Chapter sixteen: The great desert begins

Kaijo rests up and Himori appears to tell him about the next old champion. "The next old champion lies further east in the great desert just above the sand sea lie the rocky plains where the dragons reside leading high up the jagged mountain and the red forest. To get there you need to travel by ship to the main continent. The dragon is corrupted and more dangerous than the other dragons who steal treasure and live to protect their nests. The dragons are a formidable species and were the rulers way beyond our time but humans came and hunted them down until they settled above the sand sea protected by nature. Any who make it there will either be protected or attacked. The sand sea itself is treacherous as one can´t pass whitout a sand ship and there lie monsters down in the sand ready to snatch unsuspecting prey." Himori explains. "So I need to find a nearby harbor and travel by ship." Kaijo thinks outloud remembering what the vice-captain told him. Kaijo teleports away to the abandoned tower and looks out for a port. He does find one at the seaside that is surrounded by a wall and a small fort. He moves down the tower and walks down there. The undead soldiers see him and attack with a rain of arrows. Kaijo swiftly moves behind a rock and avoids the arrows. Kaijo slowly picks them off one by one with his bow and approaches the gates "+2500 souls". "Locked can´t be opened." pops up. Kaijo ventures off to find an alternate entrance. He finds a hole in the walls and goes inside traveling to the port with no issues. He finds the vice-captain and his crew loading up goods on the pirate ship. "Look who decided to show up!" the vice-captain said. "It´s me! I came to trade and for a ride!" Kaijo tells him moving up to the ship deck. "You still look as ugly as the first time we met!" he says. "Come on now. Don´t rub it in." Kaijo says conscious of his undead body. "You trashed the old baron real good. That made it easier to plunder the castle disorganised as they were whitout him!" he tells him. "As you can see. Now let´s get down to business. I need more bullets and a ride to the main continent the great desert to be exact." Kaijo says. "Let´s see about that. Buy something first maybe so I can make my mind up." he says offering his services. Kaijo buys 5 bullets one spending all of his souls."Item acquired: bullet x5." "Now we can talk." he says satisfied. Kaijo puts the bullets in his inventory and equips the pistol instead of the bow and makes sure it´s loaded. "I can hitch you a ride to the beach of the great desert but no further. The great desert can be seen immeaditely after arriving at the main continent it stretches along most of the eastern coast and acts as a natural border to the mountains just further up behind which lies the old capital. It is an ardous jorney to the old capital which makes it the most protected and isolated city on the maincontinent. Unfortunately most cities are uninhabitable due to the great amount of undead including the old capital. The scale of it all is just grand. The great desert covers almost half of the eastern side and stretches inward and the mountains are the highest on the continent as well as the sheer scale of the old capital nestled in between the mountains." he says. "That sounds daunting but the great desert should be good enough." Kaijo answers. "This time is for free but the next time will cost ya. I can give you a map to find a village with sand ships but I don´t know how the situation with the undead curse is there." he says. "Thanks for the help!" Kaijo says putting the map in his inventory. "Ah before I forget I found something that may be useful to you." he says handing him a black glowing thing. "Item acquired: Human soul. Item description: The souls of a human can reverse the curse temporarily. (Until the next death). Be warned this comes at the cost of a human´s life or any unlucky to have died a human." Kaijo pops the soul and his curse reverses filling him with vitality and making him take a more human appereance. Kaijo looks at his hands and feels the smooth skin. "That feels much better. Thanks!" Kaijo says. "What a surprise you aren´t ugly as a human. Good for you." he says gathering is men together. "Everyone prepare to set sail to the main continent. There is plundering to be done!".

Time passes and they arrive at the main continent. The setting sun illuminates the sea and the great desert stretching as far as the eye can see. The desert is yellow with a red and rich sand and dunes leading further up in elevation. You can faintly make out the large mountains in the far distance. There is an area covered in a sand storm. "Looks like we made it." Kaijo says. "Get a boat ready!" The vice-captain orders. "Take a close look." He says handing him a telescope and directing it in direction of the sandstorm. "See that?" he asks pointing at some buildings. "That´s the village I was talking about. You can tell by the change in sand where the sand sea begins. The sand sea´s sand is more brown and much lighter and softer and it will make you slowly sink in. I´ve only heard stories at what lies in the everlasting sandstorm. Some say a sanctuary others say it´s hell but the one similarity that they all have in common is that dragons live there!" he says. "I can see it. I can find it with the map!" Kaijo says heading to the boat. "Until we meet again and hopefully as a human not as an undead." The vice-captain says "Farewell, Captain!" Kaijo says descending the ladder entering the boat. He slowly makes his way to the great desert. He looks at the turqouise water and the sun´s reflection and his face in the water. He can make out all his features. Black spiky hair, brown eyes, a straight nose and his face shape. He remembers the times where he simply was a farmer and remembers his family and friends sharing a meal together like a fleeting dream. He snaps back awake as the boat hits the sand. He leaves the boat and enters the great desert. He can see a couple of giant crabs moving in and out of the water. He carefully goes up the sand dunes and looks at the sun reflecting of the sea and sand. He calms down after all the stress and lets out a sigh of relief. The moon quickly overtook the sun and the temperature cools down. He finds a small assembly of rocks and decides to camp out here. He collects the dry brushes and some berries. He eats some of the berries. They taste sweet and the juices flow along his toungue. He throws the dead brushes and starts a fire resting there. Now the mooon has moved over his head illuminating the scene. Kaijo can hear rustling in the sand and jolts up wiht his swords in hand. From the sand rise skelletons. Kaijo faces the skelletons but is quickly surrounded. Kaijo freezes the skelletons. The skelletons throw their bones at him which Kaijo dodges. He kills one of them but the skull glows white and the skelleton reassembles and the others break out of the ice. Kaijo creates some space and uses light blade three times killing the skelletons for good. He moves further along and finds a giant scorpion roaming around. "I wonder what that tastes like!" Kaijo says salivating from his mouth. He rushes in and launches a couple of projectile slashes damaging the scorpion a little. The scorpion turns around and snips at Kaijo. He dodges and parries the attacks. The scorpion uses it´s stinger and dives it into the ground. Kaijo dodges and attacks with his swords reducing it´s hp by 50%. The scorpion takes the stinger out and attacks again rushing at him. The scorpion attacks and moves quickly. Kaijo doesn´t pay attention and gets snatched by the pincers. The scorpion hits him with the stinger dealing damage and poisoning him. "Hp: 40/60" He slowly loses hp. Kaijo decides to finish the fight quickly and rushes in using the god´s armor to tank through some attacks focusing on offense killing the scorpion. "Hp: 15/60" "Oh, shoot poison acts quick!" he says healing himself up. After some time the poison passes away. He drags the scorpion over to the fire and takes it apart with the executioners knife. He removes all the hairs and the outer shell and puts it on a skewer tossing all the mandibles and pincers away and stores the stinger in his inventory. He roasts the scorpion legs and starts eating away. One leg is as big as his own. He chows down all of it. "This tastes good!" he realises eating the chewy meat perfectly campfire roastes. "Poison resistance increases" pops up. "You are what you eat! Am i right?" he says finishing it up. The sun is slowly rising and the skelletons disappear back into the sand.