Around five minutes after we entered the Sandora Sand Sea we were attacked. The creatures looked like a large sword fish with yellow colored rough scales. They were excellent jumpers and could reach the top deck and wave their sword-like nose to attack or catch prey.

The defensive procedure was quite simple, the inner boats would raise metal shields along the side of the deck to block their jumps while the Royal knights ships would hang bloody meat and their archers would shoot arrows with hook lines to ‘fish’ them out.

The level range was around 60 at the lowest and some special ones that were level 70 were like leaders of each school.

Of course, there were some good jumpers that could jump over the barriers and once, one almost reached me from behind but I reacted by opening the Hive Portal into the desert.

After sighing I sent some bugs to see how the creature was and was surprised that, although the desert was full of sand, that could barely penetrate the sand and swim. It also revealed a weakness of the creature, they breathed though some unique method through the sand. They directly breath the air and they are also weak to the strong heat, which is why they swim under the sand.

Soon it died of simple ‘dehydration’ and asphyxiation.

“They can’t penetrate common sand? Does that mean they exist specifically because of the sand? Wait, didn’t Black Cat say something about the sand her being finer and mixed directly with the aquifer?” I thought and had the Drone make a cup and bring out the sand I gathered and identified it.

Sandora Sea Sand

A unique kind of sand formed by nature within the Sandora Sand Sea. It’s more than ten times finer than common sand making it easy to sink into the sand. Many creatures can only live in this kind of sand because it has a huge water retention capability.

Seeing the description, I finally realized why they didn’t adapt.

Because of the danger, we headed to a safer area and I asked Flor to cover for me for a second as I jumped into the Palace.

“Drone, tell me, can things like this sand be integrated?” I asked.

“Affirmative, this is regarded as a Geographic item. Master can locate this within page 283 of ‘The Bugman’.” She replied.

I pull the book out and read to find the information.

“Geographic Items are a very rare kind of item. It is possible to integrate and develop similar unique geographic locations within the Hive once these items are gathered. Some kinds are River Lava, Sea Sand, Permafrost Ice, Blue/Purple/Red Thunder Cloud and more. A list below states several other possible Geographic items that are found in places with an extremely unique environment and are the only places such things can form.” the book said.

“I see, so how long does it take to integrate it?” I asked.

“It instantly integrates Master but it takes several days for the true formation of the Wilderness expansion to occur. In this case, the Desert Wilderness will slowly expand and a Sand Sea shall form next to it.” she explained.

“Great, Integrate it.” I ordered and jumped out once more and found the school had been dealt with.

Since the ship was on high alert, we didn’t try anything that would disrupt them but we headed to the higher part of the deck once more to be able to see further.

The following days, more and more Sand Sword Fish jumped at us and after a while a true predator appeared in the form of a Sand Lizard, a massive twenty meter long sand lizard that was level 90. These moved in packs of up to ten and were a danger when they appeared from below the sands.

After that were Sand Shark, Sand Drake, both with a level range of 105-110.

Not one creature of the desert was docile at all but they weren’t enough to disrupt the passage of the heavily prepared ships. Also, there wasn’t any obstruction from any other ships since it would mean death at this time.

On the third day, we reached what was referred to as an ‘Island’. These are areas where the bedrock formed and there wasn’t Sea Sand. If you're wondering, yes I caught several of each sand creature but there isn’t much Sea Sand so the number has to remain small.

We were lucky that we hadn’t encountered the hardest creature of the desert.

The islands were different, at the center there was usually a large rock outcrop that always had caves inside and an oasis. Around these was a small village that survived off of the water and bounty of the desert within this ‘island’.

We stocked up on water while trading the caught Sand Sea creature meat.

As they were resting, I remained in the ship while Flor went to look for herbs, it was then that I heard the crew talking to Black Cat, “Ma’am, the captain said that the next stretch was sure to have Sand Worms. There are also sightings from far away of Sand Pit Worms as well.” One of them said.

“Seriously? Both kinds are so close together?!” Black Cat sneered.

I was confused about the creatures they were talking about, after thinking a while, I opened the game interface and then opened the forum that was accessible from in-game and tried to find out information about the two.

The first is the obvious one, Sand Worms are huge worms ranging from 10 meters to 25 meters in length and from 1 meter thick to 5 meters. They are one of the Apex predators and their level range was level 110-135. Sand Pit Worm were the opposite though. They didn’t surpass 10 cm in length but they are also apex predators and the ones that helped create the Sand Sea, from what someone’s history research on the creature suggests. They would eat rock and sand making it thinner and when enough of them gather, they start to form a sandy whirlpool that keeps expanding, pulling in anything in the sand as food.

“These Sand Pit Worms will probably be required for me to expand and grow the Sand Sea in the Hive as well as to keep the Sand Sea creatures in check.” I thought.

Taming them would be a good idea since they are already the natural predator of all the Sand Sea creatures besides the Sand Worms, who are too durable for them to eat through.

Flor soon returned, there were many Oasis herbs she found and happily handed me a few of each type and I had the Drones Integrate them. The extra were directly planted into the existing ‘Desert Oasis’ making it expand a bit but also bring food for the two tamed races.

A few herbs they naturally ate off before returning to eating mana or magic crystals.

The Desert also spread these desert herbs, as well as cactus that were among the herbs that Flor got randomly.

“This is quite a good harvest.” I mutter as we look at the flowers.

Purple Desert Cactus Flower

A medical herb with strong anesthesia effect. It is a key ingredient in Excellent and Rare quality Healing Potions and a secondary herb in Epic quality potions.

“This is pretty high grade.” I said to Flor.

“I still can’t work with this, only intermediate level alchemy can successfully use these. I have several planted in my grove as well so I will have them even if you’re not here.” She said.

I nod and look at others. There were some weaker herbs such as Hallucination Cactus, a cactus with water that can cause hallucination and was the main ingredient in High quality Hallucination potions and antidotes for the same.

While looking at the herbs, the boats soon set sail after refilling their supply of water and supplies. It took a few minutes to return to the Sand Sea and it was even more tense on the ships than before.

Although there was a warning for Sand Warms, only the low ranking mobs attacked. Although the crew was tense and on alert, the more time that passed, the lower the tension got because humans were incapable of retaining such a high tension over a long period of time without it being during war. This is even less likely for common people of modern times who don’t have the keen senses honed from intense ‘true’ life and death situations.

On the fourth day I was happy when the three female scorpions finally gave birth. They were instantly a higher species, two in fact.

A single one was about twice as big while the rest were common sized. After using Buglore on them, I finally got the name. The big ones were called Black Steel Emperor Wind Scorpion and the small ones were Black Steel Wind Scorpions.

It was a bit surprising when they showed community development from the get go but that is probably a result of the Hive mind.

The Scarab beetles also evolved after absorbing so much Earth mana. They were Black Gem Scarab Beetles.

Different from the originals, they showed their Dung Beetle habits that matched with the Scorpions. With the Desert Oasis suddenly increasing a huge amount with their appearance and the increase of magic crystal outcrops, both the scorpion and beetles began to gather and feed off the crystals.

The Dung beetle would form balls of rich mineral clay and roll it together with a large amount of hand picked earth crystals and roll it into one big ball. They even eat and regurgitate the larger crystals to produce a Mudball rich in Earth Magic Crystals.

As for the Scorpions, they showed why they were called ‘Wind’ Scorpions. Below their bodies, at the joint of their legs and on their body, they had small air vents while the tail and leg had another set of several holes that sucked in air. When they almost paralized their body in a specific form as if all their body was curled up, their body would suck in a lot of air and push it out from the vents below it. They would then control their direction by small movements of their legs. The tail was the one possessing the propulsion vents as well.

Since they were unlike spiders, Black Emperor Scorpions can’t climb vertically on walls but with these wind vents, the scorpions were able to slowly hover and rise upwards like a hovercraft now. With their front claws completely free and even evolved with several more flexible movements, it moves to the walls to claw at the more complete Lesser Wind Magic Crystals while feeding off the earth ones on the ground.

It was a very curious growth pattern that made me really happy because if it continued, their growth at the stage would lead their maximum size to reach around 30 cm before becoming tier 3. Scorpions would probably become the largest bug under 3rd tier.

BOOM!

Suddenly a large shock struck under the boat rocking it completely.

Not just this one but all of them causing everyone to fall on their butt or fall forward if they weren’t holding anything.

“SAND WORM!” the man in the crows nest shouted.

Everyone’s face suddenly darkened as they turned to the left where the huge body suddenly surfaced.

ROAR!

Releasing a roar as the giant worm burst out of the sand and landed once more in it swimming underground at impressive speeds matching the fast ships in movement.

Bang!

Suddenly, all around, a large group burst out. They were of different sizes causing one to feel a cold foreboding feeling from all of them.

“W-What is this?!” I shouted as I tried to get up.

“ALL MEN TO BATTLE STATIONS! ARCHERS READY AND FIRE AT WILL! MAGES, BOMB THE SANDS! Anyone else, grab any explosives made by the alchemists, shoot them at any worm you see surface. Sand worms are extremely sensitive towards explosions! Don’t try to kill them! Their skin is harder than rock and if too much damage is done, they will stop surfacing and attack from below! Scare them away with the explosives instead!” Black Cat shouted.

“YES MA’AM!” Everyone shouted and after the shaking stopped, men began to pull out many boxes from below all with round leatherbound explosives.

I was still shaken when the first explosive was thrown overboard near a worm that had just plunged into the sand.

ROAR!

After the explosion, the worm completely upended the sands it was near completely crazed before burrowing completely with the sand filling up behind it.

From the other ships as well, countless bombs were thrown off scaring a large amount of the worms but this worked at the start.

“They’re attacking!” Someone shouted suddenly as two huge worms jumped out trying to land on top of the ship.

“Someone stop them!” Black Cat said frantic but the Mages had just finished shooting their magic but it slammed into only one worm after concentrated power was put into it. The other descended onto the boat. At the final moment, I jumped under it and suddenly two huge portals appeared. One was above me and the other was three meters off board facing into the sand, in particular, towards a worm in the sand.

As the worm entered one portal it suddenly burst out from the other one facing the sand. I began to pale as the length of the body was causing me to waste a huge amount of mana. Holding two portals opened was extremely hard for me.

As soon as it passed, the portals closed and I heard the sounds of the worm slamming into the other one and smiled a bit. The trick I just used was something I had no idea if it would work or not.

I open one portal into the Desert and right below it, I open an exit. This didn’t cause twice the mana to be used, it caused almost triple because the size of the portal was huge for both. My level lets me open two portals at once but the larger the portal the larger the consumption per second.

Hive portal has leveled up.

Most likely due to the ingenious use of the portal, a level were instantly rewarded for but that didn’t help the situation at the moment.

“What did you just do?” Black Cat asked.

“I opened an entrance and exit to my grove and just diverted the creature. Don’t count on it too much, the mana consumption is huge.” I said huffing.

“Here!” Flor ran over and handed me a mana potion that I drank to restore my mana quickly.

“Can you use it offensively?” Black Cat asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked

“What is the distance limit?” She kept asking.

“Stop pressuring him!” Flor suddenly frowned and said.

“Miss, we are quite in a crisis so I don’t really care how but we need information about his ability to put it to use!” She said.

“I can only open two portals at one time, I use around 3% of mana to spawn a portal. The basic size is 30 cm and the portal remains open for 22 second at that size but when expanded to extreme sizes like 5 meters, the same consumption lasts only 3 seconds so I have to constantly feed the spell.” I replied.

“That is good, if the worms enter and you close the portal it would cut them in half!” She said.

“If it was that simple I might have done it already.” I replied. “As long as there is something crossing, I can’t completely close it beyond the size of the obstruction.” I replied.

She sneered at the inconvenience but DD came at this time with his cruel but ingenious idea.

“Hey Jackass, remember those old snake games where you lose if the snake eats itself?” DD asked.

“What about it?” I asked. There was a momentary silence before I frowned, “Would they even be stupid enough to bite themselves?” I asked.

“Maybe not themselves but one another is possible!” Black Cat said.

BOOM! BOOM!

A smaller and bigger Worm burst out to attack. They each climbed up high and descended aiming to burst through the ship.

With a sneer, I was forced to suck it up and opened two more portals. One was higher towards the bigger worm than the smaller one and it entered just before the smaller one did and the result was quite spectacular. They had their jaws opened and the worm that was coming out of the portal swallowed and chomped into the smaller one while bursting outwards.

Bang!

The bodies tangled up against the ship and were stuck in the portal making me pale.

I quickly reacted by causing the portals in the hive to move apart and was formed to bring the worm inside the hive where it finished eating the worm. As it began to move, I opened up a portal and threw it out right on top of another worm in the sand.

“That was close.” I said pale and drank another mana potion. “This isn’t going to work offensively, if you want I can toss them around but if they come in two I can’t do much.” I replied.

“Alright, then guard against the bigger one that is harder to deflect, the mages will push aside the other ones!” She said.

“This better not be free.” DD suddenly said only to be back handed by me.

“We can talk about the prices of your aid after we reach Uniden. Since we never asked that you come aboard for aid.” She said.

“Alright, let’s get out of this first.” I said just as three large worms burst out.

We turned pale when the number increased and a solemn look appeared on my face.

It came one after another, this time. “Get the last on!” I shouted as I looked at the two other incoming ones. After a moment when they reached the apex of their jump I could tell where the trajectory was and quickly opened small portals and prepared to expand them at once.

When the worms got closer, I was able to easily fix the trajectory and finally fully open the portal as the first one entered and the second worm got near. Unlike before, I didn’t aim for head on collision but instead, I aimed for blindsiding one of them.

BOOM!

A huge explosion hit the third one before it reached the peak of the jump causing it to be thrown into the open between the royal fleet and the guild fleet.

ROAR!

At the same time, the first worm entered the portal while the other one passed in front of the other one only to have the fully open jaws of its kin appear, sinking it’s disgusting teeth into the flesh of its own kind.

The force of the one blindsiding it pushed both worms off the path of the ship and they landed in the sand battling each other.

“That is more like it! KILL THEM! Little worms!” DD shouted and laughed.

Hive portal has leveled up.

“Shut up you piece of shit!” I shouted as a single worm appeared. Spotting another surfacing, I decided I would throw them against each other and as the worm fell on me, I opened a portal high in the sky in the desert wilderness. I then drink a potion quickly and open an exit.

The reason I didn’t open both is that beyond 5 meters from me, portals are stationary. The worm is beyond five meters so after opening it will stay in place.

The worm came out with a roar and smashed face first into the sand. A bar of HP appeared and it’s HP dropped as it fell on it's own kind and the two began to battle.

Only chaos was left, the Royal Knights were able to kill any worm trying to attack while the other ships of the guild were worse off but surviving. With more mage or other classes able to block, no ship had sunk yet.

After half an hour, the number of worms had drastically decreased and their own fear of the group made them run away underground.

When chaos turned to silence, everyone’s nerves were stretched thin afraid that they would return.

Half an hour using Hive Portal in the ways it was used showed some combat potential and made it go up to level 9 with 80% of exp. Just a little more will make the skill intermediate level and would increase the number of portals once more.

I huffed on the deck after so much exerting but thanks to this, I now had the idea of how to fight using the portals offensively. Skills were only as good as its user so with the idea I gained I can improve my own close combat.

“W-We finally got through them.” I said.

Flor smiled at me and took out one of her High Quality Mana potions for me and fed me. She then morphed into her Healing Herb Dryad form and used a healing aura that high level healing herbs have. Muscle Fatigue was something health potions could heal but stamina was not, it's like healing the stress of the muscles but not regenerating the energy.

Flor soon walked around aiding the clerics and healers.

“Everyone! We aren’t out of the woodworks yet! On alert!” Black cat said.

“What else can there be?!” I asked.

“Sand Pit Worms, and… no that monster doesn’t come out easily.” She said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Something I doubt you would meet anytime soon. The master of the Sandora Sand Sea, the Desert Rock Demon.” She said.

DD suddenly shouted, “God damn it bitch! Why the fuck did you jinx it?!”

Some members of the crew frowned at his words. It wasn’t a good feeling to have their leader insulted like that.

“DD shut up would you.” I said as I got up and looked over the railing. “Exactly how far are we from Uniden?” I asked worried.

“About two days still, we can only check when night comes through.” Black Cat said and sighed.

The only reason no one was against me talking to her directly like that is how important I was for survival. No one could divert as many worms as me so it saved them a lot of damage.

The boats all continued on their way and soon the crew were up and moving, cannons were ready for anything else that might appear and many different kinds of weapons from bombs to arrows were all ready.

A day passed unimpeded but this didn’t work to weaken the tension but instead it amplified it. The lack of monsters only meant that something high ranked was nearby.

Eventually we found out what, the despair of the guild members and even many Royal Knights.

ROAR!

“God damnit! I told you you fucking jinxed it!” DD shouted.

Almost half a mile away, the sands began to rise. Soon a huge sand creature stuck out of the sand.

[Desert Rock Demon Level 225]

“What the hell is a level 200 monster doing in such a beginner zone?!” I shouted.

“SAND PIT WORMS!” the crows nest shouted.

Bells and horns kept signalling from all the ships as they began to veer and run from the huge demon even the Royal Knights couldn’t fight it easily in these conditions. It has home field advantage and they can’t even run on the sand due to the effect of sinking into it.

At this time we looked out to the front and to our astonishment, five sand whirlpools began to form at the feet of the Desert Rock Demon.

“What is going on?” Black Cat shouted.

At this moment, red flags from the leading Royal Knight ship signaled.

Soon the message arrived, “Ma’am, Sand Pit Worms are Predators of the Desert Rock Demon, when it appears, they appear in huge numbers trying to suck it up and reach its core!” the crows nest shouted.

“Seriously!?” I shouted and grinned.

“Why are you so happy?” She asked.

“How close is possible to get close to one of those whirlpools?” I asked.

“Are you deranged?! We would have long been in the strike range of the Desert Rock Demon by then!” Black Cat shouted.

I frowned and nodded before taking out a crystal and after a moment, two bug antennae started to grow on my forehead as well as a pair of wings. My flight skills were already level 3 and I could produce some lift.

“I’ll be right back, I want to test something!” I said and my wings buzzed as I jumped.

“Wait!” Black Cat shouted. I lifted off and covered 10 meters but I smiled. A moment later, a portal opened under my feet. That said, when I touched it my body didn’t pass through because I had made the portal against the floor in the palace to work as a platform.

Hive Portal has Leveled up

Hive portal has reached level 10 and has upgraded to Intermediate Level 1

Hive Portal

Intermediate level 1

The power has created a dimension within your own body that can house numerous insects of all types. To access this you have the power to open a rift or portal into this hive to recall or release your insects.

You can open 4 portal at one given time

25 mp to open portal at 30 cm in diameter for 30 seconds

I jumped as I brushed aside the screen and took flight again. I kept beating the wings.

ROAR!

The demon roared as sand gathered into a rock. Such a small thing like me would not be noticed when there was such a huge target.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The ships had already turned and now had the cannons at the aim and with the rock coming, they opened fire smashing it and sending the cannonballs into the sand giant.

“If there were more mountains and you had spider web slinging abilities like the Ninja Spider, this would feel so much like Spiderman vs Sandman.” DD said as he appeared behind me.

“Yeah, I agree!” I said as I jumped again. My proficiency in flight was growing and the distance was for each jump was also growing as I got near the whirlpool of Sand Pit Worms.

When I was 20 meters from them, I was finally able to open a portal into the sand pit and sucked up the sand and worms into the Hive Palace. I then opened a small portal that dropped one of them into my hand. It was a perfect copy of the big sand worms but I grabbed it skillfully by the head so that it would not be able to bite. I jumped away and began spamming my taming skill.

Taming failed.

Taming failed.

Taming failed.

Taming failed.

Taming failed.

Taming failed.

….

Spamming the skill like crazing the skill level up soon came and while running, I finally tamed it.

You have successfully tamed Level 50 Sand Pit Worm.

I finally smiled, in joy as I ran back, “Jump back into the whirlpool and try to command the other Sandworms to start circling the base of the Sand Demon instead of just making small whirlpools.” I ordered it and dropped it.

The little worm hit the sand and soon buried itself before swimming rapidly.

As for me, I quickly jumped aiming to return.

ROAR!

I suddenly looked back and pale when I saw the Demon was actually looking my way and grabbed a ball of sand and chucked it at me.

Before I could even react, I expanded the portal and made it rise up in the hive and closed it quickly escaping.

After five seconds I reopened it and flew out quickly and while pale, I looked back and saw it roaring in rage that I got away but suddenly a large cannonball shot at its head and blew up drawing the hate of the demon.

As I landed once more, I was sweating.

“What the hell did you do?” Black Cat asked.

“I-I tamed one of the Sand worms. Now let me focus!” I said and closed my eyes and felt the Hive mind. Soon I reached the sand worm that was growling at the others and trying to get it to spin in a large circle.

To my surprise, it had quite a few behind it and began to move to the other whirlpool. I watched as more began to follow it and soon the remaining ones saw that the few numbers would not work and followed the pack.

“Ma’am! The Sand Pit Worm whirlpools are changing! The small whirlpools are closing and now all the sand around the demon is moving!”

Everyone suddenly turned as they saw the creature suddenly stagger.

BANG!

The sand of the Giant suddenly began to collapse while under it, the sand was sinking and spinning while gathering the sand of the Demon’s own body. This is why the Sand Pit Worms are predators of this huge creature. With a body of sand, it would take only a lot of grinding to get the body to vanish.

At this moment, the HP suddenly appeared as the whirlpool suddenly appeared under the demon and began to trap it.

“This…” everyone was in shock.

ROAR!

A roar of pain came as the demon suddenly collapsed into the sand pit. At the sign of weakness, sand worms that had been wry suddenly rushed to join the feast. The whirlpool suddenly intensified and became like a grinding wheel for the demon that seemed so unkillable.

ROAR!

In rage, the demon suddenly punched down causing a massive tremor and the death of a great deal of worms. Luckily, I had already known it would get like this and had the Sand Pit Worm mate. Surprisingly they mated during these moments when they hunted so with the worm with fertile eggs retreating I pulled it into the newly formed Sand Sea, it happily swam into the sand and swam to the shallows where it would be safer until the numbers increased.

I open my eyes and smile as I stand up.

The ships had already turned and were sailing away from the demon that is said to sink numerous people, they had luckily gotten away from.

Black Cat looked at me, “Thank you, but what did you do?” She asked.

“I simply tamed a sand worm and had it gather others of its kind to form a sand pit under the demon.” I said and turned back and looked at the HP. “Kinda amazing how Sand Pit worms are only level 50 and could kill that thing. Natural predators are scary.” I said with a grin and started to laugh loudly at the sad fate of the demon. It’s HP finally Hit zero and it roared before it’s body fell down and at the center was the Monster core. The Sand Pit worms instantly jumped out and surrounded it.

Although it was a shame that such a high level item was taken, I now had a natural counter against this monster and could safely travel through the sands after enough are bred.

Everyone was silent while I laughed but after I sigh and turn around and look at them. “Is something the matter?” I asked, confused.

Everyone just shook their heads, “No, but do you want to join our guild?” Black Cat asked.

“No thanks, I’m already in one.” I said and sat down. “There shouldn’t be any trouble anymore I hope.” I smiled while thinking that I really got lots of benefits from this disaster. A tier 3 monster bug, the portal spell leveled up, flight skill reached level 5 and I could now maintain low flight. I was so happy that I just sat down and closed my eyes to rest now that the biggest danger was gone.

Black Cat looked at me out of the corner of her eye and sighed before shouting for everyone to get into stations since they were still not out of danger since they were in the Sand Sea.