The next morning, the group woke up before dawn. Medusa woke up the earliest to prepare a pot of porridge for everyone. She wasn’t very strong, but she insisted on coming here, so she naturally had to do her part.

Sinnan awoke up not long after she did, sitting next to her and helping her pull the gugu bird meat to put in the porridge.

"We should be arriving at the Wall by today, the latest is tomorrow morning," he said. He knew that she was especially tired due to her physique and level.

"Thank you," she said. "For indulging my request." She knew that it was presumptuous and that she’d only be a burden, but this might be her only chance to see the origin area of the Undead. How could she miss it?

"And for always protecting me," she added, feeling a bit guilty. "It must have been troublesome."

"No problem," he said. "Besides, it’s Samir who asked me to watch over you. It seems like you promised him something?"

Samir was Sinnan’s son, now 11 years old.

Medusa nodded, taking out a mobile phone. "I promised to show him videos of the place. He says he needs to know whether it’s worth coming to visit when he grows up."

Sinnan laughed. "I am happy that Samir is showing interest in things," he said. "Thank you."

When the boy’s mother died while saving him, and his father lost an arm several years ago, his personality was never the same again.

He had become extremely introverted, and his eyes would turn red whenever he saw undead people. He had recently just awakened as an elementalist, a rare sand user, but for some reason, he had been struggling to control it.

They had even wanted him to move to Alterra, but he refused, even if he was curious. He said he wanted to continue protecting their hometown at all times. This likely still stemmed from the gift of survival.

They didn’t push it either because a sand user should, theoretically, feel more at home in the desert. However, Alterra’s methods were quite special, and they still wanted to try.

Fortunately, the boy had gotten close to Medusa lately, with the boy uncharacteristically sneaking in her laboratory a few months ago.

Medusa wasn’t very sociable, but she did have her charm when she was focused on work. Her passion for the work made Samir more and more curious about Alterra.

Sinnan looked at Medusa’s side profile as she mixed the ingredients into the pot.

"Let’s go visit Alterra again after this," he said. "The three of us."

...

The sun was up on the second day, and they were once again traveling through an oven. They left the mesa area before dawn and headed straight to their destination, hoping to reach the wall, or at least get close, within the day.

Garan consistently made sure to make things cooler for his wife.

As a reward, while they traversed the mountainous sand dunes, he would get a few kisses on the cheeks. The random hits of cloying sweetness here and there made people’s eyes sting.

It was the sand. Really!

It was not a leisurely trip, of course. The number of monsters and undead they encountered only increased, many of which were stronger than others.

Most mobs were manageable with their numbers and average levels, and most undead fell with the weaknesses that they knew, with Medussa assigned to gather the cores, placing them in specially made boxes. No, with the box’s size, it was pretty much a chest.

For safety, this was done when most of the monsters had been dealt with. At the same time, they didn’t want to gather after everything was cleared. It would not only extend their time basking in heat, they would also give time for monsters to gather towards them.

What they did was Medussa would start collecting as soon as the mob became more manageable, and the mercenaries would simply lure the monsters away while she did so.

The Mercenaries were curious what they were doing this for, but by principle, mercenaries generally would not ask about potential trade secrets openly. At best, they could try to subtly pry.

Things got a bit challenging when they encountered a monster past level 30, followed by scores of level 20 or so minions. A rare upper-tier town-level mob. If they were near a territory, this would’ve been fine, but out in the open and in a difficult terrain, it could get risky.

"Jump to the side!" Erol yelled, and they all did as he told, with Garan holding his wife’s waist, and Sinnan carrying Medusa.

This ’leading’ monster was called their old friend, the Gorevyrm, which was a massive worm that crawled amidst sand like it was water.

The minions were smaller versions and different colours, Sandworms. Monsters had a fixed range in their levels. If there was a wide disparity in level, they were likely different species.

The latter were also worm-like, but they were dark in colour and elongated.

If the Gorevyrm could eat a group whole, like a whale emerging from the seas and eating a boat, the Sandworms were like large snakes in the sand.

Either way, they were disgusting, and also quite challenging due to their speed and the fact that they couldn’t see them most of the time.

Althea, frankly, wanted to try her ’controlling with water’ experiment on the Gorevyrm. It had been this monster that she tried it on, back then in the Training Hall. However, at the time, it had been weakened greatly by Garan and could barely even move. Now, it was in its home turf, making it impossible for her to try.

The Sandworms, ranging from level 19-22, were enough to keep her occupied.

Each one was a troublesome bugger and it very much felt like walking on water with carnivores ready to emerge at any time.

Althea bit her lips. If her earth ability [Earth Mapping] worked here, it would’ve been so easy to detect where the monsters were.

Was it really not possible for the current her to do so?