I Can Make Everything Level UP

Once Sarah made some progress with her magic, she decided to take everyone to the areas where she one the others found her magic tools. Naturally, that wasn't a mission, and since Kate was going with them, they had to tell Edward what they were going to do.

"Are you going to explore the desert for magic items, sure," Edward said. "I am hoping that you can bring some nice magic items."

"You already knew about them?" Billy frowned.

"I wouldn't have devised and attacking plan if we didn't know everything about Sarah's tribe," Edward said. "Their magic tools mostly have miscellaneous use and since before few of us had enough mana to use those, I decided to ignore that fact."

"My apologies for hiding that until now," Sarah said.

"It is fine, they were yours to begin with," Edward said. "We fought for unification, not for conquest."

That seemed nice on paper… it was a pity hundreds died for that unification to happen before and during it. In any case, the group would have to walk on foot since horses and carriages wouldn't be able to move around freely in that area. While the desert wasn't of sand but of rocks, it had many undulations on the terrain. Regardless, the group didn't have to make many preparations since they were only expecting to find monsters here and there. Earthworms were troublesome, but if the elementalists lived while feeling with them on a daily basis, they shouldn't be that much of a threat.

In any case, according to Sarah, there were three spots where they found the magic tools. So, Billy decided that they would explore those locations for a week and then return home. That would be two weeks away from home, and it was more than enough time for Billy to wish for a break… he also doubted that his friends would endure the heat for longer than that. The cold of the night will also be troublesome.

They camped out for three nights before reaching the first location and in one of those places was in the desert. They had gathered enough wood in the last two days. The only problem was the cold wind of the night. Billy solved that problem by creating some earth walls around them to block the wind. Adding that to the campfire, the nights were no longer cold.

"Is this the place?" Billy asked when he saw some Earth pillars scattered around.

They reached the spot Sarah mentioned at noon of the next day. That had been a relief for Kate since she looked exhausted and a bit dehydrated. Sarah used her magic tool to help, but it only worked for half an hour… and that wasn't surprising, even though Kate had been training her stamina for the past two months.

To prevent problems, Billy created a very simple house made of Earth. It only had a ceiling, four walls, and the entrance, but it was quite nice inside… everything would be away from the scorching sun.

"You should rest here for a while, only my magic can find things underground, after all," Billy said.

Although Billy explained the theory to others, they didn't get how he could find things underground for some reason. In any case, he wondered why the earthworms didn't attack them until now. Without the elementalists, these lands should be completely under their control, and yet…

"Do you know if those pillars were created by your people?" Billy asked.

"They are too old looking for that to be the case," Sarah said.

That was hard to say… things deteriorate rather quickly in areas like that, but what if those things were created by magic? Do the same rules still apply?

The earth pillars had lost some parts, but they didn't have any cracks on them. In any case, Billy wondered why those were there. Pillars were supposed to offer support to other things, but there was no sign of anything else around.

Billy tried to search underground near the pillars, but he found nothing. There were no signs of any civilization… and Billy could check things pretty deeply thanks to his extra magic granted by the rings. Billy checked around the other pillars, but there were no signs of that either.

"There pillars like those in the other areas?" Billy asked.

"Yes… how did you conclude that?" Sarah frowned.

"I just imagined that was the case," Billy said.

If there were no civilization signs nearby or underground, then the pillars had other uses, and the elementalists only found the remains of… Billy didn't have any idea of what. Maybe some teleportation devices… but Billy never found any mention of that.

"I don't think we will find anything here…" Billy said.

"Heh? How come you already assumed that?" Kate asked, visibly upset.

"I am pretty sure that what The elementalists found were just things left behind by travelers," Billy explained. "I searched pretty deep in this area, but I found nothing… We can open holes for a few days and then other spots, though. I don't mind."

"When we were trying to have our revenge we did that… but we found nothing," Sarah said. "I thought that with your magic perhaps things would be different, but… I am sorry."

"Well, don't mind it," Billy said. "I will do some search while we travel, we might find things that you guys missed."

Billy was being considerate for a change, and that made everyone feel suspicious. That was rare, after all. Natalie looked particularly irritated since she still hated Sarah.

Regardless, just like Billy predicted, they found nothing in the area, and after two days, they traveled to the other point that Sarah led them. Much to their surprise, Billy found a shield buried under a rock. It had a weird shape, like the drawing face of a silver monster. Fortunately, it looked pretty conserved.

Ancient Shield

HP + 20

SP + 20

Effect - Hard Skin Lv 05: completely nullifies five points of damage upon blocking.

Durability: 15/25