Phantom Parasites of the Desert Rain
One of the things people get wrong is the idea that no rain ever falls in the desert.
But that's only half the truth.
Rain does fall in the desert.
It just pours down in an instant before vanishing into the sand without a trace.
Sometimes it comes down like it's trying to swallow the whole world, turning the entire area into a watery hell. But then it disappears into the sand just as fast, as if it never happened.
There are certain terrains in the desert where water pools especially well.
Places where the downpour collects into puddles or even ponds.
The water vanishes in a flash, of course, but ghost lotuses slumber in spots like those.
They lie dormant like the dead when the sand is bone-dry, only to awaken like magic when water gathers—a parasitic lifeform.
In terms of rank, they're insignificant pests not even worth an F-grade.
Hell, in Neo Seoul, no one even knows these monsters exist. They're not in any of the monster compendiums people worked so hard to compile.
Parasite-like monsters that don't even qualify for F-grade.
But their danger level defies imagination.
Once one gets inside your body, even the strongest monster will die of dehydration while desperately seeking water.
Unless you're protected by a force field enveloping your entire body, there's no escaping the tentacles of a ghost lotus.
Awakeners are no different.
Once it's invaded you, there's no way to drive it out.
Zeon had learned this fact purely by chance.
Rain had fallen in the area he was passing through. A ghost lotus awakened in one of the puddles right then, and a massive monster came to drink. Zeon watched as that giant turned into a puppet, jerking around unnaturally.
From that moment, he'd taken an interest in ghost lotuses. But acquiring one turned out to be far from easy.
For starters, their ideal habitats weren't common.
They didn't exist in areas where rain never fell. And even where it did, spots that pooled even briefly were rare in the desert.
Finally, even if you managed to find one after all that trouble, capturing them alive was no simple task.
Zeon had failed several times himself. But those failures taught him how to capture ghost lotuses alive.
Zeon pulled a small glass bottle from inside his robe.
Its surface was engraved with runes whose meaning was impossible to discern.
Flap flap!
The moment Zeon reached the puddle, the ghost lotuses sensed him and began shaking violently.
They twisted their wire-like bodies and charged at him.
The grotesque sight of them writhing forward without limbs or appendages was enough to instinctively evoke terror in anyone watching.
"What the hell is that?"
"Ah!"
Mandy and Kim Sang-sik, watching from afar, widened their eyes in shock.
The ghost lotuses' bodies suddenly turned transparent, launching toward Zeon like missiles.
At that moment, Zeon thrust the glass bottle forward in his hand. The three ghost lotuses, hurtling at invisible speeds, slipped neatly inside.
It looked for all the world like they'd entered of their own accord. But Mandy knew better.
Zeon had clearly pulled some trick.
He'd gotten the ghost lotuses he wanted, so the rest were unnecessary.
Fwoosh!
In an instant, roaring flames of intense heat erupted around Zeon's body.
The crimson blaze incinerated the remaining ghost lotuses in a heartbeat. With them dealt with, Zeon scooped up sand from beneath his feet and filled the bottle.
That was the key.
Put sand from the ghost lotuses' dormant site into a magically treated glass bottle.
And just like that, they fell asleep.
The ghost lotuses, which had stretched over a meter long while charging at Zeon, shriveled to smaller than his finger and went dormant.
Zeon sealed the lid and hummed a little tune.
"Hmm~!"
A mischievous grin lit up his face, like a kid who'd pulled off a prank.
He tucked the bottle with the ghost lotuses into his robe—or at least, that's what it looked like to Mandy and Kim Sang-sik. In reality, he'd stored it in his subspace.
At that instant, the downpour stopped as if by magic, and the sun blazed down mercilessly.
Mandy and Kim Sang-sik blinked in confusion.
Too much had happened too quickly; their heads were spinning.
Experiences like this were utterly impossible in Neo Seoul.
The two descended the dune and approached Zeon.
Mandy asked cautiously,
"What are you planning to do with those ghost lotuses?"
"What?"
"They seem like they could be useful in all sorts of ways. If you brought them to Neo Seoul, researchers could turn them into something helpful for lots of people."
True to her role as Neo Seoul's dispatched super supervisor, Mandy took an interest in this new type of monster. But Zeon shut her down firmly.
"Sorry. I caught them out of personal curiosity. If you want some, go catch your own."
"Ah! That's not what I—"
Mandy stammered in embarrassment.
Her lifeline right now depended on Zeon. This wasn't the time to upset him.
"Sorry. I got greedy."
"It's fine. That happens. Just don't do it again."
Zeon smiled softly at her apology. But Mandy couldn't smile back. His grin felt unsettling somehow.
Only then did she truly grasp what kind of person Zeon was.
He was someone strong and experienced enough to roam the desert solo.
'That skill he used earlier... high chance he's a fire-type magic Awakener.'
Incinerating ghost lotuses in a downpour like that proved he was no slouch.
'At least C-grade, maybe B-grade.'
That was enough to command serious respect even in Neo Seoul.
Mandy resolved to be even more careful.
With the commotion over, the three resumed their journey.
Once Kim Sang-sik's stamina had recovered somewhat, he switched places with Mandy.
"Haa!"
Mandy let out a sigh of relief as she climbed onto the double-humped camel.
No matter how much of an Awakener you were, trudging through sand all day devoured your energy.
Even half a day left you breathless, your throat burning like fire from the superheated air.
Zeon said to Mandy,
"If you're thirsty, squeeze the water from your wet clothes and drink it."
"You mean...?"
"A little more time, and even that will evaporate. Nothing left to drink."
At Zeon's words, Mandy hurriedly stripped off her outer jacket and wrung it out. Water trickled forth.
She gulped it down greedily.
Kim Sang-sik followed her lead.
Zeon waited patiently until they'd had their fill.
In truth, he had plenty of water in his subspace.
He could have shared. But relying on handouts like that meant you'd never survive the desert.
You had to procure water yourself and hunt your own food.
If they wanted to return to Neo Seoul alive, they needed to instill those habits now.
Zeon led the group without a hint of fatigue.
Kim Sang-sik and Mandy took turns on the camel to recover their strength. And they observed Zeon.
After walking all day, he showed no signs of exhaustion.
Not even a drop of sweat, not a single ragged breath.
Mandy and Kim Sang-sik couldn't make sense of it.
'How is that possible?'
'He seems like someone born and raised in the desert. But even then...?'
The more they watched, the more questions piled up about Zeon. But he had no intention of sharing anything about himself, walking on in silence.
"Hmm."
After a long stretch, Zeon suddenly halted.
He dropped to one knee and brushed away the sand with his hand. Beneath it emerged an object buried in the dunes.
What Zeon had unearthed from the sand was, unexpectedly, a corpse.
A mummy shriveled to the bone, every drop of moisture sucked from its body.
He asked the two,
"Do you recognize him?"
"He's an Awakener from Team 3."
Mandy identified the corpse at a glance.
He was the first to flee when the cyclops attacked. Having escaped first, everyone assumed he'd survived. No one could figure out why he was dead here.
Zeon fully extracted the body. A wound on its back came into view.
"Attacked from directly behind, it looks like. The size and shape of the wound suggest a sword..."
Mandy's eyes wavered at Zeon's words.
Teams had fled separately during the cyclops assault. That meant his teammates had been with him.
Which meant the one who'd ambushed and killed him was surely a teammate from Team 3.
Zeon continued,
"No possessions on him at all. Looks like they looted everything."
"So he was robbed?"
"Yes."
"Haa!"
"When you're isolated in the desert, human nature comes out. Nothing surprising."
Zeon said it like it was no big deal.
Yesterday's comrade becoming today's enemy wasn't rare at all.
Maybe an old grudge, or maybe they'd just had their eye on his gear.
Isolated in a barren hell like the desert, people's true natures—long hidden away—emerged.
Zeon wasn't fazed; he'd seen this countless times. But Mandy and Kim Sang-sik were clearly shocked into silence.
Zeon stood and said,
"Let's move. Monsters will smell it soon."
Wasting time recovering the body would just paint a target on their backs.
Best to leave before the monsters arrived.
Fortunately, both Mandy and Kim Sang-sik followed Zeon's lead without protest.
The corpse was just a fellow dispatch member, after all.
No personal ties, so they could depart coldly.
How long had they walked like that?
"Gah! Get lost! Raaah!"
Suddenly, a faint, rage-filled scream echoed from the distance.
Zeon led the group toward the sound.
"Tsk."
Zeon clicked his tongue abruptly.
Mandy asked cautiously,
"What's wrong?"
She still couldn't see anything. She had no idea what had made him tsk.
Zeon pointed to the sky.
"Wyvern pack."
"Wyverns?"
Only then did Mandy look up.
A flock of wyverns circled high overhead.
A bit farther on, they spotted an Awakener locked in a desperate struggle with the pack.
He swung his spear wildly at the wyverns. But his attacks never connected.
The wyverns toyed with him like a cat batting at a mouse.
Each time, fresh gashes opened on his body.
He was clad in Neo Seoul-made protective gear, but wyvern talons shredded it like rags.
Riiip!
The wyvern's claws tore his armor to ribbons.
The Awakener under assault was named Krierd.
He'd been in Team 3 with the corpse Zeon's group had just found.
He'd killed his teammate and stolen his water and items.
Water had been scarce, so it was a necessary choice. The items were a bonus. Dead men needed nothing, after all.
After offing his comrade, he'd crossed the desert alone.
Up to that point, he'd been confident in his survival.
No matter how dangerous the desert, he could handle any crisis.
But it took less than half a day to realize how foolish that notion was.
Kraaa!
The wyvern pack dove from the sky, teeth and talons overwhelming him completely.
"Gaaah!"
In the end, Krierd's throat was crushed in a wyvern's jaws, his breath snuffed out.
With Krierd dead, the wyverns swarmed in for the feast.
The scene evoked a murder of crows.
"Ugh!"
Kim Sang-sik turned away in disgust and horror at the sight of Krierd's corpse being torn apart.
Mandy felt the same revulsion but, as an Awakener, coolly assessed the situation.
One wyvern in particular caught her eye: an especially massive one.
The others gorged greedily on Krierd's remains, but this one stood aloof, vigilantly scanning the surroundings as if uninterested.
It was easily twice the size of the rest, its glossy black body gleaming.
One glance told you it was the wyvern pack's leader.
A faint red glow shimmered around its enormous frame.
Mandy recognized it instantly.
"A force field? Then it's at least B-grade?"
Only B-grade-plus monsters—or dungeon bosses—possessed force fields.
Sparks crackled around the black force field. A phenomenon from overly powerful fields, one you'd see on A-grade monsters.
The black wyvern was A-grade.
"Hic!"
Mandy let out an involuntary gasp.
She'd locked eyes with the black wyvern.
It was definitely staring right at her position.
"Hiccup!"
Overwhelming terror seized her body, forcing out a hiccup.
That savage wyvern pack wouldn't let them go unscathed.
They tolerated no intruders in their territory.
Mandy was convinced the flock would swoop down and attack any second. But strangely, even as time dragged on, the wyverns showed no sign of moving.
The massive black wyvern in particular seemed distracted, gazing elsewhere.
As if there was something here it wasn't supposed to see.
'Could it be because of that?'
Mandy whipped her head toward Zeon. He smiled and said,
"Looks like the wyvern pack's got full bellies. They're not even glancing our way. Who knows when that changes and they come chasing—let's hurry."
He started walking without waiting for her reply.
"W-Wait, we're coming."
"Urk!"
Mandy and Kim Sang-sik had no time to think, hurrying after Zeon.
Once Zeon's group was out of sight, the black wyvern finally turned its head back.
A faint glimmer of fear lingered in its eyes as it watched Zeon's receding figure.