Supplemented by Laura's All Aspect Haste, the expedition group zoomed across the sands. They still had to cover a certain distance before they truly arrived at the base of the portal. Sandworms appeared just as they took off on foot.
It was a horde of them.
"To arms!" Cavrien yelled out, "Risk rating of 2 stars!"
It prompted the expedition members to all grab their weapons and act.
They instantly went into a frenzied battle. The glow of a few activated Blessings raced towards the large group of sandworms, scattering them and stopping them from banding together like some sort of living, writhing liquid.
Sword lights flashed as Cavrien swung out with his heightened senses. His blade instantly found the most vulnerable spots on the sandworms he encountered, slaying them all in an instant.
But there were still too many.
'These humans,' Magnus thought through his split focus, 'They're not even 2-stars yet they're already challenging such a place. How brave.'
The eyes of Javelin flashed as he spotted a hiding Spitting Scorpion. The scorpion was eyeing Rie carefully, skillfully. It hid from within the horde of sandworms, sitting on their backs like a small-time king.
Rie sensed this threat. She instantly turned intangible and invulnerable just as the scorpion fired some kind of poisonous projectile her way. The stinger went past her, allowing Rie to avoid danger in the simplest way possible.
The battle continued as Rie scanned the scorpion with narrowed eyes. She was sitting at 1.9-stars. A bit higher than the threat rating of a solo Spitting Scorpion.
That meant that she couldn't kill it. She could only ignore it for as long as possible, hoping that her companions could properly deal with everything themselves.
Rie had already informed them of her Curse and they were all understanding. As long as she wasn't someone they had to protect constantly, they were fine with it. This was great since Rie had the ability to ignore all aggressors as long as she had Spirit Energy.
Sandworm blood splashed, and carcasses lay on the ground. Human blood mixed with the green-coloured blood of the sandworms, making for a disgusting sight.
After over half an hour of battle, things had finally settled down.
The expedition group found themselves exhausted.
They all stumbled onto the sands, not surprised by the fact that they had to fight a brutal battle just as they left their sand sailer. They had fought battles like these several times before already. They brought enough supplies to deal with this, and thus, they all tended to their wounds and took a quick rest.
It was then.
HISSSSS
A feral sound accompanied by the clicking of pincers sounded out in the ears of every expedition member.
Cavrien suddenly felt a signal from his Cracked Intuition.
"An Elder Spitting Scorpion!" He yelled out in a hurry, "Everyone, pull yourselves up! Run!"
But it was too late as the scorpion rose from beneath the sands, its stinger gleaming under the golden sunlight.
It was a monster almost the size of a car. With its ability to spit venomous acid, it was a menace to face. The bigger the scorpion was, the more venom it could send out.
"RUN!" The members of the expedition all scrambled to get their bearings. They left behind all their supplies as they hastily retreated using Laura's All Aspect Haste once again.
It was then,
"Hey Javelin," A whisper sounded in the cat's ears, "We need your help now..."
It was Rie, who was looking at him with pleading eyes.
Magnus was slightly stunned as he realised that Rie probably knew of Javelin's strength. He instantly got a chill, instinctively wanting to escape.
But those innocent eyes... Perhaps he could help just a bit.
ROAR!
A bone-shaking roar shook the sands as Javelin rapidly grew in size. Rie's smile grew upon seeing this, delighted that her companion listened to her words.
"Thank you, Javelin!" She bowed her head in Javelin's direction.
The rest of the expedition members were stunned to see Javelin leap out of Rie's arms and turn into his wind leopard form. Even more so when they realised that this leopard form was the size of a small truck— a change that occurred when Javelin broke through 2-stars.
Who knew that the little cat that they found really cute and eerily intelligent was a beast such as that?
ROAAAARR!
Javelin let out a war cry with spit messily splashing out of his razor-sharp maws.
He instantly charged the scorpion in front of him. Although he did not have much access to his Spirit Manipulation, his physical attributes were still a force to be reckoned with. A 2.5-star rating was not a joke, after all.
BANG!
A large shockwave sent dust flying into the air. Javelin had rammed the scorpion with a mad tackle, stunning the monster in place.
A pincer came flying in his direction, but the leopard was nimble and light. Very much unlike its giant form.
Javelin danced with the wind, surfing the shockwaves of his own attacks.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Claws crisscrossed through the air, scattering the sand that had flown up and drawing streams of blue scorpion blood.
HISSSSSS!
The Elder Spitting Scorpion hissed in indignation as it desired to retreat.
But Javelin would not let it.
Magnus allowed its feral instincts to take over. The instincts that were bound to its body ran rampant. Javelin hungered for flesh and Spirit Energy.
ROAR!
With a massive burst of speed, Javelin aimed for its stinger and savagely tore it off with his teeth and claws.
The scorpion squealed in agonizing pain as it spat more acid.
But Javelin was too swift for its spit to properly land. He was always one step ahead.
Stinger gone, the scorpion was now becoming desperate. It now knew that it couldn't run.
It tried fighting back with its claws, spitting out more acid, or even using its legs as spear-like weapons.
But nothing worked.
Javelin was simply too swift.
Thus, in the end, with a ravenous glint in his eyes, Javelin ripped off the Elder Spitting Scorpion's head. Blue blood erupted like a fountain as the entire expedition group stood rooted on the ground.
Rie then witnessed as Javelin began devouring the beast at a rapid rate. The sound of crunch, crunch, crunch echoed with the wind.
The group did the same thing Rie did. They could only stare in both shock and fear.
'What if that scorpion was us?' They all worried.
But as Javelin finished its dinner, they watched as he once again shrank into his cute cat-like form.
Javelin then leapt into Rie's arms, and the latter instinctively caught the beast.
"Meow~" The entire group heard Javelin's meow.
But at the same time, they heard the intent behind it for the first time.
( "Delicious! Thank you for the meal~" )
"You…" Rie said in shock, "You can talk?"
"Meeow~" Javelin replied.
( "Of course I can! I'm a mighty Wind Leopard!" )
With this, the expedition group was an inch away from dying from shock.
.
.
.
"Ehe~" A giggle came from the Mirror World Rie's lips. Magnus' cackling would soon be heard from her mouth as she played with a deck of cards in her hands.
Using a spare molecular text reader, Magnus was able to see what verses had been recorded on the artefact. Thus, through those verses, he was able to discern its use and limitations.
Like humans, artefacts had their own Blessings which gave these artefacts their powers as well as Curses that one would have to follow.
The only difference would be that these Curses mostly act on the user instead of the object itself.
An example would be Blaze's Truthseeker. It was a necklace that required one to have green hair and green eyes, or else, the artefact wouldn't function, or worse it would hurt the user that tries to activate it.
This deck of cards was called the Two-Faced Deck.
Activating a single card consumes it and grants the user a different face depending on the card. Each card had its own two faces. These faces are either male or female and look like twins.
The effects last for around half a day on Thare which is about 15 hours. It then takes about a day for the consumed card to reappear inside the deck.
The catch, however, is the fact that Magnus needed to have a card's number and symbol tattooed onto his body to use it. And only one type of card could be tattooed and used at a time.
If Magnus tattooed the Ace of Hearts on Rie's arm, then she would only be able to use the faces given by the Ace of Hearts.
Nonetheless, Magnus was very happy to have these cards.
"I finally have a way to walk around without a mask. I will look much less suspicious." He muttered to himself through Rie's lips as she pocketed the deck of cards.
"The yearning feeling has yet to go away." Restiel chimed in, reminding Magnus of why they suffered through the entire ordeal in the first place.
"Really?" Rie asked, surprised, as Magnus went through Restiel's mind. "Indeed…"
"But we already have the deck of cards with us… What else are we supposed to get?" Magnus wondered aloud as he directed Rie's gaze towards the glass box.
"…Don't tell me…" Rie murmured, "Restiel, try doing something to that box."
Restiel nodded as he stepped forward and placed a hand on the glass box.
Nothing happened.
"Try pouring in Spirit Energy."
"Okay."
Just as a pinch of Spirit Energy made it into the box, something suddenly happened.
Restiel's Spirit Energy was sucked out of him at a rapid rate, consuming even the reserves of the Hivemind itself. It was as if a dam had broken, and all that Spirit Energy was going into the box.
"Oh no!" Restiel gasped as he tried prying his hand off of the box to no avail.
He could not even activate his Blessing now as his Divine Energy required stimulation from his Spirit Energy first and foremost.
The suction of his Spirit Energy did not end and Restiel realised that his own life force was being sucked out.
"Damn it!" He summoned his scythe out of thin air and slammed it on the box.
Sparks flew but still, the suction did not stop.
Magnus watched and felt in horror as Restiel's body shrivelled up and turned into a husk.
[ Again! ] Restiel yelled out in anger from within the Hivemind. [ I'm dead again! ]
Magnus ignored his yells.
Instead, he paid attention to the object that was floating within the box.
It was a bronze card.
A bronze card he found all too familiar.