Omen of the Great Wind
One of the most important duties of the Golden Sand Tower was predicting the timing of the great wind that blew from west to east.
Several observation mages would monitor the mana in the skies and read the flows of mana across the desert to forecast when the great wind would arrive. Merchants prepared accordingly.
"This year's great wind is due in three days."
"It's coming a bit early this year."
"Still, good thing our preparations are mostly done."
The news that countless ships were about to set sail also meant the sailors of Aldamina had only days left before heading into the desert. Some crew contracts had already ended, but the highest-paid sailors' deals were still pending. Ship owners, well aware that a single skilled sailor dramatically boosted survival odds, would ramp up their bidding wars once the great wind was announced.
While the ship owners scrambled for top talent, the mage tower, battle mages, and city-hired desert warriors prepared for combat. The more ships clustered together, the higher the chance of attracting giant monsters—and the peak clustering happened right at departure from Aldamina.
Everyone scattering in all directions would be ideal, but the winds strong enough to move massive ships didn't last long compared to the desert's vastness. Or more accurately, they blew long enough to cross the desert but not long enough to sate every merchant's greed.
Habub prayed for even one more sailor to return safely, built ships that could catch more wind and move faster, and merchants loaded them with heavier, bulkier cargo. They could sail safer routes with lighter loads, but merchants always chose profit over safety.
Hasina spat a quiet curse as she eyed a massive galleon—built with Habub's new magic—laden with 1.2 times last year's cargo.
"Bullshit."
The merchants claimed they'd calculated the perfect weight, but even the finest mages couldn't account for everything. Watching these greedy idiots boast they'd done just that, Hasina rolled her eyes.
"Sis, heard you got your ass handed to you good? You okay?"
"Ah, that healing magic cost a fortune, but damn, it was worth every coin."
Hasina, who'd gotten treatment from Suhyun in the monster materials warehouse, proudly showed off her fully healed body with a grin. The restless air just before the great wind always made her uneasy. Once it hit, her father and friends' fathers would ship out, returning in half a year—or never.
She'd known this truth since childhood, and she hated this air for it. But to survive in Aldamina, their fathers had no choice but to brave the Saramar Desert.
"Ship ready?"
"Of course! Ours is the newest and best, right?"
The Golden Sand Tower's ship, Radiant Sands, was managed by Elder Habub and boasted top reliability and cutting-edge tech. Its white hull bore enchantments using desert gold dust, letting it glide smoother over sand than water. Square sails of alchemy-forged cloth and enchanted triangular sails defied headwinds, while countless foldable side sails sped it up in tailwinds. Magic tools atop the deck could hunt even the largest, fiercest desert monsters.
And the crowning glory? Wind surfing boards for the mages. Riders launched from the deck onto the sands, surfing winds to slay monsters. Only the elite warriors aboard Radiant Sands got to ride them.
Outpacing the wind, clearing threats with magic tools and surfers, Radiant Sands had claimed countless desert monster lives in its history. The captain's cabin displayed kill marks—trophies from slain beasts—with no slots for mid-sized ones. The smallest mark was from a massive desert shark.
Trophies from hunts were inscribed with the captain's and crew's names and dates. The largest belonged mostly to Hasina.
She hadn't set a record yet but claimed no bigger ones existed. Fingering the empty spots amid kill marks on her board, Red Sands, Hasina checked its condition. Most desert monsters that hunted humans bore her marks—but one was missing.
The sandworm: god of the sands, desert upheaver, devourer of dunes. A being to avoid at all costs.
Even Radiant Sands, confident against any desert monster, set its sailing weight by one criterion: speed to escape a sandworm. A safety measure, but to Hasina, a humiliating one.
"Sigh, my son's starting at the tower soon. Not sure if he'll do well."
"What, you think I'm his advisor or something?"
"Heh, so you know? Or nah?"
"Fuck off, he's no idiot."
"Heh, must take after his mom."
"Good thing he doesn't take after his dad."
Sailors knew her prickly side softened for parents, so they bantered with knowing grins.
"Heh, sis, heard an outsider sandblasted you?"
"I'll bury you in sand this voyage."
"Eek, scary."
A sailor with a daughter learning sail-weaving joked as he passed.
"Sigh, my boy's got my thick skull—no tower for him."
The sighing sailor fretted his son's future.
Amid the lively prep, a small, unfamiliar wind surfing board appeared. Sailors gathered to gawk at the odd design. Hasina, following the crowd, spotted Suhyun atop it.
Black hair, desert-mismatched clothes—he practiced wind magic atop the board before veering inward.
"No prep and straight into the desert? That's asking for trouble," a sailor muttered.
As always impulsive, Hasina dropped her Red Sands from the high deck. Catching the breeze, she chased Suhyun into the sands.
Wind Surfing - Lv1
The act of propelling forward on a sail-equipped board using the power of the wind. Can occasionally be ridden even in places without water.
- Drag resistance strengthened by 10%.
Living in this world, Suhyun found it fascinating how Earth things existed here too. Spotting wind surfing in the desert, he hopped on a magic-made board for a pre-hunt scout into the sands to bag a sandworm.
He'd never tried it on Earth—hated going out—but now? Fun as hell. Still, no regrets; his old klutz body would've dunked him dozens of times learning this.
'Gotta have talent for anything to be enjoyable.'
Sensing the monster swarm in his range, Suhyun whistled. Seas teemed with them, but so did desert sands.
Surfing over ambushers lurking for passersby, he hunted sandworm traces. In this endless sea of sand, the only way was waiting for one to enter his detection.
Sensing underground via mana pulses, he rode the wind, noting clusters of one or two monsters below the barren dunes.
Meanwhile, Hasina tailing him muttered as he outpaced her on natural wind alone—save for startup—no magic used.
"Damn, bruising my ego."
Her surfing pride stung at using magic to chase a newbie. After a moment's pride wrestle, she cast.
"Desert's Fair Wind"
⟨ Desert's Fair Wind ⟩
Desert gusts shoved Hasina forward; her sail ballooned, sands flowing under the board propelled her at incomparable speed. Drawing alongside Suhyun, she yelled,
"Stop!"
Suhyun halted at her shout; Hasina followed, walking over on the sands.
"What the hell? Charging into Saramar Desert solo with nothing? Suicidal much?"
Suhyun grinned at her irritated yell.
"Not nothing."
He summoned the
from thin air. Hasina exploded.
"Betting the desert on that alone?!"
"This too."
A massive water bottle appeared in his hand. With flicks, tents, braziers, rations, weapons—all emerged.
"Damn, guess I worried for nothing."
The battle mage who'd crushed her wouldn't blunder into the desert unprepared.
"Worried about me? Honored."
"Bullshit. So why the desert? Most stuff was in my warehouse."
She'd covered his healing fee with warehouse picks; he could've grabbed most needs.
Her stock lacked either ultra-rares or worthless commons.
Suhyun grinned at her question.
"Sandworm."
Hasina nearly screamed he was nuts—but paused. Possible? At least gauge the gap between her and it.
If he caught one, she'd learn the power needed. Failure? It'd prove stronger than him.
"You know where?"
"Papers had zilch on sandworms."
Swapped with Habub, but only ecology guesses from corpses—no locations.
"Tower access limits that."
But Hasina's head held 100 years of monster sightings and spots—including her father's death site, coincidentally a sandworm witness point.
"Follow me. I'll show the last sighting."
Righting her board, she surfed ahead.
In the ever-shifting desert—winds birthing dunes overnight, erasing them by dawn—the Golden Sand Tower made tools like the
. Tower-range only, but it pointed home and distance, easing navigation.
Guided by its needle, Hasina hit the coords.
Eying the sands that swallowed a massive ship greedily then played innocent, she gestured around.
"Sandworm sighting spot."
"When?"
"Six years ago."
"Traces gone by now."
Suhyun murmured, but cast magic. Papers said sandworms ate and digested sand but preferred animal blood and flesh. Dragon remnant yet worm-dragon hybrid, they molted cyclically—not shedding, but weaponizing ruptured shells.
The author guessed ship raids for molt nutrients; shell rings on caught specimens lent credibility. Suhyun sought shell fragments—traceable to owner via magic.
Cranking mana output, he found only buried monsters—no sandworm signs.
"Waste of time. Desert mana relics get scarfed by cleaners instantly."
Scavengers like sclebs, sand goblins, desert rats devoured even scraps—especially sandworm molts or dung.
"Strikeout?"
He hadn't expected instant luck, but Hasina's intel made it seem tougher. Suhyun dropped the spell.
Needed another way.