Chp.22: Studying and proposing

As planned, everyone left the next day as if nothing had happened. Those who had been up all night were allowed to rest a little longer in the wagons, and the sun shield cast a large enough shadow that the sunlight didn't bother them, allowing them to sleep well. Which was a good thing, because among the adventurers, the guards who had checked the hole, Isaac who had stayed awake the whole time, and the many people who had cut the sand worm's body into pieces, many had never slept that night. three hours before the sun rose. Even Zamor wouldn't have disdained taking a nap, as well as the rest of the beastmen leaders, but they knew they could not take breaks since unlike the others they had the responsibility of anyone's lives and therefore had to be awake during the march to be able to intervene at the slightest unexpected. The only ones who didn't have problems resting were the dragons, since they needed less sleep than the newcomers and therefore those few night hours left were more than enough to allow them to get enough sleep.

As the march continued, Haku, Zamor, and all the beastmen leaders had been told what the exploration team had found underground, and had been astonished when they had described a real ecosystem unto itself, full of life forms incredibly bizarre. It seemed that the Yuthia Desert, contrary to all their predictions, was teeming with life, it was simply hidden underground away from the scorching sun. Haku had been very interested, especially regarding the particular method of formation of those caves, which was due to those strange column-fungi that Rhaegal, Efren and Atelas had analyzed, which caused the sand worms to dig the rock around to them and raised the ceiling creating new parts of the cave. In practice, the life forms had adapted to such an extent that they were able to create a comfortable environment for themselves. It was as if life itself had met the desert and yelled at it: "Won't you give me a place to live? So I'll create it myself!". It was truly amazing how resilient and stubborn life could be.

Thanks to the descriptions that Rhaegal had given him, Haku had begun to outline the underground ecosystem, partly thanks to what the expedition team had discovered and partly hypothesizing the behavior of the various creatures based on similar animals. And the more he thought about it, the more he noticed gaps that were probably filled by life forms they hadn't discovered yet. Under their feet there was literally another world to discover. But the thing that most fascinated Haku was the possibility of finding giant caves. As Rhaegal had surmised, it was probable that if there was enough water, several caves could have merged into one immense one. And since there were rivers underground, it was probable that there were lakes deeper down as well. Lakes composed of an immense amount of water. And where there was water, there was also a very good chance for life to thrive. Haku was entranced at the thought that the bizarre ecosystem discovered by the exploration team was just a tiny part of a much more complex and varied world that provided countless possibilities, just like a forest, a wood, a jungle or any environment in the world. And Haku, of course, wanted to make all those possibilities his own. After all, it was a common trait of dragons to be greedy and gluttonous, wasn't it?

However, Haku was in no hurry. He wasn't an idiot and he knew that venturing underground without taking the proper precautions, especially now that they knew how dangerous it was, would be a rash move. Furthermore, at the moment it was best to concentrate on reaching the Thul Oasis: however interesting the underground ecosystem was, the search always had to come second to safety. And stopping the caravan of beastmen in the middle of the desert to investigate what was underground and then exposing them to the danger of sandstorms and dehydration wasn't exactly a good idea. Therefore, Haku had momentarily postponed any exploration at least until the beastmen would have settled in the Thul Oasis. Zamor and the other beastmen chiefs had fully agreed with him, and so they had carried on without stopping, pretending that they had forgotten about that underworld which, to a greater or lesser extent, still fascinated them all.

That didn't mean though that Haku hadn't started investigating. After all, he had a lot of free time during the march, so he could afford to hypothesize and evaluate possible scenarios. And even if he couldn't start digging a hole tens of meters deep, he could still understand a lot about the underground ecosystem by observing the animals that were part of it.

The frog-lizard, for example, had been a source of much information. Initially Rhaegal and the others had been concerned that it might be difficult to tame due to the aggressiveness it had shown in defending her territory, but these worries proved to be unfounded: once it understood that by being good it received plenty of food and water and that by behaving badly it was beaten, the frog-lizard had quickly submitted and had begun to behave in all respects like a normal farm animal. Of course, it had maintained some aggressiveness, but not too much: its behavior was quite similar to that of a common bull. For that, Haku suspected that frog-lizards actually behaved like cows, with a dominant male at the head and several females as part of his harem, and therefore inevitably with many fights with the other males. Rhaegal and the others had found no other frog-lizards in the cave apart from its rival, but probably the females came only in mating season, or had moved away after the other male had appeared, or were simply in an area of the cave that the exploration party had not explored due to the events they had stumbled upon. But the feature that most interested Haku was that even that frog-lizard, just like the snake that caused tumors, had an abnormal amount of mana. And to top it off, it wasn't mana that came from their mana core.

Haku had Isaac analyze both the body of the dead snake and that of the frog-lizard, and the mage had discovered that the anomalous mana was not contained in their mana core as it should have been (the amount in their mana core was quite small in fact ), but on their skin. This should have been impossible, since mana doesn't settle into a body without becoming part of it. The only possible explanation was that the amount of mana to which those animals were regularly subjected was so much that their bodies were unable to absorb it and therefore it simply settled on their skin as a patina. This had initially confused Isaac, but Haku on the contrary had immediately solved the mystery: as he had ascertained several times, the mana came from underground, consequently the more one went into the ground, the more mana one obtained. Isaac after the words of the dragon had admitted that in fact this made sense, given that the mages in the past had long since established that the mana came from the center of the world, but for those animals to have such an amount of mana the place where they originated it must have been at least half a kilometer underground. The cave that the exploration team had visited was only a few hundred feet below the sand; this therefore meant that the underground water system had to be extremely complex and find its source at incredible depths where most likely those creatures had developed, and then migrate to the higher caverns perhaps attracted by the lesser competition. As evidence of this, both the sand worm and the sand sharks, which unlike the lizard-frogs and those strange snakes spent a lot of time on the surface, didn't have that same characteristic.

Since those creatures had mana deposited on their skin and not in their mana core they couldn't use it, but they still created ways to use it. For example, that strange tumor-causing snake had learned to use the little mana that was actually in its mana core to move the mana outside its body, similar to how mages did, and then concentrate it in its lips and inject it into the victim with a bite, generating the tumor mass. It was such a specific system and so similar to the techniques of mages that Isaac had stated that it must be a true form of wild magic.

Haku was excited at the thought of reaching such a mana-rich place. While he still couldn't use magic due to the limitations of his body, which didn't allow it until he had unlocked a domain, he could still use that wealth in many ways. For example, he could have charged many runes without having to use his own blood. He could have gathered that mana and stored it in magic items ready for use. He could even improve the performance of his avatars. His mind raced to him with all the various possibilities every time he thought about it, which made him absolutely decide that he would find a way to explore underground once a self-sustaining community at Thul Oasis was established.

Oh, by the way, the beastmen had started christening new animals as soon as the story broke. After all, calling them frog-lizards or cancer-causing snakes was simplistic. The beastmen therefore christened the frog-lizard 'whowie', which meant 'toad's head', and the cancer-causing snake 'prester', which meant 'carcinogenic bite'. They had also given names to the bizarre snakes Rhaegal, Efren and Atelas had found defending the column-fungus, and called them 'jaculus', which meant 'spear head'. Strangely, the only animals they didn't name were sand worms and sand sharks, almost as if calling them that was enough. And indeed, unlike the others, those names seemed to fit and sounded quite musical too.

In any case, Haku was relatively quiet for a while. However, after a few days, his mood seemed to change and darken. His demeanor, however, didn't change, though he now seemed to frown constantly. Then, with less than a week left before reaching the Thul Oasis, Haku presented himself to Zamor and the beastmen leaders with a proposition. "I would like your permission to create hunting teams"

Zamor and the beastmen leaders were dumbfounded. "What do you need hunting women for?"

"To hunt, of course" Haku answered as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Zamor narrowed his eyes, and so did the other beastmen leaders. It was clear that they didn't believe a single word, and they had every reason to do so: after all, the dragons certainly didn't need their help, much less their permission, to go hunting. "Explain yourself" Zamor said simply after giving up understanding what the dragon meant and preferring to have it explained directly.

Haku smiled, but it was an almost mocking smile. "Very simple. I want to go sand worm hunting" he answered. "Listen, we are now close to the Thul Oasis, and will soon have to settle there. If we had two or three sand worms with us, we would be guaranteed to have food at all times. It would be an excellent starting point to give courage to our comrades, even in the most blinds. Conversely, forcing your brave hunters back into the desert just after they finally arrive at the oasis would be a move that would certainly create discontent. At this point we might as well act now, right? With us dragons' tracking abilities and the combat support of your troops, we could easily track down and capture some sand worms. Give me fifty men and I'll get those prey to you within three days. One hundred? I'll end everything by tonight"

"Why don't you dragons go alone? You can run much faster and you are much better hunters" someone rightly opined.

Haku shook his head. "Dear sirs, I would like to remind you that four of my sisters are currently indisposed, four others are constantly busy keeping the sun shield open which prevents you from cooking alive in this sun, and at least four others serve as lookouts for your caravan since they can perceive threats long before your soldiers. Nearly three-quarters of my family are constantly busy protecting you, and I find myself with far less help, and while I could catch a sand worm with so little support it would still be a very tough challenge. In the light of this factor, I'd say you could do me a favor for once and lend me some of your men, don't you think?"

Zamor approached Haku and looked him straight in the eyes. "Your proposition is good, and it would certainly be an excellent idea to catch some sand worms now. But..." and his gaze hardened, "...I'm sure that's not your only motivation. Am I right?"

Haku didn't even try to hide the truth. "Ah, you know me too well" he said, then he turned more serious. "I have something in mind. Listen..."