Chapter 51: On the Gobi

The first two days of travel are always exciting, but after a week, it starts to feel dull and boring.

Of course, this is also related to the environment.

In the vast desert, the speed of a caravan fully loaded with goods naturally cannot compare to the light and fast Sand Ship; advancing twenty kilometers a day is already considered very smooth.

In this past week, the distance they traveled was less than what a small Sand Ship could cover in a single day at full speed.

Take this area they are currently passing through as an example; having come here more than once on previous missions, for Aolang, it feels like wandering around for several days only to end up spinning in circles right at his doorstep, a frustrating sensation.

Moreover, nothing happened these past few days; only the day before yesterday, while resting at a small Oasis, they encountered a wandering Yellow Velocidrome, which was dealt with casually.

It's too boring!

He feels bored, but the others in the caravan do not feel the same; for them, nothing happening and delivering the goods safely to the destination is the best outcome.

The journey from Luokelake to Barubare takes about a month, and only a quarter of it has passed so far...

Aolang suddenly understood why escorting caravans and similar missions offer decent rewards yet few Hunters are willing to take them; it is simply too much of a waste of time.

It seems I need to consider changing my travel method in the future; Barubare and Luokelake are at least both within the Great Desert, but if I were to walk all the way to the Flacia Snowy Mountains region where Pokke Village is located, wouldn't that take a whole year?

Glancing at Shaji, who was lying on top of the cargo pile fiddling with a small Mechanism to kill time, Aolang also decided to find something for himself to do.

He began to swing his Weapon while walking, coordinating with his steps; in any case, it counts as exercise.

The result of doing this was a significant increase in energy consumption, and his appetite increased accordingly.

Since the caravan's food supplies were strictly calculated, to avoid putting pressure on the food rations, Aolang specifically hunted a Herbivorous Dragon in the Oasis and obtained a large amount of fresh raw meat.

The caravan members feasted for several days; the portion that couldn't be eaten was cured by Karim into bacon and smoked meat, and Aolang volunteered to carry this extra, unplanned weight, treating it as additional exercise.

Exercising every day until his limbs were sore and his muscles were engorged with blood, eating a huge meal of meat, supplementing nutrition with honey and herbs collected along the way, and then resting well to recover.

That feeling of physical fitness growing bit by bit was irresistible.

It even made the caravan leader unable to help but sigh, remarking that there must be a reason this kid could advance to Two-Star before even reaching adulthood.

After finding something to do, he no longer felt bored on the road; the flow of time seemed to speed up considerably, and before he knew it, more than half the journey had passed.

The caravan crossed the Death Sand Sea in the middle of the Great Desert; here, Sand Dragons and Sand Fish swarm, making it the most dangerous area of the entire journey.

In just a few short days, Aolang repelled several attacks from Sand Fish or Sand Dragons, which made the caravan leader feel greatly relieved.

If they hadn't hired a Hunter to accompany them, these attacks might not have resulted in total annihilation, but surely a lot of goods and livestock would have been lost; this also made the caravan members' attitude toward Aolang and his group increasingly friendly.

After crossing the Death Sand Sea, the Merchant Guild finally entered the area north of the Sand Sea (Note).

Compared to the central and southern regions where Luokelake is located, the sand in the northern region is coarser, and landforms like Gobi and rocky beaches began to appear more frequently.

From here on, small Sand Ships are almost unable to navigate; only large Sand Ships specially built for special purposes can travel across this rough sandy ground.

This is also the main reason why various caravans do not use light and fast Sand Ships but insist on transporting goods using human and animal power.

Another day passed; the caravan passed through an Oasis that was almost completely dried up. The caravan leader looked at the sky and decided to set up camp and rest right there.

The lake that once existed was now just a shallow mud swamp; larger trees had all withered and died, with only a few drought-resistant low-lying plants remaining around the swamp.

To be honest, setting up camp in such a place has more drawbacks than benefits.

After all, in the Gobi wilderness, a mud swamp is a precious water source, and the presence of drought-resistant plants is even more likely to attract herbivorous animals, thereby making this area a hunting ground for certain carnivorous Monsters.

The caravan leader had walked in the desert for many years and naturally could not fail to understand the reasoning behind this, but there truly was no more suitable camping spot nearby.

Traveling at night is far more dangerous than setting up camp here.

He could only lead everyone away from that mud swamp, set up camp among the chaotic and jagged strange rocks, light a bonfire, and arrange for personnel to take turns standing guard.

At the same time, he instructed Karim not to cook food; for dinner, everyone would make do with dry rations to avoid the scent of food attracting any Monsters that might be nearby.

Gnawing on cold, hard dry rations, everyone had no interest in chatting; after hastily filling their stomachs, they wrapped themselves in blankets and went to sleep individually.

Time reached late night; feeling a furry paw push against his face, Aolang, who was not sleeping very deeply, immediately opened his eyes.

It was Shaji who woke him up: "I heard a cry, meow; a Monster has come nearby, meow."

Aolang immediately got up, patted the person beside him awake; everyone woke each other up, and very quickly, the entire caravan was awake.

"Everyone stay quiet," Aolang said in a low voice, then looked at Shaji, "You go scout and see what is coming.

It might not be coming for us; if we can avoid alerting them, try not to alert them."

Shaji nodded and left silently like a ghost.

The temporary camp fell silent again; everyone didn't even dare to breathe heavily. Vaguely, Aolang also heard the kind of cry Shaji had mentioned.

"Ji-ao—"

"Ga!"

Hearing this sound, the Herbivorous Dragons and camels that had been lying quietly on the ground became restless.

Aolang frowned.

Yellow Velocidrome? It doesn't seem quite right.

A few minutes later, Shaji, who had gone out to scout, returned. It came to Aolang's side and whispered: "It's a Monster I've never seen before, meow; it looks like a Yellow Velocidrome, but its skin is purple, meow.

There are four of them in total, some big and some small, but there shouldn't be any of the level of a pack leader, meow."

Hearing Shaji's description, Aolang immediately realized what it was.

Dog Dragon, a Monster that can be barely considered a relative of the Yellow Velocidrome; its size, habits, and other aspects are not much different. It is not distributed near Luokelake, but there seem to be quite a few here.

As for the issue Shaji mentioned regarding the varying sizes, it should be the distinction between male Dog Dragons and female Dog Dragons; according to what is written in books, female Dog Dragons are obviously larger in size than males.

"Four of them..." Aolang muttered to himself.

Dog Dragons and Yellow Velocidromes are similar in all aspects; with his current strength, dealing with them is not difficult.

However, if a battle can be avoided, it should be avoided as much as possible; after all, the scent of blood might attract other Monsters. If it were just himself, he could escape relatively easily, but he also has to protect the caravan.

"Ga-ao—"

The sounds of the Dog Dragons grew closer; a startled Herbivorous Dragon stood up and let out a low "Moo-moo" roar.

The driver responsible for watching it pulled the reins hard, trying to steady it, but unexpectedly, the other Herbivorous Dragons began to struggle as well, causing chaos in the camp.

Aolang felt helpless.

Those Dog Dragons must have followed the scent of the herbivorous dragons; combined with this commotion, their location is undoubtedly exposed.

"Let's go, Shaji. We'll end this quickly."

Before his words had even faded, another burst of irritable roaring reached his ears.

"Gu-ao-ao—!!!"

Aolang was startled; this was not a roar a creature of the Dog Dragon's size could produce. Were there other large monsters nearby?!

Note: The official maps of the MH series are very vague, and there are conflicts in the official settings between early and late works, so I will briefly explain the settings here (only as settings for this book).

The Dede Desert (Old Desert), also known as the Great Desert, can be understood as the general term for the entire desert region.

In the central area of the Great Desert, the sand is fine, allowing Sand Ships, Sand Dragons, Sand Fish, and other creatures to navigate freely; this is the so-called "Death Sand Sea" or "Sand Sea Region," and Luokelake is located in the southern part of the Sand Sea.

Further north of the Sand Sea, the sand is rougher, with more diverse terrains such as Oases, Gobi, and rocky beaches (further north lies the Ruins Plains), and the Mobile City Barubare wanders around in this area.

Due to the rough sand, the Lao Shan Dragons living in the northern desert have thicker shells and horns than the Feng Shan Dragons.