Seeing the pyramid greatly boosted the whole party's morale, but it was still over a week away and the water shortage was a big problem. it was probably enough for a few days max, even if they decrease their intake. Everyone had at least been wearing clothes up till that point, but everyone started walking in their underwear (Except Arlo) because of the heat.
They changed up their strategy, they would sleep during the day and walk during the night. It was very risky because being ambushed by monsters was easier, since they couldn't see far with the light source from torches and Arlo's sword (yes they used his sword as a light source). They were ambushed during the 4th night.
"Hey Arlo, you go forward and lead since you have the only light source left" said Octavia with exhaustion.
*While Arlo was taking the lead, the other party members began whispering each to other*
"Don't you find it weird that Carlos is never exhausted and still fine with clothes on. I've never even seen him sweat before" whispered Octavia with moderate suspicion of Arlo.
"MAYBE HE'S JUST USED TO THE HEAT? EVOLUTION BABY!!!" Shouted Bjorn while whispering?
"I find it weird that Carlos never eats with us. He walks away before he eats, it's like he just throws away the food. Maybe he's one of those fiends I read about?" Theorized Henry with a scared face and shaking voice.
"Fiends?" Asked Octavia and Bjorn at the same time while whispering
"Yeah, the ones that disguise as humans and eat nothing but human fles"
*Henry gets cutoff by the loud noises of sandworms emerging from the sand*
"Sandworms!! Everyone get in formation" shouted Octavia.
Everyone got in formation, but Arlo was missing. He was their only light source, so it was even harder to kill the sandworms.
"Where's Carlos" shouted Octavia while panicking.
"He's dead, I saw a sandworm emerge under him and, and, and. eat him" replied Henry while sobbing.
"HAHAHAH, LOOK AT THAT CRAZY DANCING SANDWORM" shouted Bjorn while pointing at a sandworm and laughing.
They looked to where Bjorn was pointing and saw a sandworm acting weirdly before it exploded into sandworm chunks (eeewww). They saw a large shining light and heard a voice coming out of the corpse "I'm here!" Shouted Arlo covered in… whatever is inside sandworms?
Arlo Shouted "eveyone get down" before getting ready to strike the rest of the sandworms down. Arlo made a stance ln preparation to swing his sword sideways and his sword began glowing brighter than ever before "MOONLIGHT EXTERMINATOR" shouted Arlo as a stripe of blue light escaped the sword, wiping the rest of the sandworms out.
Bjorn and Henry went running straight to Arlo, giving him a big hug and being drenched in sandworm goo in the process. Octavia stood in the background because she was a half naked woman (plus she didn't want to get covered in sandworm goo).
They decided that traveling at night was too dangerous so they set up camp for the rest of the night. At daytime they had noticed something strange instantly. They were all cool and didn't sweat anymore (except Octavia, she was still sweating buckets). They had found the culprit after a short conversation, it was the sandworm goo (i bet Octavia wished she was covered in Arlo's goo now *wink wink*)
"HAHAHA SO CARLOS JUST HAD A SPARE SUPPLY OF SANDWORM GOO, THAT'S WHY HE WASN'T SWEATING THE WHOLE TIME!!!" shouted Bjorn with the expression of being amazed by Arlo's survival knowledge.
Octavia walked up to Arlo with trouble walking and stumbling around because of dehydration and exhaustion. She put her sweaty hands on Arlo's shoulders, shouting "Carlos!! GIVE ME YOUR GOOOOOO!!!" Before collapsing.
Arlo gave the unconscious Octavia a piggyback ride (because Bjorn was carrying a mountain of supplies) the rest of the way. They were pretty close to the dungeon by this point and felt they could reach it soon, so they traveled a bit longer during the day. Until they stumbled across something weird, something that only became visible as they got closer, it was an oasis.
"Look mr. Wolfcow, it's an oasis. Let's rest there until Octavia wakes up" said Henry who was first to spot it.
They went closer and noticed something, there was a person sitting there. It was a girl, she was wearing the same robes as Henry. She looked slightly older than Henry (Henry: 14, girl:16?), She had long golden blond hair with bangs and cactus green eyes. She had a very sad expression and was looking down untill she heard the sound Octavia's party closing in. When she heard the footsteps and voices of the group, she looked to the right and her eyes started to glow with life, her sad expression turned to that of hope.
They had stopped next the girl to rest and set up camp, they struck up a conversation with her and introduced themselves, she introduced herself im return.
"I'm Alice Roseville, I'm an ice mage and I attend the magic school Liquid Platinum" said Alice proudly
"So why are you out here" asked Arlo questioningly
"The same reason as that boy. I had to join a party for my year of life experience. (life experience is a system where students have to join an adventures party for battle experience. Boys start at 13 and girls at 16)
Arlo felt like he knew more about Henry after hearing her explanation.
"The party I was in failed to clear the dungeon and died from giant spiders (autocorrected as giant schnauzer puppies lmao), I was the only one that had made it out alive. It wouldn't have mattered if everyone else made it out as well to be honest.
"Why's that?" asked Arlo, Bjorn and Henry (and Octavia, who was looking over Arlo's shoulder)
Alice answered "well we only thought about supplies to come here, we didn't bring enough for the way back"
It became silent suddenly and everyone looked at each other with a gut wrenching expression and they all had the same thought "familiar situation?"