Ch.8888. Royal Ranch (7)

After we achieved our goal of recruiting Griffin Scouts and left the Imperial Pasture:

“Ladies and gentlemen! Now we’ll begin our meeting to decide our next destination!!”

“[[[YAAAAAAAAY!]]]”

*Clap clap clap clap clap!!!*

Under the self-appointed leadership of Corin as our moderator, we began our meeting to determine our next destination.

“I’d like to travel to the sea.”

Astra, who stepped forward first, recommended the sea as our next destination candidate.

Of course, I can’t deny that Astra herself has personal interests in sea voyaging, but even setting that aside, my personal opinion is that visiting the sea once wouldn’t be a bad idea.

The sea environment itself could provide mystical insights to Sophia and me, and it’s also true that monsters living in the seas of this chaotic world would likely possess formidable combat power.

“I want to go to the forest! Forest! Forest!”

“Me too! I really want to go there!”

Meanwhile, the somewhat excitable Robo and Gretel (who had somehow coordinated their opinions) suggested the forest—or more precisely, the tundra mountain region to the east.

It makes sense for Robo, who has become cold-natured overall after learning to handle ice, to feel drawn to the cold northern regions as if they were home. As for Gretel… she probably had a vague interest because griffins originally lived in mountainous terrain.

“Then I recommend the desert. It’s quite impressive, you know?”

And here, Minerva, probably the oldest among us, recommended the desert… but…

“…You mean the desert on the Southern Continent, right?”

“No. The Desert of Death.”

“Why there of all places…!”

As it happened, the desert she recommended was none other than the ‘Desert of Death.’

There are two deserts that can be reached quickly from the Western Continent.

One is the ‘Great Desert’ in the northern part of the Southern Continent, the type we commonly think of, with extreme fantasy-grade environments and natural conditions…

The other is a desert with such an infamous reputation that I was shocked just hearing its name.

The ‘Desert of Death,’ located in the center of the Eastern, Western, and Southern continents, serving as a passage connecting all three.

In the distant past, an ancient empire researching the power of ‘immortality’ to escape divine intervention was completely destroyed, along with its territory, by divine punishment from the very gods they tried to reject.

The land, once abundant with life thanks to divine blessings, became desolate and barren. The rivers that served as the empire’s lifelines dried up instantly, and various natural disasters led to the total annihilation of the nation.

Of course, the persistent humans still managed to perform an incomplete ‘ritual of immortality’ during all this, resulting in the new concept of undead being born into this world—but that’s just a minor detail.

Now, in the present era after all this has concluded, the land where the ancient nation once stood has become an otherworldly realm called the ‘Desert of Death.’

The entire otherworld is filled with undead spiritual energy that drains life force just by entering it.

This spiritual energy naturally interferes with druid magic, which is closely connected to nature.

Moreover, the Desert of Death is teeming with various undead remnants of the ancient empire. It’s such a dangerous zone that finding any living creatures in the entire desert would be more surprising than encountering wild monsters.

And she wants us to make this Desert of Death our next destination?

I was certain of one thing: Minerva isn’t the type to recklessly push us into mortal danger like this.

Even if she truly wanted to kill us, she would have used a more sophisticated and elaborate method.

“…Do you have some specific reason for this?”

So I looked straight at Minerva and asked…

“The Prophet suggested it.”

“…Sophia?”

Unexpectedly, the answer came from Sophia.

“Gregory, the Prophet researched divination magic while you were working at the Imperial Pasture. And also ways to apply this divination magic.”

“Apply it… you mean she read the future?”

“Yes. There’s a fate strongly connected to you in the Desert of Death.”

Sophia tried to convince me by showing a piece of sky with twinkling stars in her palm. And I could tell this connection was no lie, but…

“Even so, the Desert of Death is a bit…”

Despite deeply understanding and feeling this connection, I couldn’t help being reluctant about the Desert of Death.

The entire otherworldly realm is covered in a thick concentration of spiritual energy and death mysteries, growing denser toward the center until it causes ‘spontaneous undead generation.’

The outskirts might only have undead beasts or skeletons wandering sporadically, but the story changes as you go deeper.

The skeletons that appear as common monsters form armies under commanders’ orders.

Mid-tier undead like Death Knights can be found without difficulty, and high-tier undead fighting each other is a common sight in the depths.

And naturally, no normal ecosystem can form in a desert of death where undead run rampant. In other words, there probably wouldn’t be any animals or monsters I could contract with…

Yet I couldn’t ignore this connection confirmed by divination for that reason alone.

“…Then, let’s do this.”

Having decided our next destination in my mind, I began to speak calmly to my companions.

“First, our next destination will be the port of Venice, the free city. From there, we’ll take a ship and travel to the ‘Desert of Death’ by sea.”

“Master, is it really necessary to travel by ship?”

“Because the sea route is roughly several times faster. Going by land would take several weeks, but by sea… would it even take more than a week?”

Venice, the largest and most powerful free city throughout the Holy Empire. It shouldn’t be difficult to find a ship there, and I suspect there might be merchant vessels passing through that area.

Therefore, there were no other opinions.

That was the moment our next goal was decided: to arrive at the free city of Venice.

※ ※ ※

After our clear objective was established.

I went down to my personal magic laboratory, which somehow felt like my first visit despite having used it when crafting my oak staff, and began preparing for our upcoming desert journey.

The first thing to prepare for was the desert sandstorms—we needed to block the spirit energy-infused sand carried by the wind.

So what I came up with was the ‘Blessing of Windbreak.’

My idea was to imbue cloaks that everyone could wear with this celestial magic designed to block wind-based attacks and external gusts.

The base material for the cloaks would be the wing membrane of a low-grade wyvern with gliding mysteries. Using mistletoe branches from regions with strong winds as a catalyst, I gradually applied the ‘Blessing of Windbreak’ magic.

“Block the gale. Reject the incoming wind. That…”

Since I simplified the structure as much as possible, mass production wasn’t particularly difficult. It was just a repetitive process to the point of tedium.

And… as the production of the windbreak cloaks was nearing completion.

‘Phew, next is…’

I was planning to create equipment to counter undead, which can be considered the natural enemy of druids.

The mystery of nature, which forms the foundation of all druid magic, is inherently vulnerable to the spiritual energy and death mysteries that undead naturally possess.

The only plants that can bloom near undead would be withered ones, and the magical power forming wild magic gradually erodes in the presence of death mysteries.

While one could force through with magical output, this wouldn’t work without an overwhelming difference in capability.

However, druids don’t just helplessly suffer against undead.

Many high-level attack spells among celestial magic draw energy (divine power) from higher dimensional planes, the celestial realm.

‘…It’s complete.’

Therefore, this staff I created contains power specialized for manifesting such celestial forces.

I carved the body from ‘white sandalwood,’ a subspecies of ebony tree imbued with divine energy, and placed a dried substance made from pure magical solution infused with divine power as the core.

As a result, this staff was completed as an elegant cyan wand about the size of a baton, with a spirally carved body.

Since the divine attribute itself isn’t particularly versatile except against specific enemies, I had thought I would only be able to use this staff once we reached the Desert of Death…

But the opportunity to test it would come much sooner than I had anticipated.