I couldn’t even begin to guess how deep Shi Wong Mountain was, or how many creatures lived inside it.
This place wasn’t called the most dangerous in the desert for nothing.
The apparent ease of killing those vulture-wasps didn’t fool me.
So I stood at the entrance to their lair, heart pounding, staring at the tunnels stretching into darkness.
Green, viscous fluid dripped down the walls.
A low buzzing echoed from within.
“To complete Anubis’s tasks, and even just to find food, I’ll have to go inside.
But that slime alone makes my skin crawl.” I touched the sticky substance and rubbed it between my fingers.
I wasn’t an expert on this world’s mutants, but I assumed it was honey.
Made from flesh, most likely.
Where else would they get raw materials except from animal carcasses?
“Feels like I’ve landed in Australia.
And there’s another problem.”
The wind didn’t carry sand into these caves, so I could only use what I brought with me.
I didn’t need to say how long I could haul it around.
A few hours of bending would drain me completely.
So I needed a little trick the same one used by one of the most famous sandbenders from that popular anime.
I took some sand, shaped it into a relatively small reservoir, and compressed it into sandstone.
I’d created the very thing that Gaara carried on his back in that one Buryat anime.
I strapped it to my back, filled it with sand, and felt satisfied with the convenience.
“Heh.
Anime saves the day.” Remembering the incredible armor of the desert bandits, I wanted to make something similar.
But I wasn’t there yet.
The disgusting slime squelched under my feet.
Trying to ignore it, I moved deeper, briefly focusing on Anubis’s trials.
The choice still hung before me: perfecting close-combat techniques versus ranged attacks.
The choice was obvious.
To avoid endless suffering, I decided on the first option.
Ten thousand swings of a whip against enemies.
“Interesting…
where am I supposed to find ten thousand enemies?” I blinked innocently, and before I knew it, I almost fell into a giant pit.
At the last second, I grabbed the walls with sand.
Picture a massive cavern with huge columns covered in red, fibrous tissue.
Strange little bugs with glowing bellies hung from the ceiling, casting dim light across the nest.
Worker drones buzzed through the air.
In the massive columns, dog-sized larvae squirmed.
Everywhere you looked, something was buzzing.
And in the center of this wild cavern was a giant hole, its walls completely soaked in green, flowing slime.
Lovely scenery.
Australia could take a back seat.
I wanted to turn around and leave.
The problem was that the wasps had compound eyes and saw everything around them perfectly.
A few creatures flying near the tunnel noticed me, buzzed loudly, and with their stingers raised, flew at me in defense of the nest.
Using sand legs to pull myself back into the corridor, I watched in horror as a massive insect abdomen pierced the stone.
It calmly pulled out its stinger, shook itself, and charged again.
I had no choice.
I grabbed sand from my “gourd” and swung sharpened tentacles at the enemies.
Their bodies split before my eyes.
“3/10,000.”
I thought this would be easy.
But the noise behind me and the doubled buzzing from the nest crushed that hope.
The pheromones of the dead wasps attracted twice as many.
Seeing how many were incoming, I swallowed hard and spun like a sand tornado, just like in my training with Ba’el and Hamri.
Chomp.
Chomp.
Crack.
The whips followed my hands, easily piercing their exoskeletons.
Following internal instructions, I carefully ensured the blades on the sand tips stayed sharp.
One slip could mean death.
But I wasn’t the only clever one.
Sensing the threat, the wasps started digging into the walls.
From above, from the sides, the tunnel walls began to collapse, swarming me like locusts.
Traitorous thoughts suggested running.
Somehow break through the crowd and escape.
But magic probably wouldn’t approve.
“We’re not good at avoiding hits.
Smoothly deflecting attacks, holding our ground, that’s where the strength lies.” My father’s words made my feet dig into the floor.
I couldn’t rely on luck.
Only on my skills.
BOOM.
Feeling cracks forming under my feet, I smoothly shifted to the side and drove a couple of sharp blades into the head of a clever beetle.
At that moment, a stinger grazed my arm, speeding up my heartbeat.
I strengthened my stance and took down the nearest beetles with a precise swing.
My exhausted gaze stared at what seemed like a large three-digit number.
Three hundred and fifteen swings.
Not bad, considering each swing usually killed one or two creatures.
But seeing how many I still had to make made my arms drop, and not from depression.
Just sheer exhaustion.
Sitting in a makeshift safe hole, carved out using my basic earthbending skills, I barely had the strength to bandage all the wounds I’d gotten today.
I wasn’t always fast enough.
I couldn’t accelerate sand as quickly as my father.
My stomach was empty, but the only thing I’d managed to salvage was the abdomen of a single wasp.
“Dammit!”
Grabbing the meat, I quickly dried it to remove most of the toxins.
It tasted just like sand.
No juicy fruits, the very reason I’d even gone on this journey.
As for water, the creatures’ blood was my only option.
I knew it was a bad idea, but Anubis wasn’t warning me about anything.
One gulp, and the disgusting substance coated my insides like some kind of oil.
My body convulsed, trying to vomit everything I’d just swallowed.
I clamped my mouth shut and, with disgust, forced myself to keep every bit down.
Otherwise, it would only get worse.
It took hours to eat a small portion and get at least some calories.
In genuine agony, I leaned against the wall and pulled out the hourglass, gripping it tightly.
Almost all the grains had fallen.
“…Evening.
Soon it’ll be a new day.
I need to sleep.” I watched the last grain fall, and the hourglass flipped itself, starting the count anew.
Morning came without any joy, and with a nauseating taste in my mouth.
In a bad mood, I filled my stomach with another portion of horror.
When it was time to move, I touched the wall where I’d made small holes for air and, with trembling hands, formed a passage.
Without realizing it, I started moving through the corridors more carefully, pressing myself close to the ground at every sound.
When I heard a couple of beetles flying toward me, I prepared myself and formed sand blades.
Swish, swish, swish.
“What?!” The blades only sank partway.
The bodies didn’t fall and kept flying.
I was severely exhausted and needed rest to recover my bending strength.
“Continue training.”
The text appearing before my eyes somehow felt ominous.
Pressing my lips together, I was forced to dodge to the side to avoid being pierced, then drove a couple more sharp spikes into my enemies.
Twice as many swings, and the enemies were still alive.
Still, Anubis counted those strikes.
But yesterday, when I tried to slice a single body, he didn’t count them.
“One left.” My arms were trembling.
A single wasp somehow seemed faster than ten from yesterday.
If yesterday went like this, I’d be surrounded and devoured in seconds.
So, remembering how I’d once been yanked off a boat by a sand whip, I opened my eyes wide and pulled myself to the side with a tentacle lodged in the ceiling.
I pressed my feet firmly against the inverted floor and struck with everything I had.
Only after a few extra movements and three times the effort did I manage to deal with such a small group.
And yet, I looked around in surprise.
“Why didn’t I think of moving with ropes before?
This is convenient.” But it drained even more energy.
Exhaling, with a shadow on my face, I jumped down and trudged further.
At the same time, the sand from the gourd began to slowly wrap around my body, forming a cloak for protection against penetrating attacks.
Today, it would take a lot of hits.
Whoosh.
Approaching the edge of the corridor, where the giant nest began, I clenched my fists in anxiety.
Yesterday, I’d never have ventured here, but today my survival depended on having more space.
I jumped down, driving several ropes into the wall and lowering myself carefully.
Below, a swarm of deadly, panicked killers was already waiting for me.
Those cold eyes thirsted for revenge for their fallen comrades.
“…Sorry.”