Chapter: 676

Number Three had no just been tracking Jay for the last day and a half, but spent days marching to Losla from the capital too – and without any rest.

Being awake for nearly a week may have been okay for his level forty-eight body, but his mind still needed rest. The subtle signs of madness were beginning to show.

After deploying the navigation beacon, he began his trudge through the desert.

His armour boots sunk deeply into the sand with each step, and the weight of the rest of his armour made them sink half-way up his calve.

The powered armour suit itself was heavier than any human could bear, heavier than ten humans combined could carry, but with a supply of mana and the adventurer strength of a level forty-eight soldier it was manageable. The mana kept it moving without much effort at all.

As he trudged through the sand, some small lizards caught his attention as they began to harass him.

Number Three glared at them in disdain through his helmet. The little things were attacking him with something which was leaving hardened red plaques on his sacred armour.

“Pests.” he grunted, raising a foot high into the air.

He chanelled some mana into the suit, and it responded in kind with explosive power.

He brought his large boot down with so much force that it caused a shockwave to travel through the sand, a wave of yellow hot sand shot out from around him like a wall. Even the rocks on the mountain trembled.

Nearby lizards were crushed and shocked to bits while ones further away were stunned for a moment.

The sands around him were stained red, with himself at the centre of a shallow hole.

Number Three kept marching through the desert, but it seemed that his problems weren’t over. The dead lizards attracted even more lizards, smelling the scent of blood.

Before he could even make it half-way, the dead lizards had already been consumed while a large group of lizards were now charging at him through the sand.

“I should have just jumped over the whole desert.” he thought, though first he had to investigate the bone pile in the middle.

All the way, the lizards were attaching the hard red plaque to his armour.

To even Number Three’s surprise, it was difficult to stomp off and remove these weird chunks of red material. He could remove surface-level chunks of it which were sticking out and not attached very well, but the deeper parts underneath seemed to fuse and harden, solidifying even further, making them impossible to remove.

Three didn’t swing his sword at it though, since it was obviously, a sword.

It wasn’t the right tool for the job, and his military training wouldn’t allow him to blunt his weapon on such a thing.

The harder red plaques would be removed after some grinding or chizzled away when he returned back to base, by some lower ranking soldier.

Perhaps a town guard, or even a peasant would be forced to do such a duty, but not him, and definitely not his sword. It was below him.

Number Three was smiling slightly, imagining the poor bastard who would have to clean his armour. Every time another small red fruit burst onto his boot, he smiled more.

After all, this wasn’t a life threatening situation, it was simply an annoyance.

Unfortunately though, some were even added to the very base of his boot, and soon it was like he was walking with balls attached to his boots, which served to slow him down and throw him off-balance.

Finally though, he approached the bones in the centre of the desert where he saw the pile of bones.