It's been a few days that the world's strongest party set out for and arrived at the desert located at the western part of the main continent.
Because of the heat and unpredictability of monsters in the desert, Ken switch his ride to his Light carriage and suggested Hagime and Koari to hop in. Even in such heat, the Light carriage move unhindered and smoother than usual since it's on a desert. The same could be said for the people in the vehicle with cooling that reminded the ones from this world the awesomeness of the innovation from Ken, Hagime and Koari's world.
"...Ken, I think a huge monster is heading towards us" said Yue who's attention was on the satnav that displayed what Third eye identified.
"Got it..." replied Ken as he skillfully manipulated his mana through the Light carriage to the back where his cannon that was stationed started to elevate to the now opened space in the roof.
Soon a visible shifting of the sand dunes could be seen moving towards them before a loud explosive sound announced the appearance of a huge worm with what looked like a hundred teeth circling it's wide mouth.
"I've really wanting to try this weapon out... ...Fire!!"
WINNNZZ!! SONIC BOOOOMM!!! SPLATT!!!
Were the sounds that accompanied the release of concentrated shock waves from the cannon which bored a huge hole in the worm non-existent head.
Ken keeps driving onward around the monster's corpse like it was an expected result before he turned to the back.
"Thank you Koari for covering Myu's sight in time"
"Don't worry. I also want to defend Myu's cuteness" replied Koari as she robs her cheeks with Myu's after a strong hug.
Myu tries to escape her torturous entanglement as he gives Ken a comment.
"Noo! I want to see how awesome my daddy is"
"Your daddy is plenty awesome, Myu-chan~"
"Riveria Onee-chan! Save mee~"
During this lively atmosphere, Ken posed a question to Hagime and the others.
"Shall we head to the Dukedom of Ankaji for information or..."
"It's how we've always done it"
"That will be excellent, Master. Any changes and rumors to the volcano will be first known to the city next to it"
Tio gave her intellectual opinion on the idea as she's done through out their journey making her more favourable except for her other side which Ken inwardly doesn't complain about.
"The Dukedom of Ankaji, it is"
-------
In a few hours, the party reached Ankaji and found what they did not expect to see –except for Ken of course. The guard who looked like the rest of the people so far with visible veins and pained looks immediately gain a rush of energy when Ken and company verified as Gold rank adventurers, and led them to the palace where they met the one currently in charge.
"Thank you for coming the time you did, Blessed to Ehit's nam--Urgh!... Huff huff, I am Bize Feuward Zengen"
'So this is where you were... I thought we missed him' (Ken)
"Zengen?... you're the son of the lord of this land?" (Koari)
"You know him?" (Hagime)
"Not really, but the Zengen family and by extension Ankaji is a transit point for the fishery industry for most kingdoms."
"I see... so where the Duke?" (Hagime)
Bize shows a sour expression and started his narration as the answers lies what happened two days ago. The oasis near the city, which happened to be their only source of nearby water, was polluted without anyone's knowledge and within two days more than half the city including the Duke have been bedridden with those without immediate attention dead.
Bize who was by far the least affected prepared to journey to nearby settlements in the desert region to seek aid when a Gold ranked party arrived.
'Two days?... It's supposed to be four days, so either things changed again or we've arrived earlier '
Ken halts the the back and forth dialogue and demands Bize to show them the source of the disease. Thinking Ken is eager to save their lives by skipping unnecessary formalities, Bize completely disregards his disrespect and in hast leads them to the oasis.
The surroundings of the oasis was now left with a dying vegetation as the water has visibly turned thick. Ken takes a grenade from Hagime's side in the Treasure trove and throws it in the middle of the oasis.
The loud explosion causes a nontransparent slime-like monster which Tio called an unusually large Bachulum, to emerge and start attacking. With both physical and magical attacks being useless, the party decided to create an opening with their useless attacks after Hagime spots a demonstone in the monster.
Yue and Tio create a split second opening with a combined lightening and black flame attack and before the monster could hide it's exposed weakness, Riveria launches Spear of Slaughter like a javelin and with the help of [Point Break] accurately destroyed the stone and leaving Bize in awe of the combat capabilities of Gold ranks.
She then stretches her hands to stop the spear mid flight and the Spear of Slaughter retreats to her like telekinesis but it was just using Ken's theory of gravitational pull of large objects to achieve this.
"Riveria Onee-chan is so cool~"
"...I'm amazing too, right Myu?"
"No!".
Yue's face spelled 'shock' as she walks to Ken with her shoulder down in sadness and defeat. Ken who stayed silent and unmoving through out the fight comforted and encouraged Yue for a while before stepping forward of the group.
He squated before the still thick oasis and dipped in his left hand against the warning of Bize who believed Ken will contract the disease but the others however were more curious than worried.
After a minute the entire oasis start to boil to the extent of seeing vapor rise as those of this world looked in with curiosity whiles Hagime and Koari show an enlightened look.
With the vapor beginning to rise, Ken stretches his right hand above the waters and he starts to condense the water vapor into a large cloud. This process lasted exactly 10mins with the results being a dried oasis, a thick cloud with sounds of thunder above and a residue of dead aquatic life, and hot slime much to the surprise of his party and the horror of Bize who's people relay on this now dried oasis.
"Yue...". "...Nn"
With no more words said, Yue casts [Crystal Coffin] on the slime residue for the others to haul it out. With no more frozen slime left, Ken drops his hand and allowed the raging cloud to pour it's waters back into oasis filling it up again but not to the brim.
"It's now safe to drink" said Ken after pouring a vial of sacred water which he deemed enough act of charity. Overtime waters from the bedrocks would fill it full again.
"Daddy is much more amazing"
"Thank you very much!! May our Lord Ehi--"
"Stop right there! We only need any important info above the Volcano and it's surroundings, nothing more"
"Um... sure"
With such an awkward response, Bize shamefully requests of them to be on the lookout for stillstones before spitting out everything the royals know about the Volcano and it's natural barrier, the circling sandstorm.
"Hagime, Kenshiro. I want to stay and help out with the healing while you guys bring back the stones after conquering the labyrinth"
"What are you saying?"
"I know we have an objective beyond the needs of this world but as a healer, I can't turn a blind eye to such things "
"... ..." Silence with a sour face was Hagime's feedback as their relationship was built on accepting the influence and changes of each other and he would have to do so for their relationship to work.
"If so, how about looking after Myu while we explore "
"No problem ". "No! Myu wants to stay with Daddy "
"No Myu. Daddy is not leaving you alone, I want you and blackie here to keep Koari Onee-chan company and also protect her, can you do that?"
Ken softly appealed to Myu before introducing a black knight golem with a sword that was incomplete in his opinion. He receives a hug from Myu who tells him to be back early before he turns to Bize and whispers something to his ear.
"If anything happens to them, this outbreak will be the last of your worries"
With everything done, Ken, Hagime, Yue, Shia, Riveria, and Tio ride towards the Volcano in the Light carriage. During their ride, Hagime approaches him and voiced his doubts.
"It's that golem really the same as Miledi's? or the ones you scavenged from her labyrinth"
"Yes. An incomplete version of what I envisioned but I used an alloy of Azantium and Shtar to make it more durable than even Miledi's titan in addition to being imbued with most of my skills and having access to my mana..."
"What! isn't that overkill, Master?".
"...Nn, overkill "
"No wonder my senses where screaming 'Danger'. Thank goodness it's just a golem" said Hagime with Shia and Riveria nodding in agreement.
"With the conduit stone, I can ensure their safety "