Desert worms

'This scenery is becoming boring.'

Mikel had long lost sense of time so he didn't even know how long he had been walking around in this desert. Even at this point, he was walking subconsciously.

He had tried running, but the system had let him know that he was straying off course only after he had gone hundreds of miles away. Now he was just walking so he could prevent that from happening again.

The system wasn't very helpful so it was better to walk so he could keep proper track of his every step.

During this abnormally long walk, Mikel had gotten used to this his new form. Since he was a skeleton, he lacked some important organs but he could compensate for some of them.

For sight, he had those flames in his eye sockets that let him see but with a purple hue affecting everything. The flames were also connected to the link. The brighter they burned, the higher the [link] stat was.

Since it was just at one percent, they burned dully.

Mikel had come across a few small creatures that had been corrupted by death energy but they ignored him completely so he guessed his theory was correct.

He could've attacked them, but since they were both composed of death energy, the creatures would not give him any exp so there was no need to waste time on them.

Even though his theory had been confirmed, Mikel could not help but still feel on guard. For some reason, he had not yet come across any of the "big boys" that ruled the pink desert.

The chances that they were scared of him were close to none. The only other explanation was that... he was being hunted.

This thought brought a modification to his theory; while the smaller creatures would ignore him, the more powerful ones would most likely make a snack out of him.

To Mikel's knowledge, killing them would not bring any benefits to him so it wasn't something he would indulge in, but it might be different for them.

Anyway, there was only one way to find out and it didn't take long for an opportunity to present itself.

Mikel felt a vibration through his bones and looked down to see that the sand was sinking! Without wasting another second, he jumped away just in time.

In the next second, there was a seemingly bottomless he where he stood previously!

If Mikel had eyes, they would be wide open in horror. He knew that he was extremely lucky to avoid that attack. In fact, the only reason he was able to react in time was because of his [bone flexibility] stat being higher than before.

There was only one creature Mikel knew that was able to cause an attack like that.

'It can't be...'

Mikel looked down into the hole and he froze the moment he saw a large eye looking back at him unblinking in the darkness.

[Name: Desert worm

Level: 53

HP: 50/50]

Now this was a creature Mikel remembered vividly. High level and low HP, was the combination for disaster.

They remained looking at each other for a while until suddenly the eye disappeared! If Mikel remembered correctly, the next thing that was going to happen would be—

BOOM!

The ground shook as a large fifty-two-meter worm of enormous girth with hundreds of eyes around its body burst out and launched itself down on Mikel!

Fortunately, Mikel had already begun to sprint the moment he had felt a tremor so he got a headstart and the worm missed him.

It created another hole and went back underground.

Mikel ran as fast as he could away from the worm but he knew subconsciously that it was useless. Desert worms were relentless hunters so unless you kill them, they'll hunt you till the end of the desert.

Although the desert worms had low HP, no attack on them would yield any results unless you attack a specific eye on their body that was considered their weak spot.

The only problem was that the eye that was their weak spot was not consistent so since they had a large number of them, you would most likely be dead before you managed to find the right one.

Not to mention that Mikel wasn't powerful enough yet to handle something like this and even if he was, killing it had no merits. The only best option was to run.

Mikel could feel his bones vibrate as the desert worm moved underneath him. He was running as fast as his legs could carry him without looking back once.

Occasionally, the desert worm would pop out but Mikel was always one step ahead. Thanks to the vibrations he felt when the creature was about to come above ground, as well as his speed, Mikel had managed to avoid being eaten.

***

Days passed and Mikel was still running from the desert worm at full speed. It was only thanks to his unlimited stamina that he was able to do this.

'I guess being a skeleton has its advantages,' Mikel thought.

If he had been a human, he would most definitely be dead by now and would be turned into a pile of shit a while after.

A while back, Mikel had noticed that the attacks from the desert worm were becoming more frequent. Initially, he had thought that the creature was becoming frustrated but that was very unlikely.

He later found out that he was not being pursued by one, but three desert worms!

Desert worms weren't pack creatures and would seldom work together to kill prey. What happened was that while running away from the first worm, Mikel had passed the hunting grounds of others.

To avoid a fight, the desert worms had decided to chase him with the first person to devour him being the winner.

Chasing Mikel had turned into a game. Thankfully he didn't know this or else he would've turned around and attempted to fight even though he knew he wouldn't win.

If there was one thing he wouldn't stand for, it would be this belittling form of disrespect, being treated as a plaything; even though it came from a mindless creature.