After encountering a few desert scorpions.
Minori and Kuro continued to advance. The presence of living creatures at least indicated that there was a probability of intelligent life appearing in this place.
As long as he could obtain some basic information, Minori felt that this trip would not be in vain.
But it was truly too desolate.
The air was dry, and the temperature at noon could reach over 40 degrees Celsius. Besides sand, there were only gravel.
Even desert scorpions, in Minori's subsequent exploration, he was lucky to encounter one or two only after half a day. It seemed that even tenacious magical creatures found it extremely difficult to survive in this land.
In addition!
Minori also discovered a crucial point, which was that, so far, he had not found any water source in this desert-like Gobi.
From the time he arrived in this area until now, there had been hardly any clouds in the sky, and the sun had been shining brightly.
The reason those desert scorpions could survive was likely due to underground water.
Minori's item box contained many spare water bags, so he didn't need to worry about water. Even if he exhausted all the water in these water bags.
He still had the "Large Wine Jug" obtained from the Lizardmen.
On the seventh day of entering the Gobi Desert.
Minori patted the dust off his clothes, his throat feeling a little dry. He picked up a water bag, took a few big gulps, and handed it to Kuro beside him.
"Awoo~"
Kuro panted heavily, its tongue lolling out, and quickly opened its mouth to drink the water flowing from the water bag.
As a magical creature with thick fur, used to living in the forest, it was clearly not adapted to the desert environment.
"Good job, continue searching." Minori poured most of the water into Kuro's mouth, then reached out and patted its head.
"Roar."
Kuro licked the water stains from its mouth, nodded, and then its body quickly shrank, transforming into a goshawk and soaring into the sky.
Minori put away the water bag, scanned his surroundings, and walked towards a black rock about half a person's height not far away. He raised his hand and gently pressed it on the black rock:
"Magic Imprint."
Currently, he left a magic imprint on a conspicuous rock every time he traveled a certain distance, to ensure that he would not get lost in this vast Gobi Desert.
It also allowed him to determine the direction he was traveling by sensing the imprints.
Bang!
Minori had just taken his hand off the black rock when he saw it tremble, followed by the ground around the black rock.
"This is."
Minori raised his eyes, jumped backward, and moved six or seven meters away from the black rock.
Bang! Bang!
The sand around the black rock began to sink, causing the surrounding sand to form quicksand, constantly converging towards the center.
The black rock trembled even more violently, as if some creature had been suddenly awakened.
The black rock, about half a meter high, suddenly began to rise and change slightly, actually turning into a stone head.
Accompanied by a loud "Boom!"
Arms made of rock protruded from the desert, heavily slapping the sand. A black rock giant, over five meters tall, climbed out from under the sand.
Boom!
The rock giant, with its vague stone eyes, looked down at the seemingly tiny Minori, raised its thick rock arm, and smashed it down towards Minori.
"It's actually a living thing."
A look of surprise and delight appeared on Minori's face. Facing the heavily smashing rock arm, he pushed off with his right foot and moved horizontally to the left.
Bang!
With a loud noise, a large pit was smashed into the sand.
"Charm!" Minori activated the magic. This was the first race resembling intelligent life he had seen since arriving in this area.
This was not the northwest corner of the continent inhabited by humans. Most of the continent was ruled by demihuman races and alien races.
Therefore, it was not surprising to see any strange race in this unknown region.
The magical fluctuations spread, flashing across the rock giant's body!
Huh?
Minori was stunned, and jumped backward again. The rock giant's other arm continued to smash down, making a rumbling sound.
"Charm" actually had no effect!
[TL: Charm didnt work on rocks WHAT??]
Racial trait?
Some unique races did indeed possess the ability to resist the effects of mental influences.
"If I have disturbed your slumber, I apologize."
Minori dodged the somewhat manic rock giant's attacks, while trying to communicate with it:
"May I ask where this is? I wonder if we can have a good chat?"
Boom!
Boom!
The rock giant kept waving its thick arms and smashing them towards Minori, without the slightest intention of speaking.
"Can't speak? Or is it not an intelligent race but just some unique magical creature?" Minori frowned slightly, seeing that the other party not only would not speak, but did not even seem to have any emotions.
Bang!
Seeing that its continuous attacks had failed to hit this annoying little thing that kept dodging, the rock giant retracted its raised arm and shrunk its entire body.
It transformed into a large black stone ball and rushed over fiercely.
The black stone ball rolled twice and was already in front of Minori, exuding a terrifying aura of unstoppable momentum!
"Since communication is impossible."
Facing the looming shadow, Minori summoned a iron sword in his hand. The moment the black stone ball reached him, he swung the iron sword.
Hiss—
A spark burst out the moment the blade came into contact with the rock giant. The original terrifying impact speed plummeted, and then it rolled behind Minori and stopped.
Minori stood unharmed, putting away the iron sword in his hand: "Only around level 20, it really only has a body. But the hardness of the rock body is not bad."
[Experience gained: 3271]
[Experience Bar: 11162/120000]
Rumble!
With a "crack!"
The giant rolling stone shattered into two halves behind Minori, crashing onto the rocks on both sides with a roar.
Minori turned around and looked at the rock giant that had turned into gravel. It had no blood like normal creatures, only a shattered body constructed like ordinary stones.
"What is this?" Minori saw something in the rock giant's shattered body, at the chest, that was emitting a brownish light.
He walked over and picked it up.
It was a black stone the size of a fist, and he could clearly feel the magical fluctuations.
"Item Appraisal."
...
Item: Heart of the Stone Man
Level: Intermediate (21~30)
Effect: A magical material containing earth attribute energy. If placed underground, there is a certain probability of a rock giant being reborn.
Introduction: I am not dead yet!
...
Minori glanced at the appraisal information and put it into his item box. It was a decent material, a welcome surprise.
"I have to leave a "Magic Imprint" again."
With the death of the rock giant, the magic imprint on its body was also destroyed, so he could only find another rock as a new marker.
Whoosh—
In the sky, the afterimage of Kuro transformed and quickly returned from afar. At this time, Minori also noticed something and his eyes lit up.
At this moment!
About five kilometers away from Minori's location.
A wooden cart was moving somewhat laboriously in the desert, with three figures pulling it from the front and two figures pushing it from behind.
These five figures were not tall, only about one and a half meters in height, but their bodies were unusually strong, with well-developed muscles visible.
The wooden cart was piled high with various ores.
After the group had traveled some distance, everyone stopped to catch their breath.
"I wonder if the war at the oasis is over."
"Haha, relying on that group of trash who don't even have a few decent weapons?"
"Don't be ridiculous, this doesn't even count as a war. That group of lowly, stupid races doesn't deserve to live on the oasis."
"That's right, our real opponents are those bastards outside Shadow Valley. We must rebuild our kingdom and take back everything that belongs to us!"
"Um, I've heard ancient legends..."
"Shut up!"
"You idiot, you actually believe such legends."
"..."
The voices of the five figures rang out from time to time.