“So this is Sandnove.”

The sky was a clear blue with not a cloud anywhere in sight. Splitting that sky in two was the asteroid belt that disappeared into the distant golden sands beyond.

“Not as many dunes as I expected.”

The land ahead was flat, with just a few small dunes here and there.

“Let’s grab some water and then head in.”

The contingent of thirty wooden golems behind Zelhaut began to fill up multiple water canisters from the nearby oasis and store them in the spatial bag. When finished, twenty of the golems took the lead while ten stayed in the back to guard him against any pursues by running branches over the sand, obscuring any tracks.

The sand was difficult to walk on. Every time he pushed off with his foot, his shoe would slide just a little bit back along the sand. It was difficult to gain traction in this sandy environment.

“I hate sand. It just gets everywhere. I feel like I already have some in my shoe. May as well just take them off.”

He leaned down, undid his laces, and took off his shoes. His shoes were not shaped to the human foot, as he had to have them specially made to fit his weirdly shaped feet. One of the many good things about his feet was that he could easily slide them out of shoes. The talons at the end of his foot could retract, making it so they didn't catch on anything.

As soon as his bare feet hit the ground, he could feel extreme heat. Although the sand was hot, the heat was not affecting him that much.

“Would you look at that? The title has already paid for itself.”

The group carried on, marching.

…

“Ow.”

While he walked, something had punctured his barefoot.

Looking down, he saw a scorpion that had been squished underfoot, its stinger still lodged in his foot.

“What is this stinger made of? Not to brag, but I have some pretty tough skin.”

He plucked the scorpion out of his foot and then ate the thing whole, except for the stinger. The chitinous carapace crunched under his teeth, ground to dust. The scorpion tasted like mystery meat heavily seasoned with spice. Its spiciness warmed his tongue and stomach.

“But it didn't warm my heart.”

“Just kidding. Haha, what bullshit.”

Zelhaut rummaged in the bag and brought out some water to cool down. His hat provided great coverage from the sun, providing ample shade, but he was still in a desert, it was hot.

“You know Krindle, I should develop a taste bud circle for you. There is more to life than just eating souls. Everyone should live their lives to the fullest.”

Krindle turned his head towards Zelhaut.

“Is that what you are doing?”

“Fuck yeah! I love my job! I don’t regret the path I’ve chosen. Live or die, I’ll keep on going. Of course, If I die, well, you know how that works. Just promise not to suck up my soul so I can continue my campaign, eh?”

“Hmmm, I’ll think about it”

{I think that would be wise. Raldo is, after all, still a puppet.}

Raldo, meanwhile, just looked between the two, exhibiting signs of confusion. Maybe. It was hard to tell emotion when the guy has a metal plate for a face.

Zelhaut focused back onto the scorpion's stinger tip. Now that he looked closely, the stinger was see-through, as if made of glass. He could even clearly see the venom gland holding a yellow fluid.

Wanting a taste of the venom on his tongue, he popped the stinger in his mouth and tried to break the glass.

“Ah, that his hard.”

His teeth couldn't break the pointed capsule.

“Is this really glass? It's so hard. Almost as hard as diamond.”

“Krindle, try to break this.”

He tossed the stinger to Krindle, who proceeded to try his best to crush it between his hands.

“It won't break?”

“Yeah, toss it back. I think it might be diamond.”

They were quite far into the desert at this point, having been walking for two months. He had yet to meet any people, which was surprising. He had assumed not many people lived here, but he had overestimated that number. Perhaps the whole population grouped together in just a few cities with an abundance of water. It seemed the most plausible theory. He had not come across any water, not even any greenery at all for that matter. It was beginning to get monotonous until that scorpion made something interesting happen.

He would find some monsters now and then, but nothing overly strong. Just some dingos, large birds, average supersized desert animals.

“Ow.”

He lifted his foot once more to find that he had crushed another scorpion.

“Why are there suddenly so many scorpions?... We must be close to something. Something that could be an opportunity. Let’s spread out and search for any change in the environment.”

The golems fanned out in a wide line equidistant from each other. Then the group began walking, slower than before, searching for anything different.

Although the golems were stupid, they would hopefully be able to tell a change in scenery, surely.

As they walked forwards, Zelhaut began to see more and more sand-colored scorpions with diamond stingers. Soon, one of the golems at the far end of the line stopped and sent a mental signal.

Zelhaut hurried over to the signaling golem and looked around. There did not seem to be much of a change at all. Everything looked fairly normal. The sand was the same color it had always been, and it was as flat as ever.

“Dammit!”

He turned away, only to see some sand falling down a tiny crack in the ground in front of the golem. He leaned down on the sand and looked closely at this crack.

The crack was very thin, barely noticeable, and only about ten centimeters long.

He began to scrape away at the sand, uncovering solid, light brown rock.

“Krindle, grab a pickaxe, and let's see what's under here.”

A pickaxe soon made it into his hand, and he swung. The iron point hit the ground, creating a small spider web of cracks to form, allowing more sand to fall into the new cracks. Krindle also swung down, creating an even larger spider web of cracks. As they mined away, more and more sand fell, exposing the solid rock underneath.

He felt a tremble below his feet.

“Shit!”

The ground beneath his feet caved in, allowing the sun to shine down and reflect as a dazzling, blinding light.

Zelhaut quickly pushed off of the piece of falling stone, sending himself upwards as the stone he was standing on hurtled even faster downwards. He reached and grabbed the ledge with one hand. Soon the other joined it and he hauled himself upwards.

He scrambled away from the hole back onto the sand, worrying for further breaks in the rock.

Looking around, he saw Krindle standing next to the hole, having avoided the fall.

After calming his hammering heart, he went to the ledge and looked down into the hole.

“Ouch.”

The light was blinding. Whatever was down there was shiny.

“Hmm, I don't have sunglasses, but we should be able to shade it.”

Soon, a large canvas tent was being stretched across the two-meter diameter of the hole, shielding it from the light. Once the hole was fully covered he lifted the edge and stuck his head under. What he saw stunned him.

“It’s crystals? Or… Diamonds! Yeah, I'm a fuckin rich bitch now.”

Lifting his head, he turned to his workforce.

Zelhaut distributed pickaxes to all his golems, then sent them down the hole. The newly discovered diamond mine was odd, to say the least. The mine was a long cylinder with a diameter of five meters, the sides of the cylinder had fist-sized diamonds poking out, surrounded by rock. The wooden golems climbed down, using the diamonds poking out as hands and footholds.

The golems descended down, and down, and down.

“How deep is it? Jeez.”

Finally, one of the golems slipped and fell. The golem was soon out of sight, consumed by the darkness of the seemingly bottomless pit. Zelhaut waited for the sound of impact. And waited.

“Damn it. This is too deep. Grab some diamonds, then let’s head out.”

Zelhaut had a plan, but he would need supplies. To get supplies, he would have to head into a town, which he dreaded.

The golems came back up, carrying one or two fist-sized diamonds. There were noticeably fewer golems, a few more had fallen. The smaller group began to walk once more, but not before marking the spot with a stick and a makeshift red flag.

…

The group came across a city. The city had sunbaked stone walls that rose twenty meters tall. The guards at the gate wore a thick cloth for armor and had scimitars at their waists, alongside a pointed helmet that covered their faces and a peacock feather sprouting out the top.

At either side of the gate, stood two very tall black statues. They depicted the body of a man, but the head of a dog. The statues each held a wicked-looking spear in their hands.

“Halt. State your business.”

“Here for supplies.”

The guard grunted.

“Entry fee is one magic crystal.”

Zelhaut rose an eyebrow at that, not that the guards could see under him his hat.

“Not money?”

“No. Now are you gonna pay it, or are we gonna have problems?”

The statues at either side of the gate moved, lifting their spears and lowering the pointed end to point at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Here you go.”

Zelhaut tossed him the magic crystal. The guard took out some medallion which he pressed against the surface of the crystal, which caused it to glow.

“Ok. You're free to go in.”

Zelhaut walked inside, his contingent of golems following after him.

The inside of the city looked much different from the outside. There were plants everywhere. He had yet to see so much greenery while in Sandnove. The buildings were the same sunbaked stone as the wall. The people milling about all had something covering their heads from the sun.

He went about his business quickly. He bought a thick rope, some metal support joints, lumber, nails, and some building tools. After all that, he left the same way he had come in.

Before he made it too far from the gate, but still out of sight, he stopped. Taking out some spare clothes and a hat, he dressed one of his golems. Then, Zelhaut ordered it to walk towards the gate. As the golem began to walk, Zelhaut maneuvered himself out of sight of the gate, behind a dune.

As he was laid on the sand stomach first, he watched the golem lumber towards the gate. Zelhaut spotted the guard he had talked to on his way in. Once the golem was about five meters away from the guards, Zelhaut ordered the golem to break into a run and kill the guard he was eyeing.

The golem ran, its spear arm outstretched towards the guard's neck. Unfortunately, before the arm could pierce the man's neck, one of the dog-headed golems speared his golem through its circles. The wooden golem fell to the ground, once again just a stiff hunk of wood.

“Fuck me. Let’s go!”

Zelhaut shuffled back, then stood up and began to run. Looking back, he let out a relieved sigh.

“Looks like no one is following us.”

After a while, he slowed and began his normal walking pace, heading back to the diamond pit.