Prologue 2: The Desert

"Shoto" a voice called.

"Shoto!" the voice called louder.

"Shoto wake up!"  the voice screamed.

The boy gasped for air as if he had been deprived of it. He inhaled the dry air calming his heart beat once it had stabilized he began to think still laying down.

This young man laying down is Shoto Kuzakabe ,sixteen years of age, pitch black hair and dark eyes like any normal person from his country but he wasn't in his country nor anywhere in his world. Anyone would have panicked it this situation but Shoto was oddly calm. He was never the type to rush things if the situation did require it.

"Sigh...why me grandpa?" He said.

Shoto knew what he was experiencing was a dream it was real.  That voice he heard after dozing off in his apartment was real and lying in a desert on shattered glass was very real.

Shoto sat up looking at his surroundings and all he could see was sand, lots and lots of sand. Shoto got  dusting himself off he wasn't just going to sit and let the sun cook him, he needed to find some shade to analyze the situation further. A voice stopped Shoto from taking his first step in this new world.

{Synchronization Complete}

"What?" Shoto got startled.

{Greetings Sir I am the assistant manas inside you programed to assist you with whatever endeavors you may have. Please use me as you like}

"Assist me?" Shoto was a bit puzzled.

{Yes I am here to assist you Sir}

"Wait how did you get inside me?"

{Information not found}

"Huh that voice that brought me here  never said anything about an assistant it only talked about a skill, now what's it's name?"

Shoto scratched his head thinking about the skill he received.

{The name of your special skill is <Harvest>} assistant answered.

"Oh thanks umm what does it do exactly?" Shoto asked again.

{The special skill <Harvest> allows the user to-}

The assistant gets cut off by the shifting sand moving towards Shoto. Shoto had noticed it too and became very cautious he taking a step back.

Crack!

Glass shattered beneath his foot Shoto only noticed now that he was on a broken glass plate. He picked up a glass shard big enough to be a dagger and readied himself for an obvious fight.

"What is that?" Shoto asked the assistant.

{Creating augmented reality in Master's eyes. Zooming in on target. Target identified Sand Worm}

The assistant showed Shoto a picture of the Sand Worm ,it looked like a black tapeworm with teeth. Shoto could have sworn he saw this worm in a movie but now was not the time.

The Sand Worm burst from the sand like a fish out of water in the air. It's whole body was visible now that it was in the open it wasn't as big as Shoto thought it was but that didn't make it any less dangerous. The worm came down on Shoto ready to swallow him whole but it's advances were stopped by the invisible dome barrier that was placed over Shoto.

The Sand Worm slid off off the barrier leaving it with cracks. Shoto breathed a sigh of relief a his luck but it also made him suspicious he left it for later though. With the barrier cracking and the Sand Worm rising up again Shoto decided to break the barrier himself and get some distance if he stayed here he'd become a worm snack. The barrier was weakened to the point it could be broken with a meer punch.

Shoto's fist broke through the barrier shattering it entirely and then making a dash for it with a piece of glass in his hand the Sand Worm chased after Shoto. Running from a predator in its habitat was mistake but given the situation Shoto had no choice he would have been eaten. The desert sand slowed Shoto down greatly and being barefoot wasn't helping while running up a sand dune.

Boom!

The sand dune explodes flinging Shoto. He looked down in midair as another Sand Worm emerged from the dune.

Thud!

He landed on the other side of dune with everything not broken bruises and pain were unavoidable. The first Sand Worm and the second one began racing and fighting to eat Shoto slowing them down. Shoto took this chance.

"Hey Assistant do this things have a weakness?"

{Their tough hide has a small sensitive spots stabbing one of those spots will kill it}

"Yeah where are those spots located?" Shoto asked with a hint of of the answer.

{On its back and stomach}

"Shit" he cursed.

There two Sand Worms charging at him each one trying to stop the other from getting to the prey first was slowing them down significantly as they descended the dune. Shoto had to get on their backs and kill them but how was he going to do that? These things were like two speeding buses having a drag race how was he going to get on top of one?

Shoto looked around he needed to get high vantage point, running up a sand dune might trigger another sand worm and there was no reason to make two become three.

Shoto spotted a two story rock and quickly climbed it, Shoto was used to climbing high places so two stories wasn't a problem. Once he was on top of the rock the sand worms began circling the rock like sharks.

Thud!

The rock sank the sand worms were digging around the rock slowly sinking it.

"Assistant is it possible to see the weak spot from here with your augmented reality?" Shoto asked.

Thud! The rock sank again.

{Yes. Creating augmented reality in Master's eyes to target sand worms weak spot}

The augmented reality zoomed in on one of the sand worms weak spots.

"Ok calculate a direct trajectory for the weak spots" Shoto said.

Thud!

{Calculating trajectory for the weak spots}

The augmented reality displayed multiple target trajectories for the weak spots. Shoto raised the the glass shard and took the deep breath before leaping off the tall rock.

Stab!

The glass shard penetrated the weak spot Shoto had aimed for, black liquid spewed from the stab wound burning Shoto's hands.The sand worm vibrated releasing a squeaky screech before dying. The other sand worm tried to eat Shoto off the dead sand worm's back but was snatched up by a vicious talon from the sky.

"Whew!" Shoto's luck came through for him again.

{Sir would like to use <Harvest>?}

"Yeah sure" he said flopping down on the dead sand worm.

{<Harvest> has been activated}

The Sand Worm's body began disintegrating into magic particles as the skill was activated. Shoto fell as the sand worm's body had disappeared beneath him. The magic particles where absorbed into Shoto's body giving him a surge of energy while making him dizzy in the process.

{Congratulations Sir you have gained new skill <Seismic Sense>}

"So this is what <Harvest> does"

Shoto tried to pick up the glass shard but his hands were burned by the black liquid making hard to hold objects.

"I don't suppose you can do anything about this can you?" Shoto asked looking at his hands.

{Stimulating magic particles to heal Master's injury}

Green particles began to heal the burns on Shoto's hand , they looked as  good as new.

"Oh I didn't know you know could heal" Shoto said surprised.

'This world has magic?'

{It's not healing am simply stimulating your magic particles to speed up your natural recovery}

"So I would have recovered from this naturally?"

{Yes in six months time}

"That long huh, hey what does that new skill do?"

{<Seismic Sense> allows the user to detect movement beneath and on top the earth with added effect of detecting hard and soft surfaces}

"So that's how those sand worms saw me it means I can't avoid them"

{Sand Worms only leave in areas with less rocks beneath the surface. <Seismic Sense> could help find a more solid surface to walk on}

"So I can avoid Sand Worm territory with <Seismic Sense> but the heat in this is to much I need a way to travel fast so I can find some shade" Shoto pondered while picking up the glass shard.

"Hey Assistant is it possible to boost my speed while using <Seismic Sense>?"

{Yes it is possible but it would require using magic particles, would you like to implement this function?}

"Yeah" Shoto answered.

{<Seismic Sense> has been activated. Strengthening Master's muscles with magic particles}

Shoto became very sensitive to the vibrations of the earth he could detect the harder surfaces of the desert. As for his strengthened muscles Shoto didn't feel any different but he didn't bother about it and dashed off leaving a trail of dust behind.

"Whoa!"

Shoto was surprised he was running faster he had never ran this fast in his  life he had only been running for fifteen minutes yet the distance was that of a two day drive. He wanted to ask how fast he was running but something caught his eye. A towering rock in the desert tall enough to be a skyscraper but that's not caught Shoto's attention it was the thing flying towards him. It looked like a fighter jet from afar but as Shoto's augmented vision zoom in he recognized it.

I was the monster with the vicious talon that took the other sand worm earlier. Shoto was thankful it earlier but it clearly didn't feel the same.

(Hey Assistant what is that?) Shoto communicated with his mind.

{Scanning. Scan Complete. It's a Desert Shriek Hawk}

The giant hawk got closer becoming more visible, Shoto pulled the breaks and stopped running. He wasn't going to get passed the Desert Shriek Hawk without dying. As the flying beast got ever closer it began to vibrate.

{Warning! Warning! Dangerous shockwave are about to be released}

"What!?"

"BOOM!"