The chima were surprisingly fast and it was only after a few hours of running he finally caught up to the last shipment of the potion boxes.
Just like last time he didn't follow them in a straight line as he didn't want to run straight into the fire, but this time there were no trees to hide in so he was pushing stealth to its max.
A few hundred meters to his north there were about one hundred of the chima pulled carriages, and moving the boxes off of the carts were hobgoblins.
There were hundreds of them, he even saw the two that he met in the forest earlier, and all of them were doing something strange.
There was a massive hole in the center of the desert, and in the middle of that hole was a long thin object that he couldn't identify.
The mana around the hole was extremely dense, and coupled with the intense heat, he felt extremely sluggish.
Into that hole, the hobgoblins were opening the boxes and pouring out the liquid.
He found this strange at first, but after seeing the liquid getting pulled in and absorbed by the stick in the center he understood.
"Whatever that thing is, they are feeding it. It must be valuable if they are putting so much effort into it, I can't imagine that finding the mana roses is an easy thing to do."
He could tell that whatever operation was going on it was an important and most importantly expensive one, not like that was going to stop him from trying to take it for himself.
"No wonder they had patrols in a place far from where they prefer to live, if I am spending that much then such basic security measures would also be used."
He was planning his next move, as they were almost finished pouring in the last batch, but he felt something shift under him and moved away instinctually, breaking his stealth in the process.
He was on full display now but he couldn't care less. In the spot he was just standing, the sand started to rise high above him.
Breaking through the sand, a giant scaly worm popped out and screamed in annoyance as it missed its prey.
It towered above him, higher than a skyscraper and its mouth was lined with razor sharp teeth. Its skin was covered in huge plates of gray armor and from what he could tell it stretched far into the ground.
But it wasn't its large size, or its grotesque appearance that had him the most scared, it was that he couldn't detect it beforehand and that it detected him with such ease.
He always had the innate ability to read the life signals of the things around him, and coupled with the few hundred meter range of mana sense the fact that he only noticed such a large creature just before it swallowed him whole gave him goosebumps.
With zero hesitation he turned his back and ran for his life, it didn't take a genius to figure out that he wouldn't even be able to injure the thing, much less kill it.
He assumed that it was already locked onto him, so the only way he could think of shaking it off was to bring it to a bigger food source.
So that's what he did, while the hobgoblins were still confused as to what was going on he ran past them in an attempt to pass his burdens on. He did of course touch some of the carriages and boxes as he zoomed by though, as far as he knew they were all about to get destroyed anyway so he might as well take some from his own.
In a matter of seconds loud explosions came from behind him, from what he could tell the hobgoblins were fighting it, or at least trying their best to.
He wasn't expecting this, but he was certainly going to take full advantage of it. Pushing his body and mana to the fullest he ran as fast as he could, even though it was at a snail's pace compared to a normal environment.
The stick in the center of the massive crater had this pull on him now that he was much closer making it difficult for him to properly move. He was moving at an 8th of his normal speed, which was thankfully fast enough to outrun the sand worm.
He stopped and turned around to properly see what was going on behind him, he had run far outside of his mana sense range so he had no choice but to use his eyes.
The giant worm was truly going on a rampage. In seconds half of the hobgoblins were already slaughtered, with many having pieces or their entire body consumed.
"Thank god that isn't me, I don't think I could even scratch that thing's armor."
He was going to continue running away with the intention of coming back later to see just what the rod was, but one of the hobgoblins did something that truly shocked him.
He could easily identify it as it was the one with the great word that was the leader of the group that ambushed him, and instead of throwing spears or arrows at the worm, he calmly drew his bone blade.
His weapon started to glow in a white light and all over his body a red mist was starting to form. Whatever skill or spell he was using it was undeniably powerful, even at a great distance Ray could feel the pure power coming from him.
"Whatever that is, it's really powerful. From what I can tell the red mist's effect is similar to body strengthening but I have no idea what the white light is."
He knew that it wasn't as simple as charging the blade up with mana, as instead of just glowing like a torch, the light formed a spectral blade on top of his already existing one.
With a loud shout from the hobgoblin, the worm's attention was shifted to him and naturally it started to rush him. But instead of dodging it to position for an attack like he thought he was going to do, his blade struck down fiercely.
The spectral blade extended with the swing and quickly made up for the difference between their heights, stopping the worm dead in its tracks.
A shock wave ran through its two hundred meter long body and fissures of blood busted out, indicating that it was severely injured.
Ray was truly shocked at just how powerful the hobgoblin was and was thankful to his former self for not going after this one first. Otherwise he would have been long dead.
"I was just mildly curious before, but now I have to know what that red mist is. I'd be a fool for not trying to acquire it for myself."
He wasn't even entertaining the idea that the hobgoblin was that strong naturally and the red mist was just for show, meaning that whatever technique he was using allowed him to contest with and even injure such a powerful beast with almost no preparation.
While it was nowhere close to death, such severe injuries from a single attack that was greatly damped was nothing to scoff at.
Unfortunately he was much too far away to properly see the flow of mana in and around his body so he wouldn't be able to immediately copy whatever it was.
But what he saw next would leave him too speechless to even comprehend what was going on.