It wasn’t possible for Rune to teleport to the rest of the group as the sand was like an insulator for magic. It contained it and made sure that it stayed in the caverns so he couldn’t use telepathy or teleport.

He wasn’t sure of it before he decimated the village, but confirmed it soon after. He was forced to meet up with the rest of the group on foot.

Rena was breathing heavily as the sand affected her every second and kept getting worse. Rune had no idea how to help her out, but he definitely knew what might help her. There was a book that he found that was labeled with strange symbols around the picture of sand.

This was found in the far corners of one of the caves where a tortoise person holding a staff and wearing a robe made of chains was. Rune promptly cut him down with his gauntlets as it shrieked in terror and, behind its melting corpse, was the book.

If someone knew how to read it, then he would be able to cure Rena. Even if he absorbed it, he would have no idea what it would do due to him not understanding the language within the book. The book was several pages thick and was more the shape and size of a magazine than a book. It was made of some white material that Rune believed was the squid skin and the symbols were drawn in black.

He moved towards the cave Rena and Hika were in as they were on the third floor of smaller caves. There were four floors of caves and ramps with some long, cylindrical stones every foot up the ramp. Those stones were used to climb up the ramp with ease instead of slipping down the 30 degree ramp.

“Hey!! I think Rena’s getting worse!!!”

“Well, obviously, but I don’t know what to do about it. Our only chance would likely be to meet up with Rouna and have her tell us what language this is. Here. Let’s get a move on. Oh, before that…”

Rune hopped to the bottom floor directly from the third and created a small impact in the sand. Then he started moving to look around. He was specifically looking for a large, open space. It wa actually quite difficult to find a nice, large, and open area that was flat as there were many rocks scattered about and he was a bit too lazy to move them.

In the end, he decided to just use a flat rock. He transmuted some of the sand into solid board and also transmuted holes in it to form letters in common. It read:

“Rune’s group, Rune, Rena, and Hika, are going down the passage on the left.”

He wrote it just in case as he wasn’t sure which way and where they would find the rest of the group. He decided to leave a sign there if they came across it and only those who could read common would be able to read it so that no more tortoise people would show up and attack.

Then he used [Gravity Control] on Hika and Rena to lower them down. It was hard for Hika to get the sleeping Rena up there, but Rune just brought them down with ease. Hika had also screeched for a moment when Rune cast his magic without any warning.

As the two were slowly lowered to the ground, Rune took out a chain and also four wind stones. When the two of them, plus the shield Rena was on, reached the ground, he lifted the shield up with ease and fused the wind stones to the shield.

He let go of it when he placed it a meter off the ground and it started to float. It bobbed up and down as if riding small waves on water. He took one end of the chain and fused it with the floating shield. With Rena still on it, he tugged it and it moved.

Next, he made the shield wider and larger so that Hika could get on too as they were extremely tired. Hika went on without any sign of hesitation.

Rune started to walk down the passage on the far left on the opposite side of the village cavern. The tunnel was far wider and taller than the one he was in before and it took much longer for them to encounter any sort of being.

After 20 minutes, Rune stopped moving. Hika looked at him in a strange manner as she didn’t know what he was stopping for.

“Why are you-”

She was cut off when Rune cast [Quiet] on her. He slowly moved his finger to the area where his mouth would be on his helm. He let go of the chain and moved towards the corner of the t-intersection.

He turned his head around the corner very slowly and looked around when something flashed. Rune quickly moved his body as a knife flew at his face. Unfortunately, his head wasn’t connected to his body too well as it couldn’t handle the speeds. His head practically stayed in place as his body jumped from the corner.

The knife embedded itself in his head and they both flew into the wall. Sand exploded and Rune quickly put up a barrier around Rena and Hika by casting [Water Ball] followed by [Water Control]. In an instant, water prevent sand from coming in contact with the two of them.

Rune could still see, but lost his heat detection and night vision eyes. He still kept the magic eye skill as the pentagram removed itself from the eye on the helmet and the energy in the place of Rune’s helm contained a small pentagram on the right side of his head. It was about where the eye would be.

Using [Gravity Control], he moved his helm back onto his shoulders while removing the knife from it. Before his head was knocked off, he saw the group of people.

They were Rouna, Erin, Elisa, and Riika. Elisa was the one who threw the knife as she was jumpy. When she realized that the helmet she threw the knife at was Rune’s, it was far too late and the knife was already sailing through the air.

When Rune saw this, he tried to evade, but his head was still caught up in it and he became quite annoyed. He placed his head back and trotted over to the other four with Hika and Rena in tow.

He strode right up to Elisa and flicked her forehead.

“Fool! Don’t just chuck a knife at someone. They could have died!!”

She winced as she held her forehead and Rouna just chuckled a little. Then Rune walked to her and handed her the book he found.

“Rena has some of that calamity sand in her system. Can you find what language this is and how to take the sand out?”

“Yeah. This is Draconic which means that I can read it, but…”

“Yes?”

“I already know of a way to get rid of this sand. This sand was what made up my village’s floor.”

“I-is that right?”

“Indeed.”

“Well then, uh, why don't you do something about Rena’s condition and tell us how to prevent it.”

“It’s pretty simple. Just use some lemons. You put it in the wound and the small amount of acid would destroy the sand almost completely. No worry about ingesting it as the stomach acid will dissolve it. I thought we had some lemons…”

“Ah, we do. It’s just that I never would have imagined squirting lemon juice in a wound would make it better. I mean, it usually hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Of course. It feels terrible.”

Rune took out a box of food. This one was labeled to say that there were lemons and limes in there so that none of them would get scurvy. He ripped open the box, it was made of thin wood with a lid of wood, and grabbed a lemon, but not before putting his gauntlets back in his storage.

He tugged on the chain that was lying on the ground and the shield floated right on over to him. The box was placed back into his storage and he cut it cleanly in half with just a finger. He sighed and raised his index finger over her skin.

In one quick stroke, he cut her the skin of her arm and blood appeared in a straight line. Then he poured lemon juice in and she started to struggle and writhe around. Then the wound healed quickly after the lemon juice entered the wound.

He waited for several minutes and, by then, she was breathing normally again. Hika was already off of the shield and was looking at Rena intensely. She held her hand tightly as she wanted her friend to stay alive.

After a few more minutes, Rena opened her eyes and looked around. She looked at everyone in the group.

“Oh. Did we all meet up?”

Hika hugged her friend in a bear hug and wouldn’t let go for a while. Rune looked at Rouna and spoke.

“Why does any small amount of acid purge the sand?”

“I dunno. Magic? Science? Who can really say.”

She shrugged her shoulders before asked her question at Rune.

“Where did you find this book? The only ones I can think of would be the Toratea who are related to dragons. They kinda look like turtles.”

“...”

Rune stares at her with a poker face. He didn’t want to say that he annihilated a whole village of them thirty minutes before.

In fact, the Toratea were just defending themselves and begging for mercy. Rune, with his lust for power, decided that he didn’t like them and freed them from their mortal coils. To him, at that moment, he was giving them an option of dying by age or monsters or to die and be his experience points.

He still wasn’t sorrowful or sad that he killed them without thinking that they would benefit him with things other than leveling up. He would still kill and/or break anyone’s bones who got in his way.

“What did you do?”

She looked like she was about to throw a fit like a child, but on a much larger scale. He didn’t want to incur her wrath, but he might have to take it.

“I might have… definitely… probably… murdered all of them.”

“WHAT!?!? THEY ARE MY DISTANT KIN!!!!”

Her eyes glowed a sinister color as she glared at him and he put up his hands while carefully and discretely using skills to buff and reinforce himself.

“Uh… self-defense?”

Rouna punched his head clean off for the second time today. The head, still not as secure as his old one, sailed through the air and lodged itself deep into the cave walls and sand spewed forth.

He had braced himself for a punch in the chest, but ultimately failed in blocking the punch. Even if he evaded, his head would still be in that position.

“Well, I mean, I had no way of knowing and I was just trying to protect Rena and Hika from them. Um, they attacked me first?”

Rouna puffed her cheeks out and wanted to, so badly, claw him. Instead, she pawed at Elisa and Elisa patted her on the head a few times. This calmed her down greatly and now the look on her face was that of pure bliss.

She wasn’t too angry at Rune for killing them as they were quite far and distant species, but the Toratea were directly related to Dragon Turtles which were cousins to many dragons. She hadn’t known any Toratea in her life, but knew that they were somewhat related.

Thus why the patting made her happy and she was just feeling a bit remorseful. Rune just ignored her a bit and started to talk to Riika.

“Do you guys know the way out? Rouna should have known, right?”

“Yes. We were just getting you, but it seemed like Elisa was a bit too jumpy. Unfortunately, the exit is guarded by a pair of golem knights made of the sand. Unfortunately, she said that they would likely not be melted with lemons.”

“Ok. Which way is it?”

Riika turned to the passage right of where Rune came from and started walking. She turned around partially and waved a hand at the rest of them to follow. Rouna came out of her daze and skipped to the front of the group that was now walking.

Riika, Rena, and Hika started to speak amongst each other as they had become friends in the academy. They all smiled as they talked about what Riika had done within the caves.

Apparently, Erin and Riika were saved when Rouna and Elisa save them while in the air. When they landed to search for Rune, Rena, and Hika, the area above them had went from air to sand. They were trapped there and they made a small campfire with Elisa’s Excalibur burning some of the crates that fell down and broke on impact.

Rouna then looked with her farsight magic and saw that she could only look at places within the cave. She looked around and saw some squid things and some Toratea for a while until she saw Rune, Rena, and Hika walking through a passage.