I am the Lucky Cat of an MMORPG

ch33

33. Camping Interlude

The party immediately turned northwest. As they rode on, I_Am_A_Poor_Man pulled out the map and started scanning the area in that direction.

"Northwest...A few more hours and it won't be soft sand dunes, but a barren desert filled with loess and rocks. Could the cave it's referring to one of those muddy holes? There're dozens, if not a hundred, of those. Tsk," I_Am_A_Poor_Man remarked.

"Anyway, let's deal with it when the time come-Watch out!" Below_The_Moon's sharp eyes found something strange in the sands before the party. It looked like something was moving underneath it.

Everyone hurriedly reined in their horses. It was fortunate they'd all stopped for, about a metre before them, a row of tiny needles pricked up through the sand. If one didn't look carefully at the desert floor, no one would've noticed them.

Swish! Below_The_Moon shot an arrow at the needles.

Chirp! Below the sands where the arrow landed, something began struggling.

"They're tiny desert scorpions. Retrieve your mount. Protect Lucky." Their mounts might die from scorpion venom if they were hit. None of them had a second horse.

"Tsk. The desert zones are so annoying," CopperPlate said as he furiously stabbed and parried downwards, revealing several scorpions hiding under the sands.

"Looks like their A.I. got upgraded. They know to hide in sand dunes and ambush as a group now."

Despite that comment, these were just tiny desert scorpions around Level 60 or so. The party need not do much to defeat them all. With the help of Below_the_Moon's cunning eyes, all obstacles were quickly swept away.

However, no one let their mounts out instantly. Who knew just how many more scorpions would be buried deep beneath the sands? As a precaution, they'd best continue on foot.

"Seems like the map needs to be updated. There shouldn't be such a dense population of scorpions here," I_Am_A_Poor_Man shook the map in his hands as he said so. He, too, felt that such an abnormal danger was rather ridiculous.

"Think of it as an adventure. The desert gets cold rather quickly at night." The Thirst bar increases at a greatly reduced rate too.

Thus, the party began discussing the problem of where to sleep for the night.

"Healers mark down a portal from here. Return to the city for the night and continue walking tomorrow morning?" This was a common tactic used during far-off grinding sessions. However, after the daily reset, every change to the portal after the initial marking would cost 1 crystal each. At most, the saved Teleport location can be changed twice in a day.

"I've got some bad news. The game says we're currently on a special mission. I can't use Teleport," Chrysanthemum shrugged.

"...Aargh. Do we really have to camp outdoors?"

"We can log off."

"Mn. That's a good idea. Don't oversleep tomorrow."

"Camp," HereticKing who'd not been participating in the discussion suddenly piped up.

"Oh. Roger," came the Heretic Demons' instant reply.