After a short period of preparation, DD, Flor and I all headed to the royal fleet and marveled at the sight.

“The royal family of the Highrise kingdom sure isn’t cutting costs.” Flor said as she marveled at the 10 Man-o-War class sand ships. Along with these ten were another five Carrack type sand boats.

“The top money bags also can’t be underestimated.” DD said looking at the smaller fleet.

We nod and look around, going close to the huge royal family ships to admire the ships and actually saw some of the royal knights aboard.

“Seems that Black Cat woman wasn’t lying, there really are royal knights here.” I muttered and out of curiosity, I tried to pull up their info.

Tristan Black

Royal Knight

Level 170

2nd Class

We were surprised by how little information we could pull up.

“What does second class mean?” DD asked.

“It’s his status among the Royal knights.” A voice from behind said.

We turned and found Black Cat with another man behind her. He was dressed like a merchant from the arabs turban, thick layers on his body and more on the chubby side.

“So these are the hitchhikers.” he asked.

“Yes, this is our chief merchant and the private owner of these five boats as well as the main source of income for our guild in the south where his connections are abundant.” Black Cat said.

Still wearing the mask, with Flor also using a pair to hide our identity, we introduced ourselves with different names.

“I’m Bug Master.” I said.

“I’m Flora master.” Flor said with a similar mindset.

The two were taken by surprise but since they couldn’t bring up our information that was in private it clearly showed we didn’t want to be known.

“Ma’am, is it safe to bring these two aboard?” the chubby merchant asked.

“They’re just passengers. Oh right, we have the money ready for the purchased part.” She said and pulled out a large pouch.

Handing it over I quickly threw it into my inventory and grinned when I saw that more than a few thousand gold coins appeared and after getting a list of one fourth of everything and doing the calculations that was the proper amount, I had the bugs grab the items and they slowly came out.

Flor soon gave me a mana potion that I drank so that I could keep the portal open which clearly showed that the portal ability had quite a consumption. It should be mentioned that along the way when leveling the last two days, i had a huge consumption rate for monster meat and it even improved my INT and WIS stats.

A cold feeling struck the merchant after the pile of goods appeared and he examined. “M-Ma’am, y-you said that there is another pile of this for transporting them to Uniden?” he said, his voice very hoarse.

“That is correct.” She grinned.

The merchant was staring at me like a fat sheep but I grinned, “Not one item is in my inventory, good luck trying to invade my Grove.” I said glaring at him with a cold sneer.

It was obvious that the merchant would feel desire, the goods were high level and could completely equip the elites and high class members of their guild.

There was no real point in Droso passing this stuff to his guild yet because their highest level had just breached level 100.

“Alright, gather the items and distribute them to the craftsmen. You three, come aboard the main ship with me. You don’t need to help out but just stay out of the way please.” She said.

“Sure.” I said and we walked away from the chief merchant who was drooling for the items and stored them all before hobbling away.

“Hey sexy Cat, I’ve been wondering how these boats even sail on sand?!” DD said as they neared the leading ship.

Black Cat trembled when she heard what he called her and turned to me, “Does he always act like this?” She asked, a bit irritated.

“I am extremely sorry, he is… ‘special’ among familiars, I am not sure why exactly but he has acted like this from the get go.” I said and glared at him.

He was just randomly whistling like it had nothing to do with him.

Black Cat sighed, “Sand boats have some magic in their structure. The bottom that comes in contact with the sand is all coated in metal engraved with a very weak levitation spell that lightens the boat while there is a figurehead that causes sand to act like water making it less resistant towards the boat allowing the wind to push it along.” She said and jumped up onto the top deck.

The boats weren’t big, there was only the top deck with the captain's cabin in the back and an elevated area above it where the ship wheel was, then there was a 1st deck where many cannons, the 2nd deck below it where they stored the cannon balls and the cargo at the bottom.

We climbed through the rope ladder and soon found the boat filled with high level players. Many of them had removed their hot and heavy armor and were using lighter clothing that blocked the sun. It was quick to switch gear through the game interface.

Black Cat was shouting at the men to get things ready. Not wanting to get in the way, we find a small corner near the ship wheel.

“I’m going to manage my Scorpion and Scarab beetles for awhile.” I said simply.

“I have my own plants I need to take care of so I just need to meditate really.” Flor said.

We both sat side by side in an unoccupied corner away from most of the ropes and began to meditate while our minds went to the inner worlds inside each of us.

Feeling for the habit of the Scorpions and Scarab beetles, I found a new habit that is an enclosed rocky outcrop with an oasis where the five scorpion and scarab beetles were already living.

Checking the system, I found the name was called Desert Oasis and the crack that was letting light in from all around was connected to the Desert Wilderness.

The place had a small water oasis with a single small stone at the center which was made of mineral deposits and forming several small gems on it were lesser Water Magic Crystals.

On the walls were very small green and yellow gems as well. The thin sand and dirt had grains of the same Lesser Earth and Wind magic crystals which had become part of the diet of the Scorpions while the scarab beetles gathered each on one of the Earth Magic crystals.

Surprisingly, the scorpions had already mated, there were three females and the brood in the females were already growing. Scorpions don’t lay eggs or larva, they are born already alive and even more, scorpions take care of their young during the first 10 to 20 days when the exoskeleton is still soft.

Using the hive mind ability to sense the scorpions, it took some trying before sensing that instead of 100 infants like real world scorpions normally do, there were at most 20 and as little as 10.

“The game sure weakens the reproductive capabilities of its creatures without a doubt. Still, from what i can tell, the gestation is also very short. These are Black Emperor Scorpion, so their gestation period is 7-10 month's in the real world but from the speed it feels like it will be around a week before they are born. No wonder they reduce the number so much.” I thought

I mentally smile as I watch them eating the wind and earth magic crystals. This was a clear show of biological evolution. Real Black Emperor Scorpions were insectivores and carnivores where they ate Insects, spiders, other scorpions and even small mammals. The fact that it was picking at the sand and rocks to find Wind and Earth crystal grains shows a different evolutionary possibility that most bugs showed when magic crystals appeared yet it was the only one that consumed the mineral itself while others used them to live off the mana.

“What are these going to evolve into I wonder.”

The Scarab beetles were similar to the other bugs and were simply feeding off the earth mana.

“Let’s get these to breed.” I thought and mentally ordered the Scarab beetles to mate and place the larva on some Lesser Earth Magic Crystals.

After several moments, the larva were left on different Earth Magic Crystals.

“There, although Desert Scarab Beetles like egyptian ones are Dung Beetles, these will clearly not be… I hope.” thinking of several possibilities that made me shiver a bit, I quickly tossed it out of my mind as I left these newly added creatures and went to the Yellow Honey Hornet.

With two queens already, the hornets were already building nothing short of ‘jars’ out of wax that were being used either as nursery in some, or very large containers for honey. These ‘jars’ were all in the shape of proper honeycombs but were ten times bigger than normal ones and were more fit to be called Honeycomb Cups from their size.

Similar to the ants there was a problem with growing them since their diet is honey and there isn’t much way out of it without trying to develop ‘feeders’.

I choose several weak Hornet and designate them to overeat and feed larva with all that excess honey. It was all still normal honey but there are a few with some magical effect although very weak due to the mix of countless herb pollins.

Finished with what was actually even possible, I opened my eyes and breathed out and got up before taking out a crystal that was part of my experiment for better bug wings. Two nights without sleep and looking at several bugs like the dragonfly allowed me to start developing double pair wings for myself.

I encase myself with mana and slowly my mana signature begins to change with the result of my recent experiment and to my joy, the nerves, blood vessels and all the connections, although a bit painful, form without much problem leaving me with two pairs of functioning wings. The second pair was about a fourth smaller but it still worked.

DD woke up and looked at me and blinked, “You look like that stupid comedy rip off… um… the one making fun of Spiderman…” He said half asleep.

“Which?” I asked, confused.

“That one you watched a few years back when you were bored of the current movies and wanted to watch last century movies… AH! Dragonfly! That is the one!” he said.

I suddenly kick the familiar as I remember the movie that made fun of all the classic marvel characters focusing mostly on Spider man.

“You know, if the Ninja Spider evolved just right going only the pure human route and came out like Levi, they would totally become your own personal Spider man group.” DD said laughing.

I click my tongue and ignore him as I begin to beat the wings. With them extended backwards i started to beat them but the muscle memory for this was nonexistent. Forget using regular muscles, just mental orders to get them moving in the right position was hard. It's like adding a tail to a tailless ape. They have no way of knowing how to use the new appendage unlike those born with it and lived their whole lives with it.

A little away, Black Cat noticed what i was doing and raised a brow, “So he really is a kind of druid.” I heard her mutter before she turned and went back to her own duties.

“You’re forcing it too much.” DD said bored.

“Like you’re one to talk, you fly naturally because of the system.” I replied.

“I still did learn how to fly with these small wings.” He said.

Seeing that I wasn't getting anywhere, I sat down and instead, began to learn to control the muscles and nerves along the wings. I got DD to touch and press the wings at my request and had him lift and move the wings so that I could learn which muscles moved them.

Almost an hour of training was quite stimulating as I learned all the required control muscles for the wings.

Flor woke up halfway through and showed me her bird wings. The muscle control was easier for these wings compared to the bug wings.

Still, I gained movement control and could properly move them around but to flap, it required a lot of muscle control to flap all four wings and wasn't enough for lift.

“Everyone! All aboard! We are leaving in five minutes!” Black Cat shouted.

Similar to her, all the captains shouted the same thing and both the NPC and players began to rush onto the ships and started preparing the ships.

After five minutes, the first empire ship lowered their sails.

“All sails, Full mast! Anchors up!” Black cat shouted.

The Carrack class sand boats were like sea ships of the same model. It has a main mast, a rear mast and a triangle mast at the front.

At the order of the female captain, the men on the mast all pulled the ropes and the sails unfurled and the ones below quickly grabbed the ropes and pulled the sails tight and the wind caught the sails. The anchors in the sand were pulled out as well from both sides.

Suddenly the boat shined momentarily and the sand below it began to flow and the ship started to move.

The boats began to move and Black Cat took the wheel and started to slowly move through the sand.

“Flag bearer! Send the commands to the other ships to follow the arrangement we planned!” Black Cat shouted.

The man on the crows nest pulled out two flags and began to send signal messages.

After a moment, the ships began to move and the five smaller ships got into position behind the royal fleet and the large ships were at three quarters mast which matched the speed of their boats.

Soon the man-o-war battle ships surrounded the smaller fleet.

“So the battle ships are acting like a shield for us?” I said as we looked out.

“It’s a precautionary measure.” Black Cat said while still on the wheel.

Looking at her stone face, me and DD narrowed our eyes ever so slightly before looking out. “This is definitely some kind of mission, C or B rank probably.” I thought.

Although I figured this was pretty much the case, I doubt I could or would do anything that would greatly affect the mission.

Ten ships of central empire soldiers and knights all above level 100 and five ships belonging to the 3rd strongest guild with a level range of their high rankers being between 80 and 115. There was little to nothing a level 40 could do.

After getting used to the sight of the ships moving along the sand we sat at a shaded area out of the way and kept doing our own thing.

***

A day passed and nothing attacked, the night was frigid and I asked Flor if she could give the alias of me entering her Grove as an excuse for me to enter my Hive and train so that I would not lose too much time.

I needed to grow quickly so after leaving the shogun, I went with Levi. We trained during the night, as I leveled up three levels to 45 before Levi got sleepy leaving me with just a sigh.

Coming out, I shivered due to the desert cold, Flor was shivering as well while rubbing herself. I call up a few Hare and Rabbit pelts to use to cover ourselves with, each one with their own mind you.

“So did anything happen?” I asked.

“Nah, only some sightings of weak mob creatures earlier.” She said. “Mind if I go into your Hive?” she asked.

“Sure.” I said and opened a portal for her and she quickly retreated.

I just closed my eyes and used the Hive mind to watch the bugs after activating the Aspect of communication to understand them better. I just watch them and start to try and understand their habits, diets and more importantly, their swarm abilities.

It should be known that bugs release specific sounds when using swarm attacks, the current instrument Glaive can give simple commands such as ‘movement’ or ‘attack’ but not all bugs completely listen to these commands. Wingless bugs can’t adhere to these commands because they are meant for flying bugs.

“I need to make a new Glaive soon, this one was for a newbie but I have to upgrade it like my armor.” i thought.

Hours passed and Flor came out smiling as she handed me a strange purple potion that I identified.

Low quality Lesser Heat Resist Potion

A low quality item that gives the drinker resistance to heat.

Resists 20% of the heat for 30 minutes.

“For a low quality potion, it's quite high end.” I muttered.

“If it was middle quality it would be 1 hour and if it was high quality it would be 2 hours.” She said grinning.

“What about ranks?” I asked.

“Those are represented by age of a potion, all potions are high or top ranked when recently made, after about a week they become regular and after a month they become lesser rank. The effect drops by half after reaching a lesser rank.” she said and pulled out a healing potion she recently made and one that she had made long ago in Yggdress and showed the effect.

“Oh, so it is probably similar for weapons, lesser would be weapons and armor repaired so much they are brittle or rusted.” I asked.

“That is correct.” She nodded.

We both drink the potion as the sun comes out.

Soon the sun was full into the sky when the man at the crows nest shouted down, “Ma’am, we just got word from the Royal Knights, in about 10 minutes we enter Sandora Sand Seas!” the man said.

“Alright men! Get ready for battle!” Black Cat roared.

At once her guild members went into action and the cannons were brought up to the top deck and those on the bottom deck were pushed out and the windows opened. Cannons were cleaned and prepped for combat.

I walk to Black Cat with Flor, “What is the Sandora Sand Sea?” I asked.

“It’s the reason why we have to use Sand Boats to reach the southern nations. After a certain distance into the desert, unlike the sand we are on now, the sand becomes almost twenty times thinner like flour and below the sand there isn’t any sort of bedrock. The sand and aquifer under the sand are in direct contact causing the sand in this region to be almost like quicksand so make sure not to fall off because you will sink and quickly. Oh, and this is also sand monster breeding grounds.” She said in a solemn tone clearly showing that the true battle begins now.

We look at each other and wear a hard expression on our faces as we get out of the way but in my hand was the Glaive if needed.

Ten minutes later, the boats struck a different kind of sand and the speed increased as if they had reached true water. The sand against the wind actually formed waves.

I secretly opened a portal in the sand water and gathered some of it to see if I could use it but was still on alert like everyone else.