How to Cross the Desert (3)
The hidden episode. It was one of those events you’d stumble across fairly often while playing the game. You could think of it as an Easter egg chapter the developers had tucked away in various places. It didn’t have much impact on the main storyline, but it let you uncover new lore about the world or gain extra backstory on certain characters. Sometimes it even rewarded you with powerful items.
‘I studied those contents pretty diligently, if I do say so myself.’
I had uploaded multiple strategy videos on it, after all. Just counting the episodes I’d discovered myself, there were easily over twenty. This one was no different.
[EP???. How to Cross the Desert]
— A Door Opens in the Sky, A Boy Who Keeps the Stars Awake —
It was an event triggered by touching a specific object in a specific location. A one-time-only participation event per playthrough. The stage difficulty was fairly high, but the quality of the rewards made it more than worth the challenge. After all, there were items you could only obtain here.
“W-where on earth…?”
A low voice reached my ears. It was Legia. The girl who had been lost in confusion only moments ago now seemed to have regained her senses and was looking around. Her green eyes appeared to be assessing the situation.
“A desert all of a sudden…? I was definitely just looking around that old shop a second ago.”
The scenery filling our vision was nothing but golden hues. An endless sea of sand stretched out before us. The scene had switched with an almost unreal abruptness.
If you took your time admiring the landscape, the dazed operator would mutter to herself.
“Could we… be seeing hallucinations…?”
“I’m not sure… I don’t feel any particular sense of dissonance. It seems more likely that this is reality.”
“That’s… that’s impossible.”
“This is quite the bizarre situation.”
“If it’s not a hallucination, then how do we even begin to explain this scenery…?”
“Hmm.”
I spoke softly.
“It looks like we’ve gotten caught up in some kind of accident.”
“E-excuse me?”
“The book we touched earlier must have had some kind of issue… I’m not entirely sure myself.”
“R-right. It all happened so suddenly…”
“There might have been magic cast on the pages.”
“Ugh…”
First, we needed to acknowledge that we had indeed been in an accident. We had been walking through the academy just moments ago, lost consciousness for a brief instant, and when we opened our eyes, we were stranded in the middle of a desert. It was enough to leave anyone flustered.
I waited a moment for Legia to calm down. The girl, who had seemed lost in thought, soon stood up as if she had realized something else.
“Huh?”
Legia reached her hand into the air. After waving it in front of her for a moment, her face stiffened.
“Young master… I can’t gather mana at my fingertips.”
“What?”
“The flow of air feels strange. I can definitely sense the mana, but the moment I try to manifest a spell, it scatters immediately.”
“You’re right.”
This was the core mechanic of the current field. A space where magic was completely nullified. In this desert, the use of mana required to cast spells was entirely forbidden. It was essentially poison to mages.
Travelers called it the Land That Does Not Shine. Unless you were exceptionally skilled, shaking off its restrictions was nearly impossible. That was why the roles of other positions became crucial. Swordsmen, priests, shamans, summoners, and so on… cards that could replace a mage’s firepower were necessary.
And that was precisely the role Legia would play this time.
“It feels like my abilities are being suppressed.”
“How much, exactly…?”
“It seems I won’t be able to use shadows like usual. At best, I might manage to create a single sword.”
“N-no way…”
Of course, that was a lie. A temporary restriction like this could be shaken off with just a slight display of power. But I deliberately acted as if I couldn’t use my abilities. The person who needed to shine in this field wasn’t me.
I had come all this way specifically for Legia’s growth. If I stole the spotlight and did everything myself, what would be the point?
Thanks to that, I continued spinning my lies smoothly.
“After all, I’m a mage too.”
“What should we do? We don’t even know where we are, and now we can’t use communication magic either…”
“That really is a big problem.”
It should be showing up any moment now.
I glanced around. After scanning the desert with a troubled expression for a while, a faint voice suddenly reached us. It was an old, sickly echo.
—Get out of the way, you lot! I can’t die yet…!
It wasn’t far. It sounded like it was coming from right nearby.
“Young master! Just now, from over there… did you hear that…?”
“I heard it too.”
We immediately ran toward the source. After crossing a single sand dune that had been blocking our view, the owner of that desperate cry came into sight.
An old man slumped on the ground in a hunched posture. It looked like he had injured his arm. The elderly man was swinging his arm wildly while shouting.
“Get away from me…!”
Kiiiiik—!
A monstrous screech followed. Five black scorpions were slowly creeping closer around the old man.
We instinctively furrowed our brows.
“This is bad.”
“W-what the hell are those…?”
Could you even call those things scorpions? Each one was larger than a compact car. They all gave off a dangerous aura, their venomous tails raised sharply like they were hunting prey.
“I’ll head out right away, Miss Legia.”
“Y-yes…!”
It was a critical moment. Without a second of hesitation, we kicked off the ground. Our bodies shot forward, leaving faint afterimages behind.
Kiiik! Grrrrrk—!
The monsters let out skin-crawling roars. I compressed the long shadow I had drawn out. Then I unsheathed it as a single blade.
The jet-black sword sliced through the sandstorm.
“Hup…!”
I exhaled sharply. I leaped toward the nearest scorpion.
Kiiiiik—?!
Had it finally noticed us? The creature turned its body belatedly. But the slash I had already unleashed was cutting a bold arc through the air.
In an instant, I severed it.
Slash—!
A clear cutting sound rang out. The scorpion’s tail, which it had thrust out in defense, was cleanly sliced off.
‘Cut.’
A tingling sensation ran through my fingertips. The creature staggered backward in panic. I didn’t miss the opportunity and finished it off with a full swing of my blade.
Thud—!
Its massive body split in half. Purple blood soaked the ground. It had taken only ten seconds. A life ended in the blink of an eye.
But there was no time to stop. Because the gazes of the other creatures had locked onto me.
Krrrk—!
Three scorpions charged at once. I flicked my wrist lightly. The blade spun in a graceful motion. The long shadow suddenly split into two, transforming into a pair of short daggers.
One in each hand. I bent my upper body low and leaped toward the monsters.
Shwaaaaak—!
A scorpion’s tail came crashing down above my head. I deflected it with a fluid motion. The missed attack grazed the back of my blade.
Kagagagak…!
Sparks flew. The intense tearing sound passed by. I swung both daggers horizontally. A series of strikes that crushed its hard shell.
Crunch—!
The scorpion’s head was immediately pulverized. I adjusted my distance for a moment and reset my slightly disordered stance.
“Hmm.”
Even without using magic, these small fry were no problem with basic swordsmanship alone. I steadily cleaned up the monsters one by one.
“G-get away!!”
Beside me, Legia was also fighting hard against the remaining one. I had been worried about how she would fight without her basic magic, but she simply swung her bag straight at its head.
Thwack—!
I had no idea what was inside that bag, but the sound was impressive. Perhaps because she was a student of Galimar Academy after all, her basic movements weren’t bad.
Thanks to that, the extermination of the scorpions was completed smoothly.
Kiiiiik—!
The last one collapsed with a final shriek. A pool of blood seeped between the fine grains of sand. A brief moment of rest was granted.
“Haa…”
A light sigh escaped. Fighting without using lies was indeed annoying. Maybe because there was no stamina correction, I kept feeling like hot breaths would burst out of me. It had been a while since I’d experienced this.
Of course, thanks to the Smiling Mask trait, no sign of strain showed on the outside. I simply wore a perfectly relaxed smile.
I gently stroked the exhausted Legia’s head.
“Well done, Miss Legia.”
“Huk, huu… Just what were those huge scorpions?”
“I’ve never seen them before either, so I’m not sure.”
“They were so strong… my arms are still shaking…”
“They certainly didn’t look like ordinary creatures.”
“Haa… Young master, you really are amazing. Even one was almost too much for me, yet you took down four of them so easily.”
“Thank you.”
The scorpion corpses scattered across the ground. We stepped past the fragments and walked toward the old man who was quietly sitting to one side. Fortunately, he didn’t seem seriously injured.
“U-um… are you okay?”
Legia approached cautiously. The old man, who had been staring at us blankly, soon came back to his senses. A dry cough leaked from his wrinkled lips.
“Cough, cough! Thank you for saving me, young ones… I owe you my life.”
The old man was wearing a tattered robe. White hair that had gone completely gray, a beard covering his lower face, and blinking blue eyes. He was an elderly man with a gentle appearance.
“Did you… hurt your left arm?”
“I twisted it by mistake.”
“I’ll treat it for you! I always carry medical supplies in my bag!”
“I don’t know how to thank you enough…”
Legia rummaged through her bag and pulled out bandages. Meanwhile, I was staring at the white-haired figure visible beyond the girl’s back. The old man receiving treatment in a hunched posture.
‘As expected, we meet like this.’
The central character of this episode. The man who would be our objective for the next few days and the key to escaping this field.
The player’s mission here was simple.
Escort the Character ‘Josh Clacker’ Safely to His Destination
📍 Objective: Safely escort the elderly man before you to the place he wishes to go.
🎁 Reward: ???
That was to safely escort the old man right in front of us to his destination.
The destination he spoke of was—
“You two… I know it’s shameless of me, but I have one request.”
His clear blue eyes spoke while clutching his arm.
“Could you possibly take this old man… to the stars?”
A single sentence carrying a strange request. Just like in the original work, the episode began that way.