Chronicles of the True Wizard

Having checked the entire building, and hating every second of it, Felix graciously jumped out a window followed by drunken cheers. He cast Feather Fall to catch himself and spotted a red tent right on the edge of the oasis on his way down. All of the other tents were a simple brown cloth with no dye.

This better be it, or else I'm leaving and siding with the queen. We will bring violence upon these miscreants. Not actually, but I will leave, fuck this. I hate parties, especially ones like this.

Felix ran through the tents and away from the party, to the tent on the very edge of the oasis, the only one dyed a vibrant color. The tent's flap was already open with two people sitting inside across from each-other playing cards, drinking and laughing. On one side was a very identifiable king. He wore a crown and royal looking robes, he even had a scepter leaning against his chair. The other was a beautiful woman with light brown, tanned skin and dark brown hair wearing loose fitting robes akin to what someone would wear to travel through the desert.

[E - Rare] King of the Sands (Lvl 47)

[E - Common] Human of the Sands (Lvl 43)

Felix walked through the opening, into the tent and stood in the entrance, waiting for them to finish laughing before making his presence known. After almost a minute of drunken laughing Felix decided they were aware enough, "Hello, I am Felix. I presume you are The King?"

The king was almost startled out of his chair, before recovering, "I am, well met Felix. Come, join us."

The king went to find a glass as Felix sat down, "No thank you, I don't drink."

"You don't drink? Why the hell not? What else would someone do around here?"

"I don't like the taste of alcohol. I'm a traveler, I just arrived." Felix, slightly annoyed the king didn't introduce her, not because of her beauty but rather simple manners, turned to the woman and held out his hand, "I am Felix, pleased to meet you."

She smiled, "I'm Aleandra, welcome to the oasis."

"Thank you. I spoke with The Queen before coming here and she… uh, well, she told me a grand tale, which I am pretty sure is almost entirely bullshit. I would like to hear your side of the story, if that's alright."

They both laughed and the king began, "Ah, she really is set in her ways."

Aleandra responded, "Unfortunately so. That's where this all started. For a few thousand years now this oasis had been ruled by a matriarchy, with the title of Queen passed down from mother to daughter. The King is merely for breeding purposes and dealing with the finances, politics and other minutia. All of the other citizens, sorry not even citizens, everyone else is considered a slave to The Queen. They do whatever it is she asks of them, because it is her divine right to rule or something like that."

She continued, "Some of the slaves believed that if The Queen prospers and is happy, they will prosper and be happy, even though they are slaves. The rest of us were sick of being treated like trash. Even though here, water is in abundance, she would restrict the amount of water we could drink to maintain her control over us. I managed to convince The King here of our plight and together we led a mostly peaceful rebellion."

"We didn't mean to hurt anyone and we specifically avoided it wherever possible, the only violence that occurred was accidental. We stormed the castle with makeshift shields and forced her out, though note we never even touched her, we simply filled the rooms with a foul odour until she ran off herself. Her and her most loyal slaves left and the rest of us decided to live in a community, where everyone has access to water, food and solid shelter." She finished.

The king sighed, "Unfortunately, these people have been overworked and treated as slaves their entire lives. Now that we've won, all they do is party and have fun."

"It's only been a week, it will get better." Aleandra pleaded.

"You've claimed already. This is better than torturing people, it is, but it's not sustainable."

"I know." She pouted.

"Alright gotcha. So you guys want to be free, not slaves. She wants her ancestral land and title and to abuse people and she even has a group of people that are happy to be abused with her now… Do you know the ruins to the east she's currently living in?"

"We know of them. We've hosted many scholars passing through to study them." The king responded.

"Would you be willing to move in and live there? If there was water of course."

"I guess? Why though?"

"Well, you get solid buildings which require some cleaning and repairs, but it's a better start than trying to build solid shelter here."

"No no, I mean why do you want us to? What does it matter?" Aleandra clarified.

"Ah, well I was tasked with helping the Queen, even if I despised her after a single conversation with her. From what you've said, I like your cause more, so I'd like to also help you."

Plus you know, quests and rewards.

"I see. Well, if you can miraculously make water appear in the ruins, I will try to convince the people to travel there. I don't see how that could possibly happen though, this is the only source of water for hundreds of kilometers, at least."

"I think I know how, you haven't really explored them much have you?"

They both shook their heads, "Why?"

"Ah, no reason. I will be back in… hopefully less than a day. Good luck with getting people to work."

Ok please tell me I can make it back to the ruins before the sun rises and makes it unbearably hot. I don't wanna blow a ton of mana trying to keep myself cool.

Felix stood up and walked towards the exit for the tent, "Oh, one last thing, are there any other problems you guys have been facing recently?"

They looked at each-other quizzically before Aleandra answered, "Not really, I can't think of anything?"

"There are the scorpions I guess, but they aren't too bad?" The king added.

"Scorpions? Tell me about that."

"There have been a lot more scorpions in the oasis, that's about it?" Aleandra shrugged.

"Alright thanks. Start rallying people, when I get back I want you all ready to move."

Felix left before they could respond.

I have no idea if the scorpions are at all relevant, but I figure more information can only be helpful.

Felix refilled his canteens in the oasis then ran as fast as he could, with energy buffing his agility to try and beat the morning sun, back to the ruins. He didn't even bother talking to the queen and just hoped her stubbornness would hold once he got the water running.

He searched in and around the buildings for the pipes he saw in the walls earlier and hoped they lead to an aqueduct somewhere. He followed the pipes to a central location and managed to find an entrance to a tunnel that led underground.

Thank System. This place once had water and the oasis is the only source of water now, I kind of just hoped these might be repairable. I am assuming this leads to the oasis and the scorpions or something have just been blocking it with a massive nest? At least, I hope it's that simple. Maybe the scorpions have nothing to do with it at all. Time to find out.

Felix headed into the tunnel and cast light right above his head to shine outwards into the tunnel. He followed the tunnels and channels, always choosing the direction where the channel was the thickest. It didn't take long before Felix encountered the first scorpion. He was already very far from the ruins because he was moving quickly as he really wanted to be done with this dungeon as quickly as possible.

[E - Common] Desert Scorpion (Lvl 4)

Are you kidding me. This means there are going to be thousands of these stupid things, doesn't it?

Felix dispatched the occasional scorpions he encountered with minimized Mana Bolts to preserve mana. Eventually the density of scorpions got too high for him to handle them with one off spells so he cast one, then two and finally three Mana Bolt turrets as they became necessary. Eventually he had to transition to minimized Flame Throwers and move slowly to ensure he didn't get overwhelmed. At this point he sought out the most scorpion dense areas as he figured they would lead to their nests. Before he found anything resembling a nest, he came across something else.

[E - Uncommon] Desert Scorpion Brood-Mother (Lvl 50)

Gross.

Felix continued to roast the swarm but switched two of his spells to Fire Bolt turrets as he backed away and launched countless balls of fire into the Brood-Mother. It stopped moving after a few moments but Felix didn't get any kill notifications. Though, he was pretty sure it was because the battle wasn't over with the swarm yet.

He continued to roast through massive swaths of scorpions and had to stop twice to refill his mana before he encountered two more Brood-Mothers which he dealt with in the same way as the last. Finally, the swarm started to noticeably shrink. The Brood-Mothers were laughably easy to deal with because they were surrounded by their spawn, essentially unable to move. Felix figured they likely had high agility and dexterity with their tail and just couldn't break free to effectively fight back.

Ding You have slain 5208 [E - Common] Desert Scorpion (Lvl 3-4)

Ding You have slain 3 [E - Uncommon] Desert Scorpion Brood-Mother (Lvl 50)

Ding You have gained 5 levels in [E - Common] Caster

Felix cleared all of the live scorpions he had come across and found the nest, which was a massive pile of dead scorpions and what looked like eggs. He promptly roasted those as best he could. Finally, he was about to clear out the leftover remains of the nest in the hopes that there was water on the other side to run through the aqueduct once again, when he stopped himself.

Oh shit, I should probably figure out if this dungeon has some kind of trainer in it. The last had an energy trainer and gave an energy gem. There are two more gem slots, it's possible this dungeon gives another gem and has another corresponding trainer. Maybe it doesn't, but I should probably check nonetheless. Damn, I really wanted to be done with this, hopefully it's as useful and worth it as the last one.

Regretfully, Felix turned around and ran back out of the aqueduct and into the ruins. He immediately turned to the west and ran as fast as he could. At this point the sun had risen but the temperature hadn't heated up to scorching levels yet.

He managed to make it back to the oasis without too much discomfort and ran by piles of people sleeping in the mess of their own proclivities out in the open. He ignored all of it and ran to the red tent at the back. The flap was still open and the king was still drinking at the table, though Aleandra was no where to be found.

"Decide to head to the ruins later tonight when it's cool again? That's a good call. I'm not sure how you are expecting-"

"No I was just there and I came back, I got the whole water thing handled. I got something else though. Are there an-"

"What do you mean you went there and back? You have it handled?"

"I ran back to the ruins, found an aqueduct and cleared out three scorpion Brood-Mothers. All I have to do is clean out the nest itself, which is blocking the water, maybe some scorpions on the other side, and it should work. I hope."

"I see… I hope it works as well I guess. What is it you need?"

"Does anyone in the oasis have a profession of trainer or teacher or something like that?"

"Uh, no one I can think of…"

"I see, than-"

"Oh wait, there's this guru guy, I have no idea what his profession is, but we just call him guru."

"That works, where do I find him?"

"Go north, you should see a big rock. He is usually sitting on top of it."

"Really? He's a guru and he sits atop a rock in the middle of the desert all day?"

"Yeah. Never really talked to him, but we've hosted some travelers on a pilgrimage to meet him."

"I see, thanks."

Felix left the tent and filled his canteens before reluctantly turning north and heading into the desert. . . . . .