Journey to Libya — Chapter 14 (excerpt)
1 month and a week later,
The desert sun scorched the cracked earth as Andrew and Clara descended near the Libyan wasteland, after a slow travel and numerous hours of continuous and careful flight. Winds howled, whipping sand like razor blades.
Monsters lurked everywhere — sand serpents weaving beneath dunes, burrowing horrors bursting from the dirt, and vicious winged beasts circling overhead.
Every step was a battle.
Andrew's longsword clashed with spiked carapaces; shadow flames roared with each strike.
Clara's elemental magic flared, combining wind, fire, and ice to freeze and incinerate foes before they could close.
The desert was relentless.
Their bodies bled, but their spirits burned hotter.
The fight after fight, the relentless grind against savage beasts, pushed them both beyond limits they never imagined.
Slowly but surely, their powers soared.
By the time the dunes gave way to distant city ruins, Andrew's level had climbed to 29.
Clara, still fierce but slightly behind, had reached 24.
Exhausted but unbroken, they pressed onward.
…
The Libyan desert wasn't just sand and monsters.
It was a graveyard of broken humanity.
Players ruled the dunes now—rogue bands, violent tribes, and deranged warlords who saw the apocalypse as license to indulge every brutal instinct. Here, civilization had long since died, its bones buried beneath sun-blasted stone.
The dangers weren't random.
They were organized.
At one settlement, Andrew and Clara arrived seeking water—only to find it was a trap, run by Players who ambushed travelers and drained them of their gear, mana, and lives.
That time, Clara burned half the camp to ash.
Another time, a band of Level 22+ Players tried to "recruit" them. When Andrew refused, they attacked without hesitation.
He killed the leader in under six seconds.
> Andrew Level Up: 26 → 29
Clara Level Up: 21 → 24
But even with victory, the stress never faded.
Every step deeper into Libya sharpened their instincts. They slept in hidden caves, rotated watches, and moved mostly at night to avoid being spotted by scouts or monster swarms.
---
Clara's Breakthrough
After a particularly harsh skirmish where Andrew used his umbra constructs to trap a sand drake in a collapsing cage of blades, Clara sat by the fire, staring at her hands.
"I want to do it too," she said softly.
Andrew looked up. "What?"
"That," she gestured. "Shape something out of me. Out of what I am."
She focused. Concentrated. Let her mana bleed outward.
And then—
A sword of flame crackled into her hand.
Not summoned.
Constructed.
> New Skill Unlocked: Elemental Construct – Level 1
Allows user to shape elemental energy (fire, wind, ice) into weapon forms. Strength scales with control and mana.
She grinned, breathing hard.
"It's not as smooth as yours… but it's mine."
Andrew nodded once, but something in his expression softened.
The fire crackled low as night blanketed the desert.
For once, there were no enemies. No screams. No roars.
Just the wind, the shifting sand, and the two of them—tired, covered in dust and sweat, leaning against the same rock.
Clara stretched, groaning. "I'm starting to think I'm allergic to sand."
Andrew didn't look up. "Pretty sure you're allergic to standing still."
"Oh, please." She nudged his side with her foot. "I saw you sprint face-first into that last monster's mouth."
"I needed a shortcut."
She blinked. Then laughed. "Wait—was that a joke?"
His lips barely moved. "Maybe."
They sat there for a moment, letting the silence settle again.
Then Clara turned toward him, quietly. "Hey… can I ask you something?"
Andrew didn't answer immediately.
She waited.
"Go ahead."
"Why do you always look like you're ready to disappear?"
Andrew stared at the fire for a while.
"I used to think being invisible meant being safe," he said at last. "No attention. No expectations. No one to disappoint."
Clara looked at him gently, her voice soft. "And now?"
He glanced her way.
"Now I think… I was just scared."
Silence. Deeper than before.
Clara didn't press. She didn't need to.
So instead, she smiled. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, you suck at disappearing now."
Andrew almost smiled.
...….
The Collector's men fell fast.
Clara's flames swept through the dunes, slicing through armor and will alike. Andrew's blade carved a path in silence—his movements effortless, terrifying.
One of the surviving scouts crawled backward, bloody and broken—but alive long enough to press a rune crystal.
A signal.
Not long after, the sand shifted.
And he arrived.
A man cloaked in flowing silver, dark eyes unreadable, a calm smile on his face.
"I'm not here to fight," he said, stopping twenty meters away. "Not yet."
Clara's hands flared with mana. Andrew's sword was already drawn.
The man raised his hands slowly. "I'm called Varun. Leader of the Collectors."
He paused, letting the title hang in the air.
"I offer you a place at my side. Your abilities… are worth far more than dying here."
Andrew's voice was flat. "And if we say no?"
Varun smiled wider.
"Then I'll take them."
He vanished.
And reappeared behind Clara.
Andrew moved instantly—Shadow Step colliding with a pulse of light.
Steel rang.
Clara blasted him with a cyclone of wind-blades, forcing him back.
Varun chuckled, brushing ash off his coat. "You're fast."
Andrew didn't reply.
Because the fight had already begun.
Varun's ability—Usurper—crackled with violet light. His hand barely grazed Andrew's shoulder and something tugged inside him. A piece of magic, almost like a thread, was trying to be unraveled.
Clara screamed and unleashed an elemental storm—fire twisting with wind and ice, a kaleidoscope of destruction. Varun teleported, but Andrew was already there, predicting him.
Sword met flesh.
Shadow erupted.
Varun's scream echoed across the dunes as Andrew's blade sank deep into his core.
"You should've stayed quiet," Andrew whispered.
Varun reached out with bloodied fingers, trying to touch him again—
But darkness surged up his body, swallowing him whole.
He didn't even have time to scream again.
---
System Message
> Unique Skill Unlocked: [Gluttony] – Level 1
You have devoured a marked soul.
You may now consume monsters or humans with darkness to absorb portions of their stats and abilities.
Efficiency depends on skill level.
Warning: Overuse may attract the attention of higher forces.
Andrew staggered slightly, hand clutching his chest.
The shadows inside him… shifted.
For a moment, they weren't just extensions of him—they were hungry.
The desert fell silent once more.
The body of Varun—the Usurper—was gone. Not buried. Not burning.
Consumed.
The shadow-wrought smoke faded, leaving only cracked sand and the scent of charred mana.
Andrew stood still, sword lowered, gaze distant.
A message still echoed in the back of his mind:
> You have devoured a marked soul.
He clenched his hand.
The shadows within him pulsed—not with loyalty, but hunger.
He didn't say anything to Clara.
Not yet.
Not even when she touched his arm, brows furrowed in concern.
He just nodded once, muttered "Let's move," and turned his back on the battlefield.
But inside…
He knew something had changed.
And whatever it was—it wasn't done growing.