Master Of None

"This is a  great use of the earth elemental mana and mapping skills. What are their systems?" Walker looked at the Fel empire angels and saw that they were glad to be praised. It was ideal for them to be making a show here for the Genesis forces since they were certain that they would be able to explore a new land if they managed to impress them enough.

"They are called land mappers. It was an odd system when we first discovered it. The first one was able to make detailed carved maps. After ten years of study it was found that the earth sculpting skill could be used. Soon they began to discover the combination of earth mapping, earth sculpting, and earth's vision skill. Now they can be taken to the air higher using skills from wind mages. Afterward, they can show everything they have seen in the desert."

"While the range is limited, they are able to give us the best possible maps accurately while they use their skills." Ethan was sure that he was able to show off some of the best research potential in this map compared to other maps. The water diving mappers were harder to show off since they had to use large amounts of water to show things. They also weren't able to travel to the hottest parts of the desert easily due to their water affinity needing more water around to use their skills.

Ethan watched as Walker started to examine the map more closely. The royal dragons were more or less silent but clearly had an interest in the details. Especially Ventus who would normally fly higher in the sky to scout an area. She had done so when they invaded the demon territory back home. This was a welcome change that allowed her to continue to save her mana for another time.

"As all of you can see, the sandstorms will limit the routes we can take. They go higher in to the sky, which means flying a very dangerous endeavor. When a sand tornado forms, we will also be limited. That is when the two storms will collide. The wind currents are bringing them toward one another to meet here." the angels making the map began to use their skills more.

As they did, the sculpted sand storms moved to collide halfway between the edge of the desert and the ruins. The result was a large swirling tornado of sand that blocked a large section of the desert. "We can not travel through this area. If we risk doing so we will definitely lose soldiers and the mana we have stored up.' Ethan made it clear that this was also stopping some supplies from reaching the soldiers that were already there. Especially those that had been fighting for a long time against the undead to hold them off.

"You are in the presence of someone with greater strength than you believe. Do not underestimate a royal wind dragon. I can make this sandstorm move on in this direction. You have already told me of the existing wind currents." Ventus knew that the projected collision of storms to make this sand tornado was based on very good information. Therefore, she just had to alter the direction it moved afterwards.

"Then we are going to leave it to you, Ventus. That will let everyone move quickly through the sands. I should assume that the storms will make the monsters in the area burrow deeper in the sand or avoid the area altogether?" Walker was hoping that this would be the case but saw that the angels all were shaking their heads.

"The storms will draw more monsters toward them. This is to hunt what the storms dig from the sand or to be able to attack the prey monsters running from the storm. We will have to catch the running saw tooth sandworms, the camel spiders, yellow back scorpions, and many other monsters. We may even need to deal with the red sand ant colonies that may be in the dunes destroyed by the sandstorms. They will often swarm when a storm destroyed their nest and they need to relocate to a new sand dune." Ethan had a grave expression.

"That means the area will be dangerous no matter what. How can there be paths through all of this ever?" Remey was sure that traveling through the desert was annoying. But it didn't sound like the Fel empire lacked information about the area at all. Instead, it appeared they had researched these things soften enough to have working understandings of what will happen during these natural events.

"We are able to predict which monsters are around from many signs and time of year. It has taken a lot of time to discover this along with many tamers and unique puppet builders sending in their creations to explore. The cacti puppets are a very interesting creation from a desert puppeteer that can explore the terrain." Walker held himself back from asking about this kind of system user and their skills. He had not thought about the fire puppet or the earth puppets he could make. They were always less usable in real battles and better for training. It made him tempted to explore the ideas here. He didn't have the time though.

"I know you may have noticed it too, but the shifting sands are somehow held back by the ruins. There shouldn't be so much of these structures showing, but the undead are clearing the sand somehow with magic or else." Ethan looked troubled. Some of the angels around him appeared to have theories but their frowns and shaking heads proved that they were nothing that could actually work.

"So the undead are not just attacking but also reclaiming their ruins. If they stay this way they may uncover more strength or they will create a greater territory that is harder to attack. But why are the digging." Current leaned over the map and looked at some of the structures.

Although this was detailed, it was definitely different now than what it was when the mages had seen it. These earth mappers were sure to have not seen any runes or complicated structures either. That didn't even go in to what might be underground. There could be much more than just the small portions of what was seen.

"That is actually part of a theory." another angle stood up to the map. "There are forests and evidence of forests around the desert. We found evidence of a dried river outside the desert. We believe that this was once a jungle. There may be a very large set of ruins. A ruined city underneath the sand stretched the entirety of the desert. There is some proof here and here. There are desert towers that stretch up. They are stone lookouts from what we have gathered. We can not move the sand to check them. But some of them are crumbled while others still have stone pillars tough enough to prove that they had been used often many years ago."

The additional theory was enough to make everyone wonder just what had happened. A jungle turned in to a desert could not be a small event. Especially if there was a large body of moving water that had dried up. The theory that this massive group may have caused it could be the case. But it also made the question arise, what were these undead before they were worshippers or they were undead in the first place? What made them what they were? How could this all happen?

"Regardless of whether this is a city under the sand or not. We have a clear destination. We will go there and begin exploration. Those we have with the ability will sneak inside and find some key bits of information. The rest will join the defensive operations to keep the undead within a single area. They will not expand before we have solutions to our issues." Mordant made it clear that this was the method they were taking. It would be better to push this way than keep theorizing.

"That is agreed. We will take a path through the collision point of the sandstorms. Then we will wait for Lady Ventus to clear the way. The monsters will be battled on a need only basis. We need to avoid hunting them and causing more issues. If we run in to sand giants, we will retreat." the angels all nodded but the fact that sand giants had been brought up stopped all of those paying attention from Genesis. They had not heard of such a monster or race or anything. It was a mystery to them.

"We will need to know what sand giants are." Su rejoined the conversation and calmly asked for the information. She had a very bad feeling about what she was going to get back in an answer.

….

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