The vibrations in the ground were so mild such that even Marx could have missed them. The lizard had just finished feasting on the fly and had started walking away.
All was still and only the lizard was moving.
Marx wanted to take a step forward but his instinct warned him. The current silence he was feeling was not normal.
And true to his thoughts, on the sand appeared like a small raised part was moving. Like a moving mound. What caught his attention was the speed it was moving at.
Marx had caught it when it was fifty meters away but in a few blinks it was already heading towards his direction. Marx's first instinct was to run but he stopped himself.
He remembered the first time he was taken for punishment and he had almost lost his life for making a slight move. The mound passed below him as he was raised and then lowered when it passed him.
The lizard had been five meters away. The mound stopped below the lizards as a horrifying scene played out infront his eyes.
The sand below the the lizard started going round such that it appeared to make concentic circles. At first Marx thought that it was a quicksand as the sand had started going down.
There was suddenly a rattling sound at first from the quicksand. That was what it came out like but the sound started changing. It was like sand was being ground.
The sound continued to get stronger and there was what appeared like hundreds of unevenly placed metals that appeared on a meter wide circular head.
These metal like thin small rods appeared to be moving very fast but Marx could tell that they were probably chewing on the sand. He watched as the lizard was caught in the quicksand headed for the rods.
That was where all the sand was going. The grinder at first did not make sense to Marx but as it continued to resurface, it appeared to have a roughly cemented skin.
It hit him that it was a creature and probably a sandworm and the rods were its teeth. The skin appeared rough and had a brownish- whitish look. But what happened next he could not have anticipated.
The whole process had taken less than a second. It was only that Marx's eyesight was good enough to see the scene playing out slowly.
The sand beneath Marx to started to move but it stopped when the meter wide creature shot from the ground like a bullet and swallowed the lizard.
It jumped around 10 meters and when it was turning back, Marx got a clear view of it. It appeared to be staring at him but it had no eyes.
Marx felt a cold sweat trickle down him as the creature dived into the sand but that was not what shook him most. The fact that it had jumped that far and he had not yet seen its tail shook him even more.
Just how long was it? Without second thoughts, he decided that he was not going to move. From the small encounter, he had deduced that it had no eyes.
That was expected as there was no way its eyes could survive the sand. This also told him that it was a sensory type beast. It appeared that it followed vibrations.
But this did not help in calmimg his racing heart. The fact that he had been walking all this time recklessly without considering these facts just fueled the horror.
He realized that the sandworm had probably been after him because the vibration of his steps was louder than those of the lizard. This was to mean several things.
One was that it had sensed him when it was probably a kilometer away. This could mean that his footsteps had not only attracted one sandworm but over hundreds.
The second thing was that the lizard's footsteps were close to non existent. He had noted it when it was around 50 meters away and he had stopped for around ten seconds to watch the lizard's actions.
From the speed it was coming at, it had taken around five seconds for it to cover that distance. This meant that it had stopped sensing his footsteps when it was 100 meters away.
Yet it seemed to have sensed the lizard's footsteps. As a sensory type beast, they seemed to follow the quality of the vibrations.
Since his footsteps were heavy, this meant that the sandworms had followed his high quality footsteps. He realized that the system could detect where the samdworms were and it had placed him few kilometer away from their reach.
Marx regained his bearing but Jerry who had been on his right shoulder all this time seemed to be all shaky such that he appeared like a leaf on a windy day.
It was not everyday one saw a scary sight as the one he had just witnessed. Jerry's beastial instinct told him that he should not step from the shoulder he was on.
Marx raised his hand and patted its head. He could stay for as long as he wanted for a mission but his natural instinct like hunger and sleep would knock in.
Without the system's boost, he was unsure of how he could survive this. He did not have a weapon that he could use to fight it. He had lately gotten access to suits armory but he could not use it in this place.
But it was like the mission was chosen for the system to make new changes for him because a notification appeared. The notification was joy to his eyes.
[Mission set upgraded.
Marx has entered new missions set that enables him to use system's amory. Marx can used unlocked weapons and suit.
> Halo Steps Unlimited_ Enables user to step on empty space without falling. Helps to boost speed, reaction and agility.
> Viscous Palms Unlimited_ Gives user's handa a sticky property. User can hold onto something and it will not leave his palm until he lets go.
> Fist Torpedoes Unlimited_ Newly learnt skill. Enhances user's fists attacks. Fires laser bullets from users wrist after punching someone.
>Laser Kick Limited_ Can omly be used twice in a battle. Sends laser shots to victim in point of impact. Creates a five centimeter wide hollow hole on the victims from the point of impact to the other side.
[New mission requirements_ extract ten sandworms' crystals.
No time limit.
System boosts available only during battle.
Injury during missions cannot be treated until mission set is complete.]
Marx wanted to ask what a beast crystal was. It was the first time he was hearing of such a term. He asked but he did not expect a reply.
[A beast crystal is a crystal that forms in the central part of a beast. A beast crystal varies in colour depending on beast's geographical location.
Beast crystals can be used for various purposes such as weapon crafting by strengthening ores and giving them different characteristics such as bending.
Beast crystals are valuable must be collected]
Marx wanted to rash out at the system for not telling him sooner. He had killed over a hundred beasts yet he had not collected a single crystal.
If they were as valuable as the system said, that would mean that he would not be dependent on the card given to him on that fateful day.
The thought of earning struck him and he felt like he could find hundreds of these sandworms and get their crystals. But he knew that it was easier said than done.
Whether this mission was going to be a success was going to be determined by the first sandworm. He felt glad to have the boosts but he had been cautioned.
It was very probable for him to die here. He had deduced that the time he had walked had attracted many sandworms. This meant that a single movement from him was enough to attract them to him.
Now that Marx thought of it, it felt like the system had a purpose. It felt that there was an underlying meaning to all its actions. Whenever he felt he had hit a dead end, the system would open some of its features to him.
If it did not want him dead, then he was not going to die without fulfilling its purpose. That was the only way to ever repay it.
"Entropy, I have decided to repay your kindness one day and will do as you ask without fail," he said with a solemn tone. Whatever it was, it was not as simple as he thought.
[You have to reach the stats of 10 in each. It will take us years]
Marx deduced the availability of a greater purpose and also the faith the system had in him. It somehow felt like it was someone's conciousness.
" Mm." Marx agreed and he decided to start the mission. Jerry's looked at him with horror when it saw him jump on the sand. He thought he was mad but Marx kept junping and stomping on the ground.
Meters away, one could see several mounds heading in his direction.