Chapter 7: Oasis.

Two beautiful full moons were floating elegantly through the night, illuminating the vast desert below.

A big volcano, that stood in the middle of the desert, loomed ominously over the desert, as if it was a ruler looking over his kingdom.

Far away the distance, a small red dot could be seen flashing every now and then. Faint sounds could also be heard in that direction.

When taking a closer look, one could see two figures trading blows, one was big and round, while the other was a bit smaller and leaner.

The latter was Jin, who was entangled in a fight with another blood bee.

Jin cursed, stepping inside the blood bee's defences, his hand lit up into a fiery mess and slammed it into the monster's head.

The bee recoiled, a dent now in the place where Jin's fist landed. But it quickly recovered, throwing one of it's six legs forward.

Jin had no time to react and was thrown backward as the leg struck him in his stomach. Landing on his back, Jin seemingly lost his breath.

The bee took advantage of this and shot forward with all his might, aiming to kill it's prey with one decisive stab with it's stinger.

When the bee was inches away from Jin, he grinned and suddenly took action. A fist full of sand suddenly shot forward.

Unleashing the sand onto the bug's eyes, Jin moved, rolling to the side, avoiding the stinger altogether. Summoning Blood Taster in a puff of red smoke, he dashed forward, once again appearing inside the now blind bee's defences.

It was over in an instant. Blood Taster's black blade flashed through the air and plunged deep into the bug's head, instantly ending it's life.

The bee's body suddenly grew still and slumped. Jin sighed and ripped Blood Taster out of it's victim.

[You have killed a Beast class: Blood Bee.]

Looking at the message, Jin stretched and instantly went to work. It was now almost second nature to Jin.

Brandishing Blood Taster, he cut up the bee and drained it's blood, while also removing it's core.

It was currently the end of his fourth day in this ecosystem and first evaluation. And this was also the fourth bee he had slain since entering this ecosystem.

After eating a hearty meal of bug flesh, Jin went through the usual task of drinking the blood and absorbing the core.

[...Your body grows stronger.]

[...Your core grows more vast.]

Eyeing the messages, Jin thought curiously, 'Huh, I just got one notification for drinking the blood.'

Jin scratched his chin and then nodded. 'I'll probably recieve no benefits from drinking the blood of any further blood bee's,' he deduced.

And it was fine really. He was stronger by a pretty noticable margin. In the previous fight had managed to dent the bee's head and also delivered some other wounds to the insect.

Of course, he wasn't lucky enough to be unscathed. Looking down at his upper body, he gazed at the blue bruise that had formed in the bee's wake.

He also gazed at the scar that cut diagonally across his abdomen. It was the one left by his first fight against a blood bee. Surprisingly, it had healed and sealed shut, leaving a mark to be remembered by.

'The sub-abillity is really useful and handy.' Jin was ecstatic at the tempo that the abillity healed his wounds.

Yawning, Jin stretched his back and fell down onto the course sand, he was very tired and he couldn't keep his eyes open. The fight had taken alot out of him.

Thinking of tomorrow, Jin slowly fell into the confines of sleep and drifted away.

***

The sun was shining it's golden rays onto the sand sea below it, making the hot sand even more irritable.

Unexpectadly... or not, a wind had picked up and had started blow sand in all directions, causing a small sand storm.

Jin, who was traversing, the through the desert, was coaught in the sandstorm's sandy maw.

Jin cursed and cover his eyes with his arm. It was the sixth day, and Jin had made considerable progress toward the volcano.

Just when he had felt a little happy about his progress, a sandstorm had picked up, dampening his mood all the way down.

The veil of moving sand was frustrating to traverse. It blocked the surrounding so thoroughly, that he couldn't make out where he was going. He wasn't sure if he even walked the right way.

Scowling, Jin kept his pace and braved through the storm. He also hated how the sand pelted against his upper body, it was irritating.

***

A hour and a half had already passed and the sandstorm was still obscuring his view and pelting him with sand.

He was losing hope of exiting the sandstorm. A moment later he scoffed. Why would he lose hope because of something so miniscule.

Shaking his head, he strained his muscles and carried on through the sandstorm.

***

Two hours then passed, or atleast that was how long it felt for Jin. He was in disbelief. How long was this going to last?

One step, two steps, four steps, eight steps twenty steps...

Jin was now counting his steps, he had reached two-hundred steps and had then lost count, as the sand that was pelting him, had distracted him.

He was about to start counting again, when suddenly the veil of moving sand that was obscuring his view suddenly dissapeared.

Jin almost jumped for joy as he realised that the sandstorm had dissipated. Shaking his head he looked at his suroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that the volcano wad to the right of him, instead of infront. Thankfully, it looked to be the same distance away as when the sandstorm suddenly appeared.

The second thing that he noticed, almost made his heart skip a beat. He had to slap himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

There in the distance, he saw beautiful, lush green palm trees sprouting from out the ground.

The trees acted as fence, covering a beautiful body of water. The small pond held crystal clear water, which reflected the rays of the sun. Green grass also acted as a carpet, surounding the pond and the trees.

Looking at this almost tear jerking sight, only one thought crossed Jin's mind.

'An oasis!?'