I was right.
These desert beasts are a bunch of vengeful cretins, they attacked us lost and now they're harassing us. A group of eight level two desert beasts circling close to us waiting for a moment to attack.
As I feared this is getting complicated because at dusk these beasts will attack us and this will repeat all night unless we eliminate them all at once which is complicated without an earth mage, Gloria can get in their way, but arrest them are out of your current capacity.
"Let's go to the edge of the desert, the cumin will be bigger, but this is the best chance to get rid of the magic beasts, it won't be a pain to be harassed all night by them!"
Neither one of my colleagues had a problem with my command, so our route was changed to the edge of the desert, as the sun was setting the magic beasts retreated as the pure sand ground changed to harder ground.
It looks like they can swim in sand, but when the ground starts to harden, they recoil because they've lost a lot of their mobility. These beasts would be an easy target for a mage of the earth element, if Ingredi were here killing several dozens of these beasts would be a very easy and profitable job, her scales and fangs must go bankrupt a good value in the market, materials of magical beasts of the earth element are great defensive materials used for both equipment and buildings.
Level three and below earth magic beast materials are always in short supply in the market because they are used in large quantities for important constructions. The entire hall that the teleport matrix of the city we were in is located and made with the addition of earth element magic beast parts, if the room is not resistant with the passage of time and use of the rune matrix the room would start to break.
This would have already happened in the boot camp if the teleport rune matrix hadn't been of a better quality and that the runemaster who placed it there had already popped other runic arrangements to strengthen the tent as the floor so that it lasts long enough for him to don't have to go back their multiple times to realign the teleport matrix because the place it's installed is giving way.
With the sky getting dark we kept the march going for a few more hours as we were running through a very flat area so the chances of the lizards getting hurt is pretty small but it didn't take long before we had to stop to camp after a day all over the lizards, it's not just they who need to rest.
Even with a saddle made of tier two magic beast kills which is quite comfortable compared to a regular saddle and uncomfortable you travel all day.
"I hate the desert."
Hilda was the first to break the silence with her unnecessary comment, I don't think anyone is happy with the desert.
"So, you gave up going to a beach? As far as I can remember this was one of the trips you wanted to take."
"No, I still want to swim in the sea! Even if they say salt water can be uncomfortable, I want to swim in it, so you'll still have to take me to the Tribis kingdom in the south to visit the sights."
"I thought I had managed to get rid of one of the trips, out of the dozens on your list."
"You won't get rid of your obligations that easily, you agreed to travel with me to visit different countries so don't even try to run away now."
"I'm not running away; I just raised the point that a beach has sand."
"How cute! But maybe you have forgotten yet another war is about to break out? In the future of the loving couple and blood and death not a beach vacation."
"Unfortunately, you are correct Alice, but having a good plan to relax after the war is not a bad idea. Don't you have a wish list or goals to make that have been put off by the war?"
"I always wanted to travel, but for obvious reasons this was impossible. So I have a list of places I want to visit that I've heard are amazing, unlike Ulric all four of us have a handful of responsibilities with our families and the time we have to do something like that and when we're young."
I could see Alice and Zephyr's sad faces over Hilda's comment, but Gloria doesn't look downcast but excited and proud. I think her ambitions are her priority.
"I even wanted to travel a little, but I doubt I can do it as tourism. My family already had a very detailed plan for me, even though I'm nowhere near the heir to the family. Only after entering the family business can, I gain some freedom, until this war is announced, if I perform well, I can have a lot more freedom in the future, are you Zephyr?"
"I'm also not the heir of my family, I'm lucky to be my parents' third child. My goal was to get strong enough and gather a good amount of gold to travel to the Masfaris magic realm which is the center of the faith of the goddess Hecate the goddess of magic, I always dreamed of studying magic there, even before awakening my core. "
"Isn't it hard to get into magic schools there? I think the minimum level to study there if you weren't born in the country and be a green core mage before you are twenty-five?"
"For normal mages yes, with some exceptions for mages under 30, but in my case, I have to get it before my 23rd birthday and have a green core so this war might be what I need to force my core into the green grail without damaging it."
"It's a good dream, difficult, but a good dream. Are you Gloria? All you need is you to tell us about future plans."
"You didn't tell your plans Ulric either. I have no intention of distancing myself from the realm, not that I don't even have a desire to travel outside the realm, but what I really want is to be a mighty warrior leading a mighty army, I think I'm going to pursue the military career and rise in the kingdom's hierarchy and become the leader of one of the kingdom's armies."
As I suspected, Gloria is someone with clear ambitions, but I still thought I had a better chance of her wanting to rule over her family than the kingdom's army. Not that she won't dominate her family if she becomes a high-ranking kingdom official.
"Gloria is right, all you need to do is say your plans for the future now, Ulric?"
"My plans? That's a tricky question, as Hilda said before me that I've committed to traveling with her, but that's not a career dream. I have no intention of going to the kingdom's army like Gloria or traveling to a foreign country to study like Zephyr is nor do I have any business or obligations to my family which is just my mother. I would probably invest in my career as an adventurer, but after I started studying runes and having discovered I like them I think I can spend my time studying them and maybe even try to study some different crafts to have more options to be able to apply my runes."
"But even though it's fun to get to know each other better and we finish eating and sleeping, tomorrow we have to go a long way as we're going to run along the side of the desert to avoid the wild beasts of the desert and the magical animals of the savannah."
"Are we going to waste a lot of time because of this circular route?"
"Yes, but it's still less time than I thought we'd spend harvesting materials in the desert, so at the end of the day we're going to get to the ambush ahead of schedule and that's not a bad thing."
"Excellent! Let's just go over there and finish working with these shitty smugglers."
"I'm glad you're excited to kill Gloria smugglers, but remember we're going to have to work with some smugglers and have a lot of fun killing your fellow smugglers or showing that you spend them and they're not a smart thing to do."
"Remember that we may be working together now, but it started when we were in the weakest position if they suspect that we hate them, a seed of conflict will appear and they will keep an eye on us because they think we can betray them, and this can cause a lot of problems for all of us."
"I know, I'm going to be quiet during the operation, but I'm not capable of pretending I like it and being friendly with criminals like them."
"As long as you're not openly hostile I doubt they'll stand guard against our group."
This is how our first day of travel came to an end.