Chương 58: The Desert of Screams

Although his rescue of Penn Vic happened, to him, almost half a lifetime ago, word of his deed continued to spread and seeped into the nearby town. It wasn't long before he had townsfolk knocking on his dorm asking for help. So much so, in fact, LANCE ended up putting a 'Help Sign-Up Sheet' out front of his door so people didn't have to knock and beg him for his aid. Most of the requests he received were of a common sort — a monster problem, some petty criminal robbing people at a street corner, or some such issue.

Some people used the sign-up sheet duplicitously, such as to get his autograph or to ask him for carnal pleasures. Reluctantly, he gave people his autograph but refused the intimate gestures. He didn't need to contract 'the itching' just because he had followed his Oath which people, apparently, got off on... He handled every request with ease, earned some petty spending cash, and even converted a few people to the light of Cannabus. Throughout it all, he earned three level ups!

Such netted him an additional twelve Boon Points. Not bad for odds and ends! Yet as time had a habit of doing so, it came and went, not unlike him at his partying earlier in the semester, but that was beside the point. The weekend came and it was the early morning time when his father would pick him up. He sat on his bed with only one knapsack filled with crap as he waited for Warhol's familiar swirly portals to open in his dorm and for his father to step through.

Minutes turned to more minutes as Lance began to wonder, again, if his father had forgotten him. He yawned and heard the scribbling outside his door, the familiar sound of a villager or perhaps another student, asking for help by writing down the nature of their problem on the sign-up sheet. He groaned and wondered if he should call it and just go to breakfast. Technically, second breakfast since he had already eaten a heaping bowl of fruity porridge.

A gust of magical air generated suddenly, causing a few of his less than nailed down papers to twirl inside his dorm. He snatched and set the papers down but had only a second to do so before his dad stepped through the portal. He had a hard time identifying what it was but there was something different about his father. Was it is gait, swagger, did he dye his beard?

"Father. You're late, again..." he said, more of a groan than words, but he didn't care.

"Sorry, son. I was busy with affairs. Saving the world, you know." His father spoke in the same hurried way he always did, ceaseless for anyone but himself or his agenda.

"That's always your excuse. So, where are we going today?" He got from his bed and stood in front of his father, showing his readiness for the next level of his training.

"We're going," his father said, a look or irritation for talking back still, strangely, on his face.

"To the Desert of Screams!"

"Wonderful..." The sun beat them worse than any mugger had or could; the sand was hotter than magma, perhaps literally; while the wind served to only blow sand into their faces as though it were smoke from a campfire. He had been in the desert for an hour and already hated it.

"Argh!" Lance tripped, again, on the sand and its never-ending hills.

"For the love of the gods, son!" his father's yelling had been nearly non-stop in the last hour.

"I don't understand how you can be so bad at moving your body! Work WITH the sand, not against it!"

"I'm trying!" he shouted back but to no avail. In truth, he hadn't tripped that much, but whenever he did, his father took notice and berated him as if he had dropped a baby. He couldn't wait until they found whatever monster they were hunting and could kill it. Then he could be done with his dad's crappy excursion and attitude. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Lance tried harder to 'walk with the sand' instead of against it.

It took some timing, some training with himself, but he eventually managed to trip less and walk upright more. Just in time, it seemed, for minutes later he felt the ground shake and knew a monster was coming his way. He ran to his left, then right, he had to flee from the sinking sands; as the ground collapsed before him, he scrambled to find purchase but found nothing. Just before he was to be swallowed by a mound of living teeth, his father's incantation found him and grabbed his feet, pushing him to safety.

From a safe distance, Lance now saw a massive sandworm unlike anything he had ever before seen. A statement he had uttered many times, lately. [Dune Worm: Lv. 350] [Originally from a far-away world, the Dunge Worm is an omnivore and will eat anything in its way, people, animal, plant, even non-organics. Watch out for the sinking ground as it burrows up from its dens.] A dun worm, huh? Terrifying!

He was about to ask his father how he was going to fight that thing when his dad unleashed several de-buffs against the worm. In an instant, Warhol stood beside him.

"I've slowed the beast as well as mire it above the ground. I also hit it with some petty ice. It's practically on its deathbed, so stop wasting time and finish it off, eh?" He rushed toward the worm despite the feeling it wasn't anywhere near dead. The sooner it was killed, the sooner he could leave this horrible place.

Lance first rushed toward the beast's tail end; then he lunged and jumped onto the beast, using his customary [Super Charge] Skill to gain more air; he managed to fling himself into the beast's body sword first; the creature sent an awful shriek through the air upon feeling his sword stab deep into it; although the worm tried to shake him off with its immense shaking from side-to-side, he held on tight; when the worm stopped its shaking, he climbed the beast in fits, using his sword to stab into the creature like a climbing hook; he had to stop every so often to hold onto the creature while it attempted to shake him away, but considering the pain he was causing it, that was predictable enough to anticipate; with the sun bleating on him and his stamina quickly fading despite his immense supply, Lance had to end the fight quickly if he was to have any chance of finishing this thing before the sun finished him.

When Lance worked his way up to the back of its head, he knew what he should do to kill the beast: skewer it from the brain-down. Unfortunately, it writhed now in so much pain, and flopped around like a fish, he could do nothing except hold on for dear life.

Idea ran through him as to what he should do: part of him wanted to will his weapon to transform into spiked knuckle-dusters and for him to batter away at the worm's thick exterior until he had beheaded it; that wouldn't work, though, because of that thick skin! Fire magic would do him no good. Would ice? It was possible, though he had spent already a great deal of his mana in using both his [Super Charge] as well as the mana he used to reinforce his climbing.

He got an idea — crazy, as per his normal ideas, but he decided to go with it.

Lance climbed his way, using his sword as his grips, toward the beast's maw and with the last of his mana, unleashed a final [Super Charge] into the creature's maw; this time, unlike when he fought the kraken, his intent was not to enter the beast's body, but implant himself within the roof of its mouth, which his charging body, as though accelerated by a stick of dynamite, did so with ease — his sword stabbed deep into the worm's upper body, skewering into its brain.

Pierced though the creature's brain was, the monster did not die, and neither had he expected the monster to die. For that was only part of his plan. In slow motion, Lance dangled in the creature's mouth and began to fall away; before his distance became too great, Lance unlatched a mana grenade and shoved it within the slit his sword had made; it exploded when he had fallen nearly into the beast's thousands of churning teeth. The new explosion came with gore galore and sent him flying into the wild.

Lance careened out of the creature and slammed into the desert floor, covered in blood and chunks and sand. Oh, so lovely sand. [You Have Killed Dune Worm: You Have Gained XP] [You Have Reached Level 50] [You Have Earned Boon Points: 4] [You Have Reached Level 51] [You Have Earned Boon Points: 8] His level ups continued until he reached level 56. [Unallocated Boon Points: 75] It was amazing how quickly he accumulated his points.

While he waited for his father to notice the battle was over, he checked his stats menu: [Name: Lance Chaucer] [Level: 56] [Martial Prowess: 70] [Magical Prowess: 20] [Stamina: 45] How should he allocate his Boon Points? Same as usual, he figured. Probably thirty or so into his martial focus, ten or fifteen into Stamina, a partly sum into his magical prowess, just to keep it healthy. Moments later, before he had time to allocate, his father stood beside him.

"Very good, son. You did the easiest part without me. Wonderful."