BXBX NOVEL Chapter 399 398: Gobo Desert
My pack was on the ground in front of me, and I reached into it to take out the map figuring out where exactly I was and just how long I would be spending inside this place.
The Wekalian Steppes occupied the northeastern border of the Labyrinthian, and above and below the mountainous landscape of the Wekalian Steppes were two deserts.
The one above was labeled as more of a flat, dry expanse of a plateau to me, as the key labeled it as a mixture of a desert and a plain, while the coloring was a subdued yellow instead of the sharp yellow of the other desert or the gold of the Sultanate.
That was called the Atacami Desert, and situated right in the center of the Atacami was a slightly larger symbol for a dungeon, suggesting that the desert was home to larger quantities of monsters due to a lack of any cities nearby the dungeon.
As for the desert just ahead of me, it was called the Gobo Desert, and the map insinuated that the Gobo had different regions inside it.
Primarily sand and dunes, the Gobo Desert did house a few green patches of land, where both dungeons and cities resided.
There was a dungeon situated on the western side of the desert itself, probably a few dozen miles from the giant mountains that formed the Labyrinthian\'s borders.
However, in terms of size both the Atacami and Gobo Deserts - both of which were roughly the same size - were probably around 750 miles from the spot I would enter to where I would exit, meaning I\'d probably be traveling inside them for...
My eyes fell down the map as I recalculated my speed, using the plains that I had emerged onto from the forest as my guide.
It took me around four-ish days to traverse the roughly 400 miles from the forest to the point I was at now, and that wasn\'t including the rest day when I first got onto these plains.
With the increases I had in stats and the larger increase from the Anklet I wore, that would explain the sudden surge in my traveling speeds...
Certainly possible since I knew how much one point meant as the stats went higher, and I was nearly 7 or 8 points higher than when I started my journey?
Probably more honestly, but still...
Going from around forty to fifty miles a day to suddenly around a hundred was quite the jump.
Though, again, I gained quite a bit in my stats, which mean my magics were stronger and my speed was quicker.
Add onto that the straight forward nature of the plains, and I supposed it wasn\'t incredibly hard to believe?
Maybe.
Either way, I was slowly reaching the halfway point of my journey, and all I had that stood between me and reuniting with Jahi, Anput, Leone, Mother, and the others was two small deserts, a few hundred miles of the Wekalian Steppes, and the large desert of the Sultanate.
With March Asmodia being located on the Empire\'s eastern border, it wouldn\'t take long to at least reach home, where the Marquess, Countess, and Mother all were located.
Rolling the map back up, I slid it into its container and secured it into my pack, which I slung over my shoulders.
After taking a deep breath, I looked out over the dry sandy expanse of land ahead of me, smiling wryly as I began to walk forwards.
Going from extreme cold, biting winds, and frost to extreme heat, dry winds, and scorching sun was rather jarring, especially since I was an Ice Magician.
The difference in the mana was instant as I stepped foot onto the still, lifeless desert.
Water Mana no longer permeated the air, replaced instead with Fire Mana, while Wind Mana wasn\'t as abundant as before either.
My Core shriveled slightly as the excess mana I had been absorbing passively out in the open receded, and I was left with my base mana capacity.
Layering some of my basic spells over me, I sighed as the heat diminished under my Water Clock, which was infused with a little ice to keep me cool, and I began to run over the sand, quickly noting the difficulty in doing so.
Since the Gobo Desert was a dune filled desert, I had a lot of climbing and sliding to do, which slowed me down considerably as I made my way through this first desert.
With my mana slowly seeping away under the continual onslaught of Fire Mana, as well as the sheer strain of traversing sand at high speeds, the first of my days inside the desert ended rather annoyingly, and I summoned a thicker ice cube to sleep in, the rolling dunes around me not once displaying any signs of life.
The temperatures plummeted at night - much like a normal desert - and slowly refilled my Core with the mana I needed to start the next day off better.
Like I always had, I made sure to leave a mark to orient myself with before falling asleep, waking up just before dawn and resuming my journey when the air was still cool.
It wouldn\'t take long for everything to heat up once more.
Bounding over the sand as swiftly as I could, I continued onwards towards the Wekalian Steppes, which I was beginning to see in the distance, the crowns of the mountains peaking over the dunes of the Gobo Desert.
I had no desire to drop into any of the cities here, the sheer heat of the desert making my skin crawl, so I instead wanted to make my way towards one of the lower cities of the Wekalian Steppes, where I could restock and give myself a proper rest before venturing out towards the Sultanate.
For now though, my time was spent watching as the mountains in the distance slowly climbed up the horizon, giving me visual gratification for my time spent running.