“Why the hell is it so hot?” Gabriel whined.

Null looked at him with a confused expression, “Because we’re in the desert?”

“Yeah, but it's a game, they already toned down pain so you’d think they would tone down extreme temperature or something,” He waved his hand at his face in a vain attempt to generate a breeze, “My ass is melting out here.”

Null shrugged, “Isn’t bothering me much.”

“Well good for you,” Gabriel said with obvious bitterness.

In reality, he had no one else but himself to blame for the heat. He was still in his secondhand armor, which was designed for the more temperate environment of Gram. He thought that maybe the looseness of the armor itself wouldn’t make the effect so bad, but all it resulted in was pockets of humidity against his skin that promoted further sweating, creating a vicious cycle within his gear. He didn’t know if he was supposed to be impressed or pissed off with the developers with this level of detail, but the longer he spent in the sun the more the scales tipped towards the latter.

Null, on the other hand, had discarded his plate mail attire and had switched to a simple short sleeved shirt and pants. There was a slight sheen of sweat across his pale skin, but other than that he seemed fairly unaffected by the heat.

“Why aren’t you in armor anyways?” Gabe asked.

“Did you not see the size of that worm?” Null responded, “If the mobs around here are of that same caliber, armor isn’t going to do a thing,” he shrugged, “Might as well be comfortable if I’m going to get my ass kicked constantly.”

Gabe pondered that for a moment, “...shit, you’re right.”

He slipped off his armor, digitizing it into his Smart Box, but kept a plain tan shirt and cargo pants equipped. Heat and humidity radiated off of him in waves, but he was already much cooler than before, which was a small blessing.

“Still, this place is a ghost town,” Gabe said as he looked around.

The ruins around them were silent, sunken into the sands to the point that only a few of the buildings were actually explorable. The barest hints of ancient architecture peeked out from the coarseness that surrounded them. The street they walked was perhaps the most revealed out of the previous ones that they had explored, but that only amounted to a few columns and the rigid corners of broken down buildings.

“You know, maybe starting from the outside in wasn’t such a good idea,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, this is kinda boring honestly,” Null admitted, “but we should probably be thorough, it’s not like we’re in a rush or anything.”

“True, we’ve got plenty of time. I just wish something would happen, you know?”

Null snorted, “Be careful what you wish for, sand worm could pop out at any second.”

Gabe frowned at that. He had to admit that dying wasn’t all too pleasant of an experience, especially to a large worm dropping on top of him. He nudged the longsword that hung from his hip, mulling over how useful the blade would actually be if all the mobs were of the same size as the worm. At the very least he had a somewhat effective weapon, depending on the enemy’s size. The only thing Null had was a dagger, and that worried him.

“You sure you’re gonna be fine with just that?” Gabe asked, pointing at the small blade strapped to Null’s waist. “Not that I doubt your skills, but I don’t think a dagger is gonna do much.”

Null flicked his hand, producing a ball of fire that hovered above his palm, “Magic, remember?”

“Right, right… how is that anyways? It looks cool as hell.”

“It feels cool as hell,” Null said with a grin, but that quickly faded, “Would have loved to practice some more with it before all this happened.”

Gabe nodded, “At least you can do something with your skills. I picked up a bunch of crafting and gathering skills. Lets just say that its not…” he gestured to the barren buildings around them, “the most applicable thing to have right now.”

“I’m sure you’ll find something growing out here, in the middle of the desert, with no fertile land in sight.”

Gabe laughed, “Thanks for the encouraging words.”

“Why did you pick up those skills anyway?”

“Well I had a plan, but I gotta sort this shit out first before I can start working on that, which sucks, but what can you do.”

“Delete your character and start over?”

“And what, let them get the best of me? Please.”

Null laughed at that, “Fair enough, can’t say I’m willing to do another two weeks of trials to resync myself to the system either.”

“Which in itself is dumb, you’d think they’d keep your data on backup or something.”

“Government mandate, people aren’t really too keen on keeping their neural data in storage somewhere.”

Gabe thought about that for a second, “I guess that makes sense, but we’re getting off track,” he motioned in front of him, “Lets just see what we can find.”

They continued their trek through the ruins, getting the lay of the land around their spawn point before deciding to venture further into the city. Irwin was kind enough to share his Map Data with Gabe before he left, but he wanted to get a feel for the land himself first before he decided to venture further. Null didn’t seem to mind following along for the time being, but Gabe could tell that he was getting bored, which he couldn’t blame him for. If it wasn’t the heat, it was the drab environment that was starting to get to the both of them. He’d only been there for a few hours, but he was missing the Emerald Forest already. Eventually, they arrived back at their spawn point, the only seemingly intact shack that was around for quite a ways. He wasn’t too sure why there was a spawn point located in this particular building, but he imagined it was more of a game design choice than anything that fit lore wise.

The shade of their impromptu home provided a much needed relief from the desert sun, and he actually managed to feel somewhat cool in the shadows. He plopped flat against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as he hit the floor with a grunt.

“So, I’ve learned that the desert is hot,” Gabe said.

He glanced over at Null, who remained standing. His attention was occupied by the holographic display that hovered over his Smart Box. From where he was laying, it looked like nothing more than an incomplete spider web, but he knew that it was actually a map of the area, formed from their wanderings and the data Irwin provided before.

“I can see why Irwin and his team ignored this area,” Null said, “We’re not gonna be finding much out here, and they’ve probably cleaned out everything anyways.

“Right, though I’m wondering more about the lack of mobs,” Gabriel said as he sat back up, “I know they tend to be more realistically dispersed in Aelios, but I expected something to jump out at us.”