LIGHTNOVELSTORY Volume 1 Chapter 83: Lv4!
Rumbling, rumbling, rumbling!
The howling wind roared like countless airplane engines thundering on the ground.
The deafening noise echoed clearly even within the underground passage, tens of meters below the surface.
Thousands of Lizardman gathered there, huddling together, praying for the gods to calm their wrath.
In this harsh, frozen land, survival was already difficult.
The hot winds, appearing every now and then, easily destroyed everything they had painstakingly accumulated over long periods.
“Brother.”
Inside the underground passage, the Lizard girl, Raya, glanced nervously at the crowd packed around them and said, “Brother, I can’t see Garde. Didn’t he come in?”
Neither Garde nor his companions, who had been following behind them, were anywhere to be seen.
In the chaos of Lizardman rushing into the marketplace, when she turned around, they had all disappeared.
“Don’t worry, Raya. Uncle Garde is so strong, nothing will happen to him.”
Muccaka tried to comfort his sister while protecting her and his wife.
He arranged for the caravan’s guards to form a protective circle—partly to secure some space to survive and partly to display their strength, discouraging conflicts.
“There are more underground passages here, not just this one. Many of the people who live here have built their own escape routes under their homes.” Muccaka patted his sister’s head. “They’ll be alright.”
Despite his reassuring words, Muccaka’s eyes betrayed a hint of worry as he scanned the densely packed Lizardman around them.
Far too many people had flooded into the underground tunnels.
Muccaka had heard that the capacity of each marketplace’s underground passages was roughly enough for one large tribe.
Any more than that, and people would start falling ill or even die.
And here, at least two or three large tribes were crammed in.
Muccaka wanted to live long enough to see his child grow up to his size.
His sister was still young and didn’t have any children yet.
‘Uncle Garde, what would you do if you were here?’
Having witnessed Garde’s strength, Muccaka had always looked up to him, aspiring to be like him one day.
Yet, in times of crisis like this, he couldn’t help but long for the presence of the one man who could instill an overwhelming sense of security just by standing there.
The temperature in the underground passage began to rise, causing even the Lizardman, who were accustomed to the harsh conditions of the hotlands, to grow restless.
Boom!
Above ground, the sound of collapsing houses echoed.
The fierce winds were strong enough to topple sturdy buildings, and goods were blown away, causing the Lizardman who remained outside to let out furious hisses.
They could only pray that their food supplies weren’t lost to the wind, as many would surely starve even after the hot winds passed.
…
Boom!
Above ground, Surtr’s dune buggy smashed through a house.
She drove past one of the underground passage entrances, glanced at it briefly, and then kept going.
Originally, Garde had set the buggy to first gear, forcing it to move slowly, but Surtr, annoyed by the sluggish pace, shifted it up to fourth gear.
She actually knew how to shift gears!
As a result, the buildings in the marketplace suffered.
The roads here weren’t wide, and though Surtr could shift gears, she couldn’t steer properly.
The worst part? She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and kept looking backward while driving.
‘I wonder how that crocodile man is doing?’
The thought flashed through her mind.
After all, she was Garde’s slave, and he had been her foreign language teacher.
After knowing each other for a week, it was natural to have at least a little concern.
She spent quite a while driving around the market before finally finding the sign that Rhine Lab had left before entering the underground passage—a life-sized statue of Garde made entirely from calcium was sitting at the entrance.
She couldn’t help but admire their craftsmanship.
Those researchers not only had excellent combat skills but also extraordinary hands-on abilities, having been able to create such a lifelike sculpture.
Surtr parked the buggy nearby, stepped out against the wind, and touched the statue of Garde.
It could only be described as lifelike, perfectly capturing his likeness.
Yes, a life-sized statue, not too big and not too small.
If Garde had been there, he would’ve commented that when Saria had used Originium Arts to craft his armor, she had certainly memorized every contour of his body.
As Surtr touched the statue, the ground beneath her feet suddenly became loose.
The next moment, she and the buggy were sucked underground.
She was gently deposited in the underground passage by the precise manipulation of sand.
Carnelian leaned against the wall, arms crossed, her face emotionless.
She had been like that since they entered the passage, radiating an aura that kept others away.
She only moved when absolutely necessary.
However, when she saw that only Surtr had come down with the dune buggy and not Garde, Carnelian’s gaze flickered for a moment.
Biting her lip lightly, Carnelian turned her head away.
That crocodile man was tough; surely, nothing would happen to him.
Besides, she didn’t really know him well.
They only had a teacher-student relationship when it came to foreign languages.
He wasn’t the only person in the world who could teach her.
Why should she care about that jerk?
If anyone should be worried, it should be that woman from Vouivre…
“Miss Surtr, where’s Garde?”
As if asserting her claim, Saria was the first to speak when she saw that only Surtr had returned.
Having learned a bit of Columbian from Garde over the past few days, Surtr could barely understand Saria’s question.
She patted the dune buggy beside her and said, “He went off to fight someone, but I brought back the things you needed.”
The oxygen tanks inside the buggy were all intact, which Surtr took as proof of her driving skill.
Without it, the tanks might have been damaged.
However, Saria wasn’t focused on the tanks.
She seemed more concerned about Garde’s safety.
…
“Pah!”
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Garde dragged the mechanical Nightzmora Knight he had hacked into a human-shaped stump and looked up at the sky.
He still had questions, questions that needed answers from that Nightzmora-descendant who had integrated with the Lizardman.
He needed to know how Nightzmora bones powered these mechanical bodies.
Surely, researchers like Saria and the others could provide answers.
More importantly, though, had the Nightzmoras truly been revived by an ancient civilization?
If they were planning to invade Terra, what could he do?
No, at least not right now.
Garde still remembered fragments of this world’s future.
For the next few decades, there would be no sign of Nightzmora Knights invading Terra.
Instead, in the near future, Terra might be destroyed by the Seaborn.
But for now, Garde needed to venture deeper into the hotlands to continue his training, and Saria’s team also needed to search for a cure for Oripathy.
The situation had changed, and he needed to enlist the help of the Lizardman.
Their weaponry was primitive, but they were far stronger physically than ordinary Terrans.
Among their team, only Saria’s physique could surpass that of the Lizardman, though some of them, like Muccaka, were even stronger than her.
Thousands of Lizardman—a terrifying force.
Yet, the natural disaster had pushed them to the brink of extinction.
The underground passage was merely giving them a temporary chance at survival.
If the hot winds persisted, these Lizardman could suffocate and die at any moment.
To borrow their strength, he first needed to help them survive.
He had to stop the natural disaster!
Powerful gods and beasts could change the course of a disaster, even offering protection to an entire region.
In most places, Garde wouldn’t dare make such promises.
But in the desert, a place that felt just like home to him, Garde believed he could try.
Maybe he could use Ascension’s insight to decipher the rules and shift the wind’s direction.
Most importantly, just now, Garde’s Ascension power had grown significantly.
After defeating the mechanical Nightzmora Knight, his status panel displayed:
“Current Hero Template: The Butcher of the Sands (Renekton) lv4!”