Now that they were at the bottom of the valley, the group had a chance to properly see the dunes. And while it was regular sand for the most part, there was also some weirdness to it. For starters, parts of the soil were embedded with poison. It seemed that as the poison rain fell down, some of the sand absorbed it and eventually the grains became one with it. But thanks to the winds that were constantly moving, the poison didn't stay in this particular area around the Poison Lake plateau. Instead, it was spreading all over the room.

And while this did make the entire area possibly hazardous, it was to a degree so much smaller than the rain itself that Hera didn't have to worry about the poison. Her natural abilities, thanks to being an Ophidianite, were more than enough to offset any poison particles that she ended up inhaling.

Shane also didn't have to worry about that kind of thing since the enchantress had created a filter around her, stopping any particles from getting too close to her body. Alex couldn't stop the particles from getting close, her Purification Legacy would cleanse this amount of poison almost instantly. As a matter of fact, even the dust particles that were being kicked off by the wind struggled to get close to her. Only the thicker parts approached them, and those couldn't be inhaled effortlessly.

Bonnie was the only one who didn't have a built-in defense against that type of thing, and that's exactly why she was wearing a face mask that covered her mouth together with a pair of goggles to stop the sand from getting to her eyes. Hera, on the other hand, also had some problems in the eye department, and that's why Oberon had changed to the goggles form so she could properly see things.

His form also allowed her to perceive mana more easily, which would help when searching for more bones. Once they finished that initial stage of gathering their bearings, they quickly decided to continue following the Poison Lake plateau until they reached the ocean. This was a way for them to explore two different areas at the same time. Between each plateau was a place like this, so it wasn't feasible to consider they would be able to explore everything in a single day. Which was why the plan was to use this as a passage between one plateau and the next. That way, they were more likely to optimize their time and explore more of Deakoshara.

As they started to walk, the ground was solid. There wasn't anything that seemed to be swallowing them from underneath, and they were able to continue moving without any problems. But Shane was walking by the plateau side, her hand touching the stone. She wasn't just resting but actually putting a bit of force on it to cause some scrapes on her palms

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

"I'm trying to level up my Naga scales," the enchantress replied.

Hera couldn't help but chuckle. "Really? Just because that worked with my dad doesn't mean it's going to work with you."

"So? I want to be the next Ophidianite," Shane replied.

Hera rolled her eyes and remembered that she herself had not taken the daily dose of Ophidianite essence. Quickly pulling a vial from her pouch, she grabbed one of the snake heads of the bracelet and pressed it against the vial so the essence started to seep into it. The strange transparent liquid that seemed to be just more viscous than water quickly filled the vial before Hera downed it in a single gulp.

Ever since she became an Ophidianite, the taste of this essence had changed. When she was human, the Naga essence didn't really have a taste. It was more a texture, as if she was drinking some slightly thick yogurt. And while the taste itself couldn't change, now as an Ophidianite drinking the essence of her people, as strange as it sounded, it felt like she was taking a shot of water filled with electrolytes. Like a concentrated shot of a sports drink. It was quite refreshing and felt very good to drink, so on more than one occasion, she took a second dose during the same day.

However, every time she did so, a message would pop up letting her know that the second dose within 24 hours of the first would give no beneficial effects. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't even quench her thirst even if it felt like it should.

Just as she drank the essence, a notification appeared in front of her.

Her Naga Adaptation had just ranked up from one to two. That was one of the strangest skills she had. It simply stated that she could adapt to different environments more easily. But never explained how.

"Oh," she said with the vial still in hand.

Shane looked back at the Empress and rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you just got a rank up in one of the Ophidianite skills."

Hera smiled and said, "Okay, I won't say anything then."

"This is bullshit," Shane started to grumble as they continued walking along the side of the Poison Lake plateau.

Thanks to Oberon's form, Hera could see that there was mana moving around this area. Rather dense groups of it, but it was nowhere near as dense as the clump that she passed by when she was dropping down. Even from this distance, if she wanted to look up, she could see that specific white protrusion coming from the walls of the cliff and an extremely high amount of mana surrounding it. But she couldn't really discern the type of mana that came from the object. All she could tell was that there was some element attached to it. It wasn't simply raw mana as it was when she found the lake or any other place that she visited.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But the more they walked, the more it seemed that there was really nothing in this area. The Empress remembered seeing some strange creatures moving around, but even they seemed to have vanished. Maybe it was a situation where the monsters were only nocturnal or kept migrating from one side of the room to the next, but it was all just speculation that had no ground in reality so far.

They went most of the way around without speaking much. Everybody was more focused on trying to see if they could recognize anything in the area than wanting to have random conversations. Only when the sand began turning white due to the presence of the beach on the horizon did things started to change.

For starters, the area between the plateaus was becoming more level. It was lowering, getting closer to ocean level. Second, they could see some bones being revealed by the sands. And it didn't take long for everyone to realize what it was. It seemed that they had finally found signals of monsters that roamed this part of the room. And the Empress couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised by what they were seeing.

There was this strange species of scorpion, or maybe a giant crab, very similar to parts of Scryotra, the fake guardian beast, which now Hera realized ended up becoming a Devil. Unfortunately, there was no full skeleton for them to properly see the body of the creature. Instead, they were just pieces that seemed to show a full picture.

Large pincers, that looked more crab-like. A long thorax similar to that of an ant. A segmented tail very similar to what a scorpion would have, and legs of various shapes and sizes.

In a way, it almost looked like those pieces came from different creatures, but Bonnie and Hera were able to discern that they likely came from the same creature, as the color and some of the structure was too similar for them to be from completely different species. However, that was all they could see. There was no more information to be gathered from these pieces of exoskeleton that were lying underneath the sands. The mana had dispersed a very long time ago. If there were actual meat or organs, they were no longer there. Even the poison sac that should be by the tail was gone.

The only thing they could actually take from this was the fact that these ant/scorpion/crabs were the size of wolves. Anything else was beyond their capability of understanding with the limited information they had.

Looking towards the horizon, they stared at the beach for a few moments. It was a somewhat stark contrast considering their current location, while at the same time blending almost seamlessly. The sands would slowly become whiter and whiter until there was barely any speck of the dark brown present in the valleys, and the water was such a clear blue that made it seem like this was one of the Triton paradise rooms, the areas that they reserved for the more luxurious resorts.

If that wasn't enough, they could even see in the distance some movement. Fish were jumping from the water in the distance. Hera sent Nimbus flying up, and the Sentinel confirmed that he could see larger shapes swimming in the ocean. But they were either too deep or had some sort of skill that stopped them from being properly seen from above.

And the water wasn't the only thing that seemed interesting for the group. Looking towards the plateaus, there were ramps connecting to the beach in several of them. Hera even could guess that they were present on every single one of the cliffs going all the way up to the top of the plateaus, but she couldn't have that confirmation right now.

"I guess the Naga liked swimming," Alex quickly noted.

"They did. Naga in general enjoy swimming, at least the ones that live near water. I'm just a bit surprised that they actually walked down here. I imagine that going back up would be a bit of a hassle," Shane replied.

They started walking back towards the side of the Poison Lake plateau, as there was one of those zigzag ramps near their location. And while Hera had to agree that it sounded very strange for the amount of time that would take them to get here, she also noticed something else. There was, just at the end of the zigzag ramp, a strange pillar that was almost like a giant screw with grooves going in a spiral. The pillar was broken, but it still had about around 3 or so meters of it going up back into the plateau above.

They stopped for a moment and looked at that pillar, more specifically at the grooves, and Hera stared back at her tail before trying to wrap it to match one of the holes. As she was expecting, the groove fit her tail. It wasn't a perfect match by any means, but it was something that she would be able to stay comfortably seated in if needed.

"I think they have some sort of rudimentary elevator here," Hera replied.

"You think so?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I mean, this is essentially a screw. What happens if we start spinning it?"

The group looked at each other, and Shane used her Legacy to enchant the pillar to spin in a counterclockwise motion. Just as it did that, Hera felt herself being pulled up by the spiral. It wasn't comfortable by any means, as it was clear there was something else missing, a seat or a way to make this hurt less, but she could see how it was possible that the Naga were taking it back up using something like that.

Especially since after placing her tail inside the groove, she barely needed to put any effort into holding herself up. She still had to hold on, of course, but it wasn't something that she was struggling to do.

Since her tail was less developed than that of a Naga, she could only imagine that the ancient people wouldn't have any problems holding on to this kind of thing. Hell, maybe even children could use this spiral without having to worry about letting go.

The Empress jumped off the pillar after a while, not wanting to see what would happen once she reached the broken part, and noticed how Bonnie and Alex were removing their shoes and putting their feet in the sand.

"What are you doing?" Hera asked.

"What?" Bonnie turned to the Empress. "We're at a beach. My mom would kill me if I went back home without feeling some sand between my toes."

"I never expected Renette to be so into beaches," Hera replied.

"You should hear how much she begged me to take her to the Triton homeland. She's dying to see those beaches. But we didn't have a chance to go there just yet."

Hera paused for a moment, "I can see if I can arrange something once we are done here. I'm sure Nereus would be more than happy to host us."

"Are you really name-dropping the Triton Sovereign right now?" Shane asked.

"You may call him Triton Sovereign, but to me he's just a guy who took me to eat some burgers on a drive in."

"You know, for someone who always said she wasn't anything special, it's kind of hard to believe you when you start saying stuff like that," Shane sighed.

Hera shrugged, and the group started walking north, following the beach. They were hoping they maybe could find a settlement or something in the areas that were in the wider gap between the cliffs and the ocean. And if not, they could always reach one of the ramps and use it to go back up.

Not to mention, it would be nice to know if the Spirits would also show up on the beach or not. And that was something that Hera was very much worried about.

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