The teethworms were just as described in the book. They had round mouths that resembled a lamprey a bit. Thousands of teeth. Their bodies were a few feet long about the length of a dog. They would jump out of the sand and were much faster than one would think a beast with no legs would be. Alto had some trouble but he did notice the beastie had trouble moving in the wet sand so it helped the rest of the party to dispatch the beasts quickly. The only one who had limited experience fighting was Kattie so she hesitated when a worm headed her way, but Sven was all over it. She had no reason to attack any of the worms. As her luck would have it, Sven was the fastest fighter among them. Kattie ended up being the one to collect the crystals. She also held on to them.
Normally, the weakest person in the group held the group pack and the bag of crystals. Lana ran things differently. The bag that was issued had an emergency kit and such in it. Instead of taking the bag, they divided the contents between all the party members and shared the load in their personal packs that Lana made sure they had. Since Kattie had Sven, they felt she was best equipped to handle carrying the crystal bag as her hand availability would not be as cumbersome. On the way to their chosen hunting ground, they had killed 17 teethworms and not one person felt winded.
The team finally left the zone of teethworms. Ahead in the distance, they could see what appeared to be the remnants of a shelter. The map called it a well. So at least they knew where to get water since it was scarce out here. To their left was where the map said they would find winged lizards and to the right was their destination.
"The book says these things breath fire and travel in groups up to three. Let's proceed cautiously. They are weak to water. Alto, can you swing a water shield?"
He gave it a try and it worked perfectly. She smiled and walked toward the fire snake area. The winged lizard area looked like an arid desert from where they were on the path. This area looked like a desert upon first entry but the deeper they moved in, the more charred it looked. There were ashes here and there then more prominent as they got deeper into the territory.
"I suggest we put a tree in where the ashes are scarce for our shelter. With the lack of water, we will need a new one each day." After examining the terrain, a prudent decision needed to be made so they backtracked and watched as she put in a willow that had 2 rooms in the branches with no steps leading up.
"You do know trees burn, right? How are we safe sleeping in one over night with creatures that breathe fire?" Almin asked.
"Simple. Willows require a lot of water which means they will be too wet to burn if just being up for a day in these conditions. The other thing is, this is MY tree which means it will act as our sentry and will kill the snake before it becomes a threat."
"How will it know?"
Lana just smirked.
She looked at her handiwork and was pleased. "Let's go hunting."
It didn't take long for them to find their prey. They were easy to kill upon that first encounter. Alto immediately put up a water shield as previously practiced to block the initial fire breath. There were two present in that first battle. They used a pincher move, one from the front and the other from the back. Sven flew to the one in the back and waited for the fire to die down then went in for dinner. He burped up the crystal. Lana didn't even think about the fact that snakes are natural food for birds. She was pleased with her choice of where to hunt.
Meanwhile, Lana did 2 things. While Alto held up his shield, she grew an aloe plant in one hand and her climbing rose whip in the other. Additionally, she thought it smart to don her stage 2 armor compete with roses this time. It would make her hotter but it would add an additional buffer between her and the snakes. As the flames died down, Alto decided to see if her idea would work and waited to see her results before taking his action. With her left hand she threw the aloe. With her right hand, she sliced down with her whip cutting the snake and the aloe to see if the moisture from the aloe worked like water was said to.
"Okay, that worked," as Kattie went to collect the crystals.
"Okay, next I want to try something else. Dobin, I want you to use an earth wall to stop the flames and I want Alto to hit it with a water something. Preferably sharp. A water blade maybe?" Lana could already see the ideas forming in his mind.
"Kattie, you and Sven seem to be on top of this. I'll team with Almin since it says 3 can come at once, it's best to work in three parts to keep us all safe. Almin, can you for …"
She smiled as Almin pulled shards of metal from the ground, broken weapons from previous adventures, and fused them into a shield that was almost as tall as Lana.
They took 2 steps and 3 snakes were upon them. The teams were ready. The earth wall went up and three water daggers shot out of Alto's hand, slicing off the head. Kattie kept her snake distracted so Sven could have another meal. Live prey was something he missed. The sport of hunting his food was his favorite but that was not possible at school. He felt in his element right now. The metal shield was too thin. It got hot but Almin held fast anyway. This time, Lana grew a cactus and threw that while using the whip. She wanted to see if there was any difference. Once the snake was dead, she noticed the grimace on Almin's face and looked at his hand. She treated it then tried to think.
"That first aid kit had bandages, would it work to wrap those around your handle?" Almin decided to try it.
Not long after, they encountered 3 more. They did the same as before but Lana tried with no cactus this time. The wound healed itself from the damage inflicted by the rose vine. She used the cactus on the second swing and it ended the snake. The bandages worked but not very well. If they put more on to make them thicker, he would not be able to put his fingers through the handle. Almin sensed for more metal and added some to the front, especially where the handle was to see if it would help.
They had killed 14 when they started getting hungry. They went back to the tree for lunch then headed back out after having full stomachs and a good rest for their energy (MC) to rejuvenate. At this time, they had 17 basic tier crystals and 14 intermediate. If she wanted that next book for her people, they would need to grind all week to get them. They were able to get 19 more before exhaustion beckoned them to stop. When they got close enough, the tree lifted them into the branches next to their rooms and they all fell asleep quickly. Even Lana was too tired to dream.
When they woke up, the sun was still out. The tree let them down to the ground as they emerged from their respective rooms, boys in one, girls in the other.
Lana and Kattie worked together on a nice breakfast. They only brought enough bread for 2 days and left the wheat behind as well. It wasn't worth the extra space in the bag for only a week. Regardless, breakfast was still hearty. After everything was cleaned and packed away, Lana withered her tree. It was then she discovered that three sets of three snakes tried attacking the tree in the night. She knew this because she found their remains. Kattie quickly gathered the crystals with a huge smile on her face. In less than 24 hours, the team had acquired 42 crystals. It wasn't enough to buy a level 5 book unless they could find a used one but it was almost halfway there.