to turn around and reprimand Aejaz for trying to steal something from the Fellahin lady. Nobody other than Ares caught on to his antics but Ares was incredibly well versed and proficient in detecting Aejaz' magic nowadays if he wasn't actively trying to hide it! "Steal from the idiot who won't stop barking about his accomplishments, not the polite lady who's done no wrong!" This was just good manners! Aejaz probably had a gut feeling the woman had more valuable stuff on her, and he was probably correct in his assessment, but picking on an innocent woman who was well received by the local community felt wrong when there was clearly a way better target! Thankfully, although begrudgingly, Aejaz did pickpocket from the guy instead. Ares was about to turn around and head over to see what everyone was up to over by the caravan, but Aejaz poked him in the back and started whispering something to him about a new discovery he'd made after looting the guy's spatial rings... Ares gave the guy a narrow stare and, based on the information Aejaz just gave him, thought over how best to make use of this situation. Knowing about this guy in advance was handy as Ares could formulate a strategy to deal with him in the correct way when the time was right. For now, though, there was no point in outing him for what he really was. If Ares did he'd have to wait another hour for the next caravan to leave and Ares was far too impatient to delay his own trip for no good reason. He could protect everyone here, even if a monster from the west showed up, and buy everyone time to retreat if need be. Ares could juggle their lives, the loudmouth guy, the Fellahin, and the monsters all at once he was objectively just that powerful.

Once more, Ares was about go and maybe introduce himself to his fellow travellers but he was halted in place by another development, this one far stranger than the last. Ares looked down as he felt a tingly feeling in his rib cage and, upon seeing what caused it, muttered to himself, "When did you get there?" Ares wanted to investigate this anomaly but he didn't even know where to start so he walked over to the Fellahin lady, who was the reliable person here most able and willing to give him an answer, and pointed down at the sword that had been stabbed into him at some point without anyone noticing. "Excuse me Ms. Fellahin, do you have any idea who stabbed me? I wasn't really paying attention but this is still quite the shock. I have pretty good eyesight and awareness, you see, so this poisonous sword digging into my flesh really shouldn't be there."

The Fellahin woman looked at the sword in question and seemed to be unsure of how best to answer Ares because she wasn't entirely certain either. She hadn't noticed anyone make any kind of move over by the caravan so it likely wasn't them. The loudmouth probably didn't even recognise Ares as a living creature worth addressing with his brilliance so he could be struck off the list, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Ares and Aejaz were travelling together so they wouldn't harm each other; that was a reasonable assumption from the Fellahin lady. And it wasn't the fellahin herself that had done it because she would never attack random civilians or friendly cultivators.... Plus everyone here were within range of the city and none of the guards had spotted the enemy either so this was all rather strange...

"Ah. Shit! STEPPERS!" Teh woman came to a realisation of some kind and rushed past Ares to stand ahead of the group while shouting to the city guards and forewarning them about the incoming perils. There was only one monster she could think of that could have pulled this off so close to civilisation, one monster that treated the entire desert like their own personal hunting ground, and only one monster that was stealthy enough to evade almost all forms of detection without fail. Ares heard the name and that was good enough for his own purposes so he removed the obnoxious sword, chucked it aside, and whipped out his notebook! Any excuse to read this bad boy was welcome in Ares' mind! Now, was it somewhat rude to be reading a book while everyone else nearby was panicking and / or getting ready to fight to the death? Sure, maybe, but Ares had his own priorities! If he could figure out what 'steppers' were then he would have an easier time fighting them and that was good news for everyone!

Aejaz seemed to be having a cowardly moment right now and kept circling around Ares, looking for the optimal spot to hide behind him as he didn't know where the threat was coming from. Had it been a bunch of human bandits or whatever then he wouldn't have gotten spooked like this but unknown monsters were to Aejaz as thunder and lightning were to little puppies. He was stronger, yes, but some things would just never change... Maybe one day he would grow a spine for real and never act like this again! At least he still had his wits about him though, and was capable of looking over Ares' shoulder to try and read what he was reading, unlike the citizens who were running about like headless chickens and trying to sprint back inside the city. Unfortunately for them, although Ares had no idea why, the soldiers had formed a barricade at the entrance and refused to budge even if the Gods themselves descended and demanded entry. Ares' confusion was cleared up when he skimmed through the stepper section in his brand new notebook, though, and came to understand this interesting monster and why it was such a concern... It was actually something that bore resemblance to Aejaz, kinda, because these monsters were permanently invisible!

Steppers, referred to in groups as a 'spec ops', were... Something? Again, these things were permanently invisible so nobody had any clue whatsoever what the hell these things truly were. They were capable of carrying weapons, which were also invisible while in their grasp, and left basically no traces other than their footprints in the sand whenever they moved, hence the name. They were decently talented with weapons and had a top speed that would put a cheetah to shame so, throw in their invisibility, and they were hit and run specialists that hunted in packs. In and out, quick and clean, and highly co-ordinated. You would be minding your business and suddenly see twenty different sets of footprints approaching you at give or take eighty miles per hour, all from different angles, and all of them followed by small trails of wind where their sharp weapons were tearing through the air as they dashed in for the kill. Creep up on prey, encircle them, launch all out attacks simultaneously, and that was that.

This was one of the rarer monsters in Xasca but they were also, ironically, the most plentiful. There were a lot of steppers out there, hundreds of thousands, it was just impossible to see them most of the time unless they were actively attacking you. It was said that, on average, a person travelling to the Riddlemyd encounters at least ten steppers without ever knowing it. It's just that they rarely fight people if they aren't in groups and will just walk on by. Plus, God knows how many pass by off in the distance where footprints can't be seen. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that you pass by ten steppers on your journey but hundreds pass by you on theirs. This would explain why everyone was on edge because they were a constant lurking threat that induced paranoia in weaker individuals. 'What if there's a stepper right next to me and they have a bad temper?' You would never know until they lodged their sword inside you.

To make matters worse, they seemed to have access to some kind of poison magic because they almost always attacked with sharp weapons drenched in the stuff. Ares had found this out the hard way but, being a revenant, he was mostly impervious to weaker poisons and wasn't too fussed about it. He felt a little sickly but that would heal up and fix itself in not time flat. These steppers had basically no presence to them and the only real way, as of yet, to locate them was to pay attention to the sand and watch for footsteps but this approach had issues. You would always be a step or two behind fighting these lot because you had to guess where their strikes were coming from based on their angle of attack, and the movement of the wind, so there was a hefty demand for technical combat mastery if you wanted to actually fight back against them. Most ordinary cultivators had to run for their lives or stand back to back and hope for the best. None of this even factored in potential loss of visibility in sandstorms which were when these creatures were at their most dangerous because you couldn't even track them anymore. The guards weren't moving from their barricaded spot at the entrance because it was entirely possible a stepper could breach the city gates and that would cause unimaginable trouble. If a stepper's one sole weakness was the sand underfoot giving their position away then what was their weakness supposed to be in a city with stone pathways?

It seemed the journey was already off to a rough start!... And maybe Ares unique magnetic charm was to blame... Or maybe this was all just a stroke of bad luck that had nothing to do with him for once! He couldn't be blamed for everything after all! Nonetheless, he would do his part and help clear out the monsters attacking the caravan. He wasn't going to go all out though as he would lose out on a potentially valuable opportunity later on if he did. It was regarding the loudmouth guy as Aejaz had stolen a weapon from him that was coated in blood. By itself this could possibly mean any number of things but there was a very real, and very high chance this guy was actually a scavenger! Was he looking to pick a fight with everyone here? Did he have friends ready for an ambush? Did he know a dangerous path filled with monsters? Or was he actually just being quiet and heading to the Riddlemyd where he would do his work in peace? Regardless of the correct answer, Ares wanted to have a little word or two with the guy, hand over fist if necessary! If Ares displayed his real might here then the scavenger would maintain a low profiteer and never do anything that outed himself out of pure fear. If he was really going to ambush this caravan later then it was in Ares' best interest to let him as there would be no excuse to worm his way out of it. As such, Ares was going to use a tiny bit of pressure enhancement, not even annihilation enhancement, and take things slow in the next fight. It was time to go undercover!