Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert
Author: Woo-Gak
Chapter 458
Chapter 458
“Haa! Haa!”
“Damn it!”
“Huu!”
Liala and Uslan lowered their heads, gasping for breath.
Before them lay a massive beast, collapsed and lifeless.
Its entire body was made of stone. A gargoyle, but ten times the size of an ordinary one.
It was the Great Gargoyle, a guardian Arcayd had created for the dungeon.
The Great Gargoyle was an S-class beast.
Its defense and combat ability matched the title.
No one had expected to face an S-class monster in this dungeon, and so the battle had been brutal.
Uslan and his men distracted the Gargoyle, while Liala found and destroyed its core.
It sounded simple, but the process was anything but.
Everyone had fought with their lives on the line, suffering serious injuries. Had the battle lasted a bit longer, someone would have died for sure.
That was how desperate the fight had been.
Yet in the end, victory belonged to Liala and her humans.
They had brought down the enormous Great Gargoyle and claimed triumph.
Catching his breath, Uslan spoke to Liala.
“Check if there’s an item.”
“Ah! Right, the item. I almost forgot.”
Liala walked toward the Gargoyle’s remains.
With its core destroyed, the Great Gargoyle was now nothing more than a pile of stone.
As she searched through the debris, something caught her hand.
“What’s this?”
Her eyes wavered as she pulled it out.
The object in her hand was a leather armor chestpiece.
Glossy crimson leather.
A red ruby, the size of a child’s fist, was set into the chest.
The moment Liala and Uslan saw that ruby-studded armor, they shouted the same name.
“No way. Lautra’s Armor?”
“That’s Lord Lautra’s armor, isn’t it?”
Lautra was the legendary human hero of Kurayan.
The great warrior who won the racial wars thousands of years ago and laid the foundation for the Empire.
Because of him, humans triumphed over other races and became rulers of Kurayan.
After leading humanity to victory, Lautra had vanished. His armor was never seen again.
The armor Lautra wore in the war looked exactly like this one.
Its distinctive features were unmistakable. Every human knew Lautra’s Armor by sight.
Uslan spoke.
“Please, put it on and check.”
“Me?”
“Only you, Lady Liala, have the right to wear that armor. If it’s genuine, the rest of us would die the moment we put it on.”
An item of Lautra’s caliber chose its master.
If it judged someone unworthy, it didn’t just reject them, it could kill them.
Here, the only one who could possibly wear Lautra’s Armor was Liala.
She gazed at the armor for a moment.
The ruby on the chest emitted a sacred crimson glow, as if tempting her to wear it.
Biting her lip hard, Liala donned Lautra’s Armor.
If she didn’t, someone else in Elharun would. If it were another human, fine, but if another race gained that power, she couldn’t bear it.
“Ugh!”
The instant she wore it, searing heat surged across her body.
The burning pain was so intense she almost gasped aloud. But Liala clenched her teeth and endured.
The heat that felt like it would consume her body vanished quickly, replaced by a refreshing coolness.
Chwaaa!
The loose armor tightened, reshaping itself to fit her perfectly.
Liala instinctively knew.
Lautra’s Armor had accepted her as its master.
As if to confirm that truth, the ruby on the chest emitted a deep resonance.
Wuuung!
At that moment, Liala felt an immense power flow into her.
She felt she could crush anything, defeat any foe.
It wasn’t certain, but she could tell, she had risen by at least one whole tier.
“Congratulations, Lady Liala!”
“You’ve been recognized as the armor’s master!”
“As expected of you, my lady!”
Uslan and the others cheered.
Their faces glowed with hope.
The stronger Liala, the Hall of Guardians’ master and leader of humanity, became, the greater humanity’s standing would be.
The symbolism of Lautra’s Armor was immense.
Simply being chosen by the armor that had ushered in humanity’s golden age in Kurayan would give the people of Elharun new hope.
“Huu.”
Liala exhaled deeply and brushed her hand over the armor.
Only now did it truly sink in, she was Lautra’s successor.
She turned to Uslan and the others.
“Thank you all. Because of you, I was able to claim Lautra’s Armor. I’ll use this power for our people.”
“Wonderful news, Lady Liala!”
“Please continue to lead us well.”
Smiles bloomed across their faces.
Lautra’s Armor possessed a power and symbolic weight unlike any other item found in the Dungeon of Darkness.
Now that it had chosen Liala, no other race would dare challenge her claim.
Uslan suddenly spoke, as if remembering something.
“Come to think of it, Lord Zeon still hasn’t appeared. Do you think something happened?”
“That can’t be. A man like him wouldn’t fall to something like this.”
“Then why hasn’t he, ?”
“My guess is, he encountered a different boss altogether.”
“Is that even possible? Isn’t there only one master per dungeon?”
“You know as well as I do, nothing is impossible in a dungeon. And this one isn’t like any normal dungeon.”
A dungeon that could be raided multiple times.
Each raid granting rewards anew.
Such a structure was completely unheard of.
“That might be true,” Uslan admitted.
This dungeon defied all common sense. Trying to judge it by ordinary logic was foolish.
Liala said,
“Zeon will make his way out. Let’s head outside and rest.”
“Yes, Lady Liala!”
“Agreed.”
And so they left the dungeon.
But once outside, they froze.
“What’s this?”
“Why is no one here?”
The elves who should have been guarding the Dungeon of Darkness were nowhere in sight.
Even if they were hiding, their presence should have been felt, but there was nothing.
Then it happened.
KWAANG!
A massive explosion erupted above.
With it came an avalanche of sand pouring down toward the dungeon below.
A sandslide.
KWA-KWA-KWA!
The sand mountains surrounding the dungeon collapsed, sending waves of sand crashing down like a tidal surge.
There was nowhere to run.
As despair flashed across Uslan’s face, Liala shouted,
“Everyone, around me!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Without hesitation, Uslan and his men gathered around her.
At that moment, the ruby embedded in Lautra’s Armor burst forth with a blinding red light, enveloping them all.
KWA-KWANG!
The next instant, the avalanche buried them whole.
＊＊＊
The falling sand completely transformed the terrain.
The mountains that once surrounded the area had flattened entirely.
The Dungeon of Darkness, once buried hundreds of meters below, was gone, without a trace.
Pushing through the thick clouds of dust, the elves appeared.
They were the rangers who had guarded the dungeon.
“Whistle… what power.”
“It’s completely buried.”
The elven rangers shook their heads as they surveyed the now-level plain.
They had planted the explosives themselves, but hadn’t expected such devastation.
Caron spoke.
“Don’t lower your guard yet.”
“With that much sand falling, not even a god could have survived.”
“Agreed, Captain!”
Caron said nothing to their response.
It was habit more than belief, he didn’t truly think Liala and her soldiers could have lived through that.
The rangers muttered among themselves.
“It’s a shame to bury the dungeon like this.”
“What’s the shame? It stopped giving items anyway.”
The gifts the dungeon had once granted with every clear had suddenly ceased.
They’d raided it several more times just to be sure, but the result was the same.
Because of that, talk of sealing the dungeon had begun among the other-race leaders.
Still, none of the elves had expected to receive orders to bury Liala and her warriors alive.
One ranger spoke hesitantly.
“Are we really allowed to do this? Lady Liala is still the Hall of Guardians’ master.”
“So what?”
“Won’t the humans retaliate?”
“With what proof? It’ll just look like a tragic accident. They were simply… unlucky.”
“Still…”
“What, still? I said don’t worry about it. There’s nothing to fear.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s move out.”
Caron gave the order to retreat.
Everything was ready, they just had to leave.
But just as they turned their backs,
Psshhh
A faint sound of sliding sand came from behind.
Every ranger froze, whipping their heads around.
“No way…”
“It can’t be!”
Their eyes widened in disbelief.
As the sand slid away, figures wrapped in a crimson barrier emerged to the surface.
It was Liala and her party.
Caron’s jaw clenched.
“What the hell?”
His gaze locked onto the armor Liala wore.
Instinctively, he realized the source of the crimson shield was that armor.
“Don’t tell me she got an item from the dungeon?”
“But weren’t all the items exhausted?”
“What in the world…”
The rangers’ faces twisted in confusion.
Liala deactivated the shield and spoke.
“Damn it! We almost died.”
“Thanks to you, Lady Liala, we survived!”
“Haa…”
Uslan and the others sighed in relief.
The moment the sandslide began, they thought it was the end.
No matter how skilled they were, being buried under such a mass of sand would have been certain death.
But the power within Lautra’s Armor had shielded them completely, even within that crushing storm.
Thanks to it, they had emerged unharmed.
Liala glared at Caron.
“Why? You hate us that much you’d collapse a mountain of sand to kill us? And you still call yourselves proud elves?”
“Seems you got a nice item.”
“Yeah. Thanks to it, we’re still breathing.”
“Too bad. You should’ve just died. Then everyone could’ve been happy.”
“Happy? Bullshit! Who gave the order? Was it Hera? Did she tell you to kill us?”
“If it were Lady Hera, we’d have refused. Killing you is too risky.”
“Then who?”
“The order came from higher up.”
“Don’t tell me… Lord Del Roa?”
“……”
“Damn it!”
Caron’s silence was answer enough.
“Haa! Haa!”
“Damn it!”
“Huu!”
Liala and Uslan lowered their heads, gasping for breath.
Before them lay a massive beast, collapsed and lifeless.
Its entire body was made of stone. A gargoyle, but ten times the size of an ordinary one.
It was the Great Gargoyle, a guardian Arcayd had created for the dungeon.
The Great Gargoyle was an S-class beast.
Its defense and combat ability matched the title.
No one had expected to face an S-class monster in this dungeon, and so the battle had been brutal.
Uslan and his men distracted the Gargoyle, while Liala found and destroyed its core.
It sounded simple, but the process was anything but.
Everyone had fought with their lives on the line, suffering serious injuries. Had the battle lasted a bit longer, someone would have died for sure.
That was how desperate the fight had been.
Yet in the end, victory belonged to Liala and her humans.
They had brought down the enormous Great Gargoyle and claimed triumph.
Catching his breath, Uslan spoke to Liala.
“Check if there’s an item.”
“Ah! Right, the item. I almost forgot.”
Liala walked toward the Gargoyle’s remains.
With its core destroyed, the Great Gargoyle was now nothing more than a pile of stone.
As she searched through the debris, something caught her hand.
“What’s this?”
Her eyes wavered as she pulled it out.
The object in her hand was a leather armor chestpiece.
Glossy crimson leather.
A red ruby, the size of a child’s fist, was set into the chest.
The moment Liala and Uslan saw that ruby-studded armor, they shouted the same name.
“No way. Lautra’s Armor?”
“That’s Lord Lautra’s armor, isn’t it?”
Lautra was the legendary human hero of Kurayan.
The great warrior who won the racial wars thousands of years ago and laid the foundation for the Empire.
Because of him, humans triumphed over other races and became rulers of Kurayan.
After leading humanity to victory, Lautra had vanished. His armor was never seen again.
The armor Lautra wore in the war looked exactly like this one.
Its distinctive features were unmistakable. Every human knew Lautra’s Armor by sight.
Uslan spoke.
“Please, put it on and check.”
“Me?”
“Only you, Lady Liala, have the right to wear that armor. If it’s genuine, the rest of us would die the moment we put it on.”
An item of Lautra’s caliber chose its master.
If it judged someone unworthy, it didn’t just reject them, it could kill them.
Here, the only one who could possibly wear Lautra’s Armor was Liala.
She gazed at the armor for a moment.
The ruby on the chest emitted a sacred crimson glow, as if tempting her to wear it.
Biting her lip hard, Liala donned Lautra’s Armor.
If she didn’t, someone else in Elharun would. If it were another human, fine, but if another race gained that power, she couldn’t bear it.
“Ugh!”
The instant she wore it, searing heat surged across her body.
The burning pain was so intense she almost gasped aloud. But Liala clenched her teeth and endured.
The heat that felt like it would consume her body vanished quickly, replaced by a refreshing coolness.
Chwaaa!
The loose armor tightened, reshaping itself to fit her perfectly.
Liala instinctively knew.
Lautra’s Armor had accepted her as its master.
As if to confirm that truth, the ruby on the chest emitted a deep resonance.
Wuuung!
At that moment, Liala felt an immense power flow into her.
She felt she could crush anything, defeat any foe.
It wasn’t certain, but she could tell, she had risen by at least one whole tier.
“Congratulations, Lady Liala!”
“You’ve been recognized as the armor’s master!”
“As expected of you, my lady!”
Uslan and the others cheered.
Their faces glowed with hope.
The stronger Liala, the Hall of Guardians’ master and leader of humanity, became, the greater humanity’s standing would be.
The symbolism of Lautra’s Armor was immense.
Simply being chosen by the armor that had ushered in humanity’s golden age in Kurayan would give the people of Elharun new hope.
“Huu.”
Liala exhaled deeply and brushed her hand over the armor.
Only now did it truly sink in, she was Lautra’s successor.
She turned to Uslan and the others.
“Thank you all. Because of you, I was able to claim Lautra’s Armor. I’ll use this power for our people.”
“Wonderful news, Lady Liala!”
“Please continue to lead us well.”
Smiles bloomed across their faces.
Lautra’s Armor possessed a power and symbolic weight unlike any other item found in the Dungeon of Darkness.
Now that it had chosen Liala, no other race would dare challenge her claim.
Uslan suddenly spoke, as if remembering something.
“Come to think of it, Lord Zeon still hasn’t appeared. Do you think something happened?”
“That can’t be. A man like him wouldn’t fall to something like this.”
“Then why hasn’t he, ?”
“My guess is, he encountered a different boss altogether.”
“Is that even possible? Isn’t there only one master per dungeon?”
“You know as well as I do, nothing is impossible in a dungeon. And this one isn’t like any normal dungeon.”
A dungeon that could be raided multiple times.
Each raid granting rewards anew.
Such a structure was completely unheard of.
“That might be true,” Uslan admitted.
This dungeon defied all common sense. Trying to judge it by ordinary logic was foolish.
Liala said,
“Zeon will make his way out. Let’s head outside and rest.”
“Yes, Lady Liala!”
“Agreed.”
And so they left the dungeon.
But once outside, they froze.
“What’s this?”
“Why is no one here?”
The elves who should have been guarding the Dungeon of Darkness were nowhere in sight.
Even if they were hiding, their presence should have been felt, but there was nothing.
Then it happened.
KWAANG!
A massive explosion erupted above.
With it came an avalanche of sand pouring down toward the dungeon below.
A sandslide.
KWA-KWA-KWA!
The sand mountains surrounding the dungeon collapsed, sending waves of sand crashing down like a tidal surge.
There was nowhere to run.
As despair flashed across Uslan’s face, Liala shouted,
“Everyone, around me!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Without hesitation, Uslan and his men gathered around her.
At that moment, the ruby embedded in Lautra’s Armor burst forth with a blinding red light, enveloping them all.
KWA-KWANG!
The next instant, the avalanche buried them whole.
＊＊＊
The falling sand completely transformed the terrain.
The mountains that once surrounded the area had flattened entirely.
The Dungeon of Darkness, once buried hundreds of meters below, was gone, without a trace.
Pushing through the thick clouds of dust, the elves appeared.
They were the rangers who had guarded the dungeon.
“Whistle… what power.”
“It’s completely buried.”
The elven rangers shook their heads as they surveyed the now-level plain.
They had planted the explosives themselves, but hadn’t expected such devastation.
Caron spoke.
“Don’t lower your guard yet.”
“With that much sand falling, not even a god could have survived.”
“Agreed, Captain!”
Caron said nothing to their response.
It was habit more than belief, he didn’t truly think Liala and her soldiers could have lived through that.
The rangers muttered among themselves.
“It’s a shame to bury the dungeon like this.”
“What’s the shame? It stopped giving items anyway.”
The gifts the dungeon had once granted with every clear had suddenly ceased.
They’d raided it several more times just to be sure, but the result was the same.
Because of that, talk of sealing the dungeon had begun among the other-race leaders.
Still, none of the elves had expected to receive orders to bury Liala and her warriors alive.
One ranger spoke hesitantly.
“Are we really allowed to do this? Lady Liala is still the Hall of Guardians’ master.”
“So what?”
“Won’t the humans retaliate?”
“With what proof? It’ll just look like a tragic accident. They were simply… unlucky.”
“Still…”
“What, still? I said don’t worry about it. There’s nothing to fear.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s move out.”
Caron gave the order to retreat.
Everything was ready, they just had to leave.
But just as they turned their backs,
Psshhh
A faint sound of sliding sand came from behind.
Every ranger froze, whipping their heads around.
“No way…”
“It can’t be!”
Their eyes widened in disbelief.
As the sand slid away, figures wrapped in a crimson barrier emerged to the surface.
It was Liala and her party.
Caron’s jaw clenched.
“What the hell?”
His gaze locked onto the armor Liala wore.
Instinctively, he realized the source of the crimson shield was that armor.
“Don’t tell me she got an item from the dungeon?”
“But weren’t all the items exhausted?”
“What in the world…”
The rangers’ faces twisted in confusion.
Liala deactivated the shield and spoke.
“Damn it! We almost died.”
“Thanks to you, Lady Liala, we survived!”
“Haa…”
Uslan and the others sighed in relief.
The moment the sandslide began, they thought it was the end.
No matter how skilled they were, being buried under such a mass of sand would have been certain death.
But the power within Lautra’s Armor had shielded them completely, even within that crushing storm.
Thanks to it, they had emerged unharmed.
Liala glared at Caron.
“Why? You hate us that much you’d collapse a mountain of sand to kill us? And you still call yourselves proud elves?”
“Seems you got a nice item.”
“Yeah. Thanks to it, we’re still breathing.”
“Too bad. You should’ve just died. Then everyone could’ve been happy.”
“Happy? Bullshit! Who gave the order? Was it Hera? Did she tell you to kill us?”
“If it were Lady Hera, we’d have refused. Killing you is too risky.”
“Then who?”
“The order came from higher up.”
“Don’t tell me… Lord Del Roa?”
“……”
“Damn it!”
Caron’s silence was answer enough.