Ball of Nothing

At long last, Zero and his friends were able to leave the underground shelter after the sandstorm died. The sun was bright and glaring, the journey boring once more after they mounted their sand walkers.

For days, the party travelled across the vast land with nothing but golden sand and tall dunes for miles. Zero was getting bored and decided to spend his time playing word games with Bob who also told interesting stories. The atmosphere was very relaxed and Jermine found herself lowering her guard around these people. The scary archer was no longer that scary when she got to know him. He wasn't the friendliest person but he didn't care much about others unless they wished harm upon Zero.

Along the way, Jermine sensed a few caves that the party checked out but none of them proved as interesting as the dungeon that Jermine discovered while they were waiting for the sand storm to pass. Zero was starting to get rather disheartened about finding the desert poppy because these caves didn't have them.

Truen was throwing out his arrows into the air for scouting and mapping purposes when he saw a strange thing from the horizon. At first, the elf thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Desert Lily claimed that illusions were common in the desert for various reasons and most times, it was a death trap for travellers who didn't know better.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he asked Bob who squinted. Jermine was puzzled at what they were looking at.

"Is that... a stone pillar sticking out from the sand?"

Truen nodded. "I guess it isn't an illusion if we're seeing the same things. Jermine, can you confirm if there is actually a solid structure in the north direction two sand dunes away from us?"

The mole girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's too far for me to detect anything yet."

With a new option presenting itself in front of the party, Truen stopped the sand walkers to hold a meeting.

"Zero, you're the party leader. You decide if we should explore the ruins and check out the illusion or continue in the direction we were going based on the map."

If he had a heart, it would have exploded from excitement but Zero didn't so he merely suppressed all that feelings within and wore a practised poker face. Being a leader was a fantastic thing, he could decide what they should do. No wonder there were so many stories of people killing each other in order to become the leaders of their country or territory. He would have been incredibly sad if they missed the chance to take a break for the boring scouting and travelling. Besides, nothing sounded better than discovering the hidden secrets of the ancient ruins.

"I think a short detour wouldn't be a bad idea. If we can get closer for Jermine to confirm that it is a ruin and not just an illusion, we will explore together. Truen will go first to scout and Mii will go with you to map it out. Once we have a rough idea of the ruin size, we can decide what to do and split into teams."

With such a sound plan that didn't feel like Zero made that decision rashly, Truen approved of it. Jermine and Bob were slightly unsure. The last time Zero found a dungeon, he headed in and kept them all outside, running ahead by himself. Nobody felt the betrayal greater than Bob and nobody was more suspicious of him than Jermine. This time, they were determined to keep their eyes locked on their leader so that Zero wouldn't think of abandoning them again.

The sand walkers walked closer to the direction of the two huge sand dunes and Truen told Jermine to let them know as soon as she sensed anything. Even if they were able to see the sand dunes, it still took them a few hours on sand walker backs to arrive at the first sand dune. Zero decided that they wouldn't be able to reach the ruins by nightfall so he told the group to settle down for the night.

"We don't know if there are monsters there, so it's better to camp out in the open. Jermine, could you start digging a shelter? Bob, you're in charge of collecting sticks for the fire. Truen and I will simply work on dismantling monsters, let's meet back at camp by dinner."

Bob and Jermine didn't suspect a thing and Zero grabbed his archer friend a good distance away so that they were out of ear-shot.

"Truen, that is not an illusion."

"How do you know?"

Zero grinned. "If we can still see it by nightfall with dark vision, that ruin is not an illusion. Desert mirages are only there because of the sun and tricks of the light. I don't know why the sun sets fast here but I can confirm it once the sun is gone. The mirages should change and disappear if we travel closer because light bends. However, the ruins are only getting clearer as we approach. I have a feeling that we're going to find something good in there!"

Truen didn't know much about desert mirages and the science behind light bending so he asked where Zero learnt that. The doctor merely pointed to his communicator. "Steve added my reading device to this so I can read it now secretly when I'm bored. Also, he gave this invention a name, it's called the i-communicator. The new model is very popular in hell, Coux has added me as a friend."

"Why don't I know about this?" Truen asked and checked his communicator. Zero gave Truen a crash course about the new update and they spent their time discussing the new features instead of dismantling monster corpses, much to Mii's displeasure.

To justify their actions, Zero showed Zero the article he found about deserts from the old Earth's library that Merlin synced into his reading device. Mii was having none of that and materialised with her glasses on before tossing a huge pile of beetle corpses for Zero to start working on.

"I will teach Truen, both of you listen and ask questions while moving your hands. There are a few hundred more corpses to go, Wii has done most of the work cleaning them so the least you can do is to dismantle them for Zoe to store away for Schaf's collection."

Zero sulked but dare not disobey the strawcherry fairy. Truen worked twice as quickly as Zero, the process of dismantling beetle corpses already ingrained into his muscle memory. As they learned together, Zero couldn't help but ask about Penelope.

"How did the villagers of Half Moon Village react?"

Mii grimaced. "Not too well. The warriors don't trust her so we sent her to live at your shifu's hut for the time being. Ruth is taking care of her but Penelope has taken a liking to Seff. Nobody is complaining about having a babysitter although Grandma Moppo is concerned."

"Why is she concerned?"

Truen blinked. "Is Seff not getting much education because he spends most of his time around Ruth and Penelope?"

Mii nodded and Zero was confused. "What does that mean?"

With a sigh, Mii broke it down for Zero. "Initially, Seff was supposed to learn reading, writing and common language from the villagers. However, everyone is very busy and Seff is a very active child. While having Penelope and Ruth become Seff's babysitters is a huge load off their hands, neither your vampire guard nor your spider monster is highly educated enough to teach what Seff needs to know. At this rate, Seff will grow up physically to mature quickly but be known as a dullard if he goes to Smargdas with Mitchnew."

Zero frowned. "But it hasn't been all that long since Seff had been born!"

"Zero, vampires grow up quickly till they are mature and remain that way for centuries before they die. Even if Seff is a half-blooded vampire, he would still grow into an adult within ten years. He needs to learn the things he needs to learn in the next few years to blend in with human society for both his sake and his mother's sake. They cannot continue to live in isolation in Half Moon Village, it's not safe when the village will be attracting more powerful allies and guests. Endow Hill was originally not a place for humans, after all. The mana is too thick and suffocating."

When Zero heard that, he felt slightly regretful about not understanding the situation earlier. Mii sat on his head. "Don't worry too much, the villagers will find a way to solve the problem. They just need some time to accept Penelope as one of them, like how they needed time to come to terms about you and your divine magic. Once this is sorted out, I'm sure they will find progress a lot faster. The Spider Queen has already started looking for a good place to lay her eggs. In a few more months, there will be hundreds of spider minions to help with construction."

Zero tried to visualise the timeline. In a few months, New Moon Village would be ready and they should be back to Rocket Mountain.

"Sounds like a good thing," he nodded and continued to work on dismantling monster corpses until Bob returned with an armful of sticks.