BXBX NOVEL Chapter 194 Deserts Of Sikarra
Everywhere where an eye could see was nothing more than just a desert. Everything on the surface of the continent or continents consisted almost exclusively of dry dune deserts, though some may find some mountain ranges stretched across the landscapes, breaking up the deserts and sheltering limited native lifeforms that could survive in this harsh enviroment.
Vicious winds whipped the rocks as the sandstorms here were strong enough to tear even Gold-Tier Professionals to shreds of nothingness if they were caught by some of the stronger sandstorms. Traversing through the desert was dangerous; there was no water as that was the scarcest resource in the dunes of the deserts.
This was the 10th Floor of the Tower... alternatively called dune, though its official name was Sikarra. It was one of the most inhospitable places across the Tower and there were not even many people who lived in this place, aside from some natives who were mainly species that preferred the environment of deserts... and naturally, the Magical Beasts were plenty in here.
Some of the most dangerous were the enormous sandworms and some mutated creatures that were wandering the wastelands of the 10th Floor and crossing its oceans of sand. Only the sandworms seemed to thrive in the environment as they swam through the oceans of the sands, like fish in water and countless weird magical beasts that adapted to the life in the dunes traversed through the desert.
According to the legends of the once long-forgotten past, the 10th Floor of the Tower was once in the primordial past very vibrant Floor and full of flora and fauna.
It was a place where countless species lived and the environment would be able to satisfy even most of the vain Silvermoon Elves with its lush green forest and countless species of fauna that lived in those forests. It was something akin to paradise on earth, a tranquil place full of life and peace, where countless people lived together in harmony.
According to ancient records, the achievement of what the 10th Floor of the Tower looks like is thanks to the invasive species of Sandworms living on the 10th Floor, the Arrakian Sandworm. By the claims of some scholars, one day, some of the Nobles that ruled a considerable region of the 10th Floor under the Empire that controlled the 10th Floor found a bunch of weird cocoon-like eggs in the depths of caves under the mountain range.
Naturally, they though that it would be a good idea to hath the eggs, but unfortunately for the Nobles that found them, no matter what they did, the eggs didn't want to hatch until one of the scholars proposed letting them to hatch freely while dropping them in some forest or any place that was full of life.
When they did this, to their surprise and shock, within the one-week entire forest with a size of more than five million square kilometers was turned into a huge desert as several mysterious eggs drained every bit of life to hatch themselves. When the nobles saw the creatures that hatched from the eggs, they were some kind of worm-type Magical Beast that was never seen before.
Their skin was thick, rough, and orange-colored. It served the simple function of armor and was comprised of many scales, each a few feet in size. These scales overlapped and interlocked to form the armor that protected it against internal sand invasion. Even though they were newly hatched, they already had a length of around ten meters, and after one month of eating and evolving, they grew to a staggering fifty meters.
Naturally, the gravest side effect that nobody seemed to notice because everyone was blinded by the gains and greed. When the Arrakian Worm was killed, as they named them, their body was practically a treasure trove... not to mention the most precious part of their body was the Arrakian Nucleus that grew naturally in their brain as they reached adulthood and the older they were, the stronger the Arrakian Nucleus was.
The Arrakian Nucleus was an extremely precious and powerful Psionic conduit and those who had Psionic Energy could use the Arrakian Nuclei to greatly advance their strength, as the Arrakina Nuclei contained pure and untainted Primordial Psionic Energy. Because of this, the Korias Empire that at that time ruled the 10th Floor of the Tower didn't care about anything else, just the wellbeing and reproduction of the Arrakian Worms because even Nuclei from Bronze-Tier Arrakian Worm was worth around 10,000 Credits and even more if a right buyer was found.
That was because the Arrakian Nucleus was indeed one kind of treasure that was capable of holding perfectly stable, untainted and powerful Primordial Psionic Energy. Soon enough, the Korias Empire became obscenely rich due to harvesting the Arrakian Nuclei and breeding the worms, to the point where they managed to cultivate tens of Legendaries from the Arrakian Nuclei they harvested and they completely transitioned to the usage of the Psionics.
After several decades though, something small that nobody paid attention to was the continuous spread of the dunes across the 10th Floor of the Tower, as its once vibrant forest and lush green plains were dying out and were turned into deserts and wastelands, where nothing else remained than just sand.
One hundred years after the hatching of the first Arrakian Worms, approximately 85% of the 10th Floor was turned to deserts and the entire Korias Empire was enveloped in open rebellions because people common, noble and soldiers alike were rising in the uprisings because they were dying out due to lesser living space due to ever-expanding dunes and deserts.
And not to be enough of it, they were being attacked by several other factions that wanted their piece of the pie, especially the ones which focused on the Psionic Energy; the Arrakian Worms proved to be extremely valuable; thus they made use of the opportunity presented to them and with all of this going on, the Korias Empire soon enough collapsed.
From then on, only sandworms remained on the 10th Floor because many of them reached Legendary Level and shockingly, there were even three Holy Legendary Level Arrakian Sandworms noted to live deep within the center of the 10th Floor. However, they were always in hibernation and they would wake only once every few thousand years to eat.
And by eating it meant that they would feed on other Legendary Level sandworms, as each Holy Level Arrakian Sandworm was approximately several thousand kilometers in length and they could eat smaller planets like a snack.
From the moment Samiel arrived at the 10th Floor of the Tower, he hated it... not the hatred was a weak word for the feelings he was feeling... he completely abhorred the environment here. It was hot like shit here, stuffy and the sun was outright burning his skin, as it was dangerous to be on it for a prolonged amount of time.
He experienced a similar environment on the 2nd Floor of the Tower and the trauma of the desert was still haunting him till this day. And what was worse, the 10th Floor was many times hotter and the environment was even worse... and the best thing on it were countless Arrakian sandworms that were swarming in the vicinity, underneath the deep layers of the sand desert.
Arrakian Sandworms lived deep under the ground and they went above the surface only to hunt for food. They were able to sense anyone who was walking through the surface, through the vibrations that one was created during walking and thanks to their sensitivity towards the vibrations, nothing could escape their senses.
[User Samiel Zentaur has arrived on the 10th Floor of the Tower.]
[Distributing the Advancement Quest.]
[Unique Quest has been assigned by the Tower's System.]
[Advancement Quest of the 10th Floor of the Tower
Description: 10th Floor of the Tower is suitable for building Altars dedicated to various Gods, Daemons, Devils and other Transcendental that are worshipped in the Material Plane of the Cosmos.
For countless millennia, various species have been building tens of not hundreds of Altars dedicated to the veneration of their Gods and carried out worshipping ceremonies on the 10th Floor of the Tower by sacrificing local Magical Beast to their Gods.
Mission: Build an Altar dedicated to the Outer Gods.
Reward: Divine Shard of ???]
Samiel read through the Advancement Quest that was assigned to him and he had to admit that at first glance, it seemed simple and easy enough... that was pretty unnerving for him and sowed seeds of fear in his person because whatever from the Akashic Records seemed easy, was, in fact, dangerous as fuck.
Building an Altar to worship God was not an easy matter, especially because Samiel never build a proper Altar as he lacked the resources to do so. The general rule was the stronger the worshipped God was, the harder it was to craft a proper Altar for the said God because more precious resources would be needed for the construction, something that he couldn't get his hands on Earth.
Now, the reward of the Advancement Quest was something that caught his interest because it was Divine Shard. Typically, the rewards of the Quest issued by the Akashic Records through the Tower's System were usually tied to the Quest themselves in some way and the Divine Shard as the reward was clear evidence of that.
Samiel was a bit baffled about what to do with the Divine Shard because, technically speaking, it was useless to him... unfortunately. Typically saying, any other person would be jumping several tens of meters from ecstasy and happiness upon seeing Divine Shard because that would allow one to start walking the Path of Godhood and upon reaching Holy Legendary one would have an easy transition to Godhood.
And that was the problem because Samiel never planned and never wished to become God. Samiel was very well aware that the Gods were slaves to their own power; their personalities were reshaped by the Faith of their Followers, as that was the most corruptive way of power.
It was no wonder why Magic Users mainly abhorred any worship of traditional Gods in a sense because the Power of Faith or just the Faith was unique energy that was generated by the worshippers of God. Then the said God would absorb the Faith and grow in strength... and that was the problem because The Faith was tainted energy with emotions of worshippers, their imaginations about the Gods, their prejudice, thoughts, feelings... their everything.
And this was basically overwriting the personalities of the Gods and people who were using the Faith. Now, the Outer Gods were extraordinary in this aspect because they didn't even actively absorb the Faith, but instead, they were using the Faith to strengthen the Souls they obtained and then devoured the Souls to grow in power.
Because of that, the Outer Godhood was remarkable in that aspect. Now, the Divine Shard was practically a part of the Divine Spark of a God, it was a very, very, very small shard of the Divine Spark, but for a mortal, it was an incredibly potent source of the Divine Power.
'Still... it is a very rare treasure and I better keep it for later usage... who knows, maybe in future I would have a perfect usage for it, and if not, I could always sell it to someone or just drop it in the Hall and redeem some resources in its place.'
Samiel thought as he turned his sight at another translucent window from the Tower's System that contained a Unique Quest that was issued by the Tower's System simultaneously with the Advancement Quest.
[Unique Quest: Destruction of the Divine Altars
Description: 10th Floor of the Tower is suitable for building Altars dedicated to various Gods, Daemons, Devils and other Transcendental that are worshipped in the Material Plane of the Cosmos.
As the Apostle of the Outer Gods, you have many enemies among the other Transcendents, especially in the ranks of Evil Gods, Daemons and other Transcendentals, who have worshippers on the 10th Floor of the Tower.
Mission: Destroy the Altars dedicated to the enemies of the Azathoth's Court.
Reward: Depending on the result, Unlocking the Hidden Quest.]