Having settled things in Alaucocha, Edward immediately left for Nagh Kuldohr. All in all, it had taken him less than ten hours to crush the ants and vines invasion. As for the time he took to reach Alaucocha it was negligible. Before his increase in speed, it took him close to twenty minutes to cross 300 kilometers. Now to cross the same distance he needed only fourteen minutes, and that was regardless of the terrain. In a world where horses were still the main mean of transportation, this speed was phenomenal.

Nagh Kuldohr and Alaucocha were far apart from each other, this was even visible in the difference in their climate. Alaucocha was situated near a jungle while Nagh Kuldohr was at the frontier with a desert. Edward was seeing the environment change in real-time in front of his eyes. Humidity in the air decreased as trees became rarer and more distant from each other, globally the vegetation became smaller until even grass became sparse.

Edward saw a sandstorm in the distance, it was blocking the sky and looked like the apocalypse, the clouds devouring everything on their way. He checked the direction on his compass. Of course, Nagh Kuldohr had to be in the middle of a sandstorm. It had taken him one hour to reach this point, something that would have taken a full month for a regular expedition leaving from Alaucocha.

This sandstorm is annoying. I have the right direction thanks to my compass but there is a real possibility of me missing the city in an environment with such low visibility. He teleported next to the sandstorm. Even my aura is having trouble distinguishing anything among all this sand flying around.

He sighed. It’s not like I have a choice. He descended closer to the ground and decreased the distance between each of his teleportation, limiting himself to teleporting no more than a hundred meters ahead. This decreased his speed to a crawling 180 km per hour. Enhanced eyesight or not, in such a heavy sandstorm his visibility was reduced to five meters, and even his aura had trouble providing feedback after thirty meters. This was not enough to fully cover the distance between two teleportations, but Edward was searching for a city, not a haystack.

He even had to activate his aura to form an armor protecting him from the infiltrating sand. Though small the grains of sand were hitting hard due to their speed, moreover Edward noticed that the sand had the unnatural ability to suck any water. The few seconds he had been exposed to it left him with a dry throat even when he should have been above such mundane needs with a body at the Patriarch stage.

After a few minutes, Edward stumbled upon a large rocky formation. He was about to move around it when he sensed a network of tunnels within it, although they were currently sealed from the outside, probably to avoid the sand getting inside. It was actually easier for his aura to probe through the eroded mountain than the sandstorm. Rock was hard but at least it wasn’t incessantly moving around. Soon after his aura picked up a large number of living individuals within the structure.

This is the city? Damn, I was about to move past it.

Edward followed what his aura was telling him and teleported inside one of the tunnels crisscrossing through the mountain. Now inside he was safe from the sandstorm that only became the sound of whistling wind. He wasn’t alone, a couple of guards were monitoring this gallery and they jumped in fright seeing Edward appear out of nowhere. By now he was getting used to this reaction.

“Shitty weather outside heh?”, he said as an introduction.

The guards didn’t seem to appreciate his humor and they brandished their weapon at him. “Who are you and how did you manage to get in?”, they asked him warily. In front of them and behind Edward, the entrance of the tunnel was sealed by a large stone, this hadn’t prevented Edward from entering.

Edward explained the situation in a few words to calm the guards. He told them how he had been sent by the emperor himself to help the empire deal with the problems accumulating with the surge while the latter was busy tackling more urgent matters.

The guards still seem quite surprised by his story but they agreed to bring him to their leader. As Edward was walking deeper inside escorted by the guards, he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself on how this might be the part of his travel taking the most time. It was akin to someone taking an airplane traveling half of the world only to have as much time travel to go from the airport to one’s house.

It gave him the time to take in his surroundings. The tunnel grew larger as they walked further inside until it became three meters high and four meters wide, more than large enough to accommodate a large number of pedestrians or two carts at the same time. It may be a place that the sun didn’t reach but nonetheless, it wasn’t dark, glowing runes were providing light at regular intervals.

The tunnel led to a large open space, the path was winding along the inner walls of the cavern while numerous buildings had been dug directly into the rock. The cavern was forming a basin with a small lake in its center. Surrounding the lake were numerous agricultural plots with whatever soil had accumulated over the years. From where he stood Edward could see the growth of carrots, lettuce, and corn.

However, even with the lake and the culture around it, the dominant color was the red of the rocks. It was a drastic contrast with the tropical city of Alaucocha.

The guards guided Edward to a large building that was situated in the higher strata of the cavern. Two large statues were decorating its entrance, on the left was a warrior with his hands resting on a large oval shield, while on the right was a farmer tending to a plot of land. Protect and prosper. Edward thought. In this kind of hostile environment stability and sustainability are key.

The guards left him to return to their position, while a clerk made him wait for Doratham, the commander of this city. He arrived a few minutes later, he was a man in his fifties with gray hair and a face worn by countless problems without solutions.

“I’m Doratham, the one responsible for this city. What can I do for you in those troubled times?” he asked in a tired voice.

“I’m Edward, but the question is more what I can do for you. I was sent to help.” Edward replied with a smile.

“Honestly, I don’t know if you will be able to be of any help. At least it’s already good that the emperor didn’t send an army to help us. We don’t have enough supplies already and we wouldn’t be able to feed additional people.” He frowned. “You don’t have an army waiting for you outside of the sandstorm, do you?” he asked expecting another problem.

Edward’s smile grew larger. “No, I don’t. You can be at ease.”

“All right.” Doratham breathed with relief. “Our main concern right now is our supplies. Due to this never stopping sandstorm, we are stuck inside cut from all contacts. We are unable to send expeditions to gather any resources and what we have here is not enough. Even before the sandstorm we had to call back the population from the nearby oasis so that they could be protected from the increasing raids from the lizard people.”

Edward nodded in understanding and Doratham continued.

“For a sandstorm to last this long it can only mean it is caused by a wisp. However, it’s the first time since I was born that I have seen a sandstorm this strong. The wisp causing this must have tremendous power and it won’t be easy to locate it in such weather. We stand at an impasse.”

“In the current time it has become common for monsters to break records,” Edward replied. “To be honest I would have preferred to deal with a straight fight rather than hunting monsters in a sandstorm, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“I you really manage to stop the sandstorm Nagh Kuldohr will be indebted to you,” Doratham told him warmly but without much expectation.

“It may not look like it but it is in my own interest as well. I’ll take my leave now.” Edward told him already heading out.

“You sure are not losing any time.” Doratham let out.

“I’m on a timer, no time to waste,” Edward replied without turning back.

He didn’t wait for guards to escort him out, and he teleported within the tunnel network, quickly reaching the exit. He stopped one moment to think things through before heading out. This is rather troublesome. Directly fighting monsters is much more straightforward. How should I proceed? Within the sandstorm, my scouting abilities will be severely reduced. Finding a city with a clear direction is one thing, but finding a monster that could be anywhere is another thing. And the sand is flying fast enough that it is even able to slowly whittle down my aura. I won’t be able to stay inside forever.

My clones will be useless in the sandstorm, they will get destroyed by the sand. However, I can let one here in reserve as a beacon. My teleportation is limited within the sandstorm but with a clone here it means I can teleport back here instantly as long as I stay within a radius of 734 meters.

I don’t know where to search but I can already begin by the area near the city. Even if my aura starts to get low, I will be able to come back without risk. This should be enough for me to find a lead. Both the spiders and the vines had elements oriented in a specific direction. I should be able to find something pointing me in the monster’s direction.

Now with a plan in mind, Edward teleported outside, he was immediately assaulted by the tempest. He was thankful for his aura protection, even without taking into account the dehydration ability of the sand, just natural sand would have been upsetting enough slithering in any interstice.

He slowly pulled away from the city and began searching in a clockwise rotation. The visibility was so bad that it was hard to orientate himself, thankfully Edward had a compass helping him to know the direction he was moving in, and his clone back in the city served as a reference point.

How am I supposed to find anything in such weather? I can’t sense shit. I really hope that this wisp is affecting the sand around it in a noticeable way other than this sandstorm. Otherwise, for all I know it could be ten meters away from me and I would pass it without even noticing it.